The Daily Progression - UPDATE March 15, 2024
Raccoon
If I arrive at the WRI early enough in the morning, I get to see a bit of the daily progression of visitors. The 5 AM hour belongs to the three raccoons and their quest for sunflower seed hearts—one looking in my desk window too close to get its whole body in the picture, and the other two on the railing.
Raccoon
Raccoon
Red fox male
Red fox male
Then come the red foxes, the nice male coming between 8 and 9:30 AM and again in the 6 PM hour with the shy female here in the 7 PM hour—no longer coming together. Spying on the nice male with my camera, I got to see how he reacted to wind this evening. As with bears, gusts made him nervously look quickly around with ears pointing in different directions and his mouth partly open, probably using the vomeronasal organ on the roof of his mouth to enhance his sense of smell .
Crows on lake
Crows on lake
In the morning in the 8:30 to 9:30 hour, the 33 or 34 crows arrive, gathering on or near the beaver lodge across the lake and then flying as a flock to a big red pine across the yard and to a couple trees near it before going to work searching for what is available. If the tinted see-through roller shade by my desk is down, they will clean up whatever food is left from overnight by the raccoons and foxes (and possibly the fisher) on the second floor deck. If the shade is up so they can see me at my desk, they feed on the ground instead, although a couple of them will feed outside my desk window even if I am there. A wolf was at the beaver lodge a couple days ago just before 8 AM, walking away before he would interfere with the crow’s schedule.
Crows in red pine
Crows in red pine
The fisher is unpredictable, showing up anytime day or night. He comfortably looks at me if I’m at my desk but skedaddles if I start out the door.
Wolf at Beaver lodge
Wolf at beaver lodge
Today a second gull showed up at about the same noonish time as the first gull of the year showed up four days ago. This one looked and acted enough like the one of the eleventh, that I thought at first that it was him, but he wouldn’t let me come as close as the other one without flying and returning. I took a picture and compared the two. This one has a much clearer iris, and the orange and black dots of his bill are different, telling me that we now have a second unusually early arrival.
The eagle is a mystery. After its visits on the 13th, I haven’t seen him, making me suspect he has flown northward to his nesting area and won’t be visiting soon. We’ll see.
Herring gull
Herring gull
Today, the number of slots open in the black bear field courses dropped to eight.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
