Cougar tracks, Cherry Slugs, etc.

[Lisa Millbank]

Don and I went to Finley on Sunday morning to try to find the elk.  We got pretty close to one bull who was bugling in the forest, although we couldn't get a look at him.  We couldn't hear any cows around him, so we assumed he was by himself.  He wasn't particularly serious about bugling, and after awhile, he settled down and probably took a nap.

Three coyotes crossed a field and seemed to be chasing grasshoppers on the way.  The coyote scat we saw was half-filled with blackberry seeds.  I'd love to see one picking blackberries!  I read that coyotes also like to eat cantaloupes in rural gardens and some people call them "melon wolves;" it seems like it might actually be true by how much fruit is in their poop is this time of year.  In a huge, recently disked field, there was a silt-covered ash stick.  The stick had tooth marks on it, and was probably carried and dropped there by a coyote, whose tracks were nearby. They sure are happy to carry a bone or a stick around.

A big cougar had left some tracks in the forest on the east side of Muddy Creek.  We found old cougar scat on the west side of Muddy Creek last week.  There are quite a few elk carcasses around this year.  We've seen at least 2 dead spike bulls and 3 dead cows this year.  Perhaps the cougar is doing his job.  The pencil in the photo is 5-3/4" long.  The larger front track (right) has been placed over the rear track (left).  Not all of the toes have registered in the mud.  The front heel pad and three of the four front toes are the best-preserved parts of the two footprints.  The front track is pretty squished.  The cougar might have walked there after the rain we had on 9/5 softened the mud enough, as the mud is too hard to register any tracks now.

We found a mysterious insect that I later discovered is called a Cherry Slug or Pear Slug.  They looked like varnished, greenish bird poop on some hawthorn leaves.  The insects had skeletonized the leaves.  Apparently these insects can be familiar to people with fruit trees as they can be pretty abundant.  It's the larva of a sawfly (related to bees & wasps).

We saw a Peregrine Falcon fly out from the north prairie, and later, on our way back, probably the same falcon flew by again, this time carrying prey.  At McFadden Marsh there were several Wilson's Snipes, Red-shouldered Hawks and Greater Yellowlegs.

In the forest a huge flock of about 30 Band-tailed Pigeons were picking at Oregon Ash seeds.  At least 3 Hairy Woodpeckers were in the forest there too.

Lisa

www.neighborhood-naturalist.com