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As the month of September got here to a detailed my efforts to gather as many fowl observations as attainable paid off. Somehow, even though faculty had began once more and my time was restricted to weekends solely, I managed to set a brand new file for the quantity of species noticed. The earlier file, set in 2021, was 50 species. As of the writing of this specific column, I had recorded 52 species and all of it got here right down to time spent in my Thinking Chair.
This might shed some mild onto the qualities of birds that make them so attention-grabbing to watch. In all of that point, whereas gathering an inventory of 52 fowl species, I solely managed to see 6 species of mammals. On two events I noticed an jap cottontail, on three events I noticed a purple squirrel, on two events I noticed a grey squirrel and on one event I noticed a meadow vole. Then there was at some point that I noticed a chipmunk on the seeds. These 5 species of mammals are species that one would possibly usually count on to see in location the place quick grass and birdseed can be found, so there was nothing significantly shocking on this record.
But the place have been the deer? Why is it that I by no means noticed a fox, a coyote, a raccoon, an opossum, a skunk, a bobcat or a weasel of some kind? The easy reply is: I don’t know. Perhaps my presence, quiet although it’s, remains to be daring sufficient to warn off these species. Or, extra possible, these species are a lot decrease in quantity and haven’t any specific purpose to stroll down the paths too typically. Perhaps if I put a movement-delicate digicam down on the Thinking Chair I’d see all types of mammals at completely different occasions of day. Who is aware of?
But there was a sixth species of mammal that made a shock go to on two events final month. In the identical patch of quick grass the place I place seed for the music sparrows and the place I’ve beforehand seen meadow voles, one other species of mammal confirmed curiosity within the meals that I had positioned there. It was a brief-tailed shrew (Blarinabrevicauda) and its conduct pointed to the unbelievable worth of birdseed as a meals supply.
The quick-tailed shrew is an animal that falls right into a class referred to as “insectivores.” About the identical dimension as a mouse, or a vole, the quick-tailed shrew has a really completely different physique kind. Rather than being plump, the shrew is extra lean and slender. Covered with quick grey hair that jogs my memory of velvet, the shrew additionally has very small ears and intensely small eyes that is perhaps on the verge of turning into vestigial.
The purpose for all of these bodily traits turns into apparent when you think about the shrew’s weight loss plan and its methodology of attempting to find meals. Largely carnivorous, the quick-tailed shrew has an especially excessive metabolism that requires that it eat as much as thrice its personal physique weight day-after-day.
Shrews are ravenous predators and this specific species likes to spend most of its time underground the place it could actually discover worms, insect, and different small animals to feed upon. To assist it dispatch its prey the shrew has venomous saliva. In essence, the shrew is the mammalian equal of a rattlesnake and its chunk comprises sufficient toxin to paralyze an animal barely bigger than itself. Thus, mice, voles and even different shrews have to be cautious if a hungry shrew is on the prowl.
But even though the shrew is a carnivore, and even though its tooth are all tailored to the killing and consumption of animal prey, it seems that a metabolism of such a excessive fee will compel the shrew to eat no matter else is perhaps edible and out there. This implies that edible fungi might be consumed and, as luck would have it, so additionally will birdseed be devoured. I can’t think about that there’s a lot distinction between a small beetle and a sunflower seed. They each have arduous shells and one thing scrumptious hidden inside.
So, whereas watching the birds coming and going I occurred to note that there was one other little customer darting out and in of the tall grass to grab seeds and eat them within the extra personal gloom of the undergrowth. A shrew is a small and susceptible species that faces heavy predation from owls and all kinds of mammalian predators, however the want for meals is so nice {that a} shrew merely can not go up a possibility when it finds one thing so nutritious simply mendacity there. All I needed to do was intention my digicam and take what felt like 100 pictures till I lastly obtained one picture that confirmed some particulars. If you ignore the truth that I used to be sitting in a moist plastic chair early on a Sunday morning when the temperature was solely 42 levels, then it was a bit of cake.
Bill Danielson has been knowledgeable author and nature photographer for 25 years. He has labored for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he at present teaches highschool biology and physics. For extra in formation go to his web site at www.speakingofnature.com, or head over to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.
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