Frontyard Waxwings

I mentioned in yesterday's post that a flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) was feeding on the buds and flowers of a Norway maple in my front yard.  I knew that waxwings sometimes consume flowers and buds, but this was the first time I had observed it.  I rushed back inside to get my camera.  When I got back outdoors, most of the flock had moved on to a neighbor's trees, but a few birds lingered and I was able to get the following photographs.

A long reach...

Deep snow can make winter survival difficult for white-tailed deer.  Getting around is difficult and requires more energy.  Most of the food sources are inaccessible, especially if the snow is combined with a layer of ice that prevents deer from digging down to the ground.

Because foods such as grasses, forbs, and nuts are often unavailable, deer survive mostly on a diet of browse (buds, leaves, branch tips) during the winter months.  Where deer populations are heavy, all the food that is easy to reach is already gone by this time of winter.  Sometimes the only food left available in area is high overhead.  It is not unusual to see where deer have browsed as high as eight feet off the ground by standing on their hind legs.

I retrieved my trail cameras this afternoon and was lucky enough that one of the cameras had recorded this behavior.  The deer in this series of images is reaching up to eat needles from an Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).

Normally I just change out the memory cards in my trail cameras and leave the cameras in the woods, but I decided to remove the cameras completely for now.  Even though its in a public park, the area that I place the cameras is quite secluded when the ground is not frozen - it's in the middle of a swamp.  However, right now its easy to access because everything is frozen over.  I also left a trail of footprints directly to the camera sites.  I also recorded a person on one of the cameras.  This is not the first time I have ever seen a person on one of the cameras, but it was the first time I could tell that they knew the camera was there.  Fortunately, they only smiled at the camera and left it in place.

If this you - Thank you for being an honest person!

Backyard Birds (28 January 2019)

Our yard was absolutely filled with birds today!  At one point I counted five male/female pairs of Northern Cardinals, more than fifty birds in a mixed flock of finches and sparrows, and eight Black-capped Chickadees.  I also saw several Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Hairy Woodpecker, several White-breasted Nuthatches, and a single Red-Breasted Nuthatch over the course of the day.  A pair of Fox Squirrels appeared for a short time this morning, but didn't stay long. 

The birds were busy feeding on suet cakes and black oil sunflower seeds both in hanging feeders and on the ground.  Even though the birds don't really need us to provide food to get through the winter, when heavy now or ice makes it difficult to find natural foods they sure do appreciate the food that we provide.  These birds were so intent on feeding that some of them let me photograph them from about ten feet away as they went to and from the feeder.

White-breasted Nuthatch (female) - note grey cap

White-breasted Nuthatch (male) - note black cap

White-breasted Nuthatch (male)

House Finch (male)

House Finch (male)

Black-capped Chickadee eating a sunflower seed

Northern Cardinal (male)

Dark-eyed Junco

American Goldfinch

White-breasted Nuthatch (female)

Northern Cardinal (male)

The Days of Summer - Day Seventy-three through Day Seventy-nine

For many people, Labor Day Weekend marked the unofficial end of summer.  I say we still have two full weeks remaining!  Here is installment eleven of The Days of Summer, my summer photography project.  If you've been following along, you've already seen parts one through ten.  If you just stumbled upon this blog for the first time...  Welcome!  You can get caught up on previous parts of the project starting here.  I started this project on the Summer Solstice (June 21st) and am photographing every day until the Fall Equinox (September 22nd).  So far I have taken more than ten thousand photos this summer, but I have only shared seventy-two images to date (one image to represent each day of my summer).

Here are the images for Day 73 through Day 79.  Enjoy!

Day 73 (01 September) - Native bee on Rudbeckia laciniata

This image of a small native bee (less than 1/4 inch long) on a Cut-leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) was photographed late in the day in our home pollinator garden.  This image was cropped to a square to focus on the bee and flower and eliminate some of the background.

