Fiddler Crab Burrows

Near the high tide line on the north edge of Sag Harbor Cove, a bunch of crab holes, that I think are fiddler crab.  Oblique tunnels, very tidy entrances.  This is an amazing video showing male fiddlers eating on the shore.  How weird to spend life walking sideways!  This is a photo of the trails fiddlers leave behind them.  Looks like mad sewing machines loose on the beach.

The sandy pellets seen below are excavated sand from plugged entrances.  As the tide rises, the crabs plug up the entrances to their burrows with sand, which they then roll back out as the tide recedes.

Squirrel Tapping Maple Tree for Sap

Squirrel species tap maples and other trees for sap, just like we do.  These taps were probably done by a grey squirrel.  Note the fresh sap running out of the wounds.

This is what a tap from previous seasons looks like.  Note the diagnositc dot-dash format, caused by one set of incisors anchoring the jaw, and the others scraping the bark.

Mouse Tupelo Seed Midden

Tucked in a very secure cave of pricker bushes, (catbriar and multiflora rose)  a mouse has taken advantage of an excellent tupelo mast year.  Note that most have two holes, a larger hole at one end, and a much smaller one at the other, where the tiny teeth gained access to the nut meat.. 

Southern Flying Squirrel Latrine

Further proof of  Southern Flying Squirrel presence on the South Fork. This good size latrine was found spilled out of a sawed tree trunk in the Long Pond Greenbelt.  The squirrrels live communally, especially in the cold weather,  inside hollowed out tree trunks.  Separate chambers in the same tree are used for latrines.   Here is a video of a pet flying squirrel eating a cicada. 

 

Rabbit and Rat in Snow

Across frozen kettleholes, a lot rat activity, and eastern cottontail.  The cottontail is heading right, and the rat is heading left. 

 

 

Grey Squirrel Scat

This crusty frozen snow surface has made it possible to identify without doubt grey squirrel scat.  My back yard is full of the stuff.   A great setting for finding hairs too, as is shown in the journal page.