Panthers and Wolves in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

A big mountain lion remembered

The following passage is quoted from A History of Muhlenberg County (pp 114-116), written by Otto Arthur Rothert and published in Louisville, KY, by J. P. Morton in  1913. I've divided the paragraphs and added some punctuation and words in brackets to make the passage easier to read on the screen. The Mud River, mentioned in the cougar story, forms the eastern boundary line of Muhlenberg County today.
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Speaking to me of the old days, Judge David J. Fleming said :

I have often heard my father, Samuel C. Fleming, tell of an incident that took place about the year 1815, or shortly after my grandparents settled in the Mud River country.

Ammunition was scarce in those days, but game was plentiful and easily caught. My grandfather, David L. Fleming,had cleared a small field, in which he built a turkey-pen for the purpose of trapping wild turkeys. One day at dinner my grandfather told my father, then a boy of about ten, to go over to the turkey-pen after dinner and see whether any turkeys were in it.

Shortly before supper, [my] father walked over to the pen, but found no turkeys nor any signs. On his return he followed a path through a strip of dense woods. Soon after entering the woods, he heard a noise like a crying child. He glanced around, and seeing nothing, rushed home and told his father, who was then in the blacksmith's shop at work. [My grandfather]... remarked that he had often heard a "child" crying in the woods at night, but never before so early in the evening.

Grandfather picked up his gun and followed the path leading to the turkey-pen. He entered the woods, looked and listened, and after hearing the expected cry, hid himself behind a tree and from there mimicked the slowly approaching beast. When it came within safe shooting distance, he blazed away and killed one of the largest 'Tom' panthers ever seen in Muhlenberg County. The animal measured eleven feet from the end of his nose to the tip of his tail. Although I was not born until about eighteen years later, I remember using this old panther skin for a pallet [a flat bed on the floor].

No panthers have been seen in Muhlenberg since about the close of the Civil War, notwithstanding that even to this day, reports are occasionally circulated that one had been seen, or rather heard, in the Clifty Creek country.

Wolves, too, have long ago disappeared. The desire to exterminate wolves, and incidentally to receive the bounty paid for their scalps, resulted in a war on wolves that lasted as long as there were any to be killed. Anyone producing the head of a wolf before a justice of the peace, stating under oath when and where he killed the animal, was granted a certificate to that effect. These certificates, upon presentation to the sheriff, were paid for at the rate of two dollars and a half for wolves over six months of age and one dollar for those under that age.

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Quoted from A History of Muhlenberg County (pp 114-116), written by Otto Arthur Rothert and published in Louisville, KY, by J. P. Morton in 1913.

An 1808 wolf-kill certificate, reproduced in A History of Muhlenberg County

Recreational Mowing

Unfriendly to wildlife

Kentucky Living, a little magazine we receive from our electrical cooperative, has a great column about recreational mowing this month. Dave Baker, the author, writes that unnecessary mowing removes cover and food that wildlife needs to survive.

Baker talks mostly about the regular mowing of pastures for no reason except appearance (vanity.) Clipping a pasture all the time makes it an inhospitable place for the little creatures who share the land. Wildlife needs the cover of tall vegetation for protection and the seed heads of full-grown vegetation for food.

And, though Baker didn't mention it, all that recreational mowing burns a lot of gasoline for no good reason, too.

I know people who mow several acres --even five acres or more -- around their house a couple times a week during the grassy months of the year. If everyone who's doing that would mow half as much, half as often, think of the many, many gallons of gasoline that would be saved.

And think of all the wildlife habitat that would be created on the half that was allowed to grow. Yes, even in your yard, wildlife appreciates vegetation that's allowed to grow and mature.

A freshly mowed expanse,  photographed by Tim Ebbs.

Odds and Ends (1)

Photos from the "To be posted" folder

Keely and I had fun shopping at Burkes Outlet and the Mighty Dollar in Russellville (KY), about a week ago. At Burkes, I successfully resisted buying a chicken. I like chicken knickknacks, but I am determined not to start a collection.

Burkes and the Mighty Dollar are in the same strip mall, next to the Russellville WalMart. They're the sort of stores that have an unpredictable, interesting and inexpensive inventory.

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Our landscape was colored with brown for several months due to the long drought this area suffered last summer. Now, around Christian County, winter wheat is greening many fields. I enjoy seeing the bright new growth!


This photo was taken at the intersection of Pilot Rock Road and Robinson Lane in Christian County, looking southeast toward Fairview.  

We've had a couple of nice rains and in fact, rain is falling at this very moment. It's been quite a wet and windy evening, but it's still 50 degrees. Tomorrow the temperatures will fall, and tomorrow night will be below freezing. Although our weather has been mostly mild so far, we did have some snow on Thanksgiving night.

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Two summers ago, I saw this pretty little clump of flowers in Land Between the Lakes near the Egner Ferry Bridge. It was growing a hundred feet from the lakeshore in a gravel-filled wash. The debris in the background suggests a high-water episode in the past.

You never know where you'll find a flower. If the soil is right for them to flourish, they bloom despite their humble surroundings.

