October 31, 2002 - Nature's unseen tragediesThe Suffolk Times •October 31, 2002
Nature s
un seen tra •
e ies
- 10- 70uffl„ are Me raccoons: They scavenge for food�year- round. This tyoung I
one is exploring his world, never knowing what each new day will bring.
IgediTHERE ARE SO MANY THINGS that go
es n about us that we're completely
naware of. This is particularly true as
pertains to the natural world, where
ere are continual life- and -death situ-
ions few ever
ow about. Two M nature's tra- FOC U S
were
played out for ON
me the other day NATURE
when I went out
to our. woodshed by Paul
to get the day's Stoutenburgh
supply of wood for our wood stove. The day before I
had moved a sawhorse out of the path-
way and up onto the woodpile so peo-
ple could get through without stum-
I iing over it in the dark. It perche In
precarious position, but it was out of
e way and I thought little of it.
The tragedy came during the night
hen a young opossum, making its
ghtly round scavenging for food, -
imbed over the woodpile and in
ing so stepped on the sawhorse and
ped it over. Both fell to the ground,
th the heavy sawhorse falling right
top of the opossum. He probably
died immediately. I was -sorry to see -
this little creature lying there, pinned
under the sawhorse. A true "deadfall"
if there ever was one. (Deadfall: 1. a
trap arranged so that a heavy weight
is dropped on the victim, killing or dis-
abling it." — New World Dictionary)
With that behind me, I continued to
the woodshed with my wheelbarrow
to bring in the day's supply of wood.
As I stepped in to get my wood, my
eye caught a rabbit's foot sticking out
from a bunch of leaves and debris at
the bottom of the woodpile. On
checking it out closer; I found a dead
rabbit. I said to myself, "What's going
on here ?" Something had brought this
rabbit here and covered it over with
dirt, leaves and even a few pieces of
wood. I could see around it where the
culprit had clawed up the dirt and
leaves to cover it up. Now here was a
true mystery.
Who had put this rabbit here and
how? We knew it hadn't been there
long, for Barbara had made a trip to
the woodpile earlier and there was no
rabbit there then or she would have
stepped on it. I gathered my wood and
left the mystery rabbit there to see if
the night would bring back our
unknown visitor. Sure enough, the
next morning when I went out to get
my ration of wood for the day, the
rabbit was gone.
So who was the mysterious one who
so carefully hid the rabbit in our -
woodshed? My guess would be that it
was a fox. They're always checking
our chicken coop to see if I left the
door open. Evidently, whoever it was
had caught a rabbit and, not wanting
to eat it right away, stashed it in the
woodshed to be picked up later that
night. Things like that are going on
continually, unnoticed by most so busy
with their daily life.
Another short story this week is one
about the nuts I spoke about last
week. They're all over the place,
whether they're black walnuts or hick-
ory nuts or the common acorns,
they're there. When these fall in our
driveway, which is about 300 feet long,
the cars moving in and out crush the
nuts, making great food for birds and
animals alike. Proof of this was the
other day when around 3 p.m.
Barbara and I pulled in the foot of the
driveway and stopped to pick up the
mail. There, up the driveway, was a
deer. We both sat in the car with the
engine off and watched. Pretty soon
another deer appeared, then two
more, all in the driveway. We could see
them bend down and with our binocu-
lars, which are always on hand, we
could see them munching away oh
acorns. This is one of the foods they
eat to fatten up for the winter, and
there they were enjoying the acorns
that littered the driveway nand made
easy picking.
They were a bit nervous with the
car at the end of the driveway and
they kept looking up at us. I'm sure
their noses were moving, trying to
pick up a scent that would tell them if
we were friend or foe. The wind was i
the wrong direction so all their sniff-
ing didn't help. We watched for about
10 minutes as they munched away on
their acorns. Then all of a sudden,
something spooked them, and with
white tails flashing they were gone.
Another mystery that has bugged
Barbara and me for the past two
weeks was a bird in our woods calling
with a most curious call. It came from
high in the tops of the trees. Evidend
the bird was enjoying the acorns that
were ripening there. It gave a sort of
chirping sound and then it would stop
and we'd hear it four or five times
more at another location. This kept us
guessing and looking every time we
were outside. We couldn't find out
what it was.
Once Barbara got a glimpse of red
in the head. We thought it might be a
red - headed woodpecker. If so, it's
quite unusual for our area. We have
many kinds of woodpeckers with red
on their head, but not a complete red
head right down to its shoulder that
the true red - headed woodpecker has,
and then, it didn't have the white in
the wings when it flew, either.
Finally, in desperation, we tried
another tack. We just sat in the woods
and waited until it called and with
both of us looking with binoculars we
finally found out who it was. It was a
red - bellied woodpecker. That's the
big, colorful woodpecker that has
moved up from the south just as the
cardinal and the mockingbird have.
Today the red - bellied woodpeckers
are quite commonly found throughout
our East End: But why did it give that
particular call?
I knew its summer call but had
never heard this "Chirp chirp chirp"
call before. Could it be its way of
telling others of its kind to stay out of
its territory? We think it was stashing
nuts in the crevices in the tops of the
trees. We've often seen these red -bel-
lied woodpeckers flying with a nut in
their beak off to their favorite eating
spot or cache. Woodpeckers, particu-
larly the yellow- shafted and red -bel-
lied varieties, are noted for caching
nuts so they can eat them at a later
date, something like the squirrel that
buries its nuts in the ground. And so
we solved another "mystery" that had
been bugging us, as I said, for the past
two weeks. It's kind of a game, and
each one solved gives us both a better
=derstandin¢ of the world around us.