American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)

The prominent veins of American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) 

give the leaves a distinctive corrugated texture. Note the multiple sizes of the sharp, marginal teeth. © Dave Spier

American hornbeam, also called musclewood, blue-beech, ironwood, and muscle beech, is a small native tree growing in the forest understory, often near the banks of streams and rivers where the soil is moist. I prefer the term "musclewood" because it's so descriptive of the distinctive muscular appearance of older trunks with sinewy, smooth, gray bark. (Very old trunks become fissured.) The nickname "ironwood" refers to the heavy, hard, close-grained, very strong wood formerly used to make tool handles, walking sticks and golf clubs. In spite of its hardness, fallen branches and trunks quickly rot.

Carpinus caroliniana is a member of the Birch Family (Betulaceae) with its characteristically double-toothed leaves, i.e. leaf margins with alternating smaller and larger serrations. The overall leaf shape is oval with a pointed tip (or sometimes long-pointed). Prominent veins give leaves a corrugated texture. Leaves are eaten by several types of Lepidoptera caterpillars. 

Flowers grow in long clusters dangling from leaf axils. Male and female flower catkins are separate (monoecious) and lack petals. The fruits are small, oval nuts, each enclosed by a three-lobed, halberd-shaped bract. The nuts are eaten by birds including grouse and turkeys, as well as by squirrels. Rabbits and deer browse the twigs.

American hornbeam is widespread in the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. The BONAP range map shows the U.S. portion of its distribution. (Click the map once to slightly enlarge.)

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Cayuga County, NY - May 9th

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), a.k.a. orangeroot, yellow-root and yellow puccoon, is a vulnerable native herb in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is generally uncommon and sometimes rare due to over-collecting. If you happen to find it, please keep the exact location private; county-level is sufficient. 

Goldenseal grows in rich deciduous forests, often in association with Twinleaf and Squirrel Corn. Young plants erupting from seeds can remain as cotyledons* for a year or more. In the second and third years (or longer), a single leaf develops. It takes four to five years for a plant to actually begin flowering. At this stage, it has a single stem with two alternate, palmately-lobed leaves and one broad basal leaf, all with toothed edges and fairly-deep sinuses. (The leaves sometimes resemble silver maple leaves.) 

At the top of mature plants, there is a single terminal flower with three sepals and 12+ greenish-white stamens. There are no petals. Fertilized flowers grow into red, raspberry-like fruits with one or two seeds. Goldenseal also grows in patches of interconnected ramets** reproducing asexually through clonal propagation of the rhizomes.

On the USDA range map, Goldenseal is native from Ontario, Canada, southward to western New England and the mid-Atlantic and almost to the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi and Alabama. (It skips South Carolina and Florida.) A reminder that due to long-term decline from over-collecting and habitat loss, please restrict your public location information to the county level or another obscuring choice. On iNaturalist, mark the location "Private." Thank you.

*cotyledon: the first leaf of a developing plant embryo, i.e. the first part of the plant to emerge from the seed after germination

**ramet: a genetically identical individual that is part of a clonal colony, or genet

Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)

© Dave Spier

The Downy Yellow Violet, a.k.a. Hairy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens) 

is a native species generally east of the Rockies (except Florida)

and north into Canada (except the Maritime Provinces). 

Like other violets, the downy yellow has five petals: one lower (front), two side, and two upper (or rear). These are all lined with dark veins, strongest on the lower petal, in the throat of the flower. They may serve as "runways" to lead various bees, flies and small butterflies to the nectar and pollen. The attractive flowers bloom in May and early June, but a version without petals (cleistogamous) can continue through summer and into fall.

My experience with Downy Yellow Violet is finding it growing in large patches at the edge of rich swampland (photo below), specifically maple-ash swamps (although the ash trees have since died from the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive wood-boring beetle that attacks the tree's nutrient-carrying vessels). While it also can be found growing on floodplains along the banks of stream and rivers, this violet species is capable of growing as solitary plants in dry woodlands and sometimes in meadows and thickets.

As the name implies, the stems, stalks and alternate leaves are usually downy with soft, velvety hairs. Wide, heart-shaped leaves grow mainly on the stem of the plant. Occasionally there is a basal leaf. A hairless version of this plant, appropriately called Smooth Yellow Violet (Viola eriocarpa, syn. V. pensylvanica), was often considered a co-specific subspecies (Viola pubescens eriocarpa). Those leaves are narrower and there's often one or more at the base. Another similar yellow species is the so-called Round-leaved Yellow Violet (Viola rotundifolia) which has only basal leaves. (The name is misleading as the leaves are still somewhat heart-shaped.)

