by Winding Pathways | Oct 23, 2014 | Mammals, Nature, Pests
People often ask us why they see does and fawns but rarely antlered buck deer.
The easy answer is that bucks are exceedingly wary. Although common in urban and rural areas they have an astonishing ability to stay out of sight. Yet many massive stags live unseen in cities and towns.
Early November is an exception for seeing bucks. Across most of the United States deer are in the mating season, or rut, between late October and the first half of November. Bucks abandon their usual caution and focus on mating with as many does as possible. The largest and most aggressive males mate with the most does, and during the rut they are seen in odd places and at any time of the day or night as they seek females in heat. Rutting bucks have swollen necks and polished antlers that often shine in the sun. They are magnificent!
By the end of November nearly all mature does will have mated and begun a pregnancy that will culminate with late May and early June births. Many does have twins or triplets. Well-nourished female fawns born this spring mate during a smaller rut in early December and will give birth, usually to a single fawn, next July.
November is the best month to watch deer, but it can be dangerous as the temporarily nonwary animals dart across roads. Deer/car collisions peak during the rut in both rural and urban areas.
Drive carefully!
by Winding Pathways | Oct 21, 2014 | Bugs, Nature
October is the perfect time to talk about spiders. With all things Halloween interest is high. And, with cooler temperatures upon us arachnids are feasting on insects seeking shelter from coming winter and some are in fall migration mode. While used to seeing webs outdoors and in window sills most people rarely see these beneficial but somewhat creepy creatures. Too many get “freaked out” over them. Like all creatures spiders do have a purpose and we can admire their characteristics without getting too cozy with them.
On a recent trip to the South West we were startled to see “leaves” scuttling across the open road when no wind was blowing. Turns out they were young male tarantulas looking to stake their territory. Amazed, we stopped to film as dozens of hairy eight-legged dudes hustled across the wide open spaces of asphalt to the security of the taller grasses. Later at Old Fort Bent National Historic Site, La Junta, Colorado, the Ranger explained the migration phenomenon to us sharing how he and his wife had counted scores on a recent short evening drive. We opted to “motel” that night over tent out. Tarantula Migration
It’s one thing to see spiders outside and avoid them. It’s another to know they are “in your space.” Few indoor sightings are as startling as spotting a spider……sometimes a large one…..on the basement floor, wall, or even ceiling. Too many people misunderstand and fear these eight legged animals.
Spiders live in homes for at least two reasons. Like box elder bugs and mice they know cold weather is coming and seek warm places to overwinter. Homes offer more than warmth. They are also a fruitful hunting ground for these super predators. Most houses, even those kept especially clean, are an ecosystem of insects and other invertebrates that spiders catch and devour. Both the bugs and their hunters are usually most numerous down in the basement, where they find more consistent temperature and higher humidity than upstairs. Darkness doesn’t trouble them.
Some spiders are conspicuous while others remain out of sight, but there are likely many more in the house than are ever spotted.
The spider downstairs could be one of many species. Most don’t build webs but catch their prey by either waiting in ambush and pouncing on a hapless insect or running it down. The dark basement can be like a miniature Serengeti, with spiders taking the predatory role of lions and insects the antelope prey. They help keep household insect numbers down.
Although some spiders can inflict a painful bite that is slow to heal, the odds of being bitten by a house spider are low. Thoroughly caulking and weather stripping a home makes it harder for both spiders and cold air to enter. Spiders are arachnids, not insects, but most common household insecticides kill them. At Winding Pathways we shun the poisons and try to live and let eat!
by Winding Pathways | Oct 5, 2014 | Nature, Trees/Shrubs
October is a wondrous month of great change in the backyard. Thousands of leaves that devoted warm months harvesting solar energy now become free and fun soil builders.
Fall’s shortened days cause backyard elm, maple, oak and other trees to hang it up for the season. Green chlorophyll disappears revealing reds, yellows and browns that were there all summer but were masked by verdant green. Soon puffs of breeze bring dry leaves swirling to the ground.
We can perceive October’s leaf fall two ways. It’s either a season of drudgery or harvest of a free, organic and bountiful resource.
Raking, bagging and stacking zillions of leaves on the curb for the city to cart away is drudgery that gives away a precious resource.
Better to view leaves as wondrous tree gifts. Those multitudes of mini solar collectors are rich in carbon destined to become topsoil. All humans need do is enjoy and appreciate them and perhaps corral leaves so they won’t blow into the neighbor’s yard.
