I just returned from the first of my two Christmas Bird Counts for this year. What the heck is a Christmas Bird Count you say? Well the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) all started a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Wait, no that is not right, that is a different story.

Back in the late 1800’s, during the Victorian time, it was a holiday tradition to go out on Christmas Day with your family and shoot as many small birds as you could find with your shotgun. Contests were held to see who could kill the most birds. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a more festive way to celebrate the holidays then to go out and kill a bunch of small defenseless birds as possible, NOT!

So beginning on Christmas Day 1900, under the guidance of ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, who worked for Audubon Society, a new tradition was started. Instead of going out and killing birds at Christmas, a new “Christmas Bird Census” that would send people out to count birds. They didn’t just count the species but how many of each species they found. For example, they didn’t say they saw a Blue Jay, they counted how many Blue Jays they found in a specific area or count circle.

About 27 dedicated birders held the very first Christmas Bird Count that year in New England, Toronto, Ontario and parts of California. All total on the first CBC, 90 species of birds were counted.

All of this information was sent to Audubon Society and thus started one of the longest sustained bird studies of all times that continues today. These days, participants in the CBC can sign up for through their local birding clubs, or through the Audubon website. Anytime from December 14 to Jan 5th, you go out and count the birds in your assigned area. Some travel great distances to count birds while others simply count in their own backyards.

Now, each year, tens of thousands of volunteers strike out, into the cold of winter to seek out and count birds. The data collected gives us an assessment of the population and range of so many birds and is often used to guide conservation effects by many organizations, not just Audubon.

It is the most valuable tool to assess the long term health and status of bird populations across North America. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it gives us a broad look at the overall population trends of nearly all bird species. It is unmatched data that can’t be replaced.

Having a long term perspective on individual species of birds is vital for bird conservation efforts in North America and helps to identify potential threats to specific species of birds that would not normally be studied. Now with the climate changing so quickly, the CBC data is extremely valuable to track the changes in bird populations over time.

So if you are interested in birds this might be a great outlet for you also. Just contact your local Audubon chapter and join a group that is doing the CBC in your area. There is always room for more counters. This is a great way to meet like-mined people and see new places to see birds. It will open many doors for you and get you outside at a time of year when we spend too much time indoors. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be followed on facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

I’ve been sitting for hours, driving for days and staring through binoculars at distant hillsides for longer than I can remember, searching for the elusive bobcat (Lynx rufus), the smallest of our wild cats. Today I am in California trekking the foothills searching for the smallest of the amazing felines. No doubt the Bobcat is the most widespread and common of our four cat species (Bobcat, Lynx, Cougar and Jaguar). In some regions of the country bobcats can be fairly common while in others not at all. Here in California they are fairly common but extremely elusive.

Days upon days of searching has resulted in finding about 8 bobcats so far. Spotting them isn’t the hard part. Getting close enough to capture some images is. When approaching these wild cats you must take in consideration not only not being seen and heard but also not being smelled. If the wind is in the wrong direction the cat is gone in a split second.

Just like any animal, Bobcats are highly adaptable and can live in a wide variety of habitat from forests, to deserts, forest edges to swamps. Basically if there is enough prey (food) around they can make a living.

The cats I am seeing are anywhere from gray to rusty brown. It is surprising the diversity in their coloration. Most are gray to brown with black frosting. They have extra-long fur around their neck that makes them look like they are wearing a collar. They have short black tufts of hair on the tips of their pointed ears and a very short or bobbed tail, hence their common name. Completing the look are dozens of black spots. I am amazed at how well they blend into just about any environment, to the point where if they step into the brush they disappear completely. Believe me it has happened many times on this trip.

Bobcats hunt small prey such as rabbits and quail but they will take just about anything they can catch. In this location the Bobcats really seem to like hunting gophers. They compete with the large coyote population here in California for the gophers. I’ve watched a number of cats creeping across an open field listening intently for any signs of digging gophers. Once located the cat hunkers down about 3 feet from the busy digging gopher.