The Downy Yellow Violet is edible but the flowers contain a chemical called ionone which interferes with scent receptors in the nose. I suspect this may be a defense against over-browsing by cottontail rabbit, eastern chipmunk, and the wood turtle. Several references mention that violets are resistant to damage by deer, likely due to one or more chemical defenses.

Once fertilized, the ovary develops into a pointed, oval capsule that splits three ways to release numerous, light-colored seeds which can become food for doves, grouse, turkeys, juncos, other birds and small mammals like mice. Ants often carry uneaten seeds to new areas, thereby dispersing the violets and potentially expanding the flower's range at the local level. However, I suspect it's too slow to keep pace with climate change which tends to shift species' ranges northward in addition to changing their phenological timing. Please feel free to comment below.

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

For those of you in Pennsylvania (my original home state), Downy Yellow Violet is found in all but possibly one PA county. (The USDA Plant Database map, when zoomed in to the county level, has it absent from Cameron, Union, Columbia and Cumberland Counties. However, BONAP's county distribution map shows only two "missing" counties: Cameron and Columbia, but the Mid-Atlantic Herbarium has collected samples from Columbia and Union.) Since Cameron County is totally surrounded by known locations, I suspect that a diligent search, or serendipitous wanderings, would blanket the entire state with sightings. Please contact me with any photos you might have from questionable counties. I'm also interested in sightings of deer or other herbivores eating violets as well as insect pollinators visiting violets. Ants carrying seeds is now on my to-do list for spring/summer.

[all photos and text in this blog © Dave Spier]

A modified version of this blog can be found on the Downy Yellow Violet page on the PA Enflowered website. For a variety of photos by other photographers, click "gallery" under the spot-light photo.

Summer at the BEECH (Fagus grandifolia)

 

Sun shines through beech leaves in a hemlock-hardwood climax forest near 

Big Pond, PA, on July 3rd. (Climax forests are the peak of plant succession 
for a given climate and location.) 

When I first became interested in botany, ca 1970,* American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) was a widespread and distinctive tree of mature and old-growth beech-maple and hemlock-hardwood climax forests on soils with a moderate to ample moisture content. They were generally lacking from drought-tolerant oak-hickory forests that dominated the higher, well-drained plateaus of the Allegheny Province crossing from Pennsylvania into New York on the NW side of the Appalachians. Beech has a shallow, wide-spreading root system, whereas hickories have deep tap roots and oaks start with a taproot that is gradually replaced by a dense, bowl-shaped lateral system. 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, beech disappeared from suitable lowlands because early settlers realized the presence of beech indicated good farmland. In the last few decades, beech has been disappearing, like so many other native trees, because it is under attack from foreign invaders. Beech bark disease begins when the European beech-scale insect, Cryptococcus fagisuga, drills into the bark, creating a pathway for infection by Neonectria species of fungi. A canker develops and the tree is killed. A newer infection called Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) appeared in Ohio in 2012 and has been spreading through the northeast. "BLD is identifiable by its primary symptom: dark green bands of thickened tissue between the leaf veins." It's probably just a matter of time until it reaches the Northwoods like the Adirondacks.

Beech leaves are pinnately [feather] veined with each parallel side vein ending in a sharp point on the leaf edge. (June 12th at Junius Ponds, Seneca County, NY, 

before the spread of Beech Leaf Disease)

Beech is readily recognized by its smooth, light-gray bark, unlike the darker and furrowed, scaly or shaggy bark of other forest species. Its alternate leaves are rounded or short-tapered at the base and longer pointed at the tips. A main central leaf vein, or midrib, from the short stem to the tip is pinnately [feather] veined on both sides. Each parallel lateral vein is tipped with a sharp tooth on the leaf edge.

Because American Beech is shade-tolerant, it does well in mature woods. 

This grove in a forest near Big Pond, PA, likely developed from 

a combination of nut dispersal and root sprouts (a.k.a. root "suckers").

Prior to the Pleistocene Ice Age, beech was a transcontinental species from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Post glacially, its range constricted to roughly the eastern half of the United States and north into adjacent Canada. A beech subspecies (or to some botanists, a separate species) is scattered in Mexico. 

more at iNaturalist - American Beech

There is a wide variety of beech photos on Flora of Pennsylvania.

