Squirrels


It's all squirrels in Montreal. Squirrels appear everywhere. They climb the sides of my building and the tree outside my window. Go to the park and there are squirrels. I once found a squirrel curled up asleep on the mat inside my building's door, and, indeed, squirrels make their way onto my third-floor balcony and make a meal of my tiny garden....my parsley, geraniums and morning-glory sprouts are apparently particularly tasty. And, in the planter that holds my herb garden, I keep finding stashes of the peanuts that my downstairs neighbour (who doesn't do any balcony gardening) feeds them.

I know where the squirrels go, I know that they like to hide peanuts, and that plants grown by Gaelan are particularly delicious. What I can't figure out, however, is what kind of squirrels they actually are. According to the newspaper, they're fox squirrels Sciurus niger. According to my Field Guide, they can't be, and are in point of fact Eastern Grey Squirrels Sciurus carolinensis.

They bloody well LOOK like fox squirrels but so, unfortunately, do grey squirrels. Personally, I think it more likely that they're grey squirrels...the field guide is pretty accurate with it's range maps, the paper probably doesn't keep zoologists on staff for times like this. Unfortunately, I don't keep a zoologist on staff either, and I can't exactly ask the squirrels.


on consideration, though, wouldn't that be fun? I could approach them with peace offerings of my flowers and the herbs that I wouldn't have minded eating for myself, but first I would have to learn the language of the squirrels. I imagine there's alot of chittering. I'm good at chittering.


If that works out for me, I'll be sure to write about it.

Spring


I rather like spring. it's a season that's filled with promise. Late spring is particularly pleasent, as the lilacs are currently in full bloom, perfuming the air.


It being particularly lovely today, I decided on a walk. The promise of spring was more than fulfilled. The air was filled with birdsong, and with sunblock and a particularly favourite wide-brimmed fedora perched on my head, I was able to avoid sunburn.


There is a particular part of the trail, near where I have, on occasion seen porcupines that tends to become flooded if there is a light dew or somebody looks at them the wrong way. I came upon it, flooded, towards the end of my walk. On the logic that it was a particularly nice day, and that life is for the living, I waded on in, and I am happy that I did. in doing so I startled any number of leopard frogs Lithobates pipiens, all presumably under the impression that I was a new and particularly terrifying variety of heron. These were, previously, becoming a trifle scarce in these parts, and I am always happy to see them, and their relatives. A world without frogs might well not be a world in which I care to exist.

Shortly therafter I happened upon a particularly deceased example of the white tailed deer. The reader should herein offer up humble thanks to whichever deity they so choose that I didn't bring my camera with me. If I HAD, i probably would have taken pictures for further study. As is, I haven't got any, and going back out with my camera seems a trifle morbid. however, it WAS a particularly interesting carcass, as it had quite clearly been caused to become so, rather than dropping to the earth due to age or infirmity. there are, to my knowledge, no wolves in these woods, and I have never heard of any dogs that are allowed to run free. There is, as such, a fairly good chance of it having been coyotes which brought the beast to it's rather abrupt end. this does, on occasion, happen, particularly when there are no larger predators in the vicinity. They have, indeed, been known to hunt cooperatively on occasion. Given my fondness for coyotes, and my profound dislike of people who allow their dogs to terrorize the local wildlife, I suppose I might be a bit biased in my assumptions, but it IS clear that coyotes were at the kill, as there's only about 1/2 of the deer or less left, and many of it's ribs were bitten through. All in all, a very interesting sight.

Snowshoeing, yet again

So, out I went today. It snowed this morning, so the day was more or less useless for tracking. But I did see some actual animals, a rarity these days.

