Anticipating Spring

It would be hard to recognize this vernal pool, especially in winter,without knowing it's by this bench which has an apt quotation from my favorite Nature writer, Aldo Leopold:  "Rest cries the sawyer, and we pause for breath."  (Photo by Don Comis)

My first two black vultures of the season, resting by a deer carcass (not in photo).  (Photo by Don Comis)

I just had to write this early today since I am so exhilarated from an outing this morning at Kenyon College.  It's March 7 and I finally started toward my goal of visiting a vernal pool daily in March at the Brown Family Environmental Center.

Boy did it pay off--although it's too early yet to see spotted salamanders and other amphibians marching to the pool.  Even as I drove on Rt. 308 toward Gambier, I saw a huge flock of large birds I thought were wild turkeys grazing in corn stubble, near New Gambier Road.  This is probably the same field where someone saw a snowy owl on February 1.

I should have stopped but didn't.  When I got to the parking area by the Miller Observatory, I was confronted by a territorial mockingbird.

On the way to the pool, I have the privilege of passing a corridor of bluebird and tree swallow birdhouses.  I saw five bluebirds, with one couple checking out a home.  A mockingbird, possibly the one who warned me or just another bossy mockingbird, chased a bluebird.

I heard and saw many birds and tracks, including possible coyote tracks.

On my way home, I even saw my first song sparrow singing from the top of a crabapple tree on a lawn in my neighborhood.

White Cardinals and Other Wildlife News of the Day

Today I had two interesting conversations with my neighbors and learned that an "albino" cardinal had made a second visit to her feeders, while a second neighbor told me he saw tracks of a coyote or fox crossing over Apple Valley Drive from the Clubhouse woods and signs of possibly catching a rabbit.


That seems to connect with the tracks I saw in my yard on the other side of the road recently, indicating the coyote might have taken a left on the road, traveling north to my driveway, then a left into my driveway (with or without a rabbit in its mouth or belly) and then a right after passing my neighbor's house to the north.


The cardinal is most likely leucistic, a genetic mutation that causes a light to whitish coloring, but without the pink eyes of true albinos.


Also, I saw a bird fly out of my bluebird house this morning!  Go figure!!

When I finally got outside today, I went out looking for tracks, especially the tracks of the possum I had seen at 1 a.m.   I got an unexpected treat when I saw big paw tracks spread out single file all the way to Apple Valley Drive. The creature had come down my driveway, which I had shoveled the night before, and then crossed over to nearby woods.




I finally remembered to include a ruler in the photos of tracks and I found these were 3 inches long, enough to put them in the running with foxes and coyotes, both of which my portable tracking guide says have tracks about 2 inches long.  I'm pretty sure I can rule out the possum, although it was the only animal I know for sure was out there overnight.  My portable guide only says possum prints are about 2 inches wide and doesn't mention length.  I'll have to get a more comprehensive tracking guidebook!