March 31, 2009 at 3:48 pm03 (Uncategorized)
Can you see the frog in the Forget-Me-Not leaves?
I saw my first green frog of the new year today. I was raking windblown leaves from the small garden pool that is fed, in part, by overflow water from our well when a quick movement in the Forget-Me-Not leaves caught my eye. The frog was not out basking on the flat stones that surround the pool, but appeared plenty comfortable in the mud and water. The call of the Green Frog (Rana clamitans) has been likened to the twang of a loose banjo string, but I have not heard any dueling banjos (Green Frogs), peeps (Spring Peepers), or quacks (Wood Frogs) on warmer evenings yet this year. For one thing, we have not had any warmer evenings yet.
The Green Frog typically lives close to shallow water, springs, brooks, and edges of ponds or lakes. The eggs of the Green Frog are laid in small clutches attached to submerged vegetation. The breeding period occurs during March to August.
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March 27, 2009 at 3:34 pm03 (Uncategorized)
How did that get here?
I was walking along the banks of a steam that flows out across the meadow and into the woods. I noticed a flicker of purple against the pale brown layer of leaves and thought – a candy wrapper or some paper must have blown this way. I bent over to pick it up and was startled to sense a cool, moist velvety touch. There, poking up from the mat of leaves at the edge of the woods, was a crocus. An escapee from my own garden beds. Wild things from the woods find their way into our gardens, and plants from our gardens may find their way into the woods. The wild things that grow in in our gardens we call “weeds.” The escaped cultivars that take over the woods we call “invasive species.” A tidy thing it is, the mind of man, that wants to create a label for everything and put it in its place.
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March 16, 2009 at 3:47 pm03 (Uncategorized)
Scarlet Cup Fungus
We worked outdoors all day today hauling and burning brush – and listening to the spring calls of many birds. In a section of a small grove of Maple trees my boots scuffled some leaves and I was treated to a view of an early spring fungus. There’s no mistaking the Scarlet Cup Fungus (Sarcoscypha coccinea). The snow has barely retreated from the woods. The bright red cup fungus ranges from 3/4 to 2 inches wide and grows on fallen deciduous branches. The growing season is from March to June.
Curiously enough, its edibility is unknown. Of course, you’d have to find a whole lot of them if they were to be part of a meal.
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March 14, 2009 at 4:03 pm03 (Uncategorized)
Do you have tunnels like this on your lawn?
When the strong March winds and lenghthening hours of daylight take their toll on the snowpack, your lawn may reveal some tunnels in the grass that look the ones in the photo above. These tunnels were made beneath the snow by the Meadow Vole (someyimes called Meadow Mouse), Microtus pennsylvanicus . The meadow vole is dark brown with long soft fur, and lighter color on the belly and underside of the tail. Voles can do damage to fruit trees if they girdle the trunks or remove bark from roots. They are a primary food source for owls and hawks. Foxes and coyotes also pounce on them. Voles breed throughout the year, bearing litters of 1-9, most often 3-5.
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March 8, 2009 at 8:23 am03 (Uncategorized)
It is that time of year, in early spring, when daily discoveries tell you that a seasonal shift is occuring. The buds of the Red Maple trees are now swollen. The tops of Willow trees are golden yellow. The Cardinal sings its “pee-too, pee-too” call. The Tufted Titmice are more vocal. On warmer days, Chickadees sound wistfully the name of a bird that will arrive later in the Spring: “Say, Phoebe.” Skunks are out and about at night digging for grubs, even through a layer of snow. The pace of things is picking up. Today, a honey-bee visited the snowdrops beneath the Azalea. There are more and more signs of life, and growth.
Buds of Pussywillow swell in a sunny sheltered spot
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March 7, 2009 at 7:51 am03 (Uncategorized)
When we watch the antics of birds at our winter feeders, we are often amused by their agility or speed. What we may not recognize is the biology behind their behaviors, or the unique adaptations that different species of birds possess that enables them to survive outdoors and in the cold.
Black-capped Chickadees survive extremely cold nights by roosting in tree cavities, reducing radiant heat loss by 60 to 100 percent compared with roosting in open air. They can also lower their body temperature overnight by as much as twenty-one degrees, sleeping in a state of hypothermia that conserves energy. Chickadees store seeds in tree cavities, under bark, in branch crevices – and remember where they put them.
Common Redpolls eat as much as 42 percent of their body weight in seeds during a single day. A Redpoll can quickly swallow seeds and hold them in an expandable portion of its esophagus. After filling up with seeds, the Redpoll can retreat to a sheltered spot (it often tunnels under layers of snow) to regurgitate, husk, and consume the seeds.
