European Frogbit

Frogbit

© Dave Spier

Among its many incursions into southeastern Wayne County, New York, European Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) can be found edging Black Creek as it leaves the Montezuma Marshes west of Savannah, just before passing under Route 31 and flowing on its way to Crusoe Creek. This Eurasian species was introduced into Ottawa, Canada in the 1930's and has since spread around the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway watersheds. Its spread northeastward has been limited only by water salinity. There is no limit to the south and west, so it has reached Vermont, New York and Michigan. Frogbit can form dense colonies on the surface and threatens biodiversity by crowding out native species and shading underwater plant growth needed by fish. Its rapid growth also can clog waterways and hinder recreational activities such as boating, canoeing and fishing.

 

Frogbit resembles a miniature waterlily, but its small, pistilate (female) flowers have only 3 petals around a yellow center, unlike the showy native waterlilies with their numerous petals in concentric rows. The frogbit flower resembles those of arrowhead plants, which is not too surprising because both are monocots in the Order Alismatales (although they are in different families). The plant could survive very well without flowers, because its seeds contribute very little to its spread. Instead, the plant can hitch-hike on boats, while its winter buds (called turions) sink to the bottom and lie dormant until spring, when they rise and travel with water currents. The buds grow into complete plants which then enlarge by sending out runners (called stolons) which sprout additional plants in an expanding network that can interlock with adjacent colonies.
 

Frogbit's round, floating leaves (generally two inches or less in diameter), are often notched like water-lilies and grow in rosettes (i.e., radiating from a center point). Dangling roots (to 12 inches long) seldom anchor in the bottom mud, allowing mobility on surface currents, even blowing upstream.

European Frogbit can be distinguished from its native counterpart (Limnobium spongia) by checking the leaf stems. American Frogbit has a midline groove.

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Kingfishers

© Dave Spier

 

There are two requirements for finding kingfishers in winter: open water and an overhanging perch, usually a tree branch. The bird's main diet is small fish retrieved by diving into the water. In warmer weather, crayfish are on the menu.

The Belted Kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon, appears big-headed, but it's due mostly to feathers that fan into a double crest. The color is bluish-gray like its back, wing tops, and a wide "necklace." In contrast there is a white collar, belly and underwings. Females have an additional tan belly-band and flanks (sides), which might add a touch of camouflage. The kingfisher's bill is heron-like, possibly the result of convergent evolution resulting from the same prey items.

Unless you're anticipating a kingfisher, chances are your first clue to its presence is the loud "rattling" call as it flies away. You can listen to a recording of this sound on the All About Birds website, which also has a range map and information on behavior, habitats and summer nesting. (Kingfishers dig a tunnel into sand banks or muddy stream banks to hide their nest. The deepest can be eight feet long.)

The interactive eBird range map indicates that Belted Kingfishers have been recorded in all 50 states plus much of Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Nearly a hundred other kingfisher species are found in mainly tropical regions around the world.

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Scoters

 

Winter Visitors -- © Dave Spier

Having Lake Ontario along part of New York's northern border bestows certain wildlife advantages. A few deep water ducks, also referred to as "sea ducks," stop there for a winter vacation, rather than spending the energy on a longer flight to the Atlantic coast where many of their "friends" go. As cold as it may get, Lake Ontario’s influence moderates the local climate and keeps the shoreline milder than the duck's Canadian homeland.

 

White-winged Scoters, Melanitta fusca, cruise off shore and pull into the open water channels of several bays, including Sodus Point. One by one they dive under water, swim to the bottom and feed on mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects and a few plants that coat the rocks. Strong swimmers, they can dive to 40 feet. I don’t know if they eat zebra mussels, but the scoter's winter numbers are so low they’d have little impact even if they did.

 

This species also winters along the Pacific coast, based on the range map available at All About Birds. An interactive and zoomable range map is available on eBird. This version includes frequency data.

