Site Discussions

Marsupials are not really native to North America. They originated in South America and then moved north when the oceans shrank and the Central America pathway was created. Before the continents divided the migrated to Australia where they basically mirror the mammal population here. An interesting question is why there are not more species in the Americas.

Sunrise OR sunset on these VERY cold days is nothing short of spectacular! Perfectly still and bitterly cold moonlit nights spent stargazing across the snow covered fields with the mountains in the background is euphoric! Your article hits the spot! THANK YOU!

Great photo. Even greater text. Bravo.

I am very pleased to finally see someone writing about the sky and all its wonders. I have been hooked on sunsets since I was a kid (which was a long time ago). I am also a cloud watcher and a star gazer. There is nothing more humbling than to go out at night far from the city lights and gaze at the sky…we are just one of many billions.

This is also the time of unbelievable beauty in moonlight on snow. Almost impossible to capture by photograph or painting, it’s an ephemeral phenomenon that can only be experienced in deep winter.

Recommend viewing a Public Television Nature program titled, “Meet the Coywolf.”

This person seems to fall into the category of the misinformed as concerns coyotes. She brings up the image of coyotes attacking children which seems to be an extension of our forebears mistrust and hatred of wolves. This ancient mistrust and lack of knowledge resulted in our eradication of a necessary prey species, the wolf. Thank goodness that Nature has seen fit to fill the void created by man. Coyotes fill a void in removing rodents and sick and diseased animals.

For the last six or seven years I’ve been hearing wolves howling not far from my house. If anyone has ever heard coyotes and wolves howl together there is no mistaking the sound. I have a recording taken from East Ryegate in the Northeast Kingdom region of VT with confirmed wolf howls with as many as 7 individuals. I have hiked, backpacked and camped in the wilds for years sometimes for half a year. I’ve seen pups emerging from dens, wildlife people taking measurements while denying wolves are repopulating here. The same goes for mountain lions. I have tracked and recorded audio of cougars here in the northeast. The populations of both are small (wolves may have 4 packs of less than 8 Individuals each and mountain lions are probably fewer maybe 7-10 in 300 square miles) . Its a start and gives hope that these animals have a future.

Interesting indeed. I am aware of convergent evolution, but because downies and hairies look SO similar, I assumed they were extremely close relatives…

None of us here are in a position to give an opinion on your purchase, Paul, but I will say that, in general, bigger is not always better. I know some successful logging companies who’ve gone big and outmuscled the competition, but I know more loggers who’ve tried to keep up in the equipment arms race, mounted a huge pile of debt, and crumbled. The key, like in anything, is to find a niche and run a good business. You can do that with a horse or a feller buncher.

Otherwise, my only advice to you would be to buy the newest, best equipment you can afford. 2008 sounds a lot better than 1978. When the conditions are right you want to be out cutting wood, not messing around in the garage.

I just saw, about 3 pm,1/13/2014, an opossum eating sunflower seeds under our bird feeders. Temperature is about 40 F. I have a picture. This appears to be very near its northern limit?

Hello,

I have recently started my own logging company (very small) and I have been both criticized and commended for the equipment I purchased to do the work.

I have purchased a 2008 Valtra N101 tractor with a Nokka 4472 log loader and trailer. The two pieces collectively cost me approximately $95,000.00 to purchase and I guess that is where the criticism from others starts.

I have a great operator and a great chopper that puts down 5 - 6 cord of wood a day for me.

Can you give me your opinion of my purchase and whether you feel this could be a viable set up for my new operation?

Any other advice is very welcome!!

Thank you,
Paul

I hold that oaks and beeches, being southern trees, have not fully evolved as they progress northward, and that the abscissa ring that attaches the leaf petiole to the twig never quite finishes its autumn decay, thus keeping the leaf attached.  Notice that it is relatively easy to pull the winter leaf off these trees.  They are held in place by just a small element of the abscissa.

Just want to get an inside help on when to tap trees here in Worcester, MA. I read the article above and it was a great help.

I see lots of fox tracks in the snow. My son has a wildlife camera which we installed by the compost pile. We saw fox every night. We also have coyote on our 50 acres, they seem to coexist.

I’ve been blaming coyotes for a lack of both red and gray fox.  Granted we’re in a suburban area, but where I am directly has about thirty acres of fields that are only cut for hay, not tilled,and marsh that is shrubby with some trees. We also have a wooded nature preserve next to the fields.  A trailcam in an old barway shows coyotes prolifically, turkeys and a few deer - no fox.  It’s possible that mange killed them off, but it seems coyote keeps them from returning.

I have seen many more foxes this fall and winter than other years. This seems to run in cycles with the abundance of rabbits. The foxes seem healthy, no mange and very active.

I love both the coyote and fox. The coyotes for their midnight yapping, barking and noise making and the fox, because they are a beautiful sight to see, stunning puffed up red coats trotting across our fields or leaving their tiny “dog” tracks in the snow.

Now this is a naturalist talking obviously. A hunter would snicker at the coyote remark as many of them believe they are dispensable and responsible for the death of fawns, while I believe they do a good job of culling sick, diseased, and weak deer from the herds. While I don’t have access to a ratio count of coyote to fox it seems like we have equal numbers of both. Of course the resident foxes have always been plentiful thanks to a neighbor who has, at any time, 200-300 chickens, ducks, geese and guinea fowl running loose at his farm. The term “open refrigerator” comes to mind here. 

The habitat here is also prime for red fox.  Hedgerows, small wetlands, fields gone wild until they are cut once in August, and then allowed to grow until winter.

We’ve had a small but steady fox population in our little rural corner (mixed open and wooded habitat) in the 15 years we’ve lived here. Coyotes are known to be around, and intermittently heard at certain times a year, but rarely seen in our immediate area. In the winter, we prowl our perimeter to look for tracks, see who’s around to menace our cats. While we see fox prints regularly—one known to den at the other end of the road seems to make a great circle several times a week—we rarely see larger canine prints. Just last week, though, we noticed a set of those running a route behind our pond. We have only visually observed coyotes as singles, though when we hear them, it’s always a pack running a ridgeline or down by the river.

I think the perrenial headline is: “Everything Depends on Everything Else!” This may be boring from a “news” point of view, but to me as a forester and resource manager, it is endlessly fascinating to learn more about the real world interactions of animals (including the human kind), plants, weather, etc. NW does a great job at promoting this concept with just the right amount of sensationalism, because, in fact, it is a sensational concept all by itself. Speculation is ok, but keen and accurate observation makes an even better story. Thanks for providing the space for the stories.