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This photo is a year or two old, too. I came out to the kitchen one summer morning to make coffee, and found this large moth. Dennis had seen him resting on a white towel and put a glass jar over him so I could see him too.  That's a penny beside him. After I took the photo, I slid a piece of paper under him and carried him outside. I never did get to see him open his wings and fly.

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This is one of the interesting homes on South Main Street in Hopkinsville. This style is (I think) Mission Revival -- at least, the roofline and arched windows certainly are. (I'm not sure about the front porch!) Mission Revival was especially popular for the first few decades of the 1900s.

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This is another home on South Main Street in Hopkinsville. The photo is a little out of perspective because I tried to straighten it using a stretch-grid in Paintshop Pro.

After my treatment, the photo looks like it was taken from the air, instead of from the ground. I'm not sure that the chimneys and the front roof peak are that tall in real life, either.

Despite those flaws, if the porch railings were straight, the photo would probably look OK. I couldn't seem to get them in line without grossly stretching something else.

Nonetheless, it's a pretty house. The two-story gingerbread porch and the red front door give it personality. Without them, it would be a big, plain box.

(To be continued another day. More such photos wait.)

Elk Problems in Eastern KY

Too many car/elk accidents

Elk were extirpated (made locally extinct) in Kentucky before 1850. In 1987, Kentucky's Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources began reintroducing elk in 16 counties of southeastern Kentucky. The repopulation project has been (pardon the pun) wildly successful.

The elk were released into the most mountainous part of the state. Mining is a major industry there. Many large strip-mine sites were made fit for wildlife when abandoned, as required by state law. Most of the reclaimed sites are now open, grassy fields -- an abundant source of food for the elk.

The elk have thrived in Kentucky. They are achieving a 90% breeding success rate, and a 92% calf survival rate. The absence of predators, relatively mild Kentucky winters and abundant food sources have not only contributed to the remarkable population growth, but also account for the fact that the Kentucky elk are on average 15% larger than elk found in western states. By July 2000, Kentucky had the largest free ranging, wild elk herd east of Montana.

Source: The Kentucky Elk Herd

Population projections have been exceeded.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife predicted the population would reach 10,000 in 2013. Kristina Brunjes, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife big game coordinator, said they are starting to get some research data that indicates they may hit that number in 2009

Source: "The Elk's Return to Kentucky", by Carol L. Spence,  published Spring, 2009, in a University of Kentucky College of Agriculture magazine

Black bears and cougars are being sighted more often in eastern KY, but there aren't enough of them to control the growing elk population. In the absence of other predators, Kentucky is depending on hunters. In 2009, Kentucky issued 250 bull tags and 750 cow tags. A total of 765 elk were harvested, if I am reading the figures correctly.

With so many elk in the mountains, it was inevitable that drivers would encounter elk on the roads. Collisions of cars and elk have been a big problem. In Bell County, KY, county officials recently arranged a public meeting with state wildlife officials so local residents could complain in person.

Fish and Wildlife Resources Commissioner Taylor Orr and Wildlife Division Director Karen Wahlberg said they are working on solutions, such as setting traps in problem areas and allowing more... locals to participate in elk hunts.

Bell County Judge-Executive Albey Brock, who hosted the forum as a way to make sure state wildlife officials understood the magnitude of the problem, said another meeting would be held.

"Instead of saying 'if we have a problem', let's agree we do have a problem," Brock said.

Source: "Residents in southeastern KY. angry about elk", Associated Press article published in the Lexington Herald-Leader, January 25, 2010

I hit a deer with my car a few years ago, and I know how dangerous, unsettling, and expensive that was. I shudder to think of an animal several times larger than a deer plunging into the path of my car. On the other hand, I do like to think of wild elk roaming the mountains.

Image credit: Cervus elaphus.(Robert Karges II / USFWS)

Backyard Nature

Wild ageratum and more

Wild ageratum (blue mistflower, Eupatorium coelestinum) is blooming at the edge of some shrubbery where Dennis hasn't mowed closely this year. It pops up every year somewhere around the yard, always in a spot out of the lawn mower's reach. The butterflies like it.

This clump of ageratum is particularly lush. Some of the shoots must be three feet tall. I think it has enjoyed the rainy summer.

Ageratum blooms along the road ditches this time of year, too. It's a sure sign that fall is at hand. It's a member of the aster family, and like many of its relatives, it's a late bloomers.

More backyard nature

While I was working in the shed late this evening, a baby frog hopped in. I thought it was a cricket at first. It was tiny but its hops carried it high into the air -- sproing, sproing! I wanted to put it outside, but it was fast and I couldn't catch it. Finally, I herded it out with the broom.

Just minutes later, a young toad came in. He was craftier than the little frog. He hopped behind some boards where he was perfectly safe from capture. He's still in the shed. I'm going to look for him tomorrow morning.

It was dark outside. I don't know if the little frog and toad were attracted by the lights or by the bugs that had come to the lights.

