Wild Turkey

Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park: From 60 Beautiful Acres to 268 Spectacular Ones! Wow!

/ Cam Mannino / 5 Comments

Looking north from E. Snell Road into new Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park expansion

Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park has always been amazing. Its original 60 acres feature open meadows full of wildflowers and butterflies and a shady woods plunging down into a deep ravine with the West Branch of Stony Creek sparkling below. Now, thanks to our township Land Preservation millage, a willing owner and a grant from the Michigan Nature Resources Trust Fund, the Parks Commission added 208 more spectacular acres to the park in late September this year.

Text and photos
by Cam Mannino

The first time I saw this land in 2016, I stood on the Overlook Hill and looked down on a huge, flat field encircled on three sides by deep mature forest.  I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was!

Forests surround the heart of the park on three sides

But what I didn’t appreciate then is abundantly apparent now. Long ago large ponds at the heart of this land had been tiled and drained for a farmer’s crops, a common occurrence in the 19th and 20th century. Beneath the soil, the water flowed away rather than rising to the surface. Water waited to emerge, water that could restore the wetlands that fed plants, dragonflies, frogs, turtles, butterflies, abundant bird life and thirsty mammals that once had gathered there.

SCRNP_Update_20190923_Annotated

Restoring the Land:  First Steps

Now that the purchase is complete, wetland restoration has begun. The former landowner is creating wetland mitigation banks, which are restored wetlands that help somewhat to offset wetland losses due to development in other places. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE, formerly DEQ) holds wetland “conservation easements” on these wetland restoration areas. The folks designing the wetlands determined that they needed to fence off these areas for 5-10 years to make sure that the native trees and shrubs they plant are able to grow. Otherwise our abundant deer would kill them by browsing. As a start to restoration, low berms were created to capture and hold the water, “habitat structures” were placed throughout the fields, and the drainage tiles purposely broken so that water could once again flow to the surface. And wow! Big beautiful ponds have already begun to form in both areas!

A large pond is already forming on the north wetland where it was previously drained for farming.

Within the wetland restoration areas, 4,000 tiny wetland plants were sown this autumn. You’ll notice stumps, logs and branches left within these areas for now.  Those are the  habitat structures which allow wildlife to find cover or perch while the trees and native plants grow back.

A smaller wetland has formed on the south side of the park along E. Snell Road. The logs, brush etc provide structure for wildlife while restoration continues.

Birds Already Flock to the Renewing Wetland Areas

One of the huge benefits of this expansion’s location is that its directly across from Stony Creek Metropark. That helps create a larger “wildlife corridor” where local creatures can spread out and find more habitat in which to stay and raise their young. Migrating birds and insects will also find a larger area to rest and replenish themselves in spring and fall. On my two visits to the park in late November, birds were everywhere! Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) ratcheted out their prehistoric cries as flock after flock soared above me.

Multiple flocks of sandhills croaked out their raspy voices overhead.

Some, of course, settled to feed at the edge of the forming ponds.

A flock of sandhill cranes rest and forage at the edge of the newly re-formed wetlands.

A flock of  20-30 Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) cruised back and forth in the shallow pond forming at the north end of the field.

Mallards enjoying the newly restored wetland pond at the north end of the field.

And of course, Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) found their way to the rising waters as well!

Canada Geese make the most of the open water now at the surface in the park.

Outside the easement fence, other birds also found plenty of sustenance. A flock of winter visitors, American Tree Sparrows (Spizella arborea), had arrived from the Arctic tundra to spend the winter here. Their call-and-response twittering keeps them in contact with the group as they dash into the grass to feed and then back into the trees to look around. [Click photos to enlarge; hover cursor for captions.]

A dozen Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) poked along at the outside edge of the wetland fence, their red and blue heads pumping with every step. One of them repeatedly showed off her impressive wingspan as she walked. Not quite as impressive as the male’s dramatic display of tail feathers, but still quite a show!

The Farmer’s Woodlot to the East

On the east side of the field, some wise farmer left a large tract of beautiful woods as a woodlot. Woodlots provided a source of lumber or firewood, if sensibly managed over the years. They also provided habitat for wildlife that could be hunted for sport or for the dinner table in hard times. The woodlot at the Stony Creek Ravine expansion is a beautiful example.

