Mink on McDowell Creek

This was the first year for us to spot minks on McDowell Creek.  Perhaps minks are moving in or perhaps they have always been here and our trail cams weren't in the right place.  In any case, welcome, minks!   

January 2, 2022:

April 19-20, 2022:

Since then, there have been multiple heavy rains and high water, sweeping away the beaver dams and rewriting the creek.   We hope the minks and the beavers came through it all.   We'll see what the summer brings!

Creek Field Burn and Life after Burn

We burned the southern half of the Creek Field on March 15, 2022. By March 19, the burned area was festooned with spider silk, left over from spiderlings "ballooning," floating with the wind, dispersing to new locations. At the same time, a flock of migrating American Pipits arrived and began feasting on the field.
 

Freeing the Bobcat: Drew Ricketts and Al Alspach to the Rescue

This story will have a happy ending! 

We were startled when we looked at our trail camera clips from December 21 to see a female bobcat, dragging a long pole, the kind used by trappers.  Hindered in her hunting, she was feeding at the remains of a processed deer:

  

She showed up again on Christmas Day, still carrying that Lump of Coal:   

But another human gave her a Christmas turkey, to try to keep her alive.

We knew such hand-outs would not keep her going for long.

The permanent solution came in the form of two dedicated, skillful individuals--Drew Ricketts, Ph.D. mammologist and KSU's Wildlife Specialist; and Al Alspach, prize-winning conservationist and a neighboring landowner.   

Drew expertly set traps on paths leading to the carcass, while Al agreed to monitor them. Modern foot-hold traps use plates that spread pressure broadly so as not to damage an animal's foot.   "Usually, they don't even break the skin," Drew explained.    

Then we waited.   

And waited.

Early one morning Al found and released a beautiful coyote.  

Oddly, she refused to move when Al released her foot.  Only when he started his truck did she spring into a run.

The bobcat, however, appeared to be gone for good.   

For ten long days there was no sign of her--not in the traps, not at the carcass, not in any of the trail cams around our place.   

We feared the worst.  Indeed, Drew had told us from the beginning that our chances of success were slim.  "If our traps resemble the one she was caught in, she won't go near them," he said.

But suddenly, on the very day we decided to call it quits, there she was, back again!

First she appeared in unmistakable tracks in the snow:

    Note the straight drag mark the pole makes

next to the cat's tracks.

And then she showed up on a trail cam by the creek:

This time Drew was optimistic.  To a new carcass he added a powerful lure, one too rare to have been used in the original trap.

On January 13, 2022, there she was, caught in the trap!

Creek Field, January 13, 2022.  Al Alspach photo.

Drew and Al worked together to free her, getting the trap off her foot and the pole off her neck.  Like the coyote, she refused to move until the two men left.   In fact, she sat there while Drew made an educational video for Extension--a video that has been viewed over 13,000 times.  Note that she adds a few comments  of her own:

Dr. Drew Ricketts, Creek Field, Jan. 13, 2022.  

Al Alspach video.

She stayed immobile until Drew and Al drove away--and then they saw her streaking past the truck. 

That very evening she enjoyed a meal in freedom:

She came for an afternoon snack and an early breakfast:

Al noted Drew's extraordinary efforts:   "I have the feeling that his job description reads that he is responsible for 'problem predators,' but predators with problems???"    

Drew replied modestly, "So glad we were able to get that pole off of her."   

When asked why he too was willing to spend so many hours in the cold to help a single bobcat, Al said, "Because it was the right thing to do."  

In their skill and conscientiousness, Drew and Al set a positive example for all of us who are interacting with the wild.  

Location:  Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, McDowell Creek, Geary Co., Kansas

Ron Young & Margy Stewart, Caretakers.  Unless otherwise marked, all videos are Bird Runner trail camera clips, Margy Stewart videos.   

 

   

  

Beaver Building

 

We see at least two beavers on McDowell Creek--Big Beaver and Little Beaver.  Big Beaver appears to do all the building:

Beavers & Neighbors on McDowell Creek

I've tried for years to get clips of beavers going about their lives, and finally, this year, the trail cams did their job:

Many neighbors like what the beavers are doing.  Here they are, using the dams the beavers have created:

Now I would like to see how the beavers move those stones!

Industrial Wind Development: Bills Providing More Protections for Residents of Affected Counties

Sponsored by Sen. Mike Thompson: 

SB323 Establishing requirements for instruments that convey a wind or solar lease or easement and requiring that certain disclosures be provided to landowners.  http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb323/

 

SB324  Establishing procedures that may be used to void or terminate leases or easements for electricity generation using wind or solar energy resources.  http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb324/

 

SB353  Establishing certain setback and construction requirements for wind energy facilities and certain operating conditions for existing wind energy facilities.  http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb353/

 

Tentatively to be heard next week is SB478:  Establishing requirements for wind energy conversion system obstruction lighting to mitigate the visual impact of such lighting systems.  http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb478/

 

Heard in the Committee on Local Government:

 

SB325 Establishing requirements relating to zoning and recordation of wind and solar energy resource easements and leases.  http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/sb325/

 

None of the bills made it out of Committee.

Aster World, Part 1: Monarchs and Owlets

Symphyotrichum pilosum--Hairy Aster--is a native wildflower that volunteers profusely in the Creek Field, the Road Field, and our backyard.  It is an amazing pollinator plant!  This year I tried to document some of the creatures that came to the asters.   I am sure there were many more!  (Many thanks to bugguide.net and the Kansas Arthropods Facebook group for help with identification!)

These migrating Monarchs--newly metamorphosed, they're so bright and clean--came to feed on the nectar in the flowers:

Among the moth visitors, my favorites were these owlet moths, so named because their faces resemble owls.  This one is Rachiplusia ou.  Supposedly, "ou" comes from that splash of white paint on the upperside forewings--which to some observers spells "o-u."  :-) 

These little guys hover while feeding making it a treat

when they stop long enough to show their markings.

There's that adorable owl face:

Another member of the Owlet Family feeding on the asters was this handsomely-robed guy, Spodoptera frugiperda.  Here he is in action:

The females have more subtle markings, making their wings appear to be a plain gray.  The larvae of this species are called "armyworms."  Their voracious appetite gives the species its name, "frugiperda," meaning "fruit" that is "lost."  However, grasses are their preferred food.  S. frugiperda lives year-round in the south and migrates into Kansas toward the end of the summer.  

Other citizens of Aster World--true bugs, Tree Cricket and Meadow Katydid, flower flies, iridescent flies, spiders, bees, wasps, beetles, other butterflies and moths--appear in the following posts.