Life with Three Feet of Snow

As you know, New Hampshire gets cold in the winter, sometimes very cold. It snows here, sometimes it snows very much. Animals that are native to the area, therefore, must develop strategies to survive the cold and to find food when everything is buried beneath three feet of snow, as it is now.

Many things simply hide themselves away in the warmest place they can find and wait it out. Insects, for the most part, are among those that simply wait for spring. As we've previously mentioned, lightning bugs may burrow as deeply as they can into the rough bark of trees for shelter. If we search carefully, we can find them there. Others take advantage of man's ability to control the environment. The Asian Lady Beetle and the Western Conifer Seed Bug may have burrowed into tree bark in their warmer native environments, but after migrating here to the much colder Northeast, they burrow into the cracks and crevices of the woodwork of our houses. Sometimes, they find a way all the way inside and we may find an active one or two inside the house in the dead of winter.

Some insects burrow into the ground and rely on the natural antifreeze compounds in their bodies to keep from turning into ice cubes. June Bug grubs, Japanese Beetle grubs and a number of others fall into this category.

Chipmunks hunker down in their burrows and truly hibernate through the winter. Chipmunks and some other rodents are known as obligate hibernators. That is to say they have a built-in need to hibernate seasonal regardless of whether there is still food available. Their body temperatures drop quite low, and body temperature and heart rate slow along with all their other metabolic processes.

Some animals, like the black bear, go into a more shallow form of hibernation when the weather gets cold and food becomes scarce. They also experience a drop in body temperature, but the drop is much smaller. They are less deeply asleep, and may even be roused during hibernation. While their hibernation differs from that of deep sleepers like chipmunks, they are still classified as hibernators.

Hibernation means that the animal in question suppresses its normal metabolism to much lower rates, enabling it to go long periods without the intake of food and to survive in harsh conditions. Some lower their metabolic rates more than others, but that is simply a matter of degrees within the spectrum of hibernation.

Other animals are still able to find food during the winter and remain active throughout the year. White-tailed deer, many birds, the gray squirrel, the snowshoe hare, and the coyote, for example, can be found roaming the woods and hills of New Hampshire even in the coldest of winters.

Some, particularly many species of birds, simply go away to where the weather is less severe. Migratory birds such as the Canada Goose and most warblers fit into this category. We've all heard of birds flying south for the winter, but it is less commonly known that for some birds that live even further north, the New Hampshire is a gentle enough winter climate for them to comfortably overwinter when compared to their breeding ranges. This means that during the winter months in New Hampshire, it is possible to find some species that are not commonly found here during the summer.

Some undertake a much lesser migration, remaining in the same latitude, but heading to more hospitable winter habitat. Many woodland ducks fall into this category. The Common Loon, Wood Duck, and Mallard Duck all fall into this category. Moving from the inlands ponds, lakes and rivers where they spend the warmer months to the seaside for the winter. They require open water in which to feed, so they head to the only open water that is guaranteed not to freeze in this climate, the ocean.

Even though we are in the very heart of winter, we can still find new species, even some that aren't here during the rest of the year.


 

A firefly that doesn't light up, Ellychnia corrusca

Winter Firefly (Ellychnia corrusca) hiding in the bark of a
maple tree.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

As I catalogue each species of animal that I find living in my yard, I include quick facts about each animal. Things like: Where does it go in the winter? For one entry, the banded net-wing, I told you that it hides in crevices in the bark of trees during the winter. Given this bit of information, and the fact that I hear woodpeckers digging bugs out of trees every morning around my yard, I thought it might be interesting to look under the bark of a maple tree to see what I might find.
Within seconds, I spotted three specimens of an insect that bears some similarity to the banded net-wing, but which had quite different coloration. Having grown-up in New England chasing bugs very much like these, I had a suspicion about what they were. If I hadn't known, then I would have been able to start with the similarity to the banded net-wing and work backward through taxonomy using the handy tools at bugguide.net to identify it.
How to identify insect species

This is the same Ellychnia corrusca in the above and below
photos, but with it's head clearly extending beyond the
pronotum, which goes counter to species descriptions.
The other photos all show the head tucked and hidden,
so it seems that position is preferred, but a matter of
behavior rather than basic body architecture.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Starting from the banded net-wing page, we can click on the taxonomy links at the top of the entry. First, we click the Genus Calopteron and scan the pics. They all appear to be bicolored with a different wing-shape than the specimens I found today. Continuing back, we don't see anything close in appearance to our specimens until we get to the Superfamily Elateroidea which is comprised of click beetles, fireflies, and soldier beetles.
Even then, I don't see a picture that closely matches what I've found, but there is enough diversity here that it might be included and I don't want to have to go further up the chain into much broader beetle categories until I have exhausted possible candidates at the Family level. Within the Superfamily Elateroidea, there are twelve Families. I can immediately rule out click-beetles which tend to have a hard, chitinous outer wing cover (elytra). I can rule out borers and Texas beetles.

From there, it's a process of elimination. I choose one family, enter it into the search box at the top of the page and look for a close match to what I've found. I started with Lampyridae (Fireflies) and quickly found that the images of various species in this group look very much like our mystery bug. From there, we have another process of elimination. There are a handful of subfamilies, and then tribes within the subfamilies, but clicking on an image that looks almost exactly like our subject, I find the species Ellychnia corrusca. Ellychnia corrusca is sometimes commonly called the winter firefly.

The body length of 14mm is the surest clue to the exact
species once it's been narrowed down to the Genus
Ellychnia.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

That gives me a strawman that I then try to rule out.

• Size of my specimen: 14mm, reported size of Ellychnia corrusca 10-14mm. Check. 
• Complete lack of bioluminescent organs at tip of abdomen? Check.
• Pronotum shape and markings, check.
• Elytra details, check. 
• Antenna segment details? check.
• Range? Northeast United States, check.
• Habitat? check.
• Behavior: overwinters as adults in tree bark? Check.
• Behavior: adults known to feed on maple sap in early spring? These specimens were found on a maple tree on March 15th, check.
• Head hidden by pronotum when viewed from above? Uh-oh. No. In an ID photo I took, the head is clearly visible from above. Let's dig deeper.

I search the web for other photos and descriptions (from reputable sources) of Ellychnia corrusca and find some showing the head visible as in my photo. I then go back out to the tree where I found this insect and look for others. They have their heads "tucked" under the pronotum.

