Post-Thanksgiving Day Wander

I took my dog for a long walk this afternoon, still trying to work off the large
quantity of food I've been eating. It had dawned gray and windy, with snow flurries and a
dusting on the ground. By afternoon it was still below freezing but the sun was out and the
sky was blue. I decided to head out to look for more buck sign, a good mission to do
with the dog since I wasn't really trying to see any live wildlife, and since she might help
me find scent posts. We walked down the bike path, the way I go to my sit spot, and found
several rubs right along the edge of the paved path. One of them was one I've been keeping an
eye on all fall, but now there were several more within a few yards of it and the
original was much more rubbed, with almost all the bark removed from the tree for about 2 1/2
vertical feet. This tree has obviously been visited a lot. The other marks were smaller but one
other tree also had marks all the way around the small trunk. These were all trees or
shrubs about 2" to 4" Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), and they were of two different species that I haven't been able to identify. They don't seem to be in my Audubon trees field guide. One of them has gray bark with funny white spots that are sort of diamond-shaped.

We continued to the end of the bike path, heading for Sapsucker Woods. We were
destined to only find one more rub today, but we had plenty of other adventures. I felt
so fortunate to have this large patch of woods so close to my house, where my dog and I can wander
freely (I think the whole woods belongs to Cornell, although only part of it
constitutes the Sapsucker Woods nature preserve). I was glad to see several other people taking
advantage of the beautiful weather and holiday to go walking in the woods, and equally
glad that they all chose to go through the gate and into the actual preserve. Dogs aren't
allowed there, so I chose to parallel the preserve fence but stay out. I was curious to
see if I could identify where the deer are crossing the fence, and I thought these spots would
be good candidates for buck signs (which are territorial markers).

We followed deer trails through the oak-dominated woods, walking north along the
fence. Occasionally Moka got excited as she picked up a scent, and I found one scrape
with, just above it, some broken branches on a shrub (possibly from a deer rubbing its facial scent glands on the branch). It was on a deer trail but didn't seem to correlate to a place where the fence is partly bent down from being jumped. At one point, I looked up to see if I could spot any basswood trees by their outline. At that moment, a large hawk (I think a pale redtail) flew over. At times the path turned into a tunnel and I had to crouch or crawl through. I envied Moka, moving so easily through the low brush. Only once did I see a rub, on a tiny shrub stem (1/4" DBH) as I was crawling thhrough along the deer trail.

After a slow quarter mile we came to the NW corner of the fence, and a power
line cut I hadn't been aware of. That's a good landmark. Under the power lines, there were
several trails which looked too worn in to just be deer. The cut was a very pretty
meadow, with robins and chickadees feeding in the bushes and a flicker keeping watch from the
trees along the edge. It seemed so lively compared to the woods. On the far side of
the cut was a beech woods with some big trees and very little undergrowth. A creek ran
through it and it looked like an enchanted spot. If it hadn't been for the roar of the highway
150 yards beyond, it would have felt like a great place to camp. As it is, I have a
feeling Primitive Pursuits takes kids from the local middle school there after school. I was
definitely getting a "campsite" kind of vibe from it. If it's not the kids, maybe it was a camp
long ago. Anyway, I liked the spot, with the dry, reddish beech leaves underfoot and the
sun coming through the canopy.

We headed west now, down the power line, thinking about heading home. I thought
the power line would bring us out to the main road and from there I would know the
way. The sun was low and in our eyes. I couldn't see much and I didn't really want to be
out after dark, so I moved quickly. I gathered some dry, red-brown dogbane stalks as I
walked (I'm learning to always be harvesting if something useful presents itself) and
watched and listened for birds. I couldn't figure out what kind of trees the flicker kept
landing in, only that they weren't conifers.

We did come out where I thought we would, near Warren Road
(which parallels my street). I was going to head around the buildings to the road
although I knew walking on the shoulder wouldn't be very pleasant. Just then I realized that the stream I had seen in the beech grove was dammed here, making a nice little pond. I wonder why they dammed it. Then I noticed someone else visiting the pond. On the far side of the pond, 60 yards away, walked a whitetail buck. He didn't notice me until I moved to get my camera--then he became wary. I had Moka sit
right at my feet and we were downwind of him so I don't think he knew about her. He
walked cautiously until he was partly behind a treee--like a kid playing Camouflage,
and it was remarkably hard to see him even though he was only half-hidden (because his
outline was broken up and he seemed to have been absorbed into the tree. I moved closer, and
then he turned and put his tail up and trotted away, leaping over a pile of brush
into the woods. We followed, and discovered a deer trail heading in the direction of my house. I
thought it looked a lot more fun than the road, so we took it.

I quickly lost the trail and found myself struggling through a dense thicket of
honeysuckle, rose, goldenrod, and grapevine among scattered red pine trees. I made my way
along the tops of downed logs, treacherously slippery with the snow (which had melted
everywhere else we'd been but not on these logs). In this way I attempted to stay above the
thicket (since the only other choice was to crawl). The snow also meant the logs were
covered with squirrel tracks. It would have been fun to look closely at them but I was
starting to worry about the sun's imminent disappearance over the horizon. I wasn't cold, in fact
as I struggled through the thicket I got hot. It was frustrating, but the towering
pines were beautiful (they reminded me of Western pines, much more than the white pines
do) and I was enjoying the sunset colors in the sky. I felt very thankful
for the sun as a navigation aid; in that thicket it would be easy to get turned around and I
could well have gotten lost in what is really my own backyard. Eventually, we made it to a
place I knew, a trail that leads close by my sit spot.

Relieved, I followed the trail which comes and goes among maples and white
pines. Suddenly a Cooper's hawk flew over us, quite low. It was spectacular to see, and
very exciting to see it so close to my sit spot. A few minutes later we came out onto
the soccer field that borders my spot. There was still enough daylight for me to harvest
some of the crabapples I want to try drying. As I was picking the pretty yellow fruits from
the low branches on the edge of the field, I happened to turn around and there was the
moon,almost full, rising from behind Sapsucker Woods. A glorious way to end the day.

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thanks for the story. maybe you should catch a ride with us to our Dewitt program and see if you can walk home through the forest. I'm sure the kids would get a kick out of "losing" you.
if you bring in a branch "with some good leaf/branch scars we can key it out on Friday. also see if you can find any leaves or leaf stalks that go with it.