Hunt for Meaning in Life

This post is dedicated to my friend who died last Friday.  She was a co-worker, team leader, nature lover, kindred spirit, and a good friend.

When I heard the news of her passing, I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe.  I had to take a walk.  So I headed out with my list for this week's assignment, a scavenger hunt.  As I walked the trails, I could feel my friend with me.  She had walked these same trails, pointing out interesting things like an excited child.  That's the way she was. She was an enthusiastic nature geek.

Finding something gross wasn't hard.  There was the pile of deer heads, remnants of the CWD (chronic wasting disease) project that my husband was engaged in last winter.  They had decomposed some but were still stinking and attracting all sorts of insect life.

An on the skulls, I found something small.  A funny looking beetle, probably eating this dead stuff.  Not only small but gross!  But as I would find out, it was also fast.  As soon as I had it focused and ready to take the picture, it moved.  And quickly it disappeared inside the eye socket.

The beetle is about in the center of this photo, but out of focus.  I wish I could get better at close up photography.  My friend would have patiently waited for the animal to reappear, but I had to get moving.  I needed the fresh air and exercise to soothe my soul.

On to something important. Of course, that was all around me.  As I looked at the woods, I was reminded of how often my friend presented workshops on forests.  They are an important ecosystem in this part of the country.

The forest as an ecosystem is important, but when you get close, individual trees, like the one in the foreground, seem even more important.  Those holes can provide shelter for a variety of animals.  But the tree must also die soon.  So here I was thinking of death again.  I needed to change my mindset, so I continued on.

Finding something colorful in this gray, lifeless landscape seemed an impossible task.  But then I looked down and saw green.  The color of life and rebirth of spring.

I liked how the green was emerging out of the dead, last year's growth.  This thought gave me hope.  I felt the shadow of sadness starting to lift.

Only one more thing to find.  Something camouflaged.  I knew this would be hard by the very definition of camouflage.  Hidden from view.  I guess that is what this trek had been about all along.  How to find sense out of a loss.  How to find peace from death.  How to find meaning in life.  These things are all hidden from us.  We don't know why some die and others live on.  The only certainty is that we will all join the legions who have gone before us.  It is the cycle of life.

And then I saw it.  A barred owl on a tree branch looking exactly like a dead limb.  But as I lifted the camera, the bird flew.  I took a picture anyway.

Who's to say it is not there.  Maybe that dead limb is an owl, maybe it is not.  I choose to believe it is there, just as I choose to believe my friend had been with me on this walk in the woods, and all the other nature walks I will take.

Happy trails, my friend.

Is Bird Feeding Ethical?

This week saw the beginning of spring and the beginning of our class, Snapshot of 21st Century Nature Study.  Perfect!

One of the first assignments is to capture ethics or safety in nature in a photograph.  What would I choose?  There are many options, but I chose to think about ethical behaviors in nature.  Often people are so fascinated with animals that they get too close.  Or they interfere with nature, thinking that they are "helping" nature.

I came across the later situation on my January trip to Puerto Vallarta.

This little sea turtle had just hatched and some well meaning humans scooped them up to take them to the sea, thus interfering with an ancient ritual--the hatchlings struggle to reach the sea.  I understand that these are endangered species; there were signs all around that declared this a turtle sanctuary.  But those signs also cautioned against handling the animals.  We were to call authorities.  Frankly, I wanted to watch the struggle to the sea, and these people had tainted that experience for me.

But, closer to home, another ethical dilemma involves human intervention.  What about my bird feeders?  Am I interfering with nature?  Is it OK in one instance and not in another?  I'm not sure.

When we put out feed for birds, we alter their behavior.  In most instances, we are not "helping".  Those birds would find food elsewhere. Just as the hatchlings would make it to the sea.

In concentrating birds at feeders, are we exposing them to diseases and predators (I have seen the Cooper's Hawk pick off a few)?  So is ethical to feed birds?

It could be argued that the winter we just went through was particularly difficult and feeders did save some individuals.  Just as taking the hatchlings to the sea may save a few individuals. But isn't this interfering with nature's population dynamics and survival of the fittest?

