Pennsylvania Game News - June 2021 - 62

A porcupine mother has a different
approach to caring for her offspring. Her
porcupette follows her when she goes off
into the night to forage, lying down at the
base of mom's feeding tree to wait. During the day, while mom sleeps high in a
tree, the porcupette stays hidden under
logs or in the base of a tree nearby. But
after six weeks, the porcupette travels off
and finds different trees to rest in during
the day, and the mother travels to find her
porcupette every night.
Often, they forage together.
Here on our mountain, we see porcupettes wandering around on their
own during the day. Last June 14, one
walked out in front of me, appearing to
eat gravel off our hollow road. Since porcupines crave salt, especially in spring, I
thought that might be what it was after.
Even though we never put salt on our private road, we drive on salted roads and it
could come back on our vehicles.
Several researchers over the years
have watched porcupines lick or try to
eat salt-encrusted ground, or even chew
on wood or animal bones that were impregnated with salt.
The porcupette at last sensed my silent scrutiny and looked up, then retreated to the stream bank and belly-flopped
into the greenery, thinking it was hidden.
When I returned to the spot later, it was
gone. I assumed its mother was sleeping
and the porcupette had been left on its
own.
Bird parenting includes many strategies. One June morning, I tried to sit on
Alan's Bench at the edge of the Norway
spruce grove and was heartily scolded
by a pair of birds hidden in the spruces.
Finally, I stood up, looked around, and
caught a glimpse of one of them - a
brown thrasher. It must have had a nest
62

somewhere on the ground, in the thick
brush near the bench.
That same day I made a stop at Coyote
Bench on the Far Field Road. I watched
what looked like a young black-andwhite warbler foraging in the trees. Then
there was scolding behind me as a male
black-and-white appeared with a caterpillar in its beak. It flew from branch to
grapevine, back and forth, then flew off.
Next, a female black-and-white flew in,
also carrying food. It wasn't as brightlycolored as the male, nor as dull-colored
as the first bird I saw.
From this I assumed the black-andwhite warblers had been feeding at least
one fledgling hidden in the tangle of
shrubs and vines.
The Norway spruce grove remained
the center of bird family activity.
On June 17, a chipping sparrow
emerged from a cluster of spruces with
a large, green caterpillar in its beak. Both
that chipping sparrow and another flew
around as if they had a nest somewhere
near the edge of the grove.
And late in June, I watched for several days as a family of black-capped
chickadees fed their fledged young on a
tangle of large fallen spruce trees, where
I'd find all of them foraging in coming
days. Unlike the many of the other birds,
they didn't act with alarm as I sat nearby.
Then, near the end of June, Guesthouse Trail became a center for concerned bird parents. One morning I heard
a chirr, chirr, chirr from a Cooper's hawk
that dove low at me, first from one side
of the trail and then the other. Assuming
it had a nest in the area, I noticed its protests grew louder if a followed a deer trail
in one direction, but quieter if I went in
the other. I peered into every large treetop, but could not find the nest.
I wasn't worried about aggression

Pennsylvania Game News - June 2021

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