Category Archives: Animal

Weekly Roundup – January 18th

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Photo Credit: Eli Nixon https://www.flickr.com/photos/really_still_photography

Photo Credit: Eli Nixon

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m off to a very slow start in the new year, but the news keeps on coming! I will try this for a week or two:  a roundup of stories and photos,  most nature-related, some as follow-up my prior posts.

It was hard to miss this story– 2014 was the warmest year on record according to both NASA and NOAA.

In northern New Mexico we had a couple of cold, foggy days early in the week along with two or three of inches of snow helping, I hope, our new piñon trees put down roots.  But according to this article in the Santa Fe New Mexican the long term outlook for the Southwest’s piñon forests is dire.  As temperatures continue to warm the prediction is that we will experience longer droughts and the loss of our trees along with wildlife, like the squawking jays at our backyard feeder, that depend upon them for sustenance and cover.

The other big news in our region was this press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) about changes to the management of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program.

Some of it was good news.  The wolves, a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), got their own separate listing as an endangered subspecies (Canis lupus baileyi) which will allow them to receive continued protection under the law even if the gray wolf is delisted.  The bad news is that the lobos will not be allowed to roam and  establish territory north of Interstate 40 in areas like the Grand Canyon where prime habitat exists for them to live and hunt.  This editorial  favoring more robust protection of the wolves, as I do, was published at azcentral.com  and covers more of the pros and cons of the new rule.

In California a few days into Tommy Caldwell  and Kevin Jorgeson’s barehanded climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, their story was covered on NBC Nightly News, capturing the world’s imagination.  I thought about them each day and was thrilled to hear that they succeeded.  Here is the New York Times article about their adventure.  And for another take on it, this poem published at PoetryFoundation.org.

And finally, how lovely is this soaring golden eagle captured on camera by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Have a good week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A New Year’s Resolution

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Photo Credit: abejorro34 via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: abejorro34 via Compfight cc

One resolution in two parts.

Go outside.

Pay attention.

It’s simple, but I have to remind myself.

Even if it’s only the short walk to the mailbox.  Stop and listen–that sharp “peek peek” whistle–is that the ladder-backed woodpecker that was hanging off the seed cylinder this morning? I know him by sight, zebra-striped back and red crown, but not by voice.  No sign of him to confirm.

Before coming inside I stoop to look at tracks in the remnants of last week’s snow–two short and two long, A field guide confirms they are the tracks–front feet behind the back–of the rabbit who keeps a low profile in the scrub beyond the patio, showing only an occasional glimpse of the top of his ears or the flash of his white tail.

It’s a start.

 

 

 

 

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Gina’s Chipmunk

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Photo Credit: P. Nixon

Photo Credit: P. Nixon

Chipmunks were a novelty when I was a kid. They don’t live in western Kansas, so we first got to know them on our family vacations to the Rockies.  The tiny ground squirrels with their racing stripes and bushy tails never failed to entertain, scampering around the campsite, eluding our efforts to catch them.

They are frequent visitors to our backyard in Santa Fe, drinking out of the birdbath and chasing each other around the yard looking for stray seeds.  But lately there seem to be more of them and I was amazed last week to find one sitting on a window bird feeder fifteen feet off the ground.

The feeder is filled with oiled sunflower seeds for the finches and chickadees, but the chipmunk has taken over, sitting on the tray and gorging while Gina, the cat, watches and I rap on the window.  It scares him off for a moment, but as soon as I turn my back he returns.

I suspect there are two of them–a tag team–launching themselves off the nearby portal (deck) to the narrow window ledge.  Yesterday they cleaned us out.

No sign of the chipmunk this morning, just a spotted towhee picking through the hulls.  When I refill the feeder later today, I’m going to move it to another window–beyond the leaping range, I hope, of the average chipmunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wolves and Public Opinion

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There are only 83 Mexican gray wolves left in the wild. I think that makes them worth fighting for.  I am 13 years old, and I want to help save the lobos of the Southwest. 
Faith Kindred, Parker City, Indiana
Letter to the Editor in the Rio Grande Sun–Española, NM

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Letters matter.  I’ve written several–to the editors of the Santa Fe and Albuquerque daily newspapers, to the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, and more than one to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS)–all in support of the Mexican gray wolf.  Before this year ends there is one more opportunity to register an opinion with the USFWS about ongoing efforts to reestablish the lobo in the wild.