I finally decided to quit and go to the house. I turned out the lights and started to close the door. Across the driveway, I heard a large animal blow air in a startled whoosh and run away. I couldn't see it, but I know it was a deer that had come to eat fallen apples.

Now the coyotes are howling, and it sounds like they are across the road in the cornfield -- not really very far from my open window. I've heard them close to the house like this several times lately. I suppose the rainy summer has provided plenty of food for them, too.

Their yips and chortles make me feel a little uneasy. I'm glad the cats are inside.

Seen on the Roads

Large mammals of the Kentucky countryside

Deer season started last weekend in Kentucky -- that is, deer season with modern guns. (We also have bow-and-arrow season, crossbow season, muzzle-loading season, etc.)

As I drove to work before daylight on Saturday, I saw several pickup trucks parked along the roadside. The drivers, I assumed, were in their stands out in the woods, awaiting the dawn with high hopes that a deer might cross their gun sights.

When I got home that night, Dennis mentioned that he'd seen a Mennonite man in a red hunting vest, bicycling down the highway with his gun in a sling over his shoulder.

I had a similar story to relate. I had also met a Mennonite man in hunting garb, bicycling down the highway. He had a little wagon hitched to his bicycle and in the wagon, he had a dead doe. He appeared to be headed for the tagging station at Fairview.

I have no interest in hunting and I don't like venison, but I am thankful that some people do. We have so many deer here that they are a menace on the highways. Dennis and I have had three collisions with deer within Christian County and another deer accident in southern Illinois.

The Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance Company has been running radio ads, urging motorists to be especially watchful for deer this month. It's mating season, so the deer are unusually active, and hormones have overpowered their brains.

I kept that warning in mind this week as I passed through areas where I frequently see deer. Last night, I drove through one of those areas about 11:00 p.m. Just after I crossed the river and passed the Mennonite cabinet shop, I caught a glimpse of movement in the ditch. "Deer!" I thought, as I stepped on the brake.

Then I saw white legs and wild eyes in my headlights. Several Holsteins bounded out of the ditch and onto the road in front of me. I came to a stop and wondered what I should do. The cattle probably belonged to the Mennonite cabinet maker, but all the lights were out at his house.

In my headlights, I saw at least a dozen Holsteins. When one fell onto the pavement as she lunged out of the ditch, I decided that I could not drive away. For the sake of the animals and the safety of other motorists, I had to try to waken the farmer.

I backed my car several hundred yards to the farmhouse and left it running with the lights on as I pounded on the door. In a couple of minutes, a light came on and a slightly-frazzled Mennonite man opened the door. He had pulled on his shirt and trousers to answer my knock.

I apologized for disturbing him, but he assured me that he was grateful for the warning. He said he'd telephone his brother because the cattle might be his brother's yearling heifers.

When I got back in my car and drove toward home again, there was not a Holstein in sight. Maybe they ran back to the pasture they came from, frightened by their experience in the greater world. Maybe the brother came out of his house and found his heifers waiting for him in his front yard.

Whatever the case, I went home with a clear conscience. I hope the farmers found their strays, and then got some rest during the remaining hours of the night.

Feral Pigs in American Cities

Free-roaming pigs lived on garbage

In June, 2007, I wrote in my tree blog that part of today's feral pig problem in the USA can be traced back to early farmers. Some pigs escaped into the wild from pens and pastures, but many were deliberately set free in unfenced forests to forage for nuts, wild fruit, etc. (See "Releasing pigs into the forest was a terrible idea".)

I wrote the post about feral pigs in forests after reading an article about raising pigs on mast in an 1864 magazine. Recently, I came across some information about feral pigs living in US cities during the same era (mid-1800s).

European travelers commented on the animals roaming the streets of American cities, eating from the gutter where unwanted food had landed, thrown from doors and windows. Scavenger pigs, goats, and stray dogs had the run of the cities before the Civil War, along with the many cows and pigs whose owners let them loose to graze on the streets... New York dispatched carts to round up pigs in 1830, but to little effect. "Take care of the pigs," Charles Dickens advised Manhattan pedestrians in American Notes, published in 1842; that year the New York Daily Tribune estimated ten thousand hogs on the streets. The roaming pigs consumed so much garbage and furnished so much food for the poor that efforts to ban them ran into political opposition.

Quoted from Chapter One, of Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser, (C) 1999 Susan Strasser. ISBN: 0-8050-4830-8. (Login required.)

It is interesting to browse through the results of a modern-day Google search for "feral pigs in US cities". Wild pigs are well-known in some urban areas. I'm amazed that feral pigs have even been caught in Kansas City.

Today's wild pigs won't find as much garbage in our cities as they did 150 years ago, so it's unlikely that they will become as numerous in urban areas as they once were. However, in my opinion, any number of feral pigs is too many.

Wild pigs are wily, aggressive animals that eradicate native species, destroy natural and cultivated areas with their rooting, menace pedestrians and pets, create traffic problems, carry tuberculosis, and spread livestock diseases such as pseudorabies and swine brucellosis. They reproduce at tremendous rates.

