Ecology- MMG

[grundomatic]

I did not check the prints, not even something that crossed my mind. Of course it's rained for the past two days--good for my wildflowers, probably not so much for prints, unless of course he runs this area often and has been back since...

[mountainFrugal]

If you think about it next time take a quick photo... you can look at the prints and then see how they change with wind, rain, weather etc. Then when you come on tracks in the future you will be able to estimate the age of the track. Most animal observations are tracks and scat so learning these you can connect to larger and larger ideas about the local environment. How do the tracks change with rain? Do you see new tracks in areas you had not seen them before? How has the rain changed the behavior of the animals? The desert is great place for this .

The snow is firmed up in town and we have a frozen crust. I watched some cats playing in the street. When the snow is so firm it is really hard to see their tracks even though I just watched them.

Any lurker out there that wants to offer an observation from your window? Birds at the bird feeder? It is winter in the Northern hemisphere... what are the animals up to? Ideas about how they deal with the cold without central heating?

[rube]

A few things we saw with a jungle hike (with a guide) yesterday:
Fauna:
-Wild (jungle) turkeys, beautiful colored feathers.
-Monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys
-bats, coming out of their huge cave to fly away and hunt for the night. Apparently there were millions
-small crocodile, well the guide told us it was a crocodile. For me it could have been a wooden stick of 5cm that had a similar look of a part of the head of a crocodile
-a fox
-mexican Agouti
-lots, lots and lots of....musqitoes in the jungle.
The day before while driving I saw, for a short moment, a toucan and a snake.
Flora:
-Orchids in the trees, several species
-Bromelias
-Ficus trees (very large, I know them only a small plants for indoors)
-bamboo! Huge bushes. We saw this actually the day before at another spot and I am not sure if this is a indigenous type of plant from here, but I love bamboo.

Unfortunately we didn't manage to spot a big cats like the jaguar or puma, but it was still nice and impressive to experience.

[shaz]

Prints in the snow this morning told an interesting story of a fox tracking a rabbit. I didn't see the outcome.

[mountainFrugal]

Acorn Update. We were gearing up to harvest some acorns this year. Well guess what? Hardly ANY! Apparently there is phenomena called "masting" where all the trees of a certain species overproduce fruits (in this case acorns) in multi-year cycles. So once every 5 or so years all of the trees produce a lot of fruits. The scientific reason behind this is still unclear. I am going to ask some local nature groups if they have notes on this cycle so we can be ready next time there is a larger flush of acorns. Last year we also had all the leaves fall at once the first week of November after a week of cold weather in October. This year there are still leaves on the oaks falling and mixing with the snow.

[shaz]

We saw a herd of 30 - 40 pronghorn this afternoon. They tend to bunch together in larger groups as it gets colder and snowier. I don't know why.

[mountainFrugal]

Warm and mushy snow on the top layers, frozen solid in lower layers. Yuck for activities.

I was introduced to this internet gem of a YT channel----> Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
IDing Plants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z314Njbw5k0
Bleak Botany of Oakland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35qF2hEefXg
Illegal Urban Gardening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtqKMxZ95s
Kill Your Lawn- Chicagoland Prairie Plants Rant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9I2YwmV8M
#plantmilkweedorgetfucked

[shaz]

@mountainFrugal is warm and mushy snow good for snowshoeing?

[guitarplayer]

Warm and mushy snow on the top layers, frozen solid in lower layers. Yuck for activities.

Langlaufen - cross country skiing, you'd get hooked if you tried!

[guitarplayer]

Apparently there is phenomena called "masting" where all the trees of a certain species overproduce fruits (in this case acorns) in multi-year cycles.

In my 4 years of living amongst heaps of old beeches, we had only one mast year for beech nuts. They are edible, it is time consuming to peal them, it is much better peel them either fresh or after roasting, when they just sit there dry pealing is the hardest. They are tasty, look a bit like pine nuts so naturally we made pesto with them.

We had a sweet chestnut on the estate, our gardener who was on the estate for something like three decades said that he remembered only one mast year for the chestnut.

Take it for what it is worth as these are just anecdotes!

[mountainFrugal]

Langlaufen - cross country skiing, you'd get hooked if you tried!