______________________________________

*On a personal note, my interest in plants, particularly native woodland and wetland wildflowers, is thanks to the Botany Section of the Rochester Academy of Sciences and, by association and extension, to the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society of Western New York. As an assistant scoutmaster handling a variety of outdoor, nature and science merit badges at the time, I rapidly expanded into every facet of natural history. 

Bayberries (Morella sp.), Part 2

 

Song Sparrow atop a bayberry bush with summer leaves, June 26th, 
Assateague Island National Seashore, MD

Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica, syn. Myrica pensylvanica) is native to eastern North America from Canada south along the coast, barely entering North Carolina where it is rare. Scattered outliers can be found westward to Ohio plus one limited population on the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada. Southern Bayberry (Morella or Myrica caroliniensis) is sometimes considered co-specific with M. pensylvanica because the two can hybridize where their ranges overlap. From New Jersey south to its limit, Northern Bayberry also hybridizes with Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera), an evergreen species which replaces it along the southeastern and Gulf coasts to Texas.

Bayberry is generally found growing in open, sandy soils with abundant sunshine. It does well as a "pioneer" species in this nutrient-poor environment by fixing its own atmospheric nitrogen with the help of Frankia spp. bacteria living in the shrub’s roots. This makes bayberry an ideal and beneficial candidate for the inter-dune environment where it enriches the soil and paves the way for other plants. Each plant can spread laterally up to 10 feet by rhizomatous growth. "Although typically considered a dune plant, Northern Bayberry also occurs inland thriving in fallow or abandoned agricultural land, along the borders of woodlands, pine barrens, marshes, swamps, and ponds" (Duncan and Duncan, 1987; Stalter, 1992).

Bayberry can grow to a height of 15 feet with dense branches and foliage making good cover for birds and other small animals plus browse for larger mammals. It is primarily dioecious with male and female flowers on separate plants. "Both male and female flowers are inconspicuous catkins; male flowers are yellowish green while female flowers lack both sepals and petals" [Brand, 2015] which is an indication of wind pollination rather than insect vectors. Mature fruits develop a bluish-gray, waxy coating with a high lipid content that makes them perfect bird food. Large flocks of migrating Tree Swallows will descend on the bushes and devour the fruits during fall migration.* Residual berries become cold-weather food for Yellow-rumped Warblers. The eastern subspecies is called the Myrtle Warbler in reference to the Wax Myrtle, a close relative of bayberry. (Wax Myrtle is a southern coastal plant from New Jersey to Texas.) Myrtle Warblers have special digestive enzymes that allow them to break down and absorb the wax. Most of the other bird species that eat the berries lack these enzymes, so much of the energy potential is wasted. The bayberry, however, still benefits from the bird's dispersal of the seeds.

Myrtle Warblers also eat Poison-ivy berries, as well as bayberry fruits, 

during autumn migration.

Bayberry's alternate leaves average two to three inches long and a half-inch wide. (Large leaves can reach four inches long and up to an inch wide.) The tips are bluntly pointed, sometimes with two or more tiny, lateral teeth, or simply rounded and smooth (entire).  The leaf bases taper like a wedge to a short stem (petiole). The undersides of the leaves have scent glands that are fragrant when crushed. By comparison, Wax Myrtle leaves have aromatic scent glands on both sides and can be more fragrant. Northern Bayberry's leaves are deciduous and drop in the fall. At the southern end of its coastal range, they persist longer and some may last through the winter.

Northern Bayberry plant form and leaves in autumn, 

Assateague Island National Seashore, MD

Northern Bayberry fruit detail in autumn, 

Assateague Island National Seashore, MD

If you have tips or tricks for separating and identifying the three main bayberry species, or anecdotes about these plants, please share them in a comment.

*For a photo and discussion of Tree Swallows and bayberries, 

please see the previous blog.

For more information on iNaturalist, see Northern Bayberry

Tree Swallows and Bayberry

 

Trees Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) descend on Northern Bayberry bushes 

(Morella pensylvanica) to feast on the gray, waxy berries during fall migration.

The shrubs grew in the post-glacial sand deposits around Junius Ponds, NY.

