northeast naturalist

Mourning Doves

2012-01-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

Pair of Mourning Doves on the snow at the Montezuma Audubon Center

At bird feeders, they’re unmistakable. Small head, large buff-colored body, grayer on the wings and back, long-pointed tail with white along the edges… They prefer to feed on the ground, usually in small flocks, but if there’s enough room they’ll land on a platform feeder. When they take off, the whistling of the wings is diagnostic. In the morning, flocks try to catch the early rays of sunlight by lining up on utility wires strung between poles along country roads. We are of course talking about Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura), named for their sorrowful cooing sometimes mistaken for the call of an owl.

Doves are the preferred prey of the Cooper’s Hawk, that long-tailed, short-winged, fast and maneuverable accipiter that visits our bird feeders. The doves, related to domestic pigeons, are mainly vegetarian. You may see a flock picking up wasted grain in a winter cornfield if there’s not much snow, but they also eat seeds from grasses and weeds. A few insects are fed to nestlings during the warm months. In late summer they eat the dark-purple, almost black, berries of pokeweed. Many doves head south to other agricultural areas for the winter, and a few birds banded in New York have gone as far as the Gulf-coast states.

In March, watch for them to begin pairing up as they prepare for a long nesting season, and listen for their "song," a series of five coos with the second one rising and falling. Once they set up housekeeping, a skimpy handful of loose twigs barely qualifies as a nest and it looks like the eggs are in danger of falling through or rolling off. Mourning Doves nest repeatedly through the summer, and I’ve seen them sitting on eggs as late as October. That nest in one of our spruce trees may have been the fourth brood of the year. It’s a good thing, because half the chicks don’t make it out of the nest; they fall victim to various predators, both avian and mammalian. Of the half that survive the nest and fledge, three-quarters don’t make it to their first birthday. Past that point, only 5% of the adults make it to five years old or beyond.

Mourning Doves were historically birds of the Southern states. They adapted to rural farmland where there was a combination of grain fields and watering holes or slow creeks to get a drink twice a day. In the 1800’s Passenger Pigeons were the dominant bird in the forested Appalachians and north into New York, but that species was hunted to extinction. During the 20th century the Mourning Dove population began expanding northward until it reached an estimated 10 million birds in New York State. They can live on the edge [called an ecotone] between woods and fields, but they are absent from large tracts of continuous forest.

The Mourning Dove is named for its sorrowful cooing, which is sometimes mistaken for the call of an owl. -- © Dave Spier

To get an idea of the Mourning Dove's range, visit eBird's "View and Explore Data" page, click on "Range and Point Maps" and type in "Mourning Dove" [or just click the link]. You'll notice there's a concentration of sightings across the South, the Great Plains and the Eastern United States. Zoom in for detail. The process works for any species anywhere in the world, but many areas like Asia and Africa and much of South America still lack data.

Questions and corrections to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Beaver Lake

2012-01-16T04:31:00.000-08:00

One of the Eastern Gray Squirrels visiting the feeders at Beaver Lake Nature Center
-- © Dave Spier

Beaver Lake -- © Dave Spier

Beaver Lake Nature Center west of Baldwinsville [Onondaga County, NY] is a favorite winter destination for several reasons. First, a long row of large picture windows overlook the feeders at the edge of a woodsy area. In addition to birds, there are the omnipresent Eastern Gray Squirrels, and you can view them from the comfort of a heated room. The second reason is a good system of trails for x-c skiers and snowshoers. For extended walks, there’s an easy, fairly-level, three-mile loop around Beaver Lake itself. Boardwalks cross the swampy trail sections.

Boardwalks cross the wet trail sections -- © Dave Spier

Donna on the trail around Beaver Lake in December -- © Dave Spier

For more information on Beaver Lake Nature Center, including trail map, visit their website at Onondaga County Parks: http://onondagacountyparks.com/beaver-lake-nature-center/

A bench lets you take a break -- © Dave Spier

Questions can be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Beaver Lake from the loop trail -- © Dave Spier

White-throated Sparrows

2011-12-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

I'd say this is an adult tan-morph White-throat based on The Sibley Guide to Birds, page 494.

White-throated Sparrows begin returning in October. They spend the summer across much of Canada and the North Country, but for some of them, this is far enough south to endure the winter. Many more go as far as the Gulf and Southern States. A few western birds hug the Pacific coast in winter.

In the fall, it’s hard to find a good rendition of their song, likened to “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” (hence the nickname “Peabody-bird”). Perhaps these are young birds, but they have until spring to get it right. Of course if you’re a Canadian resident, they sing “pure sweet Canada-Canada-Canada.” Up there it’s known as the Canada sparrow.

Likely a first-winter White-throated Sparrow in December (in an ornamental Serbian Blue Spruce) - © Dave Spier

As adults, this species comes in two genetically-based color races (a.k.a. forms, morphs, or phases) known as white and tan. Adult "white-morph" birds have high-contrast black-and-white racing stripes on the crown, yellow lores (the area between the eye and bill) and bright-white throats. The adult "tan" race or version has brown and tan (or beige) head stripes, dull-yellow lores and a dull-white or light gray throat. The differences have nothing to do with age or gender or geographic distribution as I understand it. Both types are found mixed in the same population, a situation biologists refer to as polymorphism, or “many forms.” That said, after the fall molt, the variation is less pronounced in their winter plumage. To confuse matters, first-winter White-throats resemble the tan race, with lower-contrast head markings and a more-pronounced lateral throat stripe, a.k.a. malar-edge stripe or simply malar stripe. Many field guides describe "bird topography" with illustrations of various field marks and their names. In The Sibley Guide (the large, nationwide version), it begins on page 15, with the White-throated Sparrow as the example on page 16.

There are also behavioral differences. White-morph males are more aggressive while tan females are better care givers. Tan males and white females fall in the middle. Ninety percent of the time, one color phase mates with its opposite and it is believed this balances their behavior characteristics. After the young fledge from the nest, the brood is divided into two groups and each parent cares for only half of the fledglings.

White-throated Sparrows often associate with Dark-eyed Juncos, another type of sparrow. Both species are ground feeders and at my house they clean up the sunflower seed dropped by the goldfinches, chickadees and other birds above them. (With sunflower seed getting so expensive [about $25 per 50-pound bag, up from $11 a few years ago], I’ve taken some old metal garbage cans that rusted through on the bottoms, turned them upside down and placed screened tray feeders on top to catch the falling seed. It used to pile up on the ground faster than squirrels, chipmunks, doves and other ground feeders could clean it up, and then the seed would mold and I’ve have to throw it away. The screened trays allow precipitation to drain through on milder days, and the birds have a second chance to eat the seed.)

On rare occasions, White-throated Sparrows and juncos have been known to mate and hybridize. [Off topic, we saw a pure-white junco when we were in Shenandoah National Park early in October. It was hanging out with other juncos and a flock of Chipping Sparrows on their way south.]

During the summer, White-throated Sparrows consume high-protein insects, but the rest of the year they switch to a vegetarian diet consisting mostly of fallen seeds. In the wild, they find their food by scratching through dead leaves and grass. They also eat the fruits of dogwoods, cedars and spicebush. These native shrubs and trees are plentiful at the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC), but the sparrows have plenty of competition from thrushes and other berry-loving birds in the fall. (The Audubon center also hosts a flock of American Tree Sparrows that over-winter in the walnut-grove thickets and brush piles.)

White-throated Sparrows might be confused with White-crowned Sparrows which are also gray-breasted but lack the yellow lores and usually lack the white-throat. In the fall, young white-crown’s resemble the color of tan-phase white-throat’s but have what I call a “butch-cut” or slight crest toward the back of the head. Most of the white-crown’s are long-gone, having migrated farther south; they pass through about two weeks ahead of the white-throat’s.

A few White-throated Sparrows will stay here through the winter, but more return on their way north in the spring. They stop for a few weeks in April and sing their characteristic song, well refined by then, before continuing north.

High-contrast, white-morph White-throated Sparrow in April with black and white "racing" stripes on the crown. - © Dave Spier

Send corrections to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

The Largest Gull

2011-12-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

Adult Great Black-backed Gull (December) -- © Dave Spier

The Largest Gull

The world’s largest gull, the Great Black-backed (Larus marinus), is a coastal species of the Northeast. It breeds in the Canadian Maritimes, migrates through New England and now winters from the lower Great Lakes to the mid-Atlantic coast. When I started birding in the early 70’s, it was still an uncommon visitor to the Lake Ontario shoreline, but its range has expanded southward from the original North Atlantic stronghold.

As the name implies, the gull’s wings and back are sooty-colored (more like slate than pure black). The underparts are pure white, but in the winter, the white head exhibits some dusky streaking. The legs are light pink and the adult’s bill is yellow with a red spot toward the tip of the lower mandible. Sailors nicknamed these birds “the coffin carriers.”

Immature Great Black-backed Gull (January) -- © Dave Spier

It takes four years for Great Black-back’s to reach adulthood. Young birds have light-colored heads that are more of a pale brown. Their bills are dark and massive. Wings and backs are relatively dark with a fine checker-boarded pattern. The feet may be pink, but the legs start out as a dark bluish-gray. A light rump accents a dark tail band. Over the next several years, they gradually morph into the high-contrast adult plumage.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull eating a fish; note passing Wood Duck (October) -- © Dave Spier

Gulls, by their nature, are scavengers. Their natural diet is dead fish and their job in life is to keep the beaches and shorelines clean. Most gulls stick to this formula, but the GBBG, by virtue of its size, has discovered that it can become a predator. I discovered this aspect many years ago when I was driving down the east side of Seneca Lake and noticed a Black-back attacking a small duck. The victim was a female goldeneye that kept diving to escape, but every time it re-surfaced the gull would peck away at the bloodied duck. As I recall, the goldeneye finally got away, or else the gull just gave up the struggle and went elsewhere for easier pickin’s. In the “modern” world, easier often means garbage. Depending on the season, they also eat fish, invertebrates (including insects), small mammals, eggs and carrion. Given the opportunity, they will steal food from other gulls.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull eating a fish on the Erie Canal (February) -- © Dave Spier

In the late 1800’s, before protection was enacted, Black-backs were hunted to collect their feathers to supply the women’s hat industry. The result was a population crash. In the long run, their numbers have rebounded and continue to rise as their range expands southward. This has become a new problem along the Atlantic coast where the gulls prey on colonies of terns and puffins.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull at Montezuma N.W.R. (October) -- © Dave Spier

Corrections and questions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com For more information about Finger Lakes birds and birding, visit the websites http://montezumabirding.webs.com and http://eatonbirds.webs.com

Letchworth Park (cont'd) -- © Dave & Donna Spier

2011-11-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Railroad bridge 234’ above the river at Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Train on railroad bridge 234’ above the river at Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

[Part 1 of this article is the previous post directly below this one.]

Roughly 350 million years ago [during the Devonian period, named for Devon, England where rocks of this age were first studied], western New York was still submerged under an inland sea near the equator. Sediments washing down from the Acadian Mountains to the east continued to fill the basin with layer upon layer of deposits that solidified into a thick sequence of shales, siltstones and sandstones now partially exposed in the Letchworth gorge. [For comparison, older rocks deeper in the Catskill Delta are exposed at Taughannock Falls State Park, profiled in an earlier blog (see October 27). The Tully limestone at the base of the Taughannock gorge formed as a shallow reef near the edge of the inland sea between Middle and Upper Devonian time.]

Rainbow in the mist below Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

After exploring the Upper and Middle Falls, we drove north and briefly stopped at the Archery Field Overlook next to Great Bend canyon. Sometimes there are Turkey Vultures from the resident flock working the air currents, but today we didn't see a single one.

Great Bend canyon south from Archery Field overlook-- © Donna Mason-Spier

Great Bend canyon north from Archery Field overlook-- © Donna Mason-Spier

Our final stop of the day at Letchworth was Wolf Creek and a walk out to the point. Steep cliffs drop to the river below. A short spur trail to the south leads to a Red Pine barely clinging to the dry rim. Erosion has left the inner roots exposed at the base of the trunk. In the park, Red Pine is at the northern limit of its range.

Red Pine on the rim near Wolf Creek -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Donna had predicted a nice sunset and sure enough we got one, although we had to detour to find an open view to the west-southwest. After taking a few shots, we found a wet corner of the field with a nice reflection as the color began to fade.

Sunset from Freshour Rd. near Shortsville -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Letchworth Thanksgiving -- © Dave & Donna Spier

2011-11-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

Trees on the canyon rim at Letchworth State Park, NY_© Donna Mason-Spier

This year’s Thanksgiving weather was pretty decent by western New York standards. In fact, it's been the fifth warmest November on record. Where we were, the weather didn’t live up to predictions, but we did get some sunny breaks in the afternoon between the morning cumulus clouds (probably coming off Lake Erie) and the evening cirrus coming in from the west that gave us a beautiful sunset to end the day.

Donna and I renewed our tradition of spending Thanksgiving in Letchworth State Park about midway between Rochester, NY and the Pennsylvania state line. After entering the park at the Mt. Morris [north] end, we drove the roughly 15 miles to the waterfalls near the south end. First stop was Inspiration Point which has heated restrooms open year round. There is a handicap-accessible interpretive trail along part of the rim and starting from the parking lot.

View from Inspiration Point -- © Donna Mason-Spier

At the end of the last Ice Age, glacial fill [clay, silt, sand and gravel that's part of the Valley Heads moraine] blocked the return of the Genesee River to its ancestral valley just northeast of Portageville at the south end of the park. The river was forced west to the lowest divide and there it cut a new channel and began carving canyons through solid rock. A series of three waterfalls continues to deepen the gorge as they erode upstream [southward]. At Inspiration Point a short walk takes you to an overlook with a distant view of the Middle and Upper Falls.

