A large flock of crows ushered in by the first cold spell of winter 2013 attracts the interest of a Bald Eagle as the Goodyear Blimp passes over the area - what are the odds of that happening in one day? Crows and Eagles generally don't get along as you can see in this video from last winter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ybGVYkQps
Always a rare treat to see an eagle soaring over the yard, but to have the Goodyear Blimp within sight at the same time is way too random to fathom. American Crows are generally not migratory in the deep south, but they have unique seasonal behavior. They seem to form up into large flocks and move through the area and disperse into the vast interior range lands for the winter or congregate at landfills. I never see individual crows other than maybe one or two days a year in the cool season. They make a ruckus when they move through.
One of the five baby squirrels is trying to take an afternoon nap after leaving the nest and getting tired of exploring its new huge Eastern Hemlock Tree house, however a neighboring chipmunk is doing its best to keep it awake. This is one of the five from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAsnmZ1j5ac
A Cuban Tree Frog changes colors three times to be light, medium and dark to try and blend in with its surroundings. An athletic and attractive tree frog in the wild it has largely spread through central Florida and is considered an invasive species . It is said to have an irritating skin secretion that discourages predators, but I have seen young ones eaten by Red Rat Snakes. If you let the red rat snakes and other snakes live in and near your backyard ecosystem they will help keep the balance of nature! It is recommended to euthanize these frogs when captured ( http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/frogs/cubantreefrog.shtml ) however, I rarely see or hear them in or around the house - this one was found in an old bucket and I couldn't bring myself to capture and kill the creature.
The storms of November bring high winds and seas, rough surf and dark skies to the east coast of Florida. Not a typical day at the beach, but the expanse of the sky and the raw power of the sea are worthy of contemplation as are the small subtle details such as the foam and seaweed and the layers of currents as the tide expends its energy on the shore. You might notice that the horizon is not level as the tripod was knocked by the waves early on - somehow the askew view of the horizon is appropriate on a day like this. The soundtrack "Hydra" is courtesy of the YouTube Audio library. This video was taken during the afternoon high tide on November 25th, 2013 during a "High Surf Advisory".
Funniest and Cutest Baby Squirrels is not an exaggeration (or"kittens" as squirrel young are called) - perhaps gentle, innocent, and curious. All sorts of words will come to your mind as you watch this video. A mother Red Squirrel high in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina has her hands full raising these precocious youngsters in an Eastern Screech Owl nest box. Try and count how many little squirrels there are as you watch the video! They are still totally dependent on nursing and this is their first morning really beginning to explore the world outside the nest box. Apparently young animals just can't resist squeezing their heads through a nest box entrance - see how owlets do it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTmQ1mnjAJc "Funniest and Cutest Baby Screech Owls"
The music at the end is the appropriate "Get Outside" by Jason Farnham, courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving Dinner here is a short video of an Eastern Chipmunk in the Great Smoky Mountains literally "stuffing its face" to capacity. It can only gather so much by the traditional "vacuming" method so get as full a load as possible before returning to the den it forces more food in with it's front paws. They will have the last laugh though in the cold winter months when they are snug and warm beside their larder.
Extreme close-up of a Tufted Titmouse and Black Capped Chickadee taking turns at a bird seed bonanza provided high in the forest of the Great Smoky Mountains when a Dark Eyed Junco arrives and decides to stake its claim to the whole seed pile. A game of "King of the Mountain" ensues and in the process the greedy Junco spills more seeds than it can eat. Of course it will clean them up on the ground later.
A young Red Rat Snake (also called a Corn Snake) captures and squeezes a Brown Anole Lizard not much small than itself and spends the next 15 minutes slowly swallowing it. Florida Red Rat Snakes are constrictors just like their large exotic cousins such as the invasive Burmese Pythons and they capture, kill and eat their prey the same way, just on a much smaller scale. This one does it all while hanging upside down from a backyard outbuilding. Mostly nocturnal, the snakes learn that the outdoor lighting attracts lizards and that is prime hunting ground. Unlike the invasive pythons that kill and displace native wildlife, this snake is a native and performs an invaluable service by keeping the lizards, mice and rats in check. The Brown Anole Lizard being eaten is itself an invasive species that is relatively larger than native lizards and more agressive and rapidly displacing Green Anole Lizards and timid Gecko's. These snakes should not be killed. Unfortunately finding a small snake like this doing its job in the backyard too often leads to the killing of the snake. This little backyard drama allows us a closeup look at the process. The camera was only 3 or 4 inches from the snake the entire time. This snake is undoubtedly the offspring of this large Red Rat Snake filmed earlier this summer:
An encounter between a young spike male elk (one really can't call him a "bull elk") went viral this week. The young elk took an unusual interest in a photographer at Cataloochie Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and appeared to be playfully sparring with the man who kept his head down early in the encounter. This intrigues me because I am very familiar with the elk in the GSMNP and have filmed them often and never seen any act like this unless people tried to approach or otherwise act threatening. Indeed, as the video below shows you can be quiet and low-profile and get exceptional video of the elk going about their business. A video playlist of some of my encounters can be seen here. Huge bull elks such as this 800 pounder I filmed below could kill you in a heartbeat if provoked.
