Ghost Catfish?

So if you have been reading my blog you know by now that sometimes "weird" things go on at Tanglewood. This week has been no exception.

It all started with a smell. A funky, dead animal kind of a smell that we, unfortunately, are pretty familiar with. Usually the smell is from a mouse that got fed to one of our snakes that didn't get eaten. Sometimes they bury them and you only find them when the smell erupts, but this wasn't the case here. I sent someone looking for the smell, it had been around for almost a week it was getting nauseating. The person I sent came back and indicated that it might be coming from a few dead hissing cockroaches or Molly, the 6ft. boa's cage. A 6ft. boa can make very big, smelly excrement. I didn't buy it, it was a BIGGER, more persistant smell than that, but I let it go.

That was until the sky broke open and it poured. Unfortunately sometimes when it rains outside it rains inside at Tanglewood. I don't really want to go there, suffice it to say, beautiful new building, bad original roofer. So I went looking for leaks in the exhibit hall. That is when I saw it, in a crack next to the freshwater tank. The Catfish. He had escaped his water world and was obviously dead. And stinky. I got some paper towels and picked him up and looked at him. Then I screamed a bit (yes, I am still a bit girly here and there), and I dropped him- he was crawling with maggots! Eww! Cathy, our office manager was with me, because I didn't want to be alone with the dead catfish... She opened the back door and I said, "Say a prayer that he makes it over the deck" because it was still pouring and I wasn't going out there. I tossed him and gave another little scream (ok, I know, I'm not proud of that), and he sailed over the deck into the grass by the pond. A perfectly good place for a dead catfish to finish decomposing.

Two days later, on the deck railing, there he was. The Catfish. Still dead, more dead if that's possible. But he moved. Creepy. But I could buy that maybe a bird picked him up and was nibbling on him and the squishy maggots that covered his body? I pushed him off the deck rail anyways. I didn't think visitors needed to see nature THAT closely. Plus...eww!

That was that. But it wasn't. Two days later, he appeared on the deck AGAIN. More than creepy. They threw him off. He wasn't there today, but I am not writing him off as "dead" for good yet.

Swamp Bunny

As I'm always saying, my job is great because I get the most unusual phone calls and emails about nature and many of them make me interested enough to do some research. This week I got an email with a picture of an animal in the water. The emailer wondered if it was a beaver or a muskrat. He thought it probably was a muskrat and wondered if they are dangerous because his dog is a water dog and is always very curious about them. From the picture, I too was pretty sure it was a muskrat.

We have muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) here at Tanglewood in our pond and they are amusing to watch. They have adaptations for their aquatic lifestyle that are pretty neat. Their nostrils are in the shape of the number seven which allows them to inhale remaining oxygen from recently exhaled breath. This enables them to swim underwater for up to 15 minutes. Another adaptation gave them their name. They have glands underneath their tail from which they secrete musk to warn other muskrats away from their territory. This type of communication between these little guys keeps the amount of muskrats in an area to a number that enables them to survive without food or space constraints.

But what about them being dangerous...? Well, apparently muskrats have several endearing nicknames, including the marsh rat. OK, that name's not so endearing, but they are also called the swamp bunny in some areas.

Swamp bunny?!! How could something with the nickname swamp bunny be dangerous? Not only are they not dangerous, they actually can serve a good purpose, even though they are a rodent, animals with generally bad reputations. Muskrats help maintain open areas in marshes by using cattails for food and for their lodges, this space left by clearing cattails helps to provide habitat for aquatic birds. Good job, Swamp Bunny!

There you have it, one email and I appreciate muskrats a bit more. Thanks Pat!

The Things We Do For Animals

Yesterday on my way to work, I did something some people would definitely call stupid, or at the very least, unsafe, but there wasn't a question in my mind as to whether I would do it or not when faced with the situation. I was driving along at a decent clip on I86 between Corning and Big Flats when I noticed a bird flailing around in the left lane of the highway. From far away it looked like a gull, but as I drove by it, I saw it was a hawk. It had obviously been hit by a car and was hopping around trying to go...somewhere else? SO, I pulled over and ran back on the side of the highway to the bird. I wasn't sure what my plan was, but I wanted to at least get it off the road. To my horror, I watched a truck and two cars go right over the bird. I was sure it was a goner, but when I got up to it (when there was a break in traffic,) it started hopping again and I kind of shooed it to the side of the road. Then it laid on it's back, looked at me and put its talons up.

