October: Week 2

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These nocturnal creatures weigh

15- 20 pounds. That’s one large rodent!

Love is in the Air for Porcupines

October is the month of love for porcupines, a time of year when the solitary creatures briefly pair up. The male sings to the female with grunts, then the two rub noses and touch each others heads with their front paws. In March and April the female porcupine will have a single porcupette. Porcupettes are born with quills, but luckily for their mothers they don't harden until after they are born. A porcupette will stay with its mother for about 6 months before it heads off on its own.

Through the spring and summer the two will eat leaves, twigs, buds, flowers, and berries. In winter, they will eat the inner layer of bark and needles from coniferous trees. Porcupines also love salt and have been known to chew on things that humans have touched, like canoe paddles and axe handles.

In the winter porcupines sometimes den together in caves, hollow logs, stumps, or trees. Porcupines don't hibernate, but they also don’t travel very far from food trees during the colder months.

Did you know? A porcupine is covered with about 30,000 quills, but they can’t actually shoot them. The barbed quills get stuck in predators when they get too close and are swatted. A porcupine's most successful predator is the fisher, but coyotes, red foxes, and bobcats have also been known to catch them. With their excellent defenses, a porcupine's survival rate is good and they may live up to 10 years!

Learn more: Natureworks

In flight, the junco flashes the bright white feathers on the sides of its tail.

Hear this bird's call: Click

Dark-eyed Juncos Arrive from the North

This species of sparrow summers and breeds north of us in Canada. Each winter this seasonal guest travels to Wisconsin in search of more plentiful food. The same birds usually return to the same area each year. Juncos eat mainly seed and a few insects during winter, and are often found in large flocks near the feeders at CWES. In order to fuel their little bodies in wintry weather, they must forage at least 6 hours a day!

There is a hierarchy within each junco flock in which the older males are highest, then the females, and then the young birds. This hierarchy determines who gets to eat the best food first. Watch for flock behavior at the feeders: dominant birds will chase lower birds away from food.

Did you know? You can identify female juncos by their more brown color and smaller size. Males usually don't travel as far south as females. They brave colder weather so that they can get to spring breeding grounds faster.

Learn more: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

An oak apple gall

dry gall

A Canada goldenrod gall

Oh the Gall!

Galls are odd growths that form on plants in reaction to a parasitic attack. Galls can be found on the leaves, stems, and branches of plants and are often caused by insects such as gall wasps, mites, midges, and flies. Each species causes a specific shaped gall, usually on a specific type of plant.

The gall you are most likely to see at CWES is the oak apple gall, which is caused by a small wasp. These galls form on oak leaves and are best seen in fall when the leaves drop. The oak apple gall wasp has a unique life cycle. In early spring, a small wingless wasp crawls up an oak tree and lays a single egg in a new leaf. When the larva emerges from its egg, it causes a chemical reaction within the leaf which then forms a protective gall around the larva. The larva then eats the growing gall, pupates, becomes a winged wasp, and finally drills a tiny escape hole in the gall in late summer. After emerging and mating, this female wasp drops to the ground and lays eggs in the roots of the oak tree. A year later, a wingless wasp will emerge and start the whole cycle over again.

Another common gall in Wisconsin is caused by a fly that lays her egg in the stem of Canada goldenrod. These bulb-like galls become winter homes for the fly larvae, which then emerge as adults in the summer. Galls usually don’t harm plants, and they actually benefit several animals. Chickadees, squirrels, and downy woodpeckers will feed on the galls, and ice fisherman sometimes use the larvae for bait.

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?

As you've watched the many hairy, downy, and pileated woodpeckers at CWES hunt for insect meals this fall, perhaps you've wondered how they keep their bird brains safe while hammering away at speeds of 15 mph?

Woodpeckers have several helpful adaptations working for them. First, their sturdy prop-like tail helps stabilize their entire body as they chisel away. Secondly, the woodpecker's skull is made of thick, spongy bone that encloses their brain so tightly that it doesn't rattle about while hammering. Lastly, they have thick neck muscles and cartilage at the base of their lower beak that absorb the shock of their blows.

Did You Know? Some woodpeckers have tongues that are longer than their bills and wrap around their skull, beginning at their upper beak, extending around the back of their skull, and ending in their mouths. Many woodpeckers also have tongues with barbed ends for spearing insects, and produce a glue-like saliva to ensure that their meal reaches their mouths.

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