In reviewing the photos I took of the original specimen in situ, I see it similarly posed, with head tucked and not visible from above. Apparently, this identification key listed by bugguide.net refers to certain postures and is not absolute for this species.

Ellychnia corrusca with pronotum angled down and head
hidden from view from above as in most species accounts.
This is the same specimen as in the photo to the above-right.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

When I can't rule out Ellychnia corrusca, I see if I can rule in any other species. Every resource I can find tells me that although there are three known species of non-luminescent lightning bugs in New England. Only one is larger than 7.5 millimeters in length, which rules out all the others as this is clearly a lightning bug. So there we have it. Ellychnia corrusca, a lightning bug or firefly that doesn't ever light up and is active in the daytime instead of the night.

Undiscovered new sub-species?

What's particularly interesting is that the University of Alberta suggests that the insects currently identified as Ellychnia corrusca as "possibly consisting of several species, but not sufficiently studied or understood to differentiate between them." This is based on observed differences between specimens identified in different regions of their accepted range.

UA suggestion is correct) currently classified as Ellychnia corrusca. Thesis material, anyone?

Given the tremendous complexity of the wild forest biosphere, I've often thought that there are surely species of plants and animals (particularly arthropods), even in well settled areas like my own backyard, that have not yet been discovered or identified. Do the various sub-species of Ellychnia corrusca qualify? Because the differences may occur geographically, it's unlikely that I would be able to find more than one of the proposed sub-species (if such exist) in my yard, nevertheless, I will keep a specimen preserved and compare it against future finds to look for inconsistencies. I will certainly never look at a lightning bug in my yard the same way again knowing it might be an unrecognized sub-species!

Quick facts about the Ellychnia corrusca:

Lifespan of the winter firefly: about one year

Life Cycle: Ellychnia corrusca, according to the University of Alberta's E.H. Strickland Entomology Museum, spends the winter in the crevices of tree bark, moving very little and never leaving the tree until March. In March, it begins flying again. mating season is April and May. The adults die in late spring, sometimes prematurely by drowning in the sap collection buckets of those tapping maple trees. The larvae of Ellychnia corrusca, says the E.H. Strickland Entomology Museum, live in rotting wood and are predators, likely eating grubs and slugs that are also found in or on rotting wood.

Diet: Adults live on plant liquids such as maple sap, maple flower nectar, and possibly fluids from flowers during the fall before they find a winter hiding place, according to the E.H. Strickland Museum.

Range: Bugguide.net credits researchers Downie and Arnett with stating that the winter firefly lives in the eastern United States, from Maine to Wisconsin and as far south as Maryland. Populations are also found on the western coast of the Untied states into Colorado and Arizona. In Canada they are found in the east and in British Columbia.

Where does it go in winter? The winter firefly stays hidden in the folds of tree bark in the winter, although it may move a few inches from one place to another, it otherwise stays put during the cold months.

Notes: Most people think that all lightning bugs or fireflies light up and come out at night, but Ellychnia corrusca does not possess bio-luminescent organs and is diurnal. Most (if not all) northern, luminescent fireflies overwinter in larval form inside rotting wood. Ellychnia corrusca, however, pupates before the winter snow and overwinters in adult form.

Ellychnia corrusca taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia (Animals)
Phylum: Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class: Insecta (Insects)
Order: Coleoptera (Beetles)
          Suborder: Polyphaga (Water beetles, Rove beetles, Longhorn beetles, Leaf beetles, 
          Snout beetles, and Scarabs)
Superfamily: Elateroidea (Click beetles, fireflies, and Soldier beetles)
          Family: Lampyridae (Fireflies)
                    Subfamily: Lampyrinae
                             Tribe: Photinini
Genus: Ellychnia
Species: Ellychnia corrusca

Pine Siskin (Carduelis pinus), an irruptive visitor

Pine Siskins at a thistle feeder. March, 2012.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Living in the northeast United States and having thistle feeders out during the winter months, I expect to see large numbers of American goldfinches, which I do, and I also expect to see pine siskins on occasion. Until this year, however, I had not seen a single pine siskin on our property, despite living here during the 2008-2009 pine siskin irruption documented by the Cornell lab of Ornithology's Project Feeder Watch. This year, beginning in early March, we finally have pine siskins at the thistle feeder on our back deck.

Irruptive Migrants

Pine siskins fall into the group of birds known as irruptive migrants. That means that they may or may not migrate for the winter depending upon local conditions. These types of birds often form small flocks during the winter and move from food source to food source. When there is plenty of food in their usual summer territories during the winter, they may not move far at all. When this happens relatively few pine siskins will be seen in the southern reaches of their winter range although there are usually still some that make the trip. In other years, if food is scarce in their summer range during the winter months, pine siskins or other irruptive migrants may come south in great numbers and be widely seen over a much broader range.

While I haven't seen great numbers of reports that would suggest that this winter (2011-2012) has seen a large irruptive influx of pine siskins, there is an ordinary number of reports of pine siskin sightings throughout New Hampshire and we are lucky enough to have spotted them for the first time in our yard.

Similar to American Goldfinch

Pine Siskin (Carduelis pinus) in profile.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

Pine siskins enjoy thistle seed as do American goldfinches. They are often seen together, with one or more pine siskins mixed in with a larger group of goldfinches. When this happens, they can be easy to miss unless one looks closely. Pine siskins look a bit like goldfinches when the latter is in its winter drab colors. Indeed, they are from the same taxonomic genus as the goldfinch: Carduelis. They are a similar size and shape, behave similarly at the feeder, may show a bit of yellow coloring when the wings are folded, and even have wing bars that can resemble those of goldfinches when they are mixed together and swarming a bird feeder.

Upon closer examination though, they are easy to differentiate. Most notably, the pine siskin has prominent streaking on its underside. The American goldfinch's underside is a nearly uniform pale olive-yellow during the winter months. Likewise, the pine siskin's head shows streaking as opposed to the solid yellow-drab of the winter goldfinch (although males may also show the beginnings of the black forehead and crown they'll wear in the summer). The pine siskin will have a relatively bright yellow patch visible on the lower part of its folded wing.

When the wings are extended, the yellow patch of the wings and another on each side of the base of the tail become more visible. The pine siskin is also decidedly more brown in color than the American goldfinch and can sometimes be mistaken for  female house finches or female purple finches until the yellow markings on the tail and wings are spotted.

