Creature News: Chapter 2
July 27, 2010, 9:43 am
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
The fireflies are gone. Two lonely lag-behinds spotted the other evening. They have been replaced by a black bear. He/she made its presence known by knocking over the grill on the deck. A loud bang on the door sent it away ambling down the path to the meadow. Forensic investigation leads to the conclusion that he/she was after the wire brush used to clean the grill; it is black and ugly and rich with carnal fat. The bear was not a cub and not an adult–somewhat adolescent in its insolence. Would not want to meet him/her in the woods. Presumably there are siblings and parents in the neighborhood.
on July 27th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Peggy: It was probably a young male, driven away by its mother to find his own way in the world and so that she can get pregnant with a new cub. We get them at our place in the Catskills, too, and one is even sighted occasionally in Bloomingburg. It’s also berry-season, and they’ll strip a bush in no time.
on July 27th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Our fireflies are still here, but on the wane. No bears. But we are overrun with bunnies. And, of course, deer who have no predators but bovine TB and motor vehicles. The DNR needs to rethink its hunting policies seriously.
Saw the first monarch butterfly of the season yesterday.
on July 27th, 2010 at 10:57 am
If our bear really chewed on that wire brush with the fat, I wonder if it’s in any condition to eat anything. Wonder if his mom warned him about this.
Yes, deer; but they keep their distance and we don’t have a garden to speak of.
on July 27th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
A bear can eat pretty much anything, Margaret. A wire brush coated with lots of charred fat is just a great big prickly lollipop.
Warning about bears: If you see a cub get the heck out of there. There are always two or three stories in Michigan every year about city-dwelling downstaters who see and want to pet the baby bears–and they are real cute–only to get clawed by the mother who is always within sniffing and striking distance.
Lord, the deer here come right up to your picture window and would probably set up a kegger in your back yard and invite a herd of friends if they had the wherewithal to haul it in.
on July 27th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Wouldn’t go within a city block of any creature bigger than a chipmunk. I respect them!
Monarch butterflies: Do you know the book, “Gotta go, Gotta go, Gotta go to Mexico!” great little story about the brave Monarch and its journey to reproduce?
on July 27th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I don’t know the “Gotta Go to Mexico” story about the butterflies, but I do have several stories from students about going to Cancun over spring break that might be in a similar vein …
on July 27th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I’d be surprised! Jingles for the early reader!
http://www.amazon.com/reader/0374427860?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
on July 27th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Just one lonely lightning bug. We had two young deer and their mother take up residence in the backyard during the heat wave. The trees and low plants served as a cooling center. My wife was excited to see them and looked for them every morning and evening. But I think now they have moved to (better?) accommodations across the street.
Lots of sounds from the insect world at night. There are some cicada making a fine whine. Once in a while I hear one on the ground, usually followed by a bird looking to help it complete its lifecycle.
The planet Venus still blazes low in the western twilight sky, although I can’t see it from my house, due to some terrain and trees in the way.
Good luck with the bears. Bears that make it to the northern suburbs of New York City (none recently) frequent Italian restaurants.
on July 27th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
The moon has been blazing in our sky; can hardly see the stars for its brightness. I can see why all the scouts of yore did not like to travel by the full moon, lest they be sighted by the enemy. One great thing about being in the middle of nowhere is that you reconnect to all the old mythic, tribal, warrior stories of yore–true or not–that make sense when there’s a full moon or no moon. No deer this week, though there are deer around according to our far neighbors who in late June spotted new newly born fawns and put us off having our meadow mowed too early even though it’s over grown.
on July 28th, 2010 at 10:57 am
I knew I could write prose but apparently in the write hands, poetry can emerge. This from Ann Olivier:
The moon has been blazing in our sky;
can hardly see the stars for its brightness.
I can see why
all the scouts of yore did not like to travel by the full moon,
lest they be sighted by the enemy.
One great thing about
being in the middle of nowhere
is that you reconnect to all the old mythic, tribal, warrior stories of yore
–true or not–
that make sense when there’s a full moon
or no moon.
No deer this week,
though there are deer around according to our far neighbors
who in late June spotted
new newly born fawns
and put us off having our meadow mowed too early even though it’s over grown.
on July 28th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
No bears to report here in South Bend but I did spot two golden finches at the feeder this morning before leaving for the office. It put me in a fine mood which is a very good thing when giving oral examinations to MA students.
on July 28th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Lawrence, Indiana University notes that the last black bears were seen in Indiana 30 years ago or more, but you can still see their claw marks on some beech trees in forests. Here’s a link to some sort of animal census I found online.
http://www.indiana.edu/~libgeol/cox1869/69frank2.html
Two animals I’ve missed this summer: Hummingbirds and toads. Used to get hummers on my trumpet vine, but no more. Saw a few toads early this spring, but their appearance has dropped sharply in the last 20 years.
on July 28th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Our far neighbors have gazillions (has this been banned here?) of birds including humming birds and yellow finches, and who knows what. They also have many, many bird feeders/houses, which they shut down at the right time to encourage the birds to fly to wherever they fly. Mexico???
on July 28th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Last week I saw a little bright green gekko flashing its pink throat flag or whatever that is. Hadn’t seen one in many, many years. Now if only the bees would return. Haven’t seen one in 10 years or so.
on July 30th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Aren’t gekkos the ones you can put in your house to eat bugs? As a kid I whined endlessly for chameleons and other pet lizards, but my mother said they were just snakes with legs and was too creeped out by them.
on July 30th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Yes, gekkos look like snakes with legs :-) They have big eyes and little teeth. I don’t know if they eat stuff in the house, but they often try to come in. I wonder if they’re social animals. One of the insurance companies Geiko (sp?)) uses a gekko as a character in all of its TV adds. Quite charming, I think, but I love gekkos. It talks to people.