A couple days ago, I had this very scenario unfold right in front of me. Hiding behind logs and other obstacles, I was able to creep up close enough to capture some images. The cat was completely locked onto the unsuspecting gopher. Through my camera’s lens I could see the cat, nearly flat to the ground, ears and eyes locked onto the spot where the gopher was digging.

Occasionally I could see the gopher’s head pop up as he was pushing dirt out of his tunnel. At these moments the Bobcat’s tiny tail starts twitching and swinging uncontrollably back and forth. The bobbies hind feet and legs coiled up tightly and really to spring into action. It was tense watching through the lens knowing how important it is for the cat to eat but on the other hand concerned that this gopher might lose its life.

For several long minutes this went on. All of us, the gopher, Bobcat and myself were all frozen waiting to see what would happen. Again the head of the gopher would pop out and the cat would begin to vibrate in anticipation the way cats do. I kept wondering why he doesn’t pounce on the visible gophers. I am sure that years of successful hunting has taught this cat well and when it’s the perfect time to jump. But the gophers disappeared down its hole once again.

Several minutes pass and it was obvious the gopher was not going to push out any more dirt. The cat relaxed a bit and repositioned its coiled hind legs. Then in a last act of desperation, the cat rushed the hole and stuck its paw way down the hole fishing for the gopher. No such luck, he came up empty pawed. Dejected and still hungry the cat walked off, once again looking and listening for a busy gophers. I’ve got another 4 days of hunting for images of bobcats. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US and Canada to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

On my recent trip to California to photograph Bobcats (see my last column) I had a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing and photographing clusters of wintering monarch butterflies. We had checked a couple of known spots in northern California close to where I was working but wasn’t able to locate any wintering butterflies. So my partner and I decided that a 5 hour drive to central California would be worth it to see some wintering monarchs.

Five hours and lots of traffic jams later, we arrived just at sunset at a location where thousands of Monarch Butterflies normally spend the winter. Not knowing what to expect we grabbed our binoculars and started walking and search around for the butterflies. It didn’t look very promising. After all, the population of Monarch Butterflies has decreased dramatically over the past 20 years. For example according to Monarch Watch, a nonprofit education, conservation and research group, in 1995 there were over 390.5 million wintering monarchs. The latest population numbers in 2015 show only 56.5 million monarchs. 2014 recorded the all time lowest population of monarchs at 33.5 million. This isn’t encouraging news.  

Just when we thought all our efforts were not going to pay off we saw a small handmade sign on a post that said, “Not seeing any butterflies? Look Up”. There, about 30 feet above our heads, was a large cluster of monarchs. Through our binoculars (not enough light to photograph) we could see hundreds and hundreds of monarchs, with their delicate wings folded over their backs clinging to the branches of the eucalypts trees. Honestly they looked just like the leaves on the trees and in the dim light they were hard to see.

For those who don’t know, the Monarch Butterfly is our only truly migratory insect. Of the hundreds of butterfly species in North America, it’s the only one that migrates. There are a few other butterflies that do partial migration but none like the monarch. All of the monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the mountains of central Mexico. This is where the vast majority of monarchs spend the winter. A much smaller population of monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to California for the winter. This is where I am at.

There are about a dozen or so spots along the California coast that play host to these amazing insects. Instinctively they gather in large groups during winter. At other times of the year the monarchs are solitary. One by one the monarchs start to arrive in November and by December thousands are hanging from the branches of trees. They spend the winter clinging together and on warm days go out to feed on the nectar from flowers. Not all of them venture out during the day but the ones that do will return to the same trees at night. At the end of February the butterflies start to leave the wintering sites and fly off northward to mate, lay eggs and will unfortunately die. This is why the wintering monarchs are so important. They are the sole reason why the monarch population carries on from year to year.

The next morning at sunrise we returned to the monarch site with cameras in hand and spent several amazing hours filming these awesome insects and thus fulfilling a lifelong dream to see and film wintering monarchs. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

California is known for many things such as sunny beaches, Hollywood, Disneyland, Garlic capital of the world, well maybe not so much for this last one, but you know what I mean. However for me, California has some of the most beautiful places on earth and some of the most amazing wildlife. I am always on the lookout for the unusual or the underdog or the cool thing that isn’t so flashy. So I headed for the Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). The tallest trees in the world!

