A Black Bear Woke Us Up

At my house, we have a bear. I kind of feared that because that means I can't feed the birds unless I remember to bring in the feeders every night. That's not gonna happen. I have no seed in my feeders, but we saw him/her last night. My husband and I were sleeping and I heard a noise, so did he. He started to get up, I grabbed him and said "Where are you going?" Duh. He said to check out the noise. I love my man. I did not want to check out the noise. The noise turned out to be a beautiful bear eating garbage in our yard. He must have "stashed" a bag from our Wednesday morning trash day and saved it for later. The previous time he got into our trash he ate old bagels, two boxes of fruit bars and licked clean the Nutella container. Last night it was old bagels again (maybe we should stop buying bagels...?), Ricotta cheese and chili powder. Strange taste. We now have to figure out what to do. We can't not put the trash out, but he won't stay out of ours or our neighbors' trash cans. We don't want to encourage him, he needs to be wild and stay that way. We aren't quite sure what we will do, possibly invest in a bear-proof trash can, if there really is such a thing. Or put ammonia-soaked rags in the trash cans when we put them out on trash day, I've read that might work. Either way, even though cleaning up trash is a pain, I still feel lucky to share our landscape with the Black Bear.

The Black Bear is the second largest land mammal in New York (moose are bigger). They range in size from 300 pounds (males) to about 170 pounds (females). They eat berries, other fruit, grasses, nuts, seeds, insects and grubs and dead animals, as well as "human" food like corn, honey, bird seed and, of course, trash.

They are awake and looking for food. If you are lucky enough to live in a rural area, you just might see one, you have to get out of bed to do it though.

Cavity Nesters

The beautiful weather this week has me again peering out my window at the bird activity. Today especially, the birds that use the nest boxes (secondary cavity nesters) are busy at Tanglewood. Tree Swallows and Eastern Bluebirds are the main inhabitants of the nest boxes on our property.

What exactly is a cavity nester? It is a bird that uses a hole of some type to build a nest and raise young in. In North America there are approximately 650 different species of birds. Only 86 species nest in natural cavities. One way a natural cavity can be formed is by a primary nester excavating one. Woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters. A primary cavity nester excavates a new hole each breeding season. The holes are later occupied by other species of birds. Species of birds that rely on pre-existing holes are called secondary cavity nesters. Secondary cavity nesters include Bluebirds, Wrens, Swallows, Chickadees, Titmice and Flycatchers. Another way a natural cavity can be formed is by decay. High winds, lightning strikes, ice storms, insects, and fungal infection can all cause a tree to lose a limb or cause standing trees to die. Over time decay will set in causing a natural cavity. Birds like Chickadees will alter cavities of this type for their nesting needs.

Why would a bird use a cavity to place their nest in? The small entrance holes into the cavity protects birds from larger predators. Cavities also help protect from the extreme heat in the summertime and shelter from rain, snow and cold temperatures. Birds that use cavities have different physical and behavioral needs than open nesting birds. Cavity nesters have strong feet to cling to vertical surfaces of trees or nesting boxes. These birds also must be suited to entering and exploring small, dark spaces. Open nesting birds, such as Robins, will not explore a dark hole.

People cut down trees for firewood or for aesthetic reasons and so we tend to destroy many potential cavity nesting sites. We can make up for this by trying to leave dead or dying trees (also called "snags") standing when we can. We can also make nest boxes that, if made to the correct dimensions, make it easy to attract secondaray cavity-nesting birds.

For more information, come to Tanglewood this Saturday (April 19th) at 9:30 am for my Bluebird lecture and hike; there will be a PowerPoint presentation on Eastern Bluebirds (our state bird seen in photo above taken at Tanglewood by Vinnie Collins), and then we will head outside and check out the cavity nesters on Tanglewood's property. Wild Birds Unlimited from Corning will also be here with some nest boxes and Bluebird treats for those wishing to attract these beautiful birds to their properties. It's free and hopefully will be fun and educational. See you there!

My Office Mate

I have the coolest animal in my office. His name is Chomper and he's a Blue-tongued Skink (a type of Australian lizard). Chomper is unique, but when I agreed to have him in my office, I had no idea how much pleasure he would give me. Not only is he a great conversation piece for people during meetings, he is the ideal office mate. He doesn't get mad when I borrow his stapler, he doesn't seem bothered that most of the time I work in the dark, and he doesn't care that I talk to myself.

When I first agreed to rooming with him, I thought he would be kinda quiet and maybe a little boring. He's nocturnal and well, reptilian. But he has turned out to be fascinating almost on a daily basis and I find myself strangley envying him on my most busy days....

A day in the life of Chomper:

1. He basks on the beach in the "sun". (He might think it is the beach and the sun, but it's really just a rock he lays on and there's a lightbulb over his cage).
2. He breathes. OK, so do all animals, but his breathing is special. It is really shallow and slow, until I put live food in, then it gets deeper and quicker.
3. He eats. All kinds of things. He loves crickets and canned dog food and hard-boiled eggs. He also likes fruit- especially raspberries and I only know this because several days a week his "lips" are red and there is no lipstick involved.
4. He climbs. A little branch up to the fake plant where the crickets hide. He's got a small brain, but he's smart enough to know where those wiley crickets are. He also climbs on his half log hidey thing and sometimes gets stuck between the glass and the log. He's not smart enough to know not to do that.
5. He does the best impression of a lizard that has been run over by a truck that I know of. His body is naturally flat and his scale pattern looks kind of like tire treads and when he isn't climbing, he is VERY still.
6. He smiles at me. OK, maybe he doesn't. But I like to think that he somehow recognizes that I am the one that keeps his cage clean and cuts up his food into tiny little pieces and he's glad about it.

I'm glad about it too and I think everyone should have some kind of a non-human animal in their office to make them more human, animals just seem to do that.