Kids love leaves. Have them help rake them into a dry pile in the center of the yard. Then pretend you’re a ground hog and burrow under the nearly weightless mound. Just make sure the kids don’t play in leaves stacked in the street for pickup! A car could plow through them and cause a tragedy.
All leaves decompose. Look closely and notice that the leaves of maples, elms, ashes and locusts tend to be flat and make a mat on the ground that soon absorbs moisture. They rot fairly fast. In contrast oak and hickory leaves curl to allow air to circulate under them when on the ground. They stay dry and resist rotting but eventually turn into humus.
Leaves make excellent compost material but need nitrogen to speed decomposition. Alternate layers of leaves with manure in the bin this fall and pitchfork out wonderful compost when gardening season starts next spring.
An easier way to put the annual leaf harvest to good use is to mulch them. Simply pile layers of leaves around young trees, shrubs and even in the garden, then wet them down so they don’t blow. Most likely they won’t be rotted away next spring but will hold moisture in the soil and reduce weed growth most of next summer. A year from now they will have been miraculously transformed into humus.
Leaves are wondrous, fun and a handy, free resource. Enjoy them this fall and thank your trees for sharing their organic solar collectors.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 5, 2014 | Mammals, Nature, Pests
You have to give mice credit. They’re survivors. As days shorten the tiny mammals seem to know that spending the winter in a warm home with bountiful food left out beats eking out a grim existence in the cold and snow.
Each fall mice move into houses to enjoy free meals and warmth. Human residents often aren’t aware that they’re sharing their home with these tiny residents until droppings appear on the kitchen counter.
There are two general types of mice that enjoy indoor winter life.
The common house mouse is a gray animal native to the Old World. It was brought to North America soon after European settlers arrived centuries ago. Now found all over the world, this mouse almost always lives near people and is rare out in the woods. It often spends its entire life in a home, dining on easily accessible food, and even having babies – lots of babies – inside. Catching sight of a mouse scurrying across the floor is rare, but the shy animals leave their calling cards as droppings that look a little like grains of pepper.
Several species of native mice, often called white footed or deer mice, also enjoy wintering indoors. These beautiful native rodents usually spend the warm months outside, have their babies there, then enter a home in the fall. As the name implies, the animal’s feet and belly are white.
White footed mice cache food. Find a pile of sunflower seeds in an old shoe, and you’ve found evidence of this animal. House mice don’t cache food but eat it where it’s discovered.
Hardly anyone wants to share their home with mice of any species. Here are tips for keeping mice outdoors where they belong:
• Fill exterior cracks and holes with caulking and weather-stripping to make entry challenging. Tightening up the house reduces the unwelcome entry of both tiny rodents and cold air.
• Eliminate food sources inside the house. Never leave pet food in open dishes overnight. Clean up spilled human food, even tiny crumbs. Store sunflower seed and pet food in metal containers with tight lids. Keep all human food inaccessible.
• Encourage and appreciate mouse predators. If owls wake you in the middle of the night with their raucous calls, just thank them. They are the midnight patrol eagerly converting mice to dinner. Many hawk species work the day shift seeking rodents. Snakes are also effective mouse predators but are only active during warm moths. Some cats catch and dine on mice but a pampered declawed tabby isn’t going to dent their numbers.
Despite the best efforts to discourage mice, some are bound to get into the house. Here are tips for getting rid of them:
The old fashioned mouse trap can be amazingly effective in catching and immediately killing mice. Buy a bunch of traps. We have about a dozen at Winding Pathways. Bait each with a dab of peanut butter or margarine, making sure that the bait gets pushed into the tiny circular piece of metal attached to the trigger. Mice almost always run along a wall or partition. Set traps against the wall with the trigger side nearest the wall. Set a bank of three or four traps side-by-side and against each other, all with triggers facing the wall.
We set the most traps close to where we see mice or their droppings, but also set some in rooms where we haven’t seen mice. Sometimes we catch them there. Even after we’ve caught a few mice we keep traps set until none have been caught for a couple of weeks.
Some traps claim to either catch mice alive or in a way that a human doesn’t have to touch the dead animal. We shun both. Supposedly the live traps are humane, but what do you do with that scrappy animal? Let it go outside? If so it may beat you back into the house, freeze to death, or be quickly caught by a predator. We consider a quick death by conventional mouse trap more humane.
