Beauty in an unexpected place...

Just caught this hanging from a partition at a gas station this weekend. It was very wonderful and unexpected to find a such a perfect Monarch butterfly chrysalis thriving in such an unnatural place. The chrysalis itself looked like a piece of jewelry, with tiny gold accents. It was surprisingly firm, but I would want a temporary house to be safe, as I'm sure the caterpillar undergoing transformation does. I am continously amazed by the patience and tenacity of the natural world, and I am in wonder of the beauty it so often creates.

Mapping Out Our Site

We went to our site for the last time before our presentation to clean up and check our critter cams one last time. We were surprised to find a lot of red efts, and the small creatures were all over the porcupine scat pile, their insides visible through their pulsating sheer orange skin. Nothing new on the cameras, but having captured our bear friend, we feel we got a good sense of a the night activity. No one had seen bears in the headwaters in a while, so it felt good to make that discovery. I have been producing some graphic maps of our finding and I think they will help to represent the flora and fauna of the black gum habitat.

This graphic map shows the all the animal activity surrounding the black gum.

 

 I have designed maps of our plots, this one shows all plant life.

 

One of several red efts we found at our site today.

The red efts seems to enjoy the scat pile at the base of the tree with safe, moist hiding places.

Look at those ears!

Kim uploaded the cameras today and we found this picture from Sunday. I am amazed that this little bear is looking right into the camera. It is so remarkable to be walking in our plot during the day while knowing that this bear and lots of other creatures are active in the same area at night.

New Discoveries, Old Friends

 Today was another eventful day at our black gum plot as we began to look for physical evidence of the bear we caught on camera yesterday. Just slightly outside the southeastern entrance to our plot, we found the following three items in some shallow mud. We are working on identifying the butterflies or moth species that these wings belong to, and the fur is a bit of a mystery. After spending some time looking through the university's physical catalog of animal specimens, it would appear that the fur is the undercoat of a black bear. This fur clearly came from the bear that wandered through our plot on Sunday night. The last photo gives you a close up of the bear's rump as he was walking towards the black gum. The fur in the photo is course and thick, much like the clump we found. It was really wonderful to feel such a strong attachment to the site today and know that a bear has been through, keen only to pursue his own agenda.

WE FOUND A BEAR!

When we were initially setting up our wildlife cameras, I kept jokingly saying that we were going to capture a bear on film. I baited all the cameras using cat food, which of course I managed to get ALL OVER MYSELF. Cat food is smelly and viscous and generally reminds of carpet that hasn't been cleaned in a very long while, so I was really hoping that the camera set up would be worth it. We checked the cameras today, and when we uploaded our photos, we saw that a bear had, in fact, wandered through our little plot. If I had to name him, which of course I shouldn't because he is a wild being, I would name him Henry. After Thoreau obviously, because he seems like a wise and noble bear who appreciates the solitude of the forest. What a wonderful day to be a naturalist.

A Living Classroom

 I had these photos developed this weekend, and they are all of our black gum tree research plot. They were taken this past Wednesday and Thursday. We have really begun to familiarize ourselves with the site, and it has taken on the feeling of a living room or space. I usually just pass through a forest or wild space, and for the most part, I don't get to really closely examine one plot of land. As we continue this project over the next two weeks, I look forwards to getting to know this plot even better and to making more and more discoveries.