What kind of animal is doing this?

[arc]

I have always been easily distracted when doing my yard work. Stopping to to watch a spider or ant, birds or squirrels or any critter that catches my eye or even ear, as it was with the two frogs that were croaking from my brush pile yesterday. We played "Marco" . . . "Polo" for 15 minutes, never did see either one of them.

 

A mystery that I indulge in every fall takes place in the gravel area in front of my home shop. I noticed 10 or so years ago that the needles from a nearby pine tree, that have been distributed over the area, eventually will begin to cluster into piles. It can get rather windy here so the supply of these needles stays pretty consistent in the fall season.

The needle piles are in the background between the brush pile and the red and white barn door. Notice there are no needle piles in the foreground. There are plenty of needles there but they are spread out evenly with no sign of piling. The very thin grass is the only apparent difference between the two areas.

I initially thought it was the wind. The needles appear rather like a propeller blade. They are bifurcated and each blade has a twist to its axis. It seamed reasonable they could end up in circular piles.

The real twist to this mystery (pun) was the needles started to slowly, over the weeks, to work their way into the ground in the center of the pile.

And then after awhile:

And then:

OK, its probably not wind.

 

Some facts:

Needles are always with the points outward.

As the needle count increases the dirt mound grows in proportion.

None of the needles that have been in for any length of time show any sign of being chewed on.

 

Hypothesis A. It is earthworms. They start out sort of even, extending out at night and pulling as much of the needles towards their burrow as they can. Its a hoard. They will only extend out to a point to where they can quickly pull themselves back in at the sign of danger. They are out to dominate their area of reach that may overlap into another one's area. The more you pile in your area the less your competition has to eat and the slower they will grow.

 

The smaller and the slower get squeezed out as their hoard gets stolen by the surrounding competition who became bigger quicker. They can steal the needles right out of the top of your mound but theirs are likely out of your shorter reach. The ones on the outside edge of the area should have the greater advantage. As time goes by the space between the growing mounds becomes wider as the little guys get squeezed out. The needles are positioned "points outward" because either they can be pulled down deep into the burrow without snagging on the way down, or that the bulbous end is easier to hold on to.

 

Hypothesis B. is its some kind of beetle or larvae.

 

I'm betting on earthworms. This link isn't scientific but It'll work for now.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/country-living-forums/gardening-plant-propagation/137590-earthworms-everywhere.html

"I noticed that after every rain, I had pine needles and other debris sticking up out of holes in the ground. I found out it was earthworms pulling the debris down in the holes."

 

I had always thought the worms dietary materials needed to be more decomposed and softer. These needles were being hoarded two months ago and they are still quite tough.

 

[Acme]

If you have been having cycles of freezing weather it may be frost heave.

If you have been having cycles of freezing weather it may be frost heave.

PS IIRC you're right across the river from me so I know you have had some freeze cycles. I regulary observe this phenom in my garden, sans the needles. It's freezing tonight (30ºF right now) so get up early and go out & look for ice crystals in your little piles.

.

Addendum: I used to have pictures that I took but just searched and they're nowhere to be found. This one from Wiki will have to suffice.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Acme

[arc]

 

Yes, thanks Acme. I thought they looked similar also. They started before the weather became that low. When you get down and pull the top off they look just like the standard old worm pile that you are referring to. I guess I'm surprised at their adaptability.

[Acme]

Yes, thanks Acme. I thought they looked similar also. They started before the weather became that low. When you get down and pull the top off they look just like the standard old worm pile that you are referring to. I guess I'm surprised at their adaptability.

I don't understand. ?? I am not referring to worm piles. Frost heave has nothing to do with animals; it is a purely mechanical process. Your pictures look like what I have observed.

 

Check in the morning anyway and I will check my garden too. I'm in a different location than when I had frost heave piles so I'm not sure what I will find, but if I see some I will get photos. If you have a video camera you can set it up next to the piles and see what develops.

[arc]

OOPS, its late and I'm getting to rummy to think straight. That was a pretty goofy response even for me. I thought today about borrowing an automatic trail camera from a friend at work. He said a leaf turning in the wind will set it off, so it may be sensitive enough to work on a worm. I'll try in the next couple of days. Goodnight

[Acme]

Guten nacht.

Yes, I should be asleep. Damnable games!!

So read your link Arc and now thinking you may be right about it being worms. The frost heave piles I had were more closely spaced than your piles, so I'm doubting that a bit on that evidence. You might try digging up a patch and looking for worms. You could also paint the upper tips of some of the needles already upright in one of the piles and watch to see if they move down and/or disappear.

