X-Rated

If you have a thin skin about sexual matters go no further.

STOP!

Exit the blog.

Now.

On the other hand if you appreciate biology, reproduction and all things about wildlife you may get a charge out of this.

For the first time ever I have trail camera images of wild turkeys doing it.  Yup.  The wild turkey mambo.  I left the date and time stamps on the photos in this montage so you can appreciate the amount of time spent from beginning to end.

I cannot measure the duration of foreplay as much of that likely occurred beforehand out of view; although knowing what I know about the courtship rituals of this species it was likely quite extended and sustained.  

Enjoy.....

 

Gobblers!

From the trail camera trap line there are gobblers; lots of them.

Strutting their stuff for the ladies;

Full of themselves

With loving on their mind.

Truthfully, this spring ritual is absolutely spectacular......

Gobblers!

More gobblers strutting their stuff for the ladies.

Coming and going.

 

Stay-tuned.

The best is yet to come! 

Boy Trap

I'm going to ignore the sexist undertone of this piece of vintage advertising because I am not woke.

I am strong.

And I would never fall for this trap.

I've eaten more than my share of Wonder Bread in my lifetime and this doesn't make the cut.

Another example of uninspired and unappealing food from the 1960s.

 

*Roast beef and lettuce is a good start.  Needs marble rye, Swiss cheese and whole grain horseradish mustard.

Raise The Libido Bar

I just love eating oysters.  As they say at Wintzell's Oyster House; nude fried or stewed. Whenever I get close to a saltwater coast oysters are in my sights. 

Is there anything to the notion that a steady diet of oysters will boost your libido?

The legendary lover, Giacomo Casanova would dine on fifty raw oysters before setting out seeking sexual conquest.  Napoleon feasted on oysters before battle.  Roman orgies featured oysters too.

Scientists suggest that the briny mollusks do contain large amounts of zinc; an element associated with male fertility and improved testosterone  levels.  Zinc influences dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, which might possibly influence arousal levels in both sexes.  Of course you can enhance your dopamine levels with vigorous exercise too. 

There is an amino acid - D-Aspartic Acid - which may improve testosterone levels; in animals.  Alas, there is no conclusive evidence this enhances the sex drive in humans.

Or maybe sitting down to a dozen raw delicacies and a frosty Yuengling Lager is so incredibly yummy-good that it puts you in the mood for other extracurricular, post meal possibilities?  

If something works, do more of it.  If it doesn't; do something else.

Learn more about this subject here.

  

Jihad On The Written Word

In case you missed this ongoing skirmish in the larger culture war there's plenty of folks working overtime to make sure they control what you and your children or grandchildren read. 

Beginning in July of 2021 PEN America began tracking public school book bans and has documented nearly 6,000 instances of banned books including 3,362 bans affecting 1,557 unique titles covering the 2022-23 school year.  This included 1,480 authors, illustrators and translators.

New Christmas Ornament for 2023

This represents an increase of 33% from the 2021-22 school year.  Having wrested the title from Texas, Florida now leads the nation in book bans.  

Drivers of these trends include vaguely-worded legislation, national advocacy groups pressuring local school boards with the threat of penalties, lawsuits and criminal prosecution escalating the book bans to record levels.

In the first nine months of 2023 the American Library Association reported more than 1,900 titles challenged, a 20% increase over the same period in 2022. 

Singled-out for particular attention are people of color or anything associated with the LGBTQ community.  When the final three months of 2023 are included the total will certainly rise.

Major findings:

• More than 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.   Across 33 school districts, PEN America recorded 1,406 book bans cases in the sunshine state, followed by 652 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 in Utah and 186 bans in Pennsylvania.

• Overwhelmingly, book bans target subject matter on race or racism or featuring characters of color as well as books with LGBTQ characters.  Banned books also include books on physical abuse, health and well-being and themes of grief and death. Notably, most instances impact young adult books, middle grades, chapter books, or picture books specifically written and selected for younger readers. 

• Punitive state laws, combined with pressure from vocal citizens and local and national organizations have created difficulties for local school districts forcing them to either restrict access to books or risk legal and financial penalties for educators and librarians.