Day 74 (02 September) - Golden fields 

This photograph was taken at my go to site for photography this summer, Forest Hill Nature Area.  Goldenrods are now in full bloom.  I like several things about this image.  First the colors - golden flowers, green leaves, dark green trees, and the blue of the sky.  I also like the lines of this image - the curve of the plants in the meadow mirrored by the treeline and the radiating clouds.  Finally I like the pattern of the clouds themselves.

Day 75 (03 September) - The beginning of the end of summer

Labor Day may not be the official end of summer, but it seemed as if a switch flipped on September 1st.  Many plants that were in bloom stopped and their leaves began to change from green to yellow or brown.  This image of a Riverbank Grape (Vitis riparia) and Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum sp.) was another image taken at Forest Hill Nature Area.

 Day 76 (04 September) - A feast of thistles

This image of a male American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park.  American Goldfinches feed almost exclusively on seeds and thistles are one of their favorite sources of food.  Goldfinches have been my nemesis bird this summer.  I have not been able to get near enough to photograph one this summer.  Until now.  I started photographing this bird from about thirty feet and slowly walked up on it (never moving my camera from my eye) until I was only about five feet away.  It was fun to watch him tossing clumps of thistledown into the air as he foraged for seeds.  The hardest part was choosing which photo I liked best.

Day 77 (05 September) - In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines

This is another image from Chipp-A-Waters Park.  I photographed this Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) in a pine plantation near the west edge of the park.  This image is all about light and shadow.

Day 78 (06 September) - Tag!  You're it!

Our first Monarch of 2018 has emerged from its chrysalis.  It was tagged and released into our home native pollinator garden.  As most of them do when released, it promptly flew up into a tree and perched out of sight and out of reach.

Day 79 (07 September) - Dewdrops

This morning we woke up to a world soaked with dew/fog/rain or some combination of the three.  After dropping Shara off at work, but before heading to the office, I stopped at Mill Pond Park with the hope of getting a few good images.  This picture of dewdrops on an orbweaver web was my favorite.  I did adjust both the light and color on this image - dropping down the light and bringing up the color to help the dewdrops pop out from the background.

Backyard Bird Watching

I am currently home sick with a horrible head cold.  That doesn't mean that I am completely separated from all things natural.  The backyard is full of birds (and squirrels) gorging on sunflower seeds.  We have recently had a huge flock of mixed finches (American Goldfinches, House Finches, and Pine Siskins) attending to our feeders.  A few of them are shown in the pictures below, along with at least one Downy Woodpecker and a Fox Squirrel.

Native Species Profile - Bear's Head Tooth Fungus

I am not a mycologist (fungus expert).  There are very few species of fungi that I can reliably identify.  Even though I am not an expert, I find fungi incredibly interesting because of the role that they play in the environment. 

Because fungi appear inactive biologists once lumped with plants, but many species actually behave more like animals.  Fungi cannot make their own food like plants can, instead they rely on other organisms for their food.  Some species form symbiotic relationships with plants - a relationship that benefits both species - collecting water and nutrients that is shares with the plant and receiving plant starches (food) in exchange.  Other species are parasitic - invading living organisms and stealing food from them.  Many species of fungi are saprophytic.  This means that they break down dead and decaying organism for their food.

One of the more distinctive fungi that can be found in Mid-Michigan is the Bear's Head Tooth Fungus (Hericium americanum).   Because it is so distinctive, this is one fungus that I feel confident in my identification. 

Bear's Head Tooth Fungus (Hericium americanum)

This species is saprophytic and is usually found on decaying deciduous logs, but it may occasionally be found on conifer logs or on living deciduous trees.  Like almost all fungi, the part that we see is only a small part of a much larger organism.  Most of a fungus is hidden in the ground, in dead logs, or even in living trees as a system of root-like fibers called mycelium.  The mushroom that we see on the surface only occurs when the larger fungus is ready to reproduce by sending microscopic spores into the wind.  Essentially a mushroom is a fruiting body produced by the large hidden mass of mycelium for the purpose of reproduction.