Attracting Pine Siskins to your Yard

Pine siskin (Carduelis pinus) looking at the camera.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Your best bet for attracting pine siskins in the winter in the United States is to put up thistle feeders like one of these. If you are getting American Goldfinches in the winter, then you've done all you can to also attract irruptive pine siskins. To encourage them to breed, well, either you've got an established coniferous forest, or you don't.

Quick facts about the Pine Siskin (Carduelis pinus):

What do Pine Siskins Eat? Pine siskins eat small seeds such as thistle seeds,dandelion, and pine seeds, and many others. They also eat small insects and the small buds of trees such as birch and maple.The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says they also may be attracted to mineral deposits like road salt, ashes, or fresh cement.

Range: In the summer, the pine siskin lives mainly in Canada and the extreme northern United States, but can also be found throughout the Rocky Mountains and in parts of California. Sometimes, after a particularly irruptive winter, a few pine siskins will stay in the southern winter range to nest. I'm hopeful that some of those visiting us this month will remain to breed here as we have many large, established evergreen trees in our backyard forest.

Where does it go in winter? As irruptive migrants, pine siskins generally do move south for the winter, but the distance and degree to which they migrate depends upon local food conditions. Movement is generally done is short flights over a period of time. In some winters, they may be found all over the continental United States in good numbers, in others, they may be much more sparse throughout the United States and absent in many regions.

Lifespan: Unavailable

Nesting: According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds site, nests are built toward the end of the branch of an evergreen tree, well-hidden by the needles. 3-5 greenish-blue eggs with brown or reddish-brown spots are laid in a shallow nest made of twigs, grasses and other fibrous plant material, lined with feathers, thistle-down or other softer material to cushion and insulate the eggs against cold temperatures in the northern nesting range. The eggs take 13 days to hatch.

IUCN Red List Status: Species of least concern. Large population over a wide range.

Pine Siskin Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Fringillidae

Genus: Carduelis

Species: Carduelis pinus

Porcupines, Field Observations

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have several co-located porcupine dens in my yard. There are several dens with active porcupines within the space of 25 feet or so. They may be connected underground, or not. I really can't tell. At any rate, knowing the locations of these dens gives me an opportunity to learn more about these porcupines first-hand.

Despite several freezes and thaws, the well-used path
depression leading from the porcupine dens is easy to find
and follow. Not single set of tracks diverged from the path.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Do not copy.

I've set up both still picture and video trail cams and recorded some good footage and pictures which seem to show at least three different individuals, although I suspect there are more. Despite being generally solitary creatures, porcupines do sometimes form communal dens in the winter. Although they are well insulated with thick fur and quills, each porcupine throws off body heat. Have several of these living heaters in a single den means the air temperature inside the den will be higher and each individual will need to burn fewer calories to stay warm. It also lowers the chance of freezing to death if the weather turns very, very cold.

Since the snow around the dens is tracked with mud from inside the dens, we can determine that either the dens go down deeper than the frost line into unfrozen ground, or the animals' body heat inside the den is sufficient to melt the frozen ground inside the den.

Fresh snowfall also gives me the opportunity to follow the nightly routes travelled by the porcupines. Today, I did just that to find out exactly where they go and what they eat. We know that porcupines eat small tender twigs and the inner bark of trees, especially during the winter, but what species do they prefer? How big is their range? And how many trees does it take to support them?

We had a significant snowfall here five days ago on top of bare ground. That means that for five days, the porcupines from these dens have been laying down tracks and trails. From previous experience, I know that porcupines (at least in winter) tend to be creatures of habit and follow set patterns. That means that rather than dozens of trails radiating out from the dens in all directions, we'd expect one or possibly two frequently used trails going to specific destinations repeatedly.

Figure 1: Sketch of the path leading from the porcupine
dens in my yard. Not to scale.
Drawing by Brad Sylvester. Do not copy.

The sketch labelled figure 1 shows what I found. It's not to scale but shows the well-worn trail laid down by the porcupines from these dens. As I would have bet, there is a single trail leading from Den #1 directly to Den #2 and from there to a beech tree then on to a hemlock tree. From there, the porcupines (since they were not still in the trees) used the same route to return back to their dens. In the five days since the most recent snow at least, the porcupine or porcupines from these dens visited only two trees.

The last time I set out trail cams to view the nocturnal porcupines was earlier this winter. There could be fewer or more living in the dens now than there were then. Although I could see three that looked different enough in the previous pictures for me to believe they were distinct individuals, that is by no means an accurate population count of the dens at the time.

Examining the trees to which the porcupine trails lead gives us more information about them. Although there is inner bark available at the base of the tree, these porcupines climb high into the tree and its smaller branches to eat. Fresh scars left by their gnawing can be seen no lower than about 15 feet up. I can think of three main reasons or theories about why the porcupine should eat only the inner bark from high in the tree even though it takes more energy to climb the tree than to eat from ground level.

Beech tree gnawed by a porcupine. The inner bark has
been stripped, girdling the upper trunk. This part of the
tree will die as a result of porcupine feeding.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

The first is that the porcupine is safer from potential predators while high up in the tree than it would be on the ground. Under this theory, those with a predilection for climbing before eating would fall victim to predation less often and have an evolutionary survival advantage over porcupines that stayed on the ground to eat. The porcupine in a high tree would certainly be protected from predators like coyotes which cannot climb at all. Although some porcupine predators can climb trees quite well, the backside of a porcupine climbing a tree is pretty well defended. On the other hand, once it is out on a narrow branch, the porcupine's undefended underside might be exposed. This theory is pretty difficult to prove.

A second possibility is that the outer bark is thicker at the base of the trees than it is higher up on the thinner branches, so it is more difficult for a porcupine (with relatively short chisel-shaped incisors) to gnaw through to the inner bark around the tree's base. It might wear out the rodent's teeth too fast. Most animals tend to select food that offers the highest nutrition for a given amount of effort. For this theory to be workable, the lesser chewing and digestion effort or the lower rate of tooth wear of eating thin upper bark, instead of thicker lower bark would have to outweigh the effort of climbing the tree. Difficult to prove outside a lab setting.

Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

The third choice is similar to the second. There might be a difference in the nutritional content of the upper tree bark compared to the lower tree bark. Its composition might be different so that it contains nutrients not found in the lower bark in sufficient density to support the porcupine's health. Although this is easier to test, we'd still need a lab to analyze bark samples.

