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January 31, 2012: Winter Birds

Would you believe that we Americans spend more than $3 billion each year on bird food, plus another $800 million on bird feeders, birdbaths, birdhouses and other bird feeding accessories?  These statistics from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also tell us that one fifth of adult Americans are self-identified as birdwatchers. What is it about these seemingly fragile creatures that catches our interest and causes us to open our pocketbooks to such an extent?

Birds are feathered, winged, two-footed, warm-blooded, egg-laying, vertebrate animals and there are around 10,000 living species that inhabit almost every corner of the planet. In size, they range from the 2-inch bee hummingbird to the 9-foot ostrich. In spite of these rather unique characteristics, most of us have half a dozen types visiting our yards every day and birds are so numerous that many people scarcely notice their presence.

These interesting creatures have a much higher metabolism, and thus higher body temperature, than humans. While the exact measurement varies for different bird species, the average body temperature is 105 degrees F. and it can be a challenge for a bird to maintain such a high body heat when temperatures dip in northern climates. Smaller ones are particularly at risk, since they have a proportionally larger surface area on their bodies to lose heat but a smaller core volume to generate it. (It is interesting to note individuals of the same species living in colder regions tend to be larger than those living in warmer areas.) Birds will shiver to raise their metabolic rate and generate more body heat as a short-term solution to extreme cold. While shivering does require more calories, it is an effective way to stay warm.

Cold temperatures are survivable by most birds as long as they have a sufficient supply of nourishment. Some birds prepare for the winter months by collecting food in the summer and fall months and hiding it up off the ground for later use. Some eat dormant insects they find in the crevices of tree bark while others feed on standing weed seeds and any remaining berries such as serviceberry and juniper. Even small birds can build up fat reserves to serve as insulation and extra energy for generating body heat, and many birds will gorge during the fall when food sources are abundant, giving them an extra fatty layer before winter arrives.

Birds usually wait out the coldest periods protected from the wind in evergreen or shrub thickets. Some species huddle together in artificial or natural cavities, sometimes even stacking on top of each other to keep warm. Feathers provide remarkable insulation against the cold, and many bird species grow extras as part of a late fall molt to give them thicker protection. The outer contour feathers lie on top of each other much like shingles on a roof, and tend to shed rain, keeping the body dry and well insulated. Down feathers make up the inner layer and lack vanes and barbule hooks, creating a fluffy tangle of insulating air pockets. Semiplumes are a cross between contour feathers and down, and provide an additional layer of warmth that can keep insulating air at nearly 70º. Birds will fluff out their feathers for additional insulation in the coldest temperatures.

Most birds have a "preen gland" which is located near the base of the tail and secretes a useful oil that helps keep the feathers flexible and waterproof while inhibiting the growth of fungi and bacteria. The bird uses its beak to squeeze oil from the gland and apply it to its feathers, and then spreads the oil onto its head with its feet.

Birds’ seemingly bare legs and feet are covered with specialized scales that are composed of the same keratin as beaks and claws, and are thought to have much the same structure as those of reptiles. These scales are not living tissue and are thus less susceptible to freezing while minimizing heat loss. Beneath the scales are fine webs of blood veins that are warmed by arterial blood flowing in vessels situated close by. In addition, birds have no sweat glands so heat and vapor are transferred to the lungs and eliminated through the mouth, a process that prevents any moisture from their skin or feet freezing them onto perches.

A few birds, such as chickadees, can enter torpor to conserve energy during the coldest winter nights. Torpor is a state of reduced metabolism when the body temperature is lowered, therefore requiring fewer calories to maintain the proper heat. Most birds can lower their body temperature by a few degrees, but torpid birds have lowered their body temperatures by as much as 15 degrees F.

There is some controversy about the wisdom of feeding birds, as problems can arise if equipment is not kept clean and birds in close contact may spread disease; still, studies have proved that the additional food allows many more songbirds to survive, particularly in very cold and snowy winters. Bill and I will continue to feed them and enjoy their visits, as the year-round pleasure that they provide more than repays us for any effort.


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January 24, 2012: Red-tailed Hawks

The male red-tailed hawk perched on the glove of its handler, its right wing held at what looked like an impossible angle. Its attention was fixed on the man’s other hand as it dipped into his waist pack bringing out a scrap of meat, and the bird grabbed it with its sharp beak and gobbled it up. The hawk was one of four raptors on display at the program presented at the Sauk Eagle Watching Days, and seeing these magnificent birds up close was the highlight of the day.

While the eagle was truly the star of the show, it was the red-tail that most interested me. Members of this species nest in the woods across the field from our house, soar overhead daily as they survey their territory, and hunt in our fields. It is probably the most common hawk in North America and is one of three species often called "chicken-hawk," (along with Cooper’s and sharp-shinned) though it rarely preys on adult chickens. Just last week we watched a pair sitting only a foot or two apart in one of the oaks across the field, probably keeping out a keen eye for a meal.

Though their backs may be light or dark, the basic appearance of these hawks is the same. It is the breast that usually catches the eye when the bird is perched, as its light brown feathers stand out almost white against any background. There is often a dark brown band across the belly, formed by horizontal streaks in patterning, and, of course, the brick-red tail, which gives this species its name. In flight one can see a short, broad tail and thick, chunky wings, and if one is close enough to see detail, the short dark hooked bill, and the yellow cere (the fleshy covering at the top of the beak), legs, and feet. The male may weigh from 1.5 to 3 pounds and measure 18 to 22 inches, while a female is often 25% larger and can have a wingspan of more than four feet.

Perhaps you have heard the cry of one of these birds as it flies overhead. It is a two to three-second hoarse, rasping scream, described as kree-eee-ar, which begins at a high pitch and slurs downward. It is an interesting fact that some Hollywood directors seem to think this cry is typical of all raptors, because no matter what species of hawk or eagle appears on screen, the shrill cry on the soundtrack is almost always that of a red-tailed hawk.

Red-tails reach sexual maturity at two years of age and choose mates for life, (unless accident or illness causes one to die) and they tend to remain in the same nesting territory. During courtship, the male and female fly in wide circles while uttering shrill cries and the male performs aerial displays, diving steeply, and then climbing again. They will refurbish a nest used in a previous year if possible, but otherwise build a new one -- often only a few hundred yards from the previous site. The nest itself is usually a tall pile of dry sticks that can be up to 6 feet high and 3 feet across, with an inner cup lined with bark strips, fresh foliage, and dry vegetation. The female lays a clutch of 1 to 3 eggs in March or April, and incubates them for 28 to 35 days. The chicks remain in the nest for about six weeks, and then are fed and taught to hunt by the parents throughout the rest of the summer.

The red-tailed hawk hunts primarily from an elevated perch, swooping down to seize prey when it appears. Its diet is mainly made up of small mammals such as mice, squirrels, and rabbits, but it will take insects, birds and reptiles when it can find them. Because the red-tails are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, they make up the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States. Falconers are permitted to take only young birds less than a year old that have left the nest and are on their own, so as to not affect the breeding population. Since there are fewer than 5,000 falconers in the United States, any effect on the million-plus red-tailed hawk population is thought to be insignificant.

In the course of a hunt, a falconer most commonly releases the hawk and allows it to perch in a tree or other high vantage point. He then attempts to flush prey by stirring up ground cover, often aided by a dog. A well-trained red-tail will follow the falconer and dog, knowing that they will provide opportunities to catch game. Once a raptor makes a kill, it does not bring it back to the falconer. Instead, the falconer must follow the hawk to its captured prey, carefully approach and trade the bird a piece of favorite meat in exchange for its prize.

The feathers and other parts of the red-tailed hawk are considered sacred to many American indigenous people and, like the feathers of the bald and golden eagles, are sometimes used in religious ceremonies and found adorning the their regalia. As with the other two species, the feathers and parts are regulated by the eagle feather law, which governs the possession of feathers and parts of migratory birds, but Native Americans are allowed exemptions.

The wing of the red-tail we saw at Eagle Days had been injured by collision with a vehicle and since the bird was no longer able to hunt, it has been kept for demonstrations by the St. Paul, Minnesota Raptor Center along with others incapacitated by poison or accident. The Center treats some 700 raptors each year, releasing those that can return to the wild, finding homes for survivors that cannot, and providing training in avian medicine and surgery for veterinarians from around the world. 


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January 17, 2012: A New Invader


If you are a gardener or farmer, I may have some bad news. We have fairly well survived the onslaught of houseflies, Japanese beetles, gypsy moths, elm beetles, and most recently, Asian ladybugs and Emerald ash borers, but the worst alien bug may be yet to come...

