November Almanac

Northern Shrike

Every month, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies publishes what we can expect to find outside in the month ahead. All November I meant to review what I have and have not found outside and finally today I have done so. I have found and documented more than I could find in my archives, though. I'm still reviewing thousands of photos. I've concocting a shoot list of stuff I need to do better or more completely.

Northern Shrikes

The Northern Shrike is a hoot. It is a carnivorous songbird. It is also well known by other birds. Whenever one would appear in the brush near the bird feeders, the chickadees sounded a very recognizable alarm and all the birds would disappear. Then the shrike would sit in the feeder tree and wait. I never saw it kill a bird, thank goodness.

Keystone plants and soft landings
Heather Holm

Soft Landings

I never knew how important this is, even though I know the life cycle of lepidoptera. I don't have any oaks on my land, but I have acres of soft landings!

American Mink

Weasels

Well, it's not. It's an American Mink, which I see quite often winter and summer. I've only managed to poorly capture one in brown coat, although I have seen it in white more times than in brown. 

Snowshoe hare tracks

Snowshoe Hares

There are no rabbits in northern Vermont. We only have hares. I've seen quite a few, including a few that live with me here. Photos of them? Forget about it!

Chanterelle

Chanterelles 

John cooking up his chanterelles.

Chanterelles

John loved these. We went out hunting for them and he would cook them up. I never developed a taste for them and don't understand people's excitement about them. 

Green turkey tails

Blue turkey tails

Orange and brown turkey tails

Blue and brown turkey tails

A tree covered in turkey tails

Turkey Tails

These are very common fungi in the woods that I love to find. You never know what color you'll discover. These are the only colors I have found.

Christmas Fern sori

Christmas Fern

I have no idea why I only took photos of Christmas fern spores, but I definitely have to get out and take photos of this common and beautiful evergreen fern.

Rock Polypody

Rock Polypody

Another lovely common evergreen fern that grows on rocks and hillsides. So that's where I find it: on the cliffs above the house.

Oriental Bittersweet

Oriental Bittersweet

Beware! This is quarantined in Vermont and New Hampshire (the only states I have looked at). It is extremely invasive and chokes trees to death. I should have taken a context photo to show you what this looked like in New Hampshire where I found it. I have only seen it once in Vermont: at a friend's farm! I scolded him roundly for it. He had brought it from Massachusetts because it is "beautiful."  He even gave it away in Christmas wreaths that he made and distributed to people who did not know what it was. I don't know how, or if, you can get rid of it. If you have it, research and destroy it if possible. Plant American bittersweet instead. 

December comes this week. Whew, the year went by quickly. I promise myself to do the December post this week as soon as VTEcostudies publishes their almanac. Donna Long has already published her December almanac for Pennsylvania here.

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The Mink

American Mink (Neovison vison)

These photos were taken on April 10, but my story begins on March 27. It had been a warmer winter day than usual, so I went outside after church to photograph birds at the feeder (not through the window as I usually do). I was getting some good shots. I began to adjust the settings on the camera when suddenly something long and brown with a long bushy tail ran past me. It had come from the bog and ran past me, under the feeders and up the hill. The snow was so hard with a crust of ice that he left no tracks. And me? Even though I had the camera in my hand, all I could do was breath, "Oh wow, oh wow!" softly and quietly over and over again. Another missed shot! The birds, by the way, never paid attention to this animal at all.

I knew the creature was either a small fisher cat or a mink. But my eyes simply are not good enough for details and all I knew was that it had a bushy tail and was not dark enough for a fisher cat. John suggested a mink and I agreed — it only made sense. The subject was dropped until April 10, two weeks later.

It was after church again, but I was inside editing photos. John called out from the back of the house that my mink had returned. I grabbed the camera and went to take some pictures. I was pleased that I had the 250mm lens mounted on the camera. I'd get the shots this time! The mink was in the back dooryard on the knoll. This would be an easy shot if I could get a clear view! I opened the backdoor slowly and it creaked. The mink heard me and swung his head around and watched me as I photographed him. For about five seconds I got off quite a few shots before the mink ran up the hill to the rock pile across our back road. I remember now that for the last shot I zoomed in. That was a clue something was wrong with my photographs.

The last shot, unfocused.

I ran to the computer and downloaded the photos. I had not shot at 250mm! They were all 50mm! I was devastated. But I viciously cropped and edited and these were the best shots I have.

In the days following this encounter, the cats began going out more and more as the weather improved. They were constantly drawn to that rock pile that the mink lived in. They began spraying it, also, which was a significant territory statement. But the days went on and we slowly forgot about it.

We have not seen the mink since April 10.

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My Mystery Mustelid

This animal has been hunting and swimming in the beaver meadow across the road for a week now. Amy thought it was an otter. I was thinking mink. But now I am thinking fisher cat (but it is probably too small for a fisher). Can anybody help identifying it? It is brown with a bushy or thick tail. Fishers and minks have bushy tails. This animal we see seems to run aimlessly (to me) around the meadow. We see it all times of the day.

above: long shot
below: closeup of the animal from the above photo

Click on any photo to view it full-size in a new window.

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