In the face of this there is a small measure of poetic justice to be found between the pages of banned books.  Bridget Ziegler, book ban queen and Moms for Liberty member from Florida, and her husband Christian Ziegler, now former Florida Republican Party Chairman, have found themselves embroiled in the fallout from a police report of a consensual sexual threesome including sexual battery allegations against the deposed GOP chairman.

Sniff Sniff.  Do you smell what I smell?  I suspect it's a whiff of schadenfreude in the Florida air. 

A free people do not censor speech or ban books.

Pre-Rut

If you encounter a whiff of deer pee redolent in the autumn air look carefully beneath any shoulder height tree branches that are close by.  You may locate a bare patch of dirt in the turf that is trampled with deer hoof prints.  This is called a scrape.  Bucks create scrapes by using their hoofs to dig at the ground.   Once the soil is stirred up they urinate on the scrape.

Bucks don’t pee the way those of us males of the human species do.  We try to keep it off of our legs and boots.  Whitetail bucks actually try to pee on their own legs.  The object is to hit their tarsal glands in an effort to leave their scent on the scrape.  Every deer has its own unique scent. The tarsal glands hold concentrated amounts of that scent.  

scrape - bottom center and  licking branch top center

 

 

Another thing scrapes have is a licking branch - a tree branch will hang above the cleared out soil. Bucks will rub their forehead glands on the stick and will also lick it with their tongue.  

 

Scrapes serve much the same function in the whitetail world as a mailbox post or a fire hydrant does for dogs.  Scrapes are meant to show dominance over a territory but are normally used by more than one buck.   

 

These early scrapes are a bit different.  Few and far between they are mainly used to communicate as bucks begin to leave their bachelor groups and stake out their territory.  It is akin to posting a no trespassing sign on a property line.  Later in the season an active scrape will be used to communicate breeding readiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, there are these beginning to appear on the landscape – buck rubs.   

 

 

Around these parts it is typically a tamarack sapling sacrificed to the cause.   

 

It is a common misconception that deer rubs on trees are caused by male whitetails attempting to rub the velvet from their antlers.  While it would not be unusual for a velvet-antlered deer to rub against a tree the rubbing seen at this time of year is a consequence of deer that have long-ago shed the velvet from their antlers.  The rub in the photo was made by a dominant buck.  Consider it both a visual and a sensory calling card brought on by an increase in testosterone levels.   

It isn't unusual for other bucks to add their contribution to the rub but it's more to do with establishing the pecking order.   

 

The term dominant buck is apropos given that one of the reasons for this behavior is to mark their territory and curb the lesser bucks both psychologically and hormonally.  This suppresses testosterone levels in the smaller bucks allowing the Big Guy to exert his influence and create the circumstances for successfully spreading his seed during the breeding season.  

 

The glands located in the forehead of the dominant male send a signal that this is my turf.  It also signals to the ladies of the male's readiness to mate.  Consider it the whitetail equivalent of passing-along your name and phone number to someone you might wish to meet again. 

 

Stay-tuned for additional updates from whitetail romance land.

Peninsula Salmon Run

 

History of Strawberry Creek Fishery

The WDNR Chinook salmon program began in the spring of 1969 when approximately 65,000

fingerlings were stocked in Strawberry Creek to boost the predator fish population and control an exploding invasive alewife population. Strawberry Creek was the first stocking and egg collection site for Chinook in Wisconsin and continues to be Wisconsin’s primary source of Chinook salmon eggs for Lake Michigan.  Following years have seen an average of 200,000 fingerlings released at this Door County site. A fish trap or weir was constructed on Strawberry Creek and Chinook eggs have been collected from sexually mature fish that returned to the creek since the fall of 1972

Strawberry Creek

What Wisconsin Fisheries Does

Beginning in late September, during the peak of the eight week salmon spawning run, DNR staff collect eggs two times per week.   The Chinook return to Strawberry Creek from Lake Michigan to spawn. They are crowded to one end of the collection pond where they fill a framed net and are hoisted into a tank to be anesthetized with carbon dioxide. The fish are then weighed, measured, sexed, and checked for fin clips. Eggs are collected from females that are ready to spawn. The eggs and milt (sperm) are mixed together; when water is added, fertilization occurs.  The eggs are then rinsed and placed in containers to be transported to the hatcheries.

Preparing for Data-Gathering and Processing

Extracting Eggs

 

 

Why Does Wisconsin Do This?