The fruiting body of this fungus grows from the decaying log as a thick white stalk topped by several thick white branches.  Each branch is covered by white clusters of drooping spines or teeth.  The overall effect is of a bonsai tree covered with icicles.  This visible fruiting body may be as large as 12 inches by 12 inches.  It is not uncommon to find several growing from the same log.  Over time the color fades from white to cream or brown.

Bear's Head Tooth Fungi (Hericium americanum) growing from a decaying log

Although I rarely eat wild mushrooms because I don't particularly like them, this is one wild fungus that I would confidently eat.  Bear's Head Tooth is considered delicious and has no poisonous lookalikes.  There are several other Hericium species that look similar, but all are edible.  A good rule for any wild food, never eat anything in the wild that you cannot identify with 100% certainty. 

Humans are not the only creatures that eat the Bear's Head Tooth Fungus.  Rodents such as mice, chipmunks, and squirrels often chew on them.  They are eaten by several species of insects.  They are also avidly consumed by snails and slugs.

A large (2 inch long) slug on a Boar's Head Tooth Fungus

Basic Information

Bear's Head Tooth Fungus
Hericium americanum

Size:  up to 12" by 12"

Habitat:  found on deciduous logs in woodlands; rarely on living trees or conifer logs

Color:  white; fades to cream or brown

Bloom Time:  summer to fall

Winter rabbit sign

During Winter, many small animals become very secretive.  With the leaves being gone from most plants they become extremely wary.  Some species retreat to the space beneath the snow - the area known as the "subnivean zone".  Other species become mainly nocturnal to hide from the eyes of daytime predators, but in some ways Winter makes it easier to tell that these animals have been around.

One of these animals is the Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus).  While the Eastern Cottontail  is one of the most common mammals in Eastern North America, it can be difficult to see just how common they are.  They prefer brushy areas where they can hide from their many predators.  Because they browse on leafy vegetation, their feeding often goes unnoticed.  Being small and light (less than 5 pounds) they rarely leave tracks.

However, Winter exposes the lives of Cottontail Rabbits. It becomes easier to see what they are eating and where.  Without green vegetation, the diet of rabbits switches to twigs, bark, and buds.  The rabbits use their sharp incisors to strip bark from small branches and trunks.  If enough bark is removed, this has the potential of killing the plant. 

Cottontail Rabbit sign - stripped bark and clipped branches near the snow line

However, rabbits often get blamed for damage that they do not cause.  Any bark removed by a rabbit will be above the snow line (to a height of about 18 inches).  You can often tell how high the snow was during the previous winter by looking for rabbit damage.  On the other hand, damage right at ground level was probably caused by mice or voles.  When mice or voles chew on trees in the Winter it often goes unnoticed because it occurs in that subnivean zone below the snow.

Cottontail Rabbits have been feeding heavily on this clump of shrubs

In addition to removing the bark, rabbits often leave another sign of their feeding - branches that are neatly clipped off at an angle.  Deer also eat the ends of branches, but because they lack upper incisors the branches that they eat will have a torn or jagged appearance where they twisted or ripped them off.

Branches eaten by Cottontail Rabbits are neatly clipped at an angle

Another sure sign of Winter cottontails is their scat.  Rabbit droppings will appear as piles of dried, brown spheres containing shredded plant fibers.  These droppings look very much like cocoa puffs.  Because their digestive system does not do a good job of processing all the nutrients in the plants, rabbits will often eat their own droppings so the contents can be digested a second time.

Rabbit droppings - Do not eat the cocoa puffs!

A third sign of rabbits that winter makes visible is their tracks.  Snow exposes the movements of rabbits and allows us to track their paths of travels.  While Cottontail rabbits have large feet (in proportion to their body size) that allow them to travel across packed snow, they do not like moving through deep fluffy snow any more than most other mammals.  They usually will stick to well defined paths or runs of packed snow under these conditions. These runs (and individual tracks away from the runs) are easy to see and show us where the rabbits travel between food sources and cover. 

A partially drifted in rabbit run leading to an isolated shrub.