So, while I struggle with this dilemma, I still feed the birds and refuse to handle the sea turtles. I want to see the turtles, just as I feed birds so that I can see them better.  While I know I am not "helping" birds much, I hope I am not hurting much either.

One of Nature's Mysteries: Solved!

Mystery: 

My last post on this blog mentioned a mystery of nature that I had observed under my bird feeders.  And several other bloggers had mentioned seeing the same thing.  We found "pellets" of sunflower seed hulls under the feeder in the morning.  Finally, after more observation, the mystery is solved:

Mystery Solved:

A week or so ago, my husband and I saw an opossum under our feeder. It was clearly chewing sunflower seeds.  It would take a mouthful and chew and chew, then open its mouth and spit.  This action reminded me of baseball players that chew sunflower seeds, move them around in the mouth to get the meat out, and spit out the hulls.


We watched as the possum slowly moved on...looking for food elsewhere I imagine, after a hard winter.

So the pellets we saw were not regurgitated because they never left the mouth to enter the digestive system.  And they are held together by the saliva of the animal. 

I am still amazed that this behavior is not documented in any reference book.  It just shows that we don't know everything about even the commonest animals.

I was glad that, through continued observation, we could solve this mystery.

Mysterious Pellets

Lots of things in nature are mysteries waiting to be solved.  And each time I encounter something mysterious, it leaves me in awe of nature and aware of how much I do not yet know.

So this winter, for the first time, I saw something mysterious underneath my birdfeeders..a mystery that I hope the readers of this blog will help me to solve.

Under the feeders are small, about one inch long, pellets composed almost entirely of the hulls of sunflower seeds (the food in the feeders).

It seems likely that something that visits the feeder left these behind. But what?  We have lots of visitors, but I thought only raptors made pellets.  Could other birds?  Could mammals?

I had read that crows, blackbirds and pigeons could also produce pellets.  We do have flocks of blackbirds, but they do not come every day.  These pellets are deposited with great regularity.  At first I thought it might be the morning doves that we see, but they are usually not under this feeder--the closest one to the house.

So I googled "regurgitated sunflower seed pellets" to see if I could find the answer there.  There were a couple of blogs that mentioned strange pellets.

One blogger ended up trapping a chipmunk and saw the pellets in the cage with the chipmunk. But we don't have any chipmunks in our woods.  At least that solves the mystery of "could mammals produce pellets of regurgitated food".

Another blog called the pellets "possum pellets" and has observed young possums at the feeders.  I certainly have plenty of possum in my woods, and they are great scavengers.  So this may be the "culprit".

The gaiagarden.blogspot.com post had a better picture that looks identical to the situation at my feeder:

So, while possums are a good bet in my situation, I was still not totally convinced. After consulting my mammal books (Wild Mammals of Missouri  by Schwartz and Schwartz and Mammals of Illinois by Hoffmeister), I found neither mentioned sunflower seeds in the diet of opossum or this ability to form pellets.  Perhaps it is a big omission.  It is noted that possums are scavengers and eat corn, a less preferred food, in winter when other foods are not available.  It would seem to me that sunflower seeds would also fall into this category. 

What do you think?  Is it an opossum leaving the pellets...or something else??

Change in a Day: Winter Woods

 thought about this project after seeing a video of a year in the forest.  The small changes with many images documenting those changes made an impression.  So I set out to do the same.

I set my camera in the window facing east to capture the sunrise.  I was going to get the sunrise every day for a year.  But then I looked out about 30 minutes later and noticed the change.  I snapped another picture.  I did this throughout the day from the same spot noticing changes in light, shadow, etc.

At the end of the day, I dumped the pictures into a power point.

But I also wanted to add music, so I thought of Photo Story.  I hadn't used the program in a year or so, but I knew it was easy to add pictures and music, so I gave it a try.  I was so pleased with the result that I posted it on my other blog: nature-bits-and-bytes on Thurs, Jan 16, 2014 entitled A Day in the Woods.  See what you think.