My first recorded encounter with Tree Swallows was August 2nd, 1969, but I didn't pay them special attention until a migrating flock descended on the bayberry bushes around Junius Ponds* on October 12th, 1976. It turns out this behavior is rather famous and was (temporarily?) "immortalized" on an interpretive sign along Assateague Island National Seashore's Life-of-the-Dunes trail. The text read, "Northern bayberry is an abundant interdune shrub that enriches the surrounding soil and helps form protective thickets for wildlife. Many species of birds, especially great flocks of migrating tree swallows, feed on the gray waxy berries. Early colonists made candles from the wax of the 'candleberry bush.' Berries are most visible in early fall." That sign was already deteriorating in 2013, and I hope they've replaced it, but we haven't been back to that trail to see. (Please comment if you know. Our last trip to Delmarva was back in 2016.)

*Junius Ponds is in Seneca County, NY. At the time, the bayberries were part of the Bayberry Environmental Education Center (originally Junius Ponds Nature Center) which is now closed. Since bayberries are a sun-loving shrub, they gradually lost out to natural succession as encroaching trees grew taller and overshadowed them.

All About Birds: Tree Swallows

iNaturalist: Northern Bayberry

Assateague Island National Seashore's Life-of-the-Dunes trail 2013 interpretive sign

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)

 

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), single leaf 

Zurich Bog, Wayne County, NY, June 17th (© Dave Spier)

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) is a carnivorous bog plant. What look like dewdrops on the tips of red, glandular hairs, are sweet, sticky-mucilage secretions to attract and hold insects. The hairs curl to further hold the prey which is then digested with enzymes to extract nitrogen and minerals. It's an adaption to supplement the nutrient-poor environment of acidic sphagnum bogs. 

Multiple leaves, seven or so like the one pictured above, form a rosette around the base of the plant. The small flowers (not pictured) grow in a one-sided raceme at the top of a stalk rising above the leaves. The flowers usually have five white, rounded petals, although I've seen photos with only four. 

The Round-leaved Sundew, sometimes referred to as the common sundew, is circumboreal in distribution. In the Western Hemisphere it is primarily a northern plant scattered across Alaska and Canada with disjointed coastal range extensions south to California in the West and down the Appalachians to the Gulf of Mexico in the East. It is more common around the Great Lakes and Northeast into Canada where it grows in sunny acidic bogs, but it also can grow in fens, marshes and wet sand. In New York, it's considered exploitably vulnerable on IUCN's red list.

iNaturalist: Round-leaved Sundew

USDA: range map [zoom in for counties]

(photo at top ref. # 806-25)

Water Avens (Geum rivale)

Water Avens (Geum rivale), nodding flowers at Zurich Bog, Wayne County, NY, May 30th (© Dave Spier)

Water Avens (Geum rivale), a.k.a. Purple Avens, is another native member of the Rose family (Rosaceae) in the Great Lakes states and the Northeast as well as the Rocky Mountains, much of Canada and the temperate regions of Eurasia. It prefers wetlands with full or partial sun including slow-draining bogs, fens, pond edges, deciduous swamps, stream or river sides and wet meadows. It can hybridize with its close relative, Geum urbanum, as well as two other Geum species.

The half-inch, initially-nodding flowers have five yellowish petals mostly hidden under purple or maroon sepals that form the enclosing calyx. The flowers are set up to be pollinated mainly by bees but also flies and beetles. As a last resort it will self-pollinate. Water Avens has a long-flowering period, usually June to August. The resulting burr-like seeds get caught in the fur of rabbits and small mammals who do the job of dispersal. Rhizomal growth can maintain a colony and sometimes leads to dense clusters but expansion is otherwise limited by this method. 

If you boil the rhizomes, the tea has a faint taste of chocolate, hence another common name for the plant, "chocolate root." Native Americans used it medicinally to treat coughs and colds in children as well as dysentery and other ailments of the digestive tract and malaria. This led to the folk-name "Indian chocolate." Unlike the roots, the leaves are mildly bitter due to the presence of tannins.

The large compound basal leaves have heavily-toothed leaflets ranging in size from a small lateral pair toward the bottom, medium in the middle and finally a single, large, often-lobed terminal leaflet. These are interspersed with tiny leaflets along the main leaf stem (rachis). Each flower stem arises from the axil of a sharply-lobed or palmately compound, upper leaf with three points.

iNaturalist: Water Avens 

Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix)

Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) leaves and flowers at one of the Junius Ponds, natural post-glacial kettle lakes ringed by boggy wetlands in Seneca County, NY, June 24th

 

Poison Sumac, a.k.a. Swamp Sumach (Toxicodendron vernix, syn. Rhus vernix), like Poison Ivy and all of their relatives, belongs to the Cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Beware -- like Poison Ivy, the entire plant contains a resin called urushiol that can cause an itchy skin rash (contact dermatitis) on sensitive people. It's more toxic than Poison Ivy and Poison Oak due to differences in the chemical structure of the urushiol. Inhaling smoke from burning Poison Sumac can cause life-threatening pulmonary edema.

