Scat

Heather pointed out that the natural progression of ideas from animal tracks in the snow to tracks in the mud, should ultimately lead to animal droppings. These droppings are generally referred to as scat if you are trying to sound like a professional or poop if you’re just having a normal family conversation. Well, I should clarify that I’m talking about a normal conversation for my family. What we see above is the normal scat of the Whitetail Deer. I don’t think you can go anywhere in Southern Ohio and not find a pile like this. This is the stuff that makes my lawn so green.

When the deer diet contains more succulent green leafy material, you often get the nuggets molded into a mass. Studying scat can give you an idea of the general health, movement (I mean where the animal has been traveling) and diet of the animal. When I was in college, I had a rather extensive scat collection that was a part of my course work. I can tell you that “Would you like to come in and see my scat collection?” is not a line that will get your date to come in and visit your apartment.

Turkey scat. This is getting to be very common around here. Notice the white substance on the left end of the scat. Do you know what that white stuff is in Turkey poop? That’s Turkey poop too. Sorry, that joke’s so old most people have never heard it.

Crow scat on top of an ant hill. The crows visit the ant hills during the summer and stir up the ants. I assume this activity is to use the ants to rid the crows of external pests. During the winter, the crows will just stand on top of the mound. I guess they won’t stir the soil without evidence that ants are present.

Here’s one of those little bird droppings trying to mimic a caterpillar.

This is the standard M&M sized Cottontail scat. Rabbits consume a lot of cellulose that is difficult to digest. As this material moves through the digestive system, the cell walls are weakened, but before the material is fully digested it passes out of the body in the form of a dark greenish-black pellet. The rabbit then turns around and eats these pellets. The nutrients are extracted as the material goes back through. When it comes out the second time, you get the light brown, strawy looking pellet.
Talking about rabbit scat always reminds me of the story of the man selling smart pills. The salesman has just guaranteed the buyer that the pills will definitely make him smarter. The buyer pops the pill into his mouth, takes a couple of chews and then gags and spits out the pill. “That pill tastes just like rabbit poop,” he complains. “See,” answers the salesman, “You’re getting smarter all ready.”

A fine collection of deer hair and bone. I have a feeling this came from a Coyote.

Breaking it up a bit makes it easier to see the size of the bone fragments. This scat has really been weathered, so I can’t make any guess as to how long it’s been here. It may be part of the deer I found in the field a while back.

Scuds

I went out Wednesday night to look in the pond for breeding salamanders, but saw none. We haven’t yet had any good weather for salamander movement this winter, but I wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed their arrival. I keep a record of salamander breeding activity, so it’s just as important to know when they are not in the pond as it is to know when they are. The weather forecast is calling for some rainy nights soon and I’m sure the salamanders will come out with the first rain. Jefferson’s are usually the first to arrive and are quickly followed by the Small-mouthed. I’ve seen them in the pond as early as mid December. The sooner they get started, the better the chances of the young salamanders leaving the pond before it dries up in the summer.

I did find some activity. The pond was full of scuds. Scud is a rather unflattering name for a very interesting crustacean. You can see several of the creatures on and about the leaf. I think this species is Hyalella azteca.

Scuds are very shrimp-like in appearance. They feed on microscopic plants and animals along with any decomposing organic matter. The pond bottom is covered with plant material that grew during the dry season and is now rotting.

The scud acts like a grazing animal and displays a restless motion as it searches for food. The head is to the right in this photo. Scuds are primary prey for many larger aquatic species. In late spring, the salamander larvae will be fat from gorging on scuds.

They seem to feed by removing the outer layer of cells along with the associated plants, animals, and bacteria that are assisting in the decomposition effort. They will work over the surface of a leaf and the leaf will get continually thinner until nothing is left but the skeleton.

This is an easy species to raise in captivity and is more fun than Sea Monkeys. As a kid, I often kept a jar of pond water containing a few scuds. Later I even raised some in an aquarium and produced a couple of generations. You can learn a lot by watching animals in the wild, but you gain a new insight when you have them in front of your face every day for months at a time.

Another Fence Row Project

I have several old fence rows that separate the various prairie areas. All were infested with invasive plant species and there was no question that those plants had to be eliminated. What took a lot of thought was what to do with the native trees and shrubs that composed the rest of the old fence row.

In some places, I decided to thin the fencerows enough that the adjacent prairie areas could merge into a single unit. I’ve had some success with prairie plants colonizing the former fence row. Wind blown seed can’t choose its final resting place, so if the plants are nearby, the seeds will move in. What I’m not certain about is the willingness of small prairie organisms to move through the holes I’ve produced. Flying insects, for example, have a very rigid set of programmed responses that dictates where they will conduct their activities. They don’t have the reasoning ability to deduce that a slight behavioral modification could take them into a new expanse of prime habitat. Even a narrow strip of the wrong habitat could be an insurmountable obstacle to some species.

Fence row clearing doesn’t happen all at one time. The first pass takes out the invasives and then I’ll let things grow for a year or two to let the natives show themselves. I’ll next take out natives that don’t fit in with the management plan. Sometimes plants get left untouched because I can’t identify them in their winter condition and I have to wait for them to leaf out again. I won’t cut anything unless I can make a positive identification.

This patch of shrubs is composed of Fragrant Sumac and Multiflora Rose. The easiest way to get rid of the roses is to cut the entire patch. Once cut, the roses can be sprayed and the sumacs can regrow. Fragrant Sumac tends to grow back thicker than it was before. It’s a native that could become a problem invasive under some circumstances.