The Woodlot on the east side of the park was a farmer’s source for lumber and prey.

The small woodlot is different from the larger western woods. Its trees are mostly oak and maples and its understory is less tangled and bushy than the woods on the west. Perhaps that’s because for years it was managed by the farmer who left it next to the field. It’s a peaceful, open woods where you can see from the shade out into the sunlight. I like to imagine that the farmer or his wife also just enjoyed having a quiet place nearby to listen to the birds and where the children could play within earshot of the dinner bell.

Dr.Ben VanderWeide, the township Stewardship Manager in the woodlot with the field in the distance.

The sensible farmer also had the good sense to leave a beautiful old White Oak (Quercus alba) on the west edge of the field. It must have been a great place for a picnic on a warm day. Now it’s also wonderful habitat. According to Douglas Tallamy’s useful book, Bringing Nature Home, oaks are unmatched in their ability to provide food and shelter for wildlife. Blue Jays, deer, turkeys, squirrels consume large amounts of acorns. Cavities in giant oaks make nesting sites and winter shelter for chickadees, wrens, woodpeckers, bluebirds and others. They support a huge number of species of butterflies and moths, their caterpillars providing soft, nutritious food for hungry little birds all summer long. I’m glad these giants are our national tree!

An old White Oak at the western edge of the fields

The Deeper Forests on the West and North Host Some Less Familiar  Trees (to me anyway…)

I’d already seen a beautiful American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) at the edge of Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park in the original 60 acre parcel. What a beauty with its smooth gray bark that looks almost unreal! And those graceful, toothed leaves!

An American Beech stands just over the edge of the ravine on the 60 acre parcel, so you can feel you’re in the treetops! Such smooth bark, eh?

When Ben showed me the northern woods that connects to the high ridge of the in the original park, I began to see more beeches. These trees favor moist air and germinate well in the shade. They host even more species of butterflies and moths than the oak. And like oaks, beech nuts are high protein food for lots of wildlife. We came across a big one in a group with two other mighty trees. Look at the size of this one’s “foot!”

The great big “foot” of a large American Beech in the woods in the new 206 acre parcel

A tall wild Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) stood nearby, with its dry flowers still clinging to the topmost branches! Tulip Trees are fast growing and can reach 80-120 feet here in Michigan, nearly 200 feet in the South! Their yellow flowers always bask in the sunlight in the crowns of the trees, making them difficult to see for everyone but the birds!

A very tall tulip tree with the dried flowers still showing at the top of the tree.

Between the Beech and the Tulip Tree stood a big Red Oak (Quercus rubra) – three large, beautiful hardwoods standing in just one small area of the forest.  The red oaks are distinguished from the white oaks by having leaves with pointed tips with bristles, rather than the rounded lobes of the white oak. Their acorns, unfortunately, are not particularly tasty to wildlife like the ones on the white oaks are. (The yellow leaves in the foreground below are probably from small beech saplings.)

A Red Oak rounded out a trio of big, beautiful hardwoods in one small area of the forest.

The forest is full of little wetlands like the vernal pool below.  You can see that the forest floor in the woods is a bit more  wild than the woodlot;  saplings, bushes, fallen logs and snags (standing dead trees) provide a diverse habitat for all kinds of wildlife.

The  logs and standing snag in this forest wetland create habitat for wildlife.

Even though Ben and I visited in November, green plants still flourished in the forest. A trailing vine of Bristly Greenbrier (Smilax hispida) was a new plant to me. It drapes over bushes and low branches of trees in moist thickets and attaches itself with tendrils. The dark blue/black berries provide food for game birds, song birds and many mammals during fall and winter. Luckily, it’s not a killer like non-native Oriental Bittersweet; Greenbrier climbs over shrubs but doesn’t wind around trunks and choke its hosts like Bittersweet .

Greenbrier is a trailing vine whose berries provide food for birds and mammals throughout the autumn and winter.

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) added a lovely spray of green beneath our feet. This pretty evergreen plant can be identified through its scaly stalk and its leathery leaves. It’s also a new plant for me. Who knows what else I’ll see for the first time when spring and summer arrive in this 268 acres?

