Look for this feature early each week! Cam Mannino shares her latest observations, photos, and inspirations from Bear Creek Nature Park. Don’t forget to check out the Preview of Coming Attractions at the bottom of the post to see what you should be looking for in the coming weeks. Thanks Cam!

 

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 April 19 to April 25, 2015: A Cold Week, but Spring Keeps Coming

The Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) are still singing and I thought I’d follow up last week’s swimming photo with one of this masked frog in the woodland habitat where it emerged this spring. This amazing frog migrates uphill in the fall, buries itself in the soil beneath the leaf litter where it freezes and then thaws in the spring. He’s camouflaged nicely against the leaves, isn’t he?

Bear Creek provides both kinds of habitats the Wood Frog needs to thrive – high, dry places for winter and nearby vernal pools for spring mating. Another reason our park is special and one of many good reasons for preserving wetlands.

Here’s a recording I made this week of frogs singing at a vernal pool. Turn up your volume and (after you hear me shuffling with the device a bit) you’ll hear frogs, the brrrrrt call of a Red-winged Blackbird and the repeated clear notes of the Northern Cardinal’s spring song. See if you can identify the frogs singing (http://www.paherps.com/herps/frogs-toads/)!

 

Blooming slowed, but persisted this week despite the cold.   Last week the American Pussy Willow (Salix discolor ) on the small loop behind the center pond looked like this:

 And here’s the same plant this week with a maturing male catkin (pollen producing flowers) turning bright yellow as it readies itself to release pollen. Pretty dramatic change, eh?

Migrating birds, seemingly undaunted by chilly temperatures, arrived this week – some to stay, some to rest for a week or so before moving farther north. I saw four, but managed to get my own photos of only two.

An Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), back from Mexico, Central or South America, perched on a high branch to sing his famous song, “Drink your teeeeeea” followed by a click.

I tried, really tried, to get a photo of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) among the brush in the vernal pool north of the playground. But he just wouldn’t sit still and he’s tiny – smaller than a Black-capped Chickadee.   Because he was excited, however, he flashed his bright red cap against his gray-green body and we spotted him.  He’s just passing through on his way to cooler breeding grounds farther north in the US or Canada. He’ll probably depart by the end of next week. Here’s a link for a photo from a favorite website for bird study, Cornell University’s All About Birds website:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-crowned_Kinglet/id

At the back of the pond just west of the playground, a bright flash of yellow, black and white streaked across my binoculars, but the Yellow-Rumped Warbler never sat on a limb for more than 6 seconds. (I counted!) But I got a very lucky shot a while later as he landed suddenly on a nearby branch. The black mask means he’s male. If you look closely, he actually has a patch of yellow on the top of his tail and one on his head, too, which isn’t visible here in his about-to-take-off pose.

Two kind birders in the park pointed out a pair of Blue-winged Teals ((Anas discors) at the far end of the pond west of the playground. Though I could see these smaller ducks through binoculars, they were resting in mottled shadow, so no decent photo.  They’re probably moving through our area but can sometimes breed in southeast Michigan. Let me know if you see them in the summer! Here’s another link to Cornell University for a photo of this distinctive duck with a vertical white stripe behind his bill.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/blue-winged_teal/id

Normally the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) appears poking his long, curved beak into the ground as he searches for ants. Flickers have a bright red crescent at the back of the head, a black bib and the male sports a snazzy black mustache.

But one morning this week in the same vernal pool where the Kinglet darted, a male Flicker drummed persistently on a dead tree and shouted his piercing, somewhat maniacal call as a way of establishing his territory. Here he is, a bit blurred due to the distance.

And here’s is a link where you can hear his call. (Click on the second sound bar.)

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_flicker/sounds

Overhead, flew one of the most beautiful predators in the park, a Red-tailed Hawk ((Buteo jamaicensis).

Look closely at this much smaller set of wings! It’s not a wasp; that’s a disguise to fool would-be predators. It’s a Hover Fly. Although they mimic bees or wasps, hover flies can’t sting (hooray!) and they help out by preying on pests and pollinating flowers. So maybe that insect nuzzling your flowers is just a harmless hover fly!

COMING ATTRACTIONS!

The well-known Wooly Bear Caterpillar thawed after freezing solid this winter and wriggled quickly through the grass. Those beady little eyes are looking for a place to metamorphose into an yellow/orange Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella).

After the prescribed burn in the northeast area, the woods are greening with wild strawberry leaves that will fruit in June. (Forget it – the critters always get them first.)

Wild geraniums (Geranium maculatum) leaves are just poking through the blackened but newly fertilized soil. By mid-May, they will carpet the woods in a lavender haze.

The Other Side of Stewardship

And lastly, my favorite park denizen, my husband, Reg. On Sunday, he waded into the mud with a hook duct-taped to an extension pole and snagged 13 cans, 7 plastic bottles and various other detritus around the southern deck of the big marsh – oh, and a baby’s shoe from the vernal pool north of the playground. My hero!

As always, please feel free to share in the comments section below so we can all be on the lookout for your discoveries in Bear Creek next week!