For the most part, the walk was pretty quiet. No birds sang. Normally you'll hear a crow at the very least, or some chickadees. Today, all was still and silent around. The sky was gray, the wind did not blow. There was not a trace of sun. The world lay dormant, and we walked through it like a peculiar dream.

it is an amusing fact that animals tend to pop up when you aren't looking for them. If I were to set out with the express purpose of seeing a pine marten, I probably wouldn't see one. I remain unconvinced that this does not stem from some kind of telepathy and a perverse sense of humour on the parts of the animals, the universe, and what gods there be. When I am NOT actively seeking animals, however, they occasionally crop up. Such was the case today. I stepped onto the back porch intent on strapping on the snowshoes, and an avian form streaked across my field of vision. Now, it's hard to tell with these things, but it's size, tail (which was squarish) and brown colouration suggests, to me, that it was a young male sharp shinned hawk Accipiter striatus, they look *alot* like Coopers Hawk Accipiter cooperii, both being local Accipiters of similar size and colour. it was really only the tale that tipped me off. They tend to eat small birds and rodents, so i guess i know why we haven't been seeing as many small birds lately as we might otherwise. Nature red, as they say, in too and claw.


I was walking, today, with my grandmother. "Where are the deer today" she wondered.

With the confidence of one who has read his Peterson's Guide to Mammals of North America with great enthusiasm, I told her that they are generally crepuscular, meaning most active during the twilight hours, and, as it was noon, we probably woudn't see any.



I took this photo about a minute after I said that. Deer have a particularly perverse sense of humour, based largely on timing and irony. There were a few more, which I will now share.





And then they got tired of being photographed.



Re-reading my guide, I learn that, in areas where they are not hunted, deer can be seen at any time. The things you learn.

I'm quite pleased with how those photographs turned out, all told.

Snowshoes



I've been doing a fair bit of snowshoeing these days. The snow isn't terribly deep, I admit, but I do get a bit of flotation, and the exercize is good. As an added bonus, snowshoes let me go off the trail a bit. Since other animals tend not to stick the the human trails, the ability to go off trail is invaluable to the amateur naturalist.

I believe I've said before that you're far more likely to seen animal tracks than you are to see the animals themselves. Snowshoeing, I see, maybe a few deer if I'm lucky, and possibly some chickadees. However, I see the tracks of pretty much everything that lives in Ottawa's green belt. I'm starting to love snow for that very reason. I would, of course, prefer to see the animals themselves, but any port in the storm.

Firstoff, I saw coyote tracks aplenty. Now those who know me will know fully well how highly I think I think of canis latrans. I've heard them howling at night, and I always knew they were around academically, but I'd never seen their tracks before



for the record, though I couldn't manage a decent photo of it, those tracks veered off shortly thereafter, in the general direction of some rabbit tracks. Looks like it was a bad day to be a rabbit.

The BIG news, though, wasn't the coyote tracks. i ran across some tracks that were unfamiliar to me...small ones. So I snapped a picture, brought it home and studied it (thanks again for the camera, mom. it makes these things easier. That picture isn't as showy, so I'm not sharing it here, but it was clear enough for me to make an identification. It was an animal I have never seen, one I didn't even know lived in this area. it was a short tailed weasel, also known as an ermine mustela erminea. Apparently they're active all year round, and, as I saw, they often move in bounds. Nice to see, that.

Why you don't want to take dogs when you're out naturalizing


So there I was, walking along a rather picturesque, snowcovered trail. Ahead of me, I spotted a Red Squirrel, which, befrighted by this large beast approaching it, retreated. In point of fact, it retreated through a hole in the snow, which looked like it had been used frequently....tracks, fallen bark, sunflower seed shells, bits of pinecone. I thought to myelf "how interesting", and pulled my camera out to take a picture. By the time my camera was on, toby the dog had pounced on the hole, and destroyed the entire affair. I think it was a midden, such as is maintained by squirrels. However, since the dog pounced it, I didn't get the chance to study it further, in person or through photos.

Lesson learned: If you study rodents as a hobby, don't expect to get anything interesting done when you're walking your dog. This is also true of small plants, and mustelids.

