November Nature Sightings

Following October’s average temperatures, which registered five degrees Fahrenheit above normal for the month, the National Weather Service’s preliminary data for November shows temperatures dropping back to normal, as registered at the NOAA station in Islip.

Yet among the interesting nature sightings this month were two reptiles that should have been in their respective hibernacula by now.

On November 15, Paul Frediani reported a hatchling box turtle in his Springs driveway, its shell still soft and pliable, and the yolk scar quite visible, indications that it had just recently emerged from the nest its mother had dug earlier in the summer.

And on November 24, while searching for coyote sign on the North Fork, I came across a garter snake basking in the midday sun. Hopefully, both have found their way to safe wintering quarters by now.

Sometime on the night of November 14, at a site on Long Island where a pair of coyotes established a territory last year and gave birth to four pups this past spring, a deer was taken down by one or more of the coyote family. The freshly killed carcass was discovered in the morning by a colleague who noticed a bald eagle and a raven feeding on something in a large meadow. Closer inspection revealed a doe with its hind quarters opened and pieces of several exposed ribs chewed off.

The coyote family (it appears that only one pup remained with the adults, the other three having dispersed this month) visited the carcass over the next three nights, first consuming all the organs except the stomach and then dining on muscle meat. With a little help from birds of prey during the daylight hours, they made quick work of the small doe.

By the fourth day, after a combination of feeding and caching (coyotes are known to cache parts of prey), all that remained were the doe’s ribs and vertebrae.

With the help of Jenn Murray, I came across a completely different picture at another coyote site.

In this case, a large buck succumbed to epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), and there was no sign at all of any scavenging of the carcass by eagles, vultures, foxes or coyotes known to be in the area. Although the State Department of Environmental Conservation website states, “The dead deer do not serve as a source of infection for other animals,” it is interesting that the warm-blooded scavengers steered clear of it.

This relatively new to Long Island virus is transmitted by a small biting midge, commonly known as the “no-see-um.” Infected deer often seek out freshwater, and this carcass lay at the edge of a buttonbush swamp. While the carcass showed no signs of scavenging by birds or mammals, it appeared to be rapidly decomposing, possibly due to insects and other small creatures in the soil community.

There is no known treatment for this disease. For more information on EHD and to report possible cases to the DEC, please visit dec.ny.gov/animals/123773.html.