We are not the only species capable of recognizing rabbit runs.  Birds of prey also notice the paths made by rabbits and will often perch over them waiting for an unsuspecting Cottontail to make a move.  If you follow rabbit runs, sometimes you will find places where a hawk or owl stooped down to take a rabbit.  A patch of disturbed snow with wing makes, some fur, and a few spots of blood are often all that indicate a successful kill.

This well used rabbit path runs for dozens of yards in a nearly straight line between patches of cover.

A little bit of snow cover and knowledge of the signs to look for makes it easy to determine if Cottontail Rabbits are around and can help remove some of the mystery from the species' habits.

Native Pollinator Garden updates - 29 August 2013

The 2013-14 School Year will be upon us next week.  Yesterday I went around to the four Native Pollinator Gardens to get them ready for the school year.  I try to keep maintenance on these gardens to a minimum.  After the plants have become established they are never watered.  The plants are largely left to grow on their own in the ways that they want.  Sometimes this means that they stay put in nice little well-behaved clumps.  Other times it means they ravage across the garden like barbarian hordes, invading new spaces by sending out runners or dispatching seeds.  Sometimes new plants appear out of nowhere, pioneers looking to form a new colony far from their distant parents.  Sadly, sometimes it means that individual plants die.  So a garden that is planted one year will probably not going to look the same the next year - even without a gardener puttering about.

That is okay.

These are spaces designed to be habitats and outdoor classrooms.  They are not formal or even informal gardens where everything must be in its perfect place, because the "perfect" place for a plant to my eyes might not where the plant ultimately wants to be.  The gardens are planted with a plan that they will evolve and change, whether I want them to or not.  In the long run, I think they function better in their role as a habitat if they are allowed to make those changes.  Perhaps it would be better if I didn't refer to these spaces as gardens, but rather as habitats.  After all very little gardening takes place in the spaces.

Despite my general hands-off policy toward these habitats, they do require occasional maintenance.  For instance, when school is in session each of these habitats has a path so students can access the interior.  This path often becomes overgrown and must be cleared.  This might mean moving (or removing) some plants that have self-sown or it could even mean trimming a few plants that exhibit especially vigorous growth.

When planting these space, I always plan for a buffer space around the edge so plants are not flopping over onto lawns, sidewalks, etc..  When plants self-sow, they often fill this blank space taking advantage of the lack of competition.  Some of these plants may also need to be removed if they are too tall for the space.

Weeds.  Every garden/habitat will eventually get its weeds.  They might sprout from wind-borne seeds, or an animal may have deposited them, or they may have been lying dormant in a seed bank buried in the ground.  Regardless of their origin, they appear.  When I find a plant in one of the schoolyard habitats that was not planted there I evaluate it in three steps:

1. Is it a tree or shrub seedling? If the answer is yes it is removed immediately - all woody plants that have not been deliberately planted are removed as soon as they are noticed.  If the plant is not a tree or shrub, go on to step 2.
2. Is the plant native or non-native?  If it is a non-native plant, it goes immediately.  I know that many non-native plants have a great deal of value in habitats, but most do not.  These gardens/habitats are meant to be filled with native plants to serve as habitat for native pollinators.  If you want to attract native insects have their native host plants and nectar plants available to them.  Non-native plants are not welcome at all in my schoolyard habitats. For native plants, go on to step 3.
3. Is the plant growing in a pathway or right on the edge of the habitat?  If it is and can be easily moved, it will find a new home in the habitat.  If it can't be easily moved, it unfortunately goes bye-bye.  If it is not right on the edge or in the middle of the path, then the response that it gets is "You're free to grow.  Welcome to the party."

So this was the approach that I took when I went to perform maintenance on the gardens yesterday - I was actually gardening for a short while. Each of the gardens/habitats had some weeds (mostly dandelions, thistles, and turf grass that was growing from root fragments not completely removed when the gardens were planted).  The two oldest gardens/habitats had some plant so pull in the paths and a few from around the edge.  So how do they look now?

To the gardens!  From youngest to oldest.