From there we backtracked slightly to a side road and a short drive to Trailside Lodge for a picnic lunch. Some years we have a little company; this year we had it all to ourselves. There are lots of tables inside, the building is heated and it turns out there are heated restrooms there too. Our more-regular Thanksgiving dinner would be later at home.

Fireplace inside Trailside Lodge where we ate a picnic lunch -- © Dave Spier

District #2 schoolhouse beside the road to the trout pond -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Cross-bedded sedimentary rock layers on a natural joint plane [roadcut beside main park road] -- © Donna Mason-Spier

After lunch, we continued south with a brief stop at the old schoolhouse near the Trout Pond and then down the hill past Glen Iris to a one-way drive descending to the old flood plain and a choice of parking areas. Our first direction was a short walk south to the Upper Falls which was nearly obscured by spray and mist rising from the plunge pool. It’s difficult to see, but the caprock is 28 feet of Nunda sandstone supported by weaker Gardeau sandstones and shales. Both formations are part of the late-Devonian West Falls group which in turn is part of the larger Catskill Delta underlying the Finger Lakes and Genesee regions.

Trail to Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Deh-ge-wa-nus Creek descends to the river above Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

At Letchworth Park, you can walk uphill past the crest of the Upper Falls and look back to see a rainbow in the mist when conditions are right. The rainbow is highest in late fall and early winter when the sun is near its lowest angle of the year. In the afternoon, the rainbow is downstream from the west side trail. If you go, you might want to also take some pictures of the historic 234-foot high steel railroad bridge. They're talking about replacing it with a modern arch bridge.

Rainbow in the mist below Upper Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

From the Upper Falls it’s an easy half-mile walk north along the Genesee River toward the Middle Falls, probably the most spectacular of the three falls and the main attraction in the park. Along the way we stopped to take a few pictures of the river which was unusually high and muddy for this time of year due to recent heavy rains.

Ripples on the Genesee River above Middle Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Outcrop in the Genesee River above Middle Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

First hint of rainbow in the mist below crest of Middle Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

If you continue north on the trail past the crest you’ll reach clearer views of the falls itself. Watch for another rainbow in the mist along the way. William Pryor Letchworth built his Glen Iris mansion overlooking this falls. It descends 107’ over rocks of the Gardeau formation.

Middle Falls, 107’ high, seen from below William Pryor Letchworth's mansion at Glen Iris -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Rainbow in the mist below Middle Falls -- © Donna Mason-Spier

Letchworth Park blog to be continued...

(In the meantime, you might want to check the Genesee River Wilds Project working to develop a series of parks and trails along the river from Letchworth south to Potter County, PA.)

Ring-billed Gulls -- © Dave Spier

2011-11-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November] © Dave Spier

Gulls are commemorated by a statue in Salt Lake City for saving the day when they ate the insects plaguing early Mormons in Utah. Less dramatic are the local flocks of gulls that follow plowing tractors to feast on fleeing insects and (I suspect) mice and other small creatures like earthworms. Gulls’ diets benefit in other ways from human activity. To see this, just visit a landfill (unless they have trained falcons to patrol the skies). The gull’s natural role in nature is being a scavenger cleaning the beaches of dead fish, but in reality these birds are omnivorous.

There are three gull species likely to be found in the Finger Lakes region and Lake Ontario during the winter. Of these, the smallest and probably most numerous is the Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), sometimes nicknamed the “parking lot” gull. It’s the one most adapted to life inland away from the sea. It’s named for the black ring near the tip of the adult’s yellow bill. Young ring-bills have a pink or flesh-colored bill with a black tip and we’ll discuss other differences.

Juvenile Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November] © Dave Spier

Ring-bills require three years to reach maturity. First-winter birds resemble very dirty adults with dark bars beside the chest, dark streaky heads, spotty sides, mottled brown areas on the wings and a black band across the end of the tail. The legs are pinkish, unlike the adults yellow legs, but the backs are starting to turn gray. Second-winter birds are much more adult-like overall. In addition, legs become pale grayish-green or yellowish and the dark band at the end of the tail becomes broken and thinner. By the third winter, the gray mantle extends across the back and upper wings -- except for the ever-present black wing tips. The tail is now all white. After the first winter, all non-breeding gulls show a little brown on the back of the head. After adults molt to spring breeding plumage, this brown tinge disappears and a red orbital ring becomes more prominent around the pale eye. Adults show a white spot at the end of sharply-contrasting black wingtips.

Adult Ring-billed Gull at Lakeshore Park (on Seneca Lake) in Geneva, NY [November]
© Dave Spier

The natural range of the Ring-billed Gull is transcontinental from the Canadian Maritimes to the Pacific Northwest. Most of these birds travel to the southern states and coastal areas in winter, but the Lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley are mild enough with open water to hold a sizeable population throughout the year. Ringbills seem to be born with a magnetic sensitivity that would take them in the right direction for fall migration.

Mixed-age Ring-billed Gulls at Sodus Point on Lake Ontario, NY [November] First-fall juveniles bottom center and lower left, 2nd-fall juvenile at right [based on The Sibley Guide to Birds] - © Dave Spier

Ringbills prefer to nest on islands away from predators, and they will return to the same nest sites year after year if conditions permit. This behavior is called site fidelity. They nest in colonies limited only by the size of available habitat. Given how common and widespread the species is now, it’s hard to imagine that they were once extirpated from parts of their range as a result of hunting for the millinery (hat) trade in the 1800’s. Their breeding range is again expanding.

Many of these birds also return to the same wintering locations year after year. If it worked once, it’s likely to work again in terms of finding food and shelter.

Occasionally a few Bonaparte’s Gulls will spend the winter along Lake Ontario. This fourth species is smaller than the ringbill, has pink legs, a thin black bill and sports a dark “ear” spot behind the eye. During spring and summer, adult Bonaparte’s have a black head.

As time permits, I’ll talk about the two larger common gulls.
Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Tall Reeds (Phragmites) -- © Dave Spier

2011-11-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Tall (Common) Reeds, Phragmites australis, at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

They're most noticeable beside the road in drainage ditches and low spots. These tall plants with sword leaves and beige plumes extend their grasp year after year. You may know them by several names including Common Reed, Tall Reed or Phragmites (the generic portion of Phragmites australis, the Southern Reed). Look closely and you'll notice it's just another hollow-stem grass (though unusually large) with long leaves sheathing the stem. The feathery plumes at the top are the flowers that turn to brown, then beige, then gray as the seeds ripen.

During Colonial times and continuing into the 19th century, a native variety of Tall Reed grew along the coasts. In the early 20th century, a nearly identical, but more aggressive European variety was introduced into one or more Atlantic ports. Seeds clinging to boat hulls expanded its range along the Erie Canal. Tall Reed has since exploded into disturbed wetlands where it spreads by seeds, dense tangles of underground rhizomes, and roots that can grow down several feet. Colonies become dense stands that can choke waterways and crowd out any native wetland plants. Reeds thrive in alkaline soils, so the abundant limestone and dolostone across Western and Central New York makes an ideal growing environment. Cutting and burning are ineffective as controls. Not surprisingly, winter salt runoff has no effect, considering reeds grow in brackish marshes along the east coast. In fact, the salinity may suppress native freshwater vegetation, tipping the balance in favor of reeds. This plant seems to be here to stay.

European reeds have been used for roof thatching and cattle feed, and for making mats, pen quills and low-quality paper. Native Americans of the Southwest fashioned arrow shafts, prayer sticks, screens and nets from the stems of reeds. The rootstocks and seeds could be eaten as food.

Wildlife makes limited use of reed beds. Red-winged Blackbirds will nest in the stands and may eat the seeds, thereby increasing dispersal of the plant. In Europe and Asia, other species of birds are adapted specifically to life in extensive Phragmites stands.

Comments or corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com My other nature columns can be found at http://adirondacknaturalist.blogspot.com/

Common Milkweed -- © Dave Spier

2011-11-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

Common Milkweed pods split open to release seeds -- © Dave Spier

Ripe pods splitting open to release silky floss can mean only one thing -- the milkweed seeds are ripe and ready for dispersal on autumn winds. Milkweeds need almost no introduction. In fact, the Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is just that -- common and widespread in fields and roadsides. The genus name refers to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, because of the plant's use in folk medicine, much of it derived from native American practices. A quick word of caution, though. Avoid the milky juice which contains toxic compounds including alkaloids, glycosides and cardenolides. Monarch butterflies are immune to the effects of these substances and use them to their advantage by laying their eggs on the plant. The caterpillars eat the leaves, ingest the toxic substances, and become noxious prey to would-be predators. Apparently the effects last into adulthood. One experience of getting sick is probably enough to ward off a bird from eating any more larvae or adults.

The species name, syriaca, is a case of mistaken identity. When the plant arrived in Europe (before 1753) it was believed to have come from the Middle East. Actually this particular species is native to North America. Worldwide, there are 140 species of milkweeds. Once considered to be a family of plants, the group has been downgraded to the rank of subfamily in the dogbane family.

The Common Milkweed's clusters of pink flowers are attractive, but the perennial plant is best left to the butterfly garden. Long roots make it hard to control in a decorative garden. A close relative, the Butterflyweed, has gorgeous orange flowers and does well in dry, sunny locations and sandy soil.

Early settlers used milkweed fluff to stuff pillows and mattresses. The silk could also be spun into candlewicks. Fibers from the milkweed stalk could be made into thread, cloth, fish nets and purses.

The Common Milkweed's sticky, white sap can be used to make a natural rubber. During World War II, when tree latex from Malaysia became unavailable, the government experimented with milkweeds. Commercial-scale production of rubber would have required the redesign of existing processing facilities, so the effort floundered. Eventually most natural rubber was replaced by synthetics made from petroleum.

Milkweed did come to the rescue of the life-preserver industry which had relied on kapok from Java. When that source was cut off in 1942, school children and scout troops in 26 states were paid 20 cents for each onion bag they filled with ripe milkweed pods (roughly 800 pods per bag). The flossy seed hairs are waxy on the outside and hollow on the inside (much like kapok). This makes them super-light and water resistant, which is perfect for life vests. Less than two pounds of filling could keep a sailor afloat on the sea for two days. After the war, milkweed again sank commercially because it was cheaper to import kapok. The only remnants of the war effort are the nicknames silkweed, Virginia silk, cottonweed and wild cotton.

The last Wednesday Naturalists walk at the Montezuma Audubon Center is tomorrow, November 16, at 9 am. We're sure to have plenty of milkweeds to talk about and photograph.

Questions, comments and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com More nature articles can be found on the website http://adirondacknaturalist.blogspot.com

Common Milkweed seeds travel on silky parachutes -- © Dave Spier

November Trails -- Part 2 -- © Dave Spier

2011-11-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

Gray Squirrel digging -- © Dave Spier

I'm dressed in complete camouflage, including face net and gloves, and sitting against the base of a tree trunk. A Gray Squirrel approaches, stops momentarily to dig in the leaves, and then continues on its way less than four feet from me. It's totally oblivious to my presence because I'm motionless. This is surpassed only by a memorable experience many years ago, even before I switched to camouflage clothing, when a chipmunk walked across my shoe, unaware of its nature or the presence of potential danger. I was sitting on a log, but again the secret was remaining perfectly motionless and silent.

Autumn's leafy pallet has mostly fallen, but the woods still have color in the sunlight. Green grass and ferns contrast with brown leaves littering the ground while gray tree trunks reach to blue sky. The afternoon's warmth brings out a solitary tree frog peeping in the swamp. Most amphibians are now buried in the mud to hibernate through the winter. Even the hardy tadpoles of bullfrogs and green frogs, the ones that take two years to mature, are now scarce in shallow ponds.

Insects are plentiful. Flies, gnats, crickets and other flying arthropods seem out of place for November, and where there are insects, can spiders be very far? I know I've been sitting too long when I notice a spider stringing webs across my camera tripod.

Daylight is fading as a Pileated Woodpecker, the largest of our tree knockers, flies through the forest canopy and lands high in a tree and lets out its typical repetitive call, similar to a flicker, but louder.

Deer scat (droppings), Allegany County, NY -- © Dave Spier

At dusk I leave the woods, having once again succeeded in finding scads of deer signs -- trails, tracks, scrapes, rubs and scat [droppings] -- but not a single, breathing whitetail. They wait for the cover of darkness to move about. I pass some apple trees on the ridge, another good location for deer, but all I see is the rear end of a cottontail rabbit (another white-tailed vegetarian) as it disappears into the weeds.

What did you see during the warm spell? Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com More nature photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier and http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist

November Trails -- Parts 1 & 2 are based on an original slide program by Dave Spier.

Buck rub, Letchworth State Park, NY -- © Dave Spier

November Trails -- Part 1

2011-11-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

November Trails

Unexpectedly warm and sunny weather followed the first feeble attempt at an autumn snowfall. Call it Indian Summer, or just call it enjoyable. Mornings were chilly and dew-laden, but that's normal November. I hope you have a chance to get out and savor the weather before things go downhill again.

The trail through the field back to the woods is dotted with open milkweed pods releasing brown seeds to float on white down. The zebra-striped Monarch caterpillars that fed on the toxic white sap of the summer leaves long ago transformed to butterflies and headed south toward their winter home in Mexico. You might have noticed the Canadian Monarchs passing through New York in early October.

Near the milkweed, the once-plump, off-white berries on Red-panicled Dogwoods are now wrinkled and dry. Chickadees have been snatching as many of the fruits as they can, and the ones that fall to the ground become food for grouse. The shrub's name comes from the red stems that hold the berries, but the gray bark on the main branches gives it the alternate name, Gray Dogwood. [see the previous blog post] Next to the dogwood, a flock of Purple Finches landed in a small tree and then flew again in unison. These birds, red-raspberry relatives of goldfinches, breed across southern Canada and winter in the eastern half of the United States. We see them most often during their migrations.

