Andre Bouton, where are you???

After pretty much living in my backyard I haven't seen this young male "button buck" for 10 days. I hope that he is OK. I did see a single deer leaping through the woods, his white tail high, and I am hoping that that is him and that he is now just busy flirting with the ladies.

But look who I did see today- the season's 1st Red-winged Blackbird! Welcome home! How were your winter holidays?

What a lot has happened since last I wrote! Snow storms, ice storms, pets ran away, and came back (phew!), car ended up vertical in a ditch and was written off, hip issues, etc... Andthere has been some sad news. Little Victor vole is no longer with us. He died just a few days after coming here, but was found nice and ticked up in his bedding, so I hope the last few days of his life were restful. Voles don't live very long, but it was still sad. But sad news was balanced with good news: the first spring Eastern bluebird visited nearby WTS today! WTS is in the woods, and they prefer fields so they never come super close, but are in some of the fields just on the other side of the forest. Their wings are such a bright blue that there is really no mistaking them. For more information about them, take a look at: http://tinyurl.com/34c52d

But, despite this little harbinger of spring, it is still winter here. I will post pictures of last night's scarey ice storm last night. As snow has been covering the groud for so long, I ended up taking pity on poor Andre Bouton and making him peanut butter and apple treats, which he enjoyed immensely. Andre has been a visitor to WTS every day except for the last 4 days, so, of course, I'm worried about him now.

And a few more of the winter wonderland and my neighbours. Here is a picture of snowface!

Can you spot the lone turkey?

OK, I promise to get a decent camera before I take any more pictures of Carolina wrens! But they are just so lovely and aren't always here in the winter!

R.I.P. little Victor the Woodland, or Pine, Vole
For more information on voles take a look at:
http://tinyurl.com/2t4e8e
http://tinyurl.com/2jxnah, http://tinyurl.com/34c52d

Oh! Who do you think made these little footprints on my back porch?! An opossum! And the one on the upper right may be a raccoon. Perhaps its The Bandit or her baby Raindrop (these are characters that I have yet to introduce)! What is really remarkable about finding these prints is that they appeared the day after I trapped the last feral cat that has been in the woods around my house. I found a place that works on rehabilitating feral cats, so I hope that they are being well looked after...I felt a bit badly trapping them, but it is so amazing that the very next day an opossum appeared- I saw him out at night, but didn't manage to get a photo- and suddenly there are several raccoon and opossum tracks. These species have been kept away all this time that the cats have been here. I had no idea that the cats were influencing the wildlife so much around my house. That is one of the reasons snow is so cool- because you can see just who is visiting!

And here is a photo of Little Miss Pileated Woodpecker at the la-de-da suet feeder. note the little Dark Eyed Junco at the feeder to the left, this gives you an idea of her size. Btw, I love juncos so much! They are always the first ones out when it snows.  That makes me kinda think that they are like me! :)

Test Question: There are 2 woodpeckers in this picture. Can you find them and what species are they??

And here is a picture of the little deer who seems to spend a large part of his time at my house now-a-days. Sometimes he just looks out into the woods and I wonder what he is thinking about. I wonder where the other young deer is that he used to be with. He seems lonely somehow, where is the rest of his herd? Surely at this age even males are with a herd?

And finally, news from Cornell. sadly, the red tailed hawk had to be put down. The vets x-rayed him again and found his wrist joint getting worse, the head of the ulna was in pieces. This means that he would not be able to fly very well, and in the wild he would probably slowly starve to death. As he was so wild he would not have been a good animal to keep in captivity. The weird thing is that the taloning he gave me is still a bit sore. This happens sometimes- a wound stays long after the animal is gone and somehow it's kind of weird, you know?

The screechies are all doing well, and Herodotus is having his eye surgery tomorrow. The eye has to come out as it is too far gone even though the infection is under control. Apparently he's been quite nippy the last few days. I suppose that is a good sign and shows that he is still wild and alert. I wonder how he will be with me tomorrow.