In the late 1940’s, an invasive fish known as an alewife gained access to the waters of Lake Michigan through the Welland Canal. By 1967, it was estimated that up to 85% of all Lake Michigan fish were alewives. Fish biologists selected Pacific salmon as a possible predator. In 1966 coho salmon were stocked in Lake Michigan followed by Chinook salmon. Due to stocking of these fish, alewife numbers have been significantly reduced from their record levels.*

Rinsing Fertilized Eggs

 

Fertilized Eggs Hardening-off

 Nothing is Wasted

Native to the Pacific Northwest the normal life cycle of Chinook salmon triggers their spawning urge when they reach sexual maturity.  They return to the stream location where they were born - in this case artificially imprinted-upon - to spawn and perpetuate the species.  After a single spawning run they die.

At Strawberry Creek nothing is wasted.  Healthy fish are distributed to needful families through the food pantry network.  Other fish are distributed to raptor rehabilitation operations throughout the state. Bait companies purchase eggs that cannot be fertilized to produce preserved bait for use by anglers.  And another local company purchases the remaining fish to produce a specialty liquid fertilizer derived from fish.

Fish Going to a Raptor Rehab Center in Antigo

Eggs Purchased by a Commercial Bait Company

In the end invasive predators are managed and a billion dollar a year sport fishery is supported.

Learn more here: 

 

*Source: Wisconsin DNR 
 

Analogy of the Day

 

Pizza is like sex 

Sometimes mind blowing

Sometimes really good 

And never bad

 

Friday Music

The lyrics were troubling and risqué for the time for their inclusion in a rock song that heretofore did not make reference to transgender individuals, oral sex and prostitution.

I always thought it would be kinda fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn't met before, or hadn't wanted to meet - said the songwriter/performer.

Released on his second solo album Transformer in 1972 this song became a worldwide hit with the single peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1973.

Lou Reed and Walk on the Wild Side…….

Noteable Quoteable

I have an active social life and it’s probably easier in the era of Trump. 

We’ve had ‘perfect family man’ presidents before, after all, and many of those men sold out our country, even if their wives were happy the whole time. If politicians' family lives aren't what really matter to the voters, maybe that's a good thing.  

I'm a representative, not a monk.    

- Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-FL 

Scouting the Rut

If you encounter a whiff of deer pee redolent in the autumn air look carefully beneath any shoulder height tree branches close by.  You may locate a bare patch of dirt in the turf that is trampled with deer hoof prints.  This is called a scrape.  Bucks create scrapes by using their hoofs to dig at the ground.   Once the soil is stirred up they urinate on the scrape.  

Bucks don’t pee the way we do.  We try to keep it off of us.  Bucks actually try to pee on their own legs.  The object is to hit their tarsal glands in an effort to leave their scent on the scrape.  Every deer has its own unique bouquet and the tarsal glands hold concentrated amounts of that spoor.  As the breeding season - the rut - commences these scrapes are used principally to communicate as bucks begin to leave their bachelor groups and stake out their breeding territory.  It is akin to posting a no trespassing sign on a property line.  Eventually it will be used to communicate breeding readiness.   

Another thing scrapes have is a licking branch - a tree branch will hang above the cleared-out soil. Bucks will rub their forehead glands on the branch and will also lick it with their tongue.

Even though these scrapes serve much the same function in the whitetail world as a mailbox post or a fire hydrant does for dogs it would not be unusual for them to be visited by more than one buck.

From last Saturday is this photo of an active scrape.  Coincidentally, it also happens to be located within range of a trail camera set on video mode.

More than one buck has been passing thru here to pay a call and leave a message.  

Here is a short, silent, IR mode video vignette captured recently.  It is an excellent illustration of the role of the licking branch.

 

Talking Turkey

A couple of the trail camera suffered from a wee bit of benign neglect.  I didn't check them for more than a month.   Oops.

Fortunately, the batteries were still good but it took FOREVER to cull thru the thousands of photos that they had snapped of birds, bugs, squirrels, deer and turkeys.

From one month ago - June 4th - is this nice series of burst photos of a gobbler putting on his best strut for the ladies.....

Begging the Obvious

Jah...

The Germans.

Always about the obvious.

And a generous tongue in cheek.

The translation on the back of the bus:  Buy over the counter....