In the middle of the field, a thorny rosebush is covered with tasteless rosehips that are nonetheless high in vitamin C. These small, red fruits are credited with supporting the expansion of the mockingbird from its southern strongholds to the cold climates of Upstate New York.

Northern Mockingbird in Multi-flora Rose bush -- © Dave Spier

In the woods, small beige moths flit among the trees while a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers chase each other from one tree trunk to the next. In spite of brilliant scarlet feathers on the nape (back of the neck) and crown of the male, the bird is named for an obscure patch of salmon red on the belly between the legs. The bird has to be at just the right angle to see it. The problem with the name is that another woodpecker with an entirely red head and neck took the name Red-headed Woodpecker. That species is a southern bird; we seldom see them in the Finger Lakes region.

Dogwoods -- © Dave Spier

2011-11-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

Gray (Red-panicled) Dogwood berries - © Dave Spier

Gray Dogwood, an upland shrub named for the gray bark on trunks and main branches, produces white berries prized by songbirds. It is also called Red-panicled Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) because the berry clusters grow on red stems (panicles). By now the simple, opposite leaves have fallen but this makes the fruits more obvious to chickadees and other birds that seem to enjoy them and unintentionally disburse the seeds.

Gray Dogwood colonizes old fields and spreads by underground runners. The result is a dome-shaped thicket with older, taller shrubs up to 10 feet high in the center. New twigs are brown, and the center of branchlets have light brown pith.

Its close cousin, Red-osier Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera = C. alba) will do the same in wet meadows. It also has white berries prized by songbirds and Ruffed Grouse. The red twigs are eaten by deer and cottontails. If you cut across one of the bright red (sometimes green) twigs with a sharp knife, you'll notice the center is filled with white pith.

Most dogwoods have branchlets with opposite twigs and leaves similar to maples and viburnums. The exception is Alternate-leaf Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), also called Pagoda Dogwood because of its growth form with whorls of leaves at the end of green twigs.

Questions, comments and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Goldenrod Ball Galls -- © Dave Spier

2011-10-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Pair of ball galls on Canada Goldenrod stem at Montezuma Audubon Center - © Dave Spier

In August and early September, the field had been bright yellow with goldenrod flowers. Now it’s turning brown, although this too can be attractive when the plants are frosted and backlit by the rising sun. In November, most of the goldenrod leaves will shrivel and drop, exposing abnormal swellings on many of the plant stems. The common ones found on Canada Goldenrod are ball-shaped, resembling miniature basketballs about an inch or more in diameter. Not surprisingly they are usually called "goldenrod ball galls."

To fully understand galls we need to cut one open and look inside. Carefully pry and twist while cutting into the pithy core and try to pop the gall open. At the very center is a small cavity with the even smaller white larva of the peacock fly, Eurosta solidaginis, a relative of the fruit fly. Originally injected into the stem as an egg, it hatched and began feeding. Chemicals in its saliva stimulate the host plant to produce a pithy bulge in an effort to heal the "wound" caused by the parasitic larva. This actually benefits the insect by providing endless food and later an insulating shelter with a hard, weatherproof shell.

The gall, however, is not impermeable. Downy Woodpeckers and Black-capped Chickadees have learned that galls contain a nutritious morsel, and these birds will peck and chisel until they get it. You can recognize their work by the rough, funnel-shaped excavations they leave behind.

Gall fly larvae that escape this fate will chew a tunnel almost to the surface and there they will pupate until they emerge. Winged adults lack chewing mouth parts and can only pop the lid. They do this by inflating a balloon-like bladder (called the ptilinum) between the eyes. You can recognize their work by the small, sharp-edged hole that appears to have been drilled into the gall. The only function of the adult stage is to find a mate and lay more eggs in more goldenrod stems.

Goldenrods are prone to several other kinds of galls. An irregular-shaped growth called the "knotty goldenrod gall" is caused by the gall midge Lasioptera solidaginis. It’s somewhat globular, but not pith-filled. Less obvious is a long, spindle-shaped bulge called the "elliptical goldenrod gall" caused by the caterpillar of a moth.

A third type is very different in structure and occurs at the top of the stem. The "goldenrod bunch gall" is actually a globular head of deformed leaves about two inches in diameter. It is caused by a gall midge, a type of fly related to the mosquito. Its egg-laying apparatus, called an ovipositor isn’t strong enough to pierce the tough stem, so it contends with laying its egg on the tip of the plant.

Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Taughannock Falls

2011-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Mist spraying from the base of Taughannock Falls accents the footbridge near the end of the lower gorge trail - © Donna Mason-Spier

The highest waterfalls in New York State is easily accessible off Rt. 89 northwest of Ithaca in Tompkins County. Taughannock Creek flows east and descends the valley slope to end in Cayuga Lake. Since the end of the last Ice Age, the creek, by utilizing two significant waterfalls, has cut an impressive gorge into the plateau. I suggest starting at the overlook on the north rim of the gorge about a half mile uphill from Rt. 89. This will give you an overview of the lower gorge below the main falls, plus a glimpse into the upper gorge above this falls.

Drive downhill and turn right (south) on Rt. 89, cross the creek and pull into the lower parking lot on your right. (If this lot is full, there are larger lots on the east side of Rt. 89, toward Taughannock Point, a delta created by the creek from sediments washed out of the hillside.) A three-quarter mile walking trail leads up the gorge to the base of 215' high Taughannock Falls. Yes, it's higher than Niagara, but of course it lacks the width and volume of water. (After all, Niagara drains the four upper Great Lakes on their way to Lake Ontario and then the St. Lawrence.)

The lower falls capped by Tully limestone - © Donna Mason-Spier

Even from the parking area, you can see the lowest falls, created by the resistant Tully limestone caprock. The weak Hamilton shales at the base of this falls are easily eroded with the result that blocks of limestone break off.

Joints (tension cracks) crossing Tully limestone above lower falls - © Donna Mason-Spier

Above the lower falls, the creek has washed off the relatively flat surface of the Tully up to a wide "step" falls created by another layer of the limestone. Above that another flat surface continues upstream until you reach the black Geneseo shale.

Solution pits in the surface of the Tully - © Donna Mason-Spier

The "step" falls formed by an upper stratum of Tully limestone - © Donna Mason-Spier

Black Geneseo shale beside the gorge trail - © Donna Mason-Spier

Further up the gorge you'll see the beige cliffs formed by more resistant Sherburne siltstone, slightly younger rock overlying the Geneseo formation.

When you reach the wide amphitheater surrounding the falls, the highest portion of the cliffs are Ithaca shale which begins about 25' above the crest of the falls. At this point the gorge is about 400' deep.

The amphitheater cut into Sherburne siltstone overlying dark Geneseo shale, both formations in the Genesee group - © Donna Mason-Spier

Collapsed pinnacle of Sherburne siltstone, the lighter strata above the dark Geneseo shale - © Donna Mason-Spier

Autumn foliage in the lower gorge, October 23, 2011 - © Donna Mason-Spier

Reflection of autumn foliage on Taughannock Creek, October 23, 2011 - © Donna Mason-Spier

Lower gorge trail - © Donna Mason-Spier

Blue Jays -- © Dave Spier

2011-10-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

How would you describe Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata)? Noisy? Large? Bullies? Beautiful? Depends what you're doing (or what they're doing), I suppose. If you're a hunter or wildlife photographer, jays announce your presence to the rest of the forest world. If you feed birds, do the jays unintentionally (or intentionally) scare smaller birds away? Or worse, does a blue jay ever attack or even eat a smaller bird?

Jays are corvids (members of the Corvid, or crow, family) and share many characteristics with cousin crow. They have sturdy, all-purpose bills and they eat whatever they can find, or sometimes catch. They're right at home at bird feeders eating sunflower seeds and suet, but their natural diet includes a lot of nuts. They depended on chestnuts before that tree species was wiped out by blight. Then they shifted entirely to acorns and beechnuts. Many of these are "stored" underground for winter retrieval, much the way squirrels hide food, and the forgotten nuts grow into new oaks and beech trees. A single jay can stash up to 5000 acorns in a season, an average of 110 per day. The acorns are carried in the beak, the equivalent of us carrying a coconut in our mouth. Smaller acorns are carried four or five at a time using the throat and mouth as well as the bill. Jays are credited with reintroducing chestnuts, oaks and beech to New York and northward after the retreat of the glacier at the end of the last Ice Age. At the other extreme, oaks are absent from the world wherever there are no species of jays.

Jays have been known to eat parts of roadkills, but this niche is filled more by their larger black relatives, the crows and ravens. In the spring, Blue Jays have a bad reputation for eating the eggs and nestlings of smaller bird species, another habit shared with crows. During the warmer months, they eat salamanders, tree frogs, small snakes, snails, spiders, many beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars and other insects. In late summer and fall they eat berries, corn and small rodents. On an annual basis, their diet is 76% vegetarian, 23% insects and only one percent vertebrates.

Blue Jays are year-round residents even though they seem to disappear into the trees during breeding season. They become silent to avoid drawing attention to their nests and avoid the spotlight on themselves as they prey on other nests. They raise one brood a year in the North, but the clutches are larger than those of jays in the South which have time for two or three broods.

Fledgling Blue Jays are scruffy copies of their parents. Males and females have identical plumage and may tell each other apart by voice or behavior. Females tend to be smaller. Their predominantly blue color is an optical illusion. Unlike paint pigments, the blue is created by microscopic flakes of melanin on the feathers that reinforce the blue spectrum and interfere with other colors. The bright blue wings and long tail are decorated with black bars and patches of white feather tips. The back and crest are a uniform darker blue. A dark necklace encircles a dirty white face and throat. The breast is light gray and the belly is nearly white.

After nesting season, jays resume their role as town criers. In fall they gather into small flocks and some (more likely the youngsters) migrate south. The remaining birds concentrate around dependable feeders where they are usually the largest visitors. Only Mourning Doves and grackles are larger. The Red-bellied Woodpecker, being slightly shorter, comes close in size and Hairy Woodpeckers are close behind red-bellies.

Shrikes are listed in the field guides as shorter than Blue Jays, but apparently they're strong enough to tackle the jay. I received a report of a shrike attacking a Blue Jay in the woods and carrying the struggling prey 50 feet. The shrike then nailed the jay to the ground and they struggled again. The shrike took off with the Blue Jay still in its beak and flew another 50 feet before the jay managed to get away. Shrikes lack the strong talons of a hawk and are incapable of killing their prey on the first strike. Had the predator been an Accipiter, or bird hawk, the jay would have become an instant meal. A Cooper’s Hawk would have little trouble dispatching a jay.

European visitors are envious that the spectacular Blue Jay is a common yardbird here. Perhaps we should admire its beauty and overlook what some people consider its faults, its aggressive behavior exhibited primarily during nesting season.

For a discussion of Adirondack Blue Jays, see the Adirondack Naturalist blog.

Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Virginia Creeper -- © Dave Spier

2011-10-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Virginia Creeper at Montezuma Audubon center, Savannah, NY - © Dave Spier

I had stopped to check a "birdy" looking thicket [a habitat likely to hold a variety of birds] on my way home. Chip calls sounded like a cardinal, but I wasn’t sure. As I scanned the bushes, a mockingbird flew in and began eating the Virginia Creeper berries. The loose clusters of dark bluish-black fruits resemble wild grapes, but the dark-pink stems serve as a warning to people. Beware – due to oxalic acid, they are poisonous and potentially fatal if you eat enough of them. Apparently they have no effect on birds which have very different digestive systems than humans. (Remember, birds evolved from – or at least with – dinosaurs.) I can't remember whether I found a cardinal.

Virginia Creeper (also called Woodbine and Five-leaved Ivy) is a common woody vine, especially in lowland swamps. The one feeding the mockingbird was growing in a buckthorn bush at the edge of a damp meadow beside the road.

Creeper vines are related to grapes, but the leaves are very different. They are divided into five coarsely toothed leaflets arranged in a radial (spoked) pattern from the main leaf stem. In late spring, insignificant pale or greenish flowers grow in irregular clusters and these become the fruits of fall. As the leaves turn color and drop off, the berries become easier to find. Because of the attractive bright red or burgundy foliage in the fall, this plant is sometimes grown as an ornamental. On the other hand, if trying to remove this plant from a building, cut the main stem at the ground and wait for the adhesive pads to die and lose their grip. Ripping it off too soon could damage the surface.

Both species of Virginia Creeper climb by means of forked tendrils. Parthenocissus quinquefolia has tiny suction-like disks on the end of each tendril; P. inserta does not.

Native Americans used parts of the plant to treat jaundice, gonorrhea, and diarrhea. Mixed with vinegar it was used for lockjaw and wounds. Given the poisonous nature of the plant, I assume they first thoroughly dried Woodbine to remove the oxalate crystals.

Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Woolly Bears -- © Dave Spier

2011-10-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

Woolly-bear caterpillar at Blue Cut Nature Center between Newark and Lyons in Wayne County, NY - © Dave Spier

When was the last time you remarked, “Oh, there goes an Isabella Tiger Moth”? Probably never (unless you’re an entomologist). The wings are yellow-brown with some small black dots and a few faint lines for camouflage. When opened, the wings span two inches or less. During the summer, these moths can be found in meadows and fields and along road edges, but I don’t remember ever seeing one. Frankly, it never occurred to me to even look for them. Part of the problem is that these moths are nocturnal; look for them around porch lights. I think I’ll put it on my calendar of things-to-do for next summer. I guarantee they’re here, whether or not I can actually find one. How do I know? Read on…

When was the last time you remarked, “Oh, there goes a Woolly Bear”? Probably within recent memory, and some days, several times – depending on the weather. These are the familiar bristly caterpillars with black on each end and orange in the middle. I see them crossing roads and open hiking trails, wiggling through the grass, or trying to hide in my garage.

