Site Discussions

On 11/2/18, noticed a gray tree frog attached to outside of door glass. Stayed for a few min. Left for a few min. Returned higher up on glass for a few minutes, left and returned higher again. Got good photos from both sides. Never seen one here before. Seemed to be drawn to insects near outside deck light.

Amadis - without knowing your circumstances, a general note that opossums are wild animals, and we don’t encourage keeping them as pets! But to answer the question - they are very vulnerable to cold weather, and it’s not uncommon for them to get frostbite on their ears and tails.

I know this is a older article but it answered my question. I run a small woodshop that makes wooden urns. I have noticed the tops have shrunk slightly and came unglued. Red oak mostly.

I would like to know if my opossum can live in 30 to 35 degree weather at night.  I want to put it in a cage in my garden.  Within the cage I will put a little warm den but still, the cold will creep in.  Should I also add a warm light?

Dave, my sense, based on the writings of Bill Gove who was writing about logging in Vermont, is that the mid-1800s was when the up-and-down saws were replaced with circular saws. The up-and-down saws could handle big logs better (albeit slower), so in some places they had both styles. It could be your mill was one such place.

After listening to a recording of the saw whet, I recognized the sound. What I thought was a truck reverse alarm at a nearby quarry, was really a saw whet. Trucks load at night sometimes. Thank you for adding to my knowledge of this delightful creature.

Live on site once with sawmill. Earliest date of use (from diary entry of person living 8 miles away= 1818. apparently operated at least to turn of the century, but (newspaper article) indications are that by 1927 it was no longer functional.  Suspect it was horizontal blade (up/down) but 1850 inventory reported a 24” circular blade. Seems too small? 

Great article. As I was reading it, I was being stared at by a saw-whet on my shelf. This bird was mounted more than 25 years ago near my house in NH and was used in my wife’s school for many years until she retired. I found this bird dead at roadside in February and got permission from US Fish & Wildlife to have it mounted. Re your article, I found the bird on a February morning. Wonder why it hadn’t migrated?

Thank you, Brett, for a delightful and fact-filled article on these small owls (and published in one of my favorite magazines, too)!

I’ve had a pet painted turtle for over 10 years and a RES almost 4. A friend of mine brought me a baby snapper about a month ago he found in his yard, I took a risk and put it in with my other two turtles.

My 10 year old female midland painted (wild capture as a hatchling) is very social with both people and other turtles. In the four years she’s had a juvenile wild capture red ear slider male as a tank mate (approximately 3 years old when I caught him), I have never seen any aggressive behavior, even during feeding. She socializes with the RES, they “flirt” with each other frequently but she’s been rather indifferent with the baby snapper.

The male RES is a different story. Having spent the first three or so years of its life as a wild turtle, he’s not the “finger-safe” turtle the painted female is. While he’s not fond of human interaction, he’s bonded with the baby snapper, they’re thick as thieves. They bask together on their island, if the baby snapper isn’t swimming next to the RES when he’s swimming around in their tank it’s riding on the shell of the RES. Every time I pick the little bugger up out of the tank, Scooter (the RES) disregards his usual shyness and swims up close to watch what I’m doing with his little buddy. When the little one is put back into the tank, his behavior is similar to that of a mother hen.

If you want this, come and get it.  I hate it. It’s invaded my whole property. I want it gone! How do I get rid of it?

Certainly this sort of intensive forestry is fine but getting forest owners to spend money is not so easy. I suggest an even bigger problem than the lack of such intensive forestry is that many forests are still high graded and others have no mgt. at all. One thing that could help us do more intensive mgt. would be if a large, thriving woody biomass industry were acceptable to environmental groups and other forestry critics- but alas, this potential industry has been severely knocked down by people who consider it reprehensible and a major cause of global warming. I suggest that their thoughts on this are mistaken. Well managed and healthy forests can increase carbon storage and add greatly to rural economies. A biomass market is essential to harvest low value, unhealthy trees. The forestry community needs to fight back against those who oppose woody biomass as a source of energy. It is an essential tool for excellent forest mgt.

It was told to me in med school that as you move from mice, cats, dogs, to raccoons, the raccoon is the first animal in that line with a well developed enough lateral corticospinal tract to facilitate fine hand (or paw) movement. The corticospinal tract helps route signals from the brain to the muscles of the extremities; it’s very well developed in primates and humans for example.

I found a full grown female cotton tail rabbit buried in a hole so that it was flush with the ground. No external digging signs like a dog or other animal dug a hole. Just a perfect fit to the body. Could undertakers be responsible for such a large animal?

Thank you, this was very informative, I live in Maine and I have a couple of black swallowtail caterpillars in my parsley. It is mid October, and very cold, I was worried they would die. Unfortunately the parsley will die. But the caterpillars will survive. Thanks again

While vacationing in the white mountains recently, I came across the friendliest flying squirrel ever. It was so adorable that I wanted to bend down and pick it up, but I thought better of it because it could have had rabies.I don’t think it did but you never know. As I stood still watching him he came up to me and walked over my boots then he sat next to my boot for about 2 minutes or more. Just then I remembered that I had some trail mix in my pocket. I put some trail mix on a rock nearby which he scampered over to and ate it all in a flash. I think he stored some in his cheeks for later. I named him Rocky the flying squirrel then I said goodbye and bid him farewell. It was the best encounter ever!!!!!

I agree with all that is written. Dreadful that these gentle birds are hunted. Two doves raised 6 babies on top of my air conditioning unit this summer. Almost at eye level. I placed cameras there and could watch them come and go and raise their young. It was indeed a privilege. While they nested no air conditioner. I would scatter seeds on the lawn but the doves were getting hit by raptors. I built a tall sguare open bird feeder, squirrel proof with a plexiglass roof to help protect the seeds from rain. The thing is full of doves and blue jays. Not sure if the doves will stay the winter
I lost about 4 doves to local cats and raptors so the attrition rate is high. A few doves are still round the feeder. The question remains who will stay the winter and will they be back to nest. I did save the old nest, if it could be called that a bunch of twigs. We shall see.

Thanks John. I’ll check out that site!

Two points. One, David Spahr of Maine has written a great book on mushrooms. He also has a website - http://www.mushroom-collecting.com/ that can be really helpful for folks in our area. Two, there are a lot of other interesting mushrooms to be found in our woods. Right now, maitake (Hen of the Woods) is growing at the base of some big, old red oaks. JR

As mentioned above, when I was a child of 8 to 10 yrs old my father would find bees drinking at a puddle by our well and would sprinkle one bee with flour.  The bee would immediately fly off, sometimes circling and sometimes straight off.  Dad would wait and eventually the marked bee would return to drink.  Marking the time gone, we would set out on a “bee line” in the direction the bees had marked.  Most times we would eventually find the hive.  We wouldn’t bother the bees we just wanted to see if we could find them.  Loads of fun with Dad.