Buck Rub on Utility Pole

I found this while out walking today and thought it was pretty bizarre.  Then I looked around on the Internet and discovered that it's not an uncommon thing for deer to do.  I guess bears aren't alone in finding poles like this to be attractive scent stations.

The Natural History of New England’s Stone Walls

Next week, Robert Thorson (google him) will be speaking at the monthly meeting for the Friends of the Assabet River Wildlife Refuge in Stow, MA.  His books will tell you exactly what you are seeing in your walks through the New England woods.  I'll be there, Lars.

From their website:

Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 PM

November Monthly Meeting with Dr. Robert Thorson talking about The ‘Natural’ History of New England’s Stone Walls

Stone walls lie at the intersection of science and history, which became woven together during the transformation of wilderness into family farms. – Stone by Stone.

Stone walls mean many things to many people. They are pleasant surprises during many a New England ramble. They are the subject of poems and photo essays. To the human ecologist, stone walls associated with late colonial and Yankee farms are part of our "extended phenotype," displaying the history of our human interaction with the land. Professor Thorson will tell the story of their inevitability, of how they simply had to happen when a livestock-tillage economy was superimposed on a buried scatter of glacial stones. He will include a local focus as he discusses Thoreau's love for the iconic stone walls of the greater Concord River watershed and his prescient understanding of the creation story of the Assabet watershed: both topics of Thorson’s newly released book, “Walden’s Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth Century Science.”

Dr. Thorson’s books will be available for purchase starting at 6:30PM. Proceeds of these sales benefit the Friends of the Assabet River NWR. Books available will include “Exploring Stone Walls,” “Stone By Stone,” “Stone Wall Secrets,” “Beyond Walden: The Hidden History of America’s Kettle Lakes and Ponds.”

Robert Thorson is a professor at the University of Connecticut where he holds appointments in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, the Department of Anthropology, and the Center For Integrated Geosciences. Dr. Thorson has brought his enthusiasm for geology to fields as varied as History and Civil Engineering while teaching at universities from Alaska to Chile, where he was a senior Fulbright scholar. He is currently a visiting scholar in the American Studies program at Harvard University. His field work has included the U.S. Geological Survey and agencies ranging from the Japanese Ministry of Culture to the National Geographic Society. In 2002, he published “Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls,” which became a regional bestseller and won the Connecticut Book Award for nonfiction. This began a decade of advocacy for the preservation of historic landscapes. More recently, Dr. Thorson has expanded his writings to another signature New England landform, kettleponds. Dr. Thorson is also an environmental columnist for the Hartford Courant.

Quabbin Black Bear

My wildlife camera captured this black bear walking across a rocky outcropping near Quabbin.

Do you think it's the same bear as this one, captured a few hundred yards away, earlier this year?

Bobcat kittens playing

These two bobcat kittens were filmed play-fighting on a rocky outcrop near Quabbin Reservoir earlier this summer.

Witch hazel

Yesterday morning the fall blossoms of common witch hazel captured the light and my eyes. Fall blooming is quite rare among temperate forest plants, and Hamamelis virginiana probably evolved this unusual strategy to avoid competition for pollinators with its close relative, Ozark witch hazel, H. vernalis. Nonetheless, reproductive success of H. virginiana is quite low. Check out my blog to read more about this, and see more photos of flowers and fruit capsules.
http://ouroneacrefarm.com/witch-hazel-flowers-fruit-capsules/

Janet

Predators and Prey at Quabbin

A recent check of a wildlife camera near Quabbin Reservoir revealed
these video clips of a showshoe hare and several bobcats sharing the
same game trail.

Another Beat-Up Autumn Olive

I found my own mangled autumn olive bush while hiking today.  Though it was exciting to consider - for a brief moment - that it was the work of a bear, the damage was far less severe.  Even more telling, there wasn't a single berry anywhere around.  Once I noticed two huge scrapes nearby (both beneath overhanging branches) and the dogs sniffed out the easily-identifiable scat, I figured that the white-tailed deer rut must be starting.