USFWS has been working for more than a year on changes to the rule that governs the Mexican wolf reintroduction effort, conducting public hearings and soliciting comments.  In late November they issued this press release along with the final Environmental Impact Study and draft Record of Decision (ROD).

The ROD outlines the four alternatives under consideration and explains the rationale for the one USFWS has selected to pursue.  This article from the Arizona Daily Star (reprinted on the Lobos of the Southwest website) from November 26th explains and summarizes the decision and also includes reactions from environmentalists and ranching organizations.  USFWS will finalize the ROD in January and is accepting public comments through December 27th.

Lobos of the Southwest provides this guide to submitting comments along with a link to the USFWS website.  For a better understanding of the opposing viewpoint I found it helpful to read about Arizona Cattlemen’s Association’s  Fight & Fix Campaign on their website.

And now it’s time I started working on that letter.

Wolf News: the good, the bad, and the worrisome

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One way to grasp the main perspectives of environment and biodiversity is to understand the origins and precious nature of a single living form, a single manifestation of the miracle of existence; if one has truly understood a crane–or a leaf or a cloud or a frog–one has understood everything.
–Peter Matthiessen The Birds of Heaven

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Mark Dumont viamot Compfight cc

One evening last week the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project Monthly Update landed in my email inbox.  Part newsletter, part report card,  it often reads like a dry government report, but study it carefully and it comes alive, providing a glimpse into the life of a wolf.

When it arrived  I  stopped what I was doing and scrolled to the section called Mortalities.  In good months there are none, but that wasn’t the case in November.  An alpha male was “located dead in Arizona”.  No details provided, but the most likely cause of death for  a wild wolf  is being shot (illegally) or hit by a vehicle.

Also included are  individual summaries or report cards, for each pack.  They are based on weekly telemetry flights that pinpoint the locations of the radio-collared wolves and field observations (gathered both in person on the ground and  from motion-sensitive trail cameras).

Nineteen packs (primarily made up of multi-generational families) are currently living in the reintroduction area which includes the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests  and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona and the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.  Below is a brief look at two of the packs.

The Bluestem Pack This family has long been established in the central part of the Apache-Sitgreaves.  The current alpha pair has been together for a few years and has raised several litters of pups.  The pack is large right now–thirteen–with juveniles and pups  (born in 2013 and 2014, respectively) running with the parents.  The juveniles may soon start to disperse to try to find mates and establish new territories.

Rarely has this family of wolves gotten into trouble, but in November they killed a cow.  The sequence of events after the depredation probably went something like this.  A rancher found one of his cows dead and reported it to the field team overseeing the reintroduction program.  They investigated the carcass, determined that a wolf had made the kill, and probably had a pretty good idea which pack was responsible, but used the telemetry reports for confirmation.  Often they will identify a specific wolf or wolves, but in this case they did not, reporting only that it was “adults and juveniles in the Bluestem Pack”.

The Hawks Nest Pack This is a new family of wolves related to the Bluestem Pack–the alpha female was part of their 2012 litter.  They have established a territory further north in the Apache-Sitgreaves and are raising their first litter, the grandpups of the Bluestem Pack’s  alpha pair. The only news for this pack in November was that the field team confirmed two more pups in addition  to the one that was captured and collared a few months ago.

It will be a week or two into the new year before the next update is issued.  In the meantime the only way to keep track of the Bluestem and Hawks Nest wolves will be via the sporadically published telemetry reports.

Meet the Mexican Gray Wolf – A Short Video

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My very first post in July of 2013 was about Mexican gray wolves.  I have continued to write about them every few weeks, telling the stories of one family of wolves, the Bluestem Pack, that runs, hunts and raises their pups in the  White Mountains of Arizona.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

Photo Credit: Rebecca Bose

Although the Bluestem Pack continues to thrive after living in the wild for over twelve years, the survival of the rare Mexican wolf (a cousin to the gray wolves of Yellowstone) is still in doubt. At the last official count there were only 83 of them living in a portion of their historical habitat in New Mexico and Arizona.