It’s said that the amount of black portends the severity of the coming winter, but actually it only indicates how close to full grown it is. It will find a snug shelter and spend the winter in the larval (caterpillar) stage, and by producing a type of antifreeze [technically a cryo-protectant chemical] they can survive freezing to temperatures of -90 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why we see them again in early spring on a warm day. They complete their metamorphosis (change) and emerge as adult Isabella Tiger Moths starting in June. Other members of the Tiger Moth family are more strikingly marked and attractive. Some have black and beige wings and rouge accents on the body and these are the species that give the clan its family name.

Tiger Moths are capable of producing ultrasonic sounds above our hearing range. These are used to attract mates and also to interfere with bats’ echo location and thereby avoid capture and consumption by the flying mammals. Most moths are nocturnal and this could help explain why most of us have never seen the adult Woolly Bear, a.k.a. the Isabella Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella).

Questions, comments and suggestions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com For more information on New York's butterflies and moths, please visit the D.E.C. website for a PDF copy of their flyer.

Red Trilliums © Dave Spier

2011-05-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Red Trilliums (Trillium erectum) are attractive woodland wildflowers native to Upstate New York, but admire them from a distance. They have many nicknames, but “stinking Benjamin” and “wet-dog trillium” will clue you to their ill scent. Both the liver-red color and bad smell are nature’s design to attract carrion flies to aid in pollination.

Trilliums grow with three broad, diamond-shaped leaves and three green, leaf-like sepals alternating with three colored petals. This plant belongs to the lily family, hence the name tri-lillium, or three-part lily. Other common names for this species include Purple Trillium, Wake-robin, Rule-of-three, and in Maine, Wild-piney.

Peterson’s Edible Wild Plants book indicates that young leaves can be added to salads or boiled and eaten like spinach, but it’s too late for this year. After the flowers open, the leaves turn bitter. Another source I consulted warns that “the leaves contain calcium oxalate crystals and crystal raphide, and should not be consumed by humans.” Either way, this species is seldom abundant enough to be used as a food source, and removing the leaves will stress or possibly kill the plant. It takes woodland wildflowers an average of seven years to reach maturity and begin flowering due to the lack of sunlight in the shade of tall trees. New York State ranks the Red Trillium as “Exploitably Vulnerable.”

Berries and roots are mildly poisonous, although you might see birds and wild mammals eating the red fruits later in the year (but remember, they also eat Poison Ivy berries).

Corrections and questions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Bloodroots © Dave Spier

2011-04-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

[First, a note of caution. Many native woodland wildflowers are protected by law and it is therefore technically illegal to collect them. Before the late 1700's, when much of western and central New York was almost totally covered with forests and wetlands, there was an abundance of habitat for slow-growing wildflowers. All of that changed with the clearing of land to create agricultural fields plus the draining of bogs to create muckland. A 1974 NY conservation law was designed to protect "any plants considered endangered, threatened, rare or exploitably vulnerable." On state land it prohibits anyone from picking, plucking, severing, removing, damaging with defoliants or herbicides, or carrying away any listed plant. (Did they miss any?) On private land, it requires the owner's permission. At most private nature preserves (like Zurich Bog in Wayne County), all collecting is forbidden.]

This brings us to Bloodroot. To understand the name of this woodland native, you would need to dig up the entire plant, including the horizontal tuber, but that is illegal -- so we need to take the word of early authors. The scientific genus name, Sanguinaria, comes from the Latin word "sanguis" for blood. The red juice gave the plant several common names including "Indian paint" and "redroot." The Indians called it "puccoon" (or perhaps that is the pioneers' interpretation of their word) and they used the plant medicinally "for swellings, aches, anointing their joints, painting their faces and garments" and an insect repellent. However, the FDA warns that the plant is toxic and should no longer be used under any circumstances.

Bloodroot is a member of the poppy family and the flowers quickly fade. A single, lobed leaf grows on a separate stalk from the roots and it continues to produce food to be stored for next spring's spurt of growth before emerging tree leaves make life difficult in the new shade. The showy, white flower has eight to ten petals surrounding the male and female parts, making it possible to self pollinate if there's a shortage of flying insects to carry the pollen. (Since it's one of the earlier woodland wildflowers, that's probably a good policy.) The disk of white petals acts like a solar reflector to concentrate warmth on the yellow stamens and help them ripen. After the seeds ripen, they are supposedly dispersed by ants. Has anyone actually witnessed this locally? If you find of colony of Bloodroots, they are probably clones growing from the rhizome of the original plant.

With the decline in agriculture and the return of many second-growth woodlots, Bloodroot and a few other native wildflowers now seem to be holding their own.

Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com You can request a free e-copy of the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC) newsletter, or ask for hyperlinks to my photo websites. If you can make it, save the date of Saturday, May 7, 2011 for the fifth annual Wildlife Festival at the MAC from 10 am to 3 pm. Activities will highlight the significance of birds and wildlife on Earth and how all life is connected to them. Enjoy live birds of prey, kid's games and activities, live music, a BBQ and desserts, a chance to win raffles and prizes, hiking and canoeing, a farmer’s market, wildlife exhibitors and much more! The Montezuma Audubon Center is located at 2295 State Route 89 in Savannah, NY, approximately 1.7 miles north of the Hamlet of Savannah. For details, including parking and shuttle service, visit http://ny.audubon.org/montezuma.htm, call (315) 365-3588, or e-mail montezuma@audubon.org

Coltsfoot

2011-03-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

At a distance, the flowers resemble dandelions. Close-up, the flowers resemble dandelions. In fact, it is a relative of the dandelion. If it weren’t for the leaves (or more apparently the lack of them in early spring), the yellow flowers of Coltsfoot could pass for dandelions. Both are in the Composite, or Aster, Family.

If you’re inclined to get down on the ground and look at the succulent stem of Coltsfoot, you’ll notice that it is scaly. On the other hand, perhaps you won’t want to get down on the ground because it grows in damp soil along streamsides, banks, ditches, roadsides and waste places. Each plant usually appears as a yellow clump with several flower heads.

The green leaves appear later in spring, after the flowers have gone to seed, and they continue to grow through the summer. Someone thought the leaves, which are somewhat heart-shaped but angular and toothed, resembled a colt’s foot. Just use your imagination. They can reach a width of seven inches.

A cough syrup can be made by boiling fresh leaves and adding sugar to the extract according to the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Dried leaves can be steeped to make tea. If the dried leaves are burned, the ash can be used as a salt substitute.

Questions and suggestions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com To find out about upcoming programs at the Montezuma Audubon Center (Rt. 89 N, Savannah, NY), e-mail montezuma@audubon.org or phone (315) 365-3588. I lead a series of casual walks called The Wednesday Naturalists, designed for retirees and people with flexible schedules. Themes vary from week to week, but includes photography, birding and general nature. Most walks start at 9 am and cost $5, except the special van trips to spring hawk watches, which leave at 8 am and cost $20. The MAC also presents school programs during the week and family programs led by other naturalists on Saturdays.

Winter at Montezuma Audubon Center

2011-01-31T17:44:00.000-08:00

Red-bellied Woodpecker (male) by Dave Spier

It’s been pretty quiet and predictable at the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC) the last few weeks. Below-normal temperatures and a steady influx of snow with periodic breaks has limited trail access to the use of snowshoes. (Bring your own or rent a pair at the center.) Mostly, the same birds have been coming to the feeders each day, but there’s a good mix of Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, goldfinches, redpolls, House Finches, titmice, a chickadee and one or two White-breasted Nuthatches. One day a male Red-bellied Woodpecker added a touch of color, not from its salmon-colored underside, but its flaming-red crown and nape. I was able to photograph it through the window in the north-end door that overlooks the bird feeders.

[edited in February] The steadily growing length of daylight will begin to trigger changes in wildlife. The weather was better the day after Groundhog Day, with lots of sunshine. We didn't see a woodchuck, but this is the time when males leave their burrows and search for females before returning underground to await spring.

Winter photography is a matter of staying warm. Dress in layers (always good advice for any outdoor winter activity), but also keep your camera warm by putting it under your coat until needed. If you have one of the larger DSLR cameras with a zoom lens that’s too big to fit under your outerwear, at least carry a spare battery inside a pocket. Cold weather quickly saps battery life. Also carry Q-tips or wipes to remove condensation from the viewfinder when you accidentally breathe on it. Before returning indoors, put the camera inside a plastic bag to control condensation, or so I've read.

If your camera has exposure compensation, read your camera manual to learn how to use this feature. Intentionally overexposing a snowy scene by one or two stops usually gives you a more realistic image. Otherwise you’re likely to end up with gray (instead of white) snow. Turn this camera feature off when you’re done playing in the snow, or your regular photos will be overexposed.

On Wednesday, February 9, I led a morning nature walk at the MAC, but the best part seemed to be the snowshoeing that everyone enjoyed. We trekked through the walnut grove and turned north on Warbler Walk into the hemlock-hardwoods. Contact northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

In other news, Sarah Fleming took over from Doug Gorby as Regional Biologist for Ducks Unlimited, which is involved in many of the wetland restoration projects on the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Savannah. Doug moved to Ohio.

The Montezuma Audubon Center (Route 89 north of Savannah, NY) is in need of volunteers to help with publicity and programs, cataloguing books, caring for the reptiles and other indoor activities. A gardening committee helps with planting native vegetation to benefit wildlife (including attracting more birds) in the spring. For information write to montezuma@audubon.org

For more information about birds and birding in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, visit the website http://montezumabirding.webs.com/ and for additional birding content, visit http://eatonbirds.webs.com/ (the official website of the Eaton Birding Society, based in Geneva, NY).

2010-11-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

They're most noticeable beside the road in drainage ditches and low spots. By fall they're tall plants turning beige and topped with fluffy plumes. Last summer they were heavy stems with green-sword leaves and dark-purple plumes. Year after year, they multiply to extend their grasp on the wetlands. You may know them by any of several names including Common Reed, Tall Reed or Phragmites (the generic portion of Phragmites australis, the Southern Reed). Look closely and you'll notice it's just another hollow-stem grass with long leaves sheathing the stem. The feathery plumes at the top were the flowers that turn light brown and then gray as the seeds ripened.

During Colonial times and continuing into the 19th century, a native variety of Tall Reed grew along the coasts. Then in the early 20th century, a nearly identical, but more aggressive European variety was introduced into one or more Atlantic ports. Seeds clinging to boat hulls helped expand its range westward along the Erie Canal, right through the center of the core Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Tall Reed has since exploded into disturbed wetlands where it spreads by seeds, plus dense tangles of underground rhizomes, and roots that can grow down several feet. Colonies become dense stands that can choke waterways and crowd out any native wetland plants. Reeds thrive in alkaline soils, so the abundant limestone and dolostone in the Finger Lakes Region makes an ideal growing environment. Cutting and burning are ineffective as controls. Not surprisingly, winter salt runoff has no effect, considering reeds grow in brackish marshes along the east coast. In fact, the salinity may supress native freshwater vegetation, tipping the balance in favor of reeds. This plant seems to be here to stay.

In Europe, reeds have been used for roof thatching and cattle feed, and for making mats, pen quills and low-quality paper. Native Americans of the Southwest fashioned arrow shafts, prayer sticks, screens and nets from the stems of similar plants. The rootstocks and seeds could be eaten as food.

Wildlife makes limited use of reed beds. Red-winged Blackbirds will nest in the stands and may eat the seeds, thereby increasing dispersal of the plant. In Europe and Asia, other species of birds are adapted specifically to life in extensive Phragmites stands.

(For more information about plants, birds and birding in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and northern Finger Lakes region of New York State, visit the websites for the Montezuma Birding Trail and Eaton Birding Society. For information about programs at the Montezuma Audubon Center, send them an e-mail, or phone (315) 365-3588.)

2010-09-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

In common usage, the term “bulrush” is applied to a wide variety of generally-aquatic plants related to grasses. In a stricter botanical sense, it is usually reserved for members of the genus Scirpus in the sedge family (Cyperaceae). Grasses are a separate family (Graminae) and rushes are a third (Juncaceae). All together the three plant families comprise the order Poales.

Grasses are distinguished by having hollow stems with “joints” [bulges] where the narrow leaves attach. The flowers are inconspicuous because the plants are wind-pollinated. Sedges, in contrast, have solid stems and many, but not all, are triangular in cross-section. This is the origin of the phrase “sedges have edges.” There are no joints and the leaves may be small or missing. Sedges as a group tolerate wetter and colder growing conditions than grasses. Their ranges extend farther north and they take over where grasses leave off.

One of the common bulrushes in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex is Soft-stem Bulrush, a.k.a. Great Bulrush (Scirpus validus). Its stem is round and spongy, there are no apparent leaves and the seed carriers are brown, cone-shaped nutlets growing in a cluster on the side of the stem below the tip.

This species grows four feet out of the water, and sometimes higher, and bulrush colonies often intermingle with cattails. There’s an accessible patch of bulrushes growing with the cattails around the edge of the two education ponds near the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC) on Rt. 89 north of Savannah, NY. They are in a low area in the field west of the parking lot and south of the building. The ponds were enlarged and deepened for use by school groups and there’s a footbridge between the two. A large variety of emergent wetland plants including cattails, sedges, arrowheads, bur-reed, Lobelia and other wildflowers grow there. After it rains, high water levels can make the foot bridge across the neck of the pond unstable, so check the stability first or go around the mowed path that circles the main pond.

At least once a month, I lead a general nature hike called “Wednesday Naturalists” at the MAC. We often go past the education pond and take a look at the wetland plants plus the dragonflies that patrol the air and the frogs that hide among the plants.

