Conservation Currents
by Six Members of the Conservation Commission
October 6, 2011, page 15.....
Highlights from
“Nature Notes”

The Charlotte Conservation Commission has a tradition of including interesting wildlife sightings from members in our monthly meeting minutes. We call these “Nature Notes.” The following includes commission members’ observations from this past year. We would like to hear from you. Contact us at cccvt@gmavt.net, and we will include your sightings in our “Nature Notes.”
Bobcats: During early July, my wife, Katherine, was awakened one morning by our eight chickens squawking up a storm in their fully enclosed outdoor pen. She looked out the window to see a small bobcat placidly sitting beside the pen admiring the hens. After a few minutes it wandered off, realizing that a meal was not readily at hand, and the chickens quieted down. A few days later, early on a Sunday morning, I was putting in a raised-bed garden in my backyard. I glanced up to see another bobcat, this one fully grown, ambling across the yard not 30 feet away from me, with a large gray squirrel dangling from its mouth. It was in no hurry to rush away after it looked straight at me, as if to say, “Go on about your business, I’m just having my breakfast.”
Woodpeckers: Watching birds visit feeders is a wonderful way to learn how to identify birds, observe how they nurture their young and just relax and unwind while watching a fascinating world unfold. One unexpectedly delightful observation is learning that woodpeckers have a sweet tooth, so to speak. They love sugar water from the hummingbird feeders. I frequently see downy woodpeckers resting on the base of the feeders, lapping up the sugar. I have seen a hairy woodpecker doing the same, which is quite a balancing act. There is a suet feeder near the hummingbird feeder. I like to think that the sugar water is dessert. So many people love the taste of sugar. It seems that woodpeckers do too.
Snake and Toad: Sometimes nature is found in your own backyard. A few days ago, I was looking at my rain garden and encountered our resident garter snake with a sizeable toad in its mouth. I was amazed at the size of the toad and watched the expansion of the snake to accommodate its prey. It successfully rotated and swallowed the toad.
Farm Wildlife: Who needs wildlife when farm animals can act wild and take over field and forest? Our six heritage turkeys are roaming over six acres. They can be found in any number of places, perching in stag horn sumac or old apple trees, pecking cherries off our trees, trotting up to Mt. Philo State Park or joining us as uninvited guests on our deck. Their latest foray was down to our neighbors, who enjoyed the “wildlife” sighting. Our “wildlife” habitat is just too enticing for our turkeys, showing that there’s a fine line between domesticated and wild members of the Meleagris species – they do share the same genes. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised at this “wild” behavior. It’s natural, after all.
Efts and Mushrooms: Why is it that red efts and red mushrooms seem to go hand-in-hand? Both were out in force earlier this month in a hemlock stand in West Charlotte. My kids and I found them in twos and threes – there were so many that we had to watch where we stepped. The red eft is the juvenile terrestrial stage of the Eastern newt. Both mushrooms and red efts are brought out by summer rains, creating great photo opportunities.
Drama in the Fields: This summer was a drama in the hay field. Our neighbor VJ had an extra bluebird house and this May decided to put it on a fence post next to the garden. It wasn’t long before, to our delight, a beautiful pair of bluebirds moved in and built a nest. The male, brilliant blue with an orange-buff breast, and his mate frequented the hayfield and garden hunting insects. It was a wet cold spring, but things looked promising (four eggs!) until the tree swallows appeared on the scene. Two to three pairs of the emerald-black-backed dive-bombers harried and buzzed the bluebirds in their nest until they finally drove them out. Swallows occupied the nesting box, as well as another one by the barn, and quickly laid their eggs. Now the dive-bombers hunted the fields, catching insects on the wing. We were a bit sad to lose the bluebird brood, but low and behold, in July after the swallows had come and gone, the bluebirds came back! We had cleaned out the box and a new clutch of four light-blue eggs were laid within days. The weather was warm and dry, and it wasn’t long before the eggs hatched and the fledglings were out of the box. Four new juvenile bluebirds had made it into the world, hopefully to return next season.