Tag: Ozark wildlife

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My Ozark Creek

After two days dealing with baling and putting hay in the barn, I was tired. The day was warm and overcast so a walk down to visit the goats and explore my Ozark creek seemed a good idea.

This idea had another appeal to it. As I write about the Ship Nineteen Carduans, their creek, which they consider a river, is a place they go to often.

a section of my Ozark creek
This section of my Ozark creek is wider than I can jump, but it’s definitely a creek. But then, I’m five feet tall. If I were four inches tall like the Carduans I’m writing about, this same creek would seem very wide and deep and look much more like a river.

My Ozark Creek

Most of the creek banks are steep drops where high water and flood waters have scoured out the dirt. Roots hang out of these cuts. When enough of a tree’s roots are undercut, the tree begins to lean, then falls.

Once you are down the bank, the creek bottom stretches out. Much of this area is paved with gravel left behind as the water carries the soil away.

Water levels vary according to the rain. As I look over this part of the creek, it is more a series of pools with small streams of running water flowing between them than what might normally be considered a creek.

Some pools are broad and less than a foot deep. Other pools are deep cuts often where trees have been uprooted. Fish and crawdads inhabit the pools.

A wide variety of plants live along the creek. The trees are mostly sycamores with their white trunks studded with brown puzzle pieces and willows, black and Carolina. Underneath the trees is a mix. I notice jewelweed with its orange earring flowers dangling, a pink swamp milkweed, purple self heal and hog peanut vines draped over much of it.

my Ozark creek forms pools
Gravel moved into this area of my Ozark creek during the last flood. The young tree in the bank is undercut and a pool has formed under it. Broad Head Minnows swim back and forth through the pool. It’s deep enough for some of them to reach six inches long.

The Carduans

Food is a constant need for the Carduans of Ship Nineteen. The creek they find is a place to catch fish and crawdads.

There are stones to use for building. Honey locust trees supply thorns. Willows supply slender canes for making chairs.

When I wear boots, the creek is easy to cross. The Carduans, at four inches tall, find the creek is often deeper than they are tall. All of us think it is a great place to spend an afternoon.

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Cottontail Rabbit Invasion

As I finished milking the other evening, I noticed a cottontail rabbit eating grass. That was a bit unusual, but I have no barn cat right now.

This rabbit didn’t concern me until it calmly hopped over to my garden fence. My garden is fenced with two by four welded wire. The rabbit slipped through and into the garden.

My garden does not need a hungry rabbit. I charged in. The rabbit left.

Cottontail rabbit invasion
People tell me the cottontail rabbit invasion is widespread in this part of the Ozarks. There are numerous rabbits near my garden and in the back yard. This may bring the gray foxes back.

Raising Rabbits

Never confuse a cottontail rabbit with a domestic rabbit. All the domestic rabbit breeds trace back to European rabbits. None trace back to the native rabbits.

Years ago I had a commercial rabbitry. Even more years before that my family raised rabbits. They make good pets and good dinner.

My commercial rabbitry had around a hundred does divided into eight sections. Each week one section got bred, another section got nesting boxes and another had their little ones weaned.

Does did move between sections from time to time for various reasons so they were mixed up. My father came up with a great system to keep track of them.

I bought clothes pins. They were painted red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, black and white. One side was all colored, the other half. They were clipped to the feeders.

When I walked down the aisles, the clothes pins told me which section the doe was in. If she was bred, the half side was out. If she had babies, the full side showed.

Rabbit Food?
My Savoy cabbages look great. If the cottontail rabbits make it into the garden, they may disappear.

Cottontail Rabbit

Chicken wire got stretched across over the garden fence. That seemed to work as nothing seemed to get eaten.

The number of rabbits eating the grass kept increasing. Four were there one morning. I got nervous.

Then the few beets still in the garden got eaten. Was it the rabbits? If it was, the rabbits had gone around the garden to the far side. Then again, I’d seen a chipmunk zip out the fence there and they eat gardens too.

Chicken wire is going up around the garden fence and on the gates. The rabbits and chipmunks can eat outside the garden.

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Squirrels and Black Walnuts

Black walnuts pave the road and the yard now. They start falling in early September carpeting the ground with leaves, twigs and nuts. Squirrels and black walnuts go well together.

There were lots of squirrels here when we moved here. Then all of them moved out leaving us with a pile of unused walnuts for years. Now the squirrels are back for a crop that would feed several times the squirrels living here.

squirrels and black walnuts fan
Two kinds of squirrel live around our Ozarks place now. This is the larger red or fox squirrel. It has the red/brown underside and thick, bushy tail. This particular individual lives behind the yard and raids the bird feeder regularly. It has been seen to check out the feeder before the seeds are out in the morning. It chases the smaller gray squirrels away or tries to.

Black Walnuts

These are not the tepid nuts sold in the store. Black walnuts have a strong flavor, if you can crack the shell. Regular nutcrackers do not even make a dent.

There are special nutcrackers available. I resorted to a hammer. It takes a very long time to crack a cupful of nutmeats.

