Star-grass

Restoration Never Stops: Winter Planting and “Weeding” in Our Natural Areas

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment

The Center Pond and the sloping trail to the west after December mowing by the stewardship crew.

Most home gardeners take a break during the winter. The gardens have been prepared for winter; no weeding or seeding is planned until spring. Winter is a time to dream about next year’s garden.

Text and photos
by Cam Mannino

But late fall and winter are busy times for our Parks and Recreation stewardship crew. Many native seeds need cold winter temperatures in order to germinate. According to the useful website Ecolandscaping.org, thawing and freezing loosen the outer coating of some native seeds, signaling them to germinate as the soil warms. The Milkweeds (genus Asclepias) and Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) would be examples of native seeds that require the winter’s cold before germinating. [Use pause button to see captions below, if necessary.]

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Other seeds may need multiple seasons in the soil before they germinate – like Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana) or Common Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). [Click on photos to enlarge; hover cursor for captions.]

Hepatica seeds require more than one season in the soil before blooming.
A Common Trillium also germinates after multiple seasons in the soil.

And of course, given the diversity of native plants, some seeds sprout and grow in one growing season like Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) or New England Asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae).

Native Seeds Can Be Planted Almost Year ‘Round

Because native plants are adapted to our climate, very early spring, late fall and even snowy winter days can all be times for planting in our parks and natural areas. In November of 2015, the northern prairie at Draper Twin Lake Park was seeded. In this case, the planting area was huge and special equipment was required to get the native seed distributed evenly across the site. So Oakland Township Stewardship Manager, Dr. Ben VanderWeide, used a native plant contractor. By 2018, a lush prairie began to bloom at Draper Twin Lake Park.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the winter of 2018, Ben and his stewardship specialist did a very orderly planting of moisture-loving seeds in the emerging wetlands at Charles Ilsley Park.  Last winter when I reported on interesting tracks at Charles Ilsley Park, I  mentioned a neat grid of “tracks” on the snowy surface of one of the wetlands.

Of course, they were the footprints left by Ben and Alyssa as they seeded the spring-fed pond with a native wetland mix.  (The birders had trekked across the pond earlier in the morning.) Ben had planted Water Plantain (Alisma triviale), some sedges (grass-like plants), and bright purple Monkey-Flower (Mimulus ringens) along with other wetland species.

Many of the plants they seeded aren’t apparent yet.  But nature took temporary advantage of the spot. Up out of the wetland sprouted a native annual Witchgrass (Panicum capillare). We’ll have to wait for Ben’s plants to grow larger – but meanwhile, the seed bank has produced a grass that feeds the caterpillars of several Skipper butterflies  and produces late fall seeds for lots of birds, including cardinals, woodcocks, bobolinks, bobwhite quail and many others.

Native Witchgrass emerged from the seed bank in the prairie wetlands at Ilsley.

Sometimes, Ben hand sows the native seed that his crew and volunteers harvest each year from various parks. Here on a cool April morning of 2018, shortly after a prescribed burn, Ben is casting seed at Bear Creek Nature Park by hand in a tradition that dates back centuries. It’s a simple way to plant smaller amounts of gathered seed in certain areas that can benefit from more native plants.

Dr. Ben Vanderweide 2018 seeding smaller areas at Bear Creek in 2018 with native seed gathered by his crew and volunteers.

A Kind of “Weeding” Happens Year ‘Round as Well

Just as in a garden, removing or thinning unwanted plants is an endless stewardship task in natural areas. Invasive shrubs that crowd or shade out our native species can literally take over fields. To give native plants a chance to establish themselves, the non-natives must be removed repeatedly for several years in a row. Vines like Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) must be cut and treated to keep them from strangling trees by spiraling around their trunks – or to prevent them from climbing across the crowns of trees, making them so top-heavy that they fall in wind storms. Non-native wildflowers and grasses can be invasive too, while providing little food and shelter for wildlife. Late autumn and winter can be ideal times to do those jobs, when plants are pulling down nutrients into their roots.

In the fall of 2018, Ben arranged for a forestry mower to remove a huge area of aggressively invasive shrubs that had blanketed the fields north of the pond for decades.  Last year in early spring, with snow still on the ground, he and his stewardship assistant spent a few days carefully seeding this vast area with native seed since the area was too full of mowed shrub material to be planted by machine.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A month ago on a dry winter day,  he went over the area again with a bushhog since many of the shrubs tried to make a comeback during the summer before they were spot treated in August. It was great to see these areas cleared again so that the architecture of Bear Creek’s natural rolling landscape could be fully appreciated once more!

