Time to Fly

Something Told the Wild Geese
by Rachel Field


Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,

Though the field lay golden
Something whispered, "snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, "frost."

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice

But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,

Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

Now We Know

It's funny how we see things and take them in unconsciously, but never really think about them on purpose.

For years I've seen large white splats on the ground while hiking shorelines.  ("Splat" - yes, that's a scientific word.)

Never gave them much thought.

Then one day while walking with Hyperion, he casually observed, "That's heron scat."

Oh!  So that's what that is!  Suddenly, I was seeing it everywhere.

Now I know, and so do you.  Next time we see such a deposit, we'll know that a heron recently shared the same bit of shoreline.

Bang!

Even I was able to track these trail signs:

Hike at Maquoketa

Hiked at Maquoketa Caves last week with a couple of friends.  We had a grand adventure!  The day started off with snowflakes, white nose syndrome in bats, and a five-lined skink.  After leaving the ranger's office, we hiked through Dance Hall Cave and immersed ourselves in a wonderland of golden leaves.  Here are some photographic highlights:

Natural Arch

Looking out from Middle Dance Hall

Raccoon Creek running through Dance Hall

Gold spilling into the stream

Algaescapes

At Lost Grove Lake I was fascinated with these - well, for lack of a better term - algaescapes.

They reminded me of tropical coves where moss-draped trees provide the perfect screen to hide a marauding vessel...

... or the watery graves of sinister ships, with shredded bits of sail still clinging to the rotting yardarms.

But do not venture too close.  There be monsters!

North American Zoo Mammals

Niabi Zoo has some wonderful exotic animals, but this post is about some their North American mammals.  They have bobcats, wolves, porcupines, and elk.  The wolves did not come out to play, but I got photos of the others, through their enclosures.

Lynx rufus

Note the tufted ears

A bobcat is smaller than a lynx, but bigger than a domestic cat.  It has tufts of hair on its ears, and a short tail, from whence comes its name.  Direct interactions between bobcats and humans is rare, but they will stalk and attack pets.  I've never seen one in the wild.  Have any of you readers?  If so, tell us the story!

This porcupine is sitting up in a tree, in his enclosure.

Note the toes of the porcupine, on the lower left.

Next up we have the porcupine.  They are smaller than beavers, but may look bigger due to their many quills. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not throw their quills.  The quills are barbed however, and predators, or even curious domestic dogs, may end up with a face full of them.  This is very painful, and sometimes leads to infection.  I would love see a porcupine in the wild - from a distance, of course!

An elk, also known as a wapiti, meaning "white rump".

"You wanna piece of me?!!!"

Last of all, we have the elk.  This elk was very interested in me, and came close - as if to check out what I was doing.  In fact, her posture and behavior seemed kind of challenging.  Thank goodness there was a fence between us!  You would never want to approach one so closely in the wild.  They have been known to charge humans and vehicles.

Their historic range included Iowa and Illinois, but now they are mainly found in the west.  They are hunted for food.  The Boone & Crockett record book lists the world's record elk as having an antler spread of 47 4/8 inches.  That is almost four feet across, with the height of the antlers being over 4 1/2 feet long.  Yowza!

Prize Fight

If a Great Blue Heron took on a Great Egret in a prize fight, who do you think would win?  I'd put my money on the heron.  They are bigger, extremely territorial, and have a reputation for being more aggressive.  Here are the stats.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
36 - 54 inches - head to tail length
66-79 inches - wingspan
45-54 inches - height
4.6 - 7.9 pounds

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret (Ardea alba)
31-41 inches - head to tail length
52-67 inches - wingspan
36 - 40 inches - height
1.5 - 3.3 pounds

Great Egret

Egrets are no slackers, however, and can be very territorial themselves.  I wouldn't want to mess with one of them in a narrow alley at night!

When a friend and I were walking at Sylvan Island the other day, the quiet morning was suddenly ripped to shreds by a  very loud, cranky call from the water.  Heron, right?  But it was very loud - the loudest heron either of us had ever heard.  Denise said it sounded angry to her and I agreed.  Very angry.  We knew something was going on, so we  hurried to an open point on the trail to see what was up.