Every child who has played in the dirt knows the stinkbug, an insect that gives off a distinctive smell when squashed or even annoyed. It is large as such beetles go, about ¾ inch in length, and has a distinctive “shield” shape. Stinkbugs have glands which produce a foul smelling liquid which is a defense mechanism meant to prevent it from being eaten by birds. They also have sharp sucking mouthparts that are capable of damaging fruit and vegetables, but are seldom found in numbers large enough to cause much concern.

All that has changed, however, as the brown marmorated stinkbug, native to China and the Far East, has arrived. It was first noticed in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1998, and has spread across that state, wreaking havoc as its numbers increased. In 2000, one was recovered in New Jersey from a black light trap, and from there the insects moved into Delaware, Connecticut and New York. By 2009, this agricultural pest had reached Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, and Oregon, and as of November 2011, it has been see in 34 states including Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The brown marmorated stinkbug (‘marmorated’ refers to its marbled or streaked appearance) begins feeding in the spring on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and other host plants. The bug pierces leaves and fruit using its sharp proboscis and sucks out juices while injecting saliva, causing disfigurement and rot. This resulted in an estimated $37 million in apple agricultural losses alone in 2010 in the Mid-Atlantic region, and one extension agent in Pennsylvania reported that he had seen orchards with 70% of the fruit injured. "It's another introduced pest that we have to learn to live with as time goes on," he bemoaned. "We have to learn how to manage it. For now we're learning by trial and error."

In addition to the crop damage, the stinkbugs survive the winter as adults by entering houses and other structures. When one finds a site that is suitable, it releases a chemical that attracts others to the area. There they hibernate until the warmth inside the building causes them to become active, and they may fly clumsily around light fixtures by the dozens, sounding like aggravating little helicopters and emitting their vile smell when threatened. Allegheny County Pennsylvania entomologist, Bill Todaro, has been getting daily calls from distraught county residents, but tells them, "Stink bugs...are proven tough bugs but at least they don't bite, sting or do damage to the house. There are worse things out there."  In response, Nancy DeMuro, of Jefferson Hills, PA, said in a desperate-sounding email, “They fly around and buzz when they're active and then land in our lights or on our robes or on our beds...UUUGGGHHHHH!"

Adults emerge from hiding in May to mate and deposit 20 to 30 tiny yellow eggs on the underside of leaves. These hatch into small black and red nymphs that go through five molts and are similar to adults without wings. Fortunately, there seems to be but one generation a year in this country, in contrast to Asia where they manage four in a growing season.

Lacking natural controls here, stinkbugs are multiplying explosively. They seem likely to cover the country, unless disease or a natural predator emerges to bring their numbers to balance. In China, a small wasp that is not currently present in the U.S. is a primary predator and it is undergoing study for possible introduction in this country, as well as several other species of the parasitoid wasps that have been observed attacking stinkbug eggs. Some species of spiders and praying mantises will attack adult stinkbugs but at this point, no natural controls seem effective.

The stinkbugs are not known to cause harm to humans, although residents become upset when the bugs enter their homes and noisily fly about. They cannot be squashed or vacuumed up, as the resulting smell can be quite disagreeable. On the other hand, Andrew Strube, an unemployed entrepreneur, has found the stinkbug to be a godsend. He devised the Strube Stink Bug Trap which consists of a bug-luring light enclosed in a cylinder covered with sticky stuff and has sold 1000s on the internet and in hardware stores.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Penn State researchers, among others, are working on methods to lure and kill the bugs or perhaps repel them. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy, as exterminators report that common pesticides don’t often work. Everyone agrees, however, that in the home, prevention is the key and residents are instructed to seal all possible openings to the outside. The experts also suggest that outdoor lighting be kept to a minimum, since the bugs are attracted to both the brightness and the warmth. In fact, the same instructions that were given with the invasion of the Asian ladybugs seem to be repeated here. It may be an interesting summer if they make it to our area.


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January 10, 2012: Jack Frost

Among winter's beauties are the intricate crystals that sometimes form on roadside weeds, shrubs, branches, wires and other objects on clear frosty nights. These are known as hoar frost and may sometimes be so thick that they look like snow. The name ‘hoar’ comes from Old English and refers to signs of old age, relating it to the frost which resembles elderly white hair on trees and bushes. The development of hoarfrost is somewhat similar to the disposition of dew in the summer and both accumulate on objects when there is more moisture in the air than it can carry.

The temperature at which the air is totally saturated (the humidity reaches 100%) is called the dew point. If the temperature of humid air is lowered below the dew point, the air must lose part of its suspended water through rainfall, snowfall or the formation of dew or hoarfrost. If the dew point is above freezing, then dew forms, but if the dew point is below 32°F, then hoarfrost occurs.

Hoarfrost consists of crystalline structures that appear in an intricate variety of forms -- needles, platelets, ferns and feathers, depending upon the surface and the temperature at which they developed. Frost crystals grow from water vapor in the air, just like snow crystals, but while snow crystals form on suspended dust particles high in the clouds, frost crystals form on surfaces near the ground -- on window panes, blades of grass, or just about any other solid object. Many tender plants can be damaged or killed by such frost, while hardy species produce certain proteins that move the water in their cells into out into spaces where ice crystals can form without critical damage. Some researchers report that what eventually kills these cells is dehydration leading to their collapse.

Window frost forms when a pane of glass is exposed to below-freezing temperatures on the outside with moist air on the inside. The water vapor from the room freezes when it condenses on the inside surface of the window and as this process continues, the frost develops into what looks like feathery fingers or ferns. Window frost often makes elaborate patterns as the crystal growth is strongly influenced by the window surface. Scratches, residual soap streaks, and dirt can all change the way the crystals form around a central area and grow. This phenomenon was more common in the past, when houses still had single-pane windows, as the double-pane windows are much better insulators and thus not so cold on the inside surfaces.

Surface hoar typically forms when a snow bank warms up during the day and is then cooled again overnight so that water can evaporate from inside and re-crystallize on the surface.  By morning the snow bank is covered with a layer of sparkling faceted ice crystals, and they can be quite large. In low temperatures, surface hoar can also be broken apart and blown across the surface. These usually melt again once the sun comes up, so the best time to find surface hoar is early in the morning.

Hoar frost should not be confused with rime, which is formed from freezing fog and deposits as a continuous thick layer of ice, rather than individual frozen droplets. Meteorologists distinguish between three basic types of ice forming on vertical and horizontal surfaces by deposition of super-cooled water droplets: soft rime which is milky and crystalline and appears similar to hoar frost, hard rime that is more dense, and clear ice that is transparent. (Glaze ice is similar in appearance to clear ice but it is the result of a completely different process, occurring during freezing rain or drizzle.)

Scientists often have to break huge chunks of hard rime off weather equipment, in order to keep anemometers and other measuring instruments operating, and rime ice can sometimes accumulate on the leading edges and control surfaces of an aircraft when it flies through a cloud of super-cooled water liquid droplets causing potentially disastrous loss of lift.

English folklore holds that Jack Frost, an elfish creature, is responsible for the various manifestations of ice crystals, particularly the feathery patterns of frost found on windows on cold mornings. In some traditions, he can be fairly harmless, just nipping fingers, toes, and noses when one ventures outside in the winter, while in others, he punishes with a frozen death. It seems he was originally based loosely on a Norse character, named Jokul Frosti (literally Icicle Frost).

There are similar characters wherever bitter winters are common. Russia has Father Frost, a character who rewards kindness with rich gifts and safe passage, and legend tells of an old woman who causes snow by shaking out her feather bed in Germany. The Saxons had three names -- King Frost, Father Frost and Father Time. This is the character we see at New Years, when he holds a sickle to represent the death of the old year. To symbolize new beginnings, he gives over his position to the newborn Baby New Year. Our best to you and yours in 2012.




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January 3, 2011: Orchids

I had almost forgotten how lovely snow can be when large flakes drift quietly down, sparkling in the beam of the porch light. It transforms the ordinary into a fairyland, and when they settle on the multi-colored bits of brightness that decorate the outdoor Christmas tree, the scene is even more enchanting. It is an interesting observation that most of our various holiday decorations--tinsel, ornaments, strings of lights, icicles, whatever--have been inspired by the effort to recreate the beauties that are freely given us by Mother Nature.

It seems a strange time of the year to go looking for new plants but for a few species it is a very good opportunity, as long as the ground is not obscured under deep snow. All the competing foliage has shriveled up or disappeared and things pop into view that have been previously hidden. Mosses and a number of ferns are evergreen, and there are also other plants that are out all winter, photosynthesizing on the occasional warm day.

I discovered a new puttyroot orchid right on the edge of one of our main woodland trails last week. This flower's life cycle is dependent on utilizing the sunlight that falls upon it after the forest canopy begins to open up in the fall.  As other forest plants grow dormant, the puttyroot puts out its broad, cold-resistant basal leaf and starts manufacturing the next year's food supply which it stores in its roots. This stalkless single leaf is dark green with pale vertical stripes and appears to be almost pleated as it emerges from the ground. In the spring the leaf dies back and a foot-tall leafless stalk emerges with a dozen or so flowers arranged up its height. These are rather unobtrusive but when examined closely show themselves to be purplish-green to yellow with a white lip spotted with purple.

While the puttyroot is seldom abundant in the north, it is more common elsewhere and the glutinous putty that was obtained by crushing the corms was used at times as a cement, as a treatment for boils, and evidently most often, as an aphrodisiac or love charm. Its common name was Adam-and-Eve, a term presumably arising from its growth habit which includes an underground development of two or more side-by-side corms. When three were produced, the plant was referred to as Adam-and-Eve-and-Son.

The orchid family is perhaps the largest in the world of flowering plants, having more than 25,000 species. They range from plants only a fraction of an inch high with blossoms about the size of pinheads to some with ten-foot stems and fifteen-foot flower stalks, but all have certain common characteristics. As seedling plants they have a single leaf with parallel veins and flower parts in 3’s or 6’s, and are related to lilies, bananas, palms and grasses.

The flowers have three sepals in an outer whorl and three petals inside them, although some of these may be fused or reduced. One of the petals is different from the others and is often larger and showier. In the center of the flower is a fleshy column, a fusion of the male and female reproductive organs. At the top is the anther with its pollen grains and immediately below is the stigma, a sticky depressed surface that receives the pollen when carried by an invading insect. Below this is the ovary which, if fertilized, expands into a capsule containing as many as a million seeds.

With this prolific reproduction it would seem that orchids should be very common but the fact is the plants have quite specific requirements for survival and germination is not often achieved. Consequently, at least in Wisconsin, all wild orchids are protected by law and property owners who are fortunate enough to have some on their land usually treasure them.

I have collected seeds from the beautiful yellow lady slipper orchid on several occasions, but have had no success in getting them to grow. Friends from Bluestem Farm in the Baraboo area do propagate wild orchids, however, germinating the seeds in a sterile medium and then caring for the tiny seedlings several times before they are ready to be go into soil. It is time-consuming work but they have been successful in reproducing a number of species to blooming size.

I have purchased a few of their showy orchids and now have a cluster of these horticultural gems in my wild garden. Both the showy orchid and moccasin flower presumably could grow here, as well as several of the smaller-flowered prairie orchid types, and it will be a challenging and fascinating project to successfully introduce them.

One of the highlights of our year is Orchid Quest, the annual mid-winter show and sale of the Madison Orchid Growers Guild. It is held in the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, and this year will be February 3-4, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. If you have never attended, give yourself a treat and you will gain a new appreciation for this fascinating plant.

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January 3, 2011

I had almost forgotten how lovely snow can be when large flakes drift quietly down, sparkling in the beam of the porch light. It transforms the ordinary into a fairyland, and when they settle on the multi-colored bits of brightness that decorate the outdoor Christmas tree, the scene is even more enchanting. It is an interesting observation that most of our various holiday decorations--tinsel, ornaments, strings of lights, icicles, whatever--have been inspired by the effort to recreate the beauties that are freely given us by Mother Nature.

It seems a strange time of the year to go looking for new plants but for a few species it is a very good opportunity, as long as the ground is not obscured under deep snow. All the competing foliage has shriveled up or disappeared and things pop into view that have been previously hidden. Mosses and a number of ferns are evergreen, and there are also other plants that are out all winter, photosynthesizing on the occasional warm day.

I discovered a new puttyroot orchid right on the edge of one of our main woodland trails last week. This flower's life cycle is dependent on utilizing the sunlight that falls upon it after the forest canopy begins to open up in the fall.  As other forest plants grow dormant, the puttyroot puts out its broad, cold-resistant basal leaf and starts manufacturing the next year's food supply which it stores in its roots. This stalkless single leaf is dark green with pale vertical stripes and appears to be almost pleated as it emerges from the ground. In the spring the leaf dies back and a foot-tall leafless stalk emerges with a dozen or so flowers arranged up its height. These are rather unobtrusive but when examined closely show themselves to be purplish-green to yellow with a white lip spotted with purple.

While the puttyroot is seldom abundant in the north, it is more common elsewhere and the glutinous putty that was obtained by crushing the corms was used at times as a cement, as a treatment for boils, and evidently most often, as an aphrodisiac or love charm. Its common name was Adam-and-Eve, a term presumably arising from its growth habit which includes an underground development of two or more side-by-side corms. When three were produced, the plant was referred to as Adam-and-Eve-and-Son.

The orchid family is perhaps the largest in the world of flowering plants, having more than 25,000 species. They range from plants only a fraction of an inch high with blossoms about the size of pinheads to some with ten-foot stems and fifteen-foot flower stalks, but all have certain common characteristics. As seedling plants they have a single leaf with parallel veins and flower parts in 3’s or 6’s, and are related to lilies, bananas, palms and grasses.

The flowers have three sepals in an outer whorl and three petals inside them, although some of these may be fused or reduced. One of the petals is different from the others and is often larger and showier. In the center of the flower is a fleshy column, a fusion of the male and female reproductive organs. At the top is the anther with its pollen grains and immediately below is the stigma, a sticky depressed surface that receives the pollen when carried by an invading insect. Below this is the ovary which, if fertilized, expands into a capsule containing as many as a million seeds.

With this prolific reproduction it would seem that orchids should be very common but the fact is the plants have quite specific requirements for survival and germination is not often achieved. Consequently, at least in Wisconsin, all wild orchids are protected by law and property owners who are fortunate enough to have some on their land usually treasure them.

I have collected seeds from the beautiful yellow lady slipper orchid on several occasions, but have had no success in getting them to grow. Friends from Bluestem Farm in the Baraboo area do propagate wild orchids, however, germinating the seeds in a sterile medium and then caring for the tiny seedlings several times before they are ready to be go into soil. It is time-consuming work but they have been successful in reproducing a number of species to blooming size.

I have purchased a few of their showy orchids and now have a cluster of these horticultural gems in my wild garden. Both the showy orchid and moccasin flower presumably could grow here, as well as several of the smaller-flowered prairie orchid types, and it will be a challenging and fascinating project to successfully introduce them.

One of the highlights of our year is Orchid Quest, the annual mid-winter show and sale of the Madison Orchid Growers Guild. It is held in the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, and this year will be February 3-4, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. If you have never attended, give yourself a treat and you will gain a new appreciation for this fascinating plant.

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December 27, 2011: A New Year

January1st seems like a strange date to designate as the commencement of a new year. Certainly the Wisconsin outdoors shows almost no sign of any beginnings, and much of the wild world is either hunkered down or fast asleep. One would think that the onset of spring would be a more logical time to celebrate, and that was true in the past. In 2000 BC, the Babylonian year began with the appearance of the first crescent moon after the Vernal equinox (first day of spring). The Romans continued this tradition, but various emperors tampered with the calendar until it lost its connections with the sun. In order to right things, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January1st to be the beginning of the New Year, and when Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian calendar, that practice was continued. January1st has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.

According to the astronomical calendar, however, we have just entered the winter season. A week ago, we celebrated the solstice, that day at which the sun appears to rise at its most southerly point. As a result, the length of time between sunrise and sunset was at a minimum and we experienced the shortest day of the year. Earth is actually closest to the sun in January, but is so oriented that the direct rays of the sun fall in the southern hemisphere rather than upon us, so we see the sun low in the southern sky and have short wintry days and long nights.

It is interesting to learn that the earth has not always had its present tilt on its axis of 23.5 degrees. It has been as great as 24.5 and as small as 21.5 over a cycle of 40,000 years and it is impossible to know what effect this has had on our planet. If the north pole were tilted directly toward the sun during the summer months, the entire northern hemisphere would have 24 hours of sunlight each day while winters would be in constant darkness. On the other hand, if there were no tilt at all, the entire planet would have equal days and nights with no seasons at all. There is some evidence that even the small deviations we have experienced have caused significant changes in the world’s climate through the centuries.

So what is going on in the outdoors these days? Animals such as the woodchucks, bats, bears, and chipmunks are hibernating; that is, their heartbeats and breathing rates have dropped to a near-death status in their secluded dens. A woodchuck's heart rate goes from 80 beats per minute to four beats per minute. Squirrels, raccoons, skunks, and deer mice also disappear during very cold periods but venture out on mild winter days. These species are not true hibernators but enter a deep torpor during severe weather.

