Usually, they’re watching another squirrel bury a nut. Then, when the coast is clear, they steal it. But food larceny didn’t explain the behavior of one little sneak I watched out my window.
Continue reading The Not-So-Sneaky SquirrelImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
Image Credits: Carol Doeringer.
It stood upright, balanced not on its legs but on its wingtips. I leaned in for a closer look.
The fly wasn’t standing. It wasn’t even alive.
The poor creature had been stabbed.
Continue reading Call CSI: It’s an Insect Murder MysteryImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
But that’s not what this juvenile Bald Eagle is watching. Perched on the high bluff behind our Lake Allegan home, the raptor has a sweeping view of the water below. That view includes Eagle Island.
You can probably guess how that island got its name.
Continue reading From Shallows to Swamp?Image Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The foliage feasters are out in force these days. I don’t begrudge the insects’ leafy meals. But their bloom banquets are another story.
Continue reading Petal PuzzleImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
Black is a common color morph in eastern gray squirrels, especially in northern areas like Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario.
But this black squirrel had a most uncommon feature: a cinnamon-colored tail.
Continue reading A Squirrely Show of ColorImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The snoop at my sliding-glass door made no attempt to conceal herself as she stared. I wondered: Was she looking through the glass or at it?
Continue reading A Cowbird Cases the JointImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The poo’s origin was no mystery. Robins had nested overhead, on our pergola. But still, I wondered why I was seeing so much of the sticky stuff. Robins, like many bird parents, remove their nestlings’ excrement after each feeding. It comes out wrapped in a fecal sac—a convenient package that parents swallow during the first week and then carry away from the nest as fecal quantities grow. In addition to helping keep the young ones healthy, nest sanitation minimizes any scent trail that might lead predators to the nest. And yet, just a few feet directly below the nestlings lay a stinking pile of poop.
Was I looking at the dereliction of parental doo-ty?
Continue reading When the Poo Piles UpImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The beautiful birds were not a precious gift from my true love, as the holiday song suggests. Instead, Mute Swans are quite common on Lake Allegan, which our home overlooks. Their graceful movement and luminous white plumage always command my attention. While not totally silent as their name implies, Mute Swans are blissfully quiet compared to the loudmouth Canada Geese that also frequent our lake.
And then there’s the ugly part: These lovely birds are invasive thugs.
Continue reading A Surplus of Swans
Image Credits: Carol Doeringer, E. Spicer.
Warm(ish) weather has reached our lake, melting and fracturing its icy cover. Ice floes of all shapes and sizes meander by. Some floes rival a sculptor’s art. Others carry creatures at rest, floating like innertubes on a lazy river.
They all send a most welcome signal.
Continue reading Winter Goes with the Floe
Image Credits: Carol Doeringer.