My first encounter with Poison Sumac was fortunate in the sense that I had a long macro lens and never touched the plant. It was growing in a boggy wetland ringing a natural post-glacial kettle-lake where I couldn't reach it. It wasn't until I got the slides back and tried to identify the plant that I realized my "luck."

The leaves are alternate on the branches and each is compound with 3-6 pairs of opposite leaflets plus one stalked terminal leaflet. The oval leaflets are smooth-edged (entire) and abruptly-pointed at the tips and taper to short stalks at the base. The leaves often form arching, umbrella-like clusters by crowding at the branch ends. 

Clusters of small, yellow-green flowers rise in loose panicles from the leaf axils (where the leaves emerge from the branch) in early summer. The flowers turn into whitish, beadlike fruits, each with a single seed much like a cherry or olive (both of which are totally unrelated and safe to eat). The weight of the berries makes each cluster droop. Like other sumacs and Poison Ivy, the seeds are spread by birds which are immune to the effects of ingesting the berries.

The scientific name, Toxicodendron vernix, translates to "toxic-tree varnish."

Other, non-toxic species of sumacs grow in drier, upland habitats.

(iNaturalist -- Poison Sumac)

Indian Cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana)

 

Indian Cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana), in the Lily family, is an eastern species, growing primarily up through the Appalachians, the mountains of New York and New England, and north into Canada.  This one was found at Cranberry Lake, in the northern NY Adirondacks, on October 8th (from my archives). It's a forest wildflower with edible rhizomes that resemble the taste and odor of cucumbers. The Iroquois also used it medicinally. Sometimes mice eat the seeds and berries. 

[Canon digital Rebel, EF 18-200mm zoom at 50mm, 1/125 sec., f/11, ISO 200, electronic flash, Center-weighted Average metering.] Ref. # D075319

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)

Bright-red foliage makes the sumac an October standout. The long, feather-compound leaves have 11 or more toothed leaflets and resemble walnut leaves. The sumacs in my backyard have 13 pairs of opposite leaflets plus one at the tip. Sometimes you can find green, yellow, orange and red leaves all on the same small tree.

The common species is the Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), named for its resemblance to fuzzy deer antlers before the velvet shreds. As the leaves fall away, the dense spikes of bright red fruits on female trees add a much needed dab of color to an increasingly drab New York landscape. The hairy seeds are acidic (specifically malic acid) and this helps them last into the winter as other fruits disappear. Because the dry sumac berries are thin fleshed, birds may ignore them until other foods become scarce. On the other hand, the acidity allows you to make pseudo-lemonade from the fruit clusters. Be sure to strain out all of the seeds.

Sumac is naturally introduced into old fields via seeds dropped by birds. Once started, a sumac begins spreading by underground runners, but it is a short-lived shrub or small tree and the center of the developing sumac grove soon dies.  By then other shrubs and trees are beginning to colonize the abandoned land and sumac has a hard time growing in any shade. Sumacs seldom exceed 15 feet in height so they fade away as other trees take over. The dead sumac “skeletons” resemble mule deer antlers.

Native Americans found many medicinal uses for sumac.  Leaf tea was used to treat asthma and diarrhea or gargled for sore throats.  A drink made from the bark could stimulate milk production in new mothers.  The roots provided remedies for dysentery and bleeding.  Berries were turned into cough syrup or made into tea for lung ailments, and Indians were the first to make sumac “lemonade.”

Virginia-creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

 Virginia-creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), a.k.a. woodbine, can turn bright red in late summer and early fall. It's a climbing or sprawling woody vine sometimes found in association with Poison Ivy. The distinguishing factor is the number of leaflets. Creeper normally has five, while Poison Ivy has three. ("Leaves of three, leave it be; Leaves of five, let it thrive.") Creeper's scientific name is Greek meaning "five-leaved virgin-ivy." The alternate name, woodbine, can also refer to several honeysuckles, other creepers, and Virginia clematis.

The creeper's dark-blue berries are similar to wild grapes, a group of plants often growing in the same habitats (woodland edges and floodplains). Note the creeper's heavy, red fruit stems and compound leaves. This is an important distinction because the creeper's berries are considered poisonous due to a concentration of oxalic acid. Grapes, which are in the same family, Vitaceae, have single leaves with pointed lobes and dangling clusters of edible fruits.