Snakes and other reptiles begin to look for a place to hibernate as early as October -- some species often gathering in large congregations. Box turtles have been known to bury themselves five feet into soft dirt or sand to escape the freezing temperatures, while we know at least some of our rattlesnakes spend the winter in a den deep under our big rock. Amphibians also hibernate, with toads and tree frogs burrowing into the ground and aquatic frogs sinking to the bottom of ponds and lakes.

Just about every wildlife species will experience some decline in population over the winter season, even those who migrate to warmer climes, as the journey is often a dangerous one. Whitetail deer reduce their metabolism to conserve stored fat energy and have coats with hollow hairs filled with insulating air, but even then it is estimated that a winter with very deep snow can kill as much as 30% of the northern herd. In open country, extended blizzards can wipe out more than 60 percent of a pheasant population.

The snow also causes difficulties for shrews, mink, coyotes, and fox that depend upon small rodents for food. The same snow benefits the mice and voles, however, as they can live and navigate more safely under its protection. Even some birds such as ruffed grouse burrow under the surface for shelter and warmth. In lengthy periods without snow, subzero cold can drive the frost deep into the soil, and plants, insects, and small rodents that otherwise would have the protection of an insulating blanket may not survive.

Of all nature's survival feats, the most impressive might be that of winter resident birds such as chickadees who must maintain body temperatures of 100 degrees or more. Overnight, a chickadee may lose 10 to 15 percent of its body weight, and must spend its daylight hours feeding constantly to make up. Wild turkeys, on the other hand, can go for two weeks without eating in periods of severe weather, losing up to 40 percent of their body weight without lasting harm. And it is the great horned owl that really begins the calendar new year with a flurry of activity. These large owls are the first birds to nest each year in Wisconsin, and males start calling and setting up territories as early as November and December. January is the month of noisy courtship calls and interesting behavior between the male and female, so step outside one of these quiet nights and listen in the coming New Year of 2012.


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December 20, 2011:  Christmas Conifers

One of the first things we did when we purchased the farm in the early 70s was to plant some evergreen seedlings around on the hillsides.  During the years that they were growing to a usable size, we harvested native red cedars for our Christmas trees – one for the living room and the other for feeding the birds outside. Red cedars are not the evergreen of choice for home decorating as they lack the bright green color and fragrance of a pine or spruce and the needles are prickly and uncomfortable to handle; still, in our enthusiasm for our new rural home, we didn’t mind.

Despite its name, the Eastern red cedar is actually a juniper. True members of cedar family are found only in Asia and Africa but our red cedar exhibits many of the same characteristics – its wood being fragrant, colorful, insect-repellent, and lightweight. Larger red cedar trees provided timber for ships and other buildings, while smaller ones were used for making furniture, pencils, fence posts, and shingles.

Like most junipers, the red cedar is very slow growing and moderately long lived. Trees are either male or female, and in the early spring the males display tiny tan-colored "pine cones" on their branches. These release pollen in great quantities that fertilize the small spiky flowers on the female trees. Fruits are pale-blue ¼ inch ‘berries’ (cones), with a whitish bloom, each containing 1 or 2 seeds.

While not particularly desirable for indoor decoration, the red cedar provides food and cover for numerous birds and mammals. The species was rare in Wisconsin when white men first settled in the area, growing only in remote, fire-free places such as exposed cliff faces. As fires were controlled, however, the trees flourished and spread, often forming thick stands that overwhelmed other plant species. We have spent many hours trying to hold them in check on our hillsides.

We were happy to switch to the pine and spruce trees for our holiday decorations when the ones we planted grew to a height of five or six feet. Some evergreen plants have broad leaves such as rhododendron and holly, but most, such as the conifers, have specialized leaves called needles that exhibit three survival characteristics -- a thick skin, a coating of waterproof wax, and a simple needle-like shape that reduces the amount of water vapor that can escape. By having leaves already present in the spring, evergreens can start photosynthesizing earlier than deciduous varieties, and can continue to produce food after other trees have gone dormant in the fall.

Conifers have remained virtually unchanged for more than 300 million years, and are often the dominant tree species in more northerly latitudes, high altitudes, and areas with poor soil. It is thought that they evolved to retain their leaves because putting out new foliage each year would require more water and nutrient than is available in these areas. Most also live in close association with fungi in the soil to utilize the scarce nutrients more effectively.

Most conifers have also adapted to cold climates by developing spire shapes that shed snow. They have a central trunk that grows straight up with branches that project from the stem in whorls at regular intervals. Their long-lasting needles also contain substantial amounts of resins and other relatively inedible compounds that may protect them somewhat from browsing animals.

The distinctive feature of all coniferous trees, however, is the cone, usually a cluster of highly modified woody scales tightly packed together. Most species produce male and female cones on the same tree although a few, like the yews and junipers, appear on separate plants. The inconspicuous male cones are small and drop from the plant soon after releasing pollen, while female cones enlarge after pollination, requiring several months to reach maturity for some species, years for others. Overall seed production will vary greatly from year to year in any given region, but tends to peak once every 3-6 years. These infrequent bursts are common among most trees and help to ensure that, at least occasionally, seed production will exceed the appetites of hungry squirrels, mice and birds. leaving some to survive and grow.

In those original plantings years ago, we put in black and white spruce and red and white pine. The black spruce is more commonly found in poorly drained swamps but has done well on our dry hillsides and the white type more typically grows farther north. Both can be distinguished by their short needles that are attached singly to the branches in a spiral fashion, and remain on the tree for 4–10 years. The white pine was once the most important timber species in the state, and like the red, has longer needles that are bundled in clusters of 2-5. All four species proved to be relatively fast growing but only were usable for Christmas trees for a few years. Now, the trees are far too tall and we wondered why we did not have the foresight to add more. Still, we enjoyed using homegrown trees while they were young, and will continue to enjoy the rest as they grow to maturity.


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December 13, 2011: Snowy Owls

 
Reports of snowy owls are coming in from all over Wisconsin, although none seem to have been seen locally; still, recent sightings include four birds at the La Crosse airport, and others in Iowa, Chippewa, Clark, Vernon and Green Lake counties. Ornithologist Bill Mueller tells the Wisconsin State Journal as many as 100 snowy owls have been reported already across the state in contrast to the typical winter when no more than a dozen are spotted. The last time these owls appeared this far south in such large numbers was in 2006, and Mueller says if the state has a normal winter, the owls could stay around until early March.

The snowy is one of the largest species of owl in North America with a wingspan of up to 5½ feet, and can weigh up to 4½ pounds. The adult male is virtually pure white, but females have some dark markings and the young are heavily barred. The bird has extremely thick plumage and heavily feathered legs and feet, characteristics that make it well adapted for its life north of the Arctic Circle. The feathers also have no pigment, leaving more space for air that gives the owls additional insulation. Like the related eagle-owls, the snowy has ear tufts but they are small and usually tucked away.

Snowy owls nest on the Arctic tundra in Alaska, Canada and Eurasia. They winter south through Canada and northern Eurasia, with sporadic migrations occurring further south in some years. They are attracted to open areas like coastal dunes, prairies and even airports as these must seem somewhat similar to tundra, and on rare occasions, the owls have been reported as far south as Texas, Georgia and even the Caribbean.

This species of owl nests on the ground, often building on top of a mound or boulder as the bird needs good visibility in its mostly treeless habitat. Breeding occurs in May, and depending on the amount of prey available, clutch sizes range from 5 to 14 eggs, laid 2 to 5 days apart. The female starts incubation when the first egg is laid resulting in staggered hatching, so a group of chicks often ranges greatly in age and size. Hatching takes place approximately five weeks after laying, and the young are cared for by both parents.

Snowy owls are unlike most other owls in that they are active during the daylight hours as well as at night. They are opportunistic hunters and will take advantage of larger prey, fish and carrion, and frequently follow trap lines to find food, but they rely primarily on lemmings and other small rodents. They are heavy eaters and require the equivalent of three to five lemmings per day, or up to 1,600 each year. Lemming populations are notoriously cyclic and in those periods when lemming populations are down, the owls often leave the arctic regions and fly south in search of food.

Snowy owls have keen eyesight and hearing, abilities needed to find prey hidden under thick vegetation or snow cover. Most hunting is done in the "sit and wait" style, but prey may be captured on the ground, in the air or fish may be snatched off the surface of bodies of water. They, like many other larger birds, swallow their small prey whole. Strong stomach juices digest the flesh, while the indigestible bones, teeth, fur, and feathers are compacted into oval pellets that the bird regurgitates 18 to 24 hours after feeding. Biologists frequently examine these pellets to determine the quantity and types of prey the birds have eaten.

Though adult snowy owls have few predators, they must defend their nests and nestlings against arctic foxes, dogs, gray wolves and avian predators. They dive-bomb them with sharp talons and engage in distraction displays to draw any persistent predator away from a nest. An adult does have some dangers, however, as one is sometimes struck by a vehicle, or collides with a utility line and other object. A few are even shot, and there have been recent reports that these birds are being illegally killed for their eyes and feet -- hot items in Asian markets.

The snowy owl has always been considered special – perhaps because of its lack of color and its unpredictable appearances in many areas. It is the official bird of Quebec, Canada, and it was depicted on the 1986 series Canadian $50 note. For the Oglala Lakota Indians, it represented the north wind and was held in great respect by the tribe; in fact, warriors that excelled in combat wore a cap of white owl feathers to symbolize their bravery. Even J. K. Rowling used the bird in her popular Harry Potter series (Harry had a pet snowy owl named Hedwig).

I have received a number of comments from readers on the various terms I have reported that have been used to name groups of birds (i.e. murmuration of starlings, sieges or sedges of cranes), and so must add some of the strange names given to a group of owls. The most common is “a parliament” but look at these others -- a brood, eyrie, hooting, looming, nest, stooping, diss, sagaciousness, stare, wisdom, bazaar, and glaring – plus these that are the best – a stable of barn owls, a jail of barred owls, a prohibition of barred owls, a schizophrenia of hawk owls, and finally, a blizzard of snowy owls! Can you beat those?   
   
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December 6, 2011: A Collection of Sandhills

Two weeks ago it was a murmuration of starlings that caught my attention, but for the past month it has also been a sedge of sandhill cranes, or perhaps you might prefer to use another term, a siege of cranes. It seems that “sedge” refers to rush-like marsh plants, and therefore any group of birds that nest among them, while “siege” is used for groups of herons or cranes that are known to wait patiently for prey in shallow water. Whatever they are called, there have been hundreds of the big birds gathering each day in the fields along Rainbow Road, and they provide quite a sight.

Sandhills are the most common of all the world's cranes. The bird’s name comes from the fact that huge flocks can be seen at the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills along the Platte River -- a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska. The adult crane is gray overall with a red forehead, white cheeks and a long dark pointed bill, although it may appear brown because the bird preens by daubing mud on its feathers. It weighs about ten pounds, and has a wingspan of up to six feet. While flying, its silhouette is distinctive as it stretches its long neck straight out ahead while trailing its long dark legs behind.

There are two main subspecies – the Greater that stands about 3 ½ feet tall and breeds in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and parts of Canada, and the Lesser that is somewhat smaller and breeds as far north as Alaska and Eastern Siberia. The greater sandhill population was almost killed off in the past two centuries by over hunting, and by 1940 fewer than 1,000 birds remained. With protection, their numbers have since increased greatly to more than 100,000 individuals, but they are still less plentiful than the lesser sandhill crane which numbers over 450,000 individuals, making that species the most plentiful crane alive today.

Most sandhill cranes live in freshwater wetlands. They eat whatever they can find -- plants, grains, mice, snakes, insects, and worms. They also dig in the soil for tubers and can sometimes cause significant crop damage, which brings them into conflict with farmers. They create a nest structure from whatever plants may be at hand and typically lay two eggs, which both parents incubate.

Pairs vocalize in a behavior known as "unison calling." They throw their heads back and call in a synchronized and complex duet, although the female makes two calls for every single call of the male. They also dance, run, leap high in the air and otherwise cavort around—not only during mating but all year long. A sandhill has an exceptionally long trachea (up to 2 feet) that is coiled within the hollowed keel of the breastbone. The bony rings of the trachea fuse with the sternum to create thin plates and when the crane calls, the plates vibrate. This amplifies the sounds, which can carry a mile or more. 

During migration, lesser sandhill cranes assemble at established staging areas and stopover points on their way to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. One such place, in the Platte and North Platte River valleys in Nebraska, hosts the largest gathering of cranes in the world. About three-fourths of the sandhills that breed from Alaska and the Canadian plains and mountain provinces pass through the area and at its peak, the number of cranes on the Platte and North Platte reaches about half a million.

The cranes that we see here in Wisconsin are greater sandhills that traditionally spend the winter in Florida, with a major stopover in northeastern Indiana at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. There they join thousands of other sandhills, resting and socializing before moving on south. The wildlife area website reported that one day last week they counted 10,640 birds (I wonder how they do that!).

The whooping crane is a much larger bird – often standing 5 feet tall with a wingspan of 8 feet.  At one time only 15 birds were known to exist, but with protection and reintroduction their numbers have increased to some 400.  Initially, sandhill cranes were used as foster parents for whooping crane eggs and young in reintroduction schemes, but the project failed as these whoopers imprinted on their foster parents and later attempted to pair only with sandhills.

Since 2001, groups of young whooping cranes have been taught to follow ultralight aircraft to learn their migratory route between Wisconsin to Florida. The chicks raised for this project are fitted with plastic color bands and radio transmitters, which enable researchers to locate and identify the banded cranes after they are released. The current class of youngsters has made it into Kentucky at this point and once they complete their migration, they will be added to the more than 100 adult whoopers that now make up the eastern flock.

Take a drive over to Rainbow road to see these magnificent sandhill cranes, but don’t delay as one day soon they will stretch their wings and move south.


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November 29, 2011: Pigeons for Thanksgiving?

Last week, one of the major newspapers featured a Thanksgiving feast that it touted as a “going native” meal. I thought it rather strange that the writer ignored the fact that wild turkeys roamed the New England woods when Europeans arrived, but perhaps she did so because these choice birds had been killed off in most areas of the East by the beginnings of the 20th century and were only recently being reintroduced. Still, her choice of young pigeons (squabs) for the main course seemed rather unusual.

There is really only one native pigeon in most of the country that is present in any numbers – the mourning dove. ('pigeon' is from French, pijon, and 'dove' is English, but both names are always used somewhat interchangeably). The mourning dove is plump-bodied and long-tailed, with a head that looks particularly small in comparison to the body. Its call is a distinctive, plaintive cooOOoo-woo-woo-woooo, uttered by males to attract a mate, and is sometimes mistaken for the call of an owl. It is abundant and widespread and is also the leading game bird across the country, with more than 20 million birds shot each year. It weighs only an average of 4.5 ounces live and even less when dressed, however, so it would require a number of birds for a Thanksgiving meal.

The mourning dove is considered to be closely related to the passenger pigeon, another native species that disappeared in the early 1900s. (For this reason, the possibility of using mourning doves for cloning the extinct bird has been discussed.) Some estimate that there were 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived, although others have argued that their numbers only exploded after European diseases caused Native American populations to crash which reduced predation and competition for food. The passenger pigeons were hunted widely for meat, sport, and by farmers who were protecting their crops, and the last one died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in 1914.

It is more likely that the author was thinking of using the young of domestic pigeons for her meal, as these birds are larger and more easily obtained for the average cook. These are the descendents of the rock dove -- originally found across Britain, Europe, Central Asia, India, and up into China and Mongolia. They were domesticated thousands of year ago as a meat bird and eventually carried to the New World where escapees quickly established spreading populations. Now their descendents can be found in almost every farmyard and many city parks, and domesticated varieties are raised for sport and meat. The adult pigeon is about 14 in long and can weigh as much as 13 oz., with iridescence along its neck and wing feathers, and a conspicuous off-white waxy covering at the base of the upper beak.

Male pigeons fluff their glossy neck feathers, reflecting shimmering green, bronze, and purple, when courting a female. They spread their tail feathers and parade in circles while cooing loudly. It is thought that this courtship behavior may also serve to strengthen the lifelong bonds of an already-mated pair, as most pigeons form strong pair bonds and sometimes may remain together throughout the winter.

Doves and pigeons build flimsy nests from sticks and other debris, and prefer to place them in hard-to-reach places, such as covered crevices along building ledges or in barns or under bridges. The female lays one or two eggs, and both parents care for the young, rarely leaving the nest unattended. When flushed from the nest, an incubating parent may perform a broken-wing display, fluttering on the ground as if injured. Unlike most other birds, members of the pigeon family produce "crop milk", a high-fat, high-protein substance that is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young.

