A Couple of Critters

Although I often find other evidences of skunks in the neighborhood (winter tracks, dead in the road, nighttime release of their delightful scent), I hardly ever see the real thing just calmly wandering around the yard.

I do have a good skunk story though. Long ago our dog Hezekiah, who was not a killer, but he loved to play with little furry friends, brought me a snub-nosed black baby with a white nose stripe- alive. It was about the size of a chipmunk and actually looked a lot like a puppy. It did take me a few minutes to figure out what on earth it was. He'd gotten into a den of baby skunks underneath a shed and somehow avoided tangling with mom. Since the babies don't have the scent glands, the characteristic odor didn't help me with the ID. I put the babies back, but things probably did not go well for them. I really don't know. But that was my first experience with baby skunks. Really cute!

This one is full grown and I did not feel the need to approach it.

Not such a good picture of this. It's a very common butterfly called a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. However a search of my blog says I've never gotten a picture of one before. And it was determined to stay on the other side of the flower, but it was sure enjoying this sedum in bloom.

Worked on all my projects today. Planted some asters a friend brought me and potted some cuttings. Did a little bit on plant records. I'd like to get those caught up! Probably didn't work hard enough on things with real deadlines.

See Butterflies

Familiar NCT Section- Not Quite the Endurance Edition

  Got too late a start to hike 10 trail miles yesterday, but thought I might manage 8 or 9. Nope, not that far, either. It was 11 months and 2 weeks ago that I did pretty much the same hike and called it the Endurance Edition (link below). It was pretty tough. So how did yesterday compare?

The snow was about the same- maybe five inches on the ground. I started at Timber Creek (on US 10) and headed north. I took a lot of pictures that look like this, but this one is best. Lots of vertical dark stripes against the white snow. And a blue blaze! Can you find it?

Just so we don't leave out the horizontal component, here you go. Thankfully, this was not across the trail.

As expected, there was a fairly well-packed trail for about 2 miles. At that point the herds of hikers turn around and go back to the trailhead. But I wanted to go farther. So I did! No other hiker tracks after that.

This scene is just north of the next road, which is 8th St. This looks like it might be a pond, right? It's so level.

Surprise! It's just a little grassy clearing in the woods. Here's what it looks like in summer. That is butterfly weed (a milkweed) blooming in it.

The only green I saw yesterday was this mossy log. It did look nice, fighting to find some light through the snow cover.

Best finds were some wildlife tracks after I got into the unbroken snow on the trail. I'm pretty sure this is a coyote. Size is right. Very oval- two middle toes are practically in front of the outside toes. Gap between toe pads and heel. And the tracks were very regular in a straight line.

And I am relatively certain this is skunk. The definition isn't great, but it's the right size and general shapes. The track pattern was not the usual four tracks veering to one side and then correcting and veering off again, but they can make more of a straight line when they are just walking. And I THINK I see that little line that separates the heel in the right hand one, but it's really hard to be sure.

Here's another sign that a coyote or fox (those first tracks were too big for a fox, though) was following the trail. There were a lot of places where a nose had been thrust into the snow and wiggled around through the leaves to get a good sniff of potential lunches like mice or voles hiding under there.

And, I learned something new about this very familiar section. I've always just thought about the ridges you cross, and considered it rolling hills. Yesterday, I realized that the whole trail seemed to climb a lot going north, and mostly descended coming back. Yup. Almost 300 feet of rise to where I turned around at the top of a ridge in Ward Hills. I know this isn't a lot of elevation change, but it's a fair amount for a trail here.

Anyway, I needed to be done by dark, so I walked outbound for 90 minutes, got to the top of that ridge and returned. Seven miles total. But it was quite a workout. Not quite as hard as the Endurance Edition a year ago, but tough enough.

Hike 100 Challenge 2021- 25.5 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, Michigan, US 10 (Timber Creek) north to past 8th Street and back. 7 miles

In other news: Today I did my online class, did some editing, and took a road walk. I did see a pileated woodpecker, but they are shy, and I couldn't get a picture. Also saw and heard a little downy woodpecker.

See Familiar NCT Section- Endurance Edition

What a Glorious Day!

 
Lots of pictures again, but I can't help it! Today was about as perfect as you can get. First, I finished the blazing on the main portion of my trail. That was the easy railbed through the swamp portion. So after that I took a longer hike. This section is one I don't seem to hike very often, so it was almost like seeing a new piece of trail since I didn't remember every turn by heart.

Reflection of trees in the slightly flooded Muckwa Creek. Everything is wonderful in the sunshine!



Common running clubmoss. Lycopodium clavatum.



Artist's Conch fungus, Ganoderma applamatum. I used to love carving pictures into the undersides of these. Now, I'm happy with taking their snapshots.



This is maybe the best find of the day. I was aided in the identification by that wad of coarse black fur beside the skull parts. I did not arrange those jaws; that's exactly how they were lying. I did bring one home, and thanks to my great "Key to Mammal Skulls and Lower Jaws" was able to verify that it's a striped skunk. Live mammals I saw include a chipmunk, red squirrel, and two black gray squirrels.



This is a weird burl. Not all bumpy like most.



I saw at least three different kinds of butterflies. Several were the Mourning Cloaks- an early hatcher, one small blue one- way too fast to identify, and two of these which I am pretty sure are Eastern Commas even though I can't see the wings really well, Polygonia comma. I wish I could have gotten a picture with the wings all the way open, but this was the best I could do.



It was a wonderful day for patterns and reflections. This is just some submerged grass in an unnamed creek flowing with the current.



Back to Muckwa Creek and last year's fallen leaves on the creek bed, with one floating on the surface, and the reflections of trees.



