(Dead) Flesh Eating Beetle

I was walking toward the front door of my cabin when I saw a rock move... like the rock was actually crawling. When I got closer I smelled the wiff of sick decay and saw a dead rotted mouse part way under the rock, pushing the rock to the side revealed a host of bugs - what I like to call the 'clean up crew'. One beetle really stood out and that is because it does not have the typical appearance of a dead animal eater... like maggots or other tiny parasites - instead it is a striking colorful beetle with orange and black wings and spiral shaped antenna.

The beetle is known as the American Burying Beetle, and is so large that on/inside this lil' dead mouse they almost made it look at though it was still alive, as if the mouse was their puppet -it's dead carcass squirmed and crawled.

**

Here are some cool science facts about this flesh eatin' beetle::::
**These carrion beetles eat dead animals—mice, birds or other creatures. Using organs located on the tips of their antennae, the beetles can smell dead animal carcasses from far away. They fly to the carrion, prepare it and lay eggs nearby. The carrion is later consumed by the beetles’ larvae.
**Federally listed as Endangered.
**It is one of the few beetles in which both parents care for the young. It is also useful to study its response to a changing ecosystem.
**These scavengers perform a valuable if not glorious service to the natural community by burying dead animals and then consuming them.

(Read More HERE.)

I have seen the Burying Beetle eat cat food, and rest on top old toad stool mushrooms too. :)

Xoxoxox

Bort, Bones and Acorns

There's things I like about walking in the woods, specific things that are hard to ever describe in any human words - it's something that only connects with your own soul or another soul standing there with you... a soul who might be looking too. Not everyone looks, at least not in the same way.
Not everyone sees everything there, which is why I have always loved to walk with another person, another set of eyes with me so that the discoveries double, the moments are shared, the rest of the world & my own problems disappear. I forget, just about everything.
Bort has been my closest nature friend for what seems like a lifetime but is a blink of a dinosaur eye in history, today we walked aimlessly but began collecting things. First I thought I would collect some small trees for a Barnyard project...
but then Bort saw the bones.
He found a skull, some teeth, some claws, the jaw bones... we tried guessing the skull was of something like a raccoon, we tried guessing who mighta' ate it since there was also a cracked snail shell there, and animal tracks & trails. Bort mentioned an owl eating while dropping things high up in the trees, i wondered about what was the biggest animal an owl could eat.
Then I found the spine bones up a few feet...

I sometimes think if i had snacks (aka enough food) I could spend forever in the woods. Then again... I suppose I do.

In the same area we found the BIGGEST most magnificent acorns I have ever seen - so healthy, so plump and perfect. Hardly a rotten one. A neighbor later drove up as we came down the hill with our bag full of acorns, and said that lots of acorns meant a harsh winter. I can only hope this year i have worked as hard as a squirrel to be prepared.

(BTW- we plan to dry and cook these acorns! read more about it HERE.)

OUR COLLECTION(S) ::::::

I would like to use the tiny bones to make decorations for my baskets or jewelry. And to be in awe of how pretty they are.

The acorns, will be for food (upcoming post soon!).

Xoxoxo