[TN-Bird] [Fwd: The great escape]
- From: Raincrow <raincrow@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TNbird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 11:35:39 -0400
Hooray! Another moth-o-phile! And another email that bird-only readers
should <Delete>.
I'm writing about your skunks (who I find to be smelly but entertaining
yard residents with a good appetite for the larvae of Japanese beetles
-- and, unfortunately, fireflies). My only dealing with babies is
watching a mom skunk weaning hers by simply walking away from them. The
minute she stopped to nibble something tasty, the surrounding gaggle of
babies would, as one, dive underneath her various feeding stations,
executing a half-corkscrew on their way under so that they ended
mouth-up. They looked like a tiny, mad, synchronized swimming team. Mom
would carefully step over them and shuffle away, the babies would
wriggle and twist back over onto their feet, waddle like heck thru the
tall grass to catch up with her, follow and dive, follow and dive,
follow and dive...
But with adults, unless I step on them, chase them too quickly, or
corner them, I (and skunky adversaries in territorial squabbles) receive
plenty of warning -- they face their adversary, duck their head, and
tread in place, high-stepping with their dainty front feet. The faster
they tread, the closer they are to turning around and presenting The
Business End. However, skunk spray is a cloud of heavy oil droplets
that, unless you are directly in its path, can be sidestepped (I have
done this and it is weird!). On 100% humidity days, you can sometimes
actually see the little aerosol cloud floating above the ground and walk
360 degrees around it without getting significant amount any on you!
(That also means, though, that when the wind is calm you can
accidentally walk right through the cloud many, many seconds after a
spraying that was not aimed at you.)
Final word of caution: adult skunks who have been posturing
shoulder-to-shoulder, yowling, and stomping with one another in a
dispute are VERY SORE LOSERS (and winners). Until they calm down they
are no longer the placid, diffident little folks that you can herd like
city pigeons by scuffing your feet, clapping gently, and saying "shoo,
shoo." They might even advance on you very purposefully; RETREAT!
Good skunking!
Liz Singley
Kingston TN
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TN-Bird] The great escape
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 09:53:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
If you only want to read about birds, I apologize, hit delete
now. Though I promise if you read on, this is an amusing story,
even at the time, and does have a nature theme.
So, anyway...
This summer I've taken on the challenge of learning to identify
moths. Last night I was out in the backyard taking photographs
of moths at the lights. I had our two cats and our bassethound,
Eeyore, out with me.
I had found an interesting moth and was concentrating on getting
the camera setup and focusing on the moth. I heard something
rustling through the flower bed beside me but figured it was
just the cats and kept concentrating on the moth. Then something
furry brushed against my leg and started nibbling on my big toe
(I had flip-flops on). No big deal, our youngest cat, Puss-in-boots,
does that all the time... loves nibbling on my toes. So I went
ahead and took the picture and then looked down.
To my surprise and horror, it was NOT Puss-in-boots nibbling on my
toe. Instead, I was completely surrounded by five, yes I said
FIVE! young, half-grown skunks... one of whom was nibbling on my
big toe!
We have lots of skunks in the neighborhood and they often come
to check out Eeyore's food bowl. We've had a few close encounters
before and Eeyore has already learned the hard way to leave them
be. He seldom even barks at them anymore. Oh how I wish he
would've barked at these guys.
So I had a pretty good adrenaline rush going and was having
visions of tomato-juice baths and Amber making me sleep on the
deck for a week. Of course, I'm standing right beside the food
bowl. A couple of the skunks were eating, two were just walking
around me waiting their turn, and, of course, don't forget, one
was nibbling my big toe.
I decided to make a move. I wiggled my toes and gently shook my
right foot to displace the toe nibbler. Then I decided to make
some small noise to try and, calmly, scare them away. Looking
back, maybe I should have tried a Great Horned Owl impersonation
but, in the heat of the moment, I decided upon pishing. "Pish,
pish, pish" while slowly moving my feet around. That actually
got three of them but the two that were eating weren't interested.
While I was thinking up my next move, they got a little testy with
each other and started to hiss and fight over who eats first. It
was time for me to go. I slowly backed away and left them to it.
A couple of quick pictures from a safer distance and that's that.
Except, wait... they were still between me and the door. Again,
looking back, I should have walked around to the front door, rang
the bell and had Amber let me in. Didn't think of that at the
time. So back I went, pishing and shaking the garbage can to
finally get the last two to run off. A little squirt with the
water hose for good measure and I finally made it back inside...
WITHOUT getting sprayed!
Believe it or not.
Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
=========================================================
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