Emeralds
are precious stones used in jewelry. But there are other precious
emeralds in this world. The emeralds in this post are the moths,
dragonflies and damselflies, beetles and flies that glow green as do
those emeralds in jewelry. Other than being insects, many of
these emeralds have little in common other
than their color.
Those are some of the gems of the natural world, there are a lot more. And
some other gems of the natural world aren’t green, they may be ruby
red, sapphire blue or yellow as the finest gold.
Twas
a beautiful early fall day, cool, clear as could be, with a stiff
breeze from the northwest. I’d been visiting a large beaver pond
and was on my way home. Shortly before noon I was passing a powerline
right-of-way with an expansive view to the north – “hmm, this
would be a dandy spot to see migrating hawks.” So I stopped.
Looking
north toward a lower ridge, it wasn’t long until a bird
appeared above the trees on that ridge –
And
then another bird that had been “lost” in the trees rose above
the ridge –
The two birds drew closer and it became obvious that they were both
immature bald eagles –
While the eagles rose in the air a raven, that was closer than the eagles,
rode the wind along the ridge –
As
the eagles converged, talons were extended –
Then
they separated –
And
drew together again with those sharp talons extended –
That
behavior was repeated several more times until they began riding the
wind along the ridge and went out of sight –
If
it had been spring and the eagles were older, this could easily be
called courtship behavior. But it’s fall, many bald eagles are
headed south for the winter, and they were young birds not ready to
mate. Instead these birds were doing what
so many youngsters do – playing or play fighting to establish
dominance.
Whatever
they were doing and wherever they were going I wish them well as they navigate this human-dominated world.
One
evening our daughter sent a picture of a little critter she found on
her recycling bin. It was a gray tree frog clinging to the large
plastic container. Although gray tree frogs are fairly common, they’re not often seen since they spend
most of the warmer months high in the tops of trees.
"If you'd put it in a glass jar with a damp paper towel, we’ll be there
tomorrow so I can photograph it" was my response. The next morning
we drove the 25 miles to our daughter’s place. And there it was,
the little frog and the damp paper towel in a jar with a piece of
fine mesh covering the top.
The
closest tree to where the frog was found was a fairly large oak, so
it was there that the little frog was set free.
Gray
tree frogs can gradually change their color to various shades of
gray, green and brown, becoming extremely well camouflaged and
blending in with the background –
Because
their skin is bumpy, gray tree frogs are often mistaken for toads.
But they’re not toads, they’re true frogs.
When
they’re not actively hunting for food or it's not the breeding season,
gray tree frogs often remain on a horizontal branch, under loose
bark, or in a hole in a tree.
Winter
is spent under the leaf litter in wooded areas. Unlike many
amphibians, but like wood frogs, gray tree frogs can easily survive
being frozen. When spring arrives they breed in standing water and
then spend the remainder of the warm months high in trees or shrubs, feeding on insects.
Unlike
the rest of their well camouflaged bodies, these little frogs have
bright orange or yellow inner legs
–
These
are thought to startle predators, enabling the frog to escape; or,
when the frog crouches down and the bright color disappears, confuse
predators allowing the frog to escape detection.
As
I photographed the little one it climbed higher into the tree until
it could no longer be located.
NOTE: This is Kermit II since the first Kermit post was written in 2016.
As summer ended it was time to check the card in the camera trap in the
hollow. The latter half of July was extremely dry as was the
entire month of August. Nonetheless, there was a good variety of
wildlife appearing in the videos –
The
second buck has what are called cutaneous fibromas on its face that
appear as dark lumps. These fibromas are cause by a virus and don’t
actually injure the deer, nor does the virus affect other mammals,
including humans.
It’s
quite possible that the screech owl caught one of the flying
squirrels and made a meal of it. Although barred owls frequently prey
on flying squirrels, it’s not unheard of for screech owls to do the
same.
There
will be no more videos from the running log. I’d moved the camera
further from the log where it captured several short videos of deer,
and then …
…and
then the landowner sold timber from part of the property and the
loggers opened up the old road spanned by the running log to use as a
skid trail –
Good-bye
running log, you were a good place for a camera trap.