I recently found this video called Meet the Mexican Gray Wolf on Facebook.  Prepared by Sawtooth Legacy Films, it is a good concise introduction to the Mexican wolf. In less than three minutes it tells more about the endangered mammals in pictures and videos than I could in a thousand words.

In late November The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) proposing changes to the Mexican wolf recovery effort.  At more than 500 pages it’s not a quick read–more about that in an upcoming post.

In the meantime Lobos of the Southwest keeps their website and Facebook page updated daily with links to the USFWS documents, information on where and how to comment, and the most recent articles and letters to the editor concerning Mexican wolf recovery.

The Bear Hunt

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Ken described in detail the elevated stand he was going to build in the woods. I tried to ignore him, but my tiny office at the front of the laboratory was a natural gathering place for the guys to drink coffee and tell stories. It was my first job out of college, typing and answering the phone for an oil service company on the outskirts of Denver.

On his break from polishing thin sections of rocks, Ken told us how he would use the stand to lie in wait for the bear, bow at his side, his holstered handgun to be used only if necessary. To lure the bear he planned to use . . . doughnuts. The chemist and geologist snickered, egging him on.

None of it squared with the hunting I had grown up with in Kansas where for a few days each November orange-capped pheasant hunters filled the local coffee shops. The only other hunter I knew, a neighbor who traveled further afield, cooked up big pots of chili, which I reluctantly tried, made with antelope or was it moose? Baiting and killing bears was new to me.

Photo Credit: peupleloup via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: peupleloup via Compfight cc

Maybe I am misremembering the doughnuts or maybe Ken made it up to impress the new girl. Either way, I was rooting for the bear.

Thirty-some years later I don’t know anyone who hunts bears, but have come to an uneasy acceptance of the fact that it’s part of life in the West. What I didn’t know until I read this article in the New York Times is that New Jersey also has a bear hunt. The season opens today, December 8th, and lasts for six days. It’s not universally popular and was only reinstated a few years ago after a thirty year hiatus to allow the dwindling bear population to recover.

When the annual hunting season began in 2010 it was estimated that population had grown to approximately 3400 bears living north of Interstate 80, which cuts across New Jersey (although bears have now been documented in all 21 counties, the bulk of the population lives in the northern part of the state). With a human population of 1200 per square mile (compared to 17 per square mile in New Mexico), encounters between the two have become more frequent with bears routinely wandering through suburban neighborhoods, grazing in dumpsters, and causing schools to go into lock down mode. But up until September when a black bear killed a college student hiking with friends in Passaic County in a rare predatory attack, there had never been a fatality in New Jersey.

The goal of the week-long December hunt is simple:  reduce the bear population. Hunters are encouraged in the Hunting and Trapping Digest to shoot the first bear they see provided they are able to get a clean, safe shot. Males, females, cubs, mothers with a cubs–all bears are fair game, but only one bear per hunter. About 1600 bears have been killed in the last four years and the overall population reduced to approximately 2500.

It sounds easy enough until you consider the logistics of finding, killing, and dragging a dead 300-pound bear out of the woods.  In the first year of the New Jersey hunt 592 bears were killed, but since then the numbers have continued to dwindle down to 251 bears in 2013.    Even so, if I were a bear in New Jersey I’d keep a low profile this week.

As for Ken?  There never really was any doubt.  He got his bear rug, a freezer full of sausage and one big story.

 

The Birds of Winter

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It’s birdwatching season.

Northern Cardinal Photo Credit: A. Nixon

Northern Cardinal
Photo Credit: A. Nixon

Last week I stocked up on seed cylinders and suet cakes and bought a new de-icer for the bird bath.

The feeders and bath are just outside the back door in clear view of my desk. If you visit don’t be surprised to find that my attention is not turned toward the computer screen in front of me, but is instead focused on the view through my binoculars out into the pinyon trees.

