The Woodsman's Journal Online: Clue -- The Woodland Edition©

Parker Brothers CLUE Board Game, circa 1972

Do you remember playing Clue? I haven’t played that game for years, even though it was a favorite of mine as a kid. But I was out in the woods the other day, and I thought I would play a game of Clue -- The Woodland Edition. How about you, would you like to play too?

The crime scene and the body of poor Professor Squirrel, photograph by the Author.

While I was out walking the other day, I found the remains of poor Professor Squirrel, who had been brutally murdered, and worse, he’d been almost completely devoured!

Professor Squirrel, on a better day, from Wikimedia, HERE.

So, who do you think killed Professor Squirrel, in the woods, near the creek? Was it Dr. Owl and the owl gang, Mrs. Red T. Hawk, or that ruthless gangland enforcer, The Coyote?

The gallery of suspects, Dr. Owl, Mrs. Red T. Hawk and The Coyote! Photographs from Wikimedia¹

The Clues...

So, what does the crime scene tell us? What clues did the killer leave that will allow us to pin the blame squarely on him or her?

Tracks in the snow...

First off, there are no dog-like tracks anywhere near Professor Squirrel’s corpse. If it had been The Coyote who had killed and eaten his old enemy, then there would have been coyote tracks around the corpse, so we know it couldn’t have been The Coyote. He is off the hook...this time!

This time it isn’t The Coyote! “An eastern coyote in a Connecticut forest”, from Wikimedia, HERE.

Hmmm... so, let’s take a closer look at the crime scene, what other clues are there and what do they tell us

Feather marks and the body of poor Professor Squirrel, with wing marks on the left and tail marks on the right. Photograph by the Author.

An excerpt from A Guide to Nature in Winter, by Donald Stokes.

While there aren’t any paw or footprints of any sort, near the unfortunate and recently deceased Professor Squirrel, there are wing prints! Just as we thought, the guilty culprit must be either Doctor Owl or Mrs. Hawk, but which one is it? Are there any clues which can help us decide which one of them is the guilty culprit? Yes, yes there are!

The freshness of the crime scene and the time of day...

A zoomed in view of the feather marks and the Professor’s eye, photograph by the Author.

I came upon the crime scene at about 5:00 p.m., on the 30^th of January², it was just before dusk, on a cold day which had reached a high of 21^o F (-6^o C), a day that had been beautifully sunny, with no snow or any wind to speak of. The feather marks were still crisp and fresh, which means that they hadn’t been there very long, because if they had been, the Sun would have blurred and enlarged the marks. Also, Professor Squirrel’s open left eye wasn’t filmed over or sunken in, and there wasn’t any frost on his cornea, this is another clue that the crime scene was fresh.

So, we know that Professor Squirrel must have been killed during the afternoon. Now owls and hawks both will eat squirrels, who are most active during the day, although they can be found at both the dusk and dawn. But owls are crepuscular and nocturnal, meaning that they are most active at dusk, dawn and the nighttime hours, and hawks, just like squirrels, are diurnal, meaning that they are most active during the daylight hours.

So, it appears that Dr. Owl and the rest of the owl gang are innocent, at least of this crime!

It’s not Dr Owl and the rest of the owl gang! From Wikimedia, “Barred Owl hunting in winter”, HERE.

Wingspan...

Red-tailed hawks are common birds of prey where I live, and I see them often along the creek where I found the remains of Professor Squirrel. That is why I at once guessed that it was Mrs. Hawk who did the deed. And there is one more clue that can help us prove that it was Mrs. Red T. Hawk, who did in the unfortunate Professor Squirrel. Wingspan!

“But how can you tell the wingspan of a bird from a snow-covered crime scene”, you ask? Good question! By scaling the photograph!

Photograph by the Author.

To scale a picture, you must measure a couple of things and then use some math to compare them. In this case, I measured the length of Professor Squirrel’s tail in my crime scene photo, at 40% magnification, and came up with a length of 3-1/2 inches (8.75 cm). Then I compared this with the distance from the Professor Squirrel’s body to the edge of the feather marks, which at 40% magnification, was 10 inches (25 cm).

Also, you need know the average length of a squirrel’s tail which is 8-10 inches (20 to 25 cm) long³. After that, taking the ratio of the length of the Professor Squirrel’s tail in the picture, to the average length of a squirrel’s tail, which is 9 inches (23 cm) long, and comparing it to the distance of the feather marks in the picture, 10 inches (25 cm), gives us a length of 25.7 inches (65.3 cm). Then to get the total length of the wingspan we multiply this distance by two, getting a total wingspan of 51.4 inches (130.5 cm). This length is within the average wingspan of a red-tail hawk which is 44.9 to 52.4 inches (114 to133 cm).

The math for scaling the photograph and figuring out the wingspan, graphic by the Author.

So, now we know that the murderer of Professor Squirrel was none other Mrs. Red T. Hawk!

The guilty culprit, Mrs. Red T. Hawk. From Wikimedia, by Don Green, HERE.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Skinning a Couch...Say What?! ©”, where we will talk about skinning a couch and finding urban leather.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ From Wikimedia, “Barred Owl hunting in winter”, HERE; “A Red-tailed Hawk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, Pennsylvania, USA”, HERE; and “An eastern coyote in a Connecticut forest”, HERE.

²There had been no snow all day long, the winds had been light, and it had been mostly sunny.

From Timeanddate, “Past Weather in Buffalo, New York, USA — January 2022

³ “Mammals of the Adirondacks: Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)”, by Wild Adirondacks

Sources

Stokes, Donald W.; A Guide to Nature in Winter: Northeast and North Central North America, [Little Brown & Company, New York, New York, 1976] p. 271-296

Timeanddate, “Past Weather in Buffalo, New York, USA — January 2022”, [© Time and Date AS 1995–2022], https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/buffalo/historic?month=1&year=2022, accessed February 5, 2022

Wild Adirondacks; “Mammals of the Adirondacks: Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)”, [© 2022 Wild Adirondacks], https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-mammals-gray-squirrel-sciurus-carolinensis.html#:~:text=Gray%20Squirrels%20are%20medium%2Dsized,between%201%20and%201%C2%BD%20pounds, accessed February 5, 2022

Wikimedia, “A Red-tailed Hawk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, Pennsylvania, USA”, by Mark Bohn of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, August 13, 2010, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buteo_jamaicensis_-John_Heinz_National_Wildlife_Refuge_at_Tinicum,_Pennsylvania,_USA-8.jpg, February 5, 2022

Wikimedia, “An eastern coyote in a Connecticut forest”, by John Stockla, October 21, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eastern_Coyote_in_Connecticut.jpg, accessed February 5, 2022

Wikimedia, “Barred Owl hunting in winter”, by David Hemmings, December 11, 2009

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barred_2010_3_web.jpg, accessed February 5, 2022

Wikimedia, “Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA”, October 21, 2012, by Diego Delso, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Ardilla_gris_oriental_%28Sciurus_carolinensis%29%2C_Grant_Park%2C_Chicago%2C_Illinois%2C_Estados_Unidos%2C_2012-10-20%2C_DD_08.jpg, accessed February 12, 2022

Wikimedia, “Red-tail hawk”, by Don Green, February 8, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red-tail_hawk_(50943692853).jpg, accessed February 5, 2022