On the sheer joy of being outside


I've spent these last three weeks working in a warehouse. As such, I haven't seen much in the way of nature. Well, that job ended yesterday, and today I went for a walk....my first decent walk in quite some time. I saw deer, of course. These days in Ottawa deer have become part of the scenery rather than anything particularly noteworthy, not unlike grass, the sky and people who think that everbody but them should be doing something to prevent climate change. So, in spite of the fact that I saw many a deer, I won't be devoting much time to them.

I was walking through the woods, when I came to a dip in the trail. It's an area with a few dead trees, and a patch that can either be a lowlying, grassy bit, or a knee deep swamp depending on whether or not you've looked at it the wrong way. in the middle of the trail, there was what, at first glance, very much appeared to be lump of earth....one, moreover, with pokey bits. Upon closer inspection, however, it proved to be none other than what I persist in referring to, in my head, as a Porky-pine (I blame Walt Kelly), more correctly called a Porcupine (erithizon dorsatum) . I had heard that there were Porcupines in the woods, but never before had I seen one there. I kept my distance...well, in this case distance means about 2 meters, close enough to make out every quill. Porcupines are pretty inoffensive in general, but I had no particular desire for a shin full of quills, so I opted to not annoy him. he moved rather like a very fat man, and, having notice me, skittered up a nearby tree, making clicking noises as he did so. Porcupines can probably climb quite quickly, but he didn't seem to feel the need to do so, and he was still clicking he way up when I left...the dip having, apparently, been looked at the wrong way, and therefore being completely impassible.

it felt good just to be outdoors for no reason other than feeling like it. it was damp, true, and cold as well, but you feel alive, out of doors

On the Winter diet of Deer


Once again, I find myself writing about deer. They're everywhere, they really are. Today I went for one of my walks (as an aside, I will be a happy man when the ground freezes. Everytime I go for a walk, I get mud covered hems. I'm out of stain remover), and I said to myself "I will find something to write about aside from Deer." So out I set, and while I saw some deer, I was determined that I would write about something else. It was when I was caming through a stand of Sumac that I realized I had no choice in the matter. you see, there was something odd about these sumac. some bark had been stripped from a number of them, a bit of a way up the trunk. I went in for a closer look, and sure enough, there were deer tracks. Apparently the deer have started eating bark, the weather having turned cold. I knew this would happen, but I expected to be after the snow fell. Ah, well. no use trying to make sense of the actions of ungulates.
Their ways are not our ways

Deer, Again


one of these days I am going to change the title of this blog to "the antics of deer and similar ungulates in Ottawa, with occasional mention of natural history unrelated thereto". I see alot of Deer, you must understand.


Yesterday I went for a walk, as I so often do. I didn't see much of anything, proving once and for all what I have always suspected, to whit that the animals are much more sensible than I am. However, towards the end of the walk, I saw a deer....and then another deer, and then YET ANOTHER deer. Looking around I realized "Oh base vernacular word for sexual intercourse, I am surrounded". There were, in point of fact some 8 does around me. I'm here to tell you that, as beautiful as deer are, it is a bit spooky to have alot of them standing around, looking at you as if you owe them something.


In other news, I've been doing an experiment with some cactus seeds, planting them in various conditions to see how they grow. after two weeks, I'm seeing some seedlings in the two makeshift incubators I set up. the seeds planted without incubators are still dormant. I am proud as a new papa, and wondering what I am going to do with all these cacti.

Is that your own hare, or is it a wig?



So, having been in a particularly foul mood earlier (as certain of my readers will attest), I decided to go for a walk. Perhaps some wayward deities were attempting to show me that things are basically alright, because I saw more wildlife than I normally see on walks such as this. There were some quite interesting birds which I wasn't able to indentify at the time, but I will probably determine their species at some point.

