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Last fall My friend Mike shot a nice spike deer. After gutting out the animal we took it to tagging station . I like the heart meat so I asked Mike for it and he left it in woods with the rest of the guts. We went back and when we returned there was a Turkey Vulture there and had already gobbled it down. The only way this bird could have got there that quick is by smell. This was in a brush area and quite camouflaged.

Some of us have long thought this. Certainly Turkey Vultures obviously can smell and are able to detect well hidden carrion. As a long time Turkey hunter, I have long wondered if wild Turkeys could also detect human odor. I think the jury’s out on that one, but I have occasionally suspected it.

I’m so glad to read this! I have a friend (who has a degree in fisheries and wildlife) that insisted birds can’t smell. I had told her that the birds who invade my vineyard just at the precise moment my grapes are ripe know when they’re ripe, because they can smell them. She said it was the color. I told her it didn’t matter if they were white or red, the birds KNEW! And the crows that picked at a bag of garbage that wasn’t double-bagged vs. one that only held wadded up Christmas wrap and wet cardboard—they can smell the difference! She cited the Audubon research, and I said my observations prove this is WRONG! :-)

The definition of a life well-lived.

Thank you for the great info! If we were to plan a hike in our area (Sunkhaze Meadows NWR in Milford) what time of the night or morning are the owl most active? Since it gets dark so early and light so late.  :)

Thanks for the defiance to conventional child-rearing wisdom. I couldn’t agree more..Conditioning while they’re young will help them to appreciate it as they grow. Nothing brings a winter smile like kids out throwing snow balls and waiting for the next dumping to build another snow fort. We play a sing-along in the car for our little guy that goes something like this…“I’m freezing, I’m freezing…Hope I don’t start sneezing…HA-CHOO! Mushy-slushy cold and wet. Snow suits and boots is it over yet?! HA-CHOO!”....I need to loose this CD between the seats.

One of my co-workers, whose home is downtown, told me he saw a coyote up in an apple tree picking frozen apples off branches.  Until then I had not realized what an omnivore coyotes are.

Amen!

The cold is invigorating.  I much prefer the deep cold, especially if it’s bright and sunny over hot humid weather.  One of my friends, who is Norwegian descent, agrees with this wholeheartedly.  He says, ‘survived another summer’, rather than survived the winter!

Gary, no that will not necessarily solve the deer problem. I understand they can jump up to 15 feet, and often I see them effortlessly sailing over a 4’ fence. What will deter them is fear of what they will land on. You can google what types of things you can use, on either side of your fence, to discourage them. There are are also certain smells/scents that repel them, that you could put closer to your garden. You can also research this.

After the recent thaw accompanied by rain, I took two grandsons for a woodland hike. There were many tunnels in remaining snow with the tops gone.  Nice to show them where the voles and mice had been secreted away.

Years ago, at our house in central NH, we buried our 60-lb. dog in the front meadow. I put her 2 feet deep - the wet soil prevented going deeper - and covered her over.  A week later, there were three turkey vultures sitting in the big red oak at the edge of the meadow. In 10 years, I had never seen turkey vultures anywhere near us. I assumed that the smell of the decomposing dog drew them in.

Upon cleaning out my freezer I found a small tangerine sized bit of suet. I put it in a small mesh bag and hung it on a tree outside the kitchen window. Within 4 hours it was visited (and pretty well demolished) by a male and female Hairy Woodpecker and a Nuthatch. It had to be olfactory detection. With clumps of snow everywhere the little white mesh bag was pretty well camouflaged.

I have them in the walls above the garage and it’s obvious how they got in. I don’t want to kill them with snap traps but if I am able to relocate them with live traps wouldn’t they succumb to the elements? We are having the worst winter in 25 years.

Tania, thank you for writing about this lichen. I am just becoming an Interpretive Ranger on Mt. Bachelor, OR and found this story very interesting and easy to read. We have them on Mt. Bachelor too.

I live in a densely forested area, with a large family of crows.  I have started mimicking their “crow talk” while going on walks through the forest.  They get quite excited & curious & will circle around me & land in the tree tops.  They seem to be trying to see me and will keep chattering away.  I would love to know what we are conversing about :)

I have lived across the state of NY for my whole life, 60 now; hunted, fished, hiked, cut firewood, camped, etc., the American Beech has always been one of my favorites for many reasons. The damage and loss of this species or any for that matter is difficult to experience.

I have had this question come up for me and I would like you guys to answer this:

Many animals designed for night vision have only rod cells in their retinas, and lack cone cells entirely. Why would this arrangement improve the animal’s ability to see in near darkness? What disadvantages would such an arrangement have for seeing in daylight?

Hi
Nice article, however MD’s did not get to northern NE until the mid 1900’s.  Did our feeding them tend to keep the males here all winter? What other food could they get?

It seems this disease comes in waves.  When I started as a forester in 1971 there was in increasing wave of the disease, and then things seemed to quiet down for awhile.

When doing a salvage harvest of diseased beech trees it was very difficult to accurately estimate the amount of damage to a tree.  My solution was to just tally the tree volume and let the loggers estimate the usable volume.