The MAC also has a monthly series of early morning bird walks and tours. Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com for details, or write to montezuma@audubon.org

September features the annual Montezuma Muckrace, a competitive 24-hour birding event to raise funds for projects around the wetlands complex. The 2008 competition raised $12,000, part of which was used to pay for the education pond expansion at MAC. Proceeds from 2009 paid for a Purple Martin house near the MAC and reforestation of 57 acres on the Federal wildlife refuge. For more information, go to http://friendsofmontezuma.org/muck_race.html

Cattails

2010-05-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

Supermarket, water purifier and wildlife habitat -- take your pick. The cattail is one of nature's most useful and versatile plants. My preference is its edibility. In early summer, the flower spikes produce bright yellow pollen that can be collected in a bag by shaking the heads. After sifting, the protein-rich pollen can be added to wheat flour to make a 50-50 mix. If you're going to store it, thoroughly dry it first. Pollen can also be mixed into pancake batter. Starting at the end of summer, look for horn-shaped sprouts growing on the ends of rootstocks. These can be tossed in a salad or boiled and buttered. They're available until the ground freezes. The starchy core can be used like a potato. During cold weather, the rootstocks become starch-filled as they store food for the long winter. To produce a white flour, wash, peel and then crush the core in cold water. Remove the fibers, allow the starch to settle, pour off the water and dry thoroughly. In early spring, young shoots can be peeled and used like asparagus. Immature flower spikes can be boiled and buttered like corn on the cob.
Because the roots are rich in starch, they were eaten by the Cossacks of Russia. The name carried to England where they are eaten as "Cossack asparagus." On the Pacific coast, cattails are called "Tule-reeds." Sometimes they are mislabeled bulrushes, but that term is properly reserved for a group of sedges which are distant relatives.
Not interested in eating cattails? Then how about water pollution removal? Man-made wetlands containing cattails and other aquatic plants are used to naturally purify sewage water. These systems work best in the South because of the climate, but smaller-scale operations contained in greenhouses work in New York. Some of the research was pioneered at Cornell many years ago. The advantages are low cost and high efficiency. By the time the water reaches the end of the artificial marsh, it's clear and full of macroinvertebrates (tiny animals with external shells). Tiny crustaceans called copepods are indicators of very clean water. Natural marshes continually clean water on a large scale from ice-out to ice-up. Bacteria on the plant roots aid in the process by consuming ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus and then breaking down industrial chemicals, detergents, and pesticides into simpler compounds that can be absorbed by the plants.
Many of those artificial outdoor water treatment systems become defacto wildlife refuges and even recreation areas because there are no objectionable odors. Birders are particularly interested in the ducks, swallows, redwings and herons that visit the marshes. But, if you're down South, just watch out for the alligator in the next pond...
It's important to preserve our remaining wetlands and create new ones to replace what's been lost. These low areas store runoff from storms, then filter the water to make it cleaner and recharge underground aquifers. On the surface, they are prime wildlife habitat. For example, muskrats are intricately tied to cattails for food and building materials. Many bird species are adapted to nesting in cattail marshes. Turtles and frogs add to the this wildlife variety. Snow Geese eat the underground stems and roots. Blue and yellow species of iris, purple Pickerelweed and white arrowhead flowers combine to create a garden effect. Red Cardinal Flower and its close relative, blue lobelia, plus pink Swamp Milkweed and yellow Marsh Marigold will grow around the edges. Beware of one problem plant: the invasive Phragmites, or tall reed, which is a dense, aggressive grass that crowds out cattails and reduces the value of wetlands as wildlife habitat.
At one time there were two distinct species of cattails, the Common or Broad-leaved Cattail (Typha latifolia) and the Narrow-leaved Cattail (Typha angustifolia), but now some cattails are hybrids of these two. This is particularly true in the Finger Lakes region where the dominant form, called the "blue cattail," has intermediate-width leaves.
What’s your opinion of cattail marshes? Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com If you visit the Montezuma Audubon Center just north of Savannah, NY (in southeastern Wayne County), walk to the small education ponds just south of the building, or hike to the western impoundments and investigate the plants and animals growing in the cattail marshes around the perimeters. If you're particularly interested in wetland birds, check out the new website for the Montezuma Birding Trail.

2009-12-28T10:39:00.000-08:00

Mockingbirds
© Dave Spier 2009

As usual there were a number of mockingbirds found on this year’s Montezuma Christmas Bird Count. Once considered a southern species, the mockingbird not only has expanded its range northward, but it is now found here year-round, in large part due to the widespread presence of Multi-flora Rose bushes and their small, bite-size fruits. Mockers reportedly defend fruit trees and berry bushes in their winter territory, but I have yet to see this. Cedar Waxwings, which can strip a tree or shrub of its fruits in hours are particularly prone to being attacked by mockingbirds. Have you ever witnessed this behavior? Mockers, which are larger, have been observed going so far as to kill waxwings by pecking them to death.
The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is most noted for its talent of imitating other bird calls. Each is repeated three or more times before moving on to a different song from its repertoire. Not being content to stop there, it also accurately mimics sirens, musical instruments, squeaky hinges, burglar alarms and other urban sounds, each repeated an average of four times. During the breeding season and even into the fall, this serenade often lasts into the night. Native Americans named it “cencontlatolly,” meaning “400 tongues.” Mimus polyglottos means “mimic of many-tongues.”
Mockers are most attractive in flight when their dark wings flash prominent white patches. At rest, a bit of the white still shows. Their long tails are also dark and edged in white. Otherwise, the birds are gray on top and light underneath. In size and shape, mockingbirds are similar to their relatives, the catbirds and thrashers.
Comments, questions and suggestions may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Jacks and Jills

2009-06-26T04:02:00.000-07:00

Jacks and Jills
© 2009 Dave Spier
Many people recognize Jack-in-the-pulpit as a spring woodland wildflower, but how many can tell which ones are Jill’s? It's actually simple, but we'll get to that later. The plant is in the Arum family and therefore related to Skunk-cabbage, Arrow Arum, Sweetflag and Green Dragon. Most of these species have their flowers inside a hood (called a spathe). In the case of Jack (or Jill) the club-shaped spadix resembles a preacher in his canopied pulpit. The actual flowers are tiny and hidden at the base of the spadix, inside the bottom of the hood. Male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers are on separate plants. Now, consider that it takes much more energy to be a female than a male. Pollen production is a short-term process that soon ends, but nourishing seeds takes the remainder of the summer until they ripen and turn bright scarlet red. Does this give you any clues? Female plants are larger and almost always have two leaves while male plants are smaller and have one leaf. But hold on, we're not done yet. The same plant can change back and forth depending on growing conditions!
Like many woodland wildflowers it takes a number of years for an individual plant to reach sexual maturity and begin flowering. Life is tough in the woods. Most of the growing season is spent in the shade of larger plants, primarily trees. It takes time, years of time, to store enough food (energy) underground to meet the added burden of producing flowers. Jack-in-the-pulpits start life as a single, small leaf that grows larger each year until it has enough energy to add a male flower. If life is good, it eventually stores enough food to produce a female flower the following year. This usually takes three to five years. If conditions deteriorate -- there's not enough sunlight or not enough rain or it's too cold -- the plant can go back to being a male and start the process all over again.
Depending on which botanist you consult, there are either three species of Jack-in-the-pulpit or simply three varieties within one species, Arisaema triphyllum. I suspect that some of the confusion comes from the sexual variability within any given population. Aside from that there are variations in physical appearance. Some Jacks have green hoods, others have white-striped green hoods and a third variety has purple hoods usually with light stripes. The leaves are always three-parted and long-stalked. Some varieties can grow a foot high, while others reach three feet. This may be partly a result of soil fertility. The plants generally grow in moist woodlands, often at the edge of a swamp.
This plant is also known as Indian turnip, but be warned that the underground corm contains crystals of calcium oxalate which cause an intense burning sensation in the mouth. There's a way around this but take pity on the hard life of the Jack and leave it to grow another year. If you really want to experiment with wild foods, use the plentiful Skunk-cabbage, but write to me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com for precautions and details. You also can request a free e-copy of the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC) newsletter which lists upcoming hikes and events and contains several species profiles. If you stop at the MAC and hike the Warbler Walk trail, you can take a look at both the Jack-in-the-pulpit and the Skunk-cabbage.
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the May 24, 2009 issue of the Times of Wayne County. All rights reserved.)

2009-04-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

First Wildflower
© 2008 Dave Spier
Have faith; spring will arrive. It's inevitable, like the amount of daylight increasing. If you ignore twilight, the length of day and night are both 12 hours around March 20, the date marked on the calendar as the beginning of astronomical spring. It's enough to trigger the return of blackbirds and other hardy migrants that spent the winter a few states to the south, even if they do run into an occasional snowfall here in New York.
At least one wildflower doesn't care what the weather is doing. It can produce its own heat from chemical reactions inside the plant, a process called thermogenesis. This ability may have evolved in early plants during the age of dinosaurs (the Mesozoic) as a way to entice insects to pollinate the primitive flowers. The heat helps the flowers to mature so they can launch odors attractive to insects and provide warmth if the insect spends the night. Later, it can keep the embryonic seeds from freezing during cold snaps.
If you know where to look, this wildflower has been visible since last fall when its pointed greenish-gray tips poked through the mud and leaf litter. It grows in wetlands mostly around the edge of swamps and along stream banks. In late winter the stalkless flower hood, called a spathe, swells and turns maroon or sometimes it's mottled with light green. It resembles cupped hands with an opening on one side and the pointed top may curl over. Inside is a light-yellow ball, called a spadix (or club) that looks like a small golf ball, but instead of dimples, the surface sprouts bumps that are the actual flowers. I'd recommend not looking too closely because the odor has been likened to carrion or dead meat. Then again, it's not for our benefit. It attracts carrion flies as well as bees and gnats which overwinter as adults. Instead of getting nectar, which more highly evolved flowers produce, the insects receive warmth at a time when it's in short supply.
The flowers appear before the leaves because the long root stored enough food the previous summer. The tightly coiled leaves, bright spring-green in color, rise next to the flower hoods and open into a rosette of broad, egg-shaped paddles. Their job is to nourish the seeds and produce an excess of food that can be stored underground for the following spring. Again, I'd recommend not getting too close because the crushed leaves smell like skunk. By now you've guessed that we're discussing Skunk Cabbage, a widespread plant of the bottomlands. It's also been called Polecat-weed, Bear's-foot, Fetid Hellebore, and Midas-ears. Native Americans called it Skunkroot, but were able to eat it by boiling in three changes of water. Early Swedes called it "bjornblad," Anglicized to Byron-Blad, meaning "bear's leaf," a reference to bears eating it in the spring. Makes you wonder about the bear's sense of smell...
Skunk Cabbage is a member of the Arum family, so it's a relative of Jack-in-the-pulpit and Calla Lily. By the time these latter species appear, the spring migration will be well underway and we'll be enjoying warm weather. Or will we?
Stay tuned.
Send your comments, questions, or suggestions to Dave Spier, northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or request a PDF copy of the latest Montezuma Audubon Center newsletter or get hyperlinks to my photo websites. Check out the free MAC Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MontezumaAudubon/ which contains a newsletter archive under Files and photos from the center.
(This copyrighted article is based on one that first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, March 24, 2008. The photo is © 2008 Dave Spier. All rights reserved. A similar version appeared in a recent MAC newsletter.)

2009-03-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

March Trails – the Wetlands
© 2009 Dave Spier

The change from winter to spring, as much as we'd like it to be a one-way continuum, is never that simple. It would be great if one day it was winter -- and the next day it was spring -- and there was no going back. Instead it's a push and pull seesaw of alternating warm and cold air. A warm front one day is followed by a cold front the next, and then it reverses itself again. Temperatures go up and down, but on the average we drift toward spring.
Since meteorologists keep records on a monthly basis, spring for them begins on March 1. Meteorological winter was December, January and February, the three coldest months of the year. At the opposite end, meteorological summer is June through August, the warmest months. When we speak of spring beginning on March 20, the vernal equinox, we are speaking of astronomical spring when day and night are equal lengths.
Physical weather changes in March trigger biological changes, so we might say that biological spring also begins March 1. The two are closely tied. Even though thousands of Canada Geese wintered on the Finger Lakes, tens of thousands more return from the Chesapeake Bay at the end of February every year. For them, it's spring. Similarly large numbers of Snow Geese are now returning, too.
When the ice melts, walk down to the local pond and watch for the resident Mallards to return. To save time, they formed pair bonds last fall and now they're ready to go. They'll also be checking out grassy puddles in the corners of fields. Unless she's swimming with the drake, you may not notice the drab-colored hen. Her brown-mottled plumage is camouflage to blend with the dead vegetation as she picks a nest site.
Mallards have to share their wetland and field habitats with the Ring-billed Gull, named for the dark band near the tip of the adult's bill. (For once ornithologists made the name accurate and simple.) Gulls are primarily scavengers and their main food is dead fish, but in the spring they move inland and feed on worms, insects and other bits of food gleaned from fields. When not feeding they rest on the meltwater puddles that collect in low depressions. These are only temporary and when they dry out the gulls will return to the lakes. By then the baitfish should have returned to the shallows.
Many ponds are bordered by cattail marshes, still beige from the winter. The exposed edges were matted by snow and wind, but the denser interior is more self-supporting and provides perches for the male Red-winged Blackbirds returning from the south. They flare their red shoulder patches as they sing "kong-ka-reeee," a warning to other males that "this is my turf." In another week or two, the females, which look more like large, brown-streaked sparrows, but with pointier bills, will join the males and begin pairing and preparing for nest building.
Cattail marshes are important storage pools for spring flood waters and they deserve protection for this reason alone. By slowing the runoff, they allow underground aquifers to be recharged. The third benefit is serving as wildlife habitat for waterfowl and muskrats plus secretive animals that we seldom see but sometimes hear.
On slightly higher ground, where it dries out during the summer, willows and Red-osier Dogwood take over. For a sure sign of spring, look in these swampy borders for Pussy Willows, a shrub that seldom exceeds 15 feet in height. The soft, gray-fuzzy buds are really male flowers that later turn yellow with pollen. Since the buds were originally formed at the end of last summer, their only protection through the winter was a single, brown bud scale which gets pushed back as the bud opens. Red-winged Blackbirds looking for a higher singing perch might choose the Pussy Willow.
Another wetland shrub related to willows is the Speckled Alder. More common in the Adirondacks than western New York, it's in the same family as birches, musclewood and hazelnut. Look for the transverse, whitish lenticels on smooth, dark bark. It's a favorite food of the Beaver.
Now look down at your feet and search for the Skunk-cabbage that often grows in this same habitat. A long, starchy tap root fuels their spring growth as they chemically generate heat to melt through any remaining snow and to woft their odors to the first flies emerging from dormancy.
In spite of temperatures in the teens this morning, there are two Red-winged Blackbirds singing from the top of the Silver Maple in the backyard. Normally a tree of the bottomland swamps, this one was probably planted. In about two weeks, the red flower buds will open and release their wind-blown pollen. The timing is risky because that is often when we get ice storms. Warm, moist air trying to return from the south over-runs cold air on the ground and falling rain freezes when it contacts anything below 32° F. (0° C.) The upper trunk and branches -- smooth, gray and brittle -- are easily broken by the weight of glaze ice.

