Eastern Chipmunk

Date: November 5th, 2011

Location: Keuka Lake to Seneca lake trail.

Physical description of location:  Nick and I like to go on hikes and decided to check out the Keuka lake to Seneca lake hiking trail that runs from Penn Yan to Dresden.  Bicyclists and nature walkers love the trail cause its right next to the stream.  It was really pretty, the leaves were turning color and falling and it wasn't to cold.

Describe sighting:  As we were walking the trails, i noticed something scurry by us, his or her tail was sticking up and it planted itself on the bottom of a tree.  I saw the stripes on the back and realized it was a chipmunk.  He was probably gathering food for the upcoming winter, though it doesnt look like its going to be a snowy winter, we hardly have gotten any snow yet. Unfortunately, i couldnt get any pictures of the critter. They're all to fast for a camera shot.  I probably should dress up as a chipmunk, maybe that way they wont run away from me.

Natural History: They like to live in brushy areas, stone walls in woods and suburbs.  They're home range ranges from 1/2 to 3 acres and they love to eat seeds, nuts and fruits.  They have huge cheeks that they store their food in. (reminds me of when someone has food in there teeth and they say theyre saving it for later)  Their mating happens from February to April and June to July.  They can have up to 7 young and 1 to 2 litters.  The young are weaned at 4 weeks and are independent after 8.  I would love to have a chipmunk as a pet, theyre so cute. :)

For future study: Is it possible to own a chipmunk as a pet?  There are a lot of different species of animals that can be trained to be pets. Ive heard you can have a raccoon and a skunk as pets so is it possible to own a chipmunk, if so i want one.

Sources: Stokes, D. and Stokes, L. 1986. Guide to Animal Tracking and Behavior.

Black Bear

Date: November 12th,

Location of sighting: My parents house in Horseheads New York during a weekend visit.

Physical description of location:  My parents house is surrounded by woods, they have 11 acres, a game bird coup, a garage and three barns that are packed with gardening tools, hunting decoys, softball equipment (i used to play when i was younger) old furniture from my grandparents house and other varies items.  There is a large field with a pond beyond our property that a friend of my parents own.  They let us hike and hunt back there, they have about 100 acres.

Describe the sighting:  I was hanging out at my parents house for the weekend, hoping to get some good sightings and pictures of wildlife for my class.  My mom would tell me how many times she saw wildlife but never got any good pictures of them.  She told me she saw a red fox the other night but her camera is dead so she didnt get a good picture.  As i was sitting at the kitchen table sometime during the afternoon, Wally, their hunting dog started going crazy, barking at the front window.  I got excited cause he kept  running up and down the stairs, barking and carrying on.  My dad told me not to open the door in case it was the bear that was showing his face around the house was out there.  I went to the front window and opened the sliding glass door, standing on the porch and looking over the side to the ground.  I had my crappy phone camera ready, just in case it was something worth taking a picture of.  A cute little black bear was staring up at me, and i was excited to see him.  My parents have told me of sightings of him but never got any good pictures.  I know it was a black bear because of the no hump on his back and the gently sloped forehead. (My camera does nothing to what the eye can see) After he took off i wanted to go down and see the destruction of the bear but my dad told me not too in case he was still around the area.  I know now that its highly unlikely that he would have attacked me.  He was also worried about Wally getting out and chasing him, he's a very sneaky dog and can get out very easily. I didnt want him to sneak around me as i opened the door and take off after the bear.  (My mom and i got my dad a trail camera for christmas, so hopefully we'll get some good pictures of him or some other wildlife when we get it hooked up)

Natural history:  According to Stoke's in his book, the black bear's home range is 20-175 square miles in the wooded forests or mountains.  He was eating garbage from my parents garbage can.  They are also known to eat berries, insects, carrion and small mammals.  They mate from June to July and have their young in January and February.  They can have up to 4 young but are known to only have 2.  The cubs are independent after 18 months. (p.309)


For future study:  The next time i see a bear or hear my parents talking about them, im going to do some investigating and find some signs of the bear.  How many times do they come around the house?

Sources: Stokes, D. and Stokes, L. 1986. Guide to Animal and Tracking and Behavior.

Domestic Dog

Date: Thanksgiving break.

Location of sighting:  My parents house in Horseheads, New York.





Physical description of location:   My parents live in a 2 story cedar house in Horseheads, New York.  They live on a secluded hill where the neighbors a couple hundreds yards down the dirt driveway.  They are surrounded by woods and have 6-10 lively apple trees down below the house.