The rolling landscape of the north section of Bear Creek Park after Ben bush-hogged again this December.

In 2016, I wrote a history blog about how Bear Creek Nature Park looked when it was a farm during the Great Depression.  In the library’s local history room is a book entitled Incredible Yesterdays (Ravenswood Press, 1977) by local author George Comps who lived on the property in the 1930’s. At one point, he described a moonlit night when he and his sister walked to the Center Pond. While George stood on the south side, his sister went around to her favorite “Big Rock” on the north side and they could see each other across the pond in the moonlight. When I wrote the 2016 blog, I bemoaned the fact that what I believe was that “Big Rock” was buried in invasive shrubs that also surrounded the pond, blocking the view to the other side. But with Ben’s last mowing of the land, the Comps’ favorite rock is once again visible and the view across the pond that they saw some 75 years ago is possible again. Now that’s both land and history preservation!

Last week, a different kind of “weeding” was happening at the Wet Prairie on the Paint Creek Trail. In last October’s blog, I described the very special conditions of this natural area that blooms with many unusual wildflowers throughout the growing season.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Though adapted to fire and  both wet and dry conditions, these rare-but-sturdy flowers do need lots of sunshine. Over the years, trees have grown up around the edge of the Wet Prairie, shading out some of the sunlight these lovely plants require. So this January,  Ben and his stewardship specialist Grant, have been felling some trees to bring more sunlight to this special spot on the Paint Creek Trail. They’re also working to eliminate a large, dense thicket of Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus), like the ones they removed last year also at Bear Creek Nature Park’s marsh. An aggressively invasive bush, glossy buckthorn crowds out native plants and its admittedly attractive berries are also not as nutritious for wildlife as those of our native shrubs and plants.

Ben felling a few trees that shaded out rare plants on the Wet Prairie.
Glossy Buckthorn is a very aggressive invasive shrub that spreads into dense thickets.
A pile of invasive Buckthorn near the Bear Creek marsh which will eventually be burned.

Big Rewards for Year ‘Round Work

February of 2018 at the Eastern Prairie at Charles Ilsley Park – an austere beauty seen through a scrim of Indian Grass.

The eastern prairie at Charles Ilsley Park is one of my favorites – a huge rolling expanse embraced by forest. In February last year, its austere palette of browns and dark grays suited the inward quietness of a winter day. This park has required years of “weeding” – removal of non-native shrubs, elimination of stands of non-native plants and coming this spring, another prescribed burn, if the weather allows. Like many of you, I imagine, I don’t relish the sound of chain saws against wood, the stoop work of treating stumps to prevent the return of invasive shrubs, the roar of mowers as they chew  through a thicket of invasive shrubs.

July at Charles Ilsley’s Eastern Prairie

But all of that is just preparing the way for native plants and their seeds to flourish. And the reward is great  – a richly diverse native habitat where bees and butterflies sip at blossoms, where birds build nests in the deep grass or along the tree line, where creatures and their young are fed by plants that they’ve thrived on for thousands of years. Jane Giblin, of the Michigan Wildflower Association, recently quoted someone who said we should “garden as if life depended on it,” because, of course it does! And that’s also the goal of our township’s stewardship program – to restore our parks and natural areas by  “weeding out” plants that don’t provide rich, healthy habitat while protecting, nourishing and restoring the plants that feed and house the creatures that called this land home eons before we did.

Paint Creek Trail: Last Hurrah of Spring Wildflowers, Tiny Pollinators and Nesting Migrators

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment

Since this week’s blog features a variety of wildflowers along parts of the Paint Creek Trail, I thought we’d start with a little visit to the creek itself, which is currently overflowing its banks. The Swamp Buttercup certainly seems pleased with all that moisture! (If you increase your volume, you can listen to the soothing sound of flowing water and birdsong!)

Well, with summer heat settling in, native spring flowers are producing a glorious finale to the season before making room for summer blooms. Spring wildflowers love the weaker spring sun sifting through bare branches. But hot sun and the increasing number of leaves mark the end of spring blooms. Soon these wildflowers will set their fruits, send it to the ground by means of wind, water or simple gravity, and their seed-based reproductive efforts will come to an end for the season.

Text and photos
by Cam Mannino

So before they’re all gone, here are the ones I saw last week on the Paint Creek Trail between Gallagher Road and Dutton Road. You may still be able to spy some of these native beauties as you walk or bike on a sunny afternoon for the next few days.

Discoveries on the Trail between Gallagher and Silver Bell Roads

Golden Alexanders make a sunny yellow blanket beneath the trees just south of the Wet Prairie between Gallagher and Silverbell.

Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea – above) should still be glowing beneath the light shade of trees near the Wet Prairie after Memorial Day. These members of the carrot family are visited by many spring pollinators, but they can also also self-pollinate. You can see them near the parking lot on Gallagher Road and at other spots along the trail as well.

In the Wet Prairie, a more unusual little wildflower is happily sprouting where the sun is full and the ground is moist. Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) is really a wildflower, though its leaves look like grass. Best to look for these dainty flowers on a sunny day, since the flowers stay closed on cloudy days.

Blue-eyed Grass on the Wet Prairie is best seen on sunny days.

Another unusual little wildflower huddles under its much taller grass-like stem on the Wet Prairie. Star Grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) shines up out of prairie on a 6 inch stalk topped by a small (3/4 inch) blossom. The six stamens with their angular anthers add to its star-like appearance. Maybe the dew on the leaf in the photo will help you sense the size of this tiny jewel of a wildflower.

Star Grass in the Wet Meadow with dew on a nearby grass leaf

Near the creek, just north of the Wet Prairie, a burst of orange caught my eye and I discovered a native flower that was new to me, Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea).  This plant too has multiple methods of reproduction.  Each of the tiny florets that make up the protruding center of the flower will produce an achene, a winged fruit enveloping a single seed that will disperse into the wind. But ragwort also produces underground stems (rhizomes) aid its spread!

Golden Ragwort brightens the bank edge of Paint Creek near the Wet Prairie

A native, fire-adapted plant which was new to me has the unusual name Bastard Toadflax (Comandra umbellata) and this is not a flax or a toadflax plant.  A report on desertusa.com, claims it was named “toadflax” by the 16th century botanist, John Gerard, because the flowers “be yellow, having a mouth unto a frog’s mouth” and “bastard” because at the time meant “false,” indicating perhaps that it was not a real toadflax. This interesting prairie plant is “hemiparasitic” because it feeds through its roots, but also taps into roots of other plants to get nutrition and water using special structures called haustoria. Bastard toadflax reproduces by rhizomes and produces a small oily fruits enjoyed by birds and mice, who by eating them carry the seeds farther afield.

Bastard Toadflax puts out underground suckers that tap into the roots of other plants.

If you notice a splash of white far back in the Wet Prairie, it might be a patch of  Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus), a tough, little native that thrives after prescribed burns. It’s a relative of Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), a common wildflower in our parks. Unlike Daisy Fleabane, though, Robin’s Plantain more commonly produces one bloom to a stem. Like the Golden Ragwort, it reproduces by both achenes and rhizomes.

Robin’s Plantain, a relative of the more common Daisy Fleabane. Both thrive after prescribed burns.

Early last week, the fluffy, white blossoms of native Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana) hung  in long clusters along single stems called racemes. After warmer sun later in the week, they had begun to turn yellow. They don’t produce edible cherries, but their bitter fruit appeals to game birds, songbirds and woodpeckers, according to one of my favorite wildflower sites, www.illinoiswildflowers.info.

Choke Cherry trees/shrubs don’t produce edible cherries, but rather a bitter fruit that appeals to birds, but not humans. But their blossoms are beautiful!

All long the trail you’ll see Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) blooming. Now here’s one bloom you might love to see fading, because its ripening fruit is tiny, but delicious. Good luck getting them before the birds and beasts do, though!

When Wild Strawberry blooms fade, on comes the fruit. But you’ll be lucky to get it before the creatures do.

Discoveries on the Trail from Silver Bell Road to Dutton Road

Despite our late spring, many different native wildflowers were blooming along this section of the trail.  At the bottom of the stairs leading to the creek, just past the parking area, Swamp Marigolds (Ranunculus hispidus) shine bright despite the deep shade. As you saw in the video at the top of the blog, the wetlands along the stream are doing what they do best – soaking up the runoff after heavy rains. And Marsh Marigold is doing its part!

 Farther down the trail, the lavender spikes of Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) are blooming. This beloved native produces seedpods open explosively, launching seeds up to seven feet from the plant. Lupine also produces colorful clones as it spreads with rhizomes. Lupines are rising toward the sun in several parks as part of the restoration work being done on our prairies. It’s so heartening to see these lavender blossoms opening up from bottom to top on their stately racemes. And I love the whimsy of its wheel-shaped leaves.

Both the leaves and blossoms of Wild Lupine make it a treasured native wildflower.

Along the berms on the western side of the trail, a perky yellow flower blossoms in bunches. The fuzzy stems and leaves give it the first part of its name, Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens). According to Wikipedia, the second word “puccoon” comes from an ancient Native American word “poughkone,” and refers to plants formerly used for dyes by Native Americans. I wonder if its roots can turn things that vivid yellow/orange?