The population of feral pigs is increasing steadily in the southern U.S. (1988 map.) I have no desire to ever meet one face to face. I think there should be an open hunting season on them across the U.S., because they are an invasive species.

It can't be denied that pigs are fierce competitors in the natural order. I wonder if feral pigs will be survivors, along with the cockroaches, if the "big one" ever happens and life on earth suffers a major kill-back.

Once Again, The Deer

Another wildlife photography opportunity

You may wonder why these deer's eyes are glowing strangely even though they are silhouetted against the sky. That's because I forgot that the flash was on when I grabbed my camera. Its light wasn't strong enough to illuminate the deer's bodies, but their eyes reflected it clearly. The flash did light up some of the ditch grass in the foreground.

Of course the deer left right after I flashed my camera at them, so I didn't get to fiddle with the buttons and try again. I don't do well with spur-of-the-moment one-chance photo opportunities. I consider myself lucky that I got a picture at all.

Just One Deer, Tonight

Click on this photo to enlarge it, and you'll see a deer standing by the fence, looking at me. I wish I had a better zoom on my camera, but he's clearly visible. This is the same fenceline where I photographed four deer at sunset a few weeks ago.

Deer at Sunset

Deer in a neighbor's field

If you click on this photo and enlarge it, you'll see four deer along the horizon. I stopped to take this photo, thinking I'd post it with a comment about the bank of clouds that might be the ice storm we're expecting tomorrow. When I saw the deer, I wasn't very surprised. I often see deer crossing the highway in this vicinity, and it doesn't have to be sunset. They cross at all hours of the day and night. It's best to drive slowly and keep your eyes open when you come through here.

Bobcat Children

"Animal Children" from an old book

The little Bobcat and Canadian Lynx
Just must be related (so everyone thinks).
Except for their ears they're alike as two pins,
And look every whit as if they were twins.

Source: Animal Children: The Friends of the Forest and Plain, an e-book at Project Gutenberg

Big Cat Sightings

Wild cats amongst us

NOTE: If you're seeking information about photos of a big cougar killed on a Trigg County, KY, highway, the e-mail is a hoax. That big cat has been the star of so many bogus e-mails that it has finally been listed by Snopes.com. Also see the March 10, 2008, Kentucky New Era story: "Mountain Lion Exists Only in Hoax," (subscription required). I hope you enjoy reading this article anyway, though.

Dennis has been watching a show about big cats in the U.S. this morning. To be specific, he's watching a "Monster Quest"show about unexplained repeated sightings of black cats that are several times larger than large domestic cats.

MonsterQuest: Lions in the Backyard
Airs on Monday January 21 04:00 PM

Mountain lions do occasionally attack humans, and when they do it makes headlines across the country. However, it has been reported that people are seeing something else--attacks by large black cats. Pictures and law enforcement encounters prove a big black cat is out there, while it resembles a mountain lion, there is no such thing as a black mountain lion. From Texas to Minnesota to West Virginia, follow the eyewitness accounts and physical evidence of these demon cats. Bones from a carcass that eyewitnesses claim was a huge black cat will be put to the DNA test. One-part history, one-part science and one part monsters discover the truth behind legendary monsters.

Source: Upcoming episodes of Monster Quest on the History Channel

It's been an interesting show. Many of the photographs and videos can be explained or dismissed, but a few cannot. At the end of the show, the bones of the "cat" turn out to be a domestic dog. The official verdict is that most of the "big black cats" are mis-identified bears, dogs, or housecats. A few might be exotic cats, escaped or released from private zoos. Of course, these explanations do not satisfy those who have actually seen the big black cats.

Big cats in northern Nebraska during my childhood

When I was growing up in north-central Nebraska, there were reports of mountain-lion sightings from time to time. Usually, the big cat was observed in or near the wooded canyons of a river or creek.

I am sure that some of the reports were true. The mountain lion (also known as cougar, panther, or puma) was once native to Nebraska. Plenty of suitable habitat could still be found in northern Nebraska in the 1950s and 1960s (and still can be found today.) The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has recently confirmed the return of the mountain lion to Nebraska -- even in and around Omaha, as reported by the Plains Feeder in 2005!

In my childhood, every now and then someone would shoot a bobcat, usually around a canyoned area. Maybe the bobcat was bothering the livestock -- or at least, the rancher was worried that the bobcat might bother the livestock. I think I remember a few photos in the newspaper of dead bobcats laid out in the back of someone's pickup truck. They may have been trophies of an official bobcat hunting season, and I didn't realize it.

Mountain Lions Around Kansas City

My husband grew up near the Missouri River in Independence, Missouri. When he was little, many stories were told of mountain lions along the river, but none of them were ever proven.

Then, about ten years ago, when the Missouri River had a major flood, many reports were made that mountain lions had been spotted in the residential areas near the river. As I recall, a policeman even reported seeing a mountain lion in a little field within Independence.

After so many unconfirmed sightings through the years, many people felt vindicated when a mountain lion was hit and killed on the Interstate in the greater Kansas City area. Even the Missouri Conservation Department has finally admitted that there's evidence of a growing mountain lion population in Missouri.