Another maple species that grows on wet bottomlands and creek banks is the Boxelder, or Ash-leaved Maple. The opposite pairs of buds are still closed. If it's a mild day, look in the bark for adult Boxelder Bugs coming out of dormancy. You'll also find them on Sycamores and other flood plain trees. Only adult females overwinter so any you see in March will be looking for a crevice to hide her eggs.

This copyrighted article and photo are adapted from one of my slide shows. They first appeared in the March 9, 2009 issue of the Times of Wayne County.

On March 28 at 10:30 am, I will be leading a hike at the Montezuma Audubon Center (MAC) to look for signs of spring. In the event of bad weather, I will present an indoor slide program. Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com to request a copy of the MAC newsletter or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MontezumaAudubon/ and look in “Files.” My photo websites are http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier .

The Center for Birds of Prey

2009-02-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

On our February trip south, we stopped at the South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey located about 15 miles northeast of downtown Charleston. It's on Seewee Road just east of U.S. Route 17 next to the Francis Marion National Forest. If you're coming from the Georgetown or McClellanville direction, it's about three miles southwest of the Sewee Visitor Center. [for a map, go to their website, http://www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org/visit_us.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page] The raptor center is open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (except holidays) from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Weather permitting, there are guided walking tours at 10:30 and 2:00 followed by free-flight demonstrations at approximately 11:30 and 3:00. You also can walk around on your own to see all of the raptors.
Most of the birds are housed in large outdoor pens. The afternoon we were there, Education Director Stephen Schabel, Jr. (Steve) started our tour at the vultures. The Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus, normally depicted with black legs, had one gray leg and one pale-yellow, the result of urination. The ureic acid is thought to act as an antibiotic and a coolant as it evaporates. The Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, (in the same pen) stayed on the ground in the back corner. A notable difference between the two genera is their sense of smell. The black has little or none, while the Turkey Vulture has a good sense of smell, at least based on the size of its olfactory lobe in the brain. Vultures are technically not raptors because they do not use their feet to catch prey.
Next stop was an American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, that had imprinted on humans. The otherwise healthy bird, taken as a hatchling, would be ill-equipped to survive in the wild and find a mate. A much larger Peregrine Falcon, Falco perigrinus, is housed separately. In the wild, peregrines eat pigeons and ducks which they can knock down by diving at speeds over 200 mph.
Owls are well represented at the center. The next pen was a British Barn Owl, Tyto alba alba, about half the size of its American counterpart. Barn Owls have their own family, Tytonidae, separate from all other owls. At another stop, a well-camouflaged Great Horned Owl stayed out of the sunlight. These owls want to be seen only during courtship, so a white patch under the chin opens when they are calling to each other. These birds have long wings and live on the edge of the woods, although I have found them nesting in mature forests. Members of the genus Bubo are sometimes referred to as "eagle owls." The center also has a Barred Owl, Strix varia, one of the "wood owls" genus. These birds have shorter, rounded wings and longer tails for life inside the forest. Barred Owls generally prefer wet, bottomland woods. (If you have time, or come early, walk to the Owl Wood, a separate area with more species.)
The guided tour serves as an introduction to the variety of raptors in the avian world, but there's time for only a limited number of species. For a few of the other birds you can see at the center, go to their website, http://www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org/the_birds.html but even that is very incomplete because they have over 30 bird-of-prey species.
Following the guided tour, the group proceeded to the free-flight field. First up was a Harris' Hawk, Parabuteo unicinctus, a dark buteo of the Southwest. Because this species is a cooperative hunter, the white on the adults' tails allows them to keep track of each other. After the Barred Owl flight, which turned into the Barred Owl perch because of the wind, an active Eurasian Kestrel was brought out. This bird can see UV light which allows it to hunt voles by detecting their urine marks. The final highlight of the show was a Tawny Eagle, a magnificent bird that put on quite a show.
The raptor center is a bit expensive ($12/adult), but I look at it as a charitable contribution to help support their work. In addition to their medical and rehabilitation efforts and on-site educational tours, they offer off-site education programs and they do research and field studies related to the "protection of wild bird populations and their habitats." (For more detail, see http://www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org/research.htm )
More photos taken during our visit to the center can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist/BirdsOfPreyCaptive#

Red-breasted Nuthatches

2009-01-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch
© 2008 Dave Spier

At less than five inches long, the Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is a little smaller and stubbier than its white-breasted cousin (discussed in the previous blog). The belly and breast are orangish, but paler on the female. There is a bold black stripe that runs from the beak through the eye to the back of the head. Above this black stripe is a distinct white stripe (called a supercilium, although it’s easier to think of it as an eyebrow) and then a black crown, or in the case of the female, a grayish crown. The White-breasted Nuthatch has a beady black eye on a white face, making it a quick distinction from the Red-breasted Nuthatch’s black eye stripe.
Both nuthatch species have the habit of spiraling head-first down tree trunks, giving them the unique nickname, “downheads.” The red-breasted is found in conifers or mixed deciduous and coniferous woods and prefers older stands with some decaying trees. They nest in knotholes or excavate a rotten branch or stump, but abandoned woodpecker holes or nest boxes will suffice in a pinch. Red-breasted Nuthatches apply conifer resin around the entrance to their nest cavity. It’s believed the sticky resin discourages predators and competitors. The feisty little nuthatch also chases away other species like wrens, woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches that might want its nest hole. The five or six light-colored eggs are marked with reddish-brown squiggles and hatch in about 12 days. The helpless babies are fed insects and spiders (yummy!) and grow for two to three weeks before leaving the nest
The word “nuthatch” is a corruption of the English term “nuthack” originally applied to European nuthatches. White-breasted nuthatches will hack apart acorns, beechnuts, hickory nuts and cherry pits, but the natural diet of the red-breasted is limited to seeds extracted from evergreen cones plus insects and other invertebrates gleaned from bark crevices. In civilized parts of their range they frequent white-suet feeders where they will linger for what seems like hours. They also visit seed feeders but like the chickadees, they dash in, grab a seed and fly off. They interact well with juncos, chickadees, titmice and White-breasted Nuthatches, even the larger jays and cardinals, but they don’t seem to like the larger woodpeckers like the hairy. They have to be constantly on the lookout for predators, mainly Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks which find bird feeders to be a great invention for concentrating prey in one spot. That’s why it’s best to place feeders close to dense escape cover like bushes. Cats are another problem and it’s best to keep them indoors if you feed birds.
The call of the red-breasted has been likened to a toy tin horn as it gives a series of “ank, ank, ank” notes. Pairs stay together year round and use the call notes to keep in touch. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is somewhat migratory, so its numbers fluctuate from time to time, depending on the abundance of cone seeds in its home range. Some of our summer birds may go south, but in other years some Canadian birds may come here for the winter. Across Canada, into the Adirondacks and New England they live in boreal spruce-fir forests. When migrating south, some observers claim that, given a choice, they prefer pine and hemlock, although a report from the Village of Wolcott indicates they’re just as much at home in a row of tall arborvitae trees.
Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or visit my photo websites http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, January 7, 2008. All rights reserved.)

White-breasted Nuthatches

2009-01-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

The White-breasted Nuthatch
© 2007 Dave Spier

There are two nuthatches likely to be found in New York throughout the year. The common White-breasted Nuthatch prefers deciduous woods and yards while the less common Red-breasted Nuthatch prefers conifers and evergreen woods.
Mention White-breasted Nuthatch, and the first thing that comes to mind is the image of a bird walking head-first DOWN the trunk of tree. Most birds clamber up a tree, or at least perch upright on the trunk. Why would one species reverse the pattern? Simple -- they find food that other birds miss. It gives them a unique perspective on their world. It also gives them a unique nickname, the “downhead.”
Many people are familiar with nuthatches. Perhaps you have a pair or family group coming to your feeder. The white-breasted species (Sitta carolinensis) is a small “songbird” (in the order Passeriformes), although its “song” is more a series of soft, nasal notes resembling “what, what, what” all on the same pitch. Its call is a nasal “yank.”
This bird is only five or six inches long, not that you’ll get close enough to measure it. It’s not as tame as the chickadees and titmice with which it often travels. The White-breasted Nuthatch has blue-gray wings, back and tail-center plus a white face and underparts. The cap, or more accurately the crown-stripe, is black on the male, grayer on the female. When viewing the bird from below, you’ll see the rusty-tan patches under the tail. The stubby tail, if you’re lucky enough to see it fanned in flight, has a white stripe on either side. By comparison, the larger Tufted Titmouse, duller gray on top and white underneath, has a longer tail and crested head while the smaller Black-capped Chickadee has a black throat. The White-breasted Nuthatch has a beady black eye on a white face, making it a quick distinction from the Red-breasted Nuthatch’s black eye stripe discussed in a future blog.
When not visiting your feeder, the White-breasted Nuthatch, a year-round resident, lives in open woods and suburbs populated by large trees, especially oak and pine. In the spring, it builds a nest in a tree cavity by lining the hole with fur, thin grasses and shredded bark. They seem to prefer knotholes, but abandoned woodpecker holes and nest boxes will suffice. The clutch of speckled creamy-white eggs hatch in two weeks and the chicks fledge in roughly 26 days.
The birds live on berries, such as elderberry and Virginia creeper, plus insects found in nooks and crannies of trees – especially dead trees. They also eat nuts which they wedge in bark crevices and hack or “hatch” apart (hence the name “nuthatch,” a corruption of the English term “nuthack”). Acorns, beechnuts, hickory nuts and cherry pits are all on their menu. In the winter, White-breasted nuthatches depend on seeds, some of which may be hidden for later use, but I’ve seen other species find and remove such a cache. They also eat insect eggs or dormant insects found hibernating in bark crevices.
Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or visit my photo websites http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, December 10, 2007. All rights reserved.)

Kestrels

2008-12-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

Kestrels
© 2008 Dave Spier
They're easiest to see when they sit on power lines and watch the grass below. In the absence of these utility perches, they may simply turn into the wind and hover on beating wings. Oil droplets coating the bird's eyes filter out haze and glare. Retinas each packed with a million light-collecting cells give it vision eight times better than a human's. Theoretically they could see a mouse from the top of the Empire State Building. Once prey is spotted, the hawk drops like a stone and reaches out with needle-sharp talons. I've also heard of them gliding downhill and grabbing a mouse running across the snow, a most foolish thing for rodents to do. This maneuver caught the attention of two crows which gave chase, causing the kestrel to drop its prey. Undaunted, the hawk circled back and retrieved its fallen victim.
The American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, was once known as the sparrow hawk, a name derived from its habit of eating small songbirds, but in reality these comprise only one-third of the hawk's winter diet. On an annual basis, mice and other small rodents, plus a few frogs and reptiles represent a much larger proportion of its intake. During warm weather it eats primarily insects and late in summer the kestrel dines almost exclusively on juicy grasshoppers which are plentiful and easy to catch. This earned the bird the nickname "grasshopper hawk" from early ornithologists. Kestrels also eat crickets, cicadas, moths, beetles and ants. Small snakes are readily dispatched, but large snakes present a problem if they wrap themselves around the bird's legs. Small roadkills, and songbirds that fly into windows, are a source of easy meals.
Kestrels are the smallest members of the falcon family. Males are nine inches long while the larger females may reach 12 inches. On average they're about the size of a robin or blue jay which makes all these birds vulnerable to larger winged predators, especially Cooper's Hawks. On the other hand, kestrels will not tolerate competitors in their hunting territory and have been known to chase off larger, but less agile, raptors like the redtail. The falcon family also includes the kestrel's larger and more famous cousin, the peregrine, which is uncommon in these parts [the northern Finger Lakes Region of New York].
If you're close enough, kestrels are easy to recognize. In addition to small size, look for bold black marks on a white face creating a "mustache" and "sideburns." Males have gray wings and rusty-red tails ending with a black band and white feather tips. Females are mostly rufous-brown with fine cross-barring on the back, wings and tail. The lighter undersides of both are spotted, giving way to white under the tail. The wings and tail are relatively long, much like the larger harriers which also hunt the open countryside. (Harriers, also displaying sexual plumage differences as discussed in last week's column, are in a different family.) Unlike harriers, falcons are noted for flying with pointed wingtips, an advantage for faster speed. Peregrine Falcons, which can reach a diving speed of 200 mph, are the fastest animals on earth.
Kestrels are year-round residents throughout New York and most of the United States, and a summer breeder across much of Canada and the northern Great Plains states. They nest in tree cavities, often taking over old woodpecker holes, but the cutting of dead trees for firewood results in a shortage of natural nesting cavities. Fortunately, kestrels readily take to large nest boxes erected specifically for the purpose. The size should be at least eight inches square inside and 15 inches tall with a three-inch entrance hole centered three inches below the top. Mount it at least 10 feet above the ground. As controllers of insect and mouse populations, kestrels are valuable to gardeners and farmers, and nest boxes are one way to encourage their presence.
Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or visit my photo websites http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, December 1, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Harriers

