Hiding Spot

Sometimes it’s the smaller surprises that can make your day. 

At the bottom of the first photo is our raspberry patch.  It’s not very large and the variety(s) of raspberries planted there is lost to history. Consequently, it isn’t mown, it sometimes gets a pruning of dead canes and usually receives a fertilizer drench in the spring.  It persists marginally above neglect and below proper husbandry.   Anyway, I picked the first ripening berries before the birds got them all. Nice surprise. 

The second surprise was this nest deep in the middle of the brambles and the briars. 

I’d agree it’s a good location hidden amongst pickers and thorns…… 

Big Brown Bat

This critter met a terrible end.  With the start of the new year I swapped-out the furnace filter at its predetermined schedule and found this mummified surprise waiting for me.  

Meet Eptesicus fuscus - the Big Brown Bat.  Most of the time I find these occupying a songbird nest box or spot them flitting-about on a summer evening.  It's likely they hang-out (pun intended) from the rafters in the granary.  This critter likely found its way into the house via the fresh air intake for the furnace last fall following the October filter swap.  This species of bat likes to roost in houses over winter.

An insectivore this critter inhabits woodlands, farmlands and urban settings.  Maternity colonies can be found in hollow trees.  Their vocalizations include high-pitched clicks and the squeals of pups calling to mom.  They mate in August - September before hibernation and give birth to 1-2 (usually 2) pups from May to July.  Pups are capable of flight by 18 to 35 days.     

I feel badly for this one. Bats are good critters to have around, mice not so much.  Memo to self to install screens on the air-intakes this spring.

 

Don't Look Up!

Earth safe from 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4!

Hey, Space Fans!

Happy Monday and we're starting off the week with a big (think huge space rock wize) weight off our minds as astronomers just dramatically reduced the potential threat risk of the newfound asteroid 2024 YR4 down to miniscule odds. The asteroid briefly set a record for the highest threat level ever, at a 1-in-32 chance of hitting Earth in 2032.

"The NASA JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) now lists the 2024 YR4 impact probability as 0.00005 (0.005%) or 1-in-20,000 for its passage by Earth in 2032," Richard Binzel, Professor of Planetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and creator of the Torino scale exclusively told Space.com. "That's impact probability zero folks!"

Whew!

At The Movies

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on a voyage to cross the Antarctic.  In 2022, the wreck of the Endurance was finally discovered.

Combining masterfully-restored archival footage from that voyage juxtaposing it with the modern-day quest for the remains, Endurance brings one of history's amazing stories of survival to life like never before.

Its from the people over at The National Geographic Society; so what's not to like.

If you have streaming service you'll find it on Hulu and Disney....

Don't Look Up

In the unlikely event that you haven't got enough things on your mind to worry about; here is a tidbit that crossed my news feed recently.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered on December 27 of last year and is estimated to be 196 feet wide - about the size of the Statue of Liberty and 27 million miles distant. If it were to strike planet earth there is a high probability that it could result in significant damage; likely similar to the 1908 event which flattened a vast forested area in Tunguska Siberia.

Yesterday NASA announced that this chunk of galactic rock  had an estimated 3.1% chance of impacting earth on December 22, 2032 - a 1 in 42 chance of collision.

It is useful to note that the probability of an impact can change as additional data is collected.  Asteroid 99942 Apophis was initially considered at high risk of colliding with earth; and with continued monitoring these worries were ruled out. 

NASA and other space agencies are actively monitoring 2024 YR4 as the asteroid is currently rated as a 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale ranking this as a close-enough encounter with a 1% or greater chance of impact capable of causing localized destruction.  Who knew?  As events unfold the asteroid's trajectory and probability of impact will be updated.

If the impact probability remains significant there are further options.  NASA could attempt to deflect the object by means of altering its trajectory.  NASA mounted a successful DART mission in 2022 to test the feasibility of this as a defense strategy. 

With a 3.1% probability of an impact this is worth paying attention.  Of course there is a much higher probability that Elon Musk will dismantle and defund NASA, furlough all of the agency's slothful and ungrateful workers, disappear the NASA.gov website, strike the name from all of the empty buildings and for good measure supplant it with his own company.

In which case I recommend you interview a contractor who can construct for you a sturdy bunker.  

You can learn more about the science of tracking a predicting all of these near-earth objects that keep you up at night. 

Survivor

The eclipse has come and gone and I live to tell the tale.

Someone notify Marjorie Taylor Greene that eclipse events are predictable.  And where was she during COVID?  That was a friggn' plague.  Sheesh.  Some days I think the House Freedom Caucus consists of cowards led by morons.  But I digress.

