July 22, 2010 - Watching wildlife from front-row seatsiY 22, 2010 I SUFFOLKTIMES
Watch*ing wildlife
from front -row seats
A i
f Y
We have a nu m er o o pas c yar s e c airs
tting around our property so we can stop and sit
Nhile as we work or wander about. We have them
� the fish pond up the driveway, in the woods, in
ie garden area and out in the orchard.
Recently Barbara and I walked down to the old
orchard, where we sat
and looked out over
- -- -- the cow pasture. We
didn't know what we'd
see but it was late in
the afternoon and it
was a cool place for
us to sit while the day
was winding down.
PAUL STOUTENBURGH The only sounds
that could be heard
,re the pleading cries of newly fledged young crows.
u can tell the young ones for they are always calling
be fed. They are smaller than the adults that do most
their calling high in the hidden world of ereenerv.
As we sat there comfortably, the first to show up
on our evening stage was a large cottontail rabbit,
perfectly camouflaged until he hopped, and then
we could see that fluffy white tail that gives him
his name. The rabbits are always looking out for
tender shoots that these days often include those
in our garden, especially our red leaf lettuce that
seems to be their top priority.
As we sat and listened we could almost feel the
presence of some unseen visitor. It was the large
twitching ears that eventually gave it away. Without
this movement we would never have noticed the
large deer that was so well hidden in the camou-
flage of the high grasses. I'm always amazed at the
size of the ears of deer. Here in the late afternoon
sun we could certainly see them clearly.
We wondered if it might be the mother of three
young ones we've seen recently in our woods. We're
told that triplets are not uncommon; in fact, they
make up about 12 percent of the births to older
A
We watched a great horned owl fly in over the pasture whe
all other birds had settled in for the night. He settled atop
tall evergreen long enough for us to get a good look at hii
throueh our binoculars before he took off.
mothers; while twins make up 67 percent and single
births make up 21 percent. Younger mothers usu-
ally have just one or possibly two.
As the deer eventually moved farther away from
the stubble that ringed the pond area and into the
open, something dark back in the bushes began
to move about. We watched and watched and
thought perhaps it was the rabbit we had seen
earlier, but no, it was larger and darker. It moved
so slowly it took us some time to finally identify it
as a groundhog, or woodchuck, foraging nearby,
much like the rabbit had been earlier.
Groundhogs are stocky, weighing five to 15
pounds. They have short ears and legs relative to
their body size. We haven't found the burrow yet
but I assume it's in the hedgerow near the irrigation
pond from which farmers used to draw the life-
giving water ror tneir crops some 60 years ago.
Our last visitor was an osprey that flew in and
alit in a dead tree down by the pond. Three or four
ospreys have been using our windmill as a place to
eat their lunch and dinner, but this must have beer
a satisfied bird whose belly was full of bunker and
it just stopped to rest awhile.
With all this going on we thought we should havf
seen the fox that has been using our back pasture
to play in recently. No sooner had we discussed
this evening prowler than, to and behold, he came
across the pasture and sat in the hay up on the
back pasture that was put out for the cow. It sat for
a bit, scratched itself, yawned and was on its way.
None of the animals or the osprey we had been
watching made a sound. Either resting or feeding,
they were content with what they were doing. We,
too, were content. There were no flies or mosqui-
toes and we enjoyed just watching the twilight ar-
rive. Then, with a slow walk up through the orchar
and garden, we headed for the house.
It was such a beautiful evening we didn't put
lights on once inside, as we had been noticing the
fireflies dancing around the yard. We were also
looking for bats that usually show up at this hour,
but no luck. We put up a bat house some years ago
and are not quite sure it has ever been occupied.
Birds and squirrels like to sit on it and that's about
all we've ever seen it used for.
In the coming darkness, as we sat inside, we could
still see through our binoculars the osprey, with its
light- colored breast, sitting high in the old dead
cherry tree, where it would probably spend the nigh t.
Then, from out of the night something large
and dark flew across the pasture. We put our
glasses up and tried to see what it was when it
landed. To our surprise, high up on the top of a
tall evergreen tree I spotted a great horned owl. It
remained at the top of the tree just long enough
for both of us to get a good look at it and then it
was off, perhaps headed out for its nightly meal.
a
i�
m
m lroJ
Z V
C X
L°�
O N N
L
++
a ro O
C � C
v
a N �
o a,
4 -C
> L
4� 0
V
C C
'D o0
4 v
L� v
In 4- -C
>>
_Q
� L
s�
L E
-o �
ro�
L
4- 'n
O b
ro V
O v
U ra
C�
O ro
ro v
C
C ro
b o
o +-
L Q)
v
-C v
=-0
Q) _0
C o
ro
o
o
M-
v
o�
_
.0 -C
3 0
ai h
U ro
v
V =
v
o 5 .E
3 0 v
1 E
in H O
C E N
C
o�U
Os4-
L
ro-0'ro
= -C
-C N
0 N
2,02-0
C
Q) O ro
N C
N O