Sadly the elk was killed by the park service after this event. I had many questions about the encounter - and it turns out this young elk had been causing some problems before and that people had been feeding it Doritos and chips etc., probably starting when it was still a calf. This is very unfortunate, and of course against the law and violation comes with a steep fine. But people will be idiots and feed the wildlife and the odds of being caught are low. I do not know how aggressive the rangers are at enforcement, but I do know that budget cuts have thinned their ranks. Cataloochie in particular is unfortunately set up for this kind of animal abuse because it is so accessible to people just passing through. The classic conundrum of the popular national park, how to somehow preserve wild nature while making it safe and easy for people to experience. The reality is most people never get more than 100 yards from the car at any time when they visit the park.
Clearly conditioning this young elk to expect a salty treat when people stand by the road is the root cause of this viral encounter. The photographer's actions can always be second guessed - he had an opportunity at the 2:42 mark in the video to just walk/run away as it appeared the elk was losing interest. Instead, he turned back around and that seemed to escalate the encounter leading to the head-butting. But he didn't have the advantage of our after-the-fact viewpoint. It really boils down to a fascinating, but sad convergence of an elk who had been fed against the law and a photographer who loves wildlife trying to get a good shot. The underlying message of this video should not be lost - and that is feeding large mammals like elk and bears results in endangerment of the public and, sadly, almost always is a death sentence for the animal.
Yellow Rumped Warbler hovering up close and loud! A little chirp each time it arrives and takes off and the whirl of its rapidly flapping wings. While not able to sustain hovering like a hummingbird, the effort this warbler puts into eating with a certain style is truly admirable. This video is of just one lovely bird that found the suet feeder and would spend the entire day in the tree taking quick hover flights for a bite to eat. A slow motion video of the same bird set to the Blue Danube Waltz is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkpgP1WxaE8
A mellow clip of four elk (a mother and her three calves) I watched taking a nap in the Great Smoky Mountains this past October. What strikes me most about this session was the utter silence except for the slight rustling caused by the wind. It's so rare to have silence these days even in the national parks.
A Yellow Rumped Warbler hovering in slow motion (120 fps) for over 9 minutes set to the Blue Danube Watlz. This is the same Warbler filmed close up in full HD at normal speed in : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC0zdbgTyKA
Slow motion reveals the amazing ability of the Yellow Rumped Warbler to hover to feed from a suet feeder. For short bursts its wings beat almost as fast as a hummingbird and have an element of rotation to them reminiscent of a hummingbird. It also uses its tail feather to assist in movement back and forth and for stability. Hover time is most impressive between the 4 and 5 minute mark of the video. Very few small songbirds in the world can display this level of energy and athletic ability. These time lapses take place over a period of several hours. The Warbler triggered the motion detection software almost 100 times. Quite an extraordinary performance - set to the appropriate Blue Danube Waltz (courtesy of YouTube's Audio Library). I edited out the parts where the Warbler was sitting on the branch. In slow motion the sitting part took up most of the videos. The camera was triggered by motion so sometimes I got the whole trip to the feeder and sometimes just the beginning or end so I put together all the "action" parts over several hours.
A little motivation message from the animal kingdom. This little Red Squirrel is inspiring - the picture of determination. The task seems insurmountable, but it assesses the situation, takes a deep breath and gets on with it. Nothing like a "tough nut to crack" to challenge you! Its hard work will pay dividends down the road. The full version of this is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld9OQgOUOdk
Music - "The Messenger" courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library.
