The Fawns make an appearance

Two does gave birth this spring: One had twins.
The fawns are investigating a cairn...they must have picked up my scent....

Massachusetts Cairns 2

Effigy,  on cairn: Split representing the mouth, with sliver of stone for it's tongue. Note the ridged stone serving as his backbone. 

  Unfortunately, some,  buried under centuries of  woodland debris,  are mostly below ground and  unrecognizable.

Turtle shaped head on a cairn,  with debris almost obscuring the rest of it.
Beyond is the wood cutting debris of the current logging operation.
When the heavy logging equipment passes over a cairn, it is totally knocked about. 

Cairn with turtle shaped head, and a flat rock  (almost) upright in the center. 

Small circle of stones with quartz rock in center the size of a basketball.  

Larger circle of stones with large moss covered quartz rock in center... (about 12:30) : you would need a bushel basket to hold it. 

Cairn, about 4 feet long, 2 feet high, almost covered with moss and woodland debris; flat rock on east side; the tree had grown up behind it;
There are bits of quartz rock layered on the side; I scraped away some leaves.

Small  stone circle with small quartz the size of a softball, in center.  

Another stone circle. I couldn't find a quartz in the center for all the debris.

At first I thought this was a stone wall to no-where, but the larger foreground rock suggests  an effigy for sorts.

In addition to the cairns in this area, there are stone piles, some with quartz, spaced at regular intervals,  perhaps 300 feet apart, on a north-south axis. st.  

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Massachusetts Cairns 1

The first photo is a wide view: on the far left there are three cairns.  There is also one in center foreground. Following the ridge from left to right, there are three more  along  a semi circular line.     In the early 19th century there was a farm further east along a road, and the cairns may be simply evidence of "field clearing." However, the distance from the old cellar hole; the location in the terrain and the arrangement of each pile, with the inclusion of a quartz  rock to many of the piles are more suggestive of NATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS, similar to those found in other areas around New England and suggest an earlier origin.

Within a natural amphitheater. approximately 8 cairns from left to right along the top.
This is a area of numbers "glacial dumps"...but the cairns have been deliberately placed; smaller stones on top of larger ones.
There are also eight or ten stone circles of varying sizes, with a quartz stone in the center.

Effigy and cairn; the base boulder extends another 4 feet or so and is covered with woodland debris. 

Cairn: Looks like two turtle effigies, on on top of the other.
"The turtle carries the prayers of the people on it's back." 

A pretty stunning bird head effigy stone on top of the cairn, with the beak to the left and a large, distinct eye.

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For more information on Effigies (and rock piles in general) see Peter Waksman's Indian Rock Piles website.

Another Article Here:

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The Fawn

Here's what we've been waiting for! Our first view on camera of this year's Fawn.

Massacusetts Cairns: Where the light comes in...

This evening, when the sun was low in the west,  I noticed that the light strikes the "cairn" of stones which you can see just behind the mother bear in the photo below.  A very large, Beech Tree grew  up tightly behind it..a couple of hundred years ago, and is now dead.

 In many of the trail camera photos, a variety of animals are seen standing on top of this cairn.   There are two other cairns immediately to  the west  of this  spot.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME ANIMALS ON TOP OF THE CAIRN

And HERE to read about CAIRNS

A description of the  "Wildcat Hill Cairns" in Ashland, MA matches the description one could make of these Cairns:

"Stone pile sites can be found all over Massachusetts.  In some cases, the stones are carefully arranged on top of exposed boulders.  In others, they appear loosely piled on the ground.  Often, they are found in large clusters of similar appearance.  While some may be the result of field clearance, many are found in areas so rocky that “field clearing” would have been futile. There are some early New England accounts of Indians building "donation piles", in which travelers add a stone or stick to a pile to honor an ancestor or local spirit.  Elsewhere, stone piles are associated with vision quests.  Wildcat Hill, located in Ashland not far from one of John Elliot’s praying villages, may have comprised a ritual landscape with upwards of a hundred devotional cairns, all on the west slope of the hill. If you visit a stone pile site, enjoy the ambience and take care not to disturb any of the rock formations, which contemporary Native Americans believe still carry prayers to Mother Earth."

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Bear and her Cub

Bear and Cub.

In the Summer Woods

Bear Waymarking

One of the trail cameras caught a flash of black fur as a bear streaked by; from the look of several logs and stumps, it had been looking for grubs.  A fresh set of animal tracks after this morning's rain caught my eye....bigger than the neighbor's Black Lab's , .and these came up from the direction of a near-by beaver pond.

Still no sign of the Fawns

There are two does in the area with fawns in hiding. Lots of bear signs as well, but now fawns as yet.

Fairy Lights in The Woods: Summer Solstice

Walking in the Woods just before Sunset...A Magic Moment

Bear June 17, 2015

Screen shot from video of Bear inserted below.
There are 3 different does in the area, and they all appear to be nursing.

I wonder if the bear was looking for one of the new born fawns, because this fellow appeared to be on a mission...and headed directly off in the direction of where the does have their fawns every spring. I read that during the first 10 days or so the fawn is vulnerable as it lies hidden and still, and if a bear smells it's presence it will pounce on it. According to the following link,  while this behavior has been seen in NY state, it hasn't been seen among the bears of Western Massachusetts.

Western Massachusetts Bear Behavior

Two Pregnant Does and a Young Buck

I had not checked the cameras for over week in deference to 2  pregnant does.
Both have since had their fawns, and we're looking forward to our first glimpse of them on camera.

Here are clips from videos  taken last week. One is old and mottled, and blind in one eye. The other is younger, and probably a daughter of the older one.  Also on the camera was a young spike horn buck in velvet. His antlers don't show up too well on the clip.