Deer only nibble occasionally on Christmas Fern  during the winter, though its tender spring fronds are food for turkeys and grouse. It’s awfully pretty against the russet leaves, isn’t it?

So Much More to Explore, but Patience is Required For Now

Gazing into the treetops in the woodlot

This is just a first taste of what this new 208 acre parcel has to offer. In 2020 park staff plan to add a small parking lot and a few rustic trails following existing two-tracks that wind through the park. More investigation will be required, though, to know where to locate additional paths and other improvements without harming valuable wetlands or special stands of fragile, protected plants. Inventories of plant life will need to be taken, drainage issues dealt with, prescribed burns conducted and perhaps thousands of native plants need a chance to mature and spread without disturbance.  The Parks Commission and staff have years of work to do on any piece of land to add improvements that work with nature – and this park expansion is a huge one! Plans are in the works to restore native habitats to the remaining farm fields throughout the park.

I’m already dreaming of how magnificent this park will be when the fences come down and trails lead you and I from one spectacular habitat to the next. Imagine those ponds reflecting a blue sky surrounded by native grasses and wildflowers bowing and dancing in a summer breeze. Imagine animals slipping through the surrounding greenery at the pond’s edge for a drink, while dragonflies zip through the air and turtles bask on logs. Envision those 4000 native plants and trees becoming tall and full enough to create nesting spots for birds we now rarely see. Some day we may wander along a winding path through the beech and maple forest to the tap-tap of woodpeckers or the burbling spring song of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

I feel a deep sense of contentment and gratitude that this land is being restored rather than “developed.” Now, after decades of producing crops, it can return to its first assignment –  providing food, shelter and comfort for wildlife. And that restoration of our natural heritage will eventually result in a beautiful and peaceful retreat for us and future generations as well.  It’ll be worth waiting for.  I’m sure of that.

Photo of the Week: The Turkey’s Iconic Tail is a Spring Thing

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment

A male Wild Turkey’s mating display – pretty impressive!

The ungainly Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) comes into its own in the spring. The male struts slowly in front of the females in full mating display. Energetic gobbling frequently accompanies the ritual. His brilliantly colored feathers may be an important indicator to females of a healthy potential mate.  Turkeys are native to the United States and Mexico.  In the 1500’s,  turkeys domesticated in Mexico were taken to Europe, became a popular dinner item and were eventually brought to the eastern US by settlers.  Quite a circuit! The male turkey’s fanned tail may be a traditional symbol of our autumn Thanksgiving, but it’s an important rite of spring as far as the turkeys are concerned!

 

THIS WEEK AT BEAR CREEK: From the Sedate Colors of Late Autumn to Winter White

/ Cam Mannino / Leave a comment
Cam in red winter coat BC

Blog post and photos by Cam Mannino

I’ll be the first to admit that wildlife was a bit quiet this week at Bear Creek Nature Park. The early part of the week was typical of November – brown and gray.  So I went searching for bright colors or interesting shapes and found a few native plants, lichens and mushrooms adding  what designers call “visual interest” to the landscape.  And then suddenly at the end of the week, winter arrived!  I’m enough of a child to still love the first snow – and what a snowfall! Early Saturday morning, I walked through a silent Bear Creek – even my footsteps were muffled by the snow. Walking over an hour across the fields and through the woods,  I heard the twitter of one Tree Sparrow and a Chickadee’s call, a Blue Jay warning the world of my presence,  the soft “chip” of one Northern Cardinal and the inevitable low grumble of an American Red Squirrel annoyed by my passing – but I saw none of them as they huddled away from the swiftly falling snow.  So this time our weekly virtual stroll through Bear Creek travels quickly from late autumn to early winter.

Late Autumn:  A Search for Colors and Shapes

Falling bur oak leaf

Falling Oak Leaf

Late November is a tough season to love.  The vivid colors of October drain away as the sap flows down into the tree roots and the landscape turns gray and brown.  Birds are more scarce and harder to see as they twitter softly inside bushes or high in the trees. Bird nests appear in the bare branches – like this shrunken sack over the Playground Pond, the remains of the nest of a pair of Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula).  This spring I saw the yellow/orange female’s tail protruding from the top as she fed her young in the nest below. Her brilliant orange and black mate helped out, making frequent trips to the nest.  Look at that lively little home now!

