Ewww…

When I posted this photo on my Flickr site, I got two comments:

Blech! - makeupanid

And:

Yuck!  I hate these things! - craftermom

The nests are created by Eastern Tent Caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum).  The eggs overwintered and hatched in spring.  The larva are social and live in this shelter they build together, emerging to eat tree leaves when the weather is fine.  Most often, the tents are built in the crotches of trees, but I have also seen them suspended from smaller branches, as pictured below:

Once the caterpillars have reached their last instar, they will leave the tent to find a place to pupate.  Adult moths will emerge later in summer.  The adults will mate, lay eggs, and die.

Because they can defoliate trees in years when their populations are high, they are considered a pest.  If you “google” them, you will find several sites that not only tell about their life cycle and natural history, but they will also give tips about controlling them.

Learn more:  The following websites have some neat pictures of the eggs, and adults.

• http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef423.asp
• http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/easttentcaterpillar.htm

Apparently, the populations fluctuate - there are lots one year, and fewer the next.  I’ve been seeing quite a few around this spring.  How about you?  Are you seeing lots around your place this spring?

UPDATE (5-9-2008):  Read this blog post from The Marvelous in Nature for some really, really good pictures and information on these guys!!!!  tenting-it-with-the-family

Monday Hike at Timbercrest

Monday was the only day in this week’s forecast that showed sun.  Since I didn’t have to be to work until 2:00pm, I decided to hop in the car at 7am and head for my favorite place in the world:  Girl Scout Camp Timbercrest.  I thought I’d see what was blooming and take advantage of the wonderful early morning light.  Here are some of the photos I snapped:

Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica)
There are several of these lining the road between “Three-Bay” and Bellinger Lodge.

 

False Hellabore (Veratrum viride)
Keyser Lake is a little higher than usual which put these right in the lake.  I loved the reflections of the surrounding forest around these plants.  This photo was taken near the bridge over the creek that feeds Jackman Bay.

 

Early Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
I knew about the patches of this at “Lakeview” - that flat area past Sunset that looks out over Keyser Lake.  I guess I never paid attention before to how many of these are out on the Peninsula!  Why, the ground is nearly covered with them.  How come I never noticed before?

 

Sessile-leaved Bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia)
The Peninsula has fairly harsh living conditions.  The beavers keep the trees short so there is little shade out there.  The wind whips over most of the time.  As a result, the plants out there are often dwarfed.  This Bellwort looks normal in this picture, but it was soooo tiny compared to others I find in the woods.

 

Large-Flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
I found Red Trillium, too, but none of my pictures came out particularly well.  I forgot to go up to the road behind Sunset to see if the Painted Trillium were blooming.  Darn.

 

Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
Oh my gosh… I found the BIGGEST patch of Wintergreen sporting the BIGGEST, ripest, most delicious berries ever!  (Yes, I ate some!)  You have to get off the trail and go close to the lake over in Beaver Bay.  Yum.

 

Fiddlehead
I’m not sure what kind of fern this is… Haven’t tackled ferns in earnest, yet.  It was right along the shore of the lake in pretty soggy ground - in fact, the stand, I’m sure, is sometimes IN the water.  Anyone out there want to take a stab at species?

 

Golden Saxifrage or Water Carpet (Chrysosplenium americanum)
There was just enough of a breeze to make photographing this tiny plant nearly impossible.  I spent several minutes on my knees on a rock on the side of a creek.  I snapped dozens of photos.  This one was the best of the lot.  Oh well…  Isn’t it tiny and weird?

 

Toothwort or Crinkleroot (Cardamine diphylla)
There were tons of these all over the place, but this was the only one I found blooming.  I also found tons and tons of Spring Beauties, but not a one with blooms open… Guess it was just a little too early in the morning.

 

Prickly Gooseberry or Dogberry (Ribes cynobati)
I found this one up behind Strawberry Hill.  The breeze challenged me on this one, too, as did the closing canopy.  But somehow I managed a couple of shots that were fairly well focused and in good light.

It was the perfect morning for a walk.  Started off cool, but warmed up quickly.  Well worth the drive to camp.  (I’m going to cross-post this at my Camp Timbercrest blog.)

Birdathon

For several years running, the education staff at Jamestown Audubon, along with some stalwart and dedicated friends, has gone out birding for bucks.  Early in April, we begin begging friends, acquaintances, and strangers for pledges.  They can give a set amount, or they can be brave and pledge per species.