Bobcats and Cougars in Christian County, Kentucky

Here in Christian County, Kentucky, we occasionally have reports of mountain lions. Of course, they are never confirmed. We have large areas of rough, wooded hills and plenty of streams, especially in northern Christian County. Our over-abundance of deer would be attractive to big cats, so I don't arbitrarily dismiss mountain lion stories.

I can testify that there are bobcats (Lynx rufus fasciatus) here, because I've seen two of them. One time, we were visiting a neighbor who lives near Pilot Rock. As we stood outside his house, a large bobcat crossed the field in front of us, several hundred yards away.

Our neighbor pointed out the bobcat. It was well camouflaged in the tall dry grass, and I probably wouldn't have noticed it, on my own. He commented that he saw that bobcat frequently. I don't know how he knew it was the same one!

It is interesting to note that a couple hundred acres around this neighbor's house was in the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) so it hadn't been used for crops or livestock in a decade or more. The property also includes a creek that runs through a rocky ravine and associated woodlands.

About six or seven years ago, a bobcat ran in front of my car as I drove home from work one dark winter night. I was caught by surprise, and I couldn't imagine what it was! I knew it wasn't a fox or a coyote.

Just a day later, someone brought a stuffed bobcat into the office for my boss. When I saw it, I immediately recognized the animal that had crossed my headlights. I should have known it was a bobcat, but it was a lot smaller than I had expected.

I suspect that I once heard a bobcat in the ravine that lies between our house and the highway below us. One hot summer night about midnight, I went outside to enjoy the cool night breeze that always wafts up from the valley below us.

As I sat there in the dark, listening to the tree frogs and cicadas, I heard a wild scream from the ravine. It was a little unsettling, so I went in the house and went to bed. It may have been a screech owl, but it sounded like a cat to me.

Related:
PDF map of confirmed mountain lion sightings in Nebraska, 1991-2007
US map: Confirmed sightings of cougars outside their established range, 1990-present
Website that lists "Alien Big Cats" around the world

Roadkill: Better Avoided than Regretted

Watch out for the animals!

I've heard many roadkill jokes, but to me, it's not a very funny topic. I feel terrible when I hit something, so I really try to let the little animals and birds get out of the way of my car.

Today, I am sad that I hit a cardinal. I suppose he took flight as best he could when the car startled him. He came up from the side of the road right into the front wheel of my car.

I've often wondered if people were shocked that motorized vehicles killed so many more wild animals than horse-drawn vehicles did. Or was the increase in roadkill so gradual over the years that nobody really noticed how bad it was getting?

Birds on the highway

Birds fly like airplanes. When they take off, they have to fly forward. Most species of birds can't lift themselves straight up from the ground like a helicopter. This means that when birds on the highway try to get out of the way, they may fly straight at you! I know this, and I slow down for birds, but I didn't see that cardinal today until he flew out of the ditch.

A group of vultures gathered around roadkill on the highway can be dangerous. Some of them will probably take off in your direction. When their bellies are full, they have a hard time going airborne and gaining altitude. I have heard that it's very disgusting to have a vulture disgorge in your car after it comes through your windshield.

Wild turkeys also have a hard time rising up from the ground and flying. Last year, a wild turkey broke out a school bus window in Connecticut.

Helping turtles cross the road

Isaac has always had an affectionate concern for turtles. If he sees one crossing the road, he likes to move it to the side of the road in the direction that it was headed. (By the way, if you ever pick up a turtle and he pees, be sure to put him down in an area where he can replenish his liquid within a short time.)

One day we were driving along one of our rural blacktops, and we saw a turtle about halfway across the road. I stopped, and Isaac got out to move him. He bent over to pick up the turtle, and the turtle went into attack mode! He stood up tall on all four legs and lunged at Isaac with his mouth open (as well as a turtle can lunge, that is.)

Clearly, the turtle wouldn't be picked up, so Isaac thought he could drag the turtle off the road if he would snap on a stick. The turtle wasn't fooled by a stick; he was determined to use his snap power on Isaac. So we abandoned the rescue and motored away. If we hadn't stopped, the turtle probably could have walked across the road in less time than it took him to scare off Isaac!

Drive defensively to avoid collisions with wildlife.

Many wild animals are active at dawn and dusk, because they're out looking for food and water. Unfortunately, it's hard to see them on the roads in the dim light between full night and full day. All you can do is slow down and be alert.

When you're driving at night and you see eyes reflecting in your headlights, there's a good chance that a freaked-out, light-dazed animal will run into the path of your vehicle. If you're alert to that possibility, maybe you can avoid hitting it.

And please, watch out for the possums. I think they must be the most-often-killed animal along western Kentucky's roadways. They have a hard time thinking what to do when they're frightened. In fact, panic can make their brains short out, so have some patience and a little extra care for them.

Collisions with Deer

Hey, try to avoid hitting a deer (or a moose or an elk or a bear.) It will wreck your car, and injure or kill the animal, and you could be injured or killed too!

