Where The Wild Things Are
October 17, 2009 Filed in: Vineyard
The movie has released! I need to dig around and find the book and give the little one a few reads of it before we go. However, there appear to be wild things creeping about off-screen as well! During the camp from the previous post there was some talk about what might be attracted to the persimmon tree tucked in a corner of the northeast field.
[The above map of the grounds should give a little bit of reference. As for scale, each marked spot is around 300 - 400 yards away.]
My best guess as to what kind of critters might be congregating around the persimmon tree would be raccoons and the like. Maybe even a wild boar! There are definitely wild boar in the area. The nearby Council Bluff Recreation Area campground is on “Wild Boar Ridge”. But what was discovered as the potential culprit of the scat lying about was a surprise indeed! Have a look:
The ol’ American Black Bear! How about that!? For a slew of interesting info visit The American Bear Association. Based on the maps I have looked at, the Ozarks (Southern Missouri/Northern Arkansas) are the only place to find black bears in the central U.S. From those I have talked to, finding a bear up by the vineyard is a good bit farther north than most expected. Most expect to find them a few hours closer to the Missouri/Arkansas border.
At first glance, this fella seems all cute and cuddly, but when using some of the references, this bear is sitting at around 4 ft tall. (those corn feeders are around 6 feet i’d guess. That’s a full grown bear by my reckoning!
Now, the date stamp is September 24th as you can see. The “Camp in the Clouds” outing was five days previous. Perhaps now I can feel more comfortable with my skittishness at setting up camp at 0100 am in the pitch black. Especially when you look at the above map and notice that the “camera”, where the bear pic was taken, and the persimmon tree require that the bear cross directly between where we were camping and the farm house. Perhaps the bear nabbed a few grapes on the way...
...which highlights a large reason for having the corn feeders. We’ve already had issue with wildlife eating the leaves from the vines that are inching their way up the trellis’. Hopefully the corn feeders can keep them in the woods and satisfied instead of eating up all of our hard work!
More pictures from that critter cam are to come. Seems to be a high traffic area with a large variety of wildlife. Watch for them in the next post where I’ll also talk about some of the other deterrents we are looking into to keep them off the vines. That should bring forth wide viewpoints from across the environmental spectrum.
Till then...\o
Matt
[The above map of the grounds should give a little bit of reference. As for scale, each marked spot is around 300 - 400 yards away.]
My best guess as to what kind of critters might be congregating around the persimmon tree would be raccoons and the like. Maybe even a wild boar! There are definitely wild boar in the area. The nearby Council Bluff Recreation Area campground is on “Wild Boar Ridge”. But what was discovered as the potential culprit of the scat lying about was a surprise indeed! Have a look:
The ol’ American Black Bear! How about that!? For a slew of interesting info visit The American Bear Association. Based on the maps I have looked at, the Ozarks (Southern Missouri/Northern Arkansas) are the only place to find black bears in the central U.S. From those I have talked to, finding a bear up by the vineyard is a good bit farther north than most expected. Most expect to find them a few hours closer to the Missouri/Arkansas border.
At first glance, this fella seems all cute and cuddly, but when using some of the references, this bear is sitting at around 4 ft tall. (those corn feeders are around 6 feet i’d guess. That’s a full grown bear by my reckoning!
Now, the date stamp is September 24th as you can see. The “Camp in the Clouds” outing was five days previous. Perhaps now I can feel more comfortable with my skittishness at setting up camp at 0100 am in the pitch black. Especially when you look at the above map and notice that the “camera”, where the bear pic was taken, and the persimmon tree require that the bear cross directly between where we were camping and the farm house. Perhaps the bear nabbed a few grapes on the way...
...which highlights a large reason for having the corn feeders. We’ve already had issue with wildlife eating the leaves from the vines that are inching their way up the trellis’. Hopefully the corn feeders can keep them in the woods and satisfied instead of eating up all of our hard work!
More pictures from that critter cam are to come. Seems to be a high traffic area with a large variety of wildlife. Watch for them in the next post where I’ll also talk about some of the other deterrents we are looking into to keep them off the vines. That should bring forth wide viewpoints from across the environmental spectrum.
Till then...\o
Matt