A Whistle Pig or a Woodcharlene?

I’ve been enjoying the little tubby presence of our backyard woodchuck.  He’s out a lot in the evenings chomping on our grass, and at the slightest sound will run back to his den underneath our shed, his rolls of fat rippling as he skedaddles.  He’ll also sit up like a prairie dog and sniff for signs of danger.

Our neighbors told me that there is a difference between a groundhog and a woodchuck, and what we had was a groundhog, but I looked it up and they were wrong.  A groundhog and a woodchuck are the same beast and are occasionally known as a whistle pig, since they will whistle to alert other woodchucks of impending danger!  Now I want to hear our guy whistle!

One article I read also pointed out that a woodchuck has nothing to do with wood (and therefore a female is NOT a woodcharlene, much though that made me snicker); their name comes from “wuchak” which is what the Algonquins and Narragansetts called them.

Although this article admonished the reader for wanting to call a female a woodcharlene, the author did say that it was correct to refer to a male as a he-chuck and a female as a she-chuck.  However, since I have no idea what the gender of our tenant is, that doesn’t help me much.  I’m keeping an eye out for the appearance of cubs, which would clue me into realizing my moppet is a she-chuck.  But then I’d worry about Dorothy getting ahold of a cub, and whereas Dorothy doesn’t seem to have a big prey drive, I don’t want to put that to the test with a little brown bundle of furbaby. 

In the meantime I am enjoying peeking out my window in the evenings and watching the fellow enjoy his salad.

Owl Post

I think someone might be trying to send me a message via owl post.  I’d test my theory by leaving a window open at night so as to receive the missive, except that stink bugs and mosquitoes are also trying to leave me a “message,” and can be found at any given time hovering on the other side of my screens.  So the screens will stay down, thank you very much.

But anyway, last fall Sean and I were awakened by the strange trillings of what we later figured out was an Eastern Screech Owl.  We didn’t actually see the owl (it was of course always late at night when we heard it), but for a couple of weeks it would make its sound close by our house.  Then Saturday night I was up nursing Owen at 4 and I heard what I thought was someone whistling on our property.  I listened as the little tune changed and got closer, and then I began to find the whole thing a bit creepy—for why would someone be walking near our house and whistling at 4 in the morning, if not to execute some nefarious plan? 

Sean heard the whistling too, however, and he was able to figure out that it was coming from high up in a tree.  I did some you-tube sleuthing and finally found a recording of the EXACT strange little whistling tune—and it was a great horned owl!

The whole episode pleases me way more than it should.  Two owls!  Hovering nearby our very own house!  I even think I might go search under the tree for pellets!

Plum thinking, what kind of moron whistles

a stupid little tune in the middle of the night?

A Woodland Critter

Our backyard rabbit, Peter, seems to have vacated the premises.  He did that last year, too -- he was in our yard for May and June and then mostly gone in July and August.  We did see a large rabbit on our driveway this week, but I don't think it was the same Peter.

A few days, ago, however, we noticed that we have a new visitor!  And he seems to have set up a pied a terre under our garden shed.  The other day Sean was able to get a good photo of the fine fellow:

Welcome!  We don't really have a garden in the backyard yet, so he is welcome to munch on whatever he can find there.  Our elderberries are beginning to ripen, and I've noticed that the birds are all devouring them.  At one point I had thoughts of making an elderberry crumble or buckle or grunt, but ennui is causing me to be generous to the birds.  Berry away, my fine feathered friends!