Here's a couple of pics from an unrepentant blogger has survived both earthquake and eclipse. 

An Intervention

I'm not sure what this snake was thinking but it clearly bit-off more than it could chew.  There is no way a common garter snake is going to swallow a whole toad for lunch.  A leg maybe?

If one of our resident five foot long fox snakes attempted this I can assure you the toad loses.  In any event, Jill intervened and released the toad from the snake's grip.

Buddha would approve.

Trail Camera Bonus

While we were vacationing in Eastern Europe and interesting development was occurring here.  Something that was unexpected.  One of the trail cameras was patiently documenting the kill/discovery of a whitetail deer by a pair of coyotes.  It was nothing short pf a remarkable coincidence.  An unchoreographed sequence of photographs captured over five days.  I couldn't have staged it better if I tried. 

 

After we returned home I went out to fetch the SD cards on the trail camera trap line and I came across the remains of the deer laying within the field of view of a trail camera. The camera is circled in the image.

 

Examining the skeletal remains and judging from the size of the bones and the skull this appeared to be a yearling doe (born in spring 2022). Likely cause of death was predation by coyote.

 

Do I know that for sure?   Nope. Nevertheless, the photographic evidence is beyond circumstantial. 

 

What I do not know is if the deceased was crippled by a collision with a vehicle, weakened by winter and lack of browse (unlikely in farmland country) or otherwise compromised only to succumb to the whim of Ma Nature.

 

Nature can be a cruel mother. Yet that's how things work. Everything on the landscape is someone else's dinner.

 

These images document what unfolded.

 

Everyone eats whitetails....

 

Of hundreds of digital images here are a select number that capture what unfolded.

 

The event unfolded like this with a pair of coyotes lounging-about in the snow.  Then, over the course of about 20 minutes, they alternately feed-upon and drag a deer carcass into view.  What are the odds of this happening spontaneously?

 

For following morning the first to arrive on the scene are the crows, followed by additional avian predators.

 

 

Bald eagles - both adult and juvenile 

 

And, of course the coyotes returned

There were nocturnal visitations

 

More daylight visitors

 

Crows in a standoff with a juvenile bald eagle

And nocturnal

This alternated on and off...

 

 

 

Including a visitor from the arctic circle who winters here - The rough-legged hawk 

 

 

Curious deer and turkeys paid a call

And on the fifth day the batteries died

 

Almost 20 years of trail camera monitoring and I've never had something like this unfold.  I'm not one to anthropomorphize things but it's almost like these coyotes were doing me a solid favor.

 

Schnee Hirsch

Translation:  Snow Deer.

And, as evidenced in this photo, we've been on the receiving end of snow accumulation and winter/spring weather events.

If you look carefully this whitetail appears fuzzy or chubby in her cold season coat.

Whitetail deer sport a uniquely adapted winter coat that includes coarser outer guard hairs for added insulation.  The insulating qualities are so efficient that snow falling upon a deer doesn't even melt.  Furthermore, the dull brownish-grey winter coat this time of year is superb camouflage.  

The whitetail deer is a remarkably adaptable animal - all the way down to below zero.

As the days grow longer, hormonal changes will kick-in for the resident whitetails and they'll shed their winter coats.

Schnee Hirsch

Literal translation: Snow Deer.

Whitetail deer sport a uniquely adapted winter coat that efficiently absorbs the scarce winter sunlight.  Solar heat is trapped by coarse and hollow outer guard hairs.  Underneath is a dense, soft and heat-retained hairs closer to the skin.  Deer also produce an oily substance that is distributed throughout the entire outer coat thereby enhancing waterproofing.  These insulating properties are so incredibly efficient that snow falling-upon the back of the animal will accumulate without melting.  Furthermore, the dull brownish-grey coat this time of year is superb camouflage.

The whitetail deer is a marvelously adaptable animal.

All the way down to below zero......

 

Love in the Air?

This short, silent, video vignette was captured at the very end of January.

Two weeks before Valentines Day there is no mistaking the behavior captured digitally by an ever-vigilant trail camera. 

That is a dandy buck chasing a girl deer - and if I'm not mistaken he's got loving on his mind.

An occurrence more common in the southern latitudes - this behavior is less common here half-way between the equator and the north pole.  Nevertheless, it is not entirely unknown.  

Female whitetails generally come into estrus within a shared window of opportunity beginning in mid-October into mid-December.  Gestation is around 200 days with fawn drop beginning in April and into June.  Unbred does will come into heat again 28 days later.  