Finally, of course, it could be a combination of any of those theories, or something else entirely.

What did we learn?

What we do know is that porcupines eat the inner bark of beech trees and hemlock trees when there is thick snow cover on the ground. We know they chew through the small twigs, near the main branch dropping the twig ends to the forest floor below. They do not appear to eat these small twigs from the forest floor once they have fallen (unless they carry them back to the den, a possibility for which I found no evidence).

We know they visit a small number of trees when there is heavy snow cover, only two in this case over a period of five days. The entire length of the slightly winding trail used by these porcupines extends perhaps 100-175 feet in length. We know they do significant damage to the trees from which they eat during the winter, with the inner bark completely stripped from large sections of the upper trunk and branches, likely killing branches and perhaps even the top of the tree.

Hemlock twigs littering the forest floor are a sing of
porcupine feeding.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

From previous experience, I know that a littering of fresh hemlock twig ends on the forest floor is a sure sign of the presence of porcupines all year round, so we know porcupines include hemlock in their diet all year round. I have also seen porcupines, especially very young porcupines, eating clover and grass in the summer.

What we still don't know

What we don't know from the above-reported observations is whether the porcupine's diet or habits change when there is not a thick snow cover. We don't know whether the small twigs are removed because they get in the way of stripping the bark off larger branches, or if the ends simply fall when they are eaten through. We don't know if porcupines eat other tree species. We don't know how many porcupines might eat from a tree at one time, how much time they spend eating, or how long it might take them to strip a tree to the point where diminishing returns necessitate finding a new tree from which to eat. We don't know if their range increases when there is less snow and travelling is easier. We don't know how many porcupines share these communal dens, the familial relationship, if any, between the members of this seasonal group, or their ages.

We don't know if a winter communal group stays in the same group or den all winter or if individuals might leave and move into other dens within a single season. We don't know much, if anything about their behavior within the den. We don't know whether one individual might stay in the same den throughout the following summer or if they all split up to find new dens. While we might find the answers to some of these questions in existing literature about the porcupine, I'd like to do some non-invasive observations of my own to learn about my own resident porcupines directly. I think I'll start by putting a trail cam high in a tree to observe the animals as they eat.

---

Update: My new YouTube channel: @WhatLivesinmyYard talks about the porcupine in Episode 1.

A Bull Moose (Alces alces): The Biggest, most Dangerous Animal in my Yard

Yearling Bull Moose (Alces alces) with spike antlers taken
in my backyard on February 6, 2012.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

Sometimes I have to go to great lengths to find the animals that live in my yard, but when a bull moose (Alces alces) walks through the yard within 50 feet of the house, it's pretty hard to miss. This moose is definitely male, because it has antlers. Female moose do not grow them at all. Bull moose actually shed their antlers and regrow a new set each year.

The little spiky antlers on this moose tell me that it is almost certainly a yearling moose. Yearlings may keep their antlers later in the season than their more mature brethren who may drop their antlers around December. February or even March is not too unusual a date to see such a young moose still carrying last year's beginner antlers. You can tell that these are antlers from the prior season rather than newly developing antlers by the lack of velvet covering over them. In the pictures, the antlers of the moose that was in my yard appear hard and bony.

Moose Antler Growth

Bull moose showing developing antlers with brown velvet
feeding on aquatic plants in Errol, NH in July, 2011.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2011.

They would start out as buds around the end of April and begin growing with a brown, fuzzy covering called velvet. The velvet peels and gets scraped off on trees to relieve the itching as the antlers get ready for rutting season. The picture below shows a bull moose in July with his antlers coming in. The velvet shows clearly. You'll also notice that even though they are not nearly finished growing for the season, they are clearly going to be much, much fuller than those of the moose from my yard. This shows that the bull moose in the picture I took last summer in Errol, is older. You can see the full video of this adult male moose eating here. According to the New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife Service (NH F&G), the antlers of a mature moose may weigh 40 pounds.

Bear Killers

Even though it is still young, the yearling moose stands 6 feet tall at the shoulder and about eight feet tall overall. Moose are big animals. Already, this moose weighs more than a typical full grown black bear. During the fall mating season when it is full of hormonal aggression, it is also more dangerous than a black bear. The most dangerous moose, however, is the female with a young calf. They are fiercely protective and can not tolerate any creature physically getting between them and the calf. The NH F&G website claims that female moose have been known to kill not only people and black bears, but also the larger grizzly bear while defending their calves. These are very dangerous animals.

Although a female moose isn't as big as a male, an average adult moose weighs 1000 pounds and big bulls may go as high as 1500. The North Country News says that the largest female moose taken by hunters in New Hampshire was about 1100 pounds estimated live weight, while the largest bull taken in the Granite State would have tipped the scale at an estimated live weight of 1400 pounds.

Bull Moose trotting off down into the forest in my
backyard.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

That makes the moose the biggest wild land animal not just in my yard, but in all of New Hampshire by a wide margin although cattle may weigh more. Despite its great size, moose are vegetarians eating leaves twigs and buds of trees during the winter and aquatic plants during the summer. Their noses close up to prevent water from getting in while they stick their heads underwater to graze.

There is a large marshy area in the valley below my house, perhaps a mile and a half away. This would be ideal summer grazing territory for moose while the forests make good winter habitat. Moose are excellent swimmers. Having watched one swim across a lake, I think I'd be pretty hard-pressed to out swim a moose for very long. On land, however, there's no question; the moose easily wins with a running speed that can top out around 35 miles per hour.

Moose Scat



Old moose scat from the woods at the back of our property
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2011.

 About a month ago, I found moose scat down on the back part of my property, but it appeared to be at least a year old. Because it contains mostly woody material from the moose's winter diet, moss was actually growing on it. It looks a bit like compacted sawdust. Each pellet is about an inch long, much bigger than deer pellets. When we first moved here about 4-5 years ago, I saw a very young moose crossing the road about five miles away and we have seen moose tracks in the snow within a mile of our house, but this is the first time we've seen a moose on our property. Here's a video I took of a very young moose with its mother in Northern Maine.

The two depressions behind the print on the left are from
the dew claws of the hind foot of the moose.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

After giving the moose in my yard a head start of about an hour, I followed its tracks through the woods in my backyard for over a mile onto a neighbor's property and into a protected wilderness area on the other side of that. I was curious to see where it went, but couldn't devote the entire day to following it; perhaps another time. I did find one hair from the moose's coat stuck on a tree branch that it pushed aside as it walked through the forest. You can see from the photo below that it is much thicker than a human hair placed next to it for comparison.