2008-11-25T16:21:00.001-08:00

Harriers
© 2008 Dave Spier
At this rate, it just might spend the winter here. Sometimes it flies close to the building past the west windows and then disappears across the field. I doubt it's hunting the birds at the feeder, but they are within the realm of this raptor's diet. Mostly it flies low over the grasslands and the marsh while it looks for small mammals, especially Meadow Voles (also called field mice) which are caught with a sudden pounce. Sometimes this large bird's flight drifts lazily back and forth, then stops momentarily to hover. In warm weather it hunts snakes, frogs and insects. When all else fails, carrion is eaten.
The Northern Harrier, once known as the marsh hawk, is a slender and buoyant hawk with a somewhat owl-like face. The hawk's long wings and tail are designed for life in the open. If it tips sideways toward you, look for the distinctive white rump patch. When soaring the wings are held in a shallow V with the tail fanned. At low altitudes, the tail is usually closed and the wings held flat to the sides. In a steep glide, the wings are sharply bent and swept back like a fighter jet.
In the winter, harriers hang around with Short-eared Owls and share the same fallow, grassy fields where mice have had time for a population explosion. Both species will use fence posts as hunting perches as they listen for prey. Though unrelated, the facial disks of both harriers and owls seem to help focus sounds on the ears.
The harrier's Latin name, Circus cyaneus, refers to its circling flight and the supposedly blue plumage of the males. The color is actually gray, but that's only half accurate because females and juveniles are brown, an unusual disparity for raptors. Juvenile harriers are orangish underneath, like the two photos. The name harrier is Old English for "harassing with hostile attacks." Other colloquial names include blue hawk, mouse hawk and white-rumped hawk. Males are smaller and more agile and catch smaller prey, including birds. The harrier flying past the Montezuma Audubon Center was a larger, brown female probably more intent on a larger meal than the tiny goldfinches at the feeder. She'd been hanging around for several weeks and last Tuesday's heavy snowfall, the first of the season, didn't seem to phase her.
Harriers nest in the marshes at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Last April I watched a female repeatedly carry nesting material in her beak and then drop down into the same patch of heavy vegetation. There are indications harriers also may nest in the Northern Montezuma Wetlands Complex around Savannah. They almost certainly nest in the Lakeshore Marshes Wildlife Management Area in northeastern Wayne County as well as Howland's Island. The female does all the incubating while the male brings food. After the eggs hatch, the male continues supplying prey, but only the female tears it up and feeds the young. If something happens to her, the nestlings will starve, even though the male continues to drop whole prey into the nest.
Harriers breed from Alaska across Canada to the Maritimes and south into the United States as far as a line from California to Pennsylvania. Most harriers head south for the winter and return in the spring.
Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com More nature photos can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier
(This copyrighted article and photos first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, November 24, 2008. All rights reserved.)

November Trails

2008-11-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

November Trails
© 2008 Dave Spier
Unexpectedly warm and sunny weather followed the first feeble attempt at an autumn snowfall. Call it Indian Summer, or just call it enjoyable. Mornings were chilly and dew-laden, but that's normal November. I hope you had a chance to get out and savor the weather before things went downhill again.
The trail through the field back to the woods is dotted with open milkweed pods releasing brown seeds to float on white down. The zebra-striped Monarch caterpillars (that fed on the toxic white sap of the summer leaves) have transformed to butterflies and headed south toward their winter home in Mexico. You may have noticed the Canadian Monarchs passing through New York in October.
Near the milkweed, the once-plump, off-white berries on Red-panicled Dogwoods are now wrinkled and dry. Chickadees snatch as many of the fruits as they can, and the ones that fall to the ground become food for grouse. The shrub's name comes from the red stems that hold the berries, but the gray bark on the main branches gives it the alternate name, Gray Dogwood. Next to the dogwood, a flock of Purple Finches landed in a small tree and then flew again in unison. These birds, red-raspberry relatives of goldfinches, breed across southern Canada and winter in the eastern half of the United States. We see them most often during their migrations.
In the middle of the field, a thorny Multi-flora Rosebush is covered with tasteless rosehips that are nonetheless high in vitamin C. These small, red fruits are credited with supporting the expansion of the mockingbird from its southern strongholds to the cold climates of Upstate New York.
In the woods, small beige moths flit among the trees while a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers chase each other from one tree trunk to the next. In spite of brilliant scarlet feathers on the nape (back of the neck) and crown of the male, the bird is named for an obscure patch of salmon red on the belly between the legs. The bird has to be at just the right angle to see it. The problem with the name is that another woodpecker with an entirely red head and neck took the name Red-headed Woodpecker.
I'm dressed in complete camouflage, including face net and gloves, and sitting against the base of a tree trunk. A Gray Squirrel approaches, stops momentarily to dig in the leaves, and then continues on its way less than four feet from me. It's totally oblivious to my presence because I'm motionless. This is surpassed by a memorable experience many years ago, even before I switched to camouflage clothing, when a chipmunk walked across my shoe, unaware of its nature or the presence of potential danger. I was sitting on a log, but again the secret was remaining perfectly motionless.
Autumn's leafy pallet has mostly fallen, but the woods still have color in the sunlight. Green grass and ferns contrast with brown leaves littering the ground and gray tree trunks reach to blue sky. The afternoon's warmth brings out a solitary tree frog peeping in the swamp. Most amphibians are now buried in the mud to hibernate through the winter. Even the hardy tadpoles of bullfrogs and green frogs, the ones that take two years to mature, are now scarce in shallow ponds.
Insects are plentiful. Flies, gnats, crickets and other flying arthropods seem out of place for November, and where there are insects, can spiders be very far? I can tell I've been sitting too long when I notice a spider stringing webs across my camera tripod.
Daylight is fading as a Pileated Woodpecker, the largest of our tree knockers, flies through the forest canopy and lands high in a tree and lets out its typical repetitive call, similar to a flicker, but louder. At dusk I leave the woods, having once again succeeded in finding scads of deer signs -- trails, tracks, scrapes, rubs and droppings -- but not a single, breathing whitetail. They wait for the cover of darkness to move about. I pass some apple trees on the ridge, another good location for deer, but all I see is the rear end of a cottontail rabbit (another white-tailed vegetarian) as it disappears into the weeds.
What did you see during the recent warm spell? Contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com More nature photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier and http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, November 10, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Common Loons

2008-10-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Common Loons

© 2008 Dave Spier.
Native Americans referred to this bird as the "Spirit of the Northern Waters." Common Loons breed across Alaska, the entire width of Canada, and the northern-forest zone from Minnesota to the Adirondacks and New England. During their migrations they often stop in the Finger Lakes Region. I've found small flocks resting on Lake Ontario off Chimney Bluffs during calm weather in October and at least several loons will use the Widewaters portion of the Erie Canal in November. This stretch is unaffected by draining the canal for winter because Ganargua Creek passes through here. A large number of loons follow Cayuga Lake as they head south. They're most likely heading for the Atlantic coast where the juvenile birds will remain for three or four years before returning north, but some will go as far as the Gulf Coast. Loons in the western part of their range spend the winter on the Pacific coast. In early spring I've found returning adult loons near the Canandaigua City Pier before boating season gets under way and disturbs them. One of the birds caught a very small sunfish while I was watching.
Loons are large birds. They measure 32 inches in length and have a wing span of nearly four feet. Males are larger than females. From March through October, the adults sport high-contrast black and white plumage. The heads and beaks are black, their necks have white or gray bands, the breast and belly are white, the sides black and the back is extensively checkered. The only color is in the red eyes. Juvenile loons, and adults in winter plumage, are overall gray or dark gray with white on the throat and upper breast. They may have a faint, light gray, partial band around the neck.
On the water, loons ride low like a submarine, an appropriate metaphor becuase they dive to catch their food. A number of adaptions helps them do this. Their feet are far to the rear and to the sides to facilitate paddling underwater and their marrow-filled bones are thicker than other birds. For this reason, loons are heavy birds that require a long stretch of open water to get a running start to become airborne. Once in flight, their thick necks are balanced by large feet trailing to the rear. The relatively small wings make diving easier, but flying is more laborious. The location of the feet at the rear makes it nearly impossible for loons to walk on land, so they nest on the edge of islands where they can just slip into the water if danger approaches.
Loons face a number of manmade threats. Air pollution from mid-western power plants and auto emissions contains sulfuric and nitric acids and mercury. These are carried eastward by prevailing winds and fall as acid rain, in turn killing many of the small fish and organisms that loons depend on for food. Chicks can starve to death before four weeks of age. Acidic water also converts mercury to an organic form that enters the food chain and becomes concentrated in loons at the top of the ladder. Methyl mercury attacks the bird's nervous system, interfering with its ability to catch fish. In high enough concentrations, the birds die from mercury poisoning.
Loons also become entangled in discarded fishing line and die of lead poisoning after they ingest old fishing sinkers which are mistakenly picked up from the bottom along with the small stones used to grind up food in their gizzards. These hazards also afflict a host of other waterbird species. Shoreline development and increased recreational use of northern lakes pose additional threats to loons as they lose traditional nesting sites and face increased boat and jetski traffic,
If you see a loon this fall, you can contact Dave at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com More nature photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_spier and http://picasaweb.google.com/northeastnaturalist

Golden Garden Spiders

2008-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Golden Garden Spiders
© 2008 Dave Spier.
The small patch of Brown-eyed Susans 'Goldsturm' has grown over the years and it now spreads along the entire east side of our patio. Sheltered from north and west winds, it catches the morning sun that burns off the dew. Yesterday I was leaving the house and just walking past when a new visitor caught my attention. A great, circular web stretched through a gap between several of the taller plants. A white, zig-zag stitching reinforced the center and there, hanging head down, was a huge multi-colored spider wrapping her prey. The eight black and pink legs easily spanned two inches. The egg-shaped abdomen was black with bright yellow markings. This was a Golden Garden Spider, Argiope aurantia, also known as the Black-and-yellow Orb Weaver.
I've also found these spiders in shrubs, tall grass and fields of wildflowers. They build their elastic webs by first throwing a "bridge" thread (a loose strand of silk) carried on air currents to a second support. From the center of the bridge, they drop down with an anchor thread to form a tripod. A box frame is built around the intended area and more radial spokes are added. Then a few quick spirals of non-stickly thread allow the spider to walk anywhere on the web. Finally, a tight pattern of sticky spirals completes the trap and the spider waits for its victim. They ignore the high-frequency vibrations of dangerous prey such as wasps, but quickly dash out and wrap more delectable goodies such as grasshoppers and other juicy insects. With its potential meal in a gauze straight jacket, the spider bites with fangs and injects a paralyzing venom. Then digestive enzymes are pumped in to liquify the soft body tissues, turning them into a soup that the spider sucks out. All that's left is the insect's exoskeleton.
By the end of the day, the sticky threads are too dry to be effective, so the spider eats the web and spins a new one. The silk, produced by spinnerets under the tip of the abdomen, is a liquid protein that hardens when it contacts the air. Besides the two types used to make webs, their is a third silk used to wrap prey and then another silk to wrap and protect the spider's eggs. Silk can also be used for "ballooning," sort of a magic carpet ride on the air. The heavy, zig-zag stitching, called stabilimento, across the central hub of the web is believed to warn birds that might otherwise blunder through the web. This saves the spider time, energy and material in prematurely rebuilding the web.
Late summer is spider season. Look out across any field just after sunrise and notice all of the dew-soaked webs catching the morning light. Each of these is both home and kitchen to a spider.
Contact Dave at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, September 1, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Goldenrods

2008-08-27T05:36:00.000-07:00

Golden rods
© 2008 Dave Spier
First, to clear the air, goldenrod does not cause hay fever or allergies. That job is done by ragweed, a distant relative with tiny, inconspicuous green flowers and copious amounts of powdery, wind-blown pollen. Goldenrod, on the other hand, has sticky, relatively-heavy pollen carried from flower to flower by insects such as wasps and bumblebees. In fact, the yellow color of golenrod serves to attract the various insects needed for pollination.
Wherever there's abundant sunshine, goldenrods take over with a tangle of underground roots and chemicals that inhibit the growth of competitors. It takes a number of years, but they can dominate small patches of real estate and this continues until shrubs rise above the challenge and begin shading the goldenrods. Assuming there are no other disturbances, trees eventually win the battle for sunlight and recreate a forest, but that takes decades. That said, there are even two species of goldenrod, the Zig-zag and the Blue-stemmed, that survive as individuals or small patches in some woods.
There are actually dozens of different goldenrod species, each adapted to slightly different growing conditions. Many have offset, but overlapping, growing periods so they are not all competing for insect attention at the same time. The individual blossoms are crowded together, usually along the top stems where they are most visible. To see the differences in their basic structure, one needs to look closely or use a magnifying lens. Many resemble miniature daisies. Of course, many things do because the daisy family (usually called the aster family) contains one-tenth of the world's flowering plants. Their basic design is a central disk of compact florets surrounded by showy petals called rays. There are a few exceptions to this rule, including ragweed, which has lost (or never developed) the corolla of rays. Unfortunately, ragweed blooms at the same time, and in many of the same habitats, as its showy cousins that get the blame. So, if you can, spare the gold and pull the ragweed.
You might call me the goldenrod ambassador.
Contact Dave at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, August 25, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Painted Turtles

