inDECATUR

Owls well in Decatur, and it's a hoot

Barred Owl (image source)

In the early spring, courting songbirds sang at dusk and spring peepers made most of the racket at night. In the summer, cicadas droned on through the evening and the whip-poor-wills and chuck-will’s-widows repeated over and over their plaintive songs from the darkened woods.

Now, the voices of autumn —- the owls —- are about to reclaim the night. The owls, of course, hoot, hiss and screech all year long, but it is in autumn and winter when they take center stage and their haunting sounds fill the dusk and darkness.

As if warming up for the season, a barred owl has been calling almost every evening now from the woods behind my home on the outskirts of Decatur. My friend Liz Horsey in northwest Atlanta says she has been hearing a barred owl calling from a nearby yard and, the other day, she heard a great horned owl hooting.

Charles Seabrook | AJC | 10/6/2008

Head one outside my window in Decatur Heights just the other night.

A good time to observe nature

"Shorter days and longer nights help trigger many of the changes —- leaf color, fruit ripening, migration —- that start taking place among plants and animals this time of year.

Several southbound warbler species and other neotropical migrants can be seen now at birding spots around metro Atlanta, including Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Cobb County and the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in Decatur."

CS | AJC | 8/24/2008

Opossum in Decatur

UPDATE: The captive has been rescued and returned to nature by the Decatur Militia. See bottom of post for details.

This cute little guy [about the size of a typical housecat], with a homely look only his/her mother could love)  was trapped by a resident of an apartment building in Decatur Heights after it was suspected racoons were causing damage to the building (gnawing holes) and making noises inside the building at night. [Animal Control was called Saturday AM, but had not shown up by Sunday AM.]

He  was pacing back and forth in the trap until I approached, at which point he froze (playing "possum" as they say) but showed his teeth.

I kinda felt sorry for him when he went to sleep, as they do during the day. He could also be "playing dead," another defensive strategy they sometimes use. I put a cardboard shipping box over the trap to protect him from the heat of the sun until the trapper gives him a free trip to his new woodlands home.

Don't worry kids. He'll be let go out in the woods, I'm sure. [He might be a she. I didn't care to check.]

These are common around Decatur, but you'll only run into one if you venture out at night. You might hear one rummaging through you're trash can. It's important to not get too close to one, as they will bite as a last defense, and they can carry rabbies.

The Virginia opossum is North America's only marsupial. A marsupial is an animal with a pouch, like a kangaroo or a koala. The opossum has been around for at least 70 million years [surviving when the dinosaur could not] and is one of Earth's oldest surviving mammals! It's secret to survival is ADAPTATION [if man moves into its habitat, destroying its food source, it just eats the food man throws out], which is a lesson to us as we whine about high gas prices. Read more about them NatureWorks.

I can remember my Dad catching one in our yard on Pinehurst street when I was a kid. It growled fiercely [a hissing sound like escaping air] while showing its teeth, which was very different from what I'd heard about "possums," but that's just another ploy in the animal's bag of defensive tricks.

UPDATE: The critter was rescued in an early AM raid by the Decatur Militia and released in the woods on its own recognisance, before the heavy storms moved in, after giving Animal Control over a day to come get it, as it sat in that trap with no water. This blogger doesn't know what critters do to get out of the rain, but is glad this homely looking critter can do whatever it does naturally, vs. looking pitiful sitting in that trap in the rain.

Hummingbirds pack up for long southbound trip

... with food, that is.

"As I expected, ruby-throated hummingbirds, after seeming to disappear in May, have started returning to my yard in Decatur — and once again are busy sipping nectar from the feeders. They're back because their nesting season has all but wound down. Now, they're turning their attention to the long journey ahead — their annual trek to winter grounds in Mexico and Central America.

Many ruby-throats will be leaving within the next few weeks. For thousands of them, the arduous trip will require flying nonstop some 500 miles over the Gulf of Mexico — a mind-boggling feat for such tiny birds that weigh no more than a nickel apiece. Other ruby-throats will follow a coastal route south. No one knows for sure what proportion of the birds follow that route and why they choose it instead of the sea route."

Regardless of which route the little birds follow, flying from the upper reaches of North America to the tropical wilds of Mexico and Central America requires considerable energy. To get it, ruby-throats gorge on nectar and insects to double their body mass in as few as 10 days in late summer, prior to departing south. Fattening up, then, will be the main goal of ruby-throats during the next several weeks. That's why it's important now to have your hummingbird feeders up and filled with fresh nectar (one part sugar to four parts water)."

Charles Seabrook | AJC | 7/13/2008

These are my favorite birds to watch. The feeders and food are cheap and easy to install.

Once, at my lake place, one flew right in front of my face right after I filled the feeder for the first time that year, as if to ask: "What took you so long?"

Can you ID this creature?

This creature was photographed on the deck of the Corner Pub at East Decatur Station on E. College recently.

Can you ID it exactly? The large, more reddish head is a clue.

Despite all the development and paving in Decatur, some wild creatures still elect to live here, and even venture out of the creeks and woods and onto the decks where we are sitting [hey, why should humans have a monopoly on the sun?], and we're all the better for it. They are the canaries in our cave [to use a loose analogy] When they cannot survive here, we will not be the next species in jeopardy. Or, is it the other way around? Maybe we're their canaries.

optional long-winded opinionation in the continuation