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"Tails" of terror and revenge: The nature of things halloween special

10/28/2020

Oh, the horror is real. It is once again that time of year that raises the fur of just about every critter in the Applegate household.

It's Halloween hat time.

Everyone runs and hides when the bag of costumes is taken out of the closet. The pets consider it some kind of torture, while I call it payback.

So I wrote down some things without mentioning any names, but they know who they are.

Dear Pet,
Do you remember my horror when someone brought a garter snake into the living room at 12 a.m.?

Do you remember my horror when the couch cover was chewed up for the 100th time?

Do you remember my horror when someone had explosive diarrhea all over the house?

Do you remember my horror when someone rolled in wild critter poop and the smell was terrible?

Do you remember my horror when someone dug up, peed upon and destroyed one of my houseplants?

Do you remember my terror when someone butted me in the back of the knee so hard that I almost passed out about an acre away from home?

Do you remember my terror when someone put a dead mouse in my shoe?

Do you remember my disgust when I was just about to fall asleep and heard someone puking in the hall way?

Do you remember my disgust when I told you not to eat wild animal poop and then had to clean up your vomit and purchase some antibiotics?

All critters in this project were treated well and well-treated.

In other words, they got treats and they were unharmed. However, their pride may have been hurt.

Forgiveness comes with a full belly and the hats have been put away. Peace has again filled the Applegate household, until late November when the holiday hats come out.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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Benezette: Not a lot of bull

10/25/2020

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Our annual pilgrimage to Benezette during the first week in October wasn't as favorable as past years. This year's half-day trip had my husband and I seeing more people than elk.

We had traveled on a Thursday evening in an effort to avoid the crowds, but there was still a generous amount of people there even for a weekday.

Compared to last year, the herds did not seem as big.

The elk were further away and located toward the wood lines.
However we still managed to see some elk and the day wasn't a total loss.

I almost missed seeing one cow as she was browsing in a small ravine.

Last year, I was fortunate to be able a get a nice photo of one large bull elk that was grazing by the road.

One of the other elk viewers suggested that I could walk down closer to get a better shot.

I politely reminded her that the land was posted and the property owner didn't want folks past the sign.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission on its website offers several tips for elk viewing etiquette.

One of the tips is to keep elk at a distance.

The commission said to give elk at least 100 yards especially during breeding season. The commission also asked viewers not to stop on the road to view elk and not to block private driveways or property.

Folks also should avoid yelling and loud noises that may disturb the elk.

The commission was also very adamant about warning that people should never feed or try to pet the elk.

While the elk are the main draw for the area, other wildlife can be viewed as well.
We observed a lot of bluebirds and other feathered friends. It was nice to see some bluebirds since they seemed to have disappeared from our yard at home.

Previous years I have seen monarchs and other butterflies at the Woodring farm area. However this year, it seemed that the plants at the farm were dead or dying. It could be due to frost or the fact that the area was suffering from lack of rain.

It was added to a state drought watch in September. It was obvious from just looking around that the ponds and streams were down a good three or four feet from where they normally were.

While Elk County is a little ahead of Venango County when it comes to the changing of leaf color, it seemed that fall foliage was also suffering. However, there still were a few colorful trees. The trip along Interstate
80 from Shippenville to DuBois was absolutely spectacular as far as bright hues.

After looking for elk all day, it seemed strange to not to see them closer to home. It's funny how only a few counties away live these massive beasts that feed on much of the same foods that the whitetails eat. They just consume a lot more of it.

Speaking of whitetails, the trail camera at home is outdoing me on the deer photos again. On Oct. 16, it captured a lovely shot of a running buck against an autumn backdrop. After posting it on Pennsylvania Wildlife
Trailcams Facebook page several folks kindly posted favorable comments on it.

It's hard not to be just a little jealous of some of the photos the trail camera captures.

However with the trail camera, it is more of being there at the right time and place. Again, the device is much more dedicated about wildlife photography than I am. It's out in the weather 24/7 strapped to a tree waiting for any kind of motion to snap a photo. Nonetheless, I am happy to have it do some of the dirty work if it means being able to glimpse some scenes that would have normally remain unseen.

Guess that is just the nature of things 'round here.

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Life's not always a walk in the park

10/23/2020

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It seems as though there is never a dull moment with critters wild and tame. Here are a few stories or observations from the trail.