Describe the sighting:  I was visiting my parents during our Thanksgiving break.  They have two dogs. Lucky (to the right) and Wally (the bottom)  Lucky was my grandfathers dog before he passed away in 2008, so my parents adopted him.  He's an older dog, im not sure how old he really is.  My grandpa got him for the SPCA.  My parents recently found out that he had a broken leg and it healed by itself.  He must have been abused as a pup.   He's not to fond of me but i think he's getting used to me, he doesnt bark all the time when he sees me. Though, when i go home and my parents are not home, he never goes outside with me when i take them out to go to the bathroom.  He only goes out for my mom and dad.  Maybe i just scared him when my grandpa first got him.  I love dogs and always want to play with them so maybe thats why hes scared.  Im not sure.   He likes to hide in my parents bedroom and only comes out when im around when food is involved. I have recently just got him to take food out of my hand.  Now, Wally on the other hand,  is a loveable, playful dog.  He is a rescue dog.  My parents got him a few years ago a friend of my dad.  My dad is a retired Correctional Officer and knows alot of the police, CO's, ECO's around the town.  He got a call that Wally was found, tied to a tree by his collar and chain.  He was there for a while, he was dirty and ratty and his collar was tight around his neck.  My parents adopted Wally and cleaned him up.  Wally's also a bird hunting dog, and unfortunately, my dad raises game birds (turkey, pheasant, quail, also peacocks.) and one day Wally had gotten out of the house and killed most of my dads birds.  He's done this many times and eventually my dad learned better and got Wally a shocking collar.  Wally's got a great nose and can smell for miles away.  He's chased after deer, bear and coyotes but always comes back. (My next entry is about the bear he's chased and i actually got some great pictures of that guy) 

Natural History:  The dogs home range varies widely, they can live in the woods, fields and in human homes where my parents dogs live. Lucky eats pet food while Wally eats pet food and my dads game birds.  It's not funny, but i cant help but laugh when i write that.  Females can have up to 23 pups and the amount of litters varies in the female.  She can be in estrus for 1 or more times a year; males can mate any time of the year.  The pups are weaned 8-10 weeks and reach sexual maturity from 7 to 10 months, but differs breed to breed; According to Stokes.

This is a picture of a dog track i found outside of my apartment.  There is a large black, German Shepard that lives upstairs.  He's bigger than his owner and im curious to how she can walk him on his leash.  You can see he has big paws, being a big animal.

For future study:  Why do certain breeds of dogs hunt for birds like wally does and why are some breeds scared like Lucky?

Sources:  Stokes, D. and Stokes, L. 1986. Guide to Animal Tracking and Behavior.

The Grey Squirrel

Location of sighting: I've seen the grey squirrel many times in many different locations.  Outside of my apartment, walking down the road, driving to school, etc..

Physical description of location:  We live in a wooded area with many trees surrounding our apartment and that surround the school.  Perfect place for seeing squirrels and chipmunks run about.

Describe the sighting: I was out walking the block with my boyfriend, we decided how to see how long it would take us to get to the main street from our apartment if we needed to walk home from a night of drinking.  It was windy, not very cold out and the grey squirrel scampered in front of us and up a tree that resided in the cemetery.  I wanted to get a good picture of him but he was to fast and was gone by the time i had nicks phone camera in my hand.  (it's always my luck to not be carrying my camera around when i see wildlife.  I hope to have some pictures of the little critter before i have to turn this in.)

Another interesting grey squirrel sighting i had was when i was driving to school.  It was along the lake and i was behind some fairly slow people, so i decided to look towards the lake to see if i could spot anything.  Sure enough, an all black, grey squirrel was hoping along, gathering food.  I was excited.  I never saw a black squirrel alive (my dad has one mounted in his game room.)  I wanted to pull over and follow him, hoping to get his blackness on film but i didn't want to be late for class so i kept driving.

Ive even heard the call of the grey squirrel.  it sounded like almost barking and i knew he was mad or scared because my cat Skeeter was outside exploring ( i don't like to let the cats out but sometimes i do but only for a few moments) around the bushes and trees and i hard this frantic barking sound coming from above.  I looked up and noticed a squirrel was hanging out on one of the lower branches, not moving.  His bushy tail flickered every time he barked at skeeter though. im sure he was scared and didn't want Skeeter to chase him, but lucky for the squirrel skeeter was just exploring down below and soon bolted inside, not liking the outdoors.  I wish it would snow one of these days, it would have been nice to get some tracks on camera.

Natural history:  Stokes's book says the grey squirrel's habitats are any place where there are seed or nut producing trees in the cities, country and suburbs. They love to eat flowers, cones, nuts, seeds and buds in a 1-3 acres of land.   They mate usually in December to February and June and July.  They can have up to 5 young and 2 litters.   The young are weaned from their mother at 8 to 9 weeks and are independent by 3-4 months.  They also like to live in nests they build in trees and/or tree holes.

For future study: I'm curious about the squirrels chatter.  I've only heard it when they were scared or perhaps mad.  do they have different sounding calls when mad, scared, happy?

Sources: Stokes, D. and Stokes, L .1986. Guide to Animal tracking and behavior.

House Cats

 Novemeber 6th,
1:00 Pm
Name: Skeeter
Age 6 years.