Moose tend to be solitary creatures. With the exception of mother and calf, and during the rutting season (mid-September to mid-October), they will most often, though not always, be spotted alone.

Moose hair on right,
human hair on left.
Photo by Brad Sylvester.
Copyright 2012.

Moose Tracks

Moose tracks are also big. They tend to have obvious dew claw marks in the snow, especially on the rear feet. The tracks from the moose in my yard measured six inches long without the dew claws, nine inches with them. They were 5.5 inches wide. Like deer prints, if the moose is running or trotting then the front part of the hoof will tend to be splayed open with more space in between the two halves.



The red arrows point to the dew claws at the back of
each hoof. The dew claws of the rear feet tend to show
up more prominently in the moose tracks.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

 The stride of this moose varied from about three feet to about seven feet between prints depending upon the speed at which it was traveling. The rear prints tend to fall directly on or very near the front hooves, leaving a track pattern not unlike the one that a person would leave with left and right prints alternating.

Quick Facts about the Moose (Alces alces):

Diet: Moose eat twigs, leaves and buds from trees, especially during the winter. In the summer, they prefer grazing on aquatic plants pulled form the bottoms of shallow lakes, rivers and marshes.

Habitat: Forest and marshland.

When is it here? The moose lives in New Hampshire all year round, but may move from forest to marshland depending upon the season.

Home range: From 1-25 square miles according to NH F&G.

Where does the moose go during the winter? The moose will forage in the forest or at the forest edge during the winter. It is not bothered by cold, unless its coat is damaged or worn off by scratching (such as might be caused by a tick infestation).

Life Cycle: Moose mate from mid-September to mid-October. 1-2 calves will be born in late May or early June. The calves are cared for by their mother for about a year. Females are ready to mate during their first year while bulls take a few years to grow big and strong enough to challenge for the right to mate by clashing antlers with other rutting males.

Moose Lifespan: Moose typically live 10-15 years.

Moose taxonomy:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Genus: Alces
Species: Alces alces

Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), Popular Game Bird

A ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) in a New Hampshire
birch thicket.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

With several inches of hard, ice-crusted snow on the ground, ground feeders like the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) can have a hard time finding food. Fortunately, the upper branches of most trees tend to remain relatively snow free, especially if there's a little wind to knock the snow off. The ruffed grouse, therefore, can often be found in the treetops after a particularly deep snowfall or when the snow has frozen over with a hard crust. That's where I spotted this one.

This ruffed grouse is about 25 feet high in the trees, and was walking along the branch eating birch catkins. Normally, the ruffed grouse is a ground feeder, eating berries, buds, plant shoots, and fallen nuts that it finds there.

The ruffed grouse is a large bird measuring about 17 inches long with a plump, round body. As such, it is a favorite game bird of New Hampshire hunters. In fact, says New Hampshire Fish and Game, fully two-thirds of all the hunting hours logged by small game hunters were spent in pursuit of the ruffed grouse. Hunting season for the ruffed grouse in New Hampshire runs from October 1 through December 31 and requires a small game permit. I don't hunt myself, and generally don't allow hunting on my property as I enjoy the presence of the animals that live here.

When I first moved to our home in New Hampshire, I would often hear a strange, low-pitched noise coming from the woods. It was a slow thrumming sound that increased its pace over the course of about 15 seconds before stopping. It was the call of the male ruffed grouse. Actually, not a call, but rather the sound the bird makes during it territorial display, flapping its wings at an increasing pace moving its wings so fast with each flap that the sound of air rushing to fill the void left by the moving wind makes a loud, low pitched sound almost like a hushed drumbeat.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard this sound from the woods behind my house for the last two years. Either the male ruffed grouse that was there has moved or died. There is, however, a female that still resides in my yard. Every so often when I am walking through the woods, I will inadvertently flush it out and catch a brief view of it as it wings away from the perceived threat. I try not to startle it or go to areas where I know it hangs out, but it sometimes feed next to a walking path that I use.

Ruffed grouse prefer to live in areas of thickly growing small trees. Aspen is their favorite, but other species will do. The thick growth of small trunks gives them cover from predators and provides a source of food. In my yard, there is a decently-sized area of successional birch growing too thickly for a person to comfortably walk through. This is perfect home territory for ruffed grouse and it is in or near this area that I typically find them.

 

Quick Facts about the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus):

Where does it live? The ruffed grouse lives in the forest and makes its nest on the ground. Depending upon the food availability in a given year, a ruffed grouse requires a range between 4-40 acres per bird. Females tend to be more mobile feeding throughout the ranges of several males during the winter. They range through most of Canada and the northern United States.

Diet: Plant buds, fruit and berries, young plant shoots according to Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide. It's hard to imagine, though, that they won't take forest beetles and other insects as opportunity presents.

Where does the ruffed grouse go in winter? The ruffed grouse stays right here all year round and does not migrate, although as I mentioned above, it's feeding habits may change when its usual dining table, the forest floor is made inaccessible by snow.

IUCN Red List status: Species of Least Concern, however, the IUCN notes that although it does not meat the threshold of vulnerable due to its wide range and population size, the population trend of the ruffed grouse is declining.
Breeding: According to the Natural Resources Conservation Services of Minnesota, the ruffed grouse hen lays 9-14 eggs over about two and a half weeks and then incubates them for 23-24 days before they hatch. Like chickens, the hen doesn't start incubating the eggs until the nest is full. Until then, the eggs remain in a dormant state. That allows all the eggs to hatch at about the same time. Although they will follow the mother hen around for 8-12 weeks, the ruffed grouse chicks are able to feed by themselves as soon after hatching as they get hungry. The mother, however, provides protection from predators by attempting to draw attention away from the chicks if a threat comes too near.

Ruffed Grouse Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Genus: Bonasa
Species: Bonasa umbellus

Porcupine Dens in my Yard Confirmed by Trailcam

A porcupine heads out for a snack in the dark of night. The
grizzled white areas on it's back and tail are the areas of
heaviest quill concentration.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012, Do not copy.

In my previous entry, I wrote about a path of footprints leading out from two holes in the ground in the forested part of my yard. Well, for each of the last two nights, my trailcam has captured pictures of the creatures that are using the underground dens to escape the winter cold. As I suspected, they are porcupines or taxonomically speaking, Erethizon dorsatum.

