Have you had your furnace checked? Added caulking around your doors? Worried about an appetite that won't wait for supper? Then you're right in tune with the natural world. All around us, the creatures are experiencing the equivalent of those same urges.
A skunk in the early morning garden was so fat, it was like a black-and-white ball. The squirrels are high in the hickory trees, gnawing through the green unripe shells to expose the meat beneath before they become inaccessible. The outside cats have nearly doubled their intake of canned food, and no longer skip meals when they are having fun.
Though I haven't gone looking for them, I'm sure the mammals have begun their winter-nest search. It's hard to watch mammals; they are mostly nocturnal, and they no longer trust any human. Little creatures, insects and spiders especially, are easier. The sycamore tussock moth larvae have dropped out of the trees and are making fuzzy cocoons out of their discarded hairs. They will lie under the considerable layer of leaves of those trees until spring.
And last night, I was awakened at midnight by the house-cat, doing a mouse-hunt in my bedroom. Never mind that there hasn't been a mouse in this house since her arrival more than 10 years ago: she'd seen something, and we both hunted until I found it. But there was no mouse. She was a wolf-spider nearly as large, bearing an egg-case as large as her own body.
I'm not very squeamish about animals, but I know that all spiders are to some degree poisonous, and this one was large enough to produce a painful bite. Luckily, I had a friend, years ago, who refused to kill anything unless it was a case of "it or me". Ruth knew how to pick up a spider without either of them getting hurt. So, like Ruth, I picked up a hand-towel and held it so the trailing edge just touched the spider.
The poor creature immediately seized the cloth and hid herself in its folds. Thus made transportable, it was easy enough to hang it on the bush nearest the door -- and outside. This morning, the towel was empty, the spider well-gone. When I looked up the spider, I found that she is, indeed, harmless to humans, and though called "rabid-wolf spider," the name reflects her appearance, not her disposition. Her true name is Lycosa rabida, but you may just think of her as a mother.
The beautiful little tree frogs are still singing in the trees along the marsh, but some have turned up around the potted plants near the house, too. It is fun, during the winter, to lift a clay pot out of its plastic container and find a few hibernating frogs clinging to the damp pot.
In central Oklahoma, it is seldom cold enough for long enough for mammals to hibernate. I can wish that squirrels did! The encyclopedia lists "nuts, seeds, acorns, flower bulbs, baby birds and eggs, adult birds, insects, food scraps, rabbits, mice, each other, mushrooms, seedlings, berries and bark" as their diet. In other words, they are arboreal rats. The difference we notice is that they are diurnal; awake and active in the daytime.
Any respectable rat would be dozing in a brush pile or under the house while I am out filling the bird feeders on a chilly day. Not the squirrel! He's the first visitor to the feeders in the morning and barely gets out of the way at dusk before the raccoons come on-shift. Their favorite sport is chasing. They chase each other, arriving cardinals and goldfinches, but what they seem to enjoy most is being chased. Any attempt on my part to relieve the feeders long enough to feed a bird results in the arrival of the entire squirrel football squad to join the game.
I did learn one encouraging fact about squirrels: they rarely carry rabies. So if I ever get my hands on one, I won't have to have shots. As if! I'd as soon pick up a raccoon, but I can't catch them, either. So, for the coming season, I'll try to leave less seed in the feeders at any one time. Maybe not setting so easy a table for them will encourage more gathering of acorns. And, after Halloween, all the leftover pumpkins will go into a brush pile so they can eat in peace.
Wild creatures have less and less natural habitat now that people take up almost all the livable land. Somehow, we must learn to live and let live with them if we don't want to live in an impoverished world full of only rats, raccoons and us. And when it came to that, I suspect that the next step would be only rats and raccoons.
Outdoors
October 1, 2009
Autumn rush
- Outdoors
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- Safety is vital when working with chain saws STILLWATER -- As Oklahomans clean up after the recent ice storm that left tree limbs shattered or lying around, care should be taken to ensure protection against unintentionally risking an arm or leg being added to the toll.
- Dolese Youth Park Pond teeming with trout for young anglers Oklahoma City resident Gaston Gallant goes fishing nearly every day of the two-month trout season at Dolese Youth Park Pond, a northwest Oklahoma City fishing destination currently teeming with nearly 2,600 rainbow trout.
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De-icing salt can harm landscape plants
Each winter, millions of tons of deicing salt are applied to state and municipal roads to keep the roads safe for vehicles to travel. Salt is spread near houses to avoid pedestrian injuries. This is necessary for safety, but did you know excessive salt can cause widespread damage to trees ? possibly leading to permanent decline and even death?
According to the Tree Care Industry Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to the tree care industry, even severe salt damage might not be visible on a tree until the end of summer, leaving homeowners wondering what might have caused the problem. - Making it through That was a cold spell of what we used to call "Biblical proportions." It was made perhaps more interesting locally by the old heat-pump in the house, which died on New Year's Eve. For a week, the household was maintained by an old Franklin stove in the living room, and by the old owner, who had to carry in firewood so it could be fed every hour or so.
- University of Oklahoma team wins college fishing event ZAPATA, Texas -- The University of Oklahoma team of Mark Johnson and Chip Porche won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Texas Division event on Falcon Lake Saturday with six bass weighing 34 pounds, 8 ounces.
- Great Western Feedout entry deadline Friday It is time to start entering for the Great Western Feedout of 2010. For those of you not familiar with it, the Great Western Feedout is a producer information feedback program that allows cattle producers the opportunity to evaluate the genetic merit of the calves they produce for feedlot performance and carcass value following weaning and a winter stocker program.
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Part-time lakes are of full-time importance
For the unlearned, old age is winter, for the learned, it is the season of harvest.
--Hasidic saying
Today's topic is the most important wetlands you've never heard of: Playa lakes and oxbow lakes. Playa lakes are usually saucer shaped natural low places with clay bottoms located in dry landscapes. - Christmas Bird Count yields unexpected rewards What am I doing here? It is incredibly cold morning and I am crouched here in the dark in the willows on the banks of the South Canadian River with a few stalwarts indulging in an activity called "owling.
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Increasing deer population leads to ornamental and garden plant damage
STILLWATER -- With more than a half million white-tailed deer in Oklahoma, many landowners experience nature in its purest sense as the deer can be viewed at close range.
However, this has become a problem over the years as the deer population has increased, forcing thousands of these animals into peripheral suburban areas, leaving homeowners to deal with damage to ornamental and garden plants. -
Wildlife Department to host town hall meeting
Sportsmen will have an opportunity to voice their thoughts on wildlife, hunting and fishing related issues at a town hall meeting hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
The meeting, one of a series, is set for 7 p. - More Outdoors Headlines