The roots of Hoary Puccoon were used by Native Americans for dye. But please don’t pick them to try this at home!

Near the first bridge going south, I found a whole group of native wildflowers that were just finishing their blooms. A small group of Common Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) still stood in the shade just off the trail. These flamboyant white flowers start turning pink as they age, eventually leaving only their leaves behind to gather up more sun for next years flowers. While true pink- and red-flowering trillium species exist, our Common Trillium just turn pink as they age gracefully.

A Common Trillium also germinates after multiple seasons in the soil.
It begins to turn pink as it fades.
Eventually, as it wilts for the season, it turns a deeper pink.

Nearby Starry False Solomon’s Seal  (Maianthemum stellatum) bore only a rather disheveled version of its star-shaped blossom. After the blossoms, the plant will produce green fruits with purple/black stripes that eventually turn red. Woodland birds and mice enjoy the fruits, thereby carrying the seeds within the berries to new locations.

Starry False Solomon’s Seal has graceful leaves as well as tiny star-shaped flowers.

Native Bees and Tiny Butterflies Busy Pollinating

This may be a Mining Bee, a native pollinator, which specializes in Wild Geraniums.

Many spring wildflowers depend heavily on flies and native bees (of which there are 450 Michigan species!) for their pollination, because many other butterflies and the honey bees finish migrating or emerge from hives only in warmer months. Above is what I think is a native Mining Bee (Andrenidae family) foraging for pollen and thereby pollinating one Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) after another! I’m not knowledgeable about bees, but I learned from Pollinators of Native Plants that a particular Mining Bee, Adrena distans, is a specialist pollinator of Wild Geranium, so that’s my guess. Please feel free to correct me if you know more about bees than I do!

A few tiny butterflies were doing their part in pollinating flowers as well. If you see a fluttering wink of blue among the grass stems, it’s probably a Spring Azure butterfly (Celastrina Ladon). These 1 inch pollinators are blue when flying but once they settle, they quickly fold their wings so only the dull gray side shows. It makes them hard for hungry birds – and interested photographers! – to spot. Azures tend to pollinate Golden Alexanders, False Solomon Seal as well as other wildflowers. (Photo on the left by iNaturalist. org photographer Dan Mullen.)

Spring Azure blue upper wings by Dan Mullen (CC BY-NC-ND)
The Spring Azure is much less notable to predators when it settles to feed.

The tiny Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) quickly fluttered by me and landed on dry grass stems in the Wet Prairie. These little butterflies produce several broods of caterpillars throughout the summer. So watch for tiny (up to 1.25 in.) flashes of orange and black rising from the grass and scurrying across trails all summer long, busily sipping nectar and inadvertently transporting pollen for the flowers.

The tiny Pearl Crescent can be seen now at the Wet Prairie and all summer long in our parks.

The last little butterfly was in a perfect spot to find a mate.  According to http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org, “To seek females, males perch in openings, flats or depressions near woods.” And that’s right where this one was – in the open, on a dead plant stalk near the trees just south of the Wet Prairie. He’s not glamorous but he has a glamorous name, the Dreamy Duskywing (Erynnis icelus). (Duskywings can be hard to tell apart, so again, feel free to correct me!) [Edit:  A man who collects butterflies and has seen many Duskywings told me on Facebook that he believes this is a Sleepy Duskywing (Erynnis brizo)  which he says are more common in this area.} He’s picked a great spot since one of his favorite nectars is the nearby wild lupine. These duskywings like to lay eggs on aspens and cottonwoods, which surround the Wet Prairie.

Possibly a Sleepy Duskywing  waiting on an open perch to be found by a mate.

Migrators Building Nests and, What Else? – Singing!

Late spring is a busy time for birds.  Some have just arrived and are busy singing to attract mates. A Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) sang over my head in one of the Quaking Aspens (Populus tremuloides) near the Wet Prairie. This vireo is rarely seen once the leaves come on the trees; they like to stay high in the treetops and search diligently for caterpillars. But hearing a quick, rolling song high above me, I spotted his vireo shape, gray/olive back and yellow-ish white belly from below. Then he disappeared into the tree canopy. So here’s a photo of one I saw at Cranberry Lake a week ago. Click here to listen to his rollicking warble!

A Warbling Vireo sang above my head near the Wet Prairie. An illusive bird high in the trees with a great song!