As always, if you or any of your team are caught or killed the secratery will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck Arc.

PS Ants?

[StringJunky]

 

I had always thought the worms dietary materials needed to be more decomposed and softer. These needles were being hoarded two months ago and they are still quite tough.

 

Maybe, they follow the mottos "You have to speculate to accumulate " or "You reap what you sow". Even though this is obviously not a cognitive effort on ther part, if they follow an automatic behaviour pattern of pulling plant matter into the ground they can make their environment more moisture-retentive, easier for personal transport and aerobically more hospitable in the long term. Eventually they can graze on the matter they pulled down, which will be in various states of decomposition, ensuring continuous nutrition. It looks to me like an evolutionarily advantageous strategy.

Edited December 30, 2014 by StringJunky

[Sensei]

That's why I like digital cameras with time lapse feature. You place it on tripod. Set time lapse 1 minute...or.. 1 hour.. Then living. And return days, weeks, months later and glue frames together to one movie.

AC adapter needed to camera working non-stop, to not run out of battery.

I am doing it with experiments taking long time.

Place voltmeter, ampere meter, watt meter, thermometer etc. etc. in front of camera on tripod. Press record. And we have movie. Then just read values at the most interesting moments and enter them to SpreadSheet/Excel.

 

[Acme]

That's why I like digital cameras with time lapse feature. You place it on tripod. Set time lapse 1 minute...or.. 1 hour.. Then living. And return days, weeks, months later and glue frames together to one movie.

AC adapter needed to camera working non-stop, to not run out of battery.

I am doing it with experiments taking long time.

Place voltmeter, ampere meter, watt meter, thermometer etc. etc. in front of camera on tripod. Press record. And we have movie. Then just read values at the most interesting moments and enter them to SpreadSheet/Excel.

Good idea! I used to have a Sony video cam that had a setting called 'Interval Recording'. It used a tape and allowed you to choose from several settings of intervals between recording and several settings for how long to record. (I was using it to record meteors.) When it went kaflooey from over-use I got a new Sony cam that has a hard drive which allows me to record continuously for up to 10 hours. It also has 2 infrared settings which might be handy for catching those night-crawling wormies.

 

I checked my garden and no frost heave piles. Sorry for no pics.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Acme

[Acme]

...

I checked my garden and no frost heave piles. Sorry for no pics.

Seems I didn't check well enough. Plenty of heave to have. The round-spot-piling effect only develops after repeated cycles of freeze & thaw and we haven't had sufficient cycles to form piles. Instead, the heave is more or less all over. In more compact areas the heave has simply sorted pebbles to the top and not created much in the way of cavities, but I found an area in a hole that had collected blown in detritus and found some nice ice columns and cavities with large plates of material frozen together and lifted.

 

My thinking in regard to your needles Arc was that over repeated freeze/thaw cycles the heavier ends of the needles would fall into cavities during thaws with the same cycling sorting the needles toward a locus. Anyway, I grabbed a photo as promised and have it below. The ice columns are ~3/4" high. Overnight low was 29ºF and currently 33ºF.

 

.

PS Re-reading your original post and seeing that this has been going on over 10 years I am inclined to swing back toward frost heave as the cause. Did you go out and inspect this morn Arc?

.

PPS Realized I just passed the 3-year mark here. Heaven help us all.

 

Actually came back to add something to the needle sorting idea in regards to the frost heave. Once a single needle gets upright it will serve as a catching point for the horizontal needles blown about in the wind.

[Robittybob1]

...

Some facts:

Needles are always with the points outward.

As the needle count increases the dirt mound grows in proportion.

None of the needles that have been in for any length of time show any sign of being chewed on.

 

Hypothesis A. It is earthworms. They start out sort of even, extending out at night and pulling as much of the needles towards their burrow as they can. Its a hoard. They will only extend out to a point to where they can quickly pull themselves back in at the sign of danger. They are out to dominate their area of reach that may overlap into another one's area. The more you pile in your area the less your competition has to eat and the slower they will grow.

 

The smaller and the slower get squeezed out as their hoard gets stolen by the surrounding competition who became bigger quicker. They can steal the needles right out of the top of your mound but theirs are likely out of your shorter reach. The ones on the outside edge of the area should have the greater advantage. As time goes by the space between the growing mounds becomes wider as the little guys get squeezed out. The needles are positioned "points outward" because either they can be pulled down deep into the burrow without snagging on the way down, or that the bulbous end is easier to hold on to.

