Nature, red in tooth and claw

"Nature, red in tooth and claw" is a quote from a poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1850 which aptly describes the competition and predation occurring in the natural world.

Those of you who regularly visit In Forest and Field have seen several examples: A peregrine falcon feeding on a pigeon, a great horned owl with a rabbit, a white-tail doe nibbling on a dead fawn, eastern coyotes feeding on a road-killed deer.

Recently I checked a camera trap on the hill above the house and found that it had videos of an eastern coyote as it attacked a yearling white-tailed deer with a broken right front leg. There’s no obvious wound to the deer, so it appears that the leg had been broken previously; perhaps caught between rocks or logs, struck by a vehicle or …

Predators prefer to attack sick, old, very young or injured prey since that saves energy and lessens the chance of injury if the prey fights back. In this case the deer’s right front leg appears to be useless, just dangling as the deer tries to avoid the coyote.

The coyote repeated circled the deer, trying to exhaust it or looking for an opening –

Toward the end of the video the deer was hidden by the large shrub, so the outcome was a mystery.

The next day I took the memory card from another camera trap in the same general area – it had more videos of the deer and the coyote, but they were again partially hidden by vegetation –

In this video it looks like there were two eastern coyotes attacking the deer but in the end it appears that the coyotes gave up and left – the deer still alive.

There’s abundant research demonstrating that predators are only successful in about 10% of their attacks on prey species. A white-tailed deer, even when severely injured, is a large and formidable animal when fighting for it’s life. This yearling white-tail may well survive as illustrated by a buck with a somewhat similar injury that was repeatedly caught on camera.

Emeralds with Wings

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.

Eagles in the Wind

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.

Kermit II

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.

 

Late Summer in the Hollow

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.

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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.

Puddling

When our son was about four years old my parents were taking care of the kids for the day while H and I were canoeing on the river. Our son had a plank laid across some water in front of the house; he was walking on the plank when he fell off and got soaked with somewhat muddy water. My mother brought him in the house, cleaned him up, changed his clothes and sent him back out to play. He proceeded to walk the plank again – and fell off AGAIN.

That’s a famous family story, but not the kind of puddling this post is really about.

Butterflies feed primarily on the nectar produced by flowering plants – but nectar is almost pure sugar water lacking in many vital nutrients. What’s a poor butterfly to do?

To acquire those nutrients butterflies “puddle”. They visit moist areas: mud puddles, rotting mammal or bird carcasses, decaying plants, feces, blood and urine to suck up fluids containing the needed nutrients. It’s mostly, but not exclusively, males that puddle to help them successfully reproduce.

Examples of puddling –

Puddling may seem gross, but if butterflies didn’t get their nutrients some species of plants might not be pollinated and we probably wouldn't have these beautiful creatures to enjoy.