Porcupine den

On Wednesday, March 4th, we headed out to our roadside pond to cut some firewood. The beavers had flooded the area a couple years ago and killed off a bunch of trees. I got the bright idea that while the snow was crusty, to have Dad cut some of the trees into lengths, and I could drag them to the road. To one side of the pond are some rock outcroppings, ever since I can remember

there's been a porcupine or two using the sheltered spaces for dens. While Dad got started cutting a fallen ash tree on the hillside, I clambered over the rocks to check to see if there was any sign of porky.

There were tracks, fresh droppings...and the tail of a live porcupine. You can see how it would be well protected from predators with only the backside and quills protruding. I didn't have time to investigate further, had to get back to the chores.

Here is my father, carrying a log over his shoulder, chainsaw in the other hand. The man is 84 years old. I hope I'm in half as good a shape at that age!

We made sure we left the larger "nesting trees" for the birds. There were a couple of fallen trees on the hillside that were a bit too rotton for firewood, I had Dad cut those into 6 foot lengths and hauled them onto the ice. I set them up in strategic positions with one end that would rest on something solid. Hopefully when the ice melts these pieces will settle into a position that provides sunning perches for turtles. This is one of my favourite ponds, there are plenty of wood frogs living here.