The photo above was taken at the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah, Wayne County, New York, on Sept. 20 at 6 pm (from my archives). Canon XTi, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro, 1/30 sec., f/11, ISO 200

Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis)

Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis), a.k.a. Swamp Birch, is native to northeastern North America and it's the largest North American species of birch. Its scientific name means "Birch of the Alleghenies," referring to the dissected plateau along the west side of the Appalachian's Ridge-and-Valley province. It can reach an age of 300+ years in Adirondack old-growth forests while one in Allegany County, NY, measured 439 years old in growth rings. 

The bark on young trees is smooth and some shade of brass, bronze or light copper with horizontal lenticels which are pores for exchange of gases with the atmosphere. As it grows, the bark begins peeling and curling in horizontal strips. (The one above was growing in Old Forge, NY, Oct. 8th, from my archives.) As the trunk matures, the bark darkens and cracks into ever-larger flakes, although thin branches may still have yellowish-brown, shreddy bark.

Yellow Birch seeds cannot penetrate leaf litter, so they germinate on mossy logs, decaying stumps and cracks in boulders. When it begins on wood, the birch is left standing on stilted roots after the base rots away. On boulders, its roots snake across the surface and down the sides to reach soil. (The one below [detail above] was growing in the Adirondacks beside the Moss Lake loop trail, accessed from Big Moose Rd., NW of Eagle Bay, New York, Sept. 25th, from my archives)

Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

Red Maple (Acer rubrum), a.k.a. one of two Swamp Maples or soft maples, is probably the most abundant native tree in the eastern U.S. The species can adapt to a wide range of site conditions from bottomland swamp forests to upland mountain slopes. It does well in young forests where it can get some sun, but shade-tolerant species crowd it out of mature and old-growth forests. This particular Red Maple was growing beside the Moss Lake loop trail between Old Forge and Inlet in New York's Adirondack Mountains. Trail access is from Big Moose Rd. NW of Eagle Bay. (Sept. 25th)

Sign up for eBird

A Mallard pair has staked out a territory along Canandaigua Outlet Creek where it passes near the Manchester Gateway Trail in Ontario County, NY. (photo © Dave Spier)
The checklist with map link is at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35383015

Note: If you ever participated in Project FeederWatch, the Great Backyard Bird Count, or any of the seven other Cornell Lab of Ornithology citizen-science projects, you can sign in to eBird with the same username and password. If you do not have these, the first step to using eBird is to create a free account. When you try to submit observations, first you'll reach the sign-in page, https://secure.birds.cornell.edu/cassso/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Febird.org%2Febird%2Flogin%2Fcas%3Fportal%3Debird

eBird sign-in page -- look for "Create an Account" on the right side

Look toward the lower right for "Create an Account" and click that link to eBird's website account page, https://secure.birds.cornell.edu/cassso/account/create?service=https%3A%2F%2Febird.org%2Febird%2Flogin%2Fcas%3Fportal%3Debird

eBird's Create an Account page

Here you will fill in your name and email address, pick a user name (just for signing in) and finally create a password. Important, write down and save that information with your laptop, computer or mobile device. If you ever change your email address, please update it in your eBird account so we can contact you, for example to discuss a rare bird sighting or send you a password reset.

The basic instructions are also at the beginning of this article, http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1972661-how-do-i-enter-sightings-in-ebird which then continues through the steps for submitting your bird checklist via the website.

If you have a mobile device, there is a free eBird App that would be useful for future travels. Here's a set of instructions: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/2411868

If you have any questions, please email me at ebirder_14432@yahoo.com

About eBird

adult male Pileated Woodpecker on homemade suet log - © Dave Spier
complete eBird checklist at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35380190

About eBird

eBird allows you to keep all of your birding records in a way that makes them available to scientific research and conservation. The eBird motto is 

"Global tools for birders, critical data for science." (and it's free!)

The following is adapted from the eBird website About page (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/)

Record the birds you see

Keep track of your bird lists

Explore dynamic maps and graphs

Share your sightings and join the eBird community

Receive rare bird alerts

Contribute to science and conservation

Overview
Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird gathers data from birders around the world to develop basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of space and time scales. eBird’s goal is to harness the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. In return, birders have free and permanent storage of all their sightings and birding lists (such as life, country, state, county, etc.).
Each participant's observations join those of others in an international network. eBird then shares these observations with a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists. This data set is becoming the foundation for a better understanding of bird distribution across the western hemisphere and now beyond.