Squirrels have tough teeth. They toss off the hull and start gnawing. Rodent teeth, squirrels are rodents, grow constantly so these lucky ones wear theirs down getting to the tasty stuff inside.

Walking Problems

Black walnuts are round and hard. Walking from place to place with them underfoot is not easy. Picking them up is back breaking work.

However, I do pick them up in the areas we walk frequently and deposit them elsewhere. Squirrels and walnuts can meet up there.

There is also a running battle in my garden. A big tree drops part of its leaves and walnuts in my garden.

Unfortunately black walnuts produce juglans, a form of plant chemical warfare. That part of my garden will not grow tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, beans and some greens. The squash and pie pumpkins do fine.

another squirrels and black walnuts fan
This is a gray squirrel, smaller than the other kind. These also live around our Ozarks place. These seem to be more numerous than the red squirrels. Three were checking for walnuts by the barn one morning. I’m getting suspicious they are also snacking on my winter squash. One morning a gray squirrel was checking for walnuts in a patch of giant ragweed while a chipmunk was climbing the ragweed for the seeds.

Squirrels and Black Walnuts

Squirrels are fiercely territorial. This is why so many get hit on the roads.

A squirrel runs down the road to get a walnut. A car comes. The squirrel can’t run off the road as the resident squirrel will attack. So the poor squirrel must run back up the road to its own territory before being able to get off the road.

There are several black walnuts along our road dropping nuts on the road. I kick them over to the edge so the squirrels can stay off the road. Then I can continue to watch the squirrels and black walnuts for the fall.

There’s more about black walnuts and squirrels in “Exploring the Ozark Hills”.

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Wildlife Surprises

When we first moved here, I thought wildlife surprises were turning around to find a black snake where my foot would go. And that is a surprise.

Another such encounter was reaching into a hen nest and grabbing a black snake. I don’t know which of us had the biggest heart attack.

Chills still come up my back when I remember walking in the woods and looking down on my jeans to find them crawling with ticks. At least the snakes want as little to do with me as possible and vanish quickly. Ticks must be removed as they don’t want to leave.

Perhaps I’m giving the wrong impression. Although there are unpleasant wildlife surprises, there are more pleasant ones.

A group of tom turkeys spent months walking around in the pastures eating grass seeds and insects. An eight point buck stood in the back of the yard one morning. Baby grey foxes played in the back yard one year.

Every year brings a new set of wildlife surprises. Some seem routine as coming across box turtles while walking in the hills. Others are treats as when the bald eagles visit the valley or turkey vultures roost in a tree across from the house.

albino animals are wildlife surprises
Albino animals have some genetic reason for being unable to make melanin which gives animals their color. In the Ozarks, a white animal has trouble blending into the scenery and often has a short life. That makes spotting one such as this albino grey squirrel one of my wildlife surprises.

The latest surprise is an albino squirrel. It came hunting black walnuts in the back yard one afternoon. I’m glad I got a picture as it hasn’t been back since.

Each day brings something different, something special. Cold, frosty mornings put icy lace around leaves while freezing fingers and toes. Sunrises are never the same, but that first light sparkles on the icy coatings on tree branches.

Who knows what today will bring. All it takes is going for a walk, looking around outside or out the windows to see both special sights and maybe wildlife surprises.

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Muskrat Watching

I enjoy hiking the trails at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area, but have rarely made time for the last few years. This year I go Saturday afternoon and spotted a muskrat.

The main objective is to take plant pictures. There are many species growing around and in the lakes, I never see around home. I even spotted an orchid I’d never seen before.

Many of the plants are what the Conservation Department calls invasive aliens. I see them as new immigrants as they are well established now regardless of whether they are wanted here or not.

There are two lakes. I usually start by going around the upper Lake Turner. This trail has more moisture, several wet weather creeks and marshy areas.

Instead of cutting across the earth dam as these are manmade lakes, I continue down the trail around the lower Lake Ziske. There is a newer trail loop off this trail, but I rarely take it. The plants are more interesting to me along the main trail.

swimming muskrat
With air temperatures near ninety, this muskrat may be working hard, but coolly as it swims in one of the lakes at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area.

Along the way numerous creatures show up. Most are the usual insects like dragonflies and damselflies. Ticks are few and far between, probably because there are so many possible hosts going by.

The birds are the most common larger animals. Canada geese and other ducks love the water. Lots of fish fill the lakes attracting a few fishermen.

This last week I was on the final leg of the trail along the lake and wondering if the common milkweeds were in bloom as the purple milkweed were last week when something swam in through the water willow to disappear into the lake bank.

It reminded me of a beaver, but there were no beaver-cut trees. What was it? I waited and watched, camera in hand.

The first pictures were a mess, in fact, good lake views with no creature. I did get a good look at it. Head like a small beaver. Single tail. Muskrat.

The muskrat was out gathering plant clippings to take into its home tunnel. It dived down, popped up, dived down.

I’ve read “Wind In the Willows” with its muskrat character, but I’d never seen a live wild muskrat before. I’m glad to know one is living at ShawneeMac Lakes.