NOCTURNAL MAMMALS ON-LINE

      Nocturnal mammals are not easy to see roaming at night.  But I've seen many over the years, including cottontail rabbits, opossums, striped skunks and little brown bats on our suburban lawn, and white-tailed deer, red foxes, raccoons, mink and other species along roadsides and in farmland fields. 

     But a newer way of seeing night-roaming mammals is on-line, via live cameras at feeders in Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa and Pennsylvania, and our home computer screen.  And because computers look back in time, I also observe the activities of nocturnal mammals at my convenience during daylight hours.

     Sometimes, the first thing one sees of mammals at night, in real life and on computer screens, is eyeshine.  Lights on vehicles and spotlights shine on those animals, and the eyes of the creatures reflect that light, which make them visible, alerting us of a mammal being in the dark.  Deer eyeshine is pale-green, for example, and that of cottontails is light-orange.  

     The tails of retreating mammals help identify those critters in the wild.  White cottonballs bouncing away, low to the ground, indicate cottontails.  White banners, waving high off the ground, tell of elegant white-tails running away.  A fluffy, black and white plume is the tail of a skunk shuffling along.  A large, naked appendage and a black and gray ringed one shows the presence of a retreating opossum and raccoon respectively.  And a white tip to a dark tail in the night indicates the presence of a red fox bolting away.

     White-tailed deer, raccoons and opossums are the mammals that most regularly come to feeders at night to feast on corn or oat kernels.  In fact, those adaptable mammal species come to practically every feeder I visit on-line.  And every night those farmland, woodland or suburban mammals are entertaining.  They come from their daytime homes in woods and suburbs at dusk and feed off and on all night, every night.  And all these mammal species seem to get along well, except that the deer often reveal dominance in their gatherings by some bigger deer chasing away some of last year's fawns by rearing up, ears held back, and striking at those young deer with their front hooves.  

     Up to a few dozen stately white-tails come to a feeder in Maine, and another feeder in Iowa.  Several furry coons and possums come to feeders in Iowa, North Carolina and South Carolina respectively.  It's amusing to watch raccoons picking up food with their hands and dunking some of their food in water in nearby bird baths sunk in the ground.

       Coyotes, red foxes and gray foxes occasionally show up at some of these feeders at night.  A coyote comes to each of the feeders I visit on-line in Maine, Iowa and North Carolina.  Each one constantly paces around, sniffing everywhere, probably for mice or other small rodents, perhaps eats a bit of the food put out, then vanishes as quickly as it showed up.  Red foxes behave pretty much the same way.

     Deer obviously don't like coyotes.  I see some deer either running from a coyote, or chasing one of those canines, depending on the temperament of the deer.   

     The only gray foxes I see on-line is a probable mated pair at feeders in North Carolina.   Those beautiful, small foxes are a special thrill to me because they are deep-woods canines and I seldom see them in real life in my predominately farmland and suburban home area.  Grays prey mostly on mice and other small creatures in the woods.  But that pair I see on-line in North Carolina feeds heavily on what food was laid out for mammals.  

     Flying squirrels are my favorite mammals to see on-line.  I've seen only a few in real life over the years. These are nocturnal squirrels that only seek food and mates at night, making them unknown to most people who live in woodlands.  

     Flying squirrels are quick, but some are caught by screech owls, great horned owls and barred owls.  I even saw a screech owl catch a flying squirrel at a bird feeder near Ithaca, New York.

     Mammals are interesting and entertaining to experience, especially when they are seen on-line.  They go about their daily routines, not knowing they are watched.

      

     

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