The Warbling Vireo near the trail seemed quite frantic, singing insistently and hopping higher and higher in the tree as he did so. At first I thought another male vireo was singing across the trail from him – and I believe that he thought so too! But when I followed the other song, it was one of the great bird mimics, the Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), doing an imitation of the Vireo’s song and, I think,  driving him crazy! The Catbird was, as usual, adding a few flourishes of his own, but it seemed as though the Vireo found his call an annoying form of competition! For a sample of the Catbird’s wonderfully complex, mimicking song, click on the word “Song” at this link.

The Catbird’s mimicry of the Warbling Vireo’s song seemed to fool the vireo into thinking he had competition!

A pair of Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) swooped down onto the Wet Prairie one afternoon. The female immediately disappeared into tall grass. It’s likely that she was carefully choosing grass stems out of which she could strip fibers for weaving her long, sack of a nest. Evidently, the male’s job was to stand guard while she had her head down.

A male Baltimore Oriole stands guard while his mate searches for just the right plant fibers to weave her bag-like nest.

Suddenly, the female oriole lifted out of the grass, followed immediately by the male, and they swooped into a tall Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) on the northern side of the prairie. She disappeared into a clump of leaves hanging high over the meadow, but I could see the branches moving as she worked and a tiny bit of the growing nest  (look in the center of the photo below through the leaves). I found a great little YouTube video of the Oriole’s weaving process, which is really incredible. Imagine tying knots and twirling fibers around a branch using only your beak!

The beginnings of an oriole nest high over the Wet Meadow

I heard a pair of  Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) fluttering together from tree to tree and stopped to watch. After giving what sounded like greeting calls, they soared up into a tall tree near the Wet Meadow. The female stood at the edge of a very messy nest which she was constructing on top of what appeared to be an old squirrel nest. The male doesn’t help build the nest, so while she worked, he stood guard in a nearby tree. I read in the Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior (Vol. 1) that Kingbirds build preliminary nests before settling into a final one to lay eggs. I’m guessing this may be just a trial nest, since building on a squirrel nest seems like an iffy location! (Squirrels are known to eat bird eggs!) The fine fibers drooping down over the top of the squirrel’s dry, gray branches and leaves are the female kingbird’s doing.

A female Eastern Kingbird seems to be constructing a preliminary nest on top of an old squirrel nest.

Kingbirds are identifiable from a distance by their upright posture – what one member of the birding group calls their “military stance.” And note the white tips on the tail feathers.

The male Eastern Kingbird stands guard while the female works on her nest

Every Nature Walk has its Special Moments

Last week, I had to smile at this seemingly relaxed male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). He hopped slowly up and down a slope by the trail, picking up and rejecting items he found between the grass stems. With the grass taller than his head and his red crest (which is usually erect) drooping backwards, he reminded me of an avian Red Riding Hood!

It’s little things like that – and seeing the Blue-eyed Grass staring up at me – or watching the two Eastern Kingbirds near their nest – that send me home happy from every foray into the natural world. And these grant adventures only require the right clothes for the weather, water-proof shoes, a little application of bug spray at times and my undivided attention for an hour or so. I usually take my camera along,  but walks without anything but my trusty binoculars are just as rewarding. If you ever feel a bit weary as the poet Wordsworth once did, “The world is too much with us, late and soon/Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…,” try a foray into our parks with your curiosity set at high alert. I’m confident that nature will send you home refreshed and with moments to share with others. Thanks for sharing mine!

Footnote: My sources for information, besides Oakland Township's Stewardship Manager Ben VanderWeide, are as follows: Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner; inaturalist.org;Allaboutbirds.org, the website of the Cornell Ornithology Lab at Cornell University; Wikipedia; Herbarium of the University of Michigan at michiganflora.net; various Michigan Field Guides by Stan Tekiela;Butterflies of Michigan Field Guide by Jaret C. Daniels,  A Guide to Bird Behavior Vols.1-3 by Donald W and Lillian Q.Stokes, Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm,and others as cited in the text.

Photo(s) of the Week: Some Native Spring Wildflowers Relish “Disturbance”

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment

Golden Alexanders flourishing beneath the trees south of the Wet Prairie on the Paint Creek Trail

Curiously, many native wildflowers like a little disturbance now and then. So township natural areas manager, Dr. Ben VanderWeide, sees that they get just what they need! By eliminating invasive shrubs, native plants grow stronger as sunlight reaches their previously shade-suppressed leaves. Regular prescribed burns help many fire-adapted native species emerge from the seed bank and thrive. The Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) along the Paint Creek Trail (seen above) are loving all the upheaval from invasive shrub removal three years ago. Yellow Lady Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum), and Swamp Buttercups (Ranunculus hispidus) are flourishing for the same reason at Gallagher Creek Park. Native wildflowers are emerging in greater numbers all over Cranberry Lake Park after a recent burn. Below is a small sampling of local native wildflowers which benefit from the Parks Commission’s efforts to restore our natural heritage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

