Site Discussions

In a recent conversation I was told that weasels feed on hibernating woodchucks.  Is there any truth to this?

Great article - laughed…really happy that I never squeaked at one of the weasels that ended up in our traps on a small mammal trapping project. Did always think that they looked at us with the cold gaze of a predator, deciding if we were worth taking on as prey…..

I noticed this whole phenomenon from a Sufi point of view, “not one leaf falls off without God’s order” and having lost my husband recently, was wondering why some dead leaves cling into their branches way passed the time of shedding. I found many insight. Some souls may cling around lower frequencies because of their attachments instead of letting go. These clinging leaves made me pray harder for his soul. Thank you for the article.

The early (and not so early) settlers eradicated wolves and mountain lions for a reason. Their fears were not unsubstantiated. All current reports point toward black bears throughout the U.S. and Canada greatly increasing in number and seemingly losing their fear of people. It is probable that the incidence of attacks and predation by bears is going to increase. Attacks by coy-dogs? Who knows.? The point is that the re-wilding of our woods and forests with the return of wolves, cougars, more bear and coy-wolves is great as a concept and nice to think about, especially for urban dwellers. But for those of us who live in or near the wild it is not a comforting thought.

I just had an interesting encounter with a weasel. A friend brought in your article from the Valley News and I thought you might like to hear it. I was driving to work one morning, I have to slow down to go through a small town. Suddenly a small white head popped up by my driver’s side wipers.  he popped in and out a few times, each time sniffing the breeze with it ruffling his coat. As I increased my speed, he ducked back down. I opened my hood later in the day and I could see him running back and forth under the wipers. I left the hood open most of the day, but when I left work I did see him pop out again on the drive home. I have not seen him since, but my dogs have been very interested in my car. I did find a fluff of hair in my glove compartment and some manure on the floor. I was kind of glad he made it home. I do have a not very good picture of him under the hood of my car.

One of the theories I’ve heard on why weasels (and other wild predators) kill more than they can take is that during the act of killing, their brains are hardwired to respond to motion. A bird flaps and tries to get away and the weasel responds. As long as there’s a stimulus, there’s a response. If true, this could mean that building partitions into a henhouse where the birds could get out of the line of sight could help limit the mass carnage. Of course you don’t want to lose any birds and the ideal solution is to keep the coop weasel-proof, but simple partitions might be a good idea as a fallback plan.

Hi Gloria, thanks for your note. I didn’t get into this topic because it required more space than word limits permitted, but here’s a quick explanation. Weasels not only risk starvation on an ongoing basis, they also have tiny stomachs - they can only consume a little at a time. So their instinct is to kill what they can now, and cache the extra food (For example, a nest of young mice). If you think about it, this kill now, eat later approach isn’t so different from a person stocking up at the grocery store.

The trouble comes when weasels encounter the unnatural situation of a poultry yard - a greater concentration of prey than they would ever normally encounter and that prey doesn’t even run away. Their predatory instinct is triggered, and continues to be triggered. Worse, there’s not much opportunity to cache any of the extra food.

This article, while interesting, does not even mention the destruction one weasel can do in a henhouse or a duckhouse. One even killed a full grown goose. They kill more than they can take. They are beautiful, but not around my birds.

The short answer to your questions is yes they all run at (roughly) the same time, and no, don’t pull them yet. There’s no harm in leaving them tapped and you might get lucky and have another run when the weather cooperates.

I got some on February 1st and for a few days after (earliest ever), then it shut down for a couple of weeks, came back strong, but I think we are done now. Hell, it’s tee shirt weather. In a generation we will be collecting palm oil.

Do all Red Maples produce sap at the same time?  We have some producing sap and others are not.  Should we pull the taps from the ones that are not producing or do we give them more time?

I was able to identify a young southern sugar maple, or Florida maple in my yard today (early March) because it still has papery bleached leaves firmly clinging on. I don’t remember maples in my yard ever doing this. Right now all the other maples are bare. My hunch is that this particular maple is growing near a beautiful beech and is jealous!

Thank you for the great article and comments.

The sap should all taste watery and nearly flavorless. Maple sap tends to average around 2 percent sugar, so it’s 98 percent water. The depth of the hole should not affect flavor.

We have a six foot stockade fence around our back yard. In the fall around dinner time, my husband was out cooking on the grill, I was pulling weeds out of the garden, as I stood up I saw a huge plume of a skunk tail about 2 feet from where he was cooking. I screamed “Skunk”. He very slowly backed away, the skunk never sprayed. Now that winter is here, we have been smelling skunk scent almost every morning from our basement bulkhead -  frequently the smell resonates into our kitchen upstairs. We do not see any large holes around the bulked. We do have a shed, near the fence, but do not smell anything in that area. Looking for advice. Thanks

Thanks for this article, which explains one of the subtle pleasures of a winter woodland trail.

Great to get your report. The gap between your 1st report and this one had me concerned. Now I see that you have been busy. I look forward to your reports and your style of writing about the sugarbush. Keep it going! Keith

Hi, this is our first time tapping , we couldn’t tell if a couple of the trees we tapped were sugar or what, but the raw sap from a couple trees have a barky taste while the rest have really no taste. Did we drill the tap holes too deep or do different tree sap taste different? I hope I’m making sense.

Beautiful. And what a year. So lucky you are to live where what you did can be done, and to have land. Such good fortune amidst the sadness

With love, appreciation, & respect,

rr aka two

For information on home burials in New Hampshire, go to http://www.nhfuneral.org/Home-Burial.html. Thanks for the lovely story.

I have a butternut tree on my rental property in East Barre area. It produced a ton of nuts this past fall and I’ve collected them in an overflowing milk crate. I’m thinking of trying to start a few but not sure what to do with the rest ... If anyone wants some contact me asap.