There are also parts of our trails that are marked by those we don't see in the daylight. These spots distract the St. Bernard who I often have to tell "Pee on it and be done" or else he would sniff the area all day.

So when we come across things that sometimes disturb us and hold our attention longer than needed, perhaps we should just "pee on it and be done."

Everyone knows you don't mess with a mama.

This past summer we happened upon an older doe, a younger doe and two fawns. There was a moment when I thought she was taking a defensive posture.

Despite all appearances, deer can cause damage especially when protecting young.

I quickly gathered the gang and headed off in a different direction. Down the path a ways I heard twigs breaking and vegetation crashing.

I nearly had a heart attack until I realized it was Kennedy, the goat, catching up to us.

"...perhaps we should just "pee on it and be done."

Barking up the wrong tree is a daily occurrence.
The trio of canines will often converge on a stand of timber. Often the chipmunk or other critter went up one tree and maneuvered itself onto another. However, sometimes the chipmunks can escape even when the dogs are guarding the same tree.

The little critters manage to run back down the tree and through 12 legs to freedom. I always giggle when I watch a chipmunk who was clearly outnumbered evade a bunch of crazy canines and go on its way.

Don't let butt-heads get to you.

In this world you will always have those who enjoy butting heads with others. They will bully others and sometimes try to engage you.

It is best to just try to avoid or distract them.

Eventually one who butts heads will meet up with another who enjoys butting heads and you can flee the scene.

If the dog is wet, you will get wet.

It doesn't matter if are clearly away from the area where the water is. Someone will shake at some point and you will get showered with pond water and wet dog smell. If you manage to avoid the shaking shower, a wet canine will find you. It will want to be friends. Event if you elude soggy petting, you will be sideswiped by a doused doggy.

If you try to hide something from someone, they will find it despite your best efforts.

This goes for anything dead located in a one-mile walking distance of our paths. Occasionally a wild critter will leave some of its meal on or near the path we travel. This is a constant distraction for nosy canines. I will attempt to scoot the remains off the path only to find that furry feet have tracked my trail.

They then emerge covered in entrails or crunching on bones which are too small for them. This saga continues daily until I finally relent and pick up whatever is left of whatever carcass there is and deposit in the garbage at home.

This seems so ironic to me, because I believe that these remains should be left to decompose in the woods. However with the threats of daily baths and possible vet bills, removal is my only option.

The same goes with the goats. They're not attracted to dead things, just food. My parents' yard is out of the way, but it is full of acorns. We now have to make a detour every time we walk to the acorn patch. I tried to outwit the goats by walking even further out of the way, but they just made a 100-yard dash back to the acorns.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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Invasion of the pine siskins

10/18/2020

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They've been described as noisy, messy and as bullies. They don't believe in social distancing and they may be headed to a feeder near you. If you haven't seen them already, you probably will. It's not a plague of locusts, it's just an irruption of pine siskins.

"Pine Siskins are the ultimate generalist of finches, feeling at home in both boreal and montane habitats where they feed on conifers, grasses, as well as deciduous trees like alder and birch," said Ryan F. Mandelbaum in a post on finchnetwork.org titled "Irruption Alert: Pine Siskins Are On The Move."

Ryan F. Mandelbaum was posting in response to Tyler Hoar’s Winter Finch Forecast which already had the busy little brown birds on the move in early September.

Mandelbaum posted that due to food or weather some birds make unscheduled migrations or irruption into different areas.

"However, Pine Siskin movement is erratic, and the birds might occur at unexpected times and in unexpected places," he added.

Jeffrey Hall, president of the Bartramian Audubon Society and Seneca Rocks Audubon Society member, weighed in on the finches' movements.

"This was predicted to be a good siskin year. The eastern Canada spruce crop was so-so, which caused some to move south," Hall said in an email last week.

"Evidently, it was a good year for spruce in western Canada, so the siskins out west are staying put," he added.
Hall said, "There have been lots and lots of siskins reported -- including from my house. They aren't just stopping here. We saw 14 near my father's house in central West Virginia last week."

Seneca Rocks Audubon Society member Gary Edwards also said he has had some siskins at his feeders.
He said he has about three dozen that have been hanging around when he emailed some information on Oct. 14.