I was most excited to see some Snowshoe Hares Lepus americanus, who are currently midway through changing colours for the winter. Much like Cottontail Rabbits, they spend the winter eating tree bark, as well as leaf an flowerbuds. Around here, they're pretty much unmistakable. They DO look rather like rabbits, but hares are larger, and have longer ears. Also, the Snowshoe hare....well, it lives up to its name. Rabbits have pretty big feet as well, but not that big. also, as previously mentioned, Snowshoe Hares change colour. They seemed pretty happy, all told. In point of fact, this is an excellent opportunity to use the word "gamboling". So that's what they were doing, gamboling. That was deeply satisfying.

The deer were also out in force....a young man's thoughts might turn to love in the spring, but a young buck's turn to love in the fall, and they were all over the place. The bucks have lost the velvet on their antlers, and somehow look more majestic with out it....the velvet makes them look soft, I suppose. The ground being damp, I was able to track some of them, just for the hell of it. When them leap, their tracks become skidded. Males typically have larger hooves, and the tracks of females are more liner....female dear, like female humans, have wider hips than the males, and as consequence their hooves align differently. No skill is useless to the enthusiastic naturalist.

Rabbits


Yesterday, I looked out the window and saw a rabbit. I see alot of rabbits, of course, they are common animals. This one sticks in my mind because it was very very stout. It wasn't an escaped epet rabbit, but rather you average, garden variety wild rabbit, an eastern cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus. You get alot of them in these parts, along with the occasional Snowshoe Hare, although, of course, Rabbits and Hares are seperate and distinct creatures. I imagine my young friend was gearing up for winter, just the same as me. Of course, wheras I go to the store and buy a new pair of longjohns and some wool socks, rabbits fatten themselves up.


They're normally not all that active in the daytime, being nocturnal. this is, therefore, yet another case of the animals not having read the same books as myself. I really must talk to them about that. I suppose he was just enjoying the grass and such while he can...come winter he'll be eating bark, and twigs, which I can't imagine are as tasty. I think he'll probably be anticipating gardening season as eagerly as the gardeners, though for somewhat different reasons. That is, if the hawks, owls and coyotes don't get him....nature red in tooth and claw, as is so often said. However, there are plenty more rabbits in the world, even if a bit of predation takes it's toll. And without it, we wouldn't have half the animals that I love to see and hear. For a world with Owls and Coyotes, I would happily sacrifice any number of rabbits.


This one, though. I kind of hope he lives. Call me a sentimental fool.....I probably am.

Coyotes

canis latrans

God's Dog

Prarie Wolf



Coyotes are something like groundhogs, which I wrote about in my last post. They have increased their range since human encroachment began. We have been creating ideal circumstances for them.....where there are no wolves, or bears or what have you, coyotes can live quite happily. Coyotes have been filling the ecological niche of wolves. They also feed, quite happily, on food scraps in garbage. They are small, resourceful and live either alone, or with a mate, rather than large packs, something which gives them a significant edge over wolves when it comes to urban dwelling. They will eat rodents of many kinds, mice, rats, shrews and rabbits, as well as foxes. In a pinch, they will eat fruits, grasses, and vegetables. in some places where Coyotes have completely filled the wolf's niche, they will hunt in packs and bring down larger prey. An animal designed for survival.


I have seen coyotes, though never here. I have, however, heard them at night sometimes, howling at one another. I've read that in rural areas, once they get started, they will respond to human howls, or recordings of coyote howls, though I cannot, as yet, confirm this through personal experience. It's all at once an eery, and a cheering sound, a sound that makes part of me want to run off with my animal brethren....who would, in all likelyhood, bite me if I tried anything untowards, so it's probably all for the best I don't . I would like to see our local coyotes, but even without that, I treasure the times I have seen them. They really are marvelous animals....a lovely sandy colour, and so small.... the average coyote is about 2 feet (60 centimeters) high, and weighs in at some 31 pounds (14 kilograms). There ARE, of course, coyotes larger than that, but anything much larger probably has some red wolf, or dog in it's lineage. They look at you with an expression divided between thinking that you owe them something and humour, with a healthy dose of "what fools this mortals be" mixed in for good measure. It's easy to see how the Coyote became a trickster figure.