We pick a day early in May, late enough to include warbler migration, but early enough that the trees aren’t too thick with leaves, and we go out birding, checking off each species we see.  We pride ourselves in seeing over 60 species every year while doing very little driving.  This year, as in most years, we birded at the Audubon Sanctuary, Akeley Swamp, Chautauqua Lake Outlet, and the roads in between.

Our team, which varies slightly from year to year, consisted of Sarah Hatfield, Jeff Tome, Dave and Anita Cooney, Ann Beebe, and yours truly.  We worked to raise money for a scholarship for one of our college-bound volunteers, Tricia Bergstue.

I’m not much of a birder, as you may have gathered from previous posts.  So I always learn a great deal when I go out on these walks.  This year, I added a lifer!  (I don’t actually keep a life list, mind you.  But I never saw this bird before, I know that!  In fact, many of the birds on the list below were lifers from past birdathons…)

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.  I had to borrow this picture from the AMAZING photostream of the INCREDIBLE Jim Gilbert.  Please click on the photo to go look at his FANTASTIC photos.

Here is a list of the birds we saw (or in some cases only heard) on Saturday, May 3, 2008, a warm but rainy day:

1. Great Blue Heron
2. Green Heron
3. Canada Goose
4. Wood Duck
5. Gadwall
6. Mallard
7. Green-winged Teal
8. Hooded Merganser
9. Common Merganser
10. Red-shouldered Hawk
11. American Kestrel
12. Wild Turkey
13. Sora
14. Killdeer
15. Lesser Yellowlegs
16. Solitary Sandpiper
17. Spotted Sandpiper
18. Ring-billed Gull
19. Rock Pigeon
20. Mourning Dove
21. Belted Kingfisher
22. Red-bellied Woodpecker
23. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
24. Hairy Woodpecker
25. Northern Flicker
26. Least Flycatcher
27. Eastern Phoebe
28. Great Crested Flycatcher
29. Eastern Kingbird
30. Blue-headed Vireo
31. Yellow-throated Vireo
32. Blue Jay
33. American Crow
34. Tree Swallow
35. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
36. Black-capped Chickadee
37. Tufted Titmouse
38. White-breasted Nuthatch
39. Brown Creeper
40. House Wren
41. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
42. Eastern Bluebird
43. Veery
44. Wood Thrush
45. American Robin
46. Gray Catbird
47. European Starling
48. Yellow Warbler
49. Chestnut-sided Warbler
50. Magnolia Warbler
51. Yellow-rumped Warbler
52. Black-throated Green Warbler
53. American Redstart
54. Ovenbird
55. Common Yellowthroat
56. Chipping Sparrow
57. Field Sparrow
58. Song Sparrow
59. Swamp Sparrow
60. White-throated Sparrow
61. White-crowned Sparrow
62. Dark-eyed Junco
63. Northern Cardinal
64. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
65. Bobolink
66. Red-winged Blackbird
67. Common Grackle
68. Brown-headed Cowbird
69. Baltimore Oriole
70. American Goldfinch
71. House Sparrow

It was a warm, but rainy day.  We have seen more birds in other years… But we were pretty pleased with this list, given the weather conditions!

Many thanks to all who pledged.  Your dollars are going to a good cause!

Three Buttercups

The Buttercup Family is called Ranunculaceae.  It’s a big family.  In the last week, three different species have been catching my eye.

---

Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) are spilling out of wet places into the ditches on the sides of roads where I drive to work.  They are under the bridges of the trails at Audubon.  They are in amongst the Skunk Cabbages on the sides of the trails.  They are gorgeous in the sun.  But even on rainy days, they seem to glow from within and make their own light.

---

 There’s a spot along a tiny creek in the woods where I walk the dog.  The banks are covered in Swamp Buttercup (Ranunculus septentrionalis).

The buttercups share the bank with red and white trilliums, two or three varieties of violets, leeks, trout lilies, and more.  It’s a lovely spot!

---

And, moving from large to small, the smallest of all is Kidney-leaved Buttercup (Ranunculus abortivus), also known as Littleleaf Buttercup or Small-flowered Crowfoot.  The flower is almost inconspicuous.  When you do notice it, you may think, “Oh, this flower already lost its petals.”  You’d be wrong, though.  It’s just a really tiny flower!

---

I know Montucky has been seeing buttercups since early March.  How about you?  What buttercup species are blooming around your place?