Pileated woodpeckers are just such amazing birds! Here is a picture of a female at WTS (males have a bit more red around the beak). And their call sounds like crazy laughter- you can hear it in the woods, but you can't always see them. Apparently Woody-Woodpecker was modeled after them. For any of you familiar with the search for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, long thought extinct, but supposedly seen a couple of years ago in a swamp down south, the pileated woodpecker is the bird that critics say that people are really seeing. Who knows! A few months ago I bought a very fancy feeder for these birds, but it wasn't until yesterday that one showed up to use it. I was so excited! Today she came back! .... with her parents! That's right, there was 3 of them- so amazing! I'm pretty sure that it was a family as one was male and two were female, and one of the females was smaller...however, I am not familiar with their family structure, so I can't say authoritatively that they were REALLY a family!

There were plenty of other wild visitors to WTS recently as well. One young male White-tailed deer has started coming all on his own. He showed up with another young doe last week, but this week he has been coming every day on his own. I've heard some guns go off in the woods, and I hope that his companion wasn't hurt. Deer are herd animals, so it always makes me see a bit sad to see them, especially young ones, on their own. Sometimes at the clinic we get very young babies that were born late in the season, "late-droppers," whose mothers have been killed by hunters. Hunting season is supposed to begin at a time when the babies are old enough to fare for themselves, but late-droppers still need their mums months into the hunting season.

The deer has been seen with a rafter of Wild Turkeys (that's the name for a group of wild turkeys!)! This gang is made up all of young males. about 7 of them appear to be 6-18months old, and 3 of them are probably 18 months and older, perhaps to about 36 months...though I don't know enough about turkeys and their social structure....but would love to, they are such great animals! Thomas & Theodore, otherwise known as Tom & Theo are the leaders of the pack. These two young males (they are 2 of the 3 older ones) have been coming to WTS, just the two of them, everyday for at least 6 months. Just recently all these other young males have joined them. One other time Tom & Theo brought lady turkeys, but they never came back with them. Again, I would love to understand the reasons behind this interesting social structure, but as far as I know their behaviour has not been studied in a robust way. More on T&T later!

And what about our little friend the flying squirrel! He is doing great! He's become more and more at home in his new cage and loves snuggling and sleeping in his hay ball that I filled with all sorts of fluffy soft stuff. He is also a wheel CHAMPION!!! I'm so glad that I got him a nice big wheel to run on, which he does, non-stop for 10minutes at a time. Here is a picture of him, doesn't he look fake?! This morning I heard what I thought was him scrambling in the walls. Great, I thought, he's escaped again! but no, he was all cozy in his hayball....this was someone else in my walls having a great time...and for all I know he met someone when he escaped, and now has a flying squirrel friend that comes to visit him! I may have to name the squirrel Steve McQueen.

And salamander, btw, appears very happy with his worm selection and nice damp chilly aquarium. Whatever works! :)

Finally, Cornell WHC... everyone is doing great! Both screechies  are recovering really well and eating on their own. Another screech owl came in with a screwed up eye, but we are hoping that it will heal with treatment. Why do so many screech owls come to us with eye injuries??? I don't know! But this is one thing that I would love to study if I can convince a Cornell professor to adopt me as a graduate student (I'm in the process of transferring departments). I can't imagine that these little owls are bad fliers and always fly into things....is it possible that something in their diets may be affecting their vision or flying ability, and this leads to more collisions? Maybe. The question is what comes first? The collision with resulting eye injury? Or an eye injury/dizziness/weakness that causes a collision?

Herodotus is doing great and has gained another 20g! I think they may perform his surgery to remove his eye this week...and I've told the vets that I want to be there! So, stay tuned....

And Mister Red Tail hawk . he's still angry as ever! but is eating well, and we may test his flying ability this week. The picture of him here shows him on a perch with a "tail-guard" on. This protects their tail-feathers, which can take months to grow back if they are damaged.