Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Winter at the Running Log

Winter’s a hard time for most resident mammals and birds; the abundant food of summer and fall is slowly disappearing, eaten or lost to decay. Insects spend the winter as eggs, pupae or in hibernation; most birds migrate to warmer climes where the living is easy (sort of) and some mammals hibernate (bears, woodchucks, jumping mice). Small mammals such as shrews, voles and mice spend the winter in the subnivean zone below the snow where the temperatures are higher and they’re somewhat hidden from their many predators.

The winter of 2021/2022 was warmer than in years past, a portent of winters to come, and the snow cover came and went repeatedly. Activity on the running log was less than at times in the past and with fewer species – but interesting nonetheless.

The stars of the show were a pair of gray fox that made repeated visits. One characteristic of gray fox is that mated pairs often hunt together –

Come and re-visit winter at the running log –

It’s spring now and things have changed, the next video from the running log will be quite a bit different.

6 comments:

Jenn Jilks said...

This is the perfect location for the camera!
I think I'd like to be an animal that hibernates!

Yvonne said...

You must have a very nice trail cam. Watching your presentations is a lot better than any others I have seen. Really enjoyed all the animals.

eileeninmd said...

Great critter video, I like the first photo of the fox.
Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend.

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

It's amazing what can change when the weather warms. Thanks for always sharing your trail cam videos! Enjoy your day!

Anu said...

Lovely video.

Shiju Sugunan said...

Nice video!