Stability and Change in Ecosystems

This week's assignment--find things that are going to change in nature--should be easy because everything will change.  The trick is to predict the change in the time periods given--one day, one season, one year and 20 years for a certain habitat or ecosystem.

I chose my own backyard which is the edge of an 80 acre wood.  Certainly there would be many changes.  Upon opening the door, I found the first thing in the wet leaves of our yard---and this would change in one day I was sure.  The half eaten mouse left by my cat would probably be eaten by some scavenger when darkness returns tonight.

If not, certainly the decomposers would start changing this carcass.  The temperatures are quite warm today, around 60 degrees, so some decomposition will take place.

Next, to find something that would change in one season.  Today would be considered fall, so I was looking for something that would change by winter.  Of course, all of the trees would lose their leaves, but I was looking for something different.  Again, I found it a few steps from my door.  The beauty berry that I had planted.  This is a native species that produces fabulous berries.

But these berries will not be ripe until winter.  They will turn black and be a great winter food source for the birds in our yard.  The leaves will also change color and fall by winter.

For something that will change in one year, I took a picture of the small seedling that had grown up this year in the decaying stump in our yard.

Next year, with good rain and growing conditions, this small oak will put on a lot of growth, but it will take many years to grow to be the size of the mighty oak it replaced.  The oak whose stump is partially visible was almost 180 years old.  I doubt that I will be around to see the seedling become a majestic oak, but future generations will!

For something that will change in 20 years I chose another oak.  This one is mature and only growing slowly, if at all, each year.  This tree will change in 20 years to become a stump because we will harvest it according to our forest management plan.

What do you think would happen to it if we didn't harvest it?  What would it be like in 20 years?

If you ask why harvest the trees, I say why not?  Taking out this giant will let the sun reach the forest floor where there are many acorns waiting to germinate and become the next big tree.  This is one way the forest can renew itself.  An actively growing tree will take in more carbon dioxide than the older, slower growing tree.  In that way, the new forest will help more with the growing crisis of global climate change, and we use the old tree for forest products that people need.  I see it as a win win situation.

Certainly there will be many changes in the future for our little woods.  I can't wait to watch and see what happens.

Interactions in Ecosystems

The assignment, photograph interactions in ecosystems, was full of possibilities.  Everywhere you look there are interactions.  And, like Aldo Leopold, John Muir and other naturalists, I see the world of connectedness.  So this assignment would be easy.  But....

I wanted to find something no one else would think of.  Not that I'm competitive, but I am!  So I walked the trail through my woods one more time with interactions in mind.  Everything is connected, but I wanted to find the most unusual thing to connect with other organisms in the ecosystem.  After one loop around the "Blue Bottle Trail", I saw flowers with hovering insects, mushrooms on dead logs, turtles dropping into the stream, and woodpeckers chiseling at the bark of a tree.  It would be possible to photograph some of these things, but nothing seemed unusual to me.  So, on one more trip along the trail, I looked ahead and the sun shone just right through the trees.  I had it!  My connection......

This old oak had died and then fallen in the woods.  The interaction was unmistakable as you look at the sunshine in the photo.  While growing, this tree had shaded everything under it, but now that it was dead, light would hit the forest floor allowing other plants and tree seedlings to grow and thrive.  In fact, I found plants and seedlings all around where the tree had fallen.  They were soaking up the sun.

In exploring the dead tree, I realized there had been thousands and thousands of interactions while the tree was standing dead and now while it was on the ground.  There would have been the woodpeckers finding insects beneath the bark, birds building nests in the trees, raccoons finding shelter, and much more while it was standing dead.  Then, on the ground, I saw evidence of decomposers-- millipedes, wood roaches, mushrooms and mosses.  Then there were the thousands of unseen species as well.

But, the sunlight hitting the ground, now that the tree was dead, was an important interaction in the continuation of the forest.  Light is the driving force of this ecosystem, and this giant, now on the ground, was impacting the other plants by allowing this driving force to reach the other organisms.