 

Hypothesis B. is its some kind of beetle or larvae.

 

I'm betting on earthworms. This link isn't scientific but It'll work for now.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/country-living-forums/gardening-plant-propagation/137590-earthworms-everywhere.html

"I noticed that after every rain, I had pine needles and other debris sticking up out of holes in the ground. I found out it was earthworms pulling the debris down in the holes."

 

I had always thought the worms dietary materials needed to be more decomposed and softer. These needles were being hoarded two months ago and they are still quite tough.

 

Very interesting. Worms or beetles storing up food for themselves. I like the concept.

[Sensei]

When it went kaflooey from over-use I got a new Sony cam that has a hard drive which allows me to record continuously for up to 10 hours. It also has 2 infrared settings which might be handy for catching those night-crawling wormies.

 

My Nikon S6600 writes 1.16 GB per 10 minutes of movie at best quality Full HD (1920x1080), continuous.

So on 32 GB card it'll be enough for 275 minutes (4h 35 mins).

With lower quality, obviously longer. Probably at 1280x720 it would exceed 10h.

But with time lapse (this model doesn't have it automatic, but there are external devices), it would be completely differently calculated, as it's not movie, but image sequence.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Sensei

[arc]

Maybe, they follow the mottos "You have to speculate to accumulate " or "You reap what you sow". Even though this is obviously not a cognitive effort on ther part, if they follow an automatic behaviour pattern of pulling plant matter into the ground they can make their environment more moisture-retentive, easier for personal transport and aerobically more hospitable in the long term. Eventually they can graze on the matter they pulled down, which will be in various states of decomposition, ensuring continuous nutrition. It looks to me like an evolutionarily advantageous strategy.

 

Yes, I agree. It may even be more specific to areas where they are more exposed to danger. This space of mine is more open and this may in turn produce behavior that mitigates the higher risk conditions. More grab and run, back to safety under the ground. I have always assumed worms were none territorial, and although that term seems beyond their behavior the evidence so far is that they are exposing themselves to increased risk to hoard material that is not immediately consumable. I have always pictured worms as sharing space, coming up at night and feeding on dead plant matter and occasionally getting eaten by predators.

 

Now I'm starting to think they have an innate behavior to be highly competitive (selfish) to the detriment of the other members of its own surrounding species, its not overt it just ends in some others not getting an equal amount, a disadvantage. You see something like this as a group behavior in ants and other colonizing insects, or in some vertebrates that I can think of that live in groups. To name just a few like apes, lions, jackals and of coarse humans. We call it tribalism, to the other species it is innate that their group may harass, displace, steal and even kill the other competing groups of their own species. I'm trying to think of another species that behaves as a single competitive entity that exhibits something similar to this hoarding type behavior. Maybe in the ocean somewhere.

 

Is this hoarding an innate version of a preemptive move like the killing of a tribes primary food supply. In the case of these worms it looks like cattle rustling, or do they call it needle rustling. Yup, pretty selfish.

 

That's why I like digital cameras with time lapse feature. You place it on tripod. Set time lapse 1 minute...or.. 1 hour.. Then living. And return days, weeks, months later and glue frames together to one movie.

AC adapter needed to camera working non-stop, to not run out of battery.

I am doing it with experiments taking long time.

Place voltmeter, ampere meter, watt meter, thermometer etc. etc. in front of camera on tripod. Press record. And we have movie. Then just read values at the most interesting moments and enter them to SpreadSheet/Excel.

 

 

I need to check all the cameras we have and see if there's anything I can set up on the cheap. Thanks Sensei

 

Good idea! I used to have a Sony video cam that had a setting called 'Interval Recording'. It used a tape and allowed you to choose from several settings of intervals between recording and several settings for how long to record. (I was using it to record meteors.) When it went kaflooey from over-use I got a new Sony cam that has a hard drive which allows me to record continuously for up to 10 hours. It also has 2 infrared settings which might be handy for catching those night-crawling wormies.

 

I checked my garden and no frost heave piles. Sorry for no pics.

 

I hope one of ours will work in that manner.