A Great Blue Heron was screaming bloody murder at a Great Egret and began pursuing him through the air, intent on inflicting bodily harm.  The sound level and speed were charged with some major energy.  It left us standing there saying, "Wow!"  Too bad I don't have an audio clip or video of it to show you, instead of just this still shot, but trust me, that heron was one angry bird!

Angry Great Blue Heron chasing Great Egret

I researched these two birds after I got home, and found that we were far from the first to witness such an interaction between these two greats.  This particular battle, taking place in the fall, was probably a dispute over feeding territory.  The standings?  Heron 1; Egret  0.

Rich Colors

I went to Niabi Zoo recently, with a good friend, and enjoyed seeing all of the animals and birds.  The weather was perfect, and we took lots of photos.  But out of everything we saw that day, I think it was these beautiful flowers that gladdened my heart the most.  I could not get enough of their rich colors!

Living History

The Osage Orange takes its name from the people of the Osage Nation.  The trees grew primarily in a swath of land running from southern Oklahoma and south-western Arkansas into eastern Texas.  It was well-known to native people, who prized the wood for bow making.  In fact, one of its other names is "bodark", from the French phrase "bois d'arc", which means bow wood.

Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis & Clark fame, obtained slips of this unique tree in early 1804, right before setting out on his journey.  It was a new species to him, and he sent the slips back home to President Thomas Jefferson, with whom he had lived and for whom he had worked as a secretary for two years.  Lewis called them Osage apples.  Sometimes today they are called hedge apples.

Both Jefferson and Lewis were naturalists.  Jefferson wanted to find a water route to the Pacific for his country, but he also had an interest in the new-to-him plants and animals that the expedition would encounter.  As a result, specimens of plants and animals were sent to him from the trail as often as circumstances allowed. The first shipment was in March of 1804, and included the Osage Orange cuttings.  During the two-year expedition, whole animals were prepared with taxidermy skills and sent back, as well as furs, bones, teeth, eggs, feathers, and plants, with written descriptions and sketches.  Theirs was a scientific journey of discovery, as well as a political one.

The slips had originally come from an Osage village about 300 miles west of St. Louis.  They were obtained by Pierre Chouteau, of the great fur trading family headquartered in St. Louis.  Lewis got them from Choteau and sent them to Jefferson.  Some cuttings were sent to Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia horticulturist.  To this day, you can go and see Osage Orange trees from these first slips, growing in the St. Peter's Episcopal Church yard, and at the University of Virginia, founded by Jefferson - pieces of living history.

Charmed, I'm Sure

Hyperion and I went out to Lost Grove Lake and had a good long walk around the lake, and the creek feeding into it.  It was my first time there, and I loved it!  The wind was blowing, and made beautiful variations of sound as it blew through the pines, the tall grasses, and the corn fields.  Before long the sun came out strong enough to make me remove my knit hat and tie my coat around my waist.

One of the most charming things we saw there were these beautiful little American Goldfinches.

They were down on the mud flats, which have appeared due to the drought, and were drinking water from some of the many deep footprints punctuating the shoreline.

These, I will have you know, are the very first goldfinches that I have ever photographed in the wild.  I spent some time this summer sitting near my neighbor's sunflower bed, hoping to capture one of these finches with my camera, but had no success.  But here were a pair, totally unexpected - a little gift for my heart.

In a field above the lake, there were hundreds of sunflower plants, brown and bowed, but ready to weather the brutalities of winter, each one a pantry chock full of seeds for these little finches.

The goldfinch is an especially beautiful bird, with the male's displaying bright yellow plumage during the mating season. They seem to be happy, inquisitive birds, and a group of them together is known as a "charm".  Maybe that's why I always feel it is a sign of good luck when I see them zipping up and down our road as I drive into town on errands.

This bird is sometimes known as the eastern goldfinch, and the wild canary.  It is also the state bird of Iowa.