White Spotted Slimy Salamander in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Salamanders seem to warrant very specific descriptive names - in this case white spots and it oozes slime to discourage predators. However, it's a cute little creature and rather shy and slow moving compared to the Blue Ridge Two Lined Salamander, another descriptive name - video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnfFSyM-__c
The Great Smoky Mountains area is the salamander capitol of the world and there is incredible diversity - this blue with white spots, lung-less and three front-toed salamander lives right beside at least a half a dozen other unique salamanders. They tend to hide in leaf litter and under rocks and rotting wood. I have not noted birds hunting and eating them yet, but I'm sure they do - it would seem the ever-curious and probing Raccoon's might be their biggest predator as it's common to see logs and rocks turned over.
Blue Ridge Two Lined Salamander
I discovered this cute little salamander when i was moving some fallen branches covered in leaf litter. This fragile, but fast moving Blue Ridge Two Lined Salamander gets its name from the two dark lines running down it's sides. A long, slender and fast moving salamander it blends in well with its preferred habitat of wet forest litter and stream sides. It is similar to the Southern Two Lined Salamander. This one lives at about 4000 feet elevation.
My closest encounter yet with a born-in-the-wild truly feral cat that lives in the scrub/woods behind the backyard. Strictly a dusk to dawn hunter, this encounter took place near dusk when I accidentally came between the cat and its normal escape route to the rear. It is a very dark video at first as the cat hides behind a tree until the end when it makes its escape. Typical of cats raised in the wild it never vocalizes nor makes much eye contact and runs away if it encounters people. In this case I'm holding my distance of about 20 feet and appearing non-threatening as part of a slow process to begin trying to socialize the cat. I'm sure it does eat a few birds - occasionally unfortunate Mourning Doves on the ground in the morning or early evening are the most likely victims. I have the bird feeders away from potential crouching/ambush spots for the cat. Songbirds it can't get to because of the dense undergrowth and tree growth and the constant vigilance of the squirrels, Jays and Mockingbirds mean its hunting in the daytime would be futile - they watch everything. It most likely subsists on abundant lizards and snakes and small mammals such as wood rats and mice - squirrels are pretty good at the alarm and I have never seen this cat high in the oaks or pines - it would be attacked by hawks and mockingbirds if they did in the daytime. It definitely defers to the large raccoon's at night - I think it may lose that fight and wont risk injury! This is the same cat avoiding a raccoon on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBgCHTf8rcE
Whatever one thinks of feral cats - and I definitly don't like it eating any birds, this one is a magnificent creature. As far as I know we do not have native Bobcats or coyotes in this area - this cat would not exists long if we did - and this one cat fills a niche in the ecosystem. Cats like this with a year or more in the "wild" and wild born are probably not adoptable as pets, so I will leave it be and see if I can come to terms with it in the backyard.
Video: High Surf, Strong Winds and Beach Erosion Along the East Coast of Florida
No crowds at the beach! A strong pressure gradient between high pressure centered over North Carolina and a broad area of low pressure over the Caribbean Sea is producing windy conditions along the East Central Florida Coast. Numerous warnings and advisories are in place including Coastal Flood Advisory, High Surf Advisory and Wind Advisory with conditions expected to improve after November 6, 2013. This video was taken during the afternoon low tide on November 4th - the debris line from the last high tide can be seen just short of the dune line. The dunes are expected to suffer some erosion during the next few high tides.
A "Big Day" in the backyard! Winter birds are arriving now that the first really cold air is filtering down the eastern U.S.. The latest to arrive is a small group of 8-10 Yellow-Rumped Warblers and the first magnificent mature male Painted Bunting of the season. A few Bunting "Greenies" have been around for a week or so. A group of Catbirds are "meowing" in the brush - they do not come to the seed feeder. All-in-all things are pretty much on schedule.
I captured the sound of the footsteps of this caterpillar's six big feet doing the double-time down a deck railing (from 00:10 to 00:30) - despite a loud leaf blower in the distance. A fascinating creature, and one of the more bizarre caterpillars in nature - the larvae of the White-Marked Tussock Moth is a combination of stunning beauty and obvious danger and knows how to struts its stuff. With a "toothbrush" on its back, cactus-like needles all over and red warning lights front and rear this caterpillar is shouting out - danger! "don't touch me". A skin irritation and sometimes a severe allergic reaction can occur when contacting the sharp spines (seta) which are said to have a feel like rubbing raw fiberglass threads like insulation on your skin - nice. Nevertheless, these are interesting creatures to hang with for a short time as they always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere. The bright red bulbous head of this caterpillar reflected so much of the strong sunlight flooding the scene that it was difficult to get into focus. However, the harsh sunlight in the photo below really shows off the increibily long and sharp seta of this creature. This was the same caterpillar that spat out a wild grape in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-L7f9vaJQ