 

Seems I didn't check well enough. Plenty of heave to have. The round-spot-piling effect only develops after repeated cycles of freeze & thaw and we haven't had sufficient cycles to form piles. Instead, the heave is more or less all over. In more compact areas the heave has simply sorted pebbles to the top and not created much in the way of cavities, but I found an area in a hole that had collected blown in detritus and found some nice ice columns and cavities with large plates of material frozen together and lifted.

 

My thinking in regard to your needles Arc was that over repeated freeze/thaw cycles the heavier ends of the needles would fall into cavities during thaws with the same cycling sorting the needles toward a locus. Anyway, I grabbed a photo as promised and have it below. The ice columns are ~3/4" high. Overnight low was 29ºF and currently 33ºF.

 

.

PS Re-reading your original post and seeing that this has been going on over 10 years I am inclined to swing back toward frost heave as the cause. Did you go out and inspect this morn Arc?

.

PPS Realized I just passed the 3-year mark here. Heaven help us all.

 

Actually came back to add something to the needle sorting idea in regards to the frost heave. Once a single needle gets upright it will serve as a catching point for the horizontal needles blown about in the wind.

 

Well, these started growing bigger way back before we had cold enough temperatures for heaves. And I opened one up and it had a bore hole going down past 20 cm.

 

And when I checked the next day I found two needles in the bore hole, it seems unlikely they would work their way in by gravity alone in just one night.

 

 

These images below were taken from a 10 step ladder. The little black dot on bottom left is the hole I opened.

 

What I believe you can see in these images are the needle piles of the winners and in the empty spaces between them the losers of this game of survival.

 

Very interesting. Worms or beetles storing up food for themselves. I like the concept.

 

Well, we will know for sure when I get pictures of them.

Edited December 31, 2014 by arc

[Robittybob1]

 

....

What I believe you can see in these images are the needle piles of the winners and in the empty spaces between them the losers of this game of survival.

 

 

Well, we will know for sure when I get pictures of them.

There won't be that many worms in that soil. Each pile might be near a breeding pair ??

[Acme]

Good job on the diggage. Agree it doesn't look like frost heave down there.

 

...
What I believe you can see in these images are the needle piles of the winners and in the empty spaces between them the losers of this game of survival.

Well, we will know for sure when I get pictures of them.

There won't be that many worms in that soil. Each pile might be near a breeding pair ??

 

Agreed on the number of wormies. If not a pairing division then perhaps a territorial one. Do wormies fight? Maybe if they do, Arc will get a picture of it. Put up your duke! :omg:

My Nikon S6600 writes 1.16 GB per 10 minutes of movie at best quality Full HD (1920x1080), continuous.
So on 32 GB card it'll be enough for 275 minutes (4h 35 mins).
With lower quality, obviously longer. Probably at 1280x720 it would exceed 10h.
But with time lapse (this model doesn't have it automatic, but there are external devices), it would be completely differently calculated, as it's not movie, but image sequence.

I'll look into that model. Acknowledged that time lapse by frame not same as movies. For the wormy scenario I think movies would be better on account of the slow movement of the critters and [presumed] periodicity of activity. Do the wormies all come up at once, or do they take turns? Also, with the movie you have the option later to edit out inactive times while with the still frames you can't add back in activity missed while the camera isn't recording.

I went out a few times with a guy who made a job of hunting worms to sell to fishermen. He would go at night and with a dimmed headlamp on his head and a big can in one hand, he would crawl on his belly across the ground (grass covered parks and school grounds) grabbing the worms and pulling them out of their holes. This may bear on the distances between holes Arc has as the worms we hunted would only emerge partly from the hole and if we made too much noise or the light was too bright they would quickly -yes quickly- shoot down the hole out of sight. The guy could fill a 3lb coffee can in a couple hours and I had never seen anything like it.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Acme

[michel123456]

Questions

_is this the lower part of the yard?

_under the gravel, is this black thing we see on the picture natural ground?

_when it rains, do water go out with a drainage system or does water go down naturally into the soil?

_do you put frequently gravel there, or do you have the same for several years?

_do you observe the same phenomena where the soil is not at level (horizontal)?

---------------

Also

Does the borehole you discovered go horizontal after a few more digging?

Edited December 31, 2014 by michel123456

[arc]

OK, have some more info. The worm piles are just as plentiful in the lawn as they are in the gravel area. The lawn area has been raked over several times and most of the worm's hard work has been removed to the brush pile. (I can hear them yelling at me) The mounds are there and have the needles sticking out but most have been flattened from the lawn tractor and repeated raking.

 

The images below were taken about 7 meters closer to the pine tree than the gravel.

