Category: nature encounters

It was getting pestered by a couple of other birds flying too fast for identification, which only seemed to mildly bother it.

In the Spring and Summer we often hear the sound of one or several corkscrews coming from pine logs. It’s weird in a funny way, and any time we’ve tried to investigate we didn’t find the culprit. Whatever is doing this stops when you move the log.

We finally got to the bottom of it, and found the bug responsible. Its mandibles must be quite strong to make such a ruckus. I’m not sure what they’re digging for, food and protection I assume. I had ran into them cutting wood before, they get bigger. You can see the byproduct of all the digging it’s done.

Yuck

I think it’s a Raghium Inquisitor, or ribbed pine borer. Makes sense.

(take note Canonical)

I seem to have stumbled on a turkey turf war, I wasn’t sure what I was hearing until I got close. And then again I wasn’t sure what I was seeing until from the chaos emerged 2 flocks going opposite directions. Clearly they had run into each other and weren’t having each other’s presence.

A group of ravens (I think, I still can’t quite tell them apart from crows), has taken over the area. I try to remain zen and admiring toward nature, but they are so fucking annoying. I feel bad for saying so but it’s the truth. They make the ugliest sound, and they make it all the god damn time, starting at 4:30. Any time you step out the door, it’s a riot cause they gotta let everyone on the whole hill know that something’s moved. They steal eggs if we leave them outside 5 minutes. The noise they constantly make is a loud swear over all other song birds. To top the ruckus, they do this weird dance I can’t quite place.

And of course they do it all the time and everywhere. I thought it was some sort of courtship behavior, but they’ve been at it for days at this point. You’d think they’d be done with it. I’ve looked at all sort of videos on raven behavior, and I really don’t know what they’re up to.

It’s only a wing I found on the ground, but it’s making me hopeful. We’ve seen Luna Moths only once 11 years ago. We were fresh transplants to Vermont then and didn’t realize it was rare. When I ask, people tell me they’ve only seen them once or twice in their lives.

Skunks don’t cause much trouble, their great defense is the only thing that makes them so darn undesirable. I wouldn’t mind them at all if I wasn’t worried we’ll run into each other unexpectedly. I’ve learned to shoo them on, they really don’t care about anything, but if you’re mildly annoying (from a distance), they’ll move along. And moving along is the whole point, for if they pick your stuff for a den, they’ll need to go and that’ll be a guaranteed mess.

This Beaver’s perfect execution of instinct. It saw an undammed stream, a tree standing near, and it knew just what to do. And the tree went right where the beaver wanted it.

I guess it’s a mast year for… raccoons? They’re all around the house every night causing a ruckus. I’m trying to deter them from coming, even took out a few, only to have more come back. In past years, we’d run into them here and there, but this year the house and its surrounding seems to be their established playground every night, it is a bit baffling. I know it’s only a matter of time before they cause damage that really stings. They’ve already been trying to get in the chicken coop.

I swear to god if you make the skunk spray I will smite all of you.

Picking blueberries, we stumbled upon this crazy looking thing.

Which apparently belongs to the largest moth in North America. We hope we’ll be able to catch it in the moth stage.

It’s a great year for fireflies, we harnessed the magic into lanterns.

I thought I was capturing the wonderful nature story of ants helping a peony bud open. Alas, looking it up I learned this wonderful piece of folklore is untrue. Peonies do not in fact need ants to break open. It still seems as though they have a symbiotic relationship, the peonies feed the ants with nectar, and the ants keep other insects at bay. They only drink the nectar and to not dig into the plant like other insects might. They do seem focused around the bud’s seams, but this might simply be because that’s where there’s the most nectar.

On this close up you can see the nectar droplets on the seam.

And I finally caught a glimpse of the very elusive fisher cat.

To raid the crabapple tree. It’s really amazing to see nature take turns enjoying this oddly timed crop.

The crabapple tree being raided by turkeys this time.

It’s hard to tell if the perched turkey is dropping apples on purpose to help its turkey buddies, or if it’s just eating like a pig.

It’s impossible on that first one really, but it’s there I swear. I only know where it is because my eyes caught the motion when it flew in.

click pics for high res

Zooming in

It helps when it faces us.

See ya!