Male White-winged Scoters are black with a white "comma" or crescent under and behind the eye. When flying, they flash white wing patches (called speculums). At rest on the water, the white wing patches may be hidden or only show as a thin white line near the rear. The male’s bill is orange with a dark protuberance (knob) on top. Females are similar to males, but browner and have two lighter spots on the face and dark bills instead of orange. This species, the size of Mallards, is called the Velvet Scoter in Europe.

 

Two other slightly smaller species of scoters are rare in the Great Lakes. The Black Scoter male is all black with an orange bump on its bill, while the Surf Scoter male is all black with a multi-colored bill and two white patches, one on the forehead and a second on the nape (back of the head). The name scoter comes from their habit of scoting (scooting) through waves while feeding offshore.

Along Lake Ontario, White-winged Scoters can begin showing up in mid-October but many of these are gone by early November. They are probably passing through on the way to the seaboard. Our long-term winter residents arrive in December. By the end of March, these few scoters will be on their way back to the northern prairies and Western Canada, although a few migrants from the Atlantic coast may stop here again briefly in mid-April. Unlike Mallards which can jump into the air and fly, scoters need to get a running start across the water’s surface in order to get airborne. In migration, groups of scoters fly in long lines low over the water.

 

At one time White-winged Scoters nested across the width of Canada. Now they breed from Alaska to western Ontario province. The adult males leave the breeding grounds in July, while the females and young hang around for another three months. Are the males just self-centered and lazy, or do they reduce the competition for food by leaving early? Either way, look for them hanging around with the other winter ducks.

 

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Coots

© Dave Spier

 

"Mudhen," "chicken of the marsh," and "water guinea" are just a few of the many nicknames for a dark bird with a white bill commonly found on area waters. Birders know it as American Coot (Fulica americana), as in "crazy as a coot." The poor bird gets no respect.

In the winter, look for coots on bays, saltmarshes, lakes or canals wherever there is enough open water for them to get a long, running start to become airborne. This includes the Pacifc coast from British Columbia south to Panama, then east across the southern states and up the eastern seaboard to Cape Cod. An eBird bar chart for any county or location (which lists all of the bird species reported and their seasonal distribution, i.e. when to expect them) will show if and when the coot has been present. (If you're in the coot's normal winter range and there is a gap the 3rd week in December, I'll bet it's an oversight because birders are too busy Christmas shopping instead of scoping local waterways.) Make a note; if you see a coot the third week of December, let me know and I'll help you submit the observation to eBird!

Coots have dark-gray bodies and nearly-black heads which contrast sharply with white bills. The adult's eyes are bright red. The legs are green and their long toes have lobed edges to help them swim. They usually travel in flocks and sometimes you can find a raft of several hundred coots swimming together.

Although they may hang around with ducks, a coot's body structure is quite different. The bill is somewhat chicken-like and the feet lack webs between the toes. Coots are related to cranes (but much smaller) and to rails, as in "skinny as a rail," but plumper. (Rails are secretive marsh birds laterally compressed for slipping through cattails and reeds. By now, they've gone south for the winter.)

Coots are primarily vegetarians. They will dive for underwater plants or pluck at plants in a marsh. Another preferred feeding tactic is to steal plants from other coots or ducks. (More on All About Birds...)

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Flowering Rush

At first glance, the individual flowers resemble lilies, and that wouldn't be too far off. Lilies and Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus) are both monocots, meaning that their seeds sprout with one initial "seed-leaf" and not two like dicots. The flower heads of Flowering Rush resemble those of chives and onions which makes perfect sense because onions are really lilies. The clusters are in arrangements called umbels (think "umbrella"); all of the flower stems radiate fom a single point at the top of the main, cylindrical stalk. Queen Anne's Lace (Wild Carrot) flowers also grow in umbels, but that plant is a dicot with deeply-dissected, feather-veined leaves.

The leaves of Flowering Rush are narrow, long-pointed and sword-like with parallel leaf veins, again similar to chives and other dicots, but it's somewhat misleading because Flowering Rush is in a plant family of its own. (In fact it's the only genus and species in that family.) It's capable of growing to a height of five feet, under the right conditions, with leaves up to 40 inches long. Most of the time it grows more in the one to four-foot height range.

