North American Porcupines in Maine

These photos are from an old post I made back in November, 2012. As we often see porcupines in the woods and crossing the trail in autumn, I thought I'd write about them now. 

We saw this one while on a walk through a woodland in our neck of the woods. Porcupines prefer mixed or coniferous forests. Their winter range is about 6 acres in our area. They are generally solitary animals but might den together in wintertime.

Porcupines are the third largest rodent in the world, behind the capybara and the beaver. The North American porcupine has an average body length of 24"-36" and body weights between 7.7 lbs to 39.7 lbs.

What surprised us was the dirt mound he was standing on. We don't know what the purpose of it was, but I have read that porcupines bury the bones of other animals that they find in the woods, so maybe this is a burial mound??? 

Porcupines eat wood vegetation in winter, particularly inner cambium, buds, and needles of white pine (and especially hemlock in the northeast), and bark of sugar maple and birch trees. In summertime, they add fruits, seeds, nuts and the leaves of aspen, elm, basswood, and birch to their diet. Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

Den sites, especially long-used sites, are recognized by piles of droppings, and may include a rocky cavern of ledge, a hollow log, an abandoned fox or beaver den, and even abandoned buildings.  Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

The quills are modified hairs coated with thick plates of Keratin, and they are embedded in the skin. Quills are released by contact with them, or they may drop out when the porcupine shakes its body. Porcupines cannot shoot attackers with quills (like projectiles) as many people think. They will loosen the quills then swing their tail toward their attacker. There are tiny barbs on the tip of the quill that allow the quill to be embedded into the attacker's skin and are difficult to remove.

This is a riveting 16 second clip of the porcupine chewing on some vegetation. All you can really see are his quills quivering during the super slow chewing action. I was quivering as well as it was about 30F outside;-)

African Crested porcupine quill collected by Gary Haines
North American porcupine quills collected by Laurie Haines

And here is a photo of the difference between the quill length of the North American porcupine quills (3.5" long) versus an African Crested porcupine quill (10.5" long.) The crested porcupine has an average body length of 24"-33", and weights from between 29 lbs to 60 lbs. They tend to charge their disturber back end first trying to stab them with their thicker, shorter quills.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_porcupine

Gee...so how do you remove a quill from your skin if you happen upon an angry porcupine? Pull the quill out very carefully with pliers (regular and needle-nosed.) Firmly grasp the base of the quill near the skin, but be careful not to break the quill. Pull the quill straight out in a rapid motion, at the same angle as the quill went in. Disinfect with hydrogen peroxide, then put antibiotic ointment on the wounds. See a doctor and get a rabies shot if necessary.

NOTE: DO NOT CUT THE END OF THE QUILL BEFORE REMOVAL. THIS MIGHT SPLINTER THE QUILL AND MAKE REMOVAL MORE DIFFICULT. AND, NEVER USE YOUR HANDS TO REMOVE THE QUILLS AS THE BARBS MAY IRRITATE YOUR SKIN.

The first measurable snowfall of the 2025-2026 season

We got 7.5" of light, somewhat fluffy snow yesterday and into the early morning hours today. Here is our snow measuring table within the vegetable garden area in the front yard.

And, here is the snow covered bird feeding area on the south side of the house.

Kindergarten Blue Trail and deer tracks in the snow

After 7.5 inches of snow, the trees and trail were so pretty today, on Woods Wednesday. 

The pine boughs are heavily laden with snow which makes the trail even more picturesque.

The kids had lots of fun following the Blue Trail to the forest classroom.

On my way back to the school parking lot, I decided to blaze my own trail along the top of the athletic fields next to the forest. There I found numerous white-tailed deer trails crisscrossing each other and then continuing on the other side of the fence.

This is such a busy deer highway! We are thinking of setting up a game camera some weekend to see how many deer travel out in the open at night.

Who's Using Our Trail? A Kindergarten Forest Classroom Investigation

Our local elementary kindergarten classes have a forest classroom and we have a blue-blazed trail that runs through the woods to it. The trail we created is an active game trail which we modified a tiny bit for our weekly trek on Woods Wednesday. The trail is covered by leaves and also has many ancient rotting stumps under the surface. This makes for a slightly soft feel underfoot and is not conducive to animal tracks being visible. And, since many of the animals that use the trail use it at night, we set out a game camera to capture Who's Using Our Trail! Volunteering is fun!

Drought Update

This is from Meteorologist Ryan Breton of WCSH6. 

We are still in extreme drought. UGH! We just cannot seem to get more that a few hundredths of an inch of rain at a time, anymore.

Plants are still blooming and Caesar Pond is ice covered

Oh my goodness...I have never seen the Red Elderberry blooming in mid-November! Here are flower buds that are thinking of opening.

And, here is a gorgeous flower cluster. There is one other flower cluster on a different branch. There are no leaves on the branches except where the flowers are.

And, the Stella d'oro daylily is still trying to bloom. 

This is crazy! At the same time, Caesar Pond has had ice on it for two days in a row as the nighttime temperatures are below freezing. 

I love when the pond ices over and the sun's reflection is on the ice. We will probably see lots of thawing and freezing cycles until it finally freezes over for good, for the winter season, probably in January.

A dusting of snow

We have had a few dustings of snow in November. Nothing measurable. This is what a dusting looks like.

Nov 10th rain

We got 1" of rain yesterday into the evening, with a few torrential downpours thrown in. That brings us to 1.48"/5.19" (historical ave) for November thus far.

Nov 6 and Nov 8 rain

We got just a tad of rain on Nov. 6th and Nov. 8th: 0.15" + 0.12" respectively. That brings us to 0.48" in November thus far! Whoo Hooo! I am being a bit facetious here... But, there is more rain to come.

Planted 21 cloves of garlic today

I chose the 3 largest of the bulbs of garlic, with the largest cloves, and planted 21 cloves in my garlic bed. Before planting the cloves, I refreshed the soil with some compost and some humus. The cloves were planted 4" deep, then covered with soil. We then raked two piles of leaves which Drew then mulched and put on top of the soil. This is weighted down with wire fencing to hold it all in place throughout the winter. The leaves then become part of the soil for summer.