The annual Allegany Nature Pilgrimage

One of my favorite spring wildflowers, the Pink Lady's-slipper, makes an appearance during the annual Allegany Nature Pilgrimage. Its a beautiful orchid.

It's always a good time to think ahead to spring. Please consider joining us for the next annual Allegany Nature Pilgrimage, the first weekend after Memorial Day, in Allegany State Park, New York. It seems like 48 hours of nearly-nonstop field trips and programs, but they're spread over three days with breaks to eat and sleep. There are early-morning bird walks and bird-banding demonstrations, mid-morning walks and trips, afternoon walks, (or a choice of two all-day trips on Saturday if you prefer), evening walks (beaver and salamanders in the past), evening tent programs with a speaker on Friday and Saturday, followed by after-program frogs, insects and owling. Friday has afternoon and evening walks and events, while Sunday has the morning portion. If I'm not making much sense, just check out their schedule. The new Program Descriptions list was just finalized, and there's a nature walk for every taste, from birds to geology, wildflowers to trees, fields to forests, insects to herps, a bog slog and even specialized programs on photography, dragonflies, bats and beavers. For die-hard birders, there are birding trips from early morning to late into the night plus live birds-of-prey.

Allegany State Park is between Jamestown and Olean in southwestern New York State, next to the Pennsylvania border.

For more on the Pink Lady's-slipper, see my Adirondack blog post. Corrections, questions and suggestions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There is a separate community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist.

Pileated Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker -- © Dave Spier

It’s our largest woodpecker and almost as long as a crow. A white patch on top of each black wing and white underwing linings make it a flashy flier. The body and tail are also black. If you can see the red crest, you know it’s a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus, which translates to "crested tree-cleaver"). Closer inspection of this shy species, usually requiring binoculars, will reveal a white stripe extending from the top beak almost to the back of the head and then down the neck to the shoulder. The throat is white and there is a small white line over the eye. Adult males have a red forehead and red streak between the cheek and throat. On females the red is confined to the main part of the crest at the back of the crown.

Pileateds, nicknamed "log-cocks" and "cocks-of-the-woods," live mainly in mature forests, but are sometimes seen in suburbs, parks and even villages. They are year-round residents but may shift territory depending on food supplies. Their preferred diet is carpenter ants and the birds will excavate long, rectangular holes to extract them from trees. Pileated Woodpeckers locate their prey by listening for the insect’s chewing sounds. The woodpeckers also eat other insects, larvae, berries, and nuts in the wild. I’ve seen photos of these birds at suet feeders, but my feeders are too close to the house and almost never attract a wary pileatus. Other local woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, sapsucker and flicker) are regulars to semi-regulars.

Besides eating wood-damaging insects, pileateds contribute to their woodland ecosystem by chiseling a new nest cavity every spring. The previous year’s nest then becomes available for other residents such as flying squirrels and screech owls.

The range of the Pileated covers the eastern half of the United States, portions of the Pacific Northwest and most of southern Canada. By density, though, it is most numerous in the old conifer and deciduous forests of the southern states.

The population of Pileated Woodpeckers declined sharply in the 1800’s as forests were converted to farmland and the remaining birds were shot for target practice. Conservation laws and the reversion of fields to second-growth woodlots has allowed the number of woodpeckers to rebound, but it is not what anyone would consider numerous.

For more information, 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 northeastnaturalist@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 and Heading Out.

"Old Man's Beard"

Canon XTi with EF 100mm macro lens + macro-twin-flash;
exp. 1/125 sec., f/16, at ISO 100

Virgin's Bower

© Dave Spier

In the world of plants, there's a vine commonly known as "Old Man's Beard." (Well, that would apply to me, too, but I'm otherwise not green.) It's also called Virgin's Bower and botanists know it as Clematis virginiana, a member of the Anemoneae tribe in the Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae). The descriptive name refers to the fruit clusters that have seeds ending in long filaments. Other folk names include Devil's Darning Needles and Devil's Hair. The genus name, Clematis, is Ancient Greek for "climbing plant."