THIS WEEK AT BEAR CREEK: Spring Bursts into Summer – and Delicate Paint Creek Trail Surprises

/ Cam Mannino / 3 Comments
Geraniums in the woods BC

A carpet of Wild Geranium in the Oak-Hickory forest

Well, what a change! Two weeks ago, we had spring flowers, leaf buds and spring courtship as birds sang and showed off in the treetops. And then came the heat and sun, and suddenly, it was early summer with leaves seeming to enlarge by the hour, spring flowers disappearing to be replaced by early summer blooms, more baby birds and the first dragonflies swooping along the paths in front of us.

Blog post and photos by Cam Mannino

Blog post and photos by Cam Mannino

So let’s explore just a few of the  wildflowers and creatures that shared this change with us.  (Plus some lovely post-prescribed burn surprises along the Paint Creek Trail.)

When it was still spring…

 Late Spring Birds and a Fun Insect

The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak’s  (Pheucticus ludovicianus) long, tuneful song was everywhere in Bear Creek in the last weeks of spring. Now their nests are finished and singing  has to accompany the task of raising young. Both the male and female build that nest and care for the young – a very modern couple! (Click on photos to enlarge; hover cursor for captions.)

Nearby, hopping from limb to limb, two male Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia) sang their seductive “Sweet, sweet, I’m a little sweet” song as they chased each other through the small trees at the edge of the woods. I never spotted the female, though she must have been nearby.  She lacks the rusty striping of the male and has a more olive back.

In the fields behind the Playground Pond, a pair of Eastern Towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) were getting acquainted. The male was not singing his “Drink your Tea-a-a-a-” call, so I think the two may have been looking for a nesting sight. I’d never seen the female Towhee before and she’s quite different from the male’s coloring.

Speaking of nesting, I found this large egg under one of the walnut trees near the lane.  If one end hadn’t been missing, it would have been about 2 1/2 inches long.  And there was nothing inside.  I’m wondering if it could be the shell from the egg of a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that I’ve seen off and on near the Center Pond. Cornell Lab describes the Red-tail’s eggs as 2.2 to 2.7 inches long and “white or buffy, blotched or speckled with buff, brown, or purple.”  What do you think?  Any bird egg experts out there?

Red-tailed Hawk egg?

What could be the hatched egg of a Red-tailed Hawk – but I can’t be sure.

A flash of iridescent green  at my feet signaled the hyper presence of the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) who frequents the forest edge. I imagine it got its name because its larva, developing in a burrow during the summer, springs up out of its hole to catch prey!  A tiny, green, stalking tiger! Cool how their antennae and legs are as green as their bodies.

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

A Six-spotted Tiger Beetle usually scouts the forest edge at Bear Creek, looking for prey.

Late Spring Wildflowers and Leaves

Two weeks ago, the Oak-Hickory forest was filled with big, beautiful Wild Geraniums (Geranium maculatum). These lovely lavender flowers carpet the area near the marsh every year, but this year they were all over the park –  taller, more plentiful and with larger blooms than I’ve ever seen! Perhaps this year’s and last year’s prescribed burns helped.

Wild Geranium

Wild Geranium blossoms bloomed in the mottled spring light of the forest.

Each year I wait for the blossoming of the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) that stands east of the Northern Loop.  I was intrigued to learn that the actual flowers are only the center of these blossoms.  The “petals” are actually bracts, specialized leaves that attract pollinators by glamorizing the cluster of tiny center flowers.  Here are three pictures of the buds, encased in their bracts,  opening as May progresses.

While the Flowering Dogwood buds were opening, the leaves of the Shagbark Hickory(Carya ovata) were just emerging from their amazing buds.

Hickory leaves emerge

Shagbark Hickory leaves emerge from the leaf buds.

The huge White Oaks (Quercus alba) near Snell Road were producing miniature red leaves  that, two weeks later, were green and stretching out to catch the sunlight.

Tiny Red White Oak leaves

White Oak leaves are red when they first emerge, but quickly expand and turn green.

Of course, the May Apples (Podophyllum peltatum) were producing their modest white flowers that hang hidden beneath an umbrella of leaves.

May Apple Blossom

A May Apple blossom nods below its umbrella of leaves.

Another spring favorite of mine are the little hands of Early Meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum) that find spots of sun in the mottled spring light of the woods.