On my recent trip to California I took a day out of my wildlife photography schedule to visit a stand of old growth Coastal Redwoods. You really need to stand at the base of one of these magnificent trees to really understand their grandeur.

The Coastal Redwoods grow along a narrow band of the coast for about 450 miles from the northern border of California down to just south of San Francisco. The trees are restricted to what is called the fog-belt which is a strip of the coast extending inland about 25 miles where dense fog forms from the clash of the ocean water temperature and the warm air above it. The fog bathes the landscape and the giant trees for a good part of the year. The water in the fog condensates on the surface of the leaves and drips off to keep the soil moist, allowing these drought sensitive trees to survive.

Known to be one of the oldest living trees, many reach 1,000 to 1,200 years with no trouble. Some have been aged at over 2,000 years. The maximum record was approximately 2,200 years. During this long life they produce wood at one of the highest rates of all trees. A study in 1995 figured that redwoods produce about 1,400 metric tons of wood per acre. The wood is strong and decay-resistant making it desirable for all sorts of projects such as outdoor furniture, fencing and roofing shakes.

Because of the desirable wood, Redwoods were nearly wiped out due to over harvesting. Precious few coastal valleys are home to Redwood trees today. Fortunately most are now protected and preserved for future generations to see and admire.

Even though they are giant trees they produce amazingly small cones. Each year in January, the trees produce tiny pollen-bearing male cones and even smaller seed-bearing female cones. Each tree produces thousands and thousands of these minute cones. The wind carries off the vast numbers of the seeds and most don’t germinate. Redwoods also clone themselves by underground roots. If the mother tree dies, tiny nodes located on the roots will sprout around the base of the dead parent tree. When this happens it is called a fairy-ring because the new trees spout around the parent tree. The new trees will quickly grow and take the place of the parent tree. New trees can grow over 6 feet in one year if the moisture and light are suitable.

Coastal Redwoods should not be confused with the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which is a similar tree but grows only in the Sierra Nevada mountains, mostly in the Sequoia National Monument and a handful of other national parks. All of these locations are well away from the coast. The Giant Sequoia are just as massive and grow just as old but are able to withstand freezing temperatures unlike the Coastal Redwoods.

My visit to these sentinels of the forest left me awe-struck. Standing beneath the canopy of these giants really puts your own size and short life into proper prospective. To think all of what these massive trees have seen over their 1,000 plus year life span can set you back on your heals in total wonderment.

Walking amongst the trunks of trees that are wider than my truck with my camera in hand, I didn’t realize until afterwards that I barely took a picture. I was so into enjoying the wonderment of the ancient trees and their bigger than life size that I took only a handful of images. Thinking back on it, I am glad that I had concentrated on the experience of the trees and not my usual world of capturing the beauty with my camera. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

I love this time of year. March is a transition month and often heralds the beginning of spring, even here in the frozen north. Many of our backyard birds are singing their spring mating and territorial songs. Some early migrating birds such as Bluebirds and Horned Larks are already arriving. The male Goldfinches have molted their old drab gray feathers for a new coat of bright yellow feathers.

It is also the time to get out and clean out your Wood Duck boxes or to put up new ones. The Wood Duck along with the Common Goldeneye and the Hooded Merganser are small duck species that nest inside cavities. Providing them with a safe, warm and dry place to nest is essential. So before the ice is off your pond it’s always good to inspect your wooden boxes, clean out any old nesting material, eggs and such and put in new fresh wood chips. This will welcome back our woodies when they return.

It is also maple syrup time. This uniquely American product has a long history dating back to early indigenous people. No one knows for sure how, when or where maple syruping started but there are a number of nice native legends surrounding the origins of maple syrup. One of the most popular of these stories is about using the sap from a maple tree to boil venison.

Sugar Maple trees (Acer saccharum) are the preferred tree to tap for its watery sap but others also yield high quality sap that can be boiled down to make syrup. At my nature center we tap Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum) but we have also tapped the lowly Box Elder (Acer negundo).  The Box Elder is a tree people seem to love to hate.

Tree sap should not be confused with tree resin. Evergreen trees are well known for producing a yellow colored sticky resin that when fossilized is called Amber. Sap from trees is a clear liquid consisting of 98 percent water and only 2 percent sucrose. This means when a tree is tapped you need to collect about 40 gallons of sap to boil down to just 1 gallon of syrup. With some trees the percentage of sugar is even less and you need to collect 50 or 60 gallons to make one gallon of syrup.

So why does the sap run at this time of year. First of all, only maple trees in northern climates are tappable to collect the sap. Typically during the month of March, we have night time temperatures that are below freezing and day time temperatures above freezing. It is this freeze and thaw cycle that produces the “flow” of sap which allows us to collect it. This mean regions of the U.S. that doesn’t have freezing winters can’t tap their trees for sap.

This combination of freezing and thawing is so critical that if the weather doesn’t cooperate we get no sap. For example we have had many years where we went right from winter into spring with warm temperatures day and night and the trees produce no sap for us.

A tree needs to be between 30-40 years of age to be large enough for tapping. One of these trees can produce between 9 and 15 gallons of sap if the season is good. Many people tap between 5 and 100 trees. At my nature center we usually tap about 25 trees and collect many gallons of sap.

The Canadian province of Quebec is the largest producer of Maple Syrup. Nearly three quarters of all the maple syrup produced in the world comes from there. In the U.S. the state of Vermont is the largest producer representing nearly 6 percent of the world’s supply of maple syrup.

If you get a chance, visit your local nature center or sugar bush this March and learn more about this uniquely American tradition and product. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the U.S. to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com

I’ve just returned from leading my annual spring trip to south central Nebraska to see the Sandhill Crane migration. This year I had 11 intrepid participants join me in the birding bus and we had such a fun time. Even though I go to the same place at the same time on the calendar, each year’s experience is very different. Each trip is special and unique.

This year we were greeted with record numbers of Sandhill Cranes. Within minutes of arriving in the area we started seeing thousands of cranes in the fields. The official count was 230,000 cranes during our visit. The weather was perfect with warm winds from the south and plenty of sunshine.

At any given time you could look around in the blue sky and see hundreds if not thousands of cranes flying in large family units. Each crane loudly calling as if they needed to be heard over all the other cranes that were talking.

As I tell the participants on these trips, each year is different. However we tend to think that nature stays the same. That it should be the same as last year. I call this the “remember the good old days” syndrome. This is where people have a single memory of something wonderful in nature and expect it be exactly the same way each time, year after year. However nature is dynamic and is always changing. Nature is never the same twice. Sure there are some similarities but it is never exactly the same.

This year the Snow Geese, which we would normally see in the hundreds of thousands,were already gone from the region. We found a small group of about 50 Snow Geese in a grassy field feeding but that was the extent of what we saw.

Each morning we would gather well before daylight and head to one of the viewing blinds. The blinds are large structures built on the edge of the river with viewing ports or windows to see the cranes. In complete darkness and under a blanket of stars we would navigate a grassy pathway. Once at the blind we pile into the building in complete darkness and wait in silence for the sunrise. Meanwhile about 10,000 or 15,000 cranes would be nervously calling while they stand in the river right in front of our blind, also waiting for the sun to come up.

As soon as there is enough light to see, the cranes start to peel off in small family units flying off to the surrounding corn fields to feed on spilled corn, left over from last fall’s harvest. It takes a couple hours for most of the cranes to leave the night roosting spot in the river.

On average the cranes stay about 2 weeks in this part of Nebraska along the Platte River feeding and gaining weight before they continue on their journey northward. Nearly a half of million Sandhill Cranes will pass through this 60 to 90 mile stretch of the Platte River during the spring migration. It is an critical stop over on their long migration. During their stay the birds strengthen their pair bonds between the mated adults. The young cranes which follow their parents learn the migratory route and the best places to roost and find food.

It is believed that the cranes have been coming to this part of the Platte River for nearly 10,000 years. Why they started doing this in the first place is not understood. And why they don’t choose a different part of the Platte River is also not known. These are just some of the mysteries that the cranes hold onto tightly.

What I find interesting is, these cranes will migrate up to northern states such as Montana and North Dakota but the vast majority will head into Canada and spread out east to the Hudson Bay and westward up and into Alaska. Even more amazing, a small percentage of the cranes will make the 90 mile crossing from Nome Alaska over to Siberia of Russia.  Here they will nest and raise their young. And you thought you had a long commute to work. Until next time….

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the world to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com

The warming winds of spring bring us many fun and interesting birds and critters. One of my favorites is the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). A member of the thrush family, the bluebird is closely related to the American Robin. In fact, you can see the similarities between these birds in the posture, body proportions, movements and also in the matching rusty red chest.

Both birds are prolific insect eaters, finding most of their food directly on the ground. Because of this diet these birds need to migrate to areas where they can find insect food during winter. Even though both birds are well known for migration, neither of them make long distance migrations like some birds such as the warblers or hummingbirds.

Bluebirds are late to leave in the fall, often staying around until Thanksgiving, and return fairly early in the spring. And they only migrate as far as they need to survive the winter, which means in some winters they may go only a couple hundred miles south.

Once nearly extinct due to the lack of available nesting cavities and the wide spread use of pesticides. Their downfall started in the 1930’s and 40’s. Some believe that the invention of the modern gas-power chainsaw was the beginning of the decline. For the first time individuals were able to efficiently take down dead or dying trees and along with it the natural cavities that provided homes for the bluebirds.

Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters. This means they don’t create the cavities that they need to nest. Woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters. They excavate their nesting cavities and the bluebirds use these cavities secondarily after the woodpeckers. This is not to say that bluebirds won’t use natural cavities, they will, it’s just that old woodpecker cavities are more common.

Most, but not all woodpeckers, use the cavity they excavate for nesting just once. This is a very interesting behavior when you consider the amount of energy it takes to chisel out these homes. But of the studies that have been done, reusing nesting cavities by woodpeckers have a lower chick survival rate. It’s thought this lower survival rate is linked to increased parasites inside the “used” cavity.

For the bluebirds, inhabiting a “used” cavity is better than having no cavity at all, especially when you consider that bluebirds have no ability to excavate their own nest cavity and natural cavities are often in very short supply.

Back in the 1970’s and 80’s with the birth of the environmental movement, individuals and also organizations started to build wooden boxes designed to provide nesting cavities for bluebirds. After many different designs attempts, several distinct nest box designs seem to work best and the bluebirds. This was the start to the recovery of the bluebird all across the nation.

Now the bluebirds are doing so much better thanks to thousands of individuals and dozens of organizations who build and maintain these nesting boxes. But I am afraid to say that the responsibility for the future of the bluebirds will continue to be in our hands. Unlike some species that also suffered at the hands of man, but were able to recover such as the Bald Eagle or Common Loon, the bluebird will perhaps always need the helping hand of man to survive. They will always need someone to design, build and provide nesting boxes for their continued survival.

I have maintained a bluebird trail of over 60 boxes for more than 20 years. I understand the importance of being a good landlord to these magnificent birds. I just hope that the young people of today will take up the challenge and carry it into the future. This spring let’s teach our children to carry on the tradition of providing for our bluebird friends. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

I’ve been spending a lot of time this spring filming some of the most strange and unusual mating rituals of the bird world. First I spent several evenings with the timber doodle or better known as the Woodcock. How this shorebird of the woodlands started its elaborate late evening sky dance no one will ever know. Now I am photographing Prairie Chickens on the vast windswept prairie. The elaborate dancing and displaying of these crazy birds is a sight to be seen. Honestly , the drive of these birds just to reproduce each spring is astonishing.

Before daybreak in complete darkness I pulled up my truck to the side of a minimum maintenance road. I could barely open my truck door because the wind was blowing so hard. With each push of the door it came swinging back at me much faster. The winds were sustained well over 30 mph and the temperature was only 22 degrees. All I could think of, this wasn’t a good day for photography.

I had to walk nearly a mile against the wind carrying all that I needed for the next 4 hours of photography. Nearly 30 pounds of cameras, tripods, blind and something to eat and drink. Walking in the dark can be disorienting. You can’t see the normal landmarks that would guide you across a featureless prairie. Eventually I arrived at the location and began to set up. Within minutes I am inside the blind hoping I won’t be blow over by the stronger wind gusts.

Waiting for the sun to come up is never an issue unless you are trying to keep everything from blowing away. With this kind of crazy wind, it gives a guy doubt that the birds would show up to display. However shortly after there was enough light to illuminate the landscape I was fortunate enough to have over 20 male Greater Prairie Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) arrive and begin to display. I find the translation of the Genus and species name of this bird hilarious. The first name Tympanuchus translates from the Greek for “a drum” or “a drummer. The second name or species name cupido translates from the Latin as “physical desire or love”. So together this is bird is called the Love Drummer.

I would never say the Prairie Chicken is a drummer. But I suppose the bright orange air sacs located on the sides of its neck could be construed as a type of drum. During the males courtship dance he leans forward spreads his tail like a turkey, droops his wings, lifts a set of ten feathers called a pinnae, to stand straight up on its neck and lastly inflates a yellow to orange air sac on its neck. Then he makes a sound which resonates in the air sacs which sounds like a low pitched booming. This is how these birds got their other common name, “boomers”.

Each spring the males will gather on a small spot in the prairie which is called a lek. The males will fight with each other to establish a pecking order. The strongest males are near the center of the dancing grounds. Occasionally they will display and dance about but most of the time they are fighting with other males. They face each other and suddenly leap towards each other kicking with their feet or grabbing the chest feathers of the opponent with their beak. Fights last just second and they break it off and walk away.

However when a female shows up on the lek, all the males start to display and give their booming sound. While I was photographing two females entered the arena. They slowly moved towards the center of the lek while each male displayed and try to walk in front of the females so she could see them. The female hunkers down and watches the show. Apparently she is judging the males based on their feathers and displaying.

Even though it was well below freezing and the north wind was blowing like a hurricane, the mating rituals of spring continued. I was able to capture some great behaviors of the males showing off for the females. About 3 hours later the males where tired and need to rest and find something to eat. All of a sudden as if someone said something, all the males took off flying for the distant horizon. Now I just have to pack up and fight the wind all the way back to my truck. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com

I’ve always found the critters that are not well known or the ones that are mysterious to be the most fascinating. A good example of this is the flying squirrel. I have recently been photographing a wonderful little Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys Volans). There are over 40 species of flying squirrel in the world but only 2 species live here in North America. Besides the Southern Flying Squirrel we also have a Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus). In general the Southern Flying Squirrel lives across most of the eastern half of the country while the Northern Flying Squirrel lives in the northern states and across Canada.

Both the northern and southern flying squirrel are closely related to other tree squirrels. All are in the family Sciuridae. The big difference between the flying squirrels and other more familiar tree squirrels are flying squirrels are nocturnal. All of our other tree squirrels are diurnal and active during the day.

By some estimates, in the areas where flying squirrels exist, they many outnumber the daytime tree squirrels. Since the flying squirrel is highly nocturnal and only becomes active well after dark, we don’t notice them zipping around the trees under the cover of darkness.

Flying Squirrels are smaller than the common Eastern Gray Squirrel and are only 7-9 inches long compared to the Gray Squirrel which is 10-12 inches. Flying squirrels are only 2-4 oz in weight while the Gray Squirrel is over one pound.

Its large bulging eyes are a tip off to the nocturnal behavior of this little know critter. In proportion to the size of its head, the eyes are huge. Large eyes allow more light gathering ability in dark conditions. After all they need to see where they are going and more importantly judge the distance to a landing spot on a tree. Think about it, they are whizzing through a branch cluttered forest at relatively high speed in the dark. It is really an amazing feat.

Of course the name “flying” squirrel is a bit of a misnomer because they don’t actually fly. Flying implies that they can accelerate and gain altitude at their control. In fact they just glide on a downward path after leaping off a tree. The process of gliding is proceeded by first identifying a target landing spot. This often involves the squirrel bobbing its head up and down judging the distance and the path to the landing spot.

They glide with the aid of a furry, parachute-like skin membrane that stretches from wrist to angle and is called the patagium. When fully stretched out the entire body of the squirrel becomes a wing. Even its tail is flat and aids in the gliding and also acts like a rudder to help maneuver around objects and slow down. The fur grows only along the sides of the tail giving it a flat appearance.

Glides can be upwards of 50 feet in distance but most are much shorter. Almost always the glide terminates on another tree trunk. When they are about to land the squirrel pulls up its front legs and its tail lowers to catch some air, like an air-break. They always land head upright then immediately scamper around to the opposite side of the trunk. Presumably this is a way avoid any predators such as owls that might be following them closely.

Flying Squirrels are the most carnivorous of the tree squirrels. In addition to eating seeds, they eat bird eggs, baby birds, small mice or any dead animal they can find. Insects also are a big part of their diet. Another unusual behavior of the flying squirrel is their gregariousness. They live in family units of many individuals in one nest.

Baby flying squirrels are born in a tree cavity and are naked, eyes close and helpless. They nurse on mother’s milk, weaning at 5-7 weeks of age. They have several broods of babies each year. Most flying squirrels live only 2 to 5 years but some have lived upwards of 10 years in captivity.

Some people are lucky to have flying squirrels visit their feeders at night. The squirrels are often not afraid if you turn on a flood light to watch them as they help themselves to your bird seed. Most people fall in love with these cute little critters and can’t wait to watch them visit their feeders each night. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.

I love the rule breakers in nature. People tend to pigeon-hole (sorry for the pun) birds and animals into categories not based on facts but on how we perceive them to be. We think that if they are one kind of critter they will act a specific way. Owls are a good example of this stereo type thinking.

I have written many times in the past about the Red-headed Woodpecker which is a species of woodpecker that doesn’t really act like all other woodpeckers. They are a good example of a rule breaker. The Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) is also another great example of a species of owl that doesn’t act like all other owls.

I recently was photographing some Burrowing Owls and was thinking about how much I enjoyed that these owls are not like all the other owls. First of all, they are tiny birds. Not the large hulking predators that we often think of when imagining an owl. In fact they are so small, less than 10 inches tall, that they hunt mostly insects like grasshoppers and katydids. Not a very fierce predator unless you are a bug.

 Half of the mystery of owls are their nocturnal behavior. Being active at night means it’s often difficult to see owls. Not the Burrowing Owl. They are active during the day time along with the night making them very easy to see and more importantly observer their natural behaviors. Many of the larger insects such as grasshoppers are most active during the day so the Burrowing Owl takes advantage of this and hunts during the day. They will also catch small lizards and snakes which are also active during the day. Seems this owl is perfectly adapted for the food they hunt.

There are a number of owl species such as the Barred Owl that nest inside tree cavities. However the Burrowing Owl is the only one that nests in underground burrows, hence their common name. Sometimes the Burrowing Owl will take over an old prairie dog or ground squirrel burrow and widen or lengthen the burrow. Other times the Burrowing Owl will simply dig out their own nesting burrow.

Using their tiny feet they kick loose dirt backwards to excavate their burrow. It can take a fairly long time to dig out their burrow, up to 2 weeks, but they use the burrow for many years in a row making all the effort worth it. Many burrows are upwards of 6 feet long with a small chamber at the end. They will have extra chambers where they store food.

At nesting time the adults bring in chunks of animal dung usually cow manure to decorate the entrance to the burrow. Presumably this smelly poop will attract beetles and other ground dwelling insects that the owls then catch and eat. But they also collect other objects such as bottle caps that you can find at the burrow entrance.

Interestingly the Burrowing Owls take well to man-made nesting burrows constructed of PVC pipe or sections of 4 inch drain-tile with a small wooden box at the end. The entire apparatus is burred about 2 to 3 feet deep. The owls seem to like these dwellings and use them often.

Burrowing owls also have very long naked legs. Much longer than most other owls. They also lack the feathers found on their legs and feet of other owls. This is because they live in warm climates where having feathers on your legs for warmth is not necessary.

All of these things make the Burrowing Owl so much different from all others owls. This makes them a classic rule breaker. One thing for sure in nature, there are never any absolutes and there is always an exception to every rule. I love the rule breakers. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on facebook.com and twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com