The vine is somewhat herbaceous (at least in the north), meaning it dies back to the ground in late fall. It's opposite leaves have three leaflets reminiscent of Poison Ivy, but that is a woody vine. In the spring, Virgin's Bower has to start from scratch. In summer it puts out numerous clusters of small, fragrant flowers, each with four white "petals" (actually sepals). Compared to their colorful and showy garden relatives, they're more inconspicuous.

Virgin's Bower is native to eastern North America. Ours grow in a young woods that's mostly shaded. There they blend in with the other plants. Perhaps in full sun, the vines and flowers would be more noticeable. The vine is capable of climbing trees to a height of 20 feet, but ours just sprawl in a tangled mess across the top of the ground cover and low shrubs. Clematis virginiana tolerates Black Walnuts, which produce chemicals that interfere with some plant's growth. That's a good thing because the squirrels are advancing the walnut forest in that direction.

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. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Giant Swallowtail

© Dave Spier

With a wingspan of roughly five inches (give or take an inch), the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes, syn. Heraclides cresphontes) is one of the largest butterflies in eastern and southern North America. Females are larger than males.

This butterfly species ranges from Arizona to the East Coast and from southeastern Canada to Texas and Florida with a population extension into California. In the south the caterpillars are sometimes considered pests in citrus orchards. In the north the larvae eat Prickly-ash (a shrub unrelated to ash trees, although the compound leaves have a similar appearance). Common or Northern Prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) is in the citrus family (Rutaceae) and sometimes called "toothache tree" because the bark was chewed to relieve tooth-ache. Although I've found prickly-ash locally, its core range is the upper Mid-west.

Giant Swallowtails are dark brown to black with rows of pale yellow spots near the outer edges of all the wings and another row straight across the fore wings. The rear wing "tails" have yellow centers. Small orange and blue spots on the inner wing edges flank the abdomen tip.

Look for these butterflies in open areas and scattered woodlands, a perfect description of our yard where the butterflies check our garden flowers for nectar. The photo, however, was taken beside the Manchester Gateway Trail along Canandaigua Outlet Creek in the Village of Manchester, NY. It was visiting flowers in the open area under the high-voltage power lines. The rest of the trail is mostly wooded floodplain with deciduous trees.

There are several broods per year in the north, but the timing is variable from May to August or September.

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. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

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.

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. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Canada Thistle

Beware of tall, attractive wildflowers with prickly leaves growing in fields. Most have beautiful magenta or lavender-colored heads, but the leaves, and sometimes the stems, are edged with numerous, sharp spines to defend against herbivores looking for an easy meal. These are the thistles. They are composites, related to daisies and goldenrods in spite of the obvious differences. Most are biennials, starting as a ground-hugging rosette of prickly leaves the first year, then growing tall and flowering the second.
 

The Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense), a misnamed alien invasive from Europe, is one of the less-obvious species here [in the northern Finger Lakes region of NY] because its light-purple heads are less than an inch high. The whole plant grows four to five-plus feet high and often forms dense colonies after spreading by underground stems. In Europe and northern Asia, it is known as Creeping Thistle. One plant's roots can spread to a three-foot diameter (or more) in one year and continue growing at this rate for many years, making it a difficult plant to eradicate. A single thistle plant can be considered biennial, but the root system is perennial and continues to put its energy into new clonal [cloned] shoots.
 

Canada Thistles form colonies from a spreading underground
 root system. Less energy goes into producing flowers.

Less energy goes into producing flowers which are usually dioecious (either male or female). Male flowers may be slightly smaller, but otherwise similar. Both are very fragrant, which is energy spent to attract pollinators and NOT humans. Female flowers produce 40 to 80 seeds per head, but the fuzzy pappus is loosely attached and often ineffective in seed dispersal.

