Wildlife Behavior

[Curmudgeon]

Someone started a thread about hobbies. My hobby is wildlife behavior. I just want to ignore politics for a bit. I need to discuss something else.

 

Most of you spend a lot of time watching wildlife, all kinds of wildlife. Please share your first hand experiences on the most puzzling or interesting wildlife behavior you have seen. Back when my ears worked well, I was somewhat expert at bird identification. DEC hired me as a contractor to survey birds in some wild areas of the Dacks. Below is a old listserve post from that period. Even If you have no interest in birds, read the italicized paragraphs.

 

For those of you who are interested in the area, the land SW of Lake Lila is private - Nehasane and Brandreth Parks. I had permission to access both areas only during this time.

 

6/18/05

 

     I spent from Tuesday to Friday working in my Atlas blocks southwest of Lake Lila and in another isolated block further west in the Five Ponds Wilderness. I could have done with less rain and bugs but there were some good moments and some I will never forget. Bird highlights included numerous Olive-sided Flycatchers, Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, Tennesee Warbler, Palm Warbler, confirmed breeding by Black-backed Woodpecker and Gray Jay, and Merlins at a nest. Unexpected birds in this area - unexpected by me at least - included the numerous broods of Canada Geese, several Red-tailed Hawks and a Veery.
     The first day I worked my way down the the tracks from Keepawa, out of my 3 contiguous blocks, to Beaver River Station. There, late in the day, I made boat arrangements for crossing the reservoir into the Five Ponds block the next morning. While I ate supper, I watched a female Merlin chasing dragonflies. This year the Merlins are nesting in a tall pine right next to a camp. On my way to the boat Wednesday morning, I bumped a crow off the ground. It flew too close to the Merlin nest. Two very aggressive Merlins were on it in a flash. As the three of them went out of sight around a pine, I heard the crow scream. It sounded as if talons pierced flesh. The rest of Wednesday was routine Atlas work in a difficult to access block.
     Thursday things got interesting. I was off early towards Little Rapids and back into my contiguous blocks. Along the reservoir I encountered a pair of Osprey, one of which circled over me calling repeatedly. This is a good sign. I've seen individuals there but it's been 30 years since I know of a successful nesting on the reservoir. Further on I found a Veery - the first ever for me in that area. It stopped singing when I neared and started with alarm calls. A Loon was sitting on eggs on the edge of the water.
I dropped my pack where I had staged my mountain bike earlier and rode a logging road towards the big bog with the Palm Warblers. The moose and bear tracks in the road were very fresh.
     At the beginning of the skidder trail (from the salvaging of the '95 blowdown) that leads to the bog, I left the bike. I walked about 100 yards when I saw something running at me, fast. It was a large bear. I suspect a Doppler effect here - the bears running at you always seem larger than those that are running away, the faster the bear is running at you, the larger it appears - however, this was really a big one. It was probably the second largest Black Bear I've seen - out of about 30. This skidder trail is edged by slash and brush. It has some light brush growing in it. Getting off it wasn't an option. Running wasn't an option either. I can't run that fast. I can't even ride my bike that fast. I yelled and hooted loudly. About 60 yards out, the bear hesitated and slowed to a walk. I kept yelling. The bear stopped at about 50 yards and looked at me through a bush. It stood up and stared. Picture this, two bipeds staring at each other, one scrawny and yelling, the other massive, furry and confused. At moments like this, you lose your sense of time. I'm guessing the whole experience was probably 2 minutes but it felt much longer. Finally, the bear dropped and moved off the trail. I gave it several minutes and then passed where it had been, hollering the whole time.
     I've speculated about why the bear was running. It seemed curious, not afraid. The ranger I met at the Lake Lila parking area suggested it heard something that attracted it. Maybe it was the squeal of my wet bike brakes.
     As I entered the bog, I found a family of 4 Gray Jays. The 2 young were great. One received a lot of attention from a Blue-headed Vireo until it flew off to beg from its parents. Inside the bog things were much different than the last time. It was now very wet and hard to move around. In late May it was much drier and firmer. The large numbers of Palm Warblers were gone. Twice I heard singing from out in the bog but I did not bump any out like I had in large numbers 2 weeks earlier. A female Black-backed Woodpecker became the first of 2 I found in that block.
      I left the bog and headed back down the road on my bike. My bear experiences weren't over. After about a half mile, I met a small bear in the road. I hollered. It moved off to the left. Good. I started again on my bike. What I didn't know was that Momma Bear was hidden on the right shoulder. What a shock it was when a running bear ran across the road 2 bike lengths in front of me. This was my second close encounter with a bear in an hour and a half.
     Further down the road there's a screen of alder growing on the shoulder. I was moving along at a good clip when I spotted a huge dark hulking body through the vegetation. My immediate reaction was "not again," but it wasn't a bear this time. It was a bull moose up to its knees in the water. I got to watch it for about 5 minutes while it slowly moved out of sight. After these multiple encounters with megafauna I was confronted by an aggessive and disturbed Ruffed Grouse while babies flew off in every direction. It was a day to remember.
     I headed NE up the tracks into another block to camp for the night. Friday morning I went into the bog near Keepawa where I found several Palm Warblers earlier. This was more successful. Without much work, my pishing brought in an agitated Palm Warbler to join 2 Lincoln's Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow that objected to my presence.
I was wearing high rubber boots this day so I could get out further into Partlow Flow. There, from a comfortable distance, I watched a small bear foraging. Out in the flow a Black-backed Woodpecker was drumming. Identical drumming was coming from a bird I couldn't see in another direction. Shortly, the male I couldn't see flew about with a female. They interacted for a minute or two before the female disappeared into a tree.
     Late that morning I found a singing male Tennessee Warbler in a regenerating area at the edge of a mature forest. I'll go back in July.


 

Edited November 7, 2014 by Curmudgeon