Snakes Patrick Day!

It's time for my annual St. Patrick's Day tradition - sharing a photo of snakes.
 

This cluster of mating Eastern Garter Snakes would probably have enraged St. Patrick.

There are all sorts of legends surrounding St. Patrick.

My favorite legend about St. Patrick says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them from the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

While this is a great story, the truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.

When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

Michigan was affected by the same glacial periods as Ireland.  It also was scoured clean by a thick layer of ice.  However, Michigan remains attached to the rest of North America and snakes have repopulated both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas in the past 11,000 years.  A total of seventeen snake species currently call the state home.  I am glad that they are here.  They play an important role in the ecosystem as both predators and prey.  Ireland you're missing out.


Fun fact:  In addition to being the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick is also the patron saint of engineers and the nation of Nigeria.

Snakes - A St. Patrick's Day Tradition

It's time for my St. Patrick's Day tradition - sharing a photo of snakes.

A Northern Water Snake training for the future invasion of Ireland.

Legends says that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick chased them off of the island.  The story is that St. Patrick was involved in the middle of a forty day fast when he was attacked by snakes.  This angered Patrick so greatly that he chased the snakes into the sea and banished them from the island forever.  To this day, Ireland has no native population of snakes.

The truth is that there were never any snakes on Ireland for St. Patrick to chase away.  Ireland has been covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  During the last glacial maximum, which occurred about 11 thousand years ago, three-quarters of Ireland was buried under a thick layer of ice.  The remainder of the island was too cold and inhospitable to support snakes and most other species of wildlife.

When the glaciers retreated, Ireland was temporarily connected to Great Britain and the rest of Europe by a land bridge.  This connection allowed some species to repopulate Ireland, but snakes did not make it across before the connection was severed by rising sea levels.  This isolation is the true reason for Ireland's lack of snakes, not an angry fifth century saint.

Michigan was affected by the same glacial periods as Ireland.  It also was scoured clean by a thick layer of ice.  However, Michigan remains attached to the rest of North America and snakes have repopulated both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas in the past 11,000 years.  A total of seventeen snake species currently call the state home.  I am glad that they are here.  They play an important role in the ecosystem as both predators and prey.

Native Species Profile - Spotted Joe-pye Weed

The late Summer/Fall wildflower show is gearing up in Mid-Michigan.  Our second wildflower season is about to begin.  While the Spring flowers get all the attention (mainly due to coming after the drabness of Winter), the later wildflower show is more spectacular.

One of my favorite wildflowers of the season is Spotted Joe-pye Weed.  This plant has recently been reclassified and renamed.  Formerly lumped with the Boneset species and known as Eupatorium maculatum, it has been broken off and renamed Eupatoriadelphus maculatus.  In some sources it is also listed as Eutrochium maculatum.  Just when I could remember Eupatorium maculatum!  All of my books -every single one of them- refers to to the plant as Eupatorium maculatum.  Of course scientists have also done away with the genus Aster, and many of the Goldenrods are no longer Solidago species...

EDIT:  It appears that the name of this species has been settled as Eutrochium maculatum.  This is how the USDA Plants database has it listed. 


Spotted Joe-pye Weed (regardless of its binomial nomenclature) is a large showy wildflower of wet places.  It is mostly found in wetlands and along shorelines.  The plant grows to a height of between 2 and 10 feet, but is usually in the 3 - 5 foot range in Mid-Michigan.  Overall the plant can be found in 23 American states and 7 Canadian provinces.  Primarily a Northeastern species, its range dips as far south as Georgia in the Appalachians and as far west as Minnesota and Iowa.

Spotted Joe-pye Weed

The plant blooms in a large flat-topped cluster of pink to purple flowers.  Each flower consists of between 8 and 20 disk florets with no ray florets.  The long thin disk florets give the flower an overall fuzzy appearance.  The flowering head on each plant may be up to seven inches across and be composed of hundreds of individual flowers.  Individual plants bloom between July and September and usually bloom for 3 to 4 weeks.

Spotted Joe-pye Weed - not the dark purple spots on the stems and the feathery looking disk flowers

The stems of Spotted Joe-pye Weed are purple and sometimes have darker purple spots - a related species Sweet Joe-pye Weed has green stems with purple only at the leaf joints.  The leaves of Spotted Joe-pye Weed are yellow-green to deep green with serrated margins and grow in whorls of four to five leaves.  Each leaf is up to 7 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide and is lanceolate or elliptical in shape.

Spotted Joe-pye Weed - note the deep purple stems and serrated leaves

The origin of the name Joe-pye Weed is somewhat a mystery.  The common legend is that Joe Pye was a Native American healer in Massachussetts who used the plant as part of a treatment to induce sweating and break fevers - including an outbreak of Typhus.  There is actually lineage of Native Americans from Massachussets who adopted the surname Pye, so there may be some truth to this legend.  For a deeper examination of origin of the Joe-pye Weed name read this blog post at prairieworksinc.com 

Basic Information


Spotted Joe-pye Weed 
Eutrochium maculatum (formerly Eupatoriadelphus maculatus, formerly Eupatorium maculatum)

Height:  2-10’ tall

Habitat:  swamps, wet meadows, shorelines, along streams

Flower Color:  pinkish-purple

Bloom Time:  mid July – early September

A Snake for St. Patrick

According to legend, Saint Patrick is responsible for the lack of snakes in Ireland.  He is said to have chased them into the sea for attacking him while he was undertaking a 40 day fast.  To this day Ireland has no snakes.

The science of why Ireland has no snakes has nothing to do with Saint Patrick or any other saint.  Ireland's lack of snakes can be attributed to ice.  Ireland was covered with glaciers during more than one ice age.  The most recent ice age, which ended about 11,000 years ago covered over three quarters of the island with ice.  The remainder of Ireland was too cold for snakes.

During this last glacial period, a land bridge connected Ireland with the rest of Europe, allowing some species to populate Ireland, but snakes were not among them.  When the glaciers melted the sea levels rose, covering the land bridge, leaving Ireland without snakes.

Here in Mid-Michigan, we are lucky that the snakes were able to return after the glaciers receded.  They play an important role in our ecosystem as an effective predator of many small animals.  They in turn are preyed upon by many birds and mammals.

So in honor of yesterday's St. Patrick's Day celebrations,  I give you a snake.

Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)

Close Encounters of the Pileated Kind

As I have stated before, I am not a "birder".  I like watching them.  I enjoy feeding them.  It makes me happy to see them using nest boxes that I built.  I even have a couple "favorite" species.

But.  It takes a lot to get me excited about a bird.  You can tell me you just found a "Lesser Disapproving Short-Tailed Fingerwagger" in your backyard and it's five thousand miles outside its normal range!  If it's just a little brown bird, I'm probably not going to rush over and see it.  If it shows up in my yard I might be mildly excited, and I might call you so you can rush over to see it.

There are a few species of birds that do get me excited - even if they are not necessarily my favorite birds.  Bald Eagles.  Ravens.  Sandhill Cranes.  Red-headed Woodpeckers.  Pileated Woodpeckers.  Especially Pileated Woodpeckers. 

Weather - Mackerel Skies

"Mackerel scales and mare's tails

Make lofty ships carry low sails"

This is an old bit of weather folklore that refers to an unsettled appearance of the sky before incoming bad weather.