Oriole nest abandoned

Hanging over the Center Pond, the abandoned nest of a beautiful family of Baltimore Orioles.

So I decided I’d keep my eye out for any color or interesting shapes that I could spot in the park.  Unfortunately, a lot of the color comes from invasive plants!  After all,  one of the reasons they escaped from people’s gardens is that they provided color late in the year.  But I wanted to see what our native plants could provide.

The Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) still had bright scarlet plumes on the western slope.

Sumac in Novemberr

Staghorn Sumac still red at the bottom of the western slope.

And everywhere the red leaves of Common Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) broke the tawny sameness of late autumn.

Common Blackberry

Common Blackberry adds a smattering of red to the brown landscape of late autumn.

All over the park, small trees bravely waved their large leaves which they’d used to soak up as much summer sunshine as possible.  This tiny Black Oak (Quercus velutina) may someday be a huge, spreading tree since it found a place in full sun on the western slope.  Its crimson leaves stood out in the field of dried Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota).

Tiny black oak tree

A tiny Black Oak at the northern end of the western slope.

A ball gall on what appeared to be another blackberry bush took on the dark reddish sheen of its host.  Galls occur when insects lay their eggs in plant stems and the plant grows around it,  providing a relatively safe place for the insect that will emerge in the spring.

Reddish gall

A ball gall on what I think is a blackberry bush houses the larva of at least one insect, possibly more, until spring.

Near one of the wetlands, the bright red and green of a moss-covered log caught my eye.  Dr. Ben VanderWeide, Oakland Township’s Stewardship Manager,  tells me, “Mosses are really cool … The green part that we always see and call “moss” is actually the “gametophyte generation” of mosses  –  the generation with one copy of DNA that produces “gametes,” sperm and egg. When it rains, the sperm swim through the film of water on the mosses to reach an egg in the tip of one of the green mosses. After fertilization of the egg, a new plant grows into the “sporophyte generation” (red filaments in the picture below), which has two copies of DNA and produces spores. The spores then spread about and germinate to grow into new carpets of green moss.”

Moss on a log green and red

Moss on a log. The green generation of moss produces next generation – the red filaments, that produce the spores which grow into more green moss.

Dr. Ben continues. “So what you see in this patch of moss is actually two generations – the green moss carpet that one has one copy of DNA, and the red filaments are the sporophyte offspring that have two copies of DNA. ”  I think that’s pretty cool, too. I’ve come to appreciate these bright red and green patches of moss in the austere seasons of the year, early spring and late fall.

Near the Marsh and in the Woods,  Some “Visual Interest”

When I entered the woods, color was even harder to find.  A rich brown acorn with its green top and rotund shape provided some visual relief among the wrinkling surfaces of fading fallen leaves.

Acorn

The rich chestnut brown of an acorn adds a bit of visual interest to fading brown leaves on the trail.

Though pale in color, I like the filigree of lichens and fungi that become more evident as the colorful flowers fade.  Lichens are sometimes confused with moss, but they are not related. In fact, lichens aren’t plants; they are a distinct form of life!  According to Wikipedia, they are composite organisms that arise when algae and/or cyanobacteria live symbiotically among fungi filaments. They don’t have roots like plants do.  Like plants, however, they produce the algae or cyanobacteria partner that produces food for the lichen through photosynthesis using sunlight, water and minerals.  Lichens may appear on plants, wood or rock, but they are not parasitic.  Pretty mysterious life form, really!  Here’s a lacy-looking one that is referred to as “foliose” because its structure looks like leaves. It’s on a railing at the southern marsh deck. And that yellow you see behind it is another lichen, a powdery one whose structure is referred to as a “leprose lichen.”

Lichen

A lichen does not have roots and is not a plant,but rather is a special composite life form that, like plants, is capable of photosynthesis. Both the white one in the foreground and the yellow spots in the background are types of lichen.

