A Rare Ramble
Home Woods
September 26, 2024
“Rare”?
Yes, lately, it has been.
Hopefully that will soon change.
Here's a little ramble through the Home Woods, after a long absence from the place. It's a few steps from the house, and bordering the driveway – so why haven't I entered my own woods for so long?
So many reasons.
I want to drop some of those reasons from my life. Some of what prevents me from spending more time in the woods, or with Nature Study in general, is keeping me from something of utmost importance.
So, here it is. Just a ramble. Hardly any identifications of plants, fungi, etc., or further information on them. This is simply reconnecting, observing, discovering, on one afternoon.
We had little rain for some time, but it had rained just recently enough to bring forth some interesting things, such as a variety of fungi “blooming” from wood and ground.
Hot days were finally behind us. The tree canopy was starting to look tired of being green and carrying on all that photosynthetic work of the long spring and summer.
Leaves, in general, had spent the summer feeding caterpillars, leaf miners, and others, and becoming dimpled homes to gall wasps.
As I entered the woods, a well-known (to me) Cut-Leaved Grape Fern was evident along the downhill “trail.” I found others, as well.
Silas followed me, as always.
And so did our newest cat, NT (for “Not Teddy”, as he looks much like Teddy, one of our indoor cats.) This was NT's first time walking the woods with me. Or, not really walking. Dashing suddenly. Occasionally stopping to investigate.
As has been his habit, he never got within 1 ½ feet of me.
(Anyone with questions about me having outdoor cats, please see the addendum at the end.)
The Creek bed was damp, at most, but damp enough to hold impressions of the Raccoons who had been exploring, and traveling Deer.
I love to find repeated patterns of unrelated things. But, everything is related.
And, there are those beings in the woods whose patterns remind me of other beings.
There were not many leaves falling yet, just a start of new floor covering, and fall colors were barely beginning, but it was a time of seed-fall and seed dispersal.
Rotting logs are one of my favorite kinds of habitat, displaying new life in myriad forms (the spring season is not the only one for new life – it happens all year long!)
Turkey Tail fungi
It was also the hey-day season for spiders, especially those weaving large orb webs, or cup-and-doily webs, or sheet webs with dark tunnels where a spider hides deep within, waiting for prey. All kinds of webs caught the sunlight and glistened, also catching my eye. Spider webs would appear, disappear, reappear, depending on my angle of view with web and dappled sunlight.
And … Bones!! Bleached by the sun, starkly white on the gray-brown woods floor, they sat among dead, fallen leaves, speaking of the Cycle of Life.
Animal bones seem to show up of-a-sudden. Then sometime on a future walk, I don't see them anymore. Another animal uses them, or microscopic life breaks them down to the soil. Otherwise, the woods would be littered, or piled, with bones.
I wonder about the live animal they had belonged to. Some of those bones had run through the woods, climbed trees. Jaw bones had worked through food to nourish the animal. The large round holes held eyes scanning the woods for food, places to nest or sleep, and for predators. It had been aware of the dark, and the shafts of sun through the trees, lighting up spots on the floor.
Besides bones on the floor, tracks in the mud, and spider webs, there were other signs of animal life.
On the other hand, some late-blooming plants were showing off bright colors and interesting patterns.
Alas, I needed to get back to the house. When would I find time to go back into the woods?
Addendum: A note on my outdoor cats:
For years, all of our cats were indoor/outdoor cats. All of them.
I am aware of the problems domestic cats cause in the natural environment, their affect on wildlife (particularly songbirds), and that they are considered invasive species when outdoors.
Which is why we no longer have cats that live both indoor and outdoor. Teddy and Frankie are strictly indoor cats, whether they want to be or not (Teddy tries when he can to get outside, but we manage to prevent his escape the greatest part of the time and get him back in as soon as we can when he does escape.)We got them as kittens.
Silas came to us years ago as a stray. He had been a survivor and still knows very well how to survive, if he needs to (though he doesn't need to anymore.) He used to be an indoor/outdoor cat (the last one), but when we got Teddy and Frankie, they terrorized him, so he can no longer be indoors. It is impossible for him to coexist with “The Roosevelts.” He's a pretty calm cat.
NT showed up as a very young stray earlier this year. We caught him and took him to the vet to be neutered and vaccinated, as are all of our cats. He is willing to be picked up and cuddled if we have cat food with us, or if he thinks we do, but otherwise will not (yet) come all the way up to us. But, he stays close to the house. If Teddy manages to escape the house, he immediately tears after NT, who he terrorizes all day by staring at him through the porch screens.
So, yes, we do have two outdoor cats, who also love to go on woods walks with me. Here is how I look at these: Silas and NT had both been pretty wild strays. They both, especially Silas, had to fend for themselves, hunting a lot. Of course they would still feel inclined to use their hunting instincts. But, they now have a secure place to live and plenty of cat food. They mostly stay close to the house, wander the gardens, and we don't even see them climb trees (Silas is old now, and we did see NT climb, early on.) Because we care for them, they are not wandering the countryside, they don't need to hunt to survive, and what they do hunt will be much, much less than they would have. They are also not able to reproduce and add to the domestic cat population. The two of them cannot coexist in the house with The Roosevelts, so we are doing what we can to provide them with attention, care, safety, food, and clean water.
For years, when any of my cats have gone on woods walks with me, they've kept near me (though pretending they were too independent to do so). I never saw any of them hunt down anything while they were with me. They were too interested in being with me and seeing what we would do next. Instead of hunting in the woods for survival, these well-fed cats just enjoyed their time with me during my walks.
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