The worst time for deer on the roads is coming up soon. Their breeding season in Kentucky is October through January. They are naturally silly from their hormones during this time, and also, their routines and habits are disrupted by hunters.

Be especially wary when driving through areas where the road is lined by woods. If you see one deer, there are probably others nearby. They may decide to follow the one you saw. They are particularly active at dawn and dusk, but you can see them anytime.

Deer behave erratically when they're befuddled by bright headlights. They might start across the road and then change directions and run back. It's better to stop (if possible) than to try to dodge them.

One last story, and I'm done with this topic. Our Mennonite neighbor has several sons -- young, single guys who are old enough to go places and stay out late. One of the boys was coming home on his bicycle late at night. A deer jumped out of the ditch directly in front of him and he couldn't avoid it. He ran right into it and both he and the deer fell down. The deer got up and ran away, and fortunately our neighbor boy wasn't hurt other than scrapes and bruises. He recuperated a little, and then he got back on his bike and pedaled home.

There's some kind of a lesson to that story, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's just that you never know what will happen next!

Technorati tags: roadkill, collisions with wild animals, wildlife killed on roads, defensive driving,

Black Bears in Missouri

Where are Missouri's black bears coming from?

My sister-in-law Donna, who lives in Kansas City, MO, sent us an interesting newspaper clipping about black bears in Missouri. I can't find an exact duplicate of the article online, but a slightly abbreviated version of it is still posted at the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "Missouri Counts Its Black Bears."

The gist of the article is that Missouri doesn't know how many black bears it has or where they are coming from. Missouri's biologists aren't sure if the state's black bears are Arkansas-born bears who have traveled north, or if Missouri now has a bear population that is reproducing.

To help learn where Missouri's black bears are from, biologists are setting up bait stations, Barbed wire will snag a few hairs of any bear who ventures in. DNA testing of the hairs will determine the sex of the bears and their relationship to the Arkansas bears.

According to the article, black bears in both Missouri and Arkansas had been exterminated by the early 1900's. During the 1950's, Arkansas imported bears from Minnesota. The Arkansas black bear population is now estimated to be 3500, and the Missouri population may be as many as 350.

Areas of Missouri mentioned in the article as places where bears have been seen include:

• southwestern Missouri counties
• eastern Ozarks along the Current River
• St. Louis area including southern Jefferson County
• Hurley, Billings, Republic and Nixa in southwest Missouri
• Christian County, Missouri

My parents lived in Hickory County, MO, about 50 miles north of Springfield, from the early 1970's through the mid-1980's. Some of their land was rough, rocky, forested hills, part of a long stretch of mostly rough, mostly tree-covered land that extended for many miles.

My father once told me that he had seen an animal that had to be a bear. There was no other animal that it could have been, he said. There were always rumors about "cinnamon bears" in the area. (Cinnamon bears are a lighter-colored subspecies of black bears.) However, the bear my father saw was dark in color.

Black bears were also native to Kentucky (and most of the United States, except for the most arid regions of the American Southwest.) Nowadays, most bear sightings in Kentucky occur in the eastern part of the state, near borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee.

Like Missouri, Kentucky really doesn't know how many black bears live within the state, but the population seems to be increasing.

Black bear images in this post are courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The artist is Robert Savannah.

Technorati tags: black bears, bears in Missouri, bears in Kentucky

Pigeon Games

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... More About Birds and Animals...

Our homemade pigeon trap

We made a pigeon trap today. As you can see, it's nothing fancy. It's just a box with a flap cut in the up-side (that is, in the former bottom of the box.)

The idea is that you prop the box up with a stick. When the bird goes under the box to eat the grain, you pull the stick out with the attached string. The box drops over the bird. Then you reach through the flap and hold the bird.

A helper then lifts the box a little and somehow, between the two of you, the bird is put into a cage. My idea is that we should slide something flat under the box and carry it to an enclosed area before making the transfer. We haven't reached that step yet because we haven't caught the bird.

He came close to the box a few times but he didn't go under it. He is finding fallen seed from the feeders and also the rice we threw on the ground for him yesterday. He doesn't seem interested in the grain under the box.

Tomorrow morning, I will rake that area and try to remove some of the extraneous food. Maybe then he'll be more interested in the food in the trap. I hope we can catch him soon because I have other things to do!

This afternoon, he was sitting on the roof (photo below.) I don't know where he is roosting tonight. I don't think he's in the tree where he spent the last two nights.

Dennis and his brother Steve had pigeons when they were kids. They didn't have racing pigeons, but they had rollers and tumblers (named for their distinctive flight patterns), kings, and fantails. Grandpa Netz fixed a pigeon loft in the barn, and the boys took care of them every morning before school.

That's why Dennis immediately realized this stray was a lost homing pigeon. I had no clue. I'd have guessed the bird was banded for some sort of scientific study.

Related post: A Pigeon Is Visiting Us

Lonely bird

Technorati tags: homing pigeon, lost pigeon, pigeon trap

A Pigeon Is Visiting Us

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... More About Birds and Animals...