How Does it Work?
eBird documents the presence or absence of species, as well as bird abundance through checklist data. A simple web-interface, or the alternative mobile app, engages tens of thousands of participants to submit their observations. Results can be viewed via interactive queries on the eBird website. Users are encouraged to participate by providing internet tools to maintain their personal bird records and enable them to visualize data with interactive maps, graphs, and bar charts.
A birder simply enters when, where, and how they went birding, then fills out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. eBird provides various options for data gathering including point counts, transects, and area searches. Automated data quality filters developed by regional bird experts review all submissions before they enter the database. Local experts review unusual records that are flagged by the filters.

To get started using eBird, see these articles:
entering data via website: http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1972661
entering data via mobile app: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/2411868
I'll elaborate in future blog posts starting with creating a free account.

Data Accessibility
eBird data are stored in a secure facility and archived daily, and are accessible to anyone via the eBird web site and other applications developed by the global biodiversity information community. For example, eBird data are part of the Avian Knowledge Network (AKN), which integrates observational data on bird populations across the western hemisphere. In turn, the AKN feeds eBird data to international biodiversity data systems, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). In this way any contribution made to eBird increases our understanding of the distribution, richness, and uniqueness of the biodiversity of our planet.

For more information on birds, including photos and sounds, visit All About Birds.
Explore Data has an interactive range map for any species (zoomable to your location).

AAB home page:  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=1189

map link: http://ebird.org/ebird/map/ and type in a species

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at ebirder_14432@yahoo.com 

or connect through my Facebook page. (http://www.facebook.com/northeastnaturalist)

Bird Surveys at Ganondagan SHS, NY

Grassland Bird Surveys at Ganondagan SHS south of Victor, NY (southeast of Rochester) will expand in 2017. Two primary goals of the surveys are to support the designation of Ganondagan as a NYS Bird Conservation Area (BCA) in 2017 and to aid in assessing conservation and habitat-restoration efforts going forward.  Help will be needed and greatly appreciated. Data will be collected using eBird, a free program. ("About eBird" and data-entry instructions for both the free website and free Mobile App are linked at the bottom.*) While grassland birds are emphasized, it's important to record ALL the bird species detected along with their counts or estimated counts. For conservation purposes, we need to know population trends.

For general information on NYS BCA's, go to http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/30935.html This is a state-level program on state lands, but otherwise it's similar to Audubon's Important Bird Areas (IBA) initiative.

The first 9 survey points (out of 61 planned) are active and can be used by any ebirder. Go to Hotspot Explorer - http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspots - and type in "Ganondagan SHS" and you'll see a list of all the locations. The two general hotspots are always available for any sort of birding at Ganondagan or for birds detected between survey points.

The protocol for the Ganondagan SHS grassland bird surveys, along with maps and sample data sheets, has been revised and can be emailed as a 4-page PDF. Stationary point counts will be 5-7 minutes long depending on habitat. Essentially it's five minutes in open habitat and seven in the more wooded settings. A series or sequence of two or more of the 5-7 minute counts at one point would aid detectability studies for each species reported.

eBird Hotsops (red markers) at Ganondagan SHS (satellite view)

There are five annual target surveys for each point: spring and fall migrations, breeding start and end, and one winter comparison. There is, however, no limit to the number of visits you can make, and ongoing, year-round coverage [weather permitting] would provide the greatest benefit for ornithological research and conservation. Please check the protocol PDF for all reporting details including weather notes and other information to include when using survey points. Non-ebirders can use paper forms or email their results to me at ebirder_14432@yahoo.com and I will forward them to Alexis VanWinkle, Supervising Conservation Steward, Ganondagan State Historic Site, 1488 Rt. 444, Victor, NY, 14564. She is headquartered at the Environmental Field Office, a.k.a. the old visitor center at the top of the hill near the blinking red light. Alexis is "more than willing to host introductory 'meetings' with anyone interested in helping on this project!" You can also contact Dave Spier or Alexis VanWinkle by facebook message.