The resolution of the camera is not high enough to tell for certain how many individuals are living in the dens, but from size differences of those porcupines photographed, I would say there are at least three. At least one is much smaller than the others and was probably born this past summer. I have known that porcupines lived on my property for some time, but I did not know they had a den here. Indeed, it may be only a temporary den for the winter as I have never seen tracks or other signs of porcupine occupancy there prior to last week.

Although generally nocturnal, it's not too unusual to
see procupines during daylight hours. This one, shown
disappearing into its den, was active in the middle
of the afternoon.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Porcupines are generally nocturnal feeders, but can be found out and about during daylight and dusk from time to time as well. As I mentioned last time, they don't hibernate or even fall into a winter torpor. Their thick coating of hair and quills provide them with insulation and there primary foods are available all year round.

Porcupines can cause terrible injury in dogs or any animal that attempts to touch them, but they are one of nature's best examples of a passive-aggressive creature. Porcupines respond to threats by turning away and slowly walking off as if they have no care in the world. In reality, their tails and backs are where their quills are thickest. Any attack from the rear is almost certain to result in more pain and injury to the attacker than to the porcupine. If the attacker gets too close for comfort, the porcupine will flick its quill-covered tail at them and do its best to turn the attacker into a pin cushion.

Porcupette Video. Copyright Brad Sylvester 2012

Porcupine quills have a very sharp point at the end and have small, scale-like barks that prevent them from being easily backed out once the penetrate the skin. Instead, they actually work themselves deeper over time. Porcupine quills can be quite painful and may result in serious infections if not removed and the wounds treated.



A porcupette looks down from an overhead branch. The
rodent's chisel-like incisors are visible.
Photo by brad Sylvester. Copyright 2010. Do not copy.

 Despite this defensive armament, the porcupine does fall victim to several New England forest predators on a regular basis. The most accomplished porcupine hunter is probably the fisher cat. I've been told that fishers attack porcupines in one of two ways. They'll harry the porcupine using their own speed and agility to stay out of reach. The fisher attacks the porcupine's head until the porcupine is completely exhausted (or dead) and can no longer turn its back fast enough to defend itself. Then the fisher will flip the porcupine over and eat from its unprotected underside. Another technique is to attack a treed porcupine from below as it clings to a branch. From that angle, its unquilled belly is exposed. I haven't seen either of these behaviors to confirm these modes of attack, but that's what folks around here say.

Trailcam video. Copyright Brad Sylvester 2012.

Bobcats and coyotes are also known to kill and eat porcupines as well. The head is largely undefended and frontal attacks against the porcupine are the least dangerous for the attacker. We have all three porcupine predators in New Hampshire and both bobcats and coyotes have been present on my property on more than one occasion since I moved here in 2007.

Quick Facts About the Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)

Size: Porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America. Only beavers are bigger. Adult male porcupines can weigh 35 pounds or more, but 12-15 pounds is a more common adult weight. Porcupines may measure more than three feet long and over a foot tall at the shoulder.

Lifespan: up to 15 years in the wild

Diet: Mainly the soft inner bark of trees, young evergreen needles, and plant buds. Hemlock is a favorite. In the spring and summer, porcupines will also eat grass and other green plants, fermenting fruit, seeds and some tubers. They are also known to chew treated wood or even rubber for the salt and mineral taste and may become a nuisance by eating the bark of fruit trees, sometimes girdling branches or the trunk and killing them. As a child, I remember hiking the Long Trail in Vermont and often finding porcupines chewing away contently at the wooden lean-tos built along the trail by the Forestry Service.

Where does it live? Porcupines live throughout the northern United States and Canada. According the IUCN information page, it can also be found further south in the west, even into northern Mexico.

Habitat: Porcupines most often inhabitat mixed forests, but in the spring can be found feeding on grass in open fields, especially when they are caring for a young porcupette. In the southwest, says the IUCN, they may live in desert scrub. Further north, they also live in the Canadian tundra.

When is it here? The North American porcupine lives in New Hampshire all year round?

Where does it go in winter? No place special, the porcupine does not hibernate or fall into a winter torpor. If the weather is especially cold or severe, they may form communal dens for a time during the winter, leaving each night to feed.

Breeding: Porcupines mate from September to December. They give birth usually to a single baby about seven months later. Males often fight viciously and noisily over females during mating season.

IUCN redlist status: Species of least concern. Wide distribution and large population.

Notes of interest: Each porcupine has over 30 quills. Baby porcupines are called porcupettes. Porcupines are very good climbers, but slow and awkward on the ground.

Porcupine Taxonomy:
Phylum: Chordata
Class:  Mammalia (Mammals)
Order: Rodentia (Rodents)
Family: Erethizontidae
Genus: Erethizon
Species: Erethizon dorsatum

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Update: My new YouTube channel: @WhatLivesinmyYard talks about the porcupine in Episode 1.

Hole in the ground becomes winter den

This hole goes as deep as I can see, twisting around
underground boulders. Now it appears that porcupines are
using it for a winter den.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

During the summer, I found a deep hole in the ground in my backyard forest. It's right at the base of a tree and if you peer into it, you can see about six feet down although there are numerous very large stones (two foot diameter or more) causing the hole to twist and turn as it descends. It seems to go much deeper. At any rate, it's well below the frost line for New England which is somewhere just under three feet as I recall from my study of architecture in high school.

Two days ago, we had about three inches of snow and I happened to walk through the part of my yard where the hole is. There was a very well-trod path coming out of the hole and proceeding about 15 feet to another similar, but smaller hole, in the ground. From there, the path continued on and split. One fork went to the base of a nearby pine tree, straight to the trunk. From the tree, it appeared as though it came straight away from the trunk and continued into the forest.

The tracks seemed to show that the path went up the tree and came back down before continuing. The paths were very well traveled as I mentioned. So, it was impossible to make out individual prints to see what creature or creatures had made the trail. There was no scat or other evidence to help determine what might be using the dens.

Today, I went back to install my trail cam in a position to catch photographs of whatever it is. There was new evidence. Urine and scat right outside the holes in the ground suggested that it might, indeed, be what I suspected. A communal den of a fairly common New England mammal that does not hibernate in the winter: the porcupine.

