Double-dating Chipmunks

It’s common to see chipmunks running around and darting up and down. It’s not common to see them doing it together! Chipmunks generally do their own thing. They spend a lot of time foraging for food and storing food supplies in their impressively designed and built dens. They are territorial and will defend the entrances to their homes. Their solitary lifestyle is interrupted just a couple of times per year when they meet up to mate. 

When I noticed one of these meet-ups outside my window in late spring, I giggled at what looked like a double-date going on. I giggled again when I read that male chipmunks are called bucks and females are called does!

Note: Their young are not called fawns! Female chipmunks (does) care for their pups (sometimes called kits) for a few weeks until the young are able to leave the burrow and forage for themselves. The adult chipmunk’s solitary lifestyle resumes until it’s time to breed again.

A little buck's big shake

On a cold wet winter day in Maine, this young buck whips his body around to shake water away. It’s a method used by many furry mammals to dry themselves. It’s a matter of survival in cold climates! Cold wet fur causes animals to lose heat very quickly. By shaking water off, animals reduce the amount of energy they have to spend carrying it in their fur and waiting for it to evaporate.

We were lucky we got to marvel twice at this buck’s technique - how and where the motion originates in his body, and the centrifugal force seen in the water spraying from his core then neck, head, and past his one antler!

Shivering isn’t as grand to watch, but it’s a similar kind of bodily reflex and response to cold. When skeletal muscles begin to shake (contracting and expanding in small speedy movements), the expenditure of energy creates heat, which helps raise body temperature.

I’m shivering a little right now, just watching the buck in the freezing cold rain!

Power poop by red-tailed hawk (and shadow!)

Snow isn’t the only white stuff falling on a winter day in Maine! After watching this red-tailed hawk look for prey for nearly an hour, it let loose a not-so-snowy-white missile. (So did its shadow!) A little research reminded us that birds don’t produce urine like mammals do. They excrete uric acid in a relatively thick white paste instead of water-based urine for good reasons. Early on, birds have to live in an egg with whatever waste they produce. They need a system that protects them from drinking toxic waste within the egg, and uric acid paste is easier to “store” safely. Also, water-based urine is heavy! That would be a lot to fly with “on board!” Something new we learned: there’s a technical term for the “poop” created by birds of prey. The poop is called a slice. Hawks (and eagles) have a mighty slice, flinging their waste matter behind them at an impressive velocity and distance!

Power napping porcupine

In the mid-afternoon of July 17, 2021, I heard a crow overhead, but when I looked up, I saw an unidentified blob in a tree. It was about 40 feet up, and I couldn't see it clearly enough to tell what it was. When I got my camera and zoomed in, I saw that it was a porcupine taking a nap. For the next five hours, I watched sleeping beauty shift around, yawn, and even poo from its perch, but mostly power snooze. The porcupine was still there when it got dark, but was gone by morning light.

Spotting a fawn

Fawns have spots. To me, that seems like it makes them easier to spot! But to predators like coyotes, spots break up the pattern that their hunting eyes rely on to help identify the fawn as a meal!

Spots serve as a form of camouflage. They protect the deer as it gains strength and confidence in its early months. Most white-tailed deer are born in the spring and early summer. The spots usually fade by winter time.

Raccoons with Superpower paws

Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat…

When this raccoon started coming around to forage this spring, it looked like it was playing pattycake…that, or playing piano! 

We were curious about these paw movements!

What we learned: Raccoons have a highly developed sense of touch. You can almost think of their paws as a second pair of eyes! The nerves in their forepaw pads help them figure out what things are, so they touch, rub, and roll things a lot.

Along with their good hearing and strong night vision, raccoons feel their way around their environment and are able to distinguish objects and come up with solutions to problems (like opening containers!).  They have good memories too. They can remember solutions for years, perhaps because of all the different senses they use to develop them. 

We aren’t sure, but we think this raccoon was using the birdbath for more than a drink…wetting paws stimulates the nerve endings and makes them even more sensitive.  The moisture helps the raccoon’s paws tell if something is food or not.

Turns out, “forepaw pattycake” is a raccoon super power! It is one of the reasons they are a very adaptable species.

Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat…