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Today's nature video

reible

This one is a little different then what I normally post. It borders on being strange to watch, especially the first few seconds. Getting any sensations watching it?

Ed

Ed in Tampa

Interesting beauty!

jsburger

Cool!

wrmnfzy

My front yard visitor.

reible

On today's hike I noticed the water in this little stream was higher then it has been and no rain to make it so. Conclusion was that there might be a beaver dam.

Sure enough, actually two dams but one was really small while the one in this video is the larger of the two but still small.

Had to hike in to get the video and ended up finding it was a little more of a challenge then I expected. Ended up with one wet foot when I found a water filled hole hiding in the approach. Fell down to one knee which is now feeling a little tender but it was worth the adventure.

Beaver dams don't last around here. They will trap the beaver and remove the dam. At least it will be a little harder to do in this case unless they bring in a tractor....

Will try and visit a few more times while it is still there. Wish I could set up a wildlife camera but doubt it would be there when I came back.....

Ed

wrmnfzy

👍

Ed in Tampa

Neat!

reible

Same walk as the beaver dam I got to see this play out. A robin eating poke berries. I only shot this series but there were several robins finding the berries and enjoying them, well at least eating them.

Poke berries are interesting and I know some people make an ink out of them and I guess if you know what you are doing you can eat the young plants? Poke Salad Annie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrT-TQTLoiw

But the berries are especially poisonous. But not to robins?

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Looks like a good one!

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Yes, that one right in front of my beak, hope it doesn't get away....

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Got you! MMMMMM

I'll come back for those other two when they are ripe

If I live.....

reible

And the day wasn't done. As I got in my van to drive off I noticed something out on the baseball field. It looked like this:

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That is about were second base would be. Sorry the quality is poor since I was shooting through a dirty windshield and the camera was focusing on the fence....

I zoomed in a little but the results were not much better:

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By this time it was clear that we had a baseball diamond loving coyote there.

Since this is a public park and traffic around I guess it felt safe being in such an open area. It didn't last as some hikers were approaching so it got to its paws and slowly moved off towards right field. This gave me the opportunity to get a little better shot. My wife rolled down her window and I went to manual focus. But the other person got a little to close and the coyote decided it was time to call the game and go home.

The adventures just keep coming.

reible

Vulture feed in our local park

This video was taken at a park just blocks from my home. I was out walking and noticed this event and had to go home and get my camera.

Never a dull moment if you are staying alert.

Ed

reible

I sure do enjoy my nature walks. To get all the steps I need in a week I like to get out in nature for at least some of them, sidewalks and neighborhoods get pretty boring........ So I have a couple of videos I posted just in case you are not able to get out and visit nature. First is a young possum I spotted just off the path. Possums are really interesting so I would say that after watching the video look them up. Anyway this one seems to have not quite got the hang of meeting someone, well me anyway.

This second video:

I titled it "Heron maybe rinsing it beak??" Don't know if that is what is going on but that is what it looked like to me??

BTW the beaver dam is still in place, I'd say about 3 feet high now. Sure would be nice to see the beaver but no luck so far.

Ed

nuhobby

Nice ones!

The heron around here looks so 'regal' compared to the more numerous geese.

Chris

BuckeyeDennis

Gorgeous videos, Ed!

RFGuy

reible wrote First is a young possum I spotted just off the path. Possums are really interesting so I would say that after watching the video look them up. Anyway this one seems to have not quite got the hang of meeting someone, well me anyway.

Ed,

Nice videos as always. Possums are actually not native to North America and are more commonly found in Australia (kangaroo relative), and a few other countries. Here in North America, we have opossums. Just a bit of trivia. When small they may look cute and cuddly, but I would keep a safe distance. In my youth I encountered a few opossums and can tell you first hand that they can be vicious and unpredictable creatures. Their snouts are full of teeth and fairly long.

reible

If you haven't had the time or didn't want to spend the effort searching here is a link that will give you a good deal of information on the opossum:

https://www.wildlifeillinois.org/gallery/mammals/looks-like-a-dog/opossum/

We see them frequently here in our neighborhood, mostly as full size adults and in the evening. This one was just off the trail which runs along a stream, decent habitat for a lot of animals. This is the same stream where the beaver dam is located but maybe a half mile farther down stream. I often find something to photograph when I walk the area.

Ed

reible

I went in close to the dam again yesterday and shot this video:

This type dam needs to get wider as well as taller to trap more water and it larger so the beavers must still be working on it. No flooding of the trails yet but the water is getting closer. Still have not seen the beaver....

Ed

Ed in Tampa

reible wrote I went in close to the dam again yesterday and shot this video:

This type dam needs to get wider as well as taller to trap more water and it larger so the beavers must still be working on it. No flooding of the trails yet but the water is getting closer. Still have not seen the beaver....

Ed

Wow sure can see nature’s engineers took their training serious. Amazing! Would love to have someone attempt to explained how they learned to do that by evolution! 😂

RFGuy

Ed in Tampa wrote Wow sure can see nature’s engineers took their training serious. Amazing! Would love to have someone attempt to explained how they learned to do that by evolution! 😂

I can't explain it, but it did prompt me to Google about it. Below is an excerpt that I found from a research study. It appears to be embedded in their DNA and is triggered by the sound of flowing water, i.e. it is NOT a learned behavior (see below). Fascinating...

https://sites.google.com/site/sf11beavers/project-proposal/bibliography/annotated-bibliography/untitledpost

Excerpt:

"To do this, Lars Wilsson had a test group of 4 adult beavers and further on in the experiment, also raised several kits from birth. The young beavers were kept apart from the adults so that they would have no way to learn the behavior of dam building in response to the sound of flowing water. The results of his experiment were quite amazing. He discovered that the young beavers, who had never seen or built a dam before, built a similar dam to the adult beavers on their first try. He further investigated whether it was the sight of flowing water that triggered this dam building behavior or if it was sound that triggered it. The results of this were, again, astounding. Beavers’ dam building instinct was triggered by merely the sound of flowing water, not the sight. In one of his experiments, a beaver built a dam next to a speaker in a dry tank that was playing the sound of flowing water. The article goes into further detail about methods and strategies that could be implemented that will allow water to flow without making noise, which are implemented in numerous areas surrounding Juneau, Alaska."

reible

On yesterdays walk I could hear a lot of chatter from black birds. As I got closer it got even nosier. I saw a large flock drop down into the reeds near by, more then likely to spend the night. There were still a good number in the trees where I could see them so I did a short recording. Would have been interesting to know just how many had gathered.......

Ed

Ed in Tampa

I can remember the birds gathering in the trees in the woods behind my house as a boy. There were thousands and the noise was almost deafening. When they took off in force you could hear the noise of their wings flapping the air. Haven't seen that in years since moving to Florida.