The baby pigeons grow very fast. They walk well at about 18 days of age and start exercising their wings about a week later. The birds are often bigger than their parents by the time they start to fly because they have been well fed and haven't done much exercising. Pigeons, especially homing or carrier breeds, are well known for their ability to find their way home from long distances but wild rock doves are sedentary and rarely leave their local areas.

Seeds and fruit form the major component of the diet of most of the family but they also feed on insects, grain, and even garbage. They generally eat enough to fill their crops and then fly away to digest while resting, often swallowing grit or sand to help break down the hard portions. Pigeons are also unique in having the ability to suck up water, using their beaks like straws, in contrast to most other birds that have to take small sips and tip their heads backwards to swallow.

The mourning dove has been designated as the Wisconsin symbol of peace, but that doesn’t save it from being hunted and eaten. Knowing that, and interesting as we may find the pigeon family, it will always be a domestic turkey that graces our Thanksgiving table. I am content to leave the pigeons out in the barn or sitting on the telephone wire along the road.


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November 22, 2011:  A Murmuratiion

A beautiful video is circulating on U-tube these days showing a huge flock of starlings wheeling and circling in unison over Ireland's Shannon River. Such a gathering of these birds is called a murmuration – a term with which I was not familiar but will not soon forget. Perhaps you, too, have seen such a display, although probably on a much smaller scale. One has to wonder how do they do that in such perfect harmony?     

Flocking starlings are one of nature’s most extraordinary sights. Just a few hundred birds moving in a synchronized display is spectacular enough, but the flock filmed in Ireland contained thousands. Until recently, it was hard to say how they managed such maneuvers and scientists had to wait for high-powered video analysis and computer modeling to begin to understand, and still find it mind-boggling. 

This behavior was first simulated on a computer in 1986 by Craig Reynolds with his creation, Boids. This program simulates simple agents (boids) that are allowed to move according to a set of basic rules. The result is applicable to a flock of birds, a school of fish, or a swarm of insects. Basic models of flocking behavior are controlled by three simple rules: (1) separation - steering to avoid crowding local flockmates; (2) alignment - steering towards the average heading of local flockmates; and (3) cohesion - steering to move toward the average position of local flockmates. With these three rules, the boid flock moves in an extremely realistic way, creating complex motion and interaction.

There is no leader; instead the flock's movements are determined by the moment-by-moment decisions of individual birds, since different birds will be at the front every time the flock turns. Wayne Potts, in the journal Nature in 1984, reported that any individual can initiate a change in direction which then propagates through the flock in a wave radiating outward. Potts proposed that birds farther away from the initiation site were able to see the wave approaching them, and could "get set" to move before it actually reached them, allowing almost instantaneous response.

In the June 14th issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Rome theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi and his team studied starling flocks on the outskirts of Rome -- some just over 100 birds, while others contained more than 4,000. Regardless of size, the correlations of a bird’s orientation and velocity with the other birds’ orientation and velocity didn’t vary. If any one bird turned and changed speed, so would all the others.

Mathematical analysis of flock dynamics showed how each starling’s movement was influenced by every other starling, regardless of the size of the flock or the individual’s location in it. This phenomenon is known as scale-free correlation, and goes beyond biology. The closest fit to equations describing starling flock patterns come from the literature of crystal formation and avalanches — systems poised on the brink, capable of near-instantaneous transformation. In starlings, “being critical is a way for the system to be always ready to optimally respond to an external perturbation, such as predator attack,” they wrote.

Statistical physicists Andrea Cavagna and Irene Giardina along with their colleagues of the Centre for Statistical Mechanics and Complexity in Italy, have watched and filmed flocking starlings for three years from the top of the Palazzo Massimo – Rome’s national museum. They also concluded that these flocks follow Reynolds’ basic rules. "The clearest structural feature is that a bird's nearest neighbors are typically found at the bird's sides, rather than ahead or behind the bird, so that the probability that a bird's nearest neighbor is approximately ahead or behind is very low", the authors write. Since the bird's eyes are on the sides of its head, it sees sideways better.

Surprisingly, the research team found that any particular starling's orientation and flight speed correlated with the position and velocity of only its six closest neighbors, regardless of flock size. They concluded that starlings simply cannot track the movements of more than six others. (It is also thought that this limitation may to be shared with humans.)

The team contends that it is easy for a starling to follow when its neighbor turns but the mechanism which allows it to happen almost simultaneously in hundreds of birds is still not understood. This may be important because they feel that the implications may extend far beyond birds, and that starlings may simply be the most visible and beautiful example of a universal biological mechanism that also seems to operate in objects as miniscule as neurons.

Cavagna and Giardina wrote in their research paper, The Seventh Starling, "Surprisingly enough, in an era in which splitting the atom into its tiniest parts has become commonplace for science, obtaining empirical data on large groups of creatures moving in three dimensions is still a very difficult task".


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November 15, 2011: Invasives

Now that most of our woodland trees have dropped their leaves, the vistas have expanded and we can see the other hills that surround us. The understory is also almost bare, allowing those plants still retaining their green foliage to stand out prominently. Half a dozen small trees caught our attention as we worked to hold back the ever-expanding stands of prickly ash and berry stalks, and neighbor Gigi, a specialist in invasive species, confirmed that buckthorn has now invaded our land. When the snow fell, I feared that I had waited too long to do something about them, but their leaves still hang on so I am determined to do them in.

We had already spent an afternoon clearing several new patches of barberry – another invasive that tries to crowd out every other plant in its vicinity. We found these while searching for the deer remains that our collie had discovered and found delicious, and who then had proceeded to deposit the smelly residue on the living room rug. There is a large area infested with barberry that we have been fighting for years on one of the hillsides to the North, but these were the first plants we had found in the woods by the house.

There are two varieties of barberry – the common (introduced from Europe and Asia) and the Japanese – and both bear orange-red berries that are very attractive to the birds and make the plants difficult to contain. We seem to have the Japanese variety as the leaves have smooth edges rather than serrated, and the fruits are mostly single rather than in clusters. Both spread freely, but the common type is more feared as it is host to a black rust that is very damaging to wheat.

Common buckthorn was also first brought from Europe in the mid-1800s as a very popular hedging material, as it proved very hardy and thrived in a variety of soil and light conditions. However, it was found to be quite invasive in natural areas and although the nursery industry has stopped selling it, many buckthorn hedges may still be found in older neighborhoods throughout the upper Midwest. In addition to the common buckthorn, a glossy type was sold in two different forms – one that is narrow and tall and the other that spreads up to 10 feet and has narrow leaves that give it a ferny texture. This buckthorn aggressively invades wetlands including bogs and sedge meadows.

Common buckthorn leafs out early and retains its leaves late into the fall. It takes the form of a tall shrub or small tree and can grow up to 25' high with a spreading loosely branched crown, often showing multiple stems at the base. Its buds and leaves are opposite and the twigs often end in sharp, stout thorns. Leaves are egg-shaped, pointed at the tip and have smooth edges. In addition to the late-hanging leaves, the best field characteristic is a crop of large, round, berry-like clusters of black 1/4" fruit that ripens in August and September.

A common buckthorn produces only male or female flowers and fruiting trees are always female. Most of the fruits fall directly beneath the shrubs, creating a dense understory of seedlings characteristic of common buckthorn stands. The plentiful fruit is eaten by birds and mice and is known to produce a severe laxative effect, helping to distribute seeds as they move through the birds, often far from the parent plant.

Both buckthorns tend to form dense thickets, crowding and shading native shrubs and herbs and often completely overwhelming them. (The shrub is also an alternate host of the crown rust of oats, which affects yield and quality.) Common buckthorn prefers lightly shaded conditions but it also invades prairies and open fields and is tolerant of many soil types -- sand, clay, neutral or alkaline, wet or dry.

Donning boots and heavy gloves, I will be heading out with clippers, a bow saw and a container of glyphosate to cut and treat every stem I can find, hoping to nip this population before it spreads any further. Chances are, however, that there are many younger plants already growing that I won’t find, and so I will be repeating this exercise every fall for some time. Buckthorn seeds in the soil can remain viable for up to five years so follow up is essential.

Some invasive plants -- barberry, burning bush, shrub honeysuckle, multiflora rose and oriental bittersweet – are still being sold in clueless nurseries, and others such as garlic mustard, buckthorn, and reed canary grass were introduced either intentionally or accidentally as medicinals or agricultural crops. All landowners, whether rural or urban, should be aware of the damage these do and refuse to plant them, while eliminating all possible when they are found. It may be a losing fight but we hope to preserve areas that are not yet invaded.


