AiDan's nature blog

January 10th, 2021 Framingham, MA

My pet Redback Salamander is doing really well. Whenever i open the container that he lives in, I see him chilling at the surface of the rotting wood, dirt, leaves, and bark, but as soon as he sees me he waddles back under the ground, giving me only maybe 30 seconds to take pictures and look at him. I can not stop taking pictures of him, because his back has an iconic orange band his slimy, wrinkly little body looks alien.

He looks like a little worm, but with 4 stubby little hands and legs. I saw him eating a small slug a few days ago, but i could not pull out my phone to record in time. He feeds similarly to my eastern newts. There are populations of slugs, sow bugs, mites and springtails in his container, so i am not surprised by his attention-free survival.

-Aidan Garrity

January 9th, 2021 Framingham, MA

The Physarum has a competitor. a colony of Black Bread Mold (Rhizopus Stolonifer). The black bread mold loves moisture, oats, and darkness, just like the Physarum. They are competing now for food and for growing surfaces. For the record, I first spotted the early, younger stages of it about a week ago. Picture Below.

The Black Bread Mold may have the advantage in this situation, as it is Airborne. It reproduces asexually: by spreading over the ground through cell division, and through spores. The spores are produced and released through the sporangium. The Sporangium is supported by the Sporangiophore Stalk. Each stalk is connected by a network of Stolon. This structure acts and looks like a thin, white mushroom.

More Pictures below.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to remove the mold as it could threaten the Physarum. The mold will also never leave until i get rid of the box, as the spores will remain in the rotting wood. I am going to need to regularly maintain the box by wiping it off. The mold liquidizes and is crushed by my own breath, never mind a pencil wiping it away.

I can not really ever get rid of it, but rather, Minimize and Suppress it.

-Aidan Garrity

January 8th, 2021 Framingham, MA

Something amazing happened today. I heard blue jays screaming while I was in remote school. I looked out the window, exited. There must be a predator. Something is causing them to feel threatened. I almost immediately saw it. I thought it was a crow at first, But no. A Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter Cooperii)

Cooper's hawks are birds of prey and do not discriminate between wild and domestic prey. This is great for the hawk because prey becomes increasingly rare as we push further into the winter, Never mind something as helpless, fatty, and large as a domestic chicken.

After about 10 minutes, the chicken's owners saw me taking pictures of their yard. Awkward. I kind of just pointed to the carcass. The family was shocked and their surprise triggered the hawk to fly off instantly. I was, however, able to re-find it. It had flown into a tree my yard. Immediately, It was surrounded by pissed blue jays. A lone chickadee also protested the chicken's death. I recorded the Hawk's call, too. It was defending it's self from the angry jays.

After the family disposed of the carcass and went back inside, The hawk returned briefly, confused by the chicken's absence. It checked for it on their porch, tree house, and roof. It then left for good. It is a very cool experience to witness a predatory relationship such as the relationship between chickens and hawks.

The cooper hawk's strategy is to dive on the prey, then hold it down. If the prey is not killed by the initial attack, the hawk will squeeze the prey with it's talons, causing it to bleed out or suffocate. Cooper's hawks are a relatively small bird of prey, but females apparently are able to overpower animals like chickens, as they are comparatively larger than males. This leads me to believe this is a female, but I could be wrong.

-Aidan Garrity

January 7th, 2021 Framingham, MA

Last night, I found a deer vertebra in the woods (Juniper Hill). I think it is an axis vertibra. The axis vertibra is the second bone in the spine, The axis bone is the second vertibra down. The first bone is the atlas, which is connected with your skull, and your brain stem. Both deer and humans have both the axis and atlas bone. The joint in between your axis and atlas bends and allows you to nod, shake your head, and almost every other neck movement.

This specimen has been decayed and de-hydrated after months or years of sitting out in the woods. This was probably done by coyotes, mice and bacteria. Canines (Dogs) have evolved to gnaw on bones for the high protein stored in bone marrow. Rodents gnaw on bones, teeth, and antlers for the minerals and calcium they contain. The rough surfaces of the bone are where a part has been eaten off, exposing the dead cellular structure inside.

I have found many other deer bones in that forest, and I think that they are all from one deer carcass that was dismembered by Coyotes, Raccoons, and Turkey Vultures. At least those are all the animals in that forest that i can think of that would eat carrion and be able to carry bones long distances. I know from footage taken only 2 days ago that they are there.

I am going to work on collecting more deer bones and antlers in the woods. I have also seen owl pellets and it would be really interesting to dissect one in a post. I already have one deer antler, because I found it about 5 yrs ago at my aunts house.

The antler above, If you look closely has rodent gnaw-marks on the tips of it, because it was sitting out before I found it. Bucks shed their antlers in early spring, as the rut comes to an end, and then they grow a new pair.

I am also working on finding a deer bedding area and a coyote den. If I can find a coyote den, then I can track the development of the coyote pups in the spring.

-Aidan Garrity

January 6th, 2021 Framingham, MA

This morning, at 7:15, I went for an early morning walk at Nobscot Scout Reservation. It was still dark out. Not night time, but dark. The sky was light, but the sun had not yet risen.

I went off trail, and found an animal scat. I am not sure what made it, but I think it is a deer. Normally, deer scat occurs in tiny, brown balls, but they can smash together to create a clump if their diet is more fibrous than normal.

The below scat is already dry, and has snow on it. This means it happened at least 2 days ago, as it snowed then.

I also took some landscapes of the forest. The sun is off to the side, causing the forest to stay dim. Pictures below.

I like that last picture. The one with the moon.

Going out early increases your chances of finding wildlife like deer and raccoons. Sunrise occurred at 7:15 this morning, so If I had gone out minutes earlier, I would have been out at night.

-Aidan Garrity

January 1st - January 5th