With better nutritional resources here in farm country female deer born in the spring are often bred in their first year of life.  These younger mothers will come into estrus later than mature does and their fawns are delivered in July and sometimes as late as August.  

It is these late-bred does that explains the arrival of newborn fawns on the landscape in summer.  These fawns are at a disadvantage going into the fall as they lack the head start necessary to put on sufficient bulk and fat reserves than those with the earlier start.  

While some may not survive their first winter - around here (food sources), the absence of large predators (wolves and black bear) and the moderating impact of water on opposite coastlines - these late arrivals stand a better chance of survival than their brethren born in Wisconsin's north woods.   

A remarkably adaptable animal the whitetail deer is. 

Don't Mess With Texas

There is a saying that everything is bigger in Texas. I guess weather events and the power grid are included in this aphorism. 

In case you’ve missed the news there is a really big energy crisis in Texas which happens to be a consequence of a really big cold snap. The stretch of cold snap now has extended to three consecutive days of energy outages. 

Natural gas distribution has slowed to a crawl.  The grid is down and plagued with rolling blackouts.

The extended power outages have led to unheated homes, apartments and offices, frozen and burst pipes (flooding), closed gas stations (no electricity to run the pumps), boil advisories (if you have running water), inoperable handheld devices (no power to recharge them) and an abundance of Texas-sized finger pointing and blame-shifting. 

Let me begin by pointing out that 90 percent of Texas’s power needs (more than 25 million customers) are served by the Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) an independent and largely unregulated energy grid. 

Governor Greg Abbott (R) has aimed his ire at frozen wind turbines. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry has also falsely blamed frozen wind turbines for the mass outages adding: Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business. 

So what’s Texas’s business problem? 

The main problem is frigid temperatures and frozen natural gas pipelines that stalled ERCOT’s natural gas production and distribution, which is responsible for the majority of Texas’s power supply.  Wind and other renewable energy resources are hardly insignificant yet contribute less than 10 percent of the state’s overall mix of power generation. 

Unremarkably, here in the frozen tundra, we get natural gas to heat houses and generate electricity through pipelines carrying natural gas from Texas. Our end of the pipeline doesn't freeze - even at 30 below zero. Our wind and solar generation work just fine at 30 below.

As remarkable as it is that Texas supplies the world with talented engineering minds this is an engineering problem. Really bad engineering - pure and simple.  Engineers don't design things to simply work - they design things to not fail. Texas’s ERCOT was negligent in the design and construction standards of their gas pipelines, power plants and energy distribution system. Texas standards are lower than those applied in other states and countries because Texans chaff over the notion of being regulated. Texas made a calculated choice to avoid federal regulation and a requirement that the grid be effectively winterized. The ERCOT equipment that failed in Texas is working just fine in predictably colder northern latitudes everywhere else in the world where it has been winterized. 

The Texas privatization system discouraged redundancy in critical systems.  And as a consequence they have no one to blame but themselves. Blaming wind or solar energy is a lame distraction. 

As evidence of this reality consider the fact that all the neighboring states are suffering identical and even colder weather than Texas yet their power grid is fully-functional. And as much as they’d like to lend a friendly neighborly hand to help Texas out of its predicament they cannot. Texas does not allow their power lines to cross the state line.  Go figure.  

So what about the other 10 percent of Texans not dependent-upon ERCOT?  Ironically, these Texans belong to well-managed Rural Electric Co-Ops. They haven’t suffered any service interruptions, blackouts or water issues. 

Don't mess with Texas.

 

Schnee Hirsch

Translation:  Snow deer

Sure enough - if you look carefully this fork-horn buck still has his antlers - although some of the boy deer showing on the trail cameras are now missing half their headgear.  Blonde dog is going to have to kick her antler-hunting into high gear any day now. 

The other thing you may notice is that deer this time of year appear fuzzy or chubby in their cold weather wardrobe.

Whitetail deer sport a uniquely adapted winter coat that efficiently absorbs scarce winter sunlight.  Solar heat is trapped by coarse outer guard hairs - each of which is hollow.  For added insulation the layer beneath is dense and soft - retaining heat close to the skin.  Deer also produce an oily substance that works thru the entire coat to enhance waterproofing.  These insulating qualities are so efficient that falling snow will collect on the animal without melting.  Furthermore, the dull brownish-grey winter coat this time of year is superb camouflage.  

 

The whitetail deer is a remarkably adaptable animal - all the way down to below zero.

 Digital images were captured six days ago at two different locations

Survivor

This past weekend the flooding subsided to a sufficiently low-enough level that we were finally able to cross Silver Creek.  An excellent opportunity to check the trail cameras and replace batteries and swap-out SD cards.

