Fun facts about tamaracks
Moose on the loose in Clinton County
On Oct. 9, Region 5 Wildlife staff requested help from ECOs with the removal of a young bull moose trapped in a 200-acre cow pen in Clinton County.
Lieutenant Maloney and ECO Brassard, Division of Law Enforcement (DLE) drone pilots, located the moose in the pasture using an aerial drone equipped with thermal imaging cameras.
Once located, DEC’s tranquilization team, led by Big Game Biologist Jim Stickles, chemically immobilized the moose. Lieutenant Phelps, along with ECOs LaCroix, Buffa, Fadden, and members of the property owner’s family assisted the wildlife crew with removing the moose from the pasture and safely relocating it a short distance away. They fitted the moose with a radio location collar before the animal walked away, appearing to be healthy. Visit DEC’s Facebook post for video and more details.
ECOs use drone technology to find moose trapped in cow pasture (shown at top). DEC photo
Just in time for Halloween, it’s Bat Week
Set the mood for a natural Halloween while learning about bats! Each year, Bat Week provides a focus on bats, their life history, and conservation efforts. This year, Bat Week will be held October 24th-31st.
New York State is home to nine species of bats. They are found all over the state, including New York City. Three species migrate to warmer locations for the winter and the others hibernate during the coldest months. You can learn more about NY’s bats by downloading the DEC bat brochure. Detailed information on three of our bats, Little Brown Bat, Indiana Bat, and Northern Long-eared Bat can be found on DEC’s Watchable Wildlife page. Click here for an Almanack post earlier this week on a red bat sighting.
Did you know that many of our favorite foods are pollinated by bats? Visit Bat Week’s education page for a downloadable cookbook featuring foods we enjoy thanks to bats! You can also find videos, posters, crafts, and activities to share with your classroom. For older students, Bat Week’s Take Action page provides links to webinars, plans to build a bat house, and a bat tracker.
Eastern Red Bat sighting
Halloween came early this year at the CATS Ancient Oak Trail when CATS Development Director, Derek Rogers, noticed a bat flying around the meadow area adjacent to the forest. It was actively feeding on insects and made a few close passes, allowing for some fun flight photographs.
DEC: Be on the lookout for moose sightings this fall
Early fall is the breeding season for moose in northern New York and moose sightings are more common. During this time moose are wandering looking for mates, leading them to areas where they are not typically seen. While this improves the opportunities for people to enjoy sighting of a moose, it also increases the danger of colliding with one on the roadway.
Motorists should be alert for moose on roadways in the Adirondacks and surrounding areas at this time of year during peak moose activity, advises the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Moose are much larger and taller than deer. Their large body causes greater damage, and, when struck, their height often causes them to impact the windshield of a car or pickup truck, not just the front of the vehicle. New York has no recorded human fatalities resulting from a crash with a moose.
Rainbows: Beyond the Arch
Rainbows require two things: sunlight, and water. Rainbows can be seen not just in the rain but also in the mist, spray, fog, and dew.
The best place to consistently find both of these things and spot a complete rainbow, is a tall mountain or ridge where it is or has just rained, making the Adirondack high peaks an amazing place to view this natural wonder. A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. Similar to a mirage, a rainbow is formed when light rays bend, creating an effect that is visible, but not able to be touched or approached.
Striped Maples: Changes happening below the surface
During the fall, a change occurs with maple trees that is prominent and apparent. As the daylight hours decrease green leaves turn to colors of vibrant yellow, burnt orange and an array of shades of red.
There is a list of species of Maples that add to this colorful splendor, from Sugar, Norway, Amur and more but one in particular changes more than its leaf color — the Striped Maple.
Many people have a hard time identifying the different species of maple by the bark in Summer but the Striped Maple possess a smooth, variegated green, reptilian-looking bark that can be noticed with ease.
Adirondack Moose Sightings: Rare and Majestic
Most of New York’s moose are located in the Adirondack Mountains and the Taconic Highlands along the Massachusetts and Vermont borders although young males have been known to wander south of the Adirondacks to mate and establish territory.
It is estimated that approximately 400 moose reside here in the mountains. Currently there are six moose in New York that carry GPS collars, which allow biologists to track their movements and determine the number of calves that are born to adult females.
The moose is the largest and heaviest species in the deer family. Two of the most amazing attributes of a moose are its sheer size and its antlers.
Weekend read: Fall and animals
We’ve had a lot of history stories this week from contributors, which has been great! But I realized we were short on nature/wildlife content so I pulled a few from the Almanack archive:
- All about the fall cankerworm, by Tom Kalinowski in 2014.
- In 2017, Paul Hetzler writes about how the humble squirrel unwittingly sows seeds as it prepares for winter
- As we gear up for Halloween, here’s an overview from DEC about everyone’s favorite ‘spooky’ animal, the bat.
- Another bat story by Tom Kalinowski, that looks at the little brown bat population following the white nose syndrome outbreak.
- From 2016, a look at why some spring peeper frogs are still singing in the fall
Webs in the Trees? – They’re Relatively Harmless
It’s starting to feel very much like fall around here. Days are getting shorter, leaves are changing color, temperatures are cooler (some of us have already seen a frost or two; even a freeze), air conditioners are silent, pumpkin-spiced food and beverages are available at several coffee shops and fast food establishments, schools have reopened (sort of), and fall webworms are here en masse in places all across the North County.
Adirondack Monarch Tagging: Tracking Migration
Monarch butterflies are an iconic species, easily recognized by their vibrant orange and black wings speckled with white dots and can be seen feeding in fields and open areas here in the Adirondacks.
Evolution of the Canadian Lynx and the American Bobcat
The Eurasian Lynx entered North America across the Bering Land Bridge about 2.5 million years ago, in the first of two waves. Glaciers waxed and waned, alternately blocking and opening Beringia, as well as migration paths down to what would become the U.S. border and Canadian province areas, a classic example of how one species gets separated by changing land and sea features, the two groups then evolving in different directions, until representatives of one group can no longer mate, thus resulting in two species. The second wave, coming with melting of northern glaciers evolved into the Canadian Lynx.
Winged With Hope: Fixing broken monarch wings
Most people have seen the small, flying murals called butterflies. Nature’s living pieces of art that remain an endless show of life and beauty drawn upon wings of flight. The carrier of this splendor, a delicate butterfly.
A butterfly has four wings – two on each side. They are broken into two forewings and two hindwings. The wings are attached to the second and third thoracic segments. When a butterfly is in flight, the wings move up and down in a figure-eight pattern.
Butterfly wings are made up of two chitinous layers. Each wing is covered by thousands of colorful scales and hairs. These wing scales are tiny overlapping pieces of chitin on a butterfly wing only seen in detail under a microscope. They are attached at the body wall and are modified, plate-like setae or hairs.
Cow parsnip: A plant with bite
Get to Know New York’s Natives: Cow Parsnip
Caution: This native plant can cause burns on skin
If you follow DEC on any social media platforms, it’s hard to miss that giant hogweed season is upon us. Giant hogweed is a large invasive plant from Eurasia that contains sap which can cause burning on your skin. Giant hogweed is found in many parts of the state (particularly Western and Central NY), but there are many look-alike species that can often get misidentified as this plant.
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