 

 

The red and white rectangles are 20 x 25 mm so the markers are 60 x 75 mm taken at about 120 cm below the camera. Each marker was placed to the right of each pile. The lawn is on the left and the gravel on the right.

 

 

And more images showing the gravel area's density.

 

 

The concentration of piles appear evenly matched between the two areas. I would expect though, because the lawn would be a much greater generator of plant and insect biomass, that the worms would benefit more in that area. I'm guessing the lawn makes up this possible discrepancy by a larger share of smaller worms distributed among the already observed density of the larger ones. As I and Acme have alluded to, the distance that the larger worms can reach out to, likely determines the distances between the piles. But I think increasing the available of the food supply could also allow higher density.

 

There won't be that many worms in that soil. Each pile might be near a breeding pair ??

 

I don't think they so much eliminate the worms in between as much as they deprive them and suppress their development. When I dig in the soil I see greater numbers of smaller worms, these may be the "in between the piles" worms.

 

Good job on the diggage. Agree it doesn't look like frost heave down there.

Agreed on the number of wormies. If not a pairing division then perhaps a territorial one. Do wormies fight? Maybe if they do, Arc will get a picture of it. Put up your duke! :omg:

I'll look into that model. Acknowledged that time lapse by frame not same as movies. For the wormy scenario I think movies would be better on account of the slow movement of the critters and [presumed] periodicity of activity. Do the wormies all come up at once, or do they take turns? Also, with the movie you have the option later to edit out inactive times while with the still frames you can't add back in activity missed while the camera isn't recording.

I went out a few times with a guy who made a job of hunting worms to sell to fishermen. He would go at night and with a dimmed headlamp on his head and a big can in one hand, he would crawl on his belly across the ground (grass covered parks and school grounds) grabbing the worms and pulling them out of their holes. This may bear on the distances between holes Arc has as the worms we hunted would only emerge partly from the hole and if we made too much noise or the light was too bright they would quickly -yes quickly- shoot down the hole out of sight. The guy could fill a 3lb coffee can in a couple hours and I had never seen anything like it.

 

I imagine they spend a fare amount of time stealing while being stole from until the distances grow to leave plenty of space for surplus food in between. The wind would still be bringing continuous supplies of needles and other debris to hoard without the old order of theft by proximity.

 

Questions

_is this the lower part of the yard?

_under the gravel, is this black thing we see on the picture natural ground?

_when it rains, do water go out with a drainage system or does water go down naturally into the soil?

_do you put frequently gravel there, or do you have the same for several years?

_do you observe the same phenomena where the soil is not at level (horizontal)?

---------------

Also

Does the borehole you discovered go horizontal after a few more digging?

 

-Yes, lower area.

-Well, a lot of gravel with accumulated soil in between. The worms have had to work their way through the rocks. They are also very wet from heavy rains.

-The rains go down through the soil.

-The gravel was put down ten years ago and gets very little compaction from vehicles.

-Yes

-Straight down as I can tell.

 

I'm trying to think of another species that behaves as a single competitive entity that exhibits something similar to this hoarding type behavior.

Tree squirrels hoard and steal from others and are quite solitary and territorial, the males do not assist in the care of their young.

Found this nice video of worms foraging, stubborn little workers.

Edited January 1, 2015 by arc

[michel123456]

I was thinking about moles or voles.

[arc]

Thanks michel, I just read last night about the many animals that hoard worms and one of them was a mole.

[michel123456]

Hunting worms for using them at fishing, you dig abruptly a spade vertically in the ground, then hit the upper wooden part to make it vibrate. You will see the worms coming out of the ground. I was told it was to mimic the sound emit by the mole when digging its gallery.

 

If it is a mole, you should see the hole getting horizontal after a while.

Do you have a dog?

Edited January 1, 2015 by michel123456

[Acme]

Thanks michel, I just read last night about the many animals that hoard worms and one of them was a mole.

Indeed they do hoard & eat worms. However, mole holes & mounds are much larger than what you have and they make horizontal tunnels as well that raise ground in lines. The mounds are usually offset from the tunnels are used to get rid of excess soil. They hunt the worms underground as the worms descend and emerge through the top of the tunnels.

 

Voles make similar horizontal tunnels, though they eat plant roots. They may also use existing mole tunnels. but even though they are small their tunnels are larger than your holes.

