It’s been a month since my last visit to my spot at Centennial Brook in Centennial Woods and a few phenological changes have occurred. One reason for this change was the beautiful and warm weather today, February 24, of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The melting snow has made the area of the brook by the footbridge, which typically flows faster than other areas, very fast-moving and clear. The rocks at the bottom were clearly seen and had bubbles around the areas where the rocks stuck out. I also walked over to the backside of the brook where the water wasn’t flowing as fast and noticed how dirty the water was. In this area, the water was a muddy brown and had was very high in turbidity. The biggest change at my spot was that the Norway Maple tree had finally lost all of its leaves. The last time I visited there still was some leaves clutching onto the tree, but I suspect strong winds blew off the remaining leaves due to leaves scattering the forest floor. Lastly, there seemed to be a lot more human activity, most likely due to the warmer temperatures, because there were footprints all over my site. Even though this eliminated me from seeing many animal tracks, I was able to find scat for the first time! After a discussion with Michael McDonald on the scat found at my site, we came to the conclusion it was a raccoon. This was due to the size and visual appearance of the scat. The scat was about 2 inches long so it was very small but it did contain seeds and some fur. The scat also was shiny and uniform so it was clear the animal was getting nutrients from somewhere other than plants meaning that it ate other animals as well. After taking the size and composition into consideration we decided on a raccoon getting food from nearby trash. This would also make sense because raccoons “can most often be seen along streams in open forests” (Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, “Raccoons”). 

Raccoons are very intelligent animals and can make a home out of fallen tree trunks, holes in trees or burrows that other animals have abandoned. As I mentioned earlier in the post, they tend to prefer living near water and this is due to their habit of “washing” their food before they eat it. The predators of raccoons are cougars, bobcats, coyotes, and domestic dogs (Washington Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, “Raccoons”). It is almost peak mating season for raccoons where 2-3 kits are born and remain in the den for 7 weeks. During the day raccoons can be seen sleeping around in nearby trees as well. Raccoons are nocturnal so they hunt and eat during the night. The raccoon eats almost everything like insects, crayfish, wild grains, fruit, and birds but it sometimes it rarely can catch young gophers, squirrels, mice, and rats (Vermont Fisheries and Wildlife, “Raccoon”). This means that the raccoon I found could have been interacting with many different species. Since there was fur in my raccoon scat that I found and after researching what they eat, I am guessing my raccoon came in contact with a squirrel. In Centennial Woods, the grey squirrel is extremely common and I have seen it many times. Additionally, in my visit, I was able to see squirrel scat that I identified with my pocket guide. This showed me that the raccoon and squirrels are in the same area as the feces were less than one foot apart. Another animal the raccoon could have come in contact with is the white-tailed deer. This is because the raccoon scat was found by the brook and I know deer will come to the area to drink water. Also, I have found deer tracks around the brook in previous visits so I know for sure that they are present in the area. Even though deer are more active during the day there are possibilities that the raccoon and deer have been in the same place during dawn and dusk hours.

Sources:

Vermont Fisheries and Wildlife. (n.d.). Raccoon. Retrieved February 27, 2020, from https://vtfishandwildlife.com/learn-more/vermont-critters/mammals/raccoon

Washington Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (Ed.). (n.d.). Raccoons. Retrieved from https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/procyon-lotor#conflict