"PA is near the southern limit of the siskin breeding range so it is a rare breeder in the state most years," Edwards emailed.

On average, larger irruptions occur every two to five years, Edwards added.

"In five of the last 20 years, I have records of them hanging around to June or July," he said,

"So they nest here, at least occasionally, but most years are gone by early to mid-May.

Since they nest in conifers, they may well be around more often than my records show -- there are plenty of conifer stands along the river, creeks, etc., where they could nest unnoticed.

I have a few September records, but most years they show up about mid-October. "

Hall also mentioned the possibility of some siskins nesting here.

"I know someone in Cooperstown who sometimes has them year round, so there is some evidence of an occasional small breeding population locally," Hall said.

Hall said the last really big year for siskins he could recall was 2015.

"During the month of March, there were siskins, sometimes three dozen, in my back yard each day of the month. First ones I saw that year were at the end of January and they were still around the first week of May," he added.

Hall also provided a preview of the siskin information appearing in a new book, "Birds of Venango County", authored by Gary Edwards. Hall collaborated with Edwards and provided photos for the project.

According to the book, siskins have been reported on 23 of the 54 Christmas Bird Counts through last year. Siskins have been reported annually in each of the last 25 years. The CBC only takes place between Dec. 15 and Jan. 8. So some years they were missed on the CBC, but showed up later.

No siskins were reported during the first Breeding Bird Atlas, but they were found in four areas in the county during the second BBA.

Hall added that siskins have a cool scientific name, Spinus pinus.

However, some users on the Facebook page Birding Pennsylvania had other names for the sassy little finches.

"They arrived two days ago -- at least one hundred. Never saw them in Homer City before. Aggressive little flying stomachs! They chase everything and fight with each other all day," one page member posted last week.

"The pine siskins never quit moving, I think they snort cocaine before hitting my feeding area! Aggressive towards other birds, even drive the nuthatches away. Fun to watch them battle the house finches," another user posted.

I had posted on October 6 about the number of pine siskins at my feeders. It got hundreds of likes and the post was shared a few times.

Since then the birding page has seen reports of the fast little finches from all over the state. Some folks reported seeing them in Clearfield County, Reading, Honey Brook, Armstrong County and other places.
One user posted about the little birds' boldness.

"They’re very tame and you know you have siskins when you walk up to fill the feeder and they don’t fly away. Other than that, they will eat you out of house and home!," the user wrote.

In fact, there were at least two posts on the birding page of folks with the siskins literally eating out of their hands.
Others lamented how messy the visitors were and how many droppings they leave behind.

Yet some were thrilled to have the siskins with at least half a dozen reporting that it was their first sighting of the finch.

Meanwhile, the numbers at my feeders have dropped. There were still at least a dozen siskins hanging around last week, but by Saturday all but a few had moved on.

I had noticed that while the siskins were here I saw fewer goldfinches. However, by Saturday the goldies had reclaimed their thistle feeder to themselves and the occasionally downy woodpecker.

I guess that's just the nature of things 'round here.

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Coming and growing: The garden and its visitors

10/11/2020

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I absolutely love it when my garden comes to life and I am not just talking about the plants.
After watering, fertilizing and occasional weeding, it is awesome to see other creatures enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Earlier this summer on any given day, one could view bees, butterflies and hummingbirds feeding on the flowers. Each species seemed to have its favorites.

The monarchs preferred the tithonia or Mexican sunflowers, dahlias and zinnias.

The spicebush swallowtails also fed on the zinnias but seemed to gravitate toward the butterfly bush. The phlox has been known to draw in the hummingbird clearwing moths. The bumblebees, who were not picky, chose the dahlias, morning glories, sunflowers and more.

As the growing season is coming to a close, those who visited the gardens during the summer have dwindled. Gone are the hummingbirds. The hummers dropped from a high of 10 or more down to two and now zero.

Bee activity has fallen off. There are still a few bumblebees and honeybees still buzzing around, but nothing like the swarms that appeared earlier in the summer. The yellow jackets have all but disappeared with a few white-faced hornets taking their place looking for sugar water.

However, different visitors have appeared The sunflowers have gone to seed and many birds took advantage of the fresh seeds.

Goldfinches, chickadees, sparrows and even a bay-breasted warbler stopped by. In fact, some winter birds have started increasing their presence.