2008-08-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Painted Turtles
© 2008 Dave Spier.
Perhaps the commonest turtle in New York State is the painted. Often seen sunning itself on a log, and frequently basking in a group, the painted turtle will slide into the water at your approach. It also can be seen crossing roads and a number of people, myself included, are inclined to carefully stop and help the turtle across before it becomes another road pizza.
Painted turtles are recognized by smooth, dark-green or black shells edged with red plus colorful patterns of red and black on their necks and legs and yellow stripes on the head. The local race (subspecies) in the Finger Lakes Region is the Midland Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata. The average length of the shell is five inches with a record over seven inches. Females are generally larger than males. The large scutes, the pieces that make up the carapace, or top shell, alternate instead of running straight across the back. If you turn the turtle over, the plastron, or bottom shell, often has a dark blotch that individually varies in size and shape. Our subspecies ranges from southern Ontario and New England to Tennessee. Along the east coast, it interbreeds with the eastern race of this species which has a plain, pale plastron.
The painted turtle's diet varies with age. Adults eat mostly aquatic vegetation, but youngsters eat high-protein insects, crayfish, worms, carrion, tadpoles and small mollusks like snails which they find in any shallow body of water, be it pond, marsh, ditch or stream backwater. Lacking teeth, they depend on beaks with sharp cutting edges and inside the jaws are flat, crushing surfaces. Like all reptiles, they are cold-blooded ectotherms that warm themselves from the rays of the sun. The food they eat is used for growth and cell repair and not for generating body heat. As a result they need less food than warm-blooded birds and mammals.
Unlike the amphibians from which they evolved, reptiles have scales or bony plates covering thick, waterproof skin. This reduces loss of body moisture and allows them freedom to roam far from water. In the case of turtles, the bony carapace is fused to the spinal vertebrae and ribs. Once fully grown, the armored shell offers excellent protection against predators. Young turtles are not so fortunate and may be eaten by anything from raccoons to night-herons.
Reptiles differ from amphibians in another important respect. They are not restricted to laying eggs in the water. Amphibian eggs resemble fish eggs and are fertilized externally. Reptile eggs are fertilized internally. Many reptiles, turtles included, lay eggs covered with leathery shells and these are buried on land after digging a hole in damp soil using their clawed hind feet. Painted turtles generally lay half a dozen elliptical eggs in a clutch between mid-May and July. Incubation takes 10 or 11 weeks. Parents never care for their young which are fully developed and totally on their own from birth.
Turtles as an order have been around for an estimated 200 million years. Obviously, their basic design, two external shells connected with a "bridge," has proven highly successful in the survival game. The name "turtle" comes from "tortue," the French word for tortoise. The scientific name, Chrysemys picta, means "golden tortoise painted."
Underwater, basking turtles of the genus Chrysemys have a preference for what fishermen call structure. Fallen branches, logs, weed beds or sharp dropoffs provide escape cover for both turtles and fish. The next time you're out fishing, let the common painted turtle lead you to structure and probably a better catch.
Finally, turtles spend the winter buried in mud at the bottom of communal hibernating ponds. Lying dormant, they obtain oxygen through the linings of the mouth, throat and rear end of the gut. Makes me glad I'm not a turtle.
[For a discussion of the snapping turtle, see the May 21, 2007 issue of the Times of Wayne County: http://www.waynetimes.com/052107.pdf and go to p. 18 of the PDF.]
Send your comments and suggestions to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photograph first appeared in The Times of Wayne County, August 18, 2008. All rights reserved)

Bluegills

2008-08-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Bluegills
© 2008, Dave Spier
The Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) is a member of the Sunfish Family. Based on technical characteristics, it is related to Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Rock Bass, Black Crappies and the Pumpkinseed (or Common) Sunfish. Bluegills are identified by blue edging on the gill cover and a dark "earflap" plus a dusky thumbprint-like marking on the rear of the top (dorsal) fin. They are colored dark green on the back, white on the belly and yellow or orange (or sometimes dark gray) on the breast. Down South, they are called bream. They are now widespread in New York as a result of being stocked to serve as food for bass in farm ponds.
Bluegills spawn in early summer. The male builds a nest by fanning his tail to create a circular depression in shallow water. This removes silt that might smother the eggs. The female then joins him and they slowly swim around the nest while emitting eggs and sperm which settle to the bottom. The male guards the nest until the young disperse. At this stage, the third-inch long juveniles are transparent and move about freely. When they reach an inch in length, they return to hide in the vegetation of the lake, pond or slow-moving stream where they were born. They feed on tiny animals collectively called zooplankton. As they grow, they eat insects, crustaceans, other invertebrates and sometimes smaller fish. Older fish also consume plant material. Bluegills have been known to live 10 years and reach a length of 10 inches. In warmer climates they grow to a record 16 inches and just under five pounds.
All sunfish have sharp spines on four of their fins. These points help protect them from predators like bigger fish and large birds. If you've ever caught a sunfish and carelessly grabbed it, you know about these spines.
Send your comments to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, August 11, 2008. All rights reserved.)

PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE

2008-07-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Purple Loosestrife -- The Beautiful Invader
© 2008 Dave Spier
Purple Loosestrife is a tall, wetland plant sporting beautiful magenta flowers with six (sometimes four or five) petals surrounding a small yellow center. Clusters of these blossoms grow in dense whorls around a fuzzy, square stem. Pointed leaves grow in opposite pairs (sometimes whorls of three) below these flower spikes. The species is native to Europe. As early as Roman times, it was tied to the yokes of oxen in the belief that it appeased or ended strife and unruliness between the animals as they plowed. It was said to "loosen strife," hence the name loosestrife.
How could such a beautiful plant be a problem? We'll get to that in a moment.
Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) was brought to eastern North America in the early 1800's to be used in flower gardens. If it had stayed where it was planted, we'd have little trouble. Since then it has spread westward across much of Canada and the United States. Loosestrife is a hardy perennial that takes over wetlands, crowding out the native cattails that our wildlife depends on. To give you an example, Black Terns (a declining species) depends on old, broken cattails for nesting material. The stiff, almost woody stems of loosestrife are not readily broken. Loosestrife is almost worthless from wildlife's point of view. For the most part, nothing eats it, although I once saw sparrows feeding on the seeds in late summer.
Loosestrife can also encroach on drier crop fields and pastures where it becomes a more direct economic issue. Each mature plant can produce up to 2.7 million seeds in one growing season. The rootstock also sends out 30 to 50 shoots that create a dense, monocultural web underground. This effectively chokes out "competing" vegetation.
On this side of the Atlantic, there are no natural controls for Purple Loosestrife. Our wildlife does not eat it or use it for breeding habitat. In Europe, over 100 insects feed on various parts of the plant. From these, five beetle species were selected and introduced into this country under controlled (caged) conditions. Some of the testing was done at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge near the visitor's center east of Seneca Falls, NY. After determining that these beetles posed no threat to our desirable vegetation, they were released into the wild. Two of the insects feed on the leaves and new shoots; these are the kind released at Montezuma. A third beetle, a type of weevil, bores through the roots. The last two species eat the flowers. Some of the beetles were also released at Blue Cut Nature Center between Newark and Lyons in Wayne County, NY.
While these natural insect controls spread and multiply, a number of other steps need to be taken. So-called "sterile" varieties of garden loosestrife have been shown to cross-pollinate with wild Purple Loosestrife and produce viable seeds. Gardeners are asked to avoid planting loosestrife or any of its 26 cultivars. If it already grows in your garden, cut off the flower spikes as soon as the petals begin to drop and dispose of them in a plastic bag. Incineration is effective, but generally prohibited. If you are planting wildflowers, check the seed mix packets and make sure there is no loosestrife. Small infestations of loosestrife can be controlled by digging and hand pulling. Larger patches can be controlled by constant cutting. Chemical control usually requires a permit because of the danger to wetlands. Check with the Department of Environmental Conservation if you live in New York State or the state agency where you live.
In areas where loosestrife has already taken over a marsh, the best we can probably do for now is admire the beautiful color and wait for the beetles to arrive.
Contact Dave at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in The Times of Wayne County, July 28, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Least Sandpipers

2008-07-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Least Sandpipers
(c) 2008 Dave Spier
What's in a name? Take the compound word "sandpiper." Sand refers to the beach where these shorebirds are often found. Sodus Point (Wayne County, NY) quickly comes to mind. Piper refers to the sound made by some species. There's a group of small sandpipers, all similar in appearance, collectively nicknamed "peeps," another reference to their voices. Among these, the smallest is called the Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla. Not only is it the smallest to pass through New York, it is the smallest shorebird in the world.
Least Sandpipers begin showing up in New York's Finger Lakes Region in late April, peak throughout May, then slowly decline through June as the last of the birds fly to the Canadian tundra to nest and breed. Early migrants that failed to nest begin returning in early July and this reverse flow continues to build through the summer, peaks in September and trails off into early November. Most of our birds winter along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida, or across the Gulf coast south into Mexico and northern South America.
Dark feathers with buffy or rusty edges give sandpipers a scaly appearance on the back and wings. The belly is usually white while the head, neck and chest are various shades of brown. The black bill, used to probe for food, is longer and thinner than the bills of songbirds. Most small sandpipers have black legs, but here is the one distinguishing feature of least's; their legs are yellowish or greenish-yellow.
The length of a shorebird's bill determines its feeding style and diet. A very short bill, like that of a Semipalmated Plover, limits it to feeding on the surface. At the other extreme, very long bills like those of snipe, dowitchers and curlews, allow them to probe deeply into mud. Inbetween are most of the sandpipers which probe to a shallow depth and capture aquatic invertebrates like insects, small crustaceans, worms, and mollusks such as small clams and mussels. The Least Sandpiper prefers to feed on mudflats giving it the nickname "mud peep." Does that mean we should change its name to the least mudpiper?
Contact Dave at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in The Times of Wayne County, June 30, 2008. All rights reserved.)

2008-07-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Little Red Bugs
(c) 2008 Dave Spier

Do you have little red bugs in your yard? Multiple clusters of 10 to 20 or so, hundreds all together, are crawling around the maple leaves that blew up against our garden fence last fall. I left the dead leaves there as mulch to control the weeds. Among the leaves are skeletonized maple seeds and the tiny bugs seem to be sucking some sort of nourishment from the seemingly dead and dried samaras (the botanical name for these winged seeds).
Closer examination of these insects with red abdomens (actually red with some bright-orange markings) reveals darker wing pads beginning to grow backwards from the shoulders. Small heads look back at me through dull red eyes. Long antennae could be mistaken for a fourth pair of legs. These are the nymphs of the Boxelder Bug, Boisea trivittata, a member of the Order Hemiptera, or True Bugs. After several more molts, each successively larger, the immature nymphs will transform into flying adults about a half-inch long. Most of the red color is lost, save for a few red edges on the forewings and three red lines on the thorax just behind the head. They are named for their favorite food, the seeds of Boxelder trees, also known as ash-leaved maples, a reference to the compound, opposite leaves reminiscent of the unrelated ash tree. Perhaps they can't tell the difference because Boxelder Bugs sometimes also feed on ash and, occasionally, a variety of other plants and fruits.
In the fall, adult Boxelder Bugs become a nuisance by inviting themselves into the warm, cozy interiors of our homes. The first sign of trouble may be swarms of the bugs on sunny exterior walls. From there they find tiny cracks through siding or past windows and under doors. The good news is they do not sting, transmit disease, damage structures, destroy fabrics, infest food or carry filth. When spring arrives, they leave in order to lay their eggs on Boxelder trees or other suitable venues which seem to have included the maple-leaf litter along my fence, although I do have a Boxelder tree on the northeast corner of the property some distance from the fence, and fortunately far from the house. Incubation of the eggs takes about two weeks and then "voila!" Swarms of little red bugs begin milling about.
In early July, we were also dealing with Squash Bugs, Squash Vine Borers, Three-lined Potato Beetles, White Cabbage Butterflies and Japanese Beetles as well as deer (I'm guessing) eating broccoli leaves. So far, the garden fence is rabbit and woodchuck proof and I think we found a good deer repellent now. You're welcome to contact me at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo first appeared in the Times of Wayne County, July 7, 2008. All rights reserved.)

Invasion

2008-06-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

INVASION
(c) 2008 Dave Spier
There's a wildflower that's trying to take over much of the country and nearby Canada. It tolerates shade and crowds out native wildflowers. Deer are repulsed by its garlic odor and flavor, a clever defense in hindsight. It's a prolific seed producer and if that's not enough, it releases chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants, particularly native tree seedlings. We're talking about garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), a true member of the mustard family (not an onion) and relative of such familiars as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and of course, other mustards including the one used in the condiment.
Garlic mustard is a biennial. It takes two years to fully mature and go to seed. The first year, it produces only a few rounded to heart-shaped leaves with scalloped edges as it concentrates on growing a root system. The second year, new and larger leaves (more triangular and coarsely toothed around the edges) emerge. A stem averaging one to two feet high sprouts a cluster of small, white flowers, each with four petals. These produce long, thin seed tubes that eventually dry, split and release two rows of numerous black seeds to start the process over again.
This invasive weed was brought here from Europe and Asia in the 1860's to be used as a potherb. Various recipes can be found on the internet and involve using young leaves and flowerbuds and to a lesser extent flowers and seeds. This is another case of "eat it, if you can't beat it." From the looks of it, there are far more plants than we could possibly eat, so the next control alternative is to pull them up by their roots, put them in a black plastic bag in the sun and eventually bury them in a permanent compost pile or otherwise dispose of the plants depending on the regulations in your neighborhood. Don't let them lay around. Even if you dry the roots and let the plant die, the seeds continue to mature. Mowing does nothing to stop the invasion because the roots quickly grow new stems and leaves and then flowers at a lower height. The seeds can lie dormant up to five years and then sprout, so the best alternative may be to trash the seed heads.
In its native Europe, and eastward to India and western China, 68 insect species and seven types of fungi feed on the garlic mustard. None of these controls are present in this country. To make matters worse, deer eat our native wildflowers, making more room for the garlic mustard to flourish.
If you have any suggestions for controlling garlic mustard, or recipes to share, please send them to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com
(This copyrighted article and photo was first published in the Times of Wayne County, May 19, 2008. All rights reserved.)