“Mushrooms,” are the fruiting bodies of  fungi that emerge from wood or soil and carry the spores for reproduction.  Fungi  form a distinct “kingdom” in nature, not related to plants, animals, bacteria, etc. I saw two forms of one broad category on this walk, the “polypores.”    Here are some polypore fungi on a snag  (standing dead tree) near the southern marsh. According to Wikipedia,  “Through decomposing tree trunks, they [fungi] recycle a major part of nutrients in forests.” They are the first step in a food chain: fungi process the wood cellulose, insects and invertebrates eat the mushrooms and birds and larger animals eat the insects and birds.  Fungi also soften up dead wood so that woodpeckers and others can make holes for nesting or winter shelter.  Nothing is wasted in a well-functioning ecosytem, eh?

Polyphore fungus

Polypore fungi on a snag, a standing dead tree.

I’m always intrigued by how Shelf Fungi, another kind of polypore, form ruffles on the edges of sawed logs.

Shelf fungi (polypores)

Shelf fungi form ruffles on sawed logs as they break down the cellulose in the wood.

So the early part of the week at Bear Creek was still brown leaves underfoot, graying blooms of summer plants dropping their spring seeds in the Old Fields and pale mushrooms and lichen taking shape on old wood throughout the Oak-Hickory forest.

And Then Suddenly, Winter!

On Saturday morning, the snow began falling fast, like rain, cloaking Bear Creek’s Eastern Old Field in white.

Eastern path first snow

First snow on the Eastern Old Field

The plumes of Canada Goldenrod began to droop a bit under the weight of the snow.

goldenrod in snow

Canada Goldenrod began to droop under the weight of the snow.

A few red bright red leaves wore a bright cap of snow near the marsh at the southern of the eastern Oak-Hickory forest.  The Common Blackberry from earlier in the week now has snowy accents.

red leaves

Common blackberry leaves in the first snow.

The woods were, as poet Robert Frost put it,  “lovely, dark and deep.” And so quiet.  Not even a squirrel moved. Only an occasional muffled bird call reached me.

Stopping by woods snowy morning

On Saturday morning, the woods were, as poet Robert Frost put it, “lovely, dark and deep.”

To borrow again from Frost, perhaps you too can bundle up and experience “stopping by woods on a snowy” morning during the hectic holiday season that begins this week. Caught up in the glitter and bustle of a busy season, the woods and fields offer serenity, quiet, beauty – a soothing space in which to breathe and find your bearings.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

male turkey from back 2 cr

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Footnote:  My sources for information, as well as Oakland Township Stewardship Manager Dr. Ben VanderWeide, 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 American Online; Audubon.org, Nature in Winter by Donald Stokes, Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich, Winter World by Bernd Heinrich

THIS WEEK AT BEAR CREEK: Birds Who Love “Berries” and Bugs, the Sweet Song of an Invisible Bird and Spider Magic Down Below

/ Cam Mannino / 4 Comments
Blog post and photos by Cam Mannino

Blog post and photos by Cam Mannino

Well, we’re at the tail end of summer.  The signs are there.  The small yellow leaflets of Black Walnut trees are littering the path.  (I always think black walnuts are sleepy  trees – the first to lose their leaves in the autumn, the last to wake in the spring.) Frogs skitter across the mud at the pond, but frog song is almost gone – only an occasional croak.

Families of Canada Geese  are flying again after their molt, their honking bringing a bit of the wild to our ears.  Some cat-tails still wear their brown velvet, but others are seeding into white fluff.  And fruit eaters, like the Cedar Waxwing, are in their glory, sampling berry-like fruits all over the park!  Come savor the slightly wistful sweetness  of late summer as Bear Creek gets ready for autumn.

Morning mist western slope

Morning mist starts to dissipate over the western slope of Bear Creek as summer begins to wane.

Berries (or rather “drupes”) and the Birds that Appreciate Them!

Fruiting continues apace and this week I noticed what we commonly call “berries.”  Dr. Ben VanderWeide, OT’s Stewardship Manager,  informs me that “berry” is a term that refers to a specific type of fruit in botany.  The botanists’ general term for fruits we would normally call  “berries” is “fleshy fruits.” Many of our invasive bushes, for example, have fruits called “drupes” that are constructed like a plum or peach – thin skin, fleshy layer and then a pit that holds the seed.  In botanical terms, a grape for example,  is a real “berry” because the seeds are within its soft skin and flesh without a pit.  Being a logophile, I’m quite taken with these new terms.

Anyway,  the birds have noticed these fruits on the bushes as well!   One of my favorite fruit-eating birds is the Cedar Waxwing  (Bombycilla cedrorum) and it seems as though almost every bush and vine in Bear Creek is bearing fruit for the gregarious Waxwing right now!

Cedar Waxwing3

The gregarious Cedar Waxwing can be seen in flocks throughout the year eating “drupes,” or berry-like fleshy fruits of all kinds, their favorite food.

You may remember that I discovered a female Waxwing on her nest and later her nestling in late July.  Cedar Waxwings, very social birds, are flocking wherever their favorite fruits are available.   Bring your binoculars to the park because these birds are spectacular in close-up!  The red tip at the edge of their wing is what gave them the name “waxwing” since it looks like it’s dipped in red wax. And I love the yellow tip on its tail and its pale yellow belly!

Cedar Waxwings like the native Gray Dogwood’s (Cornus foemina) interesting white “drupes” on their bright red stalks.

Gray Dogwood berries

The white fruits of the native Gray Dogwood are a good source of food in the fall for many birds and animals.

Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) eat Gray Dogwood fruits as well.  You may notice you’re not seeing or hearing as much from the Cardinals lately.  They molt in late summer/early fall. I saw this poor fellow during the molt a few years ago.  What a look for such a glamorous bird!

worn out cardinal

Cardinals, who also eat fruits in the fall,  have a complete molt in late August or September.

A highly invasive shrub, Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), that is aggressively displacing native plants all over Michigan, is in Bear Creek, too.  Unfortunately, the birds eat its attractive red drupes, which of course is how it spreads!

Autumn Olive berries

Birds eat the berry-like fruits, or drupes,  of Autumn Olive which is how this aggressively invasive shrub spreads through Bear Creek!

Over in the woods near the marsh, our native wildflower,  Jack-in-the-Pulpit  (Arisaema triphyllum), has exchanged Jack and his pulpit for a bright red stem of berry-like fruit. Mature Jack-in-the-Pulpits have male and female parts on the same plant, like native Common Cat-tails do,  in order to produce this scarlet fruit.

Jack in pulpit fruit

In late summer,  our native wildflower, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, replaces both Jack and his pulpit with bright red berry-like fruit.

Though toxic to humans, livestock and pets, some birds and animals eat these fruits, including the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).   Turkeys have recovered from severe population declines in the first half of the 20th century.  According to the Cornell Lab, turkeys were brought north from Mexico in the 1500’s, but turkey fossils have been found in North America “dating from more than 5 million years ago.”  Here couple of males are eating during the winter near our home.

two male turkeys

WIld turkeys eat lots of fruits, seeds and nuts, including the berry-like fruit of Jack-in the-Pulpit, which is toxic to humans and many animals.

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus) are finishing their molt and sampling the fruits of Bear Creek as well.  The males’ plumage now looks very different from the striking black and white and rose pink bib of their courting colors.  Here’s an adult male with his winter plumage.  You might see him high in the trees near the marsh where  he can be spotted in the spring in his breeding colors.

Male grosbeak winter plumage

The adult male Rose-breasted Grosbeak has changed into his winter plumage. The rosy bib and black-and-white back  of his breeding colors are absent now.

One of the fruits preferred by Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks is the native bush, Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis),  which produces these beautiful drupes. You can see them just north of the parking lot.

Elderberry

Native Elderberry drupes which are in the woods just north of the parking lot are a favorite “berry” of the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.

This week I heard another bird that eats Elderberry.  Wednesday Ben and his birding friends helped me identify a song near the marsh below the hilltop benches.  They told me I’d heard a Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) but that it was doubtful I would get to see it.   Evidently, one may hear vireos, but it’s rare to see one. They were right on both counts. So here is its photo at the Cornell Lab and here is its lovely warbling song at Bear Creek this week, with a buzzing backup band of grasshoppers and katydids! (Remember to turn up your volume and click on the arrow.)

Another aggressive invasive has taken over large sections of the north side of Bear Creek.  Here are drupes of Glossy Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) which turn from red to black as they mature.  You can see why birds find them appealing and consequently spread this invasive shrub everywhere!

Glossy Buckthorn Bear Creek

The berry-like drupes of the highly invasive shrub, Glossy Buckthorn, will turn black and be spread by birds who eat these fruits.

Birds Who Appreciate Late Summer Insects (Good for them!)

We all have just a bit too much attention from insects in late summer.  Beetles munch on our gardens, spiders spin webs in every quiet corner, Yellow Jacket wasps dive bomb our outdoor lunches and mosquitoes can be a plague at night.  But some Bear Creek birds are doing their best to help us out.

This week, Ben and his frequent birding companions, Mark and Akiko, spotted a female American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla).  I didn’t see one,  but here’s a link to a photo at Cornell Lab.  These little guys eat fruit in the winter too,  but they eat more insects (including wasps) than any other warbler.  According to Cornell, they flash those jazzy feathers as a way to startle their prey out into the open.  Very clever use of their Halloween colors, eh?  I’ll be on the lookout for this little bird!

The Redstart evidently competes with the Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus) for the same prey, those abundant bugs.  But the modest flycatcher with his gray and white feathers must have to work harder since he can’t flash those Redstart colors.  This one was low in the bushes across the pond this week.

Least Flycatcher

The modest Least Flycatcher, like the American Redstart (see link above)  does its best to help out this time of year by eating lots of insects.

Ben frequently sees another insect lover, Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica) in Bear Creek and he and his birders spotted them this week.   They continually elude me. Another social bird like the Waxwings,  Chimney Swifts spend almost the whole day in the air, feeding on insects.  They can’t perch like other birds; they have to hold onto a vertical surface!  Here’s a link  at Cornell  Lab.   Meanwhile, I’ll keep looking!

Early Morning Spider “Lace”

Meanwhile, down among the Goldenrod and Queen Anne’s Lace, the spiders are weaving webs of all kinds.  Their lacy creations sparkle in morning light after a rain, or when there’s heavy dew.  All of the webs pictured here, but one,  graced the western slope path between 8 and 9 in the morning this week.  (I’ve used the website of the University of Kentucky Etymology department  for general identification purposes.)

First, here’s a  group of webs, which include two webs of Orb Weaver Spiders (Aranaidae), who make the classic wheel-shaped spider web –  and re-make them every morning (!) –   and Sheet-weaving Spiders, who make a cup-shaped web with a sheet below through which they pull their prey.  Notice all the superstructure of lines!

multiple spider webs

Two Orb Spider webs (one bending  in the breeze center, one lower left) and a Bowl and Doily spider web (lower center)  made by a Sheet-weaving spider – plus the superstructure lines.

Here’s a look at this week’s web of an  Orb-weaving spider.  The spider is hanging head down which is typical for this family of spiders. These webs are spun afresh each morning, but this one seems to have suffered a tear.

Spider web w spider in middle

Here, if you look closely are two webs probably made by Bowl and Doily Spiders (Frontinella pyramitela) who are members of the Sheet-weaving Spider family (Linyphiidae). The bowls are above and the sheets or “doilies” are just below each one.

Two basket webs

Possibly two Bowl and Doily  Spider Webs made by Sheet-weaving spiders.

And here’s a favorite photo of an Orb Weaver web after rain in Bear Creek a few years ago.  Some mornings’ webs are particularly lovely, so let me know if you see a beauty!

web jewelry fb

An Orb Weaver Spider’s web makes glistening jewelry after a rain.

The heat can make it feel like summer but tell-tale signs of autumn remind us to savor the color, hum and occasional birdsong of late summer mornings.  Enjoy the last sweet dregs of summer!

*Footnote:  My sources for information, as well as Oakland Township Stewardship Manager Dr. Ben VanderWeide, are as follows: Ritland, D. B., & Brower, L. P. (1991). The viceroy butterfly is not a Batesian mimic; 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 beetle info http://www.migrationresearch.org/mbo/id/rbgr.html for migration info, and invaluable wildflower identification from local expert, Maryann Whitman.