Eastern Meadowlark, a grassland nesting species (© Dave Spier)

List of eBird hotspots at Ganondagan SHS with links and GPS coordinates:
Ganondagan SHS http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L522250    42.9635518, -77.4154615   
Ganondagan SHS--Fort Hill site http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L697829    42.9615576, -77.4322844
survey pt. (Bluestem Unit, 4.7)  http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L3656677 42.964159, -77.426105
survey pt. (Bluestem Unit, 4.8)  http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L3601763 42.961625, -77.427503  
survey pt. (Bobolink Unit, 8.13) http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4709300 42.95462, -77.42846  
survey pt. (Dogwood Unit, 3.6) http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4723726 42.96454, -77.42163  
survey pt. (Farmhouse, 7.12) http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4723719 42.95934, -77.42494   
survey pt. (Fort Hill, 5.10) http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4721388 42.96411, -77.43416   
survey pt. (Fort Hill, 5.9)  http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4721402 42.96125, -77.43361   
survey pt. (Hickory Unit, 6.11)   http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L3601768   42.959052, -77.429034
survey pt. (Pollinator Grassland, 2.5)  http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L4718764  42.96364, -77.41364

*List of eBird links:

About eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/
Entering data in eBird (website): http://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/1972661
Entering data in eBird (Mobile App): http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/2411868

Turkey Vultures

(Introduction) -- © Dave Spier

I've been doing a little birding with my grandson and several times we've encountered one or more Turkey Vultures. Are you still finding TUVU's after the spring migration? If so, where, what time of day and under what circumstances?

Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) are fairly easy to recognize, assuming decent light and proximity.  If you encounter them gliding along in search of dead animals to eat, look for several things. From the front (approaching you) or the rear (going away), the wings are held in a shallow V called a dihedral. When passing overhead, the wings are two-toned with the forewing ("solid" portions) dark while the flight feathers along the trailing (rear) edge and wingtips are lighter gray or even silvery. The head appears small because it lacks feathers. At closer range, the adult's head is red while juveniles are gray or dark headed.

For their size, vultures are relatively light weight. They are easily buffeted by wind so their flight often appears wobbly.

Their diet consists of carrion, primarily road-kills in populated areas, which they find with their keen sense of smell. The lack of feathers on the head is a sanitary adaptation related to probing into corpses. Feathers would hold scraps that become diseased.

Turkey Vultures are certainly common in Western New York. As of June 3, 2016, a total of 25,718 passed the Braddock Bay Hawkwatch during spring migration on their way east and north. Some will stay and nest in Central New York while others keep going. The vast majority will return south next fall, but a handful can be found in Letchworth State Park year-round. In the winter, they shelter out of the wind by roosting on cliff ledges below the rim. In the morning, the sun warms the rocks and the vultures begin to ride thermals (warm air currents) that help them gain altitude. For more spring photos taken at Letchworth, including several in this blog, see eBird checklist S10396306.

For more information, a range map, photos and sounds of Turkey Vultures, visit the All About Birds website. An interactive range map (zoomable to your location) can be found in the eBird Explore Data section here (or go to that page and type in any other species of interest).

Although it's possible to encounter a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) in Western New York, it's far less likely. (Only one passed Braddock Bay this spring.) Several quick ID distinctions are that only the wingtips are lighter-colored in Black Vultures and the head is never red. For more information and a range map, there's also an ID page for this species.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. 

White-eyed Vireo

White-eyed Vireo -- © Dave Spier

The White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus) has been expanding its range northward, possibly due to global warming. This one was photographed in the spring at Camp Allegany in Allegany State Park during the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage.

For more information, photos and sounds, visit the All About Birds website. An interactive range map (zoomable to your location) can be found in eBird's Explore Data section.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at ebirder_14432@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist, Heading Out, and a Naturalist's Viewpoint.

Story in the Snow

[scanned Kodachrome II slide]

A Story in the Snow

© Dave Spier

Birder's journal March 21, 1971: I was following the redtail along the ridge, not so much to get a photo of it as we were both heading in roughly the same direction. I was a minute or two behind the hawk when I exited the woods and entered a partly-scrubby opening on the north end of the drumlin. More by luck than anything else, I came upon the story written as clearly as if words had been used. The mouse tracks ended in a depression, surrounded by the hawk's wing and tail feathers imprinted on the surface as it lifted into the air, prey in tow, while a drop of blood on the snow was all that remained of the hapless creature.

This could have been written a week ago; we've had no shortage of snow and cold weather this winter. There is a timeless element to many of nature's stories. It's likely a story that has been written over and over again across the intervening years.

immature Red-tailed Hawk (note barred tail)

 

For more information on Red-tailed Hawks, photos and sounds, visit the All About Birds website. An interactive range map (zoomable to your location) can be found in the eBird Explore Data section.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at ebirder_14432@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist, Heading Out, and a Naturalist's Viewpoint.