Communal Porcupine Dens

Second suspected porcupine den located just 15 feet from
the previous one. One trail leads to the other opening,
and one leads further into the forest.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Porcupines generally have solitary or family dens, but in periods of severe winter weather, they may group together in a single den which benefits them all by the sharing of the communal body heat. I believe these two holes in the ground are communal porcupine dens. Today, I placed my trail cam in a position where it will almost certainly get some good identification photos of whatever is spending its days in these holes.

Which brings us to the question of why don't porcupines hibernate or go into a winter torpor like so many other small mammals. I would guess that it has to do with the preferred diet of porcupines. They eat the small, tender twigs of evergreen trees, green bark, and the young evergreen needles. They especially like hemlock. Of course, as the name says, evergreen trees stay green and full of porcupine nutrition throughout the winter. There is no need, therefore, for a porcupine to shut down its metabolism and wait for the new growth of spring. They will also eat fallen fruit when it is available.

Signs of Porcupines

As an aside, there are two sure signs of porcupines. First, lots of bits of the ends of hemlock branches littering the forest floor under the tree. The porcupine climbs out on the branches to eat the small twigs and to reach the newest needle growth. It eats the needles from the small twigs, but as it does so, the branch tips are discarded and fall to the ground. Porcupines, being both lazy and creatures of habit, will revisit the same few trees over and over again around its den, relying on the growth of those trees, especially during the spring and summer months to keep the porcupine's plate full.

Porcupine Droppings
The second sure sign of porcupines, is an excess of droppings outside of a ground level tree hollow, small cave or other suitable den entrance. Porcupine's are not meticulous about the placement of their droppings. Very large piles of droppings of varying ages will, therefore, accumulate outside the entrance to a porcupine's den over time. As they walk through it several times a day, trailing their dragging tails and quills, they will form a stained trail into and out of the den. On the positive side, the scat is made up almost entirely of undigested cellulose lacking in strong odor. Procupine droppings are a bit like rounded, oblong deer droppings, but tend to have a pronounced curve, making them almost "C" shaped. Other than outside the den where they accumulate, they'll be present in much smaller piles than deer droppings, or even individual pellets.

A trail leading straight into a tree trunk and then away
indicates an animal that climbed up the trunk such as
a squirrel or porcupine. These tracks are too big for
a squirrel.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012. Do not copy.

Porcupine Winter Behavior

As long as a porcupine can withstand the cold temperatures or winter, they can find plenty of food to sustain them even in the deepest snows of winter. By grouping together during the coldest weather body heat of many porcupines is combined to raise the ambient temperature of a den, which may be underground or in a large tree hollow. Together they can keep the temperature in the den much higher than any individual could by itself. That means fewer calories need to be burned to stay warm. In extreme conditions, it means the difference between surviving and freezing to death.

Of course, when it comes to the "whys" of animal behavior, we can only make assumptions based on the available evidence. There may be some other reason for communal dens during the harshest part of the winter, but Occam's Razor says that we should first assume the simplest explanation is correct until additional evidence disproves it.

I'm actually very excited to find dens of any mammal in my yard because it offers the possibility of regular and close observation of the den's occupants to learn more about their behavior than I might learn by simply catching pictures of them visiting feeding stations or walking along a common game trail.

Hopefully, one or more of the porcupines, assuming I am right in my guess of the occupants of these dens, will choose to raise offspring here in the spring. That opens up the possibility of me putting a remote camera inside the dens in addition to a camera outside the den to observe the kits as they develop.

I can hardly wait.

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Update: My new YouTube channel: @WhatLivesinmyYard talks about the porcupine in Episode 1.

Tracking White-tailed Deer in my Backyard

Even though it is old and detail has been lost due to
melting snow, we can still be sure that this track was
left by a white-tailed deer.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

In the summer, it can be difficult or impossible to know how many animals or what species walk through the woods in my back yard. I can set out a trail cam, listen at night, or sit quietly and wait for something to walk by, but these areimperfect methods at best. Many animals will smell me and avoid the area,  get missed by the trailcam's motion detector or pass by so silently that I never notice them. In the winter of New England, however, it is a different story.

Animal Tracks in the Snow

That different story is told by tracks in the snow. After a fresh, light snow, animals make very clear and distinct footprints that identify them as accurately as a good photograph. Of course, that only applies to fresh prints that have not had time to melt and lose their detail. Today, three days after four inches of snow fell, I went out to see what kinds of tracks I could find in the woods in my back yard. It is a warm day, and it's been warm for several days since the snow fell so it has mostly melted away. There is still about an inch or two of snow in most places in the woods, but is it slushy and wet.

Nevertheless, even with fine details metled away into oblivion, there is enough evidence to give us some idea of the animals that have passed by.

Hoof Prints in the Snow

Tracks of a white-tailed deer walking
calmly through my backyard.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011.
Do not copy.

Some animals tracks are very distinctive and are very difficult if not impossible to mistake even when most of the detail is gone. One such set of prints are those of the white-tailed deer (Odocileus virginianus). It is one of just two common hooved animals in the forests of New Hampshire. The other is the moose which has much larger feet. This, of course, excludes hoofprints found on the roof of a house after December 25th, which could only be magical reindeer.

Moose Prints or Deer Prints?

So when we see footprints that look like those in the photo at the beginning of this entry, with two distinct halves in each print, a twin-teardrop or arrowhead shape, and a lack of individual toes, we can be pretty certain that they are deer or moose prints. Deer footprints tend to max out at about 3" in length, while moose prints typically run 4.5-5.5" in length. The one thing of which we need to be careful, however, is that footprints in melting snow tend to get bigger over time. If the snow melts a bit, refreezes and melts a bit more, the apparent size of the prints can be quite different than they were when fresh.

How Many Deer Live in my Backyard?

In walking through my back yard, I ran across about half a dozen separate sets of deer footprints. I don't count single paths with multiple sets, because it may be the same animal walking back and forth over the same familiar path. Indeed there's no real way to know if the same animal made more than one set of prints in different areas. If the prints were fresh and distinct, I could measure them and those of different sizes could be attributed to different individuals. Because these are old, and the snow is melting, no reliable measurement can be made.

By finding places where there are multiple sets of deer prints, I can find a good location to set up my trailcam to try to get some pictures of the white-tailed deer that live in my yard.

Do These White-tailed Deer Really Live in my Backyard?