I'm excited about seeing a pigeon in our yard today. There are several reasons why this is a noteworthy event:

• In 17 years, we've never seen a pigeon in our yard before.
• The pigeon is extremely tame.
• The pigeon has a red band on one leg and a green band on the other leg.
• The pigeon is roosting in the tree outside our living room window tonight.

We think he is a homing pigeon that is supposed to be in a race but has lost his way. I don't know when he arrived, but I first saw him about 2 p.m. He was looking for dropped seed under the bird feeder.

We gave him some water in a dish and sprinkled some sunflower seeds on the ground for him. They are probably not his favorite food, but he ate them.

After pecking around for a while, he nestled against a tree trunk and fluffed up his feathers. He rested there for a couple hours. Then he ate some more. Finally he flew up into the tree late in the afternoon. He's sitting on a little bump on a branch about 25 feet above the ground.

We were thinking about trying to catch him tomorrow to read his legbands, but now I don't know if we should. I've read a page about lost homing pigeons that says the owners want the bird to fly on. Food should be offered just for a couple days, they say.

At least, now I do know what to feed him -- popcorn (unpopped) and rice (uncooked). We'll try that tomorrow.

The pigeon is very jaunty looking -- beautiful, really. He has an irridescent neck, nice markings, and a very smooth set of gray feathers.

I didn't get his picture while he was on the ground. I tried to photograph him in the tree with poor results. So if you want to see what he really looks like, LeggNet has a good photo that looks a lot like our pigeon.

UPDATE (Sunday afternon): We didn't see him this morning and we thought maybe he had flown on. After church, I drove to Murray, KY, to see Keely but my husband came home. He called to tell me that the pigeon was back.

I bought some bird food that has cracked corn and millet in it, and we will try to lure him into a trap with it tomorrow.

Then maybe we can see if any information is on his bands and contact the Pigeon 911 group, as has been suggested in the comments.

There are still several hours of daylight, but he has already roosted high in a tree in the yard.

Pigeon roosting on a bump on the tree branch

The pigeon saga continues: Pigeon Games

Related website: U.S. Navy instructions on carrier pigeon care (from 1912)

Technorati tags: homing pigeon, lost pigeon, pigeon race

Butterfly Moment

More About Birds and Animals...

This beautiful black butterfly was basking in the sunshine at the edge of the road this morning. Or maybe it was looking for a drop of dew caught in a leaf. It gave me just a moment to photograph it before it flitted away.

Honestly, I'm no expert on butterflies. Maybe Collagemama will set me straight if I'm wrong, because she seems to know butterflies much better than I do.

I am quite sure it's a swallowtail of some sort. It might be a spicebush swallowtail. The blue patches are the right shape and color. The wing shape seems right. The border of white spots seems right.

The one thing that's making me wonder is those two little yellow spots on the lower inner edge of its wings. Those spots are bright orange in most photos of the spicebush swallowtail that I examine. In fact, bright orange spots in that location are one of the identifying characteristics of the species.

So I am not sure. Maybe it's a juvenile spicebush that just recently emerged from its chrysalis. Maybe it's a spicebush with a natural variation of color. Or maybe it's an entirely different butterfly.

I do know one thing though -- a person sure can waste invest a lot of time in looking up non-vital information on the internet.

A Little Worm Snake

Life in Christian County, KY... More About Birds and Animals...

Isaac and I had an odd experience last night when we went for a walk.

The first part of the road descends for a quarter mile from the top of a fairly big hill to a low valley with a little creek. We were walking down this long slope when we saw a dead snake lying in the road.

We had paused to glance at it when I noticed another curious thing. A reddish-brown worm about six inches long was crawling uphill a few feet from us. He was moving along just like a snake over the gravel, and I said to Isaac, "Is that a big nightcrawler, or is it a little snake?!"

Isaac thought it was a worm, and he decided he'd move the little fellow over to the grass where the earth would be soft enough for him to burrow in. He bent over to pick it up, and the worm did a rapid squiggle and completely dodged him. It was amazing. We were both shocked. We had another discussion about whether it was a worm or a snake.

Then I tried to pick the little guy up and I didn't get him either. I did notice that he was strong for his size and that his skin was tender and a little tacky.

We were afraid we were going to hurt him, so we decided to let him go on his way. Later we told Dennis about it. He was positive that it was a little snake, and in retrospect, I agree.

Our little creature didn't have a belly band like earthworms and nightcrawlers do, nor did his S style of movement look like an earthworm's locomotion. And, as Isaac commented, his bottom side was lighter than his top side.

I'm sure that little snake's ability to squirm around so quickly helps him evade a hungry bird or anything else that decides to eat him.

I think he was a worm snake. They are 3 to 4 inches in length when hatched, and the adults are only a foot long. Their range includes most of Kentucky, and there are several Kentucky photos of the worm snake on the internet. I had never heard of this snake before!

Worm snake, Carphophis amoenus. Image courtesy
of U.S. Dept. of Energy (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Rattlesnake Stories from South Dakota Homesteaders

History and Old Stuff...