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November 9, 2011: Pesky Raccoons

We had no difficulty with keeping the wildlife out of our ripening sweet corn this summer, as an electric fence holds almost everything at bay. Our farmer neighbor had no such recourse, however, and his field of corn to the north which is relatively small and adjacent to the woods, had considerable damage. No doubt deer and turkeys ate their share but a two-year study by Purdue University researchers concluded that raccoons are responsible for 87% of the damage to corn.

The raccoon is often thought to be a close relative of the weasel, but it is actually more closely related to the panda.
It is highly intelligent and is Wisconsin's only ring-tailed mammal with a black facemask – distinctive characteristics that make it easily recognized. It is compact and stocky, about the size of a large cat or a small dog and has short front legs and large hindquarters. The adult stands about a foot high and averages about 32 inches from nose tip to tail, and may weigh about 20 pounds. It usually shuffles along in a slow lumbering walk but can bound away quickly to a nearby tree and climb it with ease, and is also a strong swimmer.

A raccoon’s sense of touch is extremely well developed, especially in the soles of its flat, hairless black feet. It is believed that the animal dunks objects in water (washes its food) because the nerves on its feet become more sensitive when wet and can relay more information about weight, size, texture and temperature. It will carefully inspect every unusual object or smelly tidbit that catches its eye or nose.

A raccoon can make a variety of sounds from snarls and growls to a rasping scream. During the warmer months, one will occasionally make a loud, long, high-pitched whistle that can be heard for over a mile. This sounds a bit like the call of a screech owl, though much more harsh. It also will "purrrr" or "churrr".

There is evidence that when Europeans arrived on this continent, raccoons were mostly found along rivers and in the woodlands of the Southeastern United States, but the development of agriculture in the Midwest encouraged their spread northward. Then their fur became a hot commodity in the early 20th century, leading the Wisconsin Conservation Department to carry out a major raccoon propagation and release program. Their numbers exploded starting in the 1940s, and the estimated number of raccoons in Wisconsin is now about one for each 30 acres of suitable habitat.

A raccoon may roam up to a mile each night in search of food. Its diet varies throughout the year, but it will eat just about anything animal or vegetable – insects, small reptiles, amphibians or small rodents, eggs or nestlings, any ripe fruit or berries, nuts, garbage, carrion, and row crops such as corn. It is a major predator of turtle eggs, as well as frogs, crayfish, snails, baby turtles and clams. Anyone with a garden can attest to the damage one can cause, and it often waits until just before harvest to raid the corn or melon patches.

The female often selects a hollow tree for her den but may also use an abandoned burrow, culvert, vacant shed, barn loft, or even an accessible attic – usually to the distress of the homeowner.  A litter of 3-5 helpless, fuzzy kits are born in April or May. Their eyes are closed but they can crawl around in the den and they grow rapidly. They venture outside when they are 8 weeks old and are very curious and playful. By July, they follow their mother to the nearest source of food and by early fall, they begin to move off on their own. Half will die in their first year from vehicles, disease, predators, and hunters.

As autumn approaches, the raccoon builds up fat reserves to carry it through the cold wintry months ahead. When temperatures drop below freezing, the each retires to a winter den, curling up in a ball with its front paws covering its eyes. This long period of winter sleep is not a state of true hibernation and if temperatures turn mild, it will often wake up and forage outside for food.

The major causes of death for raccoons in Wisconsin are trapping, motor vehicle collisions, disease and predation. Many are hit on the roads when they first emerge from their winter dens and are still a little drowsy. Also in the summer when mothers are abroad with their unwary kits, entire families of raccoons are prone to being killed by motor vehicles. They also are host to a wide variety of diseases and infections. Parvovirus, canine distemper, and rabies are responsible for many raccoon deaths and they also can suffer from tuberculosis, pneumonia and encephalitis.

Hunters and trappers play an important role in controlling raccoon numbers, and some 95,000 are taken around the state each year. This is fortunate because there are not enough large predators to prevent overpopulation, a situation where rampant disease and nuisance complaints could make life difficult for the raccoons and their human neighbors as well.

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November 1, 2011:  And Then There Were Crows....


The avian sunrise serenade of the past six months has been replaced by silence, broken only by the raucous conversations of our local crow family. They seem to find good hunting in the field to the west and each morning at least half a dozen of the birds spend several hours scouring the cut hay field for their breakfast while others of the group talk about it.

Crows have had bad reputations throughout history as most European traditions viewed them as bad omens of trouble and death. They are commonly partnered with witches and bats, and even today, few people have anything good to say about them.  Only the Native American traditions recognized their intelligence and ingenuity and told stories of them as tricksters. We have enjoyed their presence in the pines along the road, and husband Bill always reported that they greeted him on his walks with the dog. He has a very realistic crow call and they probably consider him a rather strange looking cousin.  

The American crow is big, black, and makes a lot of noise. It is also probably our most intelligent wild bird, having its own language with more than 20 sounds and the capacity to count up to four or five. Their “caws” may be long or short, loud or relatively soft, given singly or in sequences, and made by one bird alone or by two or more. Observers have noted that crows use specific sounds for alarm calls, assembly calls, distress calls, as well as variety of others. They also imitate other birds and animals, including even the human voice, but more of interest to researchers are their many other quiet vocalizations. One problem in interpreting these calls, however, has been the fact that different groups of crows, belonging to the same species but in different areas, may not use or understand the same calls.

Crows rebuild their nests each year -- big, messy stick structures – and each breeding pair has a home territory, averaging about 10 acres in the city and much larger in the country. They usually mate for life, and families tend to stick together. Older offspring may help build the nest, feed the parent bird sitting on the eggs, tend the hatchlings, or chase away predators, and since young crows wait at least two years before breeding, family groups can have as many as 15 members. They move around during the winter depending upon the availability of food, but stay in the vicinity of their breeding territory. Crows have only one successful brood a year as it takes up to four months from egg until the young are independent.

Most wild American crows live for about seven or eight years and will eat almost anything -- invertebrates of all types, carrion, scraps of human food, seeds, eggs and nestlings, and grains such as corn and wheat. They will scavenge at landfills, scattering garbage in the process, but they are also active hunters and will prey on mice, frogs, and other small animals. In winter, the diet is more likely to include nuts and acorns. The crow is one of only a few species of bird that has been observed modifying and using tools to obtain food. They disgorge pellets containing the indigestible remnants of their meals as do owls, and one can often look under a crow roost and find the large, cohesive objects consisting of small lumps of grain and gravel with lots of hair to hold them together.

As I was writing this, a hullabaloo in the big maple above the deck drew me out to see what was going on. It seemed the racket was centered on a young red-tail hawk that had taken refuge there, and several crows were announcing the fact to the world. The conventional wisdom about such behavior is that crows behave in this way because they are protecting their nestlings and territories and have learned that 'mobbing' distracts the hawk so it can't hunt and will leave the area.

One wonders why the red-tailed (or an owl, eagle, or other hawk) – a predator quite capable of grabbing and killing a crow – would allow itself to be pestered? Some experts guess that if it is not hungry it very well may not find an agile crow worth chasing, and prefer to just ignore the fuss or else move on to another area. It would be a very different situation if the hawk was guarding its nest and had a family to protect, but the fact is, ornitholigists report that crows never venture onto a predator’s home ground.

It has also been noted that sometimes a group of crows and a hawk seem to be playing, and Bill watched such an occurrence from the living room window. The birds circled, tumbling and twisting in what must have been mock battle, because when the appearance of a passerby interrupted them, they all settled in a nearby tree side by side.  A quick search on the Internet found many similar stories, proving again that bird behavior is more complicated than we imagined.

American crows have proved very vulnerable to West Nile virus infection. This was originally a mosquito-borne African virus causing encephalitis in humans and livestock since about 1000 AD, and was accidentally introduced to North America in 1999. It is estimated that the crow population around the country has dropped by up to 45% since then, and in one locality, 72% died in a single season. Because of this, American crows are considered a sentinel species indicating the presence of West Nile virus in an area, allowing the human population to take extra precautions. The birds cannot transmit the virus to humans directly, and we can only hope that these interesting birds will survive this threat.


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October 25, 2011 ...and Bats: Oh, No!

Some historians tell us that the ancient Gaels believed that one night each autumn the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead would dissolve and the deceased would come back to life. In an effort to protect themselves, they would build huge bonfires to push back the darkness and celebrate around them. Presumably, the nighttime gatherings attracted clouds of flying insects, which in turn brought all the resident bats swooping and feeding over their heads, and the little creatures became symbols of the evil and death threatening them. When the Romans invaded the area, they merged the local festival with the Catholic All Saint’s Day on November 1st and Halloween came into being with its symbols of ghosts and bats.