That's another thing. they have featured prominently in myths. Most people seem to have heard of Old Man Coyote, for example, and he has worked his way into alot of popular fiction, the novels of Thomas King and Charles de Lint, for example. however, he was not limited to the role of trickster. in some traditions, Coyote was a creator of sorts, either through intent, or by mistake. I recall a myth....I forget from which tradition, though I DO know it's one of the southwestern nations,in which the creator is making people from clay. He asks Coyote to watch the clay people in the kiln, and tell him when they are ready. During one attempt, Coyote removes the people too quickly, thus leaving them pale, so the creator sends them away. Caucasians as one of God's mistakes, thanks to Coyote. I've always rather liked that one, although it does cast a less than flattering light on my ethnic origins. He has also been a culture hero, creating traditions, passing down taboos, and occasionally fooling the white man for the sake of the natives. The Navajo traditionally reffered to the Coyote as God's Dog, though not, of course, in english. There are two books, both of which I would very much like to posses, with that particular name as title. One is a work of natural history, and the other one of fiction.

Many believe that Coyotes are a threat to livestock. Some sources, which I have since lost and thus cannot list with any degree of accuracy, however, claim that the real threat comes not from pure Coyotes, but from Coydogs, Coyote-dog hybrids, and theorem supported by the fact that coyotes very rarely hunt in packs, and are too small to bring down any large prey on their own, though I would not want to leave my chickens running about if i knew there were Coyotes in the neighbourhood. They can, afterall, interbreed with both dogs and wolves.


You can, perhaps, tell that I have a great respect, and even affection for Coyotes. It would be more evident from my possesions, but Coyotes are, i feel, sorely under-represented in art and industry. One can find all manner of things with wolf motifs, but in Canada at least, coyotes are in short supply. I've often tried to find paintings, prints, scultures or stuffed animals with no success. Wile E. Coyote doesn't count, as much as I am fond of Loony Toons.

Sometimes I think that to be a coyote would be a very fine thing indeed.

Groundhogs


Groundhogs Marmota monax, are quite literally everywhere these days. If you have ever been to Ottawa, you probably will have seen a great number of them, along the roadside, in fields, and in gardens. There was one here this summer that was in great danger of becoming stew when it made a lunch of a favourite plant of my grandmama's. There is, of course, a reason for this. We, as humans, tend to remake the landscape to fit our needs, rather than changing ourselves to fit the landscape. This often has a detrimental effect on the wildlife, but not always. Some things, such as groundhogs, thrive in this environment. They like lots of grass and clover, and as few predators as possible, conditions that Ottawa is able to provide. I've not been seeing many lately.....I imagine they're all hiding until spring, although I have certainly been wrong in the past, and I wouldn;t be suprised to find I was wrong once again...these things happen, afterall.


Interestingly enough, I have discovered that the Groundhog has a number of other names, which are not as commonly used, but are quite charming. everybody, of course, knows about it being called the woodchuck, thanks to the tonguetwister. However, I've never heard it called land beaver, or the whistlepig. I think I will make it my mission to spread the use of the name Whistlepig to refer to groundhogs, as it's a much more entertaining name.


Personally, I would like to see the huge numbers of groundhogs lead to a growing raptor population. You can't have too many hawks or owls, I think. That, of course, is just me.

Squirrels


Some would say to me "why are you writing about squirrels? Squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails and good PR." Firstly, no, no they aren't. Secondly, I'm actually quite fond of rats, and if I encountered some in the wild, I would certainly write about them. Of course, i haven't (muskrats don't count), but still.