Early Meadow-rue

Early Meadow-rue somehow looks like little green hands in the spotty sunlight of the spring forest.

Down at the pond, tiny aquatic buttercups, called White Water Crowfoot  (Ranunculus longirostris) floated in large swirls across the pond.  Once the heat arrived, the flowers disappeared and the brown stems are now making a not-so-lovely brown mat until they sink below the surface.

White water crowfoot

White Water Crowfoot, an aquatic buttercup, dies away with the heat, leaving a brown mat of stems on the Center Pond.

Heat! And Summer Rushes Forward

Summer Birds and other Creatures

A Green Heron (Butorides virescens), one of our summer residents, perched in a snag (standing dead tree) at the Center Pond.  I usually see them fishing at the water’s edge.  According to Cornell Lab, “The Green Heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species. It creates fishing lures with bread crusts, insects, earthworms, twigs, feathers, and other objects, dropping them on the surface of the water to entice small fish.”  I will be watching now to see if I can catch one doing that!

Green Heron

A Green Heron, a tool-using bird, hunches in dead tree on the far side of the Center Pond.

Out in Bear Creek Marsh, Ben and an experienced birder, Antonio Xeira, heard the call of a seldom-seen denizen of wetlands, the Sora (Porzana carolina). This waterbird, a member of the Rail family,  with a heavy yellow beak and stock body,  stalks quietly among the cattails, looking for seeds, insects and snails. Its whinnying call is particularly dramatic. Ben and Antonio recognized its other two tone “ker-wee” call at the marsh. Click on its picture here and go halfway down this page for its song and call. I’d never even heard of Sora before!

A delightful sight greeted the Wednesday birders at the Playground Pond last week. A mother Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) was escorting her six ducklings around the pond,  as well as what appeared to be two Hooded Merganser chicks (Lophodytes cucullatus)! Ben surmised that perhaps a Merganser had laid its eggs in the nest hole of the Wood Duck and she ended up hatching them along with her own. Here’s a photo of the adult female with her own chicks and a photo of a Hooded Merganser baby that swam with them.  This Merganser duckling jumps from a tree hole when one day old and swims on its own.  It takes 3 days for the Wood Duck’s ducklings to do the same.

Down at the Center Pond, the “boing-boing” banjo sound of the Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) creates part of the summer music at Bear Creek.  You can tell this one’s a male because its tympanum, a kind of external ear drum, is larger than its eye. I like this one’s tentative expression.

Mitch the male Green Frog

A male Green Frog with a questioning expression!

And the Common White-tail Dragonfly (Plathemis lydia) makes a soft whir-r-r as it soars by, looking for prey. This one’s a female, because the male’s abdomen is white, which accounts for its common name.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

A female Common Whitetail Dragonfy in Bear Creek Marsh.

Summer Wildflowers

As the heat began, wildflowers started to bloom in the native beds near the parking lot.  One of the loveliest is native Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) glowing lavender and white in the warm sunlight.

Lupine BC native bed

Wild Lupine in warm sunlight in the native bed near the parking lot

Nearby was a plant I’d never seen until Ben VanderWeide, our stewardship manager,  made me aware of it.  It has the lovely name of Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium).  To me each tiny blossom resembles a tiny Iris.  It’s called “grass” because it has grass-like leaves and stems with parallel veins that are hard to distinguish from a grass when there aren’t any flowers. The flowers only open fully in full sunlight, so it can be easy to miss early in the morning or on a cloudy day. But isn’t it pretty in the late spring/early summer?

And another early summer favorite is spreading abundantly in the native bed north of the shed.  Canada Anemone’s (Anemone canadensis) lovely white flowers stand gracefully above its deep green foliage .

Canada anemone

Canada Anemone ‘s white and yellow blossoms stand erect above its interesting, dark green foliage in a native bed.

Sunny Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) accompany these other native plants in the wild garden in the driveway center, one of the native beds and across from the Playground Pond.  This one’s hosting a Spittle Bug or Frog Hopper, common names for the super-family of insects called  Cercopoidea.  The adult insects can hop 100 times their length!  The foam is used for protection for the nymph stage of development.  Though the nymph sucks on the plant, it generally doesn’t hurt the plant much.  Most of the liquid is used to create that evidently nasty-tasting froth that deters predators.

Golden alexander w spittle bug foam

Golden Alexanders hosting the spittlebug nymph who uses a little liquid from the stem to protect itself with foam.

Ben and his crew planted some native Prairie Phlox across from the Playground Pond, another area of Bear Creek to be slowly stocked with native plants.

Prairie phlox Playground pond native

Prairie phlox, a native wildflower planted by Dr. Ben across from the Playground Pond.

