Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

The Cooper’s Hawks are long gone from Dunn Woods, I’ve neither seen nor heard them for over a week. The fledglings, at least 3 of them, maybe more, were there, loud and hungry, during the last week of July, but have been gone since the first of August. They would fly back and forth through the trees yelling for food and waiting for the a parents to show up with the latest catch. The juveniles were easy to spot, not only did they call as they flew, but the distinctive white band of feathers at the end of the tail was easy to see as they flew and when sitting on a branch. I think the parents could not keep up at the end, there was quite a ruckus when they showed up with food, and I think they either led the kids out into the wider world, or just stopped showing up with food, but as they all disappeared at once, I get the feeling they could have left together.

A couple of weeks ago I saw one of the parents fly in to the squalling crew and land on a high branch with something in its claws. As the fledglings flew closer, the parent released the prey, but none of the kids flew to catch it as it dropped. I assumed this was their way of teaching the kids how to hunt on the fly, which is what they do best.

During that last week they were especially noisy, and I could hear 3, maybe 4 fledglings calling at once, and my guess is that the parent were coming less frequently, till eventually all the kids got the message and headed out on their own, or followed their parents out of the Dunn’s Woods nursery into the wider world spurred by hunger.

Earlier this spring I was walking on the east side of Dunns’s Woods, when I heard some rustling in the woods. I looked around for a squirrel, or maybe a bird in the leaves, but I saw nothing. I then heard the rustling again, and saw the leaves moving, making line of popped up leaves as the creature beneath was moving.

I’d seen a mouse on the other side of the woods by Bryan Hall last year, it was eating a discarded sandwich, but was running under the vines instead of leaves. I kept watching and in a moment, two rodents appeared out of the rather large pile of leaves a few feet from the brick path. I was taken aback as they could not be mice, they were not quite the right shape and their noses were not pointed, but rather squared off like a mole. But they were not moles, I’ve seen them. These animals were scampering after each other, perhaps mating.

I tried to remember their look and first googled mouse and vole, but found the shrew family. I looked at the DNR website and found a listing of mammals in Indiana, and the Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda, the largest and most common of North American shrews was surely what I saw. Not only were the pictures I found a match, but even more convincing was that their habitat and behavior were exactly right. I can now see their leaf tunnels and even a larger “house” that I previously assumed was a pile accidentally left by the grounds crew. The shrews were larger than a mouse, and gray all over, with a nose that was squared off at the end. I did not see that they had four toes rather than the five of rodents, but that must have been the case.

I found out that the shrew is not a rodent, but actually a part of the soricidae family, which contains both mole and shrews. This was most evident in the nose, and their body shape and color a much different from a mouse. Here is some interesting stuff from the Smithsonian website:

“Northern Short-tailed Shrews have poisonous saliva. This enables them to kill mice and larger prey and paralyze invertebrates such as snails and store them alive for later eating. The shrews have very limited vision, and rely on a kind of echolocation, a series of ultrasonic “clicks,” to make their way around the tunnels and burrows they dig. They nest underground, lining their nests with vegetation and sometimes with fur. They do not hibernate. Their day is organized around highly active periods lasting about 4.5 minutes, followed by rest periods that last, on average, 24 minutes.”

They live short active lives, rarely getting to 2 years old, and they eat massive amounts of food, up to half their body weights in some species. I’ll try to keep track of them, but if they sleep as much as mentioned above, I may not find them.

Last night, Eileen and I attended the Changing Gears presentation at the MCPL, and the Green Drink sendoff party at Nick’s. Melissa and Andy are on a great adventure with this ride, I wish the very best for them.

As I was riding home past Ballantine Hall, and I saw the first firefly/lightening bug of the season, so the official first sighting of 2008 is May 29.

I was on Lake Monroe on Sunday, far back in the islands area north of Pine Grove in Jojo’s canoe. As we quietly moved towards flooded woods, I realized he was heading right towards a beaver lodge.

Coming back from our bike ride on Bottom Rd on Saturday last, Jojo and I spotted a snow goose grazing with some Canada geese in the field across from the water treatment plant. I checked with Dawn Hewitt at the HT, and she reported that Bloomington birders Jim Mitchell, Dave Crouch, and James Dodd saw the same individual at Griffey Lake. I understand that they are pretty rare in this part of the world at this time of year, normally snow geese are in Canada by now.

The squirrels in Dunn’s Woods are a happy bunch, but they must be very wary of the Cooper’s hawks in spring and early summer. But with so many people around, there is always something to eat, and all the squirrels look healthy.

I’ve counted and mapped all the nests in the woods, and at the beginning of this spring, there were over 30 nests visible. But I don’t think they are all inhabited, there seem to be no more than a dozen squirrels active in the woods. This guy is relaxing near Bryan Hall where someone threw down some cracked corn.

I was walking around last week when I thought to stop by last year’s hawk next in the woods, I thought I heard a hawklike squawk, then saw one fly into an upper branch about a hundred feet from the nest. This week I saw a pair, I am pretty sure the bigger one is the female, and she flew onto a branch with the male, and proceeded to eat what looked like a small mammal, while he kept watch.

Then today I saw what appears a new nest a few hundred yards from the bigger original, and I’ve seen the mom sitting on the nest, and the dad swooping down from the incredibly high beech tree and fly through the woods. If I stand on one of the pathways for a while, I am able to spot one of them, often after hearing them call. In a few weeks, the babies will be calling for food all day long, that is how I spotted them last year, and I will be keeping a close eye on their growth.

Two weekends ago, Jojo and I saw a courting display by hawks on the ridge overlooking Lake Lemon, and the week before I saw the same at Dubois Ridge Rd.

After lunch most days, I take a walk around the woods behind Bryan Hall, and I’ve become friends with some of the squirrels that live there. When I called this one, he scampered up a tree as soon as I gave him a piece of caramel popcorn), then sat on the shelf mushroom room while chowing down on his treat.

Last spring I noticed the family of Cooper’s Hawks in the woods, and even though they have long since moved out, their next became visible after the leaves fell. This nest is really different than the many squirrel nests in the forest, it is made entirely of sticks and is about twice the size of the squirrels’ leafy bowers. The snow scenes are from the Dec 15th snow in the woods.

Eileen and I had breakfast at Roots, it was packed and we had to sit at the juice bar to eat. Russel bent our ears for a while, but he had his chef’s coat on, and had to get to the kitchen.

We went to Griffey and walked up and back the north fork of the creek, avoiding the climb up the ridge, as we weren’t really sure where we were going, but we walked about 2 miles or so. I put an album of photos on here.

There was a great crop of mushrooms in the yard at the corner of Ballantine and Hunter, and our maple tree finally turned colors in the last week of October. Speaking of fall, here is a recent gallery of pictures featuring the leaves in Salt Creek Valley, Oct 29, 2007.