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Bright Moon, Wild Faces, and Busy Beavers - UPDATE November 16, 2024
Supermoon
Driving to the WRI yesterday, the last supermoon of the year was getting low in the sky. I got to the WRI, grabbed my camera, and clicked this picture just seconds before it was covered by a cloud and just minutes before a dense fog covered the whole area.
Beaver w/branch for food cache
Beaver w/branch
Beaver Lodge w/food cache
Beaver lodge w/food cache
The day before I noticed that the beavers have been making their lodge that is 200 feet from my desk more like a home for the winter. They have made a winter food cache next to it, and as I was watching a beaver appeared dragging yet another branch for the cache. Today was the first day there was a skim of ice on the lake, so time is growing short for completing the food cache. The ice had completely melted by 10:30 AM when the temperature was up to 45 degrees F.
Red squirrel
Red squirrel
Flying squirrel
Flying squirrel
Early attendees for the breakfasts of peanuts and sunflower seeds have been this flying squirrel with its extra big eye for nocturnal life and this red squirrel that can come early because of the deck light and looks at me with a nice look as it sees me inside sitting in plain view at my desk.
Deer eyes
Deer eyes
Today, the nice mother deer looked at me with her nice eyes as I came out the second floor door with some grapes for her. She saw that I was doing what I was supposed to and came forward for them when I tossed them down to her one at a time.
Blue jays
Blue jays
The blue jays that gather for peanuts showed they had a procedure for sharing with a red squirrel that has a predictable behavior. When he comes running up the steps, the blue jays fly some ten feet up to low branches, watch him grab a peanut, leave, and run down under the first floor deck to eat it, and they are back at the peanut pile within seconds without hesitation. Sometimes, though, they have to watch him gather a big mouthful of up to six peanuts to store under the deck. He can take up to 59 seconds between visits or be back in as little as 17 seconds. Within seconds after he leaves, the blue jays are back on the peanuts finishing their jobs of filling their throats with them and flying off across the lake to do what they do while another blue jay takes its place in the group that is alternating with the squirrel. The squirrel pretty much just ignores the cooperative blue jays as he comes and goes.
White-breasted nuthatch White-breasted nuthatch w/SF seed
White-breasted nuthatch ...with a sunflower seed
On a smaller scale, a male white-breasted nuthatch came today, took a sunflower seed heart, and flew to the nearby dead white pine to find an appropriate hole to store it in. When he landed on the tree, he let me see what he had in his bill, then went up and down the tree until he found a good hole in camera view. In the picture, his bill is pointing to the hole a fraction of an inch away.
As I am distracted from typing by the nice wildlife action, I wonder where the bears that share this wonderful place have settled for the winter.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