Here's another nice buck that made it thru the 2019 hunting season.

If he doesn't get smacked by a car beforehand he'll be a handsome specimen next autumn.

Before too long we'll begin winter antler-hunting.  It would be keen to recover his sheds.

Survivor

The result of letting the little bucks walk is this.

He'll be a bigger boy next fall if he makes it to then...

Along Came a Spider

Monarch butterflies are toxic to critters that eat them as a consequence of feeding-upon their host plant – milkweed. 

During the larval stage of growth as the monarch caterpillar feeds poisonous Cardiac Glycosides found in the milkweed foliage are stored.  This toxin is harmful to vertebrate predators – those predators that have a backbone or spinal column.  It is quite a remarkable defense mechanism.  However, these glycosides have no effect on invertebrate predators. 

Which would explain why a spider has disabled this monarch and is tying it-up with webbing in anticipation of dining-upon it. 

click on image for a closer look

 

There you have it – this is where the strong survive and the weak are killed and eaten.

Going the Way of the Dinosaurs

Just in case you missed it and presuming you need something more to add to your growing list of worries consider this:  

During the last 290 million years the rate of asteroids striking the earth and the moon has suffered a sharp increase.  It used to be that an asteroid strike would occur once every 3 million years.  The strikes are now occurring once every 1 million years.  

William Bottke - a researcher on the team at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said the uptick in asteroid strikes was probably caused by one or more giant space rocks breaking up in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter about 300 million years ago. 

If mass extinction events give you cause for alarm be sure to wear a helmet if you are going outside for a stroll.  As for me, I’ll be hanging out in my bunker. 

You can learn more about the science behind this here.

Schnee Hirsch

Translation:  Snow deer - a Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera moment. 

you really need to click on the photo for a detailed view

 

Sure enough - if you look carefully these deer appear fuzzy or chubby in their cold season coats.
 

Whitetail deer sport a uniquely adapted winter coat that includes coarser outer guard hairs for added insulation.  The insulating qualities are so efficient that snow falling upon a deer doesn't even melt.  Furthermore, the dull brownish-grey winter coat this time of year is superb camouflage.  

 

The whitetail deer is a remarkably adaptable animal - all the way down to below zero.

Prepper Cheddar

From Wikipedia is this…
 
Survivalism is a primarily American movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who actively prepare for emergencies, including possible disruptions in social or political order, on scales from local to international. Survivalism also encompasses preparation for personal emergencies, such as job loss or being stranded in the wild or under adverse weather conditions. The emphasis is on self-reliance, stockpiling supplies, and gaining survival knowledge and skills. Survivalists often acquire emergency medical and self-defense training, stockpile food and water, prepare to become self-sufficient, and build structures such as survival retreats or underground shelters that may help them survive a catastrophe.       
 
I will admit to having a wee bit of prepper running thru my veins.  I've got a couple of cases of MREs and a case or two of bottled water on hand for emergencies.  Plus a pantry full of canned and boxed goods that generally run-thru the daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal family grocery rotation.  That's just an old boy scout living the Boy Scout Motto - Be Prepared!   
 

However for you more serious and die-hard survivalist types there is this:  A 27 pound bucket of mac-and-cheese with a shelf-life of two decades.  Only ninety bucks!   Put that in your bunker for bragging rights.  You can even use the bucket as a privy when it’s empty.   
 
Each bucket includes 180 servings - in separate pouches - of elbow pasta and cheddar cheese sauce which calculates to about two servings per dollar.  Shoot. Suppose you don't even have a bunker.  If you live long enough you could put this in your regular grocery rotation and be good to go for regular 17-year intervals and leave the unused portion to your estate.  Kid in college?  Here is an affordable and convenient solution to after bar-time snacks solved with a semester-worth of mac-and cheese!     

Raising a toast to better living thru preservatives and pasteurized process cheese food.

Survival of the Fittest

This past weekend I was puttering about the house and assembling a batch of venison chili for dinner.  For reasons unknown I walked to the living room and looking out the back window spied this,

click on images for a closer look

 

Yup.  A boy fawn looking for all the world dazed and confused.

Middle of the day, broad daylight and walking into the yard without an ounce of precaution or a lick of hesitancy.  The thought occurred to me that he might have been orphaned as no proper whitetail mama would countenance such risky and careless behavior.

I observed him for a few moments as he made his way across the yard and eventually within view of the dogs.

The Labs gave him a well-deserved barking and he skedaddled.  Hopefully, having learned a modicum of self-awareness and caution. 



If not - that little deer doesn't stand a chance against nature.  Because nature can be a tough mother...