Site Discussions

I just saw what looks like a brown headed nuthatch at our feeder, except he had a white stripe all the way from back of his head to his bill.  Looked like a skunk head!  Do some of the brown nut hatches have this stripe?  The photos I have seen show a spot of white at the center back of his head.

Great article- here we have giant moles that love to dig around.  I’ve always let them take their share of the yard knowing they are aerating my yard for free!

I have MD in the gutters of the garage.  Have seen most of what your are describing in the preceding posts.  No cooing while nesting for these. Love them.  Hope they return or raise more babies.  This is the first time I have seen this happen.

I always loved the cooing if doves…For the last month we have been keeping watch over a pair that built a nest on our porch light. They were there so long I thought the eggs might not be good. I also worried that the sitting bird might starve until I saw the other one fly in and trade places. Yesterday we finally saw the hatch-lings though they must be at least a week old because they are very big and very hungry! I got a good video of the two hatch-lings feeding and have shared it with all of my friends and posted on fb. I am so happy for the success of the hatching and hope they will survive to start their own lives!

These are the most beautiful of trees. People don’t like the falling branches & cut a tree down just to make less mess. They say they are dangerous but having lived in forest for 30 years-we never had a tree fall on us. We built in among them & it was more work but worth it. We had a lean-to & we would make the hole in roof larger for it to go thru-it was there first. I can’t believe people are even cutting down pines as they are too messy. The trees were there first (as were the animals).

I can remember my father telling stories of rock layers who would come to his father’s farm (Delaware county, NY) in the summer to build stone walks. He said they were travelers who came north and built walks for room and board.

At night after chores the men would sit on the lawn and drink homemade hard cider and tell stories. They would use the horse team if available and a sled to haul the stones from the field to build the walls.

My dad had lots of stories about the stone masons. I miss him and his farm stories.

I agree with Dave that the dark ones seem to appear later than the yellow ones.  I’ve never noticed that when they do appear they look any less mature than the yellows.

I’m wondering if anyone has noticed that morels may have something like mast years.  Last year I found many more than I ever had in over 10 years of covering the same ground,  this year, though conditions seemed excellent I found many fewer than I’ve ever found, and the ones I did find were in areas where I’d never found them before, while the areas that almost always produce well were bare.

Dave, Thanks for the morels. They were better than bacon with my breakfast! Tried to attach the pic but failed. Technically challenged? Your summer “Northern Woodlands” magazine is a beautiful piece of work! Thanks to all who put so much into it. I also have a far greater fondness for our Ash trees after your article. Thanks again, Andy

We have a Shantung maple that we’ve had for many years. Precipitation was down over the winter here. It is now spring going into summer and our tree has leaves on the outer part of the tree but the inside is bare. Do you think it might be getting a late start or is it dying? We have never fertilized it, so we are going to do that. Should we give it extra watering?

I appreciate the article and the comments as well. These creatures turn up in my bathroom, and now I wondered whether to release her outside or what. Searching the web, most articles assume we only want rid of them. Pest companies suggest glue traps and so forth. That feels wrong. Thanks to you all for enacting gentler solutions.

Looking at the chart at the bottom of the article, what does the column time mean?

I am fascinated by the corvids. I have been feeding both American Crows and Fish Crows in my suburban back yard for a few years now.I love feeding all birds in general but the crows and blue jays are standouts for me in particular. It has prompted me to read up on them.  I have read a few books by John Marzluff on the crow and Bernd Heinrich’s book on Ravens. If you’d like to learn more about these complex and highly intelligent creatures, I highly recommend those authors. (sorry I don’t have the titles handy right now..) I think either Nova or Nature also has a special on crows that you can view on YouTube. Their intelligence level is considered to be on par with that of a seven year old. (Ravens are considered even smarter than crows….) They play, conceal food from and spy on one another, recognize friend or foe via facial recognition, and communicate that information to their community… They gather to “witness “ and probably learn from the death of a fellow crow when one of them has died too. I have enjoyed learning about them. I do wish I understood more about how they communicate with one another.

I do agree that different birds have distinct and recognizable voices or calls. I can clearly tell the difference between some of my local birds. One of the crows who I believe might be the male of the pair that visit me daily, is quite bold and will come within 3-4 feet of me. If i’m late with the morning “meal” he will fly up to the kitchen window and peer in and call to me. It’s pretty hilarious! I love the interaction and I feel lucky to have be in these fab birds trust! I feed my guys unsalted shelled and or unshelled peanuts, left over eggs, sometimes berries or dried fruit. They especially seem to like the leftover PB&J sandwich scraps. They need to have salt free food and chocolate is considered toxic for them. Thanks for the interesting article and I enjoyed reading what Kevin McGowan had to say as well!

We live on a farm and had morning doves around for years. They seemed to have disappeared. We haven’t had any for 2 going on 3 years. We really miss their gentle cooing. Any thoughts on why they aren’t around.

This morning a juvenile raccoon visited my patio and checked out my Main Coon cat. They were close to being the same size and Max the cat wanted in now!  Once in he growled and was tense. The raccoon went to the back yard and smoothly and effortlessly climbed 20 feet up a 100 foot fir tree.
Later a group of scolding crows caused me to see the raccoon half way up the tree where he was casually crossing on branches to a second, then a third tree.

Nicely written.

Out here along the Front range in Colorado EAB has become a huge problem - all because a firewood company thought it would be a good idea to bring a grapple load of ash from Missouri to Boulder County. Too bad, because green ash is a popular tree here and does well in this semiarid climate.

This is my first time having mating doves, watching them build their nest, and now sitting on their 2 eggs. At first we were sad when moma bird left the first egg, but after reading your posts, now I understand she wasn’t going to incubate until the second egg came along.I have learned so much from everyone els’s posts, thank you all for sharing your stories. We’ve given her seeds and water, and she looks happy. She even let me sit out on the porch with her for a few minutes. They are so beautiful !

There are soil-injected and tree-trunk injected products. Rather than getting into the specifics of chemicals here I think it best to refer you to some expert literature such as this piece by extension professors from four states: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/documents/Multistate_EAB_Insecticide_Fact_Sheet.pdf

In the article, it is stated that: “EAB can be checked by injecting insecticides into the soil every other year.” What type of insecticide is used? We have several beautiful old ash on our property we would love to be able to save. Thank you.

Thanks for this article, Susan Shea, and for the ensuing discussion. I’m looking forward to reading updates on The Tick Project!