Game Camera on Deer Carcass

In late May, a White-Tailed Deer was hit and killed by a vehicle in Litchfield. White Memorial staff dragged the carcass into the woods in the same area where, if you remember from a former post, we had dragged a road-killed coyote carcass over the winter. These photos come from a series of game cameras we placed around the carcass to watch the scavengers take action. 

A Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, spreads its wings on the carcass
It appears to make strategic incisions to mitigate bloating, by opening
the gut in several places

A Virginia Opossum, Didelphis virginiana, walks past the carcass. 

Two Turkey Vultures spread their wings, perhaps in an attempt to balance on the swollen carcass.
Another vulture stands to the side.

Three Turkey Vultures pick meat off of the deer

A Coyote, Canis latrans, approaches the deer carcass. It does not stay long

Four Turkey Vultures surround the carcass 

The wing span of a Turkey Vulture is about 6 feet

Four Turkey Vultures surround the now rotting carcass 

A coyote is encountered in a swamp adjacent to the carcass.
We placed a camera toward the swamp to see if the same animals who were using this carcass as
a food resource would use the swamp as a water resource. 

A Hawk Watch is in Effect for Litchfield County

With the shorter days and cooler temperatures arriving, the plants and animals are beginning to prepare themselves for this coming winter through building up fat stores or by migrating south. 

This migration is easily seen in our hawks, eagles, and other large birds of prey.  Throughout September and into October, we at the Conservation Center will have our eyes fixed on the sky as these birds begin to move to warmer climes.  Already we have seen some movements; from our observation post on Sawmill Hill, we have seen Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, and Broad-winged Hawks, Kestrels, Peregrine Falcons, Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, and all three North American Accipiter species. 

Bald Eagle juvenile

This observation of hawk migration is part of our annual Hawk Watch, done in conjunction with the Hawk Migration Association of North America.  Please join us, whether as a volunteer hawk-watcher at the Conservation Center or simply as someone who enjoys gazing at these magnificent birds in the sky.

More sightings from yesterday's Webster Rd. walk

Turkey Vulture photo from northshoreinfoblog.com

via Google Images

My last posting highlighted the American Kestrel that we saw on our group's walk along Webster Rd. yesterday. However, that wasn't the only notable species that we saw. Within seconds of seeing the Kestrel a member of our group who was still scanning the sky spotted something much larger and darker. When I got my binoculars on it I identified it as a Turkey Vulture. This is the first one for White Memorial in 2011, and arrived it right on target with usual first date of arrival for this species here. It headed due east, so I'm sure that the second one which appeared a few minutes later from the south and headed east was a different bird, as was the one that came in from the west a few minutes after that and headed north right over us. Since 3 deer have been found dead on the Property this week, and other dead ones may be out there, vultures may be able to find enough to eat now that they are back. They also could dine on road-kill, like the Opossum that we encountered a little farther down the road. We also found a squashed Short-tailed Shrew, but I think that it was too flattened even for a vulture to eat. Back to the live stuff, but still on the subject of eating, we saw an interesting behavior as we were watching a group of Golden-crowned Kinglets in Catlin Woods. They kept going down to the snow on the ground, and were obviously picking up and eating things. Upon closer examination with my binoculars, and later with my eyes, I could see that they were eating Snow Fleas. Usually, we think of these birds as eating scale insects, adelgids, and various pupae and larvae from the leaves, needles, and bark of trees, but this observation shows that they will take advantage of whatever insects or other invertebrates that they can find. In that same area, as well as farther east along the road, we also saw Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Brown Creepers foraging for insects in various ways among the trees and shrubs. This may very well have been due to an increase in invertebrate activity brought on by the sun's warmth and rising temperatures. This is something for people to remember when looking for birds in the winter or any other cool time: go to places in the sunshine. That's why it is often productive to look for birds on east facing slopes in the morning and west facing slopes in the afternoon.