This April Carpenter Nature Center lost a friend, a colleague and a member of our CNC family. Phil Gruis tended Carpenter Nature Center’s orchard for more than twenty years, where he thrived in the behind-the-scenes duties required to bring a good product to market every fall. He knew first-hand the difficult work that is required to grow quality apples without relying on pesticides. Phil took great pride in CNC’s apples and had an in-depth knowledge of apple varieties, their characteristics and their best uses. Phil enjoyed sharing his wisdom with CNC’s customers. Visitors to the Apple Shack were fortunate to find him behind the counter as he could easily produce a smile or a chuckle with his wry sense of humor and good-natured teasing.

John McPherson, CNC’s horticulturist, had the privilege of working closely with Phil for the last twelve years. “This orchard was his home away from home. Over the years I’ve spent countless hours with Phil pruning and planting trees, hand-thinning and grading apples, and of course enjoying a little ping pong now and then. What I will miss most is our conversations. I may have been his mentor in the orchard, but in many ways he was my mentor in history, philosophy, music, sports, religion, politics and life in general. Yes-Phil could be ornery, but people who really got to know him and understand where he was coming from know what a good man he was. We will truly miss his presence among us.”  

Thank you Phil for sharing your wisdom, humor and passion for nature with us for so many years. We are all grateful for the time we spent with you and will miss you.

Tried a new tactic with the game cam to see if I could get some picts of the eagles – put out some fish that were donated last year for our program eagle (but he trains better on rat than fish.)  Didn’t get any photos of eagles but did get some photos of interest.

Below is a pair of Red-tailed Hawks

And there were plenty of picts of turkey vultures

And then there was a real turkey

Here is an interesting photo of a Red-tail and a Crow sharing

Even got a coyote looking for scraps

Here are some more photos from the game camera overlooking a deer carcass.  The crows are ever-present and the great-horned owl is a regular at night while a red-tailed hawk is a consistent diurnal diner.  It took awhile for the coyotes to find the carcass but since finding it they have been regular visitors.

Here is the first photo of a coyote investigating the deer carcass.  Look hard, it is off in the distance, you can see it’s eyes glowing.

The coyote paced back and forth for quite some time

It seemed very cautious about approaching the carcass.

Finally, it got up the courage to eat – later in the evening.

Since then coyotes have been regular visitors to the carcass.

Obviously there is a problem with the temperature on the above photo.

Here is a curious situation of two coyotes at the carcass at the same time.

Here are some more photos of carcass visitors including coyotes, foxes, and a crow pretending to be an eagle.

We positioned some road killed deer on CNC property and set up a game camera nearby so we could identify what animals were feeding and making tracks near the carcasses.  Below are some photos of the critters caught checking out the carcasses.  The pictures appear different because I am re-positioning the camera and the carcasses to get good lighting and better photos.

Here is a red-tailed hawk

Below is a rough-legged hawk

Below is the red-tailed hawk again but with an unwelcomed dinner guest

Below is a great-horned owl that visited the carcass on three consecutive nights

Below is a very cautious gray fox

And below is a cautious and handsome red fox.  Just bad luck with the timing and the shadow.

And finally I was able to get an eagle

And here are some eyeballs shining in the dark; they might be Jawas from Star Wars

Here is the Great Horned Owl again, carrying off a deer leg