Flowering Rush is an alien growing on muddy shores along the St. Lawrence Seaway and it has spread to Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes and beyond. It's a Eurasian species brought here as an ornamental in the early 1900's, and it continues to spread from Vermont to Washington and adjacent Canada.

The flowers are rather attractive with three pink and white petals alternating with three smaller pink sepals. In the center are nine pink-and-white male stamens in a radial pattern around six magenta female pistils.

Like all invasive species, it competes with desirable native wetland species, and once started, Flowering Rush is hard to irradicate because the trailing rhizomes spread under the mud and pea-sized bulbils detach, disperse in the water and quickly germinate into new plants. Varieties of this plant growing in the east also produce seeds that can spread on water currents.

There are many desirable native substitutes for Flowering Rush, including Sweet-flag, Northern Blue-flag, Pickerelweed, Giant Bur-reed, Lake Sedge, and Hardstem Bulrush. Blue-flag and Pickerelweed are attractive personal favorites.

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M.A.R.S.H.

M.A.R.S.H. --© Dave Spier

MARSH stands for the Montezuma Alliance for the Restoration of Species and Habitats, a group of volunteers that does everything from removing invasive species to planting new trees.  The next events, scheduled for September 12th, 15th and 22nd from 9 am to 1 pm, will be devoted to collecting ripe seeds from a variety of wetland plants including Arrowhead (a.k.a. "duck potato"), Pickerelweed and Bur-reed.  These species, along with bulrushes and cattails, create a habitat called an emergent marsh.

The seeds will be collected at the Seneca Meadows Wetland Preserve on Black Brook Road, which runs south from Rt. 318 (east of the four corners at Magee) and ends in Seneca Falls, New York. After drying, the seeds will be used to restore habitats on the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area in the Town of Savannah, Wayne County, NY.  The MARSH volunteers are sponsored by the Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. To sign up, click their website link. BTW, lunch is provided.

The Seneca Meadows website includes a drop-down menu with a description of the trails and a PDF map link.  The I Love the Finger Lakes website has an excellent profile of both the wetlands preserve and the education center.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook nature page and photo page. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Cormorants

Cormorants – © Dave Spier

If you’re a fisherman, “cormorant” is likely a four-letter word.  I suppose there are a few people other than birders who love them, but most probably don’t care one way or the other.

Cormorants are large, dark birds that can be mistaken for geese when flying.  Young birds are pale underneath with an orange bill and face. When swimming, the bill is raised at an angle.  At close range, you can see the small hook on the bill tip.  Nicknamed the “sea-crow” along the coast and “water turkey” inland, the common Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auratus) gets its name from two tufts of feathers on the sides of the head just behind the eyes.  The feathers curl around and meet at the back, but they are often matted down and resemble a bump.

Cormorants are adept at both flying and diving.  Normally these activities require opposite adaptations, such as light-weight versus heavy.  The cormorant has evolved feathers that lack the waterproofing of other diving birds, so they become heavier underwater.  This allows them to submerge and catch fish, their primary diet, but once they’re done feeding, cormorants must find a perch to spread and dry their wings.  It’s common to see them sitting upright on a dock, piling or stump with their wings outstretched.  This is also the reason they must head south for the winter.  Florida and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are the Double-crested Cormorant’s only year-round range.

Cormorants are widespread across the continental United States with the heaviest concentrations on all the coasts plus the Great Plains, lower Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes.  Check eBird for a current range map.

In some areas their population growth has been explosive which can affect local fisheries and fish farms. Fishermen have blamed them for declines in musky, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Yellow and White Perch, and Walleye.  An old stomach-content survey of cormorants, done over a two-year period in all four seasons, showed the birds predominantly prey on small minnows, including shiners, flatheads and dace.  Directly ingesting game fish amounted to less than 5% of their diet, and that was limited to late summer.  That leaves the potential problem of reducing the bait supply, but in areas like west-central New York, where the water is either weedy or deep, the minnows have plenty of hiding cover.  It’s only along shorelines like the east end of Lake Ontario, where the water is shallow and relatively clear, that there is a real conflict.