Locust Love

Now that September has arrived love is in the air.   And the grasshoppers are courting, mating and laying eggs that will produce the next generation.   

I’ve lived a good long time and heretofore have not witnessed the grasshopper courtship ritual up close and personal. Perhaps my situational awareness has improved with age or maybe I'm learning to pay closer attention to the natural world around me.  I don’t want you to get creeped-out by this or think that I am some sort of weirdo voyeur as my observations and photo chronology were quite clinical and very scientific.  A day ago I encountered a couple of grasshoppers in my garden doing you-know-what so I brought them to the countertop in the garage for a closer look.  

With a bit of web-browsing and observation this is what I've learned. 

Male grasshoppers croon the grasshopper love song to summon a female.  They do this by means of rubbing their hind femur against a forewing or rubbing a forewing against a hind wing.  Tympana - eardrum-like structures on their abdomens - allow both male and female grasshoppers to hear.  These come-hither songs are species-specific. 

In any event, after hooking-up, the smaller male grasshopper will mount the female and the female curls her abdomen up to reach the male’s reproductive organ - called an aedeagus.  In a paroxysm of arthropodic ardor the male delivers a package of sperm called a spermatophore.  

This act of mating can take from 45 minutes to a day and a half.  Yikes!

click on the image for a closer look

With her eggs fertilized, the female will then seek to lay them using the same ovipositor used during copulation.  She will use specialized horns on her abdomen to dig an inch or two into the ground, extend her ovipositor into the hole and lay a pod containing dozens of eggs.  The egg pod is shielded by a thick covering that the female secretes during this process which later hardens.  In warmer and moderate climates the eggs will hatch in a matter of weeks while in Wisconsin they will overwinter and hatch in the spring.

Yes, even in the insect world, reproduction is complicated stuff.  The next time you read-up on old testament plagues just remember that it all starts with this.  And yes - the conjoined hoppers were returned to the garden and left alone to finish their business......

Better Late Than Never

On the subject of turkeys this showed-up on a trail camera recently.

Just about the time you thought the breeding season was over and done - this guy is still putting on the moves for the ladies.

Better late than never.

Scouting

Yesterday I blogged about flagging the property boundaries as a first step in preparation for a logging operation.  One of the benefits of spending the better part of a day beating the bush is scouting for deer sign.  Not only did the dogs and I jump about a half-dozen bedded whitetails - we also took note of evidence that the rut (the breeding season) is now kicking into high gear.

scrape in the foreground - click to enlarge

Bucks create scrapes by using their hoofs to dig at the ground. Once the soil is stirred up, they urinate on the scrape.  Bucks don’t pee the way we do.  We try to keep it off of us. Bucks actually try to pee on their own legs.  The object is to hit their tarsal glands in an effort to leave their scent on the scrape.  Every deer has its own unique scent. The tarsal glands hold concentrated amounts of that scent.  

 click on the image and you will see a deer stand forty yards distant

Another thing scrapes have is a licking branch - a tree branch will hang above the cleared out soil. Bucks will rub their forehead glands on the stick and will also lick it with their tongue.  Scrapes serve much the same function in the whitetail world as a mailbox post or a fire hydrant does for dogs.  Scrapes are meant to show dominance over a territory but are normally used by more than one buck.   

 click on any image to enlarge

Then there are the rubs.  It is a common misconception that deer rubs on trees are caused by male whitetails attempting to rub the velvet from their antlers.  While it would not be unusual for a velvet-antlered deer to rub against a tree the rubbing seen at this time of year is a consequence of deer that have long-ago shed the velvet from their antlers.  The rub seen on these photos was made by a dominant buck.  Consider it both a visual and a sensory calling card brought on by too much testosterone.  

red oak along the trail fifty yards from the house

It isn't unusual for other bucks to add their contribution to the rub but it's more to do with establishing the pecking order.  The term dominant buck is apropos given that one of the reasons for this behavior is to mark their territory and curb the lesser bucks both psychologically and hormonally.  This suppresses testosterone levels in the smaller bucks allowing the Big Guy to exert his influence and spread his seed during the breeding season.  The glands located in the forehead of the dominant male send a signal that this is my turf.  It also signals to the ladies of the male's readiness to mate.  Consider it the whitetail equivalent of leaving your name and phone number with someone at the bar.

More later so stay tuned..