I rather like squirrels. Often they're the animal you see the most of when walking, though these days I'm pretty sure the deer outnumber them 2:1, at least. We get two varieties of squirrel around here. One is the Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis, which, confusingly enough, can also be black. It's the larger, and I believe more agressive of the two varieties, and has been introduced, detrimentally, to other countries, though it IS, apparently, native to eastern north america. I recall hearing somewhere that it was introduced to this particular region, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.


The other, and in this particular neighbourhood, more common variety is the Red Squirrel, also called the American Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. This is not to be confused with the European Red Squirrel, which is near threatened, wheras the American Red Squirrel is not. Now, the red squirrel is kind of a specialist eater. About 50% of it's diet comes from cones....spruce cones and such, though I've seen them eating pine cones with great enthusiasm. Since there are ALOT of conifers around here, it's not suprise that I see alot of red squirrels. They also seem to like birdseed. The combination of one squirrel proof birdfeeder, one hungry squirrel and a bag of sunflower seeds is, quite frankly, better than TV. They have a really high mortality rate....about 22% of red squirrels make it through their first year of life, though afterwards their chance of surviving increases dramatically. They seem to be eaten by absolutely everything. Around here, for example, we get Northern Goshawks, Coyotes, great horned owls and, for a brief and giddy period, Martens, though I myself never got to see one. Red Squirrels, which, confusingly, can also be grey, brown and occasionally black, are alot more vocal that Grey Squirrels. yesterday, for example, I really offended a couple of them, and got a severe scolding. In spite of the fact that they can be coloured similarly to chipmunks, and Grey Squirrels, they are more or less unmistakable....they are larger than the former and smaller than the latter, and have white underbellies, which the Grey squirrel lacks.

I am always happy to see large numbers of squirrels, as that usually heralds an excellent year for coyotes, hawks and owls in the not too distant future.

See, I write about Mammals too


Today I went for a very long walk around the Shirley's Bay conservation area.....There's a great deal of it, you know, and I covered several kilometers. I didn't see much in the way of animal life, actually (there was one deer standing by the ruins of an old house. And me without my camera). however, I did see signs of animals. There were, of course, hoofprints aplenty....if I had a recipe for deer track soup, I would never have to go grocery shopping again. There were also dog tracks. Neither of these, however, are what I want to talk about.


Firstoff, the trees are mostly bare now. This allows me to see things I would not normally see. For example, in a swampy bit to the right of the trail that runs nearest carling avenue, i saw a muskrat lodge. Now, Muskrats Ondatra zibethicus are old friends to me. I used to see them all the time in New Brunswick, and while the presence of a common animal is not suprising, it is cheering. Muskrats are, on the whole, pretty amazing little animals. They have, I have learned, a unique nostril, shaped like the number 7, which somehow allows them to breath in oxgen that has been exhaled, while under water. As a consequence, they can stay submerged for some 15 minutes.

I encountered a muskrat while swimming once. I was down in the Ottawa river....not, I am sorry to have to tell you, at a public beach, though I wasn't trespassing either. I was paddling towards the shore in a lazy way, and I saw something there.....a muskrat. So I stopped swimming, and watched it. it came into the water as well, and came within two meters of me. So long as I stayed partially submerged, he had no fear. Quite the experience.


I also saw a classic example of violence in the wild. There were, at one point, a great many very noisy crows, all flocking around one area. Now, it was far too early for them to be returning to their roost, so this could only mean one thing. the crows had found themselves an owl. I don't know why, but crows and Owls, specifically Great Horned Owls seem to loath one another. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the owl itself... the tree was a ways off, and I had no binoculars with me.

I heard frogs as I walked....the Northern Leopard frog, of which I have written before, is giving one last concert before hibernation. It was quite warm today, so I can't say I blame them for being out in force. But the cold is coming on fast, so that might well be the last I see of them for a while.


The Geese decided to make a liar of me today. Instead of flying overhead as I described, a great flock of them decided to paddle about in the river. Clearly they've been reading this. I am honoured.