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Cardinal-flower

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Cardinal-flower,
Montezuma Audubon Center, Savannah, NY

Cardinal-flower -- © Dave Spier

This native perennial grows wild along streambanks and in swamps and other wet places up and down the eastern half of the U.S., northeast into Canada and south to Columbia. Look for it at the Montezuma Audubon Center (Rt. 89 N, Savannah, NY) where it grows along Crusoe Creek and also around the building where it has been planted to attract hummingbirds. The plant can reach two or three feet in height, making it a nice addition to any garden.

The Cardinal-flower (Lobelia cardinalis) gets its name from the bright-red blossoms hugging the upper stem. (Although sometimes called a spike, it is technically a raceme because of short flower stalks called pedicels.) Look closely at an individual corolla [flower] and you’ll notice three wide lobes forming a lower lip while two narrow lobes extend to the sides like arms. The male and female parts, also scarlet colored, form a narrow tube emerging like a crane above the petals. It looks custom-made to work with hummingbirds!



There was a hummingbird at these Cardinal-flowers when Donna and I first stopped on the boardwalk at Tinker Nature Park (Hansen Nature Center) in Henrietta, NY.

Cardinal-flower leaves are lance-shaped, long-pointed and serrated or toothed on the edges and they alternate on a single, main stalk. The plant contains alkaloids and should be considered toxic, as are other members of the genus Lobelia. In spite of this, Native Americans used root and leaf teas for various ailments. Cardinal-flower and its relative, the blue-violet Great Lobelia (another moist-ground species growing at the MAC) belong to the Lobelia subfamily of the Bluebell family.

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Ring-necks

Ring-necks -- © Dave Spier

If you’re familiar with the male Ring-necked Pheasant (named for the white collar encircling its neck), you might think the Ring-necked Duck is similarly adorned. Well, talk about a misnamed bird, and this one fits. It actually has a chestnut-brown collar hidden between a dark neck and black breast on the male. It’s virtually impossible to see in the field, or should I say, on the pond. It was named by hunters and early ornithologists holding one in their hands. I mention early ornithologists because they collected birds for study at the end of a shotgun before binoculars were improved in the mid- to late-1800's.* This is how John James Audubon acquired specimens to serve as close-up models for his famous paintings in the 1820's. After shooting them, he’d pin the dead birds to a mounting board and position them to depict the desired pose or behavior. At the time, America’s natural resources seemed inexhaustible.

The Ring-necked Duck is actually a diver, but it is often found on small ponds during spring migration. It seems more at home with the likes of wigeon and other puddle ducks (also called dabblers). They are on their way to Canada where their breeding range corresponds roughly with the boreal forest. A map of the summer range shows the Ring-neck Duck extending down into Minnesota and eastward through the Great Lakes to the Adirondacks and northern New England.

Male ring-necks have a white ring around their blue-gray bills. Much of the male is dark with a white "shoulder" stripe between the light-gray flanks and black breast. In bright sunlight the head may have a purple sheen and often shows a crest at the back of the crown. Male Lesser Scaup are somewhat similar, with all blue-gray bills and dirty white sides.

Female ring-necks of course are drab with mostly brown tones. They have a faint white ring around the bill and white eye rings.

Questions and corrections may be sent to the Northeast Naturalist.  More information about other birds and birding in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and Finger Lakes region can be found on the Montezuma Birding Trail website http://montezumabirding.webs.com and the Eaton Birding Society website http://eatonbirds.webs.com/

*Although binoculars were invented in the late 1600's, soon after the telescope, they were low power and difficult to use because of a narrow field of view.   Higher-powered versions presented an upside-down image until 1854 when erecting prisms were added.

Ring-billed Gulls -- © Dave Spier

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

Common Loons

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

(This copyrighted article and photos first appeared in The Times of Wayne County, October 20, 2008. All rights reserved.)