The end...

 

 I want to apologize now if the layout of this last blog seems weird, blogger doesn't like my browser and warned me this may happen...





Well folks it has been an interesting few months. I have been able to see pretty awesome stuff, from fishers to giant woodpeckers. So on this last official trip to my site I was determined to make one last find, no matter how small. Instead of my usual run I went for a walk stopping to check under logs and flipping rocks and just being a bit destructive in general. When I came to brook which flowed from a pool. The water was clear and I wanted to see if I could catch a glimpse of anything interesting. Sure enough there wasn't a damn thing. So I walked along the edge and eventually so movement. And there he was. Small little amphibian just chill'n with his head ever so slightly above the water. Now I am not positive but I am fairly sure that he is male wood frog. Now unlike some of the other critters that make vernal pools their home that are listed as threatened, e.g. Marbled Salamander or the Eastern Spadefoot Toad, the wood frog is doing quite well for itself.  Their habitat ranges from Alaska across Canada and covers most the eastern sea board. With the harsh winters of the north these guys have made some pretty amazing adaptations. They are able to withstand having up to 65% of the water in their bodies frozen due their ability to use urea and glucose to limit the amount of ice that forms in their blood.

After the frog I had good little nature buzz going so I decided try and find at least some sign of the pileated woodpecker. I started walking off the trail a little bit and BAM! The tell tale sign of the crow sized woodpecker was staring me right in the face like a big ass hole in a tree that was right in front of me. Their destructive powers are quite amazing and the holes that make are unique and pretty awe inspiring.
But regardless it has actually been a lot of fun to go out each week and instead of just running through the woods stop and try to look for things and in general just pay more attention to my surroundings. I am actually looking forward to continuing looking and researching the things I find out either in the woods, beach, or wherever I may be.

Here is Jack. Jack has a tape worm I meant to snag a picture of it, instead you get Jack proving the old adage that one mans trash is another mans treasure.

 



Pecker. Wood Pecker

Sunday morning I decided to go for a quick run before work. I had no real intention of finding anything or even observing anything, but luckily the bird gods were shining down on me and decided to basically scare and confuse the hell out me. I was minding my own business happily bounding down the trail when out of no where I see a flash of bright red. I stop and there about 30 feet from me is a giant woodpecker looking son of a bitch. I am confused, interested, and slightly scared because I had no idea that woodpeckers could get that big. When I say big, I mean as big or even bigger then a crow big. So needless to say seeing a giant, hopefully mutant woodpecker got me a little curious. So after conferring with National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region, I was able to identify my quarry as the Pileated Woodpecker, not a mutant...bummer.   

 

Now the Dryocopus pileatus (Pileated Woodpecker) is the largest of the North American woodpeckers, with a body length of 16-19 inches (that's 40-49cm) and a wingspan of 26-30inches (66-75cm). Their range covers most of the eastern US and some of the Pacific Northwest as well as most of Canada. They prefer woodlands with big hard wood trees but adapt easily to whatever forests are around them. Their diet consist of insects and they will go pretty extreme measures to get the tasty anthropoid treats. Their holes are often used for shelter by song birds, owls, and mammals (raccoons often use them). The holes can be so big that smaller trees crumble to the ground like a tree that was gauged out by a pileated woodpecker. Their drumming can heard from far off and they have a jungle bird like call... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efOME6xMEx0

When I go out again later this week I am going to try and find some of their damage and maybe get glimpse of one again myself.

A bad joke...

Vernal pool, I remember when this was just an snow and ice filled hole in the ground...

So I brought my phone with me today just in case I saw something good. I didn't see a damned thing, except a bunch of deer ticks...huzzah!!

I was going to tell y'all about some of the salamanders that I am sort of hoping to see (not going to lie amphibians don't impress me all that much), like how in times of food shortage they go all Donner Party on each other and resort to cannibalism, ok I admit that is pretty cool. But instead I decided that I would like to dig into the amazing world of everybody's favorite arachnid, Ixodes scpularis, or more commonly known as the deer tick. Now just to throw it out there I hate these little buggers and there creepy little heads...  

 If that doesn't get you, how about...
Needless to say they fairly ugly little blood suckers, but what makes deer ticks extra worrisome is that they carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia, which is found in ticks that belong to genus Ixodes or hard ticks. While Lyme disease is rarely fatal, it can cause a myriad of health problems that can affect joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Though it can be misdiagnosed because of its similarities with several other diseases, it is usually easy to treat. Back to creepy disease spreading parasites. Deer ticks generally live for about two years. They have only purpose in life and that is to drink blood (they can swell twice their original size) and to make little baby ticks (a single female can lay over a thousand eggs). In fact each phase of their lives; larvae to nymph, nymph to adult, and adult to egg laying, is actually triggered by drinking blood. Now as the name implies they most commonly found on deer, but will also suck on other mammals, birds, and even reptiles. Needles to say the little bastards have a pretty big menu to choose from but they are also tough little brutes able to survive severe frosts before going to dormant for the winter, and are among the first invertebrates to start making a nuisance of themselves in the spring. They do have some enemies including, birds, other anthropoids, bacteria, and our friend that is always among us, fungus (HA! get it).
Oh heard an owl calling and frogs trying to impress each other, more on that maybe next week.  

Waiting...

