Plants and Animals Look for this furry, rare Missouri resident
in woodlands before daylight. I arrived at the woodland an hour
before daylight and found a comfortable spot to watch the
morning unfold. A prescribed burn had left the forest floor more
open than the week before, providing an abundance of
photographic shooting lanes. It was dead calm and pitch-dark as
I plopped down on my camouflaged cushion, back against a
familiar hickory snag. A great-horned owl began calling softly
as I settled in. As the aroma of the charred forest floor wafted
around me, I was reminded of why Robert Frost wrote so
eloquently of “woods.” As I began to doze, I was startled by
rustling in the leaves, right at my feet. It was too dark to see
anything so I just sat, curious. Soon the rustling was
accompanied by grunts and squeaks. I eagerly waited for the
forest floor to materialize. Minutes later, the first glow of
morning illuminated the source of the racket: woodland voles
(Microtus pinetorum). I watched as they scurried all