This final picture is back up in the bottomland hardwood swamp on my section of trail. It doesn't look spooky and gloomy at all in the sunshine!


The Spring Peepers and Chorus Flogs were all warmed up and singing at full force in every little ephemeral wetland. The ticks and mosquitoes aren't awake yet. Cool air and warm sun- my favorite. Days don't get much better than this one.

I hiked a total of 10 miles today. NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2020 is at 81 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, 5 Mile Road past Freesoil Trailhead and back.

See Painting Blazes 102

Familiar NCT Section- Endurance Edition

 
Yesterday I stayed home and was good while the weather was gorgeous. Not happening today. I had to go out. Went to the closest section of North Country Trail near me. I've done it so much it's almost boring. However, today had its own challenges.

The sky was BLUE! It was wonderful.



The trail started out being well-walked, but with frozen footprints. Really tough walking. I would slide with every step and then jar my hips or knees as I found footing. However, the previously walked trail ended about two miles in. I had already spent an hour. Usually, I'd be at the next road, my turn-around point, at that time. The snow was about 5 inches deep, soft and unbroken. How badly did I want to go on?

I had passed this broken aspen tree, all torn apart. I'm thinking pileated woodpecker because there was no evidence that any critter with feet on the ground had been at it. The other possible culprit would be a porcupine, but I don't think it would crawl up the log and balance there to tear it apart.



A skunk had been using the trail too. See those patterns of prints- four feet angling off then doing it again?



Nothing special, just some polypore fungus on the ends of logs, but I liked them.



So, I reached the end of any previous human tracks, and I still wasn't at the old logging railroad bed, so I knew I had as much as a mile to go yet to reach 8th St. Wow. But I wanted my six miles. So I went on. Here's a piece of the railbed where it has been bermed. The unbroken snow was easier walking but stressed the calves and the hips. So at least I was making different places hurt! Yes, there are tracks there- mine. I took this picture on the way back.



Made it to the road. It took me 1 hour and 35 minutes, instead of the usual 1 hour.

Talked myself all the way back with milestones:
1. Make it to the rail bed
2. Make it off the rail bed
3. Make it to the skunk tracks
4. Make it to the 2-track crossing (this was the longest stretch with no goals)
5. Make it to the motor trail crossing
6. Make it to the big dog tracks
7. Make it to the turnoff to a small loop you can do (usually very hard to find, but I did find it today)
8. Make it to the spur to the parking
9. Make it to the car.

I also counted all the little ridges. There are 8 of them that you cross in this section. None is really big, but it's nice to have a little topography.

Total time 2 hours, 45 minutes. I think there is a good chance I'll be sore tomorrow. But I got my 6 miles! Homemade tomato soup from the freezer for dinner. Comfort food.

Hike 100 Challenge total for 2020 is at 14 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Timber Creek at US 10 to 8th St and back, 6 miles

In other news: I spent the morning on formatting NCC for ebook. Also chatted with someone about a possible podcast. Stay tuned.

See What a Weather Treat for the last time I hiked this section

Skunk and Squirrel

 
I slipped a little hike into today. After I did cases I had a little more than an hour of daylight left, so I went to Pine Valley Pathway. There was crusty snow on a lot of the path, slowing me down a little, but I walked about 2.5 miles.

A very few of you readers have been here since early times. The winter of 2008-2009 really lent itself to good pictures of animal tracks. I suppose it was a combination of fresh snow over crust and warm spells that kept the critters awake. We did lots of tracking pictures. Since then I haven't shared many tracks at all. That's not because I've lost interest, it's just there wasn't much to see except deer tracks.

Today, though, I found some nice skunk tracks. The pattern is easy to recognize once you get it in your head. The pattern of four seems to veer off, and then there's a correction and another angled pattern of four.



The shape of each foot shows up well in this post hole print. I didn't see the skunk, however.



The one animal I did see was a black squirrel, but didn't manage to catch its picture. I found some nice tracks though. And if you recall anything from all the squirrel track pictures, you should tell me right off the bat that there is something wrong with these.



I'm always telling you that the larger hind foot prints should be ahead of the smaller front foot prints because the squirrel runs in a hopping motion and puts its back feet in front of its front feet. In this picture it's the other way around.

Well, let's put this set of prints in context.



Squirrels, just like people, sometimes stop and look around, or eat a nut, or whatever it is they might want to do. This set of prints is really close to a "normal" set. The squirrel probably just took a short step, stopped and then put his front feet down in the snow.

	See Our Common Mustelid
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Our Common Mustelid

 

Oh, OK, I'm talking about a skunk. But actually skunks are really quite fascinating. I've even known someone who had one as a pet back when there weren't so many restrictions on keeping wild animals. I didn't see one today, but I know where it went. Yes, we're doing tracks again.

I was planning on doing another post, and was taking the last picture I needed for it, when Maggie and I found the skunk tracks. I got really excited about that because one doesn't often see skunk tracks. In fact, I had to get out my books and do some research to be sure that this was really what I was looking at. Skunks hibernate, but they do sometimes come out after thaws. That fits with our recent weather.

The strips here are a long shot of one gait pattern a skunk may make, and then a closer shot of one set of footprints.



This skunk walked all over the field out back, so I got quite a few pictures of various patterns. Maggie kept sniffing the tracks, more than she noses in most kinds, so I'm sure she could smell the musk. But unless they decide to spray their musk, skunks don't have much residual odor. I can almost always smell the fox when we see its recent tracks. I couldn't smell the skunk today at all.

I made the last picture really big, because this is the clincher that its a skunk. You can see the shapes of the pads on the feet, and they don't really look like any other animal that size that lives around here. I learned a lot today, and I hope you've enjoyed coming along for the adventure!

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