Already hooked! The slush layer is a bit too much at the moment (sticking to in town snow observations in this thread). I will have to go up to higher elevations to find better gliding conditions or exercise in the early morning before things soften up. @shaz I have tried snow shoeing as well, moving on skis is just so much better IMO.

[mountainFrugal]

Any lurkers out there with some nature observations? What is going on outside your window or when you step outside to grab the mail?

[shaz]

@mountainFrugal agreed, skiing is much better than snowshoeing. DH used to run along on snowshoes when I skiied until he realized he would have a lot more fun if he just got his own skiis. But maybe some conditions that are bad for skiing are good for snowshoeing.

[mountainFrugal]

DH used to run along on snowshoes when I skiied until he realized he would have a lot more fun if he just got his own skiis. But maybe some conditions that are bad for skiing are good for snowshoeing.

Snowshoes are more versatile for sure. I think that large ones work well for deep snow, but at that point I will just use my BC skies. At one point I thought about the "running" snowshoes, but it turns out they are small enough that the snow usually has to be fairly packed down to even work. At that point I just use my trail running shoes. Maybe the running ones have improved in the last decade?

With a warming trend in our next of the woods, I have noticed many "snow bombs" that fall off conifer trees onto the compacted trails. They usually contain needles and maybe some sap. This is enough darker material to absorb more sunshine and they typically melt faster (less surface albedo).

[mountainFrugal]

How about YOU lurker? It is not that holiday edible you just ate, I am talking to YOU specifically lurker. What is going on outside your window? A one sentence description? Is there snow? Is it cold? Is it warm? Is it green? Are there animals? Birds?

[grundomatic]

Been to the beach the past few days. Observed lines of pelicans flying along the waves inches above the surface, then pulling up right as the waves break. Looked it up and it's called wave slope soaring.

After just reading about edges here on the forum, saw small birds hunting at the very edge of the water, scurrying just in front of the water line as it comes in then turning around to peck as the water goes back out. So cute!

Yesterday and today were a king tide and we observed two different beaches at high tide. Low tide is in just a couple hours now, but I don't know if we will feel like heading back out again.

Have seen water both flowing into and out of the nearby lagoon, where we saw a red tail hawk yesterday.

[mountainFrugal]

After just reading about edges here on the forum...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotone - this is the best place to observe. How much water flowed into the lagoon with the kingtide? Did it overflow in places?

A fresh dusting of snow. Many cat prints around our house from the neighborhood prowlers.

[icefish]

Newbie here, still lurking to get my bearings on this place, but after being specifically called out: yesterday a pod of dolphins were swimming around the local port. Nobody else there seemed to notice the shapes slipping in and out of the water as they went about their human business. It's lovely to see the dolphins doing their thing, but sad: what tenacity they have, to have to face all the trials that come with living in a large city's waters and still thrive; how thoughtless and preventable the bulk of those trials are.

Also at the port, I saw a strange V-formation of birds. Something about it seemed off... When it got closer, the reason became obvious: it was a flock of pelicans, flying proud-- but interspered among them were a tag-along bunch of ibises, half their size at best, taking advantage of the pelicans' much more powerful slipstreams to get an easier trip. Lifehacks for birds!

@jacob: I'm an all-rounder when it comes to biology, but learning about insects was by far the single most rewarding part of my studies. The amount of insect diversity all around us is truly eye-opening. Academic interest aside, that makes them good value for a hobby-- wherever you are, there are far more species of insect to investigate than mammals or birds, so a net and a loupe can keep you entertained for years!

This is a great thread, thank you all for sharing. It's fantastic to see small slices of the world in so many different places.

[shaz]

I learned that a rabbit has moved into my barn when it nearly took out my knee during a hasty exit. If an animal lives in my barn and eats my hay, is it now livestock and no longer nature?

This does make me wonder what happened to the large bull snake that used to live under the barn.

[jacob]

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Still looking for a sunkern in augmented reality.

In real reality, urban rabbits apparently think they're invisible during dawn hours. Also walked right under a treeful of house sparrows without them taking off. Same sentiment. Perhaps the remaining wildlife consider the 4-6am hours to be their safe-time. Still free of humans, currently 1/3 of the landwalking biomass.