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