Deer by hay at WRIDonna and I spent a wonderful, relaxed Christmas together. We felt blessed with the food and day we had and hoped Lily Fans everywhere had the same. For exercise, we were going to hike the Lucky Boy Trail in the woods, but new curiosity cut that short when we found deer tracks (four sets) on the sidewalk and lawn outside our door. We hadn’t seen that in years. Where were they headed? We tracked the four deer 2 blocks down Conan Street to the second busiest street in Ely (Central Avenue) where they crossed without hesitation—obviously at night when travel is nil and dogs are inside—and continued foraging. They went from bird feeder to bird feeder, searching for seeds beneath them, stopping by flower beds and in one yard stripping crabapples that were within reach.
In some places we found tracks with snow in them from the previous night, showing that deer do roam the streets of Ely more nights than we realized. Other tracks we saw were from gray squirrels, ravens, house cats (a front track on top of a rear track shown), and various dogs that left tracks up to the size of wolf tracks. Fun.
 |
 |
 |
| Deer | Gray squirrel | Raven |
 |
 |
|
| House cat | Dog |
The 92-second flashback for today is from June 5, 2007, when June was stripping leaflets off ferns by pulling the ferns sideways through the space (diastema) in her teeth just behind the tiny first premolars—top and bottom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdFAjF_nYYM.
Interrupted FernThese may be Cinnamon Ferns (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), which are very difficult to tell from Interrrupted Ferns (Osmunda claytoniana) in the absence of fertile fronds. Interrupted Ferns typically have brown reproductive organs in the middle portion of most fronds as pictured. They get their name from the interruption in leaflets that becomes obvious when the reproductive organs fall off. The fact that none of the fronds June was eating had the typical interruption and that June was stripping the end-most leaflets makes us suspect Cinnamon Ferns. With Interrupted Ferns, bears typically eat only the middle section of each frond where the reproductive organs will develop. To get that section and only that section, they bite the frond off at the base of the reproductive section, ingest the reproductive section, and drop the fiddlehead or terminal stem and leaflets.
Thank you for supporting us through purchases of the calendars. We’re getting down to the last of them.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center