Prairie rattlesnake. Photo by Tom Wyant,
Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The following rattlesnake stories are quoted from the book, Mellette County, 1911-1961*. Mellette County lies just north of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south central South Dakota.

The book tells the stories of pioneers who settled Mellette County, South Dakota, after the state of South Dakota reneged on an 1868 peace treaty that had given the land to the Sioux Indians. The land was thrown open for settlement in 1911, and thousands of people came to enter their names in a drawing to have the privilege to buy the prairie land.

Some common themes run through many of the pioneer stories--the blizzards, the grasshoppers and "Mormon crickets," the fenceless range, the repeated and dangerous well-digging until water was finally found, the diphtheria and influenza--and the rattlesnakes!

During the century since settlement began in Mellette County, prairie dogs (one of the rattlesnakes' main foods) have been reduced to a tiny fraction of their 1911 population. I doubt that the rattlesnakes thrive as they once did on the prairie lands, though I am sure they may still be found.

From the story of Jens J. Norup:

...Rattlesnakes were more than plentiful when we were all breaking sod with walking plows. It seems like I killed a snake nearly every day during the hot summer weather for three years or more. Three young homesteaders in less than three hours killed over 100 snakes in one day...

From the story of Otto Hansen:

...The first year, I borrowed a team from Dan Ryan, a neighbor, to go with a team I'd bought which were not broke to work. One day while breaking sod with them, I heard a rattler buzzing under my feet. The plow share had just skinned his back and pulled him out of his hold. Did I ever get out of that furrow! And I would not get back in the rest of that day. I wore boots after that. I broke 25 acres that year with a walking plow...

From the story of Mrs. Maymie Hutchens:

...Rattlesnakes were plentiful on the prairies and the homesteaders had to be very careful for they would crawl under their shacks and when you walked across the floor they would hiss and rattle...

From the story of Beulah Krieger Towne:

...When Dad had selected our ranch he had picked the most beautiful spot in the whole country, nestled at the north edge of a range of buttes. There were no buildings, so we slept in a tent the first night. The carpenters and hired men bedded down on blankets under the stars, inside a circle of lariat rope to keep the rattlesnakes away...

J. B. Brown and his bride of a few days arrived in October of 1912. They had a long, hard first winter, but they planted a big garden as soon as the snow drifts were gone and the weather had warmed during their first spring. From his story:

...Mrs Brown, armed with a long handled hoe, not only helped to keep the weeds down, but she also killed some 10 or 12 large rattlesnakes that crossed her path between the house and the garden...

From the story of Fay Kaufman:

...I went to see my mother one day. The dog was really up in the air about something. We both went out and there were two very large snakes. Mother sent me to the house for a gun. Of course, I had to pick up an automatic revolver which neither one of us knew how to shoot. A good thing we didn't get the gun off safety for it would have shot a full round before stopping. The rattlesnakes turned out to be the biggest bull snakes [a non-poisonous prairie snake] I have ever seen. Mother and I had many a laugh years later.

From the story of Mrs. Mae Strange Snyder:

Rattlesnakes were one of the hazards of those times. One day I rode down to see Mrs. George Kent. A rattler crawled across the road. I took the bridle off my horse and tried to kill it. About that time, Floyd Eaton happened by. He ended up killing 17 and said that some had crawled into their holes. It happened to be a den of them.

I am not sure which species or subspecies of rattlesnakes they had in Mellette County, South Dakota, but I suspect the rattlers they encountered were prairie rattlesnakes.

I took the photo below on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, about five miles south of the Mellette County line, along Highway 18 east of Mission, South Dakota.

Rattlesnake Country

* Source of the above quotes: Mellette County, 1911-1961, published by the Mellete County Centennial Committee of White River, South Dakota. No copyright information or publication date is given.

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Mellette County, South Dakota

Mouse Nest in the Woodpile

More About Birds and Animals...

Warm and cozy mouse nest

We found this beautiful little mouse nest yesterday while we were restacking the woodpile. I was much impressed with the skill with which the little creatures had made it. The nest was a warm, dry and cozy home in the woodpile, covered over above with split logs and a tarp. It was uninhabited, but I'm sure it's been full of baby mice at least once -- probably many times.

The nest is made mostly of chewed leaves and grass and some sort of hair (or something that looks like hair.) I don't know if they tear hair from their own bodies as some rabbits do or if they found some other source of hair or a hair-like substance.

Mind you, I don't like mice in my house, but they have their place in the ecosystem outside and I respect that. That being said, I've looked at a few dozen webpages about mice and their nests today, and I think this is the nest of a house mouse, a Central Asian species, that was introduced to the U.S. many years ago and is now one of the most problematic rodents in Kentucky (and the rest of the world.) One of their common nesting places is woodpiles!

Still, I felt a twinge of shame as we removed the nest and laid it on the ground. It was constructed so well that it held together when it was moved. I remembered the Robert Burns poem, To A Mouse. On turning her up in her nest with the plough.

I'm sure you've heard a phrase from one of the last stanzas of the poem:

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

There's much more to the poem, though, so if you haven't read it in full recently, it's well worth reviewing.

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mouse nest