Canada Thistle's main stems are smooth, but the deeply-lobed leaves are designed to keep you at a distance. In the spring, wear heavy gloves and protective clothing so you can return to the location and collect the young leaves, young stems and roots for food. One of the plant's nicknames is "lettuce from hell" (and it actually is related to lettuce). After removing the spines, add young leaves to salads or eat them cooked. The pithy, young stems are easier to deal with; just peel and eat raw or cooked. The roots of first year plants, before the tall stems begin, are a survival food, but they also can cause flatulence.


A crab spider is camouflaged against a Canada Thistle flower bud.

Canada Thistle is also food for wildlife, especially goldfinches and other finches that eat the seeds. Some butterfly and moth larvae eat the leaves. Look for Red Admirals, Viceroys and Painted Ladies on this thistle. The larvae of the Orellia ruficauda fruit fly parasitize the fertile seed heads, making them a somewhat-effective biological control.

In the past, a tea made from the leaves was used as a general tonic (stimulant) and diuretic to increase the loss of water from the body. Externally, it was used for skin sores and poison-ivy rash. Native Americans used a root tea as a digestive tract stimulant and dewormer. (I wonder what they used before Europeans introduced this wildflower.) At the other extreme, it was said to cause inflammation and irritation (Jacobs and Burlage). Go figure.
 

Cirsium comes from the Greek word, kirsion, from kirsos, a "swollen vein" remedied by one of the species in that genus. The species name, arvense, is Latin for "in the field." Among its other common names are "field thistle," "perennial thistle" and "cursed thistle." It was originally native to the Mediterranean and southeast Europe and likely arrived in North America during the 1600's.

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. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Ash-tree Bolete

Ground-level view of an Ash-tree Bolete cluster on a grassy trail

Mushroom species are seasonal in nature, much like wildflower species, but unlike plants, they do not require sunlight. For most of the year, they are underground or growing inside dead wood or otherwise out of sight. Rain is good for mushrooms and this year holds promise of an abundance in the Northeast, both in number of species and a surplus of each type. When mushrooms "suddenly" appear, what we see are just the fruiting bodies with the sole function of releasing spores (think evolutionary predecessors to seeds). They will drift on the wind and those that find suitable landing pads will develop into new, hidden networks underground or inside rotting logs, and these may last for years.
 

Top and bottom of Ash-tree Bolete caps.

While the familiar mushrooms have radiating gills that produce the spores on the undersurface of the caps, Boletes are a family of mushrooms (Boletaceae) that have a spongy layer of pores or tubes on the underside to do the same job. Boletes are soft, fleshy and stalked and often grow in the woods. Many of the 200 North American species are edible, but only a few are worth the effort of collecting, and several are poisonous, so beware.
 

Angular pores radiating away from the stalk at the edge of a cap.

Where do you think Ash-tree Bolete (Boletinellus merulioides) grows? (one guess) Well, true to its name, in our yard it grows on the grassy and moss-covered trails under the ash trees. Numerous brown caps, averaging three to four inches across, are growing either singly or in tight clusters. The older ones are wavy-edged and distorted. On the yellow underside of each cap, a network of irregular ridges and cross-ribs creates a fine pattern of angular, shallow pores giving this mushroom the nickname, "shallow-pore." The thin folds can appear almost gill-like as they radiate away from the off-center stalk. (Sometimes the stalk is lateral, or attached at the edge of the cap.) If bruised, the pores turn blue-green, then reddish-brown. Beware, some of the toxic Boletes are blue-staining.
 

A row of Ash-tree Boletes on a grassy trail under a grove of ash trees.

Ash-tree Bolete (also called Boletinus porosus and Gyrodon merulioides in some field guides) grows from Michigan to Eastern Canada and south to Texas and Florida. This species is edible, but not recommended, partly because of the chance of confusion with several toxic boletes. That risk aside, the quality and flavor are said to be poor, at least in comparison to better mushrooms.

It's likely a snail scraped part of the right cap to make a meal.
The left cap is turned over to show the underside pores.

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. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.