My yard is only about 5.25 acres, of which about 1 acre is cleared and the rest forested. This not even close to enough room for a deer to live all the time. a white-tailed deer will range over an area of about one square mile even if food is plentiful. If food is scarce, then it may cover much more area. So while these deer don't reside in my yard 24 hours a day. My yard is certainly within their normal territory so we can say, yes, these white-tailed deer do live in my yard at least part-time.

In other parts of the country there are other species of deer so the identification from footprints would be much less certain, but in New Hampshire, excluding escaped farm livestock, there only moose and white-tailed deer that might leave hoof prints.

Finding a Fawn All Alone

If you should find a tiny fawn lying alone in the grass, rest assured that it has not been abandoned. When danger is near, the mother will hide the babies in the grass where they will lie flat and still until the mother's return. If the mother has more than one fawn, she will have each one hide in different places.

Quick Facts about White-tailed Deer?

When do they live here? White-tailed deer live in the forests of New Hampshire all year round.

Where do they go in winter? White-tailed deer do not hibernate and are active all winter long. They may take shelter under the branches of evergreen trees or in thich brush to escape the elements durign a particularly harsh winter storm.

Diet: White-tailed deer are herbivores (vegetarians). They will graze on grass in open fields and the eat tender shoots of young ground plants and  during the summer. In the fall, they may eat nuts and fallen fruit. During the winter, when there is a deep snow cover, they  will eat the buds and ends of small softer twigs from trees (which can be a problem for home-owners with ornamenal landscape shrubs like lilacs). Deer, like cows, are ruminants which means they have a stomach with multiple chambers (four) and regurgitate their food after it is partially digested to chew it a second time. This is called chewing their cud.

How big do white-tailed deer get? A big male can reach as much as 300 pounds in weight. The largest deer taken by hunters in New Hampshire in 2010 weighed 289.5 pounds according to NH Fish & Game Department records.

How fast can white-tailed deer run? Over short distances, white-tailed deer can run about 30 miles per hour. This is roughly equal to an average full-sized dog in good physical condition, but dogs can likely keep up the pace longer than the deer chasing it until it is too exhausted to escape or put up much of a defense.

What are the main predators of white-tailed deer? Humans are the main predators of white-tailed deer. In New Hampshire in 2010, hunters killed 9759 deer. Domestic dogs are the second largest killer of wild deer in New Hampshire.

Lifecycle of White-tailed Deer: Deer mate during a rutting season in the fall and early winter. Fawns are born about 7 months later. Typically, the female will give birth to one or two fawns each season. The babies may remain with the mother for one to two years before going off on their own. They reach adulthood after about 16-18 months are are ready to have babies of their own by the fall of their second year.

Lifespan: White-tailed deer usually live about 2-3 years. Maximum lifespan would be 20 years, but, says the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web, "few live past 10 years old." That's largely due to hunting fatalities.

Range: With the exception of the desert Southwest, white-tailed deer can be found throughout the 48 states and through southern Canada.

Interesting Notes: With adult males weighing 200-300 pounds, the white-tailed deer is the largest animal living in my yard that we've identified to date (although there are two larger animals that may also live here, we haven't identified them since I started this blog).

When a deer is walking at normal speed, the hoofprints will tend to be shaped like an arrowhead with the points at the front coming together. When it is running, however, the points tend to splay outward so that the front tips are angled away from each other.

Male white-tailed deer grow new antlers each year and then shed them typically between January and March after mating season has ended. The antlers are used to defend territory from other males during the mating or rutting season which makes the antlers at the largest size of the year during hunting season November-December. Females do not grow antlers at all.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

The bright clean feathers on this chickadee indicate that
the photo was taken in late fall or winter. The feathers will
in the late summer before being replaced.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

As you may know, I am a freelance writer by trade. One of the regular columns I write is the Manchester Bird Watching Examiner at Examiner.com. I just published an article there about one of the birds that lives in my yard, the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). In the article, I discussed the complex set of vocal signals the black-capped chickadee uses to communicate with others of its species and even with other species of birds. If you find the idea of language being used by animals other than humans as interesting as I do, you can read "The Language of Chickadees" at this link to learn what they are saying with their different songs and calls.

Meanwhile, let's discuss the bird as another of the animals that lives in my yard.

The black-capped chickadee is another year-round resident in New Hampshire. In the spring and summer they set-up housekeeping and establish nests. In the winter, they are a bit more cooperative forming groups of six or eight birds that tend to stick together in a small flock. They don't generally migrate from New Hampshire, but extremely harsh winter weather may periodically push them south as they search for food and respite from the very coldest temperatures. This, as I mentioned in a previous post, is called irruptive migration.

Black-capped Chickadee Nesting Habits


Chickadees are quite happy in suburban settings as well as on the forest edge or clearings deep within forests. They nest in hollowed out tree cavities which they either find or dig themselves. They can also be tempted into using artificial birdhouses located 6-15 feet off the ground and placed in or on the edge of the forest. They'll line these cavities with soft plant material such as moss, pine needles, and the soft down of plants like thistles or milkweed. Of course, man-made materials that they find will be used as well. In our yard, we often brush our dog's coat in the pring and early summer as she is shedding and we leave the hair on the lawn for the birds to use in their nests.

Chickadee eggs are quite small, about 5/8 inches in diameter. They are white with brown spots and are typically laid in clutches of 6-8 eggs. Instead of laying them all at once, the black-capped chickadee will lay one egg each day until the clutch is complete. The young hatch blind and featherless, but are ready to leave the nest in just 16 days after hatching. Adults measure 5 inches in length.

Quick facts about the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus):

Lifespan: Although generally considered to live about 2-3 years, Ehrlich, Dokin and Wheye of Stanford University state that the longest recorded lifespan for a black-capped chickadee is 12 years, 5 months.

Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) at a
suet feeder.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

Diet: Chickadees are primarily seed eaters in the winter and are frequent vistors to backyard bird feeders. As you can see in the photo to the right, they will eat suet as well. During the summer, they'll flit from branch to branch in trees and shrubs looking for bugs to eat.

When is it here? Black-capped chickadees are found in New Hampshire all year round.

Where does it go in the winter? Chickadees are active all winter, relying on seeds and berries that are left on trees and bushes or the seed and suet put out in birdfeeders.

Notes: Although most of us know the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" warning call of the black-capped chickadee, the usual call is a smooth, lazy "Feee-beee" that has a much more musical sound.