Anne Schmauss’s column in this morning’s Santa Fe New Mexican talks about the mixed flocks of winter, birds hanging together to find food and to stay safe from predators. Chickadees, creepers, kinglets, woodpeckers, nuthatches, warblers.

What I am unlikely to see here in Santa Fe is one of the red beauties captured by my cousin Angela in her Tulsa backyard. When I asked the experts at my local bird store, Wild Birds Unlimited,  they said it had been years since they had heard of any being spotted in the area. Too high? Too dry? Too cold? They weren’t sure, but we just don’t have inviting habitat for the striking northern cardinal that All About Birds says is ” . . . perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird”.

Happy bird watching! I’d love to hear about and see who is passing through your backyard this winter.

Giving Thanks

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Theo Photo Credit: P. Nixon

Theo
Photo Credit: P. Nixon

Lots of folks will be up early this morning making sure the animals are taken care of–fed, watered, walked, loved–long before they sit down to their own Thanksgiving meals.

It has been a pleasure to meet a few of the New Mexico groups that work tirelessly to rescue and give homes to or find homes for abandoned, hurt, and neglected creatures.

Felines and Friends New Mexico
Rancho De Chihuahua
The Horse Shelter
Wildlife West Nature Park

Thank you!

Saving Toby

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Uncle Eli and I had talked for months about visiting Rancho de Chihuahua, but the logistics were difficult. He lives in Colorado, my travel schedule is hectic, and the dog rescue in the mountains of northern New Mexico closes to visitors for the winter in mid-November.

So, it was with a certain amount of amazement on Saturday morning that I found myself in Chimayo sitting on the big comfy orange sofa, well-known from many a Facebook post, with a Chihuahua wearing a Christmas sweater perched on my lap.

Eli, his friend KW, and I had driven the thirty miles from Santa Fe after an early breakfast. We drove slowly through the rural community until we located the downward-sloping driveway with a red gate described in the directions. Joy, the founder of the rescue, came out to the car and filled us in on the protocol of meeting the dogs. Once inside the fenced yard a few of the resident canines escorted us into the sunny sitting room. We all took a few minutes to settle in.

Then, a door I hadn’t noticed was opened and a river of small dogs, mostly Chihuahuas streamed in. They flowed over the top of the coffee table and around both sides of it. All, it seemed, with one goal in mind: get on the sofa and check out the visitors. I don’t know for sure how many, but my best guess is twenty-something. The barking ended quickly. Friendly and polite, the dogs found places to lie down–on our laps, in the spaces between us, on the back of the sofa. The shy ones kept their distance, taking up positions around the room where they could watch and listen.

Joy sat on the floor and told us about Rancho de Chihuahua. She and her husband, Steven, relocated the rescue from Los Angeles to this farm in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains about seven years ago so they could help more dogs. They take in the old, the neglected, the sick.  Many will stay with them for life, but some are up for adoption, which is why we were visiting.

Photo Credit: P. Nixon

Photo Credit: P. Nixon

A few days earlier a healthy Papillon-mix named Toby was abandoned at a local veterinary clinic. Instead of euthanizing the sweet-natured pup, the staff gave him a check up and Joy rescued him. She posted his story and photo on Facebook. After a flurry of emails and phone calls between Eli and Joy, Eli made plans to drive to New Mexico.

While KW and I took photos and tried  to learn names–Buddy, Clownfish, Harold, Fig–Eli and Toby met. They hit it off and all too soon it was time for us to leave.

With reluctance I said goodbye to Gabby, the tiny gray Chihuahua wearing a bright red sweater. She is old and frail,  but after spending half an hour with her I could find no better words to describe her than those used by Steven in the title of his book about the joys and sorrows of rescuing dogs. She was “a small furry prayer” spreading goodwill with her calm, sweet presence.

Eli called Sunday. Toby was settling in, playing with a brand new squeak toy. The two had already gone for their first walk in the park across the street from Eli’s house.

Joy Nicholson and Steven Kotler run Rancho de Chihuahua in Chimayo, New Mexico. I highly recommend Steven’s book A Small Furry Prayer: dog rescue and the meaning of life, which is how Eli and I came to learn about their rescue work.