Chickadees, titmice and some pine siskins filled up at the bird feeders.
As the nights grow colder, the end of the growing season is quickly closing in.

According to The Old Farmer's Almanac website, www.almanac.com, the growing season for Franklin, PA., is 156 days long. The website lists data that said the median date for the last frost in the spring would be May 10 and the median date for the end of the growing season would be a frost on October 14.

The site went on to say that the dates are 30 percent probability and were calculated using 1981-2010 climate normals. In other words, the dates are not set in stone. If one wanted to predict exactly when the growing season would end, it might be just as helpful to throw a dart at the calendar.

The almanac also offered a classification of freeze temperatures:
"Light freeze: 29 degrees to 32 degrees Fahrenheit — tender plants are killed.
Moderate freeze: 25 degrees to 28 degrees Fahrenheit — widely destructive to most vegetation.
Severe freeze: 24 degrees Fahrenheit and colder — heavy damage to most plants."

So far it seems that the area around my gardens has only seen a light freeze with just damage to the tops of leaves. However, lows at night continue to fall. There was frost the other morning when I awoke. I went to check an indoor/outdoor thermometer to get the temperature. Only to discover that Clem, the bloodhound, had chewed up the inside temperature monitor.

The veggie garden is done for the season. The pepper plants, while still producing, now face an almost daily threat of frost. The green beans were picked for the last time and the mini pumpkins were harvested by human and canine alike. I had noticed earlier in the season that I appeared to have an overabundance of mini pumpkins.

offered them to a friend for her fall wedding decorations. However, the overabundance quickly diminished when some curious canines picked and ate the pumpkins.

These were the same canines that wouldn't consume canned pumpkin when it was vet-recommended.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

I lament the end of the growing season. I have watched the dahlias, tropical hibiscus, Sunpatiens, begonias, osteospermums and other flowers grow, flourish and bloom. Some of the posies are ones I have nursed throughout last winter and then placed outside in the spring.

When nightly lows dip into the low 30s, I relent and take as many plant indoors as possible. Inside there are grow lights that help to provide some illumination for the plants over the long dark winter. In my experience they do well for the first few weeks inside and then it seems like they take a turn for the worse.

Leaves turned yellow and dropped off, blooms died and wilted. I feared the worse and that after all my efforts, the plants died.

It did not help that several disorderly felines dug in the pots and attempt to provide additional "fertilizer" to the poor already suffering plants.

Despite all the setbacks, hope returned when they were placed outside in the spring.

The transformation was not overnight, but by the middle of summer the plants fully recovered and were roughly twice the size they had been before.

Nevertheless, growing time is limited. Simply covering the plants will soon not be enough.

The gardens will turn brown after the first severe freeze.

However, all is not lost. Fall brings the time to plant spring bulbs.
An article on www.almanac.com by Catherine Boeckmann stated, "planting time for fall bulbs is usually late September to mid-October in northern climate so that bulbs can grow roots before the ground freezes. ... This gives them ample time to grow roots during winter in preparation for the spring show."

As the trees put on a bright display, the plants that I can't take inside will soon be withered and brown. While it pains me to see the stalks, I leave them in their place. Experts say to leave the remains of the of the plants and garden debris over the winter for the insects and birds.

Last winter, the birds enjoyed the old sunflower and tithonia stalks. They often perched in them and cleaned out any leftover seeds. Leaves and other dead plants helped some other outside posies survive a mild winter.

The flowers will fade and the summer visitors will be replaced with winged winter visitors. I will venture to the basement where the plants I have "saved" from winter's chill will need tending to.
Occasionally, a blossom will pop up. Sometimes a plant will fall victim to some unruly felines.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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"The Nature of Things" features the writings and photographs of Anna Applegate, who is a lifelong resident of Pinegrove Township, Venango County. She is a graduate of Cranberry High School and Clarion University. After a 15-year career in the local news industry, she made a change and now works at a steel finishing plant in Sandycreek Township. She is a avid lover of animals and nature, and a gifted photographer.

Very happy to be able to share Anna's great "The Nature of Things" blog.

Check out Anna's other artwork here!

"Tails" of terror and revenge: The nature of things halloween special

Benezette: Not a lot of bull

Life's not always a walk in the park

Invasion of the pine siskins

Coming and growing: The garden and its visitors

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