What’s going on out on the land?

White-tailed Deer feeding sign at Kinghurst
tracking, mammals, plants, trees, shrubs byron murray tracking, mammals, plants, trees, shrubs byron murray

White-tailed Deer feeding sign at Kinghurst

Recently, at a TCNA “tracker tuesday” call, there was a challenge proposed: on your next tracking outing, practice following the deer or the rabbits and see if you can find 10 plants which they fed on. For me in my area, the deer would be White-tailed Deer and the rabbits would be Eastern Cottontails. While I have been observing the Cottontails loosely at work with my students, for this tracking outing with the Earth Tracks Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship, we focused on the White-tails.

Read More
Exploring Some Staghorn Sumac Galls
galls, insects, plants, shrubs, Summer byron murray galls, insects, plants, shrubs, Summer byron murray

Exploring Some Staghorn Sumac Galls

A few years ago my partner and I were leading a walk at a nearby nature reserve when one of the participants looked up at a Staghorn Sumac and asked “what is this?”. I answered, Staghorn Sumac, but they clarified that they didn’t mean the shrub, but instead globular fleshy piece which sort of half dangled from the bottom of the long leaf stalk. As we looked at the soft roundish growth I realized that I had never noticed this before.
Sure, it has taken a few years of passive wonder, but this Summer I finally looked it up.

Read More