Mount Pleasant Discovery Museum
This space was planted on June 26th this year.  The space was initially lawn on top of clay soil, with next to no topsoil.  The plants used here were leftovers from the next garden, with the exception of a few larger plants transplanted from the oldest habitat. Every plant (except the transplants) in this space cam from either a 2" plug or a 2" pot.  This meant that they were small plants with a small root system.  They had one job this summer - stay alive.  Because they were planted so late in the year, the staff at the Discovery Museum was watering these plants regularly to get them through our rather dry months of July and August.  Next year is when we shall see what this space can look like.  The plants in this space were intermingled throughout the space with the idea that it would look more like a small piece of a natural meadow when mature, rather than a planned garden.

Morey Public School Academy
This garden was planted on June 4th this year.  Like the above garden at the Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum, all plants were small plants from 2" pots or 2" plug flats.  Before this garden was installed, this space was also bare lawn over clay soil with almost no topsoil.  These plants were laid out in more of a planned pattern than the above garden - every square yard had up to 5 plants of the same species planted in it, with several adjoining squares planted with the same species.

The plants here were regularly watered for about 2 weeks but have been on their own since then - the clay soil and a thick layer of mulch retains any water that they get very well.  Like the space at the museum, the only job for these plants this summer was to stay alive.  Some of them have managed to grow quite well and send out blooms.  Most of them are focusing on developing roots that may reach down 15 feet for some species.

Winn Elementary
This garden/habitat was planted on June 5th 2012.  It is currently in its second year of growth.  Every plant in this space was originally in a 2" pot.  This space has several challenges.  Again it has clay soil with almost no topsoil.  Also when a heavy rain occurs, hundreds of gallons of water come off the roof and wash over this space, moving the wood mulch around - resulting in some areas with bare soil and other spaces with 6 inches of mulch.  The growth of the plants this year has alleviated this problem to some degree, but the mulch still moves.  One nice benefit of the clay soil is that with the mulch moisture is retained very well.

This garden was plotted out much like the one above with clusters of 2-4 plants of a species intermingled with clusters of plants of other species.  Having several plants of any given species located close to each other ensures better cross-pollination by insects.  Unlike all of the other gardens/habitats, this one is not surrounded on all four sides by buildings or sidewalks.  The west side is bordered by the front lawn of the school.  When this garden was planned, we put in a sweeping curved edge that incorporated two existing ornamental crabapple trees into the garden.  The asters around the crabapple closest to the school entrance have decided to live up to their species' potential and actually look too large in their space - these plants will be moved next spring to a different location in the garden.  The school principal recently told me that since the garden was put in place that teachers and students are using the front of the school for the first time ever.

Saginaw Chippewa Academy
This is the oldest of the four gardens/habitats, having been planted in June 2011.  It is in its summer of growth.  It is the smallest space of the four, being only only 16ft deep by 36ft wide, but it has the best soil - there is a thick rich layer of loam here with lots of organic matter.  This space also receives lots of runoff from the roof when it rains, especially the area near the stairs.  The plants in this space were a mixture of 2" pots and quart containers.  Plants in this space planted in clusters just like the 2 gardens above, with the taller plants generally placed nearer the building and shorter plants near the edges.  Many of the plants here have vigorously self seeded and taken up some of the empty space.

All of the Common Milkweed in the habitat has spread from two transplanted plants.  Common Milkweed will not stay where you want it, it spreads not only from seed but also by sending out long horizontal roots from which which clones of the original plant arise.  Because of this tendency to grow where it wants, Common Milkweed looks "weedy" in a planned space.  Milkweeds are the only host plants for the Monarch Butterfly.  This garden is first and foremost a wildlife habitat and is certified as a Monarch Waystation - the Milkweed can grow where it wants.

As you can see from the photos, the pollinators very much like the pollinator garden.  A special bonus for me, the presence of so many invertebrates in the garden has attracted the attention of tiger beetles.  I noticed one of the fast running predators in the garden twice while I was weeding - unfortunately there were no pictures.