Skeeter came into my life when he was just a kitten of 6 weeks old, a friend of mine, Adam, bought him from a local pet shop in Horseheads, New York.  He had boughten him for a roommate of mine and when she moved out, she didnt take him with her and left him with an ex and myself.  As a kitten he was very playful and would climb all over the furniture and our friends when they came to visit.  Now he sits on the futon or his perch on the chair and stares around.  He sometimes plays with my other cat, Willa but thats only when she bothers him and wants to play herself.  Skeeter has gotten out a few times, being an indoor cat, i was scared he would get hit by a car or someone would have picked him up and took him to the pound since he doesnt wear a collar.   He's not a big cat, maybe weighing 6 pounds.  He eats dry food, but loves tuna.  I give it to each of them when they are good.  He's moved 5 times over his 6 years of life and had to deal with a flood in our current apartment, thus us having to live in a hotel for a week. So i suppose hes moved 6 times.  He's all black with a growing patch of white on his chest.   He has small paws with long claws.  We recently just got him and Willa a scratcher that holds cat nip in it and it is said to keep their claws short, it seems to be working.  I sometimes like to sticking my fingers in between his toes to spread them out, hes kind of ticklish so i dont think he likes it that much.  He doesnt really like to meow and stays quiet unless he's hungry.  When he was a kitten and he wanted attention he would meow which sounded more like he was saying "Hello" than anyhting else.  He hisses only when him and Willa are fighting/playing.   I wish i had more pictures of him when he was a kitten but lost all my pictures from my ex reformating my computer without my knowledge or consent.

Name: Willa a.k.a Willy, Willa Barker

Age 4 years.

I decided to get Willa when Skeeter was four, I wanted him to have a play friend and Skeeter was fond of my ex and i wanted someone to be fond of me (sad i know.)  I got her from a friend at work, her neighbors had a litter of kittens, i cant recall to how many they had.  When i brought her home, Skeeter was not pleased but eventually got used to her and they started playing together. (The picture below is her as a kitten, the one above is her now.)  She weighs about 9 pounds, i weighed her recentely.  First i weighed myself, then i held her when i weighed myself for the second time.  She loves to eat.  If Skeeter doesnt force himself onto the bowl of food, she will end up eating the entire thing.  She meows, well barks, all the time.  she has a bunch of different ways of getting your attention with her voice. She, what i like to call, barks at you, if you dont pay attention to her.  She wines and then she will meow.  Her paws are funny, she has such long hair that hair sticks out from the pads of her feet. I think its longer then the hair on her body.  A few weeks after i named her i thought of a better name and wanted to call her "Tails" after the character from Sonic The Hedgehog.  She, of course, doesnt have two tails but her tail is so fluffy.  She's very loving, but doesnt like to be picked up a lot.

I found the picture of the house cat tracks from google.com.  I'm not a very good artist and if i tried to draw them it would have turned out like what the cats poop out.

White Tail Deer

October 25, 2011
3:30-4:00 pm

I'm not in good shape, and lord knows i was heaving and hoing up the giant hills of the Bristol "mountains" but I do love nature and every second of the hike was amazing.   This is the second time my boyfriend, Nick and I traveled up the snow-less mountain and I was on the look-out for wildlife in any form.  Walking along the muddy terrain, Nick yelled out to me "Watch out for the poop."  I rushed over to where he was standing and looked down.  "Scat." I corrected. "That's what poop is called.  I learned it in my Wildlife class."  I asked for his phone so I could take a picture, since mine is useless and doesnt take very good photos.     

We continued on out hike, stepping over the large piles of scat that was scattered all over the hill.   There was another pile that looked different from the one we saw higher on the hill.  They were rolled in balls, almost like cottontail's scat, but i knew it was the white-tail deer from my dad teaching me as a child.  I snapped a picture of that and kept walking.  The smell of winter was in the air, the leaves were turning bright reds and oranges, it was a beautiful day.  Soon, some rustling in the brush above us caught our attention.  I looked into the woods and saw a large white tail sticking in the air, jumping over fallen down branches, escaping from, what he thought, predators.  A large white-tail buck.  He didnt have a very big rack, maybe a 4 point but he was very big in size.   I didnt have Nicks phone on me and just as he was getting it out of his pocket and to the camera app, the deer was out of sight.  We decided to go in the direction he ran off to incase he stopped to take a break from running from us.  Unfortunatley he wasnt in sight, we spooked him.   The rest of the hike was trying to get down the mountain without falling into a pile of scat or mud.  We decided that we would make a weekly adventure out of the Bristol hike before the snow touches down.

                                                                                

November 2, 2011 (3:00pm) - Nick and I decided to go for another hike after he got out of work.  This would be our third time hiking Bristol mountain and i was hoping to see some wildlife on this adventure.  We climbed the right side of the mountain this time around.  It was a doosey getting to the top.  Once we did, I was upset we hadnt seen anything wild.  We heard some rustling in the brush but nothing showed itself.   On our way back down was the most thrilling.  We saw 6 white tail deer.  Unfortunalty they were farther then what Nicks camera could get.  I was excited and hoped that there would be some cool evidence that they were there.  Once we got down to the spot they were at we saw this bed that one of the doe had been laying on.   The tall grass was matted down (the picture shown above and at the bottom) and there were tracks in the fresh mud.  We tried to take a picture, but none of the ones we shot came out so well.  I was bummed but happy that i got to see more than one deer in their habitat. 

Yay, i finally got a good picture of a deer print while hiking the Keuka to Seneca Lake Trail in Dresden.  Of all the pictures I tried taking, this one came out the best.