They were big talons. And raptors have big beaks too. Now I have plenty of experience handling raptors, but not without leather gloves on. No leather gloves for me in August. I didn't have a blanket or a towel either, so I unzipped my sweatshirt. (This is significant to me because I had JUST bought the sweatshirt and my son even mentioned THAT morning how much he liked it. I was also excited I remembered to wear one because I have been freezing in my office since the air blows up my body from under my desk.) Anyways, I took off my sweatshirt, and wrapped the hawk in it. I picked him up and started to make my way back to the car. Only a few steps and I see red lights in my peripheral vision. Yes, a state trooper. He pulled over, rolled his passenger window down and I kind of smiled and said something like, "Um I work at Tanglewood and I saw this bird had been hit and I am going to take it to work and call a wildlife rehabilitator." I think he believed me (I had a Tanglewood shirt on, which I only wear about once every few weeks, lucky there.) He did say, "I can't believe you picked that thing up." He also offered to drive me back to my car, but I told him no thanks if he didn't mind, I'd walk. He followed me slowly so I wouldn't get run over. (Or so he'd see if the bird would get out of the sweatshirt and attack me?) Either way, I appreciated his kindness and I didn't get run over. So thanks Trooper Whomever.

I put the bird, all wrapped up, in the back seat in my daughter's booster chair and I hoped to gosh it wouldn't go postal on me before I got to work. He/she stayed pretty calm. I talked to it and told it to stay where it was please and I made it to work. We called the rehabber and she asked if we could take the bird to Cornell's wildlife hospital to save time. So Val, our curator, and I, took a road trip with the hawk (still wrapped in my sweatshirt, but at least in an animal carrier) to Ithaca.

The wonderful vets there took the bird in and will let us know the status of it in the next few days. If it has a fixable injury, it will be taken care of and eventually released. If not fixable enough to release the bird but they can save the bird, they will try and find a home for it- hard to do apparently with Red-tailed Hawks because there are so many non-releasables out there. If they don't find a home they would have to euthanize it. Guess what? I know a home! We already have a Broad-winged Hawk and a Great-horned Owl and we'd need to build new housing for our Highway Hawk, but we could do it. I will keep everyone updated! (And yes, I got my sweatshirt back. Bloody-stained and with feathers and some weird raptor flies on it, but salvagable I think.) Just another day at Tanglewood.

Correction

I need to make a correction and apologize to Corning Parks and Rec Department about assuming the pond at Denison Park was their responsibility. I got a very nice call from their Director yesterday that let me know that the DPW has been in charge of the pond since 2000. I am not sure why that shift took place, but it did and so Corning Parks and Rec has no authority over the pond. I apologize to them. But my original thought still stands. Corning is beautiful, as are its parks, and the pond should not look like it does. Does the DPW need help? Looks like it.

Another addition- Boy, did this post get WAAY more attention than I had ever anticipated, but it was good. I got a call yesterday from Tom Giambrone, the head of Corning's Buildings and Grounds. He wanted to let me know that they are, and have been, working hard to get the pond in better shape. He also mentioned that he would use my help in cleaning up the debris that keeps finding its way in the water. John Boat, here I come! Even though I didn't have any intention of making anyone's job more difficult, apparently it happened and I'm sorry for that, but I am glad that the issue was brought to light and that the pond is on it's way to looking better. Thanks Kris Pashley and Tom Giambrone for handling things in such a professional and friendly manner too.

The Pollution in the Pond

My stepdaughter looked at me this morning with her big brown eyes and said "Elaine you should write about the pollution in the pond." "What pollution?", I asked. She said in the park pond that we had visited a few weeks ago. How could I have forgotten?

We went to Denison Park in Corning a couple of Saturdays ago for some play time on the equipment with our little neice and decided to go check out the pond and look for ducks. What we saw was some sort of a duck hybrid and a really dirty pond. Chock full of duckweed (which can be good but can be a sign of a high nutrient load= pollution). Also cans, bottles, paper bags, tires and all kinds of just plain trash was littering the surface of the pond. It was really sad and bad looking for a pond in a pretty city like Corning.

I was going to write a letter to the Parks and Rec Director in Corning about that pond and I forgot all about it. Me, the tree hugger. I am ashamed. And it took an 8-year old (although a pretty wise and with-it 8-year old), to remind me. Don't get me wrong, I think the Corning Parks and Recreation Department does a great job with their parks. I love the new pavilion, and the Summer Parks Program for kids is superb. I just think they need to find a way (we'd volunteer if we had a boat) to get that pond clean. I know it is probably a losing battle, but maybe volunteers COULD help? That's how we get a lot of the "dirty" work done at Tanglewood- good old volunteer elbow grease.