Warm weather brought out the exotic-looking blooms of native Wild Columbine in the bed just north of the shed.  These lovely native wildflowers grew down the side of a hill east of the park when it was a farm back in the 1930s and 40s.

Columbine blossoms in native bed BC

Native Wild Columbine once grew on a hillside east of the park when Bear Creek was a farm in the 1940’s.

And out in the eastern Old Field, lots of native Common Milkweed appeared once the grasses were knocked back by the prescribed burn in March.  No doubt all the nutrients that were released into the soil then, plus the longer growing season caused by the darkened earth, will give it a little boost.  Hope the Monarch Butterflies take note!

Milkweed eastern meadow

Milkweed plants take advantage of increased sun and nutrients since the prescribed burn.

And now the Paint Creek Trail surprise…

This spring, Ben VanderWeide, the Township Stewardship Manager, and volunteers did a prescribed burn along the Paint Creek Trail near the parking lot at Gallagher Road.  The purpose, as always, was to stimulate native plants and discourage non-native invasive ones.  Also prescribed fire releases nutrients from last year’s plants back into the soil.

Partly as result of this process, some lovely native plants emerged this year in greater numbers than before the burn.  Look at this lovely photo Ben took of a native Yellow Ladyslipper  orchid (Cypripedium parviflorum)  – and there were lots of them hidden within the burgeoning grass. You can certainly see where this lovely wildflower got its name – a graceful slipper with ribbons attached!

Yellow Ladyslipper - Ben

A native Yellow Ladyslipper that bloomed along the Paint Creek Trail after a prescribed burn.

The grass was also shining with Star-grass (Hypoxis hirsuta), a small yellow native that hosts small bees and other pollinators.  It’s lucky there were lots of these shining stars this year because they need other plants to cross pollinate, which of course is assisted by the bees.  Here’s Ben’s photo.

Star-grass Ben's

These bright yellow flowers called Star-grass also shone out of the grass along the PC Trail after the prescribed burn.

Along the tree line near the parking lot at Gallagher, a yellow cloud of Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) nodded in the wind.  Ben caught this one up close.

Golden Alexander Ben's

Golden Alexanders dancing in the wind near the tree line along the Paint Creek Trail

And Ben also noted a Sedge plant  (family Cyperaceae)  with its interesting bloom. As I mentioned two weeks ago, sedges are ancient plants that look something like grasses but are constructed differently. Ancient Egyptians used sedges to make papyrus.

Sedge - Ben PCT

A sedge plant along the PC Trail – a member of an ancient family of plants used by the Egyptians to make papyrus.

Ben tells me that beautiful native wildflowers like Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum), Showy Tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense) and other prairie plants are “sprouting vigorously” along the trail north Gallagher Road – so click on the links to see them and then keep an eye out for them!

Path to the Marsh BC

The path to the Bear Creek Marsh in late afternoon sun.

So treat yourself.  Hang some binoculars around your neck and look at birds up close – both the year ’round residents and the summer visitors.  Take your time.  Stand near a patch of summer flowers and watch quietly. See what surprises you.  Maybe a bee that turns out to be a harmless hover fly.  Or the shiny glamour of the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle.  Try using your cell phone to take a shot of a single flower you’ve never noticed before and then identify it when you get home.  I promise you’ll relax.  Your breath will slow, you’ll smile a bit more, life will just get more interesting.  Nature comes alive in ways you’d never expect when you give it your undivided attention.  Let us know what you find!

Footnote:  My sources for information are as follows: Ritland, D. B., & Brower, L. P. (1991); Stokes Nature Guides: A Guide to Bird Behavior Volumes 1-3, Allaboutbirds.org, the website of the Cornell Ornithology Lab at Cornell University; Wikipedia; http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org; Herbarium of the University of Michigan at michiganflora.net; various Michigan Field Guides by Stan Tekiela; Butterflies of Michigan Field Guide by Jaret C. Daniels; University of Wisconsin's Bug Lady at www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/ for insect info; http://www.migrationresearch.org/mbo/id/rbgr.html for migration info; invaluable wildflower identification from local expert, Maryann Whitman; experienced birder Ruth Glass, bird walk leader at Stoney Creek Metro Park for bird identification; Birds of North America Online; Audubon.org; Nature in Winter by Donald Stokes, Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich, Winter World by Bernd Heinrich, Savannah River Ecology Lab (Univ of Georgia); Tortoise Trust website www.tortoisetrust.org;  An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds by Jonathan Silvertown; The Ecology of Plants by Gurevitch, Scheiner and Fox; other sites as cited in the text.