Poisons and glue traps work but we also avoid them. Poison seems cruel and often a mouse dies a slow death behind the refrigerator or hidden in a wall. Soon the stench wafts through the house. Glue boards are pieces of cardboard or paper coated with amazingly sticky stuff. Any mouse that steps on it sticks. Trouble is glue boards don’t instantly kill the animal. Often in its effort to free itself the unfortunate animal gets completely stuck and a human needs to decide how to humanely dispose of a living but very stuck mouse. If you don’t want to live with mice as house guests, traps are better.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 1, 2014 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Flowers/Grasses, Garden/Yard, Nature, Trees/Shrubs
Clambering over the fallen branches of the cleared understory saplings, I realized I was pushing my way through a metaphor.
Recently, a dynamic work party gathered at Sand Ridge to access Faulkes Woods and begin rehabilitation of the diverse ecosystems that had inspired the dedication of this lovely preserve.
Soon after the 1998 dedication, Faulkes Woods Forest began to show degradation from previous years of little maintenance. Garlic mustard took over the ground cover. Barberry seeds, spread by birds, quickly colonized in huge inaccessible patches, crowding out all other vegetation. Shade-loving maples – some native, some European – prevented sun loving oak and hickory nuts from rooting. Food for wildlife became scarcer as quality habitat declined.
The prolific deer and turkey populations foraged in neighboring yards and gardens more frequently. Woodpeckers, finding the dying and dead trees just right for their food and shelter needs, had increased. Yet, other birds, such as the Ovenbird, that are typically found in large timber tracts seemed to have disappeared. According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology under Habitat “Ovenbirds breed in large, mature broadleaf or mixed forests from the Mid-Atlantic states to northeastern British Columbia. They set up summer territories where the leaf canopy overhead inhibits underbrush and provides deep leaf litter hosting plenty of invertebrates.” This excerpt can explain why they are not around. Too much undesirable understory has prevented native plants from growing and leaf litter is practically non-existent. Erosion has increased.
The clearing out “work party” left the forest floor in shambles. At least that would be the first impression. Piles of barberry littered the bare forest floor. But, the rest of the area was free from large patches of impenetrable brush. The felled saplings were another story. Not only were they tough to climb over and push through, but also, they blocked the trail. So, newcomers to the forest could not tell if they were on the right path back to the house for lunch. Thank goodness for the bright orange marker tapes that the leaders had tied to trees along the way to point the way!
And, that is not all. This project has been in development for a number of months. Leadership centered on a core of reliable professionals from the City of Marion, Trees Forever, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and Winding Pathways. Each knew his/her role. Everyone contributed positively. Volunteers, some experienced and some new to the efforts of ecological restoration, followed the lead of the crew chiefs. The project was successful because everyone made it so. And, deferred to experienced leaders.
All this hit me as I navigated the timbered jackstraw.
In short, a steady, decades-long and then rapid decline in quality with a huge mess to clean up.
So, the metaphor that popped into my mind as my way opened and the house loomed high on the ridge before me – still uphill – was, “This is a lot like church.”
Lacking regular attention to details over decades – finances, maintenance, staff and communications – and without a person truly “in charge” as a CEO by whatever name one gives this position, a church congregation can find itself overwhelmed by “garlic mustard, barberry, and invasive understory.” At a certain point a major “clearing out” needs to happen. But, it is messy, has far ranging consequences, hurts many people directly and indirectly involved, drives off productive families and may not be successful if it is only a superficial or “one time effort.”
The cultivation of steady maintenance and care of the physical plant, to social interactions, to nurturing of the tenets and principles to which a congregation espouses and spiritual development is necessary. Both professionals and volunteers need to participate. But, above all, someone must be in charge. And keep at it!
Finally, I pushed through the last of the maple branches and hiked up the trail to the house, washed up and prepared lunch for 27 wonderful volunteers and professionals who made a significant dent in stopping the woods’ degradation. Knowing that this was just the start of restoration, Rich has gone down periodically to trim back the branches from the fallen understory, the deer have eaten them back, the trail is open into the Woods and sunlight is beaming down onto the soil, warming it and the resting native ephemerals. The best part is that the Parks Department of Marion is very interested in the long term health of the Woods and that the sponsoring organizations’ leaders want to do more projects there.
The goals are clear and energy remains high. This is what restoration is about. May it be so in the church as well.
