Site Discussions

I will installing a bat house on my lakefront property, spring of 2018. What is the right time of the spring to put up the house to have a better chance of a bat or bats occupying the new house?

The fungus also has another negative consequence…it causes the trees to produce empty nuts.  The tree still makes the shell, but when you crack them open with a fingernail, there’s no nut inside.  That not only impacts wildlife, but foragers like us.  We enjoy eating beechnuts, and they’re harder and harder to find these days.

I saw my first live possum (I usually see them dead on the road) I named Oprah. She was eating bird seed under the bird feeders. She met my dog Ottavio, 22 lb min poodle.
She was here all afternoon, I hope she stays. Better yet, I hope she survives the next week. The weather is going to be in the single to minus digits at night! She looks young but what do I know?

Thank you for a lovely reflection. You hit my sense of faith square on target.  And why I feel like I’m in a cathedral whenever I’m in a forest.  Merry Christmas.

As another recovering Catholic, the woods is my cathedral, my land is my sanctuary.  Working with it to bring out the gifts of nature is my vocation.

Don’t forget that people die or get hurt, too, in encounters between vehicles and animals. Nothing like a deer or moose through your windshield, or slewing your car into a tree or ravine while trying to avoid an animal of any size. If programs to save animals from roadkill included human casualties in their campaigns, they might gain broader support from the public.

Thank you for this information. While I hope to never need it, it’s good to have in my repertoire, and to know where to find it. I am passing it to my rural and semi-suburban dog-walking friends.

In the 1980s I was an ELF volunteer at Mary Hogan School In Middlebury, VT. ELF: Environmental Learning for the Future

My favorite event was rotting logs:
First I set out firewood and asked the young students to pull the wood apart to look for bugs. Guess what? They could not.
Then I presented semi-soft logs so the back would slide off and the students could see the channels. But still no bugs.
Then I brought out the laundry baskets with soft rotting logs that were falling apart. There were lots of critters.
Sometimes those same children -  now parents themselves -  will see me in town and comment on the rotting logs in the classroom from their days at Mary Hogan School.

Thanks for the sweet memory of volunteer activities with children in nature.

Dear Dave Bushrod Mance III,

Like you, I was raised Catholic and parted muskrat skins with the church as a teenager to seek my own answers. I discovered that when in the woods, I sure felt a hell of a lot closer to my beliefs than setting in any pew ever got me.
I have a theory on that “odd phenomenon” you speak of when a land owner suddenly wakes up to the blessing he’s had right under his nose for years. I think it’s the development of a conscience. They tend to get more defined as we get older. Funny thing about a conscience. It usually won’t stop us from doing what we shouldn’t, but it sure can put the damper on enjoying it.

Merry Everything and a Happy Always
Bill

Well said, Dave

Very, very nice, Dave. Merry Christmas.

Mike, I hear you - unfortunately, I don’t have a great suggestion. The flies are entering in autumn through any little opening you have in your structure, and I’m guessing a camp just isn’t going to be tight enough to keep them out.

Depending on your setup, you might look to see if there are particular areas on the inside that they are likely to be using to come from the walls into the heated spaces (ex. an attic vent) but again, assuming a cabin/other typical camp structure….a couple of strategically placed hand vacs may be your best option!

I have a terrible cluster fly infestation in a camp in patten Maine. I would love to know how to effectively keep them from getting into our building, or make them not like our building.

What a nice article! 

I have an old house and we definitely get explosions of cluster flies, mostly outside thankfully.

Thanks for pointing out the little known fact that yes, some flies are pollinators too!

Wow!!.. I just stumbled onto this website and this article brings back so many good memories…heated with wood for years and somehow through several remodels I lost my stove allowance.  I always remembered the old saying “when you heat with wood you are warmed twice:  once cutting the wood…and twice from the heat produced from the burning”...thank you for the article….

Thank you.  I too am a backyard sawyer and would like to thank you for the research.  Always wondered what causes those burls.  Pacific Northwest Woodworkers

We currently have added a beautiful boy cat to our family. Our outdoor raccoon family raised him for four months. Cleaned him, fed him, played with him, watched over him. The night we trapped him was the only time I was ever afraid of them. They tried to free Finn.  They were trying to rip the doors and windows off. It was heartbreaking. Especially because Gonn stayed with them when they we’re repeatedly trapped . He wouldn’t leave them until they were set free. Our Vet was not sure Finn could be socialized but he is a kind, loving,gentle boy. Brought up by a mother that had one baby, then a month later she brought her runt out, then she adopted two abandoned or orphaned raccoon kittens…she had four babies and then took Finn in too. The babies are gone. Mama is having more babies and Finn is the most wonderful kitten! He has brought love, laughter and belonging to our family of animals, our children and grandchildren. My raccoon do not eat any meat -won’t touch it.  But they like boiled eggs and dog food. Some respect, some territory and space to be free and a little help when it’s cold outside or a drought. They like to play games but do not like heavy energy. Help each other out on our journeys…that’s all it takes. They do no damage here, don’t dig in the garbage and just need some trees left up that are a decent size. Our cat has huge haunches and shoulders from his vertical upbringing.  The raccoon don’t stay. Like everything on this planet…the time we share with them is temporary. The teens leave home, come back once in a while but they have things to do…

Thanks for this educational article on forest succession. I think too few understand the value of early successional forest as habitat for the animal species we love to see, or at least to know are out there. Because of the high stem density,  dense cover and a high volume of vegetative and insect life, food is provided for species such as woodcock, ruffed grouse and warblers, including the threatened Golden Winged warbler. Deer, bear, turkey and countless smaller mammal species also thrive here. Because of the extremely high carrying capacity this early successional habitat provides, I’ve come to call it the “coral reef of the northern forest” and now enjoy seeing a clear cut patch begin the cycle of succession anew.

Enjoyed the article! I drive a school bus and am charmed when I see wild turkeys which is not very often. I am curious about sleeping habits and predators. I live in an urban area and wonder what their predators are.  We are inundated with wild geese and there seem to be no predators for them.
Thank you.

Kwai, I am a member of the above tribe, I was wondering if the name for Hard’ack came from the Abenaki like Popasquash Island of Maquam shore ( Maqam meaning Beaver)?