Clusters of Four-Petalled Flowers

Oh my, there are several plants with clusters of four-petalled flowers - usually white, or pinkish - that are blooming now.  A bunch of them are called Toothworts, also Pepperroot, or Crinkleroot.  I was curious where these names came from and turned up this bit from The Encyclopedia of Shade Perennials by Wolfram George Schmid:

Many Cardamine species were used to spice up food.  The peppery roots were grated and used like horseradish (hence pepperroot).  The commonest name, toothwort, comes from the plants’ use as a popular but ineffective salve for toothaches and also alludes to the rootstock’s crinkled shape, which resembles teeth (this gave rise to still another common name, crinkleroot).

I’m afraid the more I read about Toothwort, the more confused I become.  For one thing, it has been reclassified since my field guides were written.  Formerly called Dentaria, they are now called Cardamine.  And, depending which field guide or Internet source you use, the common names appear interchangable between the species with a few exceptions.

Cutleaf Toothwort seems to bloom first here in Western New York.  Listed as Cardamine concatenata at the USDA database and as Dentaria laciniata in both my Newcomb’s and Peterson’s field guides, it is pretty easy to distinguish from its intricately “cut” leaves.  (Picture above.)

I believe I have photographed at least two other species in “my” woods, but as I read about the variability of the leaves on individual plants, and that to differentiate between them, you have to look at rhizomes… I’ve become unwilling to commit to a definite ID!  Here are a couple of photos anyway:

 

(To confuse things all the more, there is a completely different plant in Europe that is referred to as “Toothwort” that lacks chlorophyll and is a parasite on certain trees.  Click here for a picture of Lathraea squamaria.)

I’ve run across a couple of other plants that also have clusters of 4 petals… They aren’t toothworts.  But they are Cardamines!

Using Newcomb’s Wildfower Guide, I came up with Mountain Watercress (Cardamine rotundifolia) for this plant.  After poking around in the USDA database and other places on the Internet, I’m no longer 100% sure.  (According to the range map, it’s not supposed to be in Chautauqua County, though it is in neighboring Cattaraugus County.) These Cardamines are difficult.

 

There’s a species similar to Mountain Watercress called Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa) whose upper leaves are more lance-shaped and whose range map includes Chautauqua County…  Hmm…

I’m a lot more certain of this last species, Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis):

Towering above the grass, with spikey little leaves, this flower delights the children who come to the Audubon.  I point it out early in the walk and tell the kids that everytime they see it from now on, they have to point and say, “Cuckoo!”  (It drives their teachers crazy…)

Dragon Season Begins

I’ve been seeing Common Green Darners for weeks - migrants, back from the south.

And lots of Eastern Forktails emerging all over the place - locals, all…  travelling not far from their birth ponds. Perhaps other forktail species, too. I haven’t looked that closely, yet.

 

It surprised me, though, to see this teneral on the bark of a tree on a cool day quite far from water.

I think it is a Beaverpond Baskettail.  I’ve asked my dragonfly-expert friend Jeremy for confirmation.  He agrees with the Baskettail part, but is unwilling to commit to what kind.  I should have taken a shot of the terminal appendage for positive ID.  Oh well.  I’m sticking with Beaverpond, just because my field guide shows them just a tiny bit earlier in May than Common.

If it is a Beaverpond Baskettail, the eyes will slowly get blue as the newly emerged dragon ages. Once I get confirmation, I guess I’ll start posting to my Odes blog, too. A Nature Nerd’s job is never done…

Dutchman’s Breeches

By the time I was ready to hit the road, I knew I would be too late to meet up with my friends from the Audubon Photo Club out at Allegany State Park. By the looks of things, they had a great time and I can’t wait to see their pictures!

Still, the light was so lovely, I knew I had to find some photo op! So I headed to Long Point State Park - a shorter drive, to see if the Dutchman’s Breeches were in bloom. I was not disappointed, though I would have been if I had waited another few days.  Some of the blooms were starting to turn brown!  I got there just in the nick of time.

Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) are supposed to look like… well… Dutchman’s breeches, all hung out on the line to dry.

Listings of medicinal uses in all the sources I checked end with a warning that the plant may be toxic and/or cause a skin rash…

With that in mind, my favorite folklore use is Love Charm.  Oh yes…  If you are willing to take a chance on being poisoned or covered with a rash, you might chew on the root of this plant, then approach your intended.  It is said that the fragrance of your breath will win her over, even if she was not interested in you!