This has been a fairly uneventful week. No pictures of poop, though I did find some coyote poop while out on a run as well some coyote tracks in the mud, but I failed to bring my phone so alas I shall be leaving yall wanting in that department. Regardless I did happen to stumble upon some interesting information about my site. While running I randomly chose to run down a path that I typically ignore, happily this path lead me to sign that informed me that part of the trails that I run on are part of the Dow Brook Conservation. One of the interesting aspects of the conservation is that is home to many vernal pools. Vernal pools are typically pools of rain or snow melt that are at there deepest during the spring. They usually dry up during the summer months, making them devoid of fish. This lack fish allows amphibians, frogs and salamanders, and some invertebrates, like fairy shrimp, to have a relatively safe place to lay their eggs. I am not sure yet on which species live in this area so I am going to find out more for next time, though I am led to believe that there are spotted, blue spotted, Jefferson's, and marbled salamanders in the area.With snow and ice finally melting I am looking forward to seeing what I can find in the pools.

frog eggs

Blue spotted Salamander

Fairy shrimp

Don't eat yellow snow...seriously you shouldn't.

That's right I wanted to start this post off with what I consider to be my best find to date...fisher piss. I am sure yall are asking "oh track master how did you find such a wonderful treasure?" Here is my story...
Now right before the snow had begun to seriously vanish I was able to get out early one morning. As I was trucking along in the wonderful 6 degree air, a set of tracks crossed my usual path. Now do to my past mistakes in identifying tracks, I was able to conclude that these bad larry's were in fact my nemesis the fisher.

Even got some tail on this one...

Needless to say I got excited and started following these tracks up and over hills, around in circles, over frozen creeks, and also some not so frozen ones. I was able to follow these tracks for nearly 2 hours to my complete and utter joy. Another really cool find was I found another set of tracks that converged with the original set. Now right near were the two sets intersected was a large pine tree, at the base of this tree the needles at the base had been all churned up and the snow was a trampled mess. Now I couldn't tell if this was two fishers who had a run in over territory or perhaps some spring time lovin going down. So I followed the tracks and they stayed together for a quite a while. Eventually they split and shortly after I found gold or yellow.
Mating season is right now, taking place in March and April. Also, it is possible that there are some kits in the area because February and March is when fishers give birth. So it is certainly possible that these fishers were in the throes of passion. As far as fisher territory goes it actually varies from season to season. In the winter a fishers range can be 5 square miles and 3 square miles in the spring. Males and females territories do overlap so I am thinking and hoping that next winter there will be even more fishers in the area.

Two fishers, one fisher following his/her own tracks, or an eight legged fisher?

Mother load...or just a load

Today was a glorious day to be in the woods! Warm weather, melting snow, mud, the stench of rotting vegetation, and what I can only assume was an owl orgy. But first I wanted to reply to some comments from the few poor buggers that have read this blog. First off was a question regarding whether or not we have deer? Oh yes we have them and a lot of them. In fact from the information that I have found, Massachusetts regards 6-8 deer per square mile as a healthy population, in my yard just the other day there was a herd of 14 (I live in Rowley). Essex county is actually sometimes deals with over population of deer.

Here is some deer poop, and there were three other piles around this one.

 Another question was why do female fishers delay pregnancy? There are several species that do this including; kangaroos, red pandas,seals, otters, and bats (there are about 100 mammal species that do this). Typically they delay pregnancy until their physiological needs are met and they have the best chance of allowing their offspring to survive. BUT interestingly enough why the fisher holds off for a full year is still a mystery. Check Out: http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/animals/archives/1992/mothers-in-waiting.aspx it is pretty interesting stuff, if your into the whole pregnancy thing.
I also need to clarify something, the picture I showed in my last blog I believe it was this one...
Is not a fisher. Fisher tracks have 5 toe prints, this only has 4. Now ruling out a bobcat, that leaves a member of the Canidae(dog-like mammals) family, which only show 4 toes in their print. Now if the medial toes point slightly inward it is apt to be coyote...unless its a wolf. But if they are more neutral or point outward then it is most likely a fox. These were some big prints and unless we've got godzilla foxes living in Rowley then these are coyote tracks. Today through the melting snow I was able to find and identify, thanks to my new knowledge, the 5 toed print of the elusive fisher.

But I have lost myself, the real meat and potatoes are the owls gone wild. Now thanks to the heads up from the professor I have been looking and listening for these feathered freaks to start making a ruckus. And they did not disappoint. I will go more in depth next time about there romances. Plus the answer to how critters keep their feet warm.

Bonus turd. 

Could be colder...

So last Thursday morning I ventured out into the balmy 6 degree morning air in an attempt to find some fresh tracks after the dusting of snow that we got in Ipswich/Rowley area last Wednesday evening. I was fairly optimistic about my chances of finding so good looking tracks...and I was right. I was able to find a fair amount of fisher tracks(right).What was interesting was how the fisher tracks seemed just wonder around. I followed the tracks to see if I could follow his/her movement but they just went around in circles, stopping at random, only to double back on its self. So I thought maybe it was mating season and a male was chasing a female around, but male and female apparently don't come into contact with each other until late March early April when they start breeding. What is pretty cool is that the female delays fertilization for 10 months. This could mean that there shall be some fisher kits around, cute and vicious what a great combo. I also saw fox, rabbit, racoon, and mouse tracks. What was strange was the absence of deer tracks, normally they are everywhere but after that snow fall not a track was to be seen. Perhaps the extremely low temps forced them to stay huddled up. I am also curious to know how all these little critters manage to keep there feet warm... So I am pretty sure the owl that heard was the barred owl. They have incredibly creep call, that can alternate between the normal hooting and then this crazy laughing.