Occasionally in September of 2016, 2017 and 2018, I watched a field, one of several fields in the wooded highlands of northcentral Pennsylvania, live on our computer screen. During those times I was thrilled to see several each of elk and white-tailed deer of various ages and both genders. I saw a few groups of wild turkeys, one with up to 30 members in it, strolling across the field as they caught and ate grasshoppers and other kinds of insects, as well as grass and seeds. Once I spotted a coyote prowling with its nose to the ground along the edge of the woodland. I saw a few kinds of wildlife we associate with lawns, including a few gray squirrels picking up and burying acorns and other nuts, and a wood chuck grazing on grass. And I heard a few types of wildlife around that field while watching the screen, including the occasional screaming of blue jays, American crows cawing and a tufted titmouse chanting. I also heard the rasping croaks of ravens a few times, a couple of pileated woodpeckers calling, the tooting of a saw-whet owl once at dusk, and a whip-poor-will chanting its name for several minutes one evening. And most every evening, I heard the seemingly unending and loud chanting, trilling and chirping of male tree crickets in the forest canopy bordering the field on all sides. The seeing and hearing of these wildlife species in that field via our computer gave me insight into some of the critters in that field and other ones like it in northcentral Pennsylvania woodlands.
But the rutting of elk is of top interest in this field, and others like it. About 1,000 elk live in northcentral Pennsylvania forests. And mid-September is the peak of their rut. I have been happy to see adult cows, calves, young bulls and at least two large bulls come into the field surveyed by a Pennsylvania Game Commission camera, twenty-four, seven from early Sptember to mid-October. Up to about 18 stately elk daily enter the field late in the afternoon or at dusk and stay until dark and later, as long as they are not disturbed by people, which they have been a couple of times that I am aware of. Most of the elk graze on what appears to be grass in the field the majority of the time. But occasionally one or two big, elegant bulls with magnificent racks shrilly bugle their challenges to each other, though I never yet saw them engage in pushing matches in that field.
Though adult elk are majestic, I still am more thrilled by the sight of the more familiar sleek and graceful white-tailed deer. Several deer, including some majestic bucks with big racks, almost daily enter the elk field late in the afternoon and at dusk, as the elk do. And the elegant deer graze on the same vegetation in that field. But white-tails' rutting doesn't begin until the middle of October, so their is not rutting activity yet among them.
I have seen a few groups of wild turkeys, up to 30 in one flock, strolling in a line across the field at different times. There they grabbed and ate grasshoppers and other insects, and ingested grass blades and seeds. Wild turkeys are woodland birds, but they often do much feeding in overgrown fields and corn fields adjacent to the woods where they are more visible to us.
The coyote I saw with its nose to the ground probably was sniffing out mice and other kinds of small animals. It trotted back and forth in the open a few seconds, then vanished into a thicket on the edge of the woods.
Ravens, pileated woodpeckers, saw-whet owls and whip-poor-wills are, basically, woodland birds that nest in Pennsylvania. Ravens are increasing in numbers in eastern North America, including Pennsylvania, and we are seeing and hearing them here more often in recent years. This crow relative is adaptable and recently has been inhabiting less than ideal habitats for themselves. But they still are considered to be wilderness birds and it's thrilling to see or hear them, wherever they may be.
Big as crows, pileated woodpeckers are woodland birds that adapted to less than ideal conditions, including nesting in woods smaller than forests. But these biggest of North American woodpeckers are still thrilling to see and hear.
The calls of saw-whet owls sound like "toot, toot, toot, toot" and so on, which might sound like someone sharpening a saw in the woods. Saw-whets live in tree cavities in woods, but hunt mice and insects in woods and nearby fields. Many members of this small, night-hunting species migrate south during October.
Whip-poor-wills raise two chicks a summer on leafy forest floors in eastern North America. Usually only a voice in the dark of night, they fly about forests to catch and ingest moths and other night-flying insects. In fall, they migrate to Central and South America for the winter.
I enjoyed experiencing wildlife in the elk field, because of a lie camera and our computer. That wildlife represents their various species in the fields and forests of the northcentral part of my home state. Live cameras take us places we might, otherwise, not easily get to.
No comments:
Post a Comment