I discovered these bird facts in book titled Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds (2006) by Miyoku Chu NY: Walker & Company p 204.
Chu recommends doing background reading on the lives of birds you are watchg so that you can better understand what you see happening.
Black-Capped Chickadee - photo by Sarah Kelly
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March 4, 2009 at 4:52 pm03 (Uncategorized)
...when out of the snow a bird emerged!
I was walking along a familiar trail this afternoon, just where the woods gives way to a shrubby thicket and a section of overgrown apple orchard. I was noting the lack of deer tracks, coyote tracks, or fox tracks. No skunk tracks, fisher tracks, or rabbit tracks, either. The soft powdery snow was about nine inches deep and rested on a base of frozen granular snowpack. It was enough to support the weight of squirrel and deer mice – the only creatures whose tracks I could see. I was watching my feet going down a slight decline when I was suddenly started by a whirring of feathers. From the rapid and noisy wingbeat I knew I had flushed a Partridge, or Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). I looked up to see the bird rising up to about ten feet – just enough to clear the top of the fallen apple tree branches that lay nearby on the ground. The reddish brown, fan-shaped tail feathers with the distinctive black border edged with white was a clear identifier. The Grouse had done what it is programmed to do. It startled me, and in that moment of my confusion, used speed to get away. I reached for my camera but it was too late. That bird was gone.
Not ten feet away from me was a hole in the snow from which it had emerged. It may have been covered there until I came clomping along. In the photo above, you can see where its broad wings left imprints in the snow, and even the fan-shaped arc of the tail feathers is visible in the snow. Grouse sometimes dive headlong into snow to spend the night under cover.
In the Spring, The male Ruffed Grouse attracts females by “drumming” the air with its wings, often standing on a hollow log, producing a thumping sound that can be heard a half a mile away. The bird gets its name from the “ruff” or ring of raised feathers it displays when threatened. Grouse lay 9-12 buff-colored eggs in a depression on the ground lined with leaves, frequently near a log, stump, rock, or thick brush. The female grouse incubates the eggs for twenty-four days. Chicks leave the nest at once, can fly within one week, may follow the female for about twelve weeks. The primary diet consists of insects, seeds, berries, and buds of trees – particularly apple and poplar in our area.
O.K. I didn’t get off a shot. But I am not going to grouse about it.
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March 1, 2009 at 10:14 am03 (Uncategorized)
“March comes, a kind of interregnum, winter’s sovereignty relaxing, spring not yet in control. But the pattern is now established.”
Hal Borland, in Hal Borland’s Twelve Moons of the Year NY: Alfred A. Knopf Publisher, 1979.
March brings melting snow with mud and heavy frosts. Winter is waning. The sun is getting stronger, and the lenth of daylight is longer, but spring arrives unevenly. We watch out for heavy wet snowstorms that can shatter tree branches. These March storms are nuisance storms that don’t last long but can cause a lot of damage to trees and shrubs. Strong winds blow across the meadow this month, drying out fresh cut firewood already staked for fall. Partridges (Ruffed Grouse) and even Wild Turkey often perch in poplar or apple trees, nibbling on the swelling buds. The branches of the Weeping Willow “quicken” to a warm yellow, giving the tree a golden crown. Pileated Woodpeckers hammer out new nests. Woodcock may be heard in wet seeps in the woods or swales later this month. On rainy nights at the end of March, toads and salamanders seek breeding pools. Even when there is ice on such vernal pools, spotted and tiger salamanders are mating. In some years, the spring peepers begin calling in mid-March. Blue Herons return to rookeries in wooded swamps. Meadow voles begin to breed. Skunks are seen more frequently. Barred owls court and are more vocal. Hepatica may blossom in sunny woods. The first male Redwing Blackbirds return to marshes near open water. They stake out their nesting territory. Pussy willows bud and poplars flower. The bills of Starlings turn yellow. Downy Woodpeckers drum loudly. Foxes bark at night to signal mates. The white coat of Weasels changes to brown. Swarms of midges may be seen in the air on warmer days. Grey squirrels build nests in trees. Geese and Black Ducks move northward from the south. Wood Ducks may return to local waterways. Female rabbits prepare their birthing nests. One to six young Fisher Cats are born in a nest in a large hollow tree.
Phenology is the study of the influence of temperature, sunlight, and climate on the predictable recurrence of animal and plant behavior such as leaf budding, flower blooming, bird migration, bird flocking, emergence from hibernation, mating, – even changes in the songs and calls of birds. Phenologists (both professional and amateur) keep systematic records to establish observable patterns and detect shifts or changes in the behavior or response of some species of plant or animal. When will the first chipmunks come out of hibernation? When do pussy willows open? Have the redwings arrived yet? March is a month of expectation and surprises.
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