This particular fence row is close to the house, so I usually work on it in the spring when I have a few minutes in the evening. The result is one end being almost completely cleared and the other remaining untouched. It would only take a couple of days to finish the whole job, but when I have more time to work, I work farther from the house, so this is one of those activities that has gone on for years.

After single digit temperatures and a covering of snow, this greenbrier leaf still displays a spring fresh look. This area is full of greenbrier vines, but this is the only green leaf.

Tracks in the Mud

When the snow melts, you are left with mud. Last week, this was a snowy trail covered by a swarm of deer tracks. Now there are tracks, but they’re in the mud and the trail is suffering.

Several years ago, deer began using this area as a trail. Eventually, they created a worn path that caught and concentrated the runoff water from the surrounding area. The resulting erosion formed this stair-step waterfall that continues to increase in size. Now I’ve got to fix this and divert the deer along a different path.

This strip of ground gets mowed each year to define a trail going between fields. Despite the fact that the grass is practically non-existent in the field, the deer will funnel to the trail head at the top of the hill and use this path to cross the field. The deer weren’t numerous enough 25 years ago to cause problems like this. Now they are a new variable that needs to be considered when planning trails.

Where the deer go, the turkeys follow. Here’s a nice middle toe imprint from a blob of mud kicked up by the deer. When moving from one area to another, turkeys will follow in a line. They also like to have a nice clear trail and tend to follow paths made by the deer.

If the prey like it, so will the predators. Canine tracks are regular features along the deer trails. This track was too small to represent anything large enough to bother a deer. Total track length was just over 1.5 inches and I’m guessing Gray Fox. The track was found in an area where I saw foxes last summer.

View from Snowy Hill

The snow is now gone, but these photos haven’t yet reached their seven day limit. I thought I would go ahead and post them, just in case we didn’t get any more snow this year. Winter is the season when drastic visual changes can occur within a day and people will notice that a picture, even though recent, does not depict the conditions of the day. The trail leads down to the house, which can be seen in the right center of the photo. The trail makes a super sledding track, but you have to know how to steer because you’re in trouble if you run into one of the ant hills at the bottom.

The mowed field. Dogwoods, little shrubs and red flags really stand out against the snow. The Red-shouldered Hawk continues to hunt in this field.

In the background is the woods on the ridge top. You know the ridge isn’t very wide when you can see the sky through the trees. Between the prairie in the foreground and the woods, is the valley and creek.

The dry snow filtered between the grass stalks, so all of the seed heads were left standing. Last year at about this time, we experienced a storm that left the grass flattened by heavy, wet snow and freezing rain.

Looking out the ridge towards the west. Little Bluestem and Side-oats Gramma dominate here, so there’s not much in the way of grass stems to hide the snow. The two Yucca plants really stand out. They’re targeted for termination. Notice the dark shape beneath the cedar just left of center.

Cropped and enlarged, you can see that this is a doe that bedded down where she could watch all approaches. She’s watching as I wander around the top of the hill. She didn’t stay around long once I started heading in her direction.

Tracks in the Snow

One of the fun things about snow is the record it keeps of animal activities. This is one of the trails the deer follow into the backyard. When I was a kid, I used to rush outside to be the first person to make tracks in the new fallen snow. Deer were uncommon then and it was unlikely that you would ever see a track in the yard. Now, it’s really rare to see snow in our yard that doesn’t have deer tracks going all over.

Deer will go out of their way to walk on a mowed path. If you want to control the flow of deer traffic, just give them a clear path to travel. At this trail intersection, deer will walk up and make the 90 degree turn rather than cut the corner.

There’s still a lot Indian Grass seed available. Sparrows will get on the top of the stalk and ride it to the ground. The stalk usually breaks and leaves the seed head at the perfect position for eating the seeds.

Footprints, wing marks and debris left from feeding on a plantain seed stalk at the edge of the yard. There is still an abundance of seeds and fruits available in the landscape.

Seeds from this Blue Vervain provided a good feast. There are still a lot of seeds left on this seed head.

These are most likely the tracks of either a Deer Mouse or a White-footed Mouse. The mice travel through the snow in little leaps that leave deep imprints from the hind feet and a trailing line from the tail. Shrews can make similar tracks, but the tail strike is less distinct and a shrew typically travels in tunnels beneath snow of this depth.

When dark colored objects are left on top of the snow they absorb energy from the sunlight and melt their way through the snow layer. The result is a pattern of vertical holes. In another few hours, these deer droppings will have disappeared from sight, making people wonder what caused the strange holes. I’ve heard people formulate some interesting theories as to the cause of the holes, from elves on stilts to night crawlers coming out to see if it was spring yet.

I’m usually really annoyed when I find tracks like this, but these are mine, so they don’t bother me at all.

Snowy Creek

Occasionally, while walking at Blue Jay Barrens, I’ll look at something and just enjoy the beauty of the moment. This doesn’t happen often, because I have a tendency to analyze the scene and identify items of work that I need to do or factors that will inevitably change the quality of the vision or any number of things that detract from the pure act of enjoyment. For just a moment, the beauty of the snowy creek crowded everything else from my mind, so today I’m just sharing some of those scenes. No comments on the dynamics of stream hydrology or water quality or plant health or invasive species or any of those other things that keep running through my mind. These are just some pleasant images for a Sunday morning.