A Year in the Forest

The big patch of Jack O Lantern mushrooms is getting even bigger and new patches are sprouting up all over the place.  Too bad they are poisonous and nothing will eat them.  It doesn’t appear that even bugs have much to do with them.  The Oyster mushrooms, however, are a different story.  They only get about the size of a quarter now and are promptly eaten by some wildlife.  I suspect either raccoons or deer.

Despite recent rain showers it is really dry around here.  Last week Karen and I were concerned about the wildlife and set out some buckets of water.  The buckets set there untouched for a few days, not anymore.  The wildlife have found them – yesterday one 5 gallon bucket had all but about a gallon gone.  I filled it up yesterday evening and this morning it is only about 1/2 full.  Something has a mighty thirst.

I encountered something I have never seen before.  I found a big nest of yellow jacket wasps in the ground and did not have enough bug spray to take care of them.  I saw at least 200 wasps around this nest.  Things happened and I did not get the chance to go back and take care of the nest for a few days and when I did go back, to my surprise something had beaten me to it.  There was nothing but a big hole in the ground. The nest had been dug up and all the wasps were gone.  I was not aware of anything doing this.  I wonder what dug up and ate the wasps.  Was it a raccoon, fox, opossum?  I don’t know.  (EDIT) I did a litle research and found the most likely animal to eat the wasps was a badger.  We don’t have badgers around here.  The next most likely is a skunk – we have skunks.  After skunks its racoons – we have racoons.  Still don’t know what it was but I am thankful.