Watch the YOUTUBE video of this young buck 

 here

The Three Bears: A video

Spring Doe

Moose at Midnight May 15th

The eagle flew over the house today.....white head gleaming in the morning sun...always special!

Meanwhile, on the trail camera  I was thrilled to find a video of a Moose. Ok. I couldn't obtain a very good clip,  and it  was the back end, at midnight. Whatever.  It's fun to record the  "happening"  in the woods just beyond the house.  Later in the day a pregnant doe came through.  Most likely when her time comes, she will have the fawn somewhere close by. We'll start looking for it in about 3 weeks. 

There is a second  doe in the area, but only one will "set up" her nursery within range of the trail camera.

Clip from a video of the back end of a moose.
The next morning a doe came through....

Cat Scratchings

Found! The old Hemlock Tree that I couldn't locate last winter.

Read Here

Today I found the tree!  And the scratches!  Last January I had been following a large animal  because it's track resembled those of a mountain lion. A large melted area at the south base of a hemlock tree suggested that it had slept overnight where the land sloped away, and further, there were quite a few tracks around the east base of  the tree, and a lot of scrapes and scratches.  The next day I went back with a camera but was unable to find the specific Hemlock. Was I dreaming?

Today I was following a distinct deer trail east to west, through a hemlock grove, looking for a new spot to put a trail camera, and found the old Hemlock tree!  The scrapes aren't as white as they were last winter but still quite visible.  Now, one would argue as to what made these scrapes, but I have the advantage of having seen the large cat tracks,  AND witnessed and remarked upon the spot where it had slept, right next to the tree. (click on "Read Here" above to see the original post.)

Wild Turkey Scratchings

Working methodically through the grove the turkey would reach forward......making two long scratches, take a quick step back,   peck. ....  then make one giant step forward....and scratch, twice, a new section...

The Young deer have returned

The Young Buck April 20, 2015: He has the small nubbins on his head: the beginning of antlers.
The Trail Camera showed that there are 5 deer in the area including an old doe, two younger does, and two young bucks. There isn't any food in the woods...hopefully they will move further up the ridge. 

The Ice Went Out

Watching the ice go out; at sunset there was still some, but by the next morning we were greeted with open water!

The Last Snow

Most of the deep snow has melted.

Fog and a fresh bit of snow April 10th 2015

First Day of Spring

My view of the sun set on the first day of Spring.

The Neighbor's Dog

Sometimes "Ace" accompanies me on my walks; in this photo he has spotted something in the woods that needed chasing....The trail is packed here, but off the trail the snow is still 2 feet deep, and you sink in past your knees. I had packed a trail with snowshoes earlier in the month, and was able to hike in to change the camera batteries.

Moving with Difficulty

A gentle snow and 27 F tempted me outside. While  I hadn't used snowshoes in 15 years, a quick refresher video on YouTube was all it took to get my courage up.
 The snow, another 4 inches deeper than shown in these photos, made tough going;  each first step required several stamps before the snow held. Once the  trail into the Grove was made,  I knew it would be  a lot easier going out.   The heavy cover of hemlocks is gone as most of the trees have lost their needles due to the Wooly Adelgid.  Another of the larger Ash trees has snapped off about 15 feet up. I am not certain what has attacked them, but four in the Ash Grove are diseased and dying.

Yours Truly captured on the trail camera. Technique isn't pretty but I made in in and out. 

The twigs in front (about 5 o'clock) were fully covered with snow on March 1st.

February's Bitter Cold and Deep Snow

The snow is deep in the woods.  After a recent storm  we found deer tracks in our front yard, looking for food.  One actually lay down to rest in the morning sun. Deep snow keeps me from walking up into the woods to check the trail camera.
I should give snowshoes  a try, actually. The batteries are probably dead in this extended cold spell.

deer tracks in our front yard Feb 20th

January Snows

Lots of tracks in the woods today; I wish the rabbits would travel in front of the trail camera...but they stay away...
Here is a video of The Fox, and two  days later, a couple of deer wait out the Blizzard of January...fortunately the worst of the storm went to the east of us.

Bob Cat on my Trail Camera

Did the tracks in the woods  two days ago belong to this fellow? Nope. The Bob Cat tracks aren't nearly as big. . CLICK HERE TO View THE BOBCAT ON YOUTUBE

Mountain Lion

January 20, 2015: I needed ice walkers to move in the woods. There was a variety  of animal tracks: fox, rabbit, deer, and bobcat, frozen in place following heavy rains;  and a set of tracks left by something a whole lot larger, which curiousity required  I follow  to be sure of what I was seeing.

 I took  a couple of photos with a cell phone,  but didn't find the spot where the cat --yes  a BIG cat--had lain down in the snow, against a Hemlock tree,  until after the phone battery died.

While the rain had washed out the fine detail,  I'm posting this  photo,  to give a comparison between a deer track, on the lower left, and the cat track, going in the opposite direction,  at the upper middle.  The rear foot overlapped the forefoot, making it look like one elongated track.
Just  beyond this spot, the cat leapt at least 10-12  feet, coming down the other side of a blow-down.

          These mountain lion tracks were made sometime between January  17th and 18th,  2015.  If I wasn't an old grandmother trying to navigate a woodland  full of ice, and if my cell phone hadn't died,  I might  have followed them further.

I went back the next day with a charged battery in the iPhone,  to photograph the hemlock tree with scrapings and the melted area under the tree, but wouldn't you know it..I could NOT locate the tree with the scrapings again...not even  by following my own tracks...

May 2015 update: I found the tree with the scrapings! See my May 5 2015 posting.