Red Wing Nature Notes

I know we have ? many coyotes around here yet I rarely see one. Last year as I ?emerged from a shelter belt of trees between fields, I had ? a half-mile view across a small field/valley. Something in my peripheral vision ?caught my attention and I turned my head towards ?it .

It could have been a dead tree, a patch of dirt or a dead plant in the distance. I was not expecting to see anything. It was a subconscious action. It is likely my eye would have passed over it, but as I turned my head I unexpectedly sneezed. If it hadn’t taken a second for sound to travel across the open space I might not have seen anything.

What I saw was a coyote that had been laying in the long grass at the edge of the field watching me. When I sneezed he jumped straight up into the air like he’d been shot and disappeared into the brush.

Once or twice this year ?while driving the gravel road to our house I’ve ?had a quick glimpse of one diappearing into the brush.

At night we frequently hear their ?other-worldly calls in the distance. Less frequently they yip and call near the house. Many nightsa passing coyote lets out a single howl as he passes our house in the pre-dawn hours.

I’ve made it a goal to record some coyote howls and post them on the blog. My recording equipment is a simple, low quality ?radio shack voice memo recorder, but I think it will do the job in the right situation.

I leave it on my dresser and shake myself awake when ? I hear more than one or two calls ?in the night ?night. I fumble with the recorder and sneak to a door or window in hopes of recording the sound. Several times I have stood in the dark hearing only crickets waiting for ?a second ?call. The moon is always out and the second call for me to record has not come yet.

Last night there was a very loud series of howls just outside the house. I tip toed to the sliding patio door and opened it, thinking like usual, I would after a few minutes, ? go back to sleep. As I stood at the crack in the door recorder in hand I heard a distinct crunching like a dog working on a bone. Of course I waited silently and stared into the dark willing myself to see something out there. The moon was bright on the field ?but the large oaks near our house cast impenetrable shadows.

It’s crazy, but I stood for nearly an hour. Always I would hear the crunch, crunch crunch. I saw three deer bolt across the field in the moon light. I think I saw the shadow of two coyotes do the same. Sometimes the crunching would stop and I could hear the sound of something apparently running in circles in the long grass. Finally I decided the noises would continue and I probably wouldn’t see anything new. I mentally marked the spot.

This morning I went to the place, ?the darkest part of the shadow thrown by the big white oak in the moonlight. ?Nearby there was an area where I had turned up and raked out fresh dirt as I worked on a landscaping project the night before. ?I walked around ?and found deer tracks, coyote tracks and coon tracks. I found paths where creatures had walked through the long grass under the oaks.

I looked to see if I could find ?feathers or tufts of hair from a coyote dinner. There was nothing like that. There was something strange though. ? Evidently the acorns have started to fall. Under the white oak that ?I was staring at last night ?there was nothing but empty acorn cups and some ?matted grass. I went to other oaks nearby and found quite a few acorns on the ground. Evidently the party was under just that one tree.

I doubt coyotes were eating acorns, though I know my dogs seem to enjoy them. ? I’m pretty sure the steady crunching noise accounts for the missing acorns. I know people who hate oak trees – wouldn’t have them because of the mess. Our oak trees aren’t messy at all. By spring there’s not an acorn to be found.

So that’s a long way of saying the first acorns are falling. A friend mentioned the first black walnuts are falling from the walnut tree in their yard as well.

Someone else mentioned they saw a large wasp nest along the road so I’m including a photo of that as well. ?The nest is ?a busy place right now. When it gets cold the wasps will die.

 ?