I think the leaves are particularly pretty, so delicate.  I have found lots of them in the other woods where I walk more regularly, but no blooms.  It makes me wonder if they, like other spring flowers of the deciduous woods, take years to produce a bloom?  I’ll have to check “my” woods again soon.

 The range for this flower is rather interesting, concentrated mostly in the east, but with a few western populations.  Sometimes I show you the USDA range map for a species.  But there is another site that has more specific ranges.  The USDA colors the entire state or province if a species is found anywhere within.  In contract, www.efloras.org shows where the species is found.  Compare:

 
USDA on left, eFloras on right (click map to go to site)

Dutchman’s Breeches rely on Bumblebees (or other long-tongued insects) for pollination.  I’d like to catch that action sometime!  They are true Spring Ephemerals, for they will die back after setting fruit before the canopy closes over.

One more picture:

It’s Baby Animal Time

It’s baby animal time at Audubon!  And we’ve been finding many.  Last weekend, our first batch of goslings hatched during 60-80 degree weather.  Today, with temperatures back down in the 40s, they must be wondering what they were thinking hatching out this early!  Lucky for them, mom’s wings and warm body will provide protection.

Canada Goose Family

 

And what about those Painted Turtles?  How do they manage to stay underground all winter long, then find water once they hatch out of holes that are often rather far from the ponds?  They’ve been making a mad dash for the backyard pond over the last few days.

They’re just so perfectly round when they first hatch out, aren’t they?

Barren Strawberry

Here’s my process:  I go for walks in the woods.  I take pictures of stuff.  I bring the pictures home, pick out the ones that aren’t terrible, identify them if I don’t already know what they are, and post them on Flickr.  Then I decide to write a blog post about one or more of them…

So, I consult my field guides and other plant books and then start surfing the ‘net to see what else is out there.  Sometimes I think my post is going to go in one direction, but it ends up going in a completely different direction…  Like today…

Barren Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) is one of those wildflowers whose name gets erased from my brain during summer-fall-winter.  I find it in the woods and think… darn!  I know that flower.  I know I know that flower… But alas, the name will not come to me.  It happened again this year.  So, I decided to write about it, in the hopes that writing about it would help the name stick in my gray matter better.

I was interested to find that the plant, which I see in many locations here in Western New York, is “listed” in several states:

• Endangered:  IL, ME
• Threatened: NH
• Special Concern: MA, CT
• Rare: IN

But what set me off on a wild goose chase that still has my head spinning was a small, seemingly innocuous phrase from the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers:

Fruit not a berry.

Hmm…  Strange that the guide would make that distinction.  And in italics, too.

No problem.  I have no botany book here, but I can google up some definitions…

• Berry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry
• Fruit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit

Go read them.  Seriously.  Then you tell me:  What is the difference between a berry and a fruit?  Then, just for fun, even though it has nothing to do with Barren Strawberry, try vegetable, too:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable.  It’s as good a way as any to waste a little time…

Finally, look at the cute little critter I found on one of the plants:

Wild Oats

Wild Oats (Uvularia sessilifolia), also known as Sessile Bellwort, is found in rich woods in the eastern US.  It’s easy to walk right past it, since the flowers dangle down below grass-like leaves.

Peterson’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants warns against collecting unless it is very abundant. If you find large patches, gather young shoots and remove the leaves. Boil the young shoots for 10 minutes, and serve as you would asparagus. I’ve never tried it, never found a big enough patch to feel confident about collecting and still leaving some for next year.

 

 

I can’t find any reference that tells why this plant from the Lily Family is called “oats” at all.  Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs lists this plant saying Native Americans used a root tea for various ailments.  It also lists another different species from the Grasses Family with the common name “Wild Oats” -  Avena fatua, the species from which cultivated oats derive.  That one it makes sense to call wild oats!

I did a little searching on the Internet to try to determine where the phrase “to sow wild oats” came from.  There were plenty of colorful definitions for the phrase, but the only hint at its origin that I found was this:

To sow wild oats means ‘to behave foolishly’ or ‘indulge in excess while one is young.’ This has been an English idiom since the 16th century, and it refers to the sowing of inferior wild grain instead of superior cultivated grain, alluding to sexual promiscuity. It suggests that such is something that one will grow out of. The phrase likely arose in one language (English or Spanish) and was translated into the other. (Melanie and Mike, Take our Word for It, Source)

I must assume the wild oats the young and foolish sow are the Avena species, not the Uvularia.  As for the other behaviors… well…  hmm…