Oregon Vole

Hunting worms for using them at fishing, you dig abruptly a spade vertically in the ground, then hit the upper wooden part to make it vibrate. You will see the worms coming out of the ground. I was told it was to mimic the sound emit by the mole when digging its gallery.

...

You can also cause worms to emerge using electric current, though this should not be house current due to the severe electrocution hazard. An electric fence generator as used for livestock might work well.

[Acme]

My Nikon S6600 writes 1.16 GB per 10 minutes of movie at best quality Full HD (1920x1080), continuous.

So on 32 GB card it'll be enough for 275 minutes (4h 35 mins).

With lower quality, obviously longer. Probably at 1280x720 it would exceed 10h.

But with time lapse (this model doesn't have it automatic, but there are external devices), it would be completely differently calculated, as it's not movie, but image sequence.

At the risk of being off topic I'm going to revisit this. As promised I looked up the specs on your camera and I was duly impressed. Not only the things you mention but the swiveling view screen which would make life so much easier for my visual impairments. So impressed was I that I was going to buy one, but it's an older model and I could only find them used. Undeterred I looked into new Nikon Coolpix cams and found the new Coolpix L380 to my liking and within my means. It arrives Saturday!! Thank you double time Sensei; you da scientist. :-) Edited January 1, 2015 by Acme

[arc]

At the risk of being off topic I'm going to revisit this. As promised I looked up the specs on your camera and I was duly impressed. Not only the things you mention but the swiveling view screen which would make life so much easier for my visual impairments. So impressed was I that I was going to buy one, but it's an older model and I could only find them used. Undeterred I looked into new Nikon Coolpix cams and found the new Coolpix L380 to my liking and within my means. It arrives Saturday!! Thank you double time Sensei; you da scientist. :-)

 

Hey, you can go anywhere you want to on my threads, no problem.

[Sensei]

At the risk of being off topic I'm going to revisit this. As promised I looked up the specs on your camera and I was duly impressed. Not only the things you mention but the swiveling view screen which would make life so much easier for my visual impairments.

It's indeed very useful. Perfect for self recording video bloggers. You know what you will get, and where camera see center (so you can place your body/head there) while it's already on tripod and you couple meters away.

You can also start recording movie/make photo from that range. Camera analyze move of your hand and you control special cursor on screen.

 

IIRC you can see this feature in this review

 

So impressed was I that I was going to buy one, but it's an older model and I could only find them used. Undeterred I looked into new Nikon Coolpix cams and found the new Coolpix L380 to my liking and within my means. It arrives Saturday!! Thank you double time Sensei; you da scientist. :-)

Did you also get AC adapter?

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Power-Adapters/EH-67-AC-Adapter.html

(it's mentioned on Accessories tab of your link)

It will allow to run digital camera long time without batteries. Otherwise they will be gone within 30 minutes or so.

You plug it in instead of batteries and second end to home power 230 V/110 V.

 

See also this

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/570/~/can-i-do-time-lapse-photography-with-my-coolpix-camera%3F

(for your camera, it might be different model, try to search for it)

Edited January 2, 2015 by Sensei

[Acme]

It's indeed very useful. Perfect for self recording video bloggers. You know what you will get, and where camera see center (so you can place your body/head there) while it's already on tripod and you couple meters away.

You can also start recording movie/make photo from that range. Camera analyze move of your hand and you control special cursor on screen.

 

IIRC you can see this feature in this review

 

 

Did you also get AC adapter?

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Power-Adapters/EH-67-AC-Adapter.html

(it's mentioned on Accessories tab of your link)

It will allow to run digital camera long time without batteries. Otherwise they will be gone within 30 minutes or so.

You plug it in instead of batteries and second end to home power 230 V/110 V.

 

See also this

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/570/~/can-i-do-time-lapse-photography-with-my-coolpix-camera%3F

(for your camera, it might be different model, try to search for it)

Thanks for the new info Sensei. I did not order the adapter but I may do so in a couple months. If I see a need for the intervalometer I may get it as well. I saved both your links to favorites for future use. I downloaded the 204 page manual for the camera from the Nikon site and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Damn there are a lot of features!! The L830 screen doesn't move forward as yours does so there's no hand gesture function but I'm not much of a selfies sort of guy so I expect the timer will take care of my needs. The screen does however tilt up & down which will be great for the low work I do photographing wildflowers. (Might help with wormies too! )

 

I have not had a new camera in many years & all-in-all I am thoroughly jazzed. Thanks too Arc for your broad allowance for my digressions here. Happy New Year again all.