The bat was a natural for this role as many people find it threatening and ugly. It has a mouth full of sharp teeth and it wraps itself in its wings at rest, looking much like a witch or goblin. A bat commonly swoops about as it looks for insects, and may find the area around one’s head particularly good hunting. It flies only at dusk and during the night, and so has commonly been associated with things that are dark and evil. This was especially true after it was learned that a few species dine on blood, although most bats eat insects or fruit.

Some bats lead solitary lives while others live in caves inhabited by more than a million animals. Their oldest known fossils are from about 50 million years ago, and the bats already looked very similar to modern insect-eating species. About 70 percent do live on insects while some of the smaller species are important pollinators of some tropical flowers. One species has the longest tongue of any mammal relative to its body size, allowing it to reach down into deep blossoms. When the tongue retracts, it coils up inside the rib cage. Much of the bad reputation of our Wisconsin bats comes from their infamous cousin, the vampire bat. The only mammal that feeds on blood, this native of Central and South America uses sharp incisor teeth to break the skin in order to lick up blood from its often-unwitting victim.

While bats have excellent vision, many insect eaters rely on their ears for navigation and finding prey at night. Human hearing ranges from approximately 20Hz (cycles per second) to about 20,000Hz, but bat calls generally range well above this. By emitting a series of ultrasounds that generally sweep from a high to low frequency, bats can distinguish objects and their prey as the echoes are bounced back to their sensitive ears, and therefore can avoid the object or catch the insect. This is the process of echolocation -- ability they share with dolphins and whales.

The most distinguishing physical features of a bat are its forelegs that have evolved into wings. The flattened finger bones are very flexible as their cartilage lacks calcium and other minerals near the tips, allowing them to bend easily. The skin covering their fingers is elastic and can stretch, providing wide wing surfaces. Most mammals have large oval cells in their skin that contain sensory nerve endings, but on bat wings, each has a tiny hair in the center, making it even more sensitive. Another receptor cell that is found on the wings of many of the species is sensitive to the stretching of the membrane, and may indicate to the bat that an insect has hit its wing. 
Female bats usually have only one offspring per year, and the pup clings to her fur as she flies until it grows too large and must be left at the roost. The ability to fly is inborn, but at birth the wings are too small for use. Young insect-eaters become independent at the age of 6 to 8 weeks, while the fruit eaters often lag until they are four months old. A single bat can live over 20 years, but the bat population growth is limited by the low birth rate.

Wisconsin has seven species of bats, some of which are year-round residents, while others move south when the weather becomes inclement. The little brown bat, the Northern myotis, and the big brown bat typically hibernate in caves or other protected spots, with the big brown more tolerant of cold conditions than other Wisconsin bats and the only one that commonly over-winters in walls and attics. The silver-haired bat, red bat, hoary bat, and Eastern pipistrelle migrate to warmer climes before hibernating.

Only half of one percent of bats carry rabies but they are natural carriers of several other worrisome viruses and bacteria and it is wise not to touch any animal that might be sick or injured. Still, their value in insect control far outweighs any risk of disease they might transmit. If a bat is found in your house the best technique for getting it out is to close all the doors and windows to the room except one to the outside. Most will quickly leave if given the chance.

All hibernating bats (but particularly the little-brown) are feared to be at risk due to the appearance of a strange new fungus disease. White-nose syndrome has already killed more than a million bats since being detected in New York in 2006, and the disease is spreading westward. The Wisconsin DNR says survey crews have found no sign of the disease, but the fungus associated with white-nose syndrome has been added to the list of prohibited invasive species and the little brown bat, big brown bat, northern long-eared bat, and eastern pipistrelle were added to the Wisconsin threatened species list. Hopefully, these steps will help save these important and interesting animals.

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October 18, 2011:  Warblers and Such...

Those perky sparrow-like birds hopping around on your porch or deck this past week or flitting about in your bushes are very likely not sparrows at all, but yellow-rumped warblers on the go. Their relatives having been moving down from the northland the past month or so, escaping the onset of winter, and these are often the last to pass through.

They are called yellow-rumped because, as you might guess, all have patches of bright yellow above their tails, even in their winter and juvenile plumage. Summer males are more colorful, with yellow crowns above black cheeks, black streaked breasts and yellow patches along their sides just in front of their wings. Many migratory species, particularly those breeding further north, have distinctive male plumage at least in the breeding season, since males need to reclaim territory and advertise for mates each year.

The yellow-rumped is one of some 120 species of small songbirds in this hemisphere that are dubbed wood warblers. They range up to 7 inches in length, and live in forest, brush, or swampy grass country. It is likely that they originated in northern Central America, and this area still houses the largest number of species. They spread northward during the periods between the glaciers, mainly as migrants, and still return to the ancestral region each winter.

The name “warbler” might lead one to think that these birds have lovely voices, but many have only weak, lisping songs. The yellow-rumped warbler has a short high-pitched, whistling trill that drops the last two or three syllables. It also uses a sharp “chek-chek-chek-chek” and “psit-psit-psit” calls to communicate with others in its flock.

The yellow-rumped is perhaps the most versatile forager of all these little birds. It’s the one you are most likely to see fluttering out from a tree to catch a flying insect, and it is also quick to switch over to eating berries in fall. It has been observed snatching insects out of a spider web, and grabbing flies off piles of manure. All warblers eat mainly insects in the summer, including caterpillars, beetles, ants, scale insects, aphids, grasshoppers, and gnats, as well as spiders. They are important allies during outbreaks of forest pests such as spruce budworm and tent caterpillars. On migration and in winter they eat great numbers of fruits, particularly juniper berries, poison ivy, poison oak, greenbrier, grapes, Virginia creeper, and dogwood. These birds do not come readily to feeders, but they will visit backyards where suitable brush and mixed trees are available to host insects.

Their feeding and nesting habits resemble those of so-called old world warblers – an entirely separate family. Those comprise almost 350 species that closely related to the thrushes and flycatchers, and are found in Europe, Asia and Africa. Only a few of these birds, such as the kinglet and gnatcatcher live in the Americas.

In 1758, Carolus Linnaeus developed a classification system for all animals, and divided them into groups that had things in common. Then he split those into smaller groups and when he finally finished, there were seven levels in his system. His scientific classification system is still used today. Here is how scientists classify a yellow-rumped warbler: Kingdom: Animals; Phylum: Animals with backbones; Class: Animals called birds; Order: Birds that perch; Family: wood warblers; Genus: highly-colored warblers; Species: yellow-rumped warbler.

As scientists learn more about birds, they have been able to more or less arrange the 10,000 species by Order, Family and Genus although there has always been a surprising amount of debate about some. For example, about twenty years ago scientists decided that the Baltimore oriole of the Eastern United States was really the same bird as the Bullock's oriole in the Western United States. They renamed both birds “Northern oriole”. Then, in 1995 after conducting DNA comparisons, they decided these really were two separate species after all.

Today there are many scientists investigating birds, and scientific classification is undergoing a big change. Dr. Charles Sibley, a past president of the International Ornithological Congress, did research for over twenty years using DNA testing and suggested a new way to classify the birds of the world. He contended that some species were more closely related than anyone thought and rearranged some of the Orders and Families in a way that was quite unexpected. Research continues, and this autumn big changes are being put into place and new names applied.

Unless you are an avid birder and watch the worldwide activities of the ornithologists, you probably have little interest in the finer points of bird classification but getting acquainted with a variety of species is an interesting and rewarding hobby. We have listed more than 120 species that have visited our farm through the years, and are always on the lookout for new sightings.

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October 9, 2011: Sulfur Shelf: "Chicken of the Woods"


What kind of organism is a fungus? Certainly not a plant, although until recently even scientists believed that was the case. However, most fungi build their cell walls out of chitin, the same material as the hard outer shells of insects, and plants do not make chitin. Now it has been determined that they are more closely related to animals, and have been placed in their own Kingdom. The body of the fungus is made up of a web of microscopic filaments that are buried in the soil, in wood, or in another food source. These webs live on and grow unseen until they develop mushrooms, puffballs, truffles, brackets, cups, “birds nests,” “corals” or other fruiting bodies.

The fruiting bodies often seem to sprout up overnight. They can do this because when they begin to enlarge they already contain their full complement of structural cells. It requires only a heavy rain to fall, at which time the fungus body pumps water into these cells, and almost overnight some mushrooms can go from pin head size to full size.

Generally, we avoid picking the numerous mushrooms we find along our hiking trails as we don’t have the expertise to be confident in identifying the edible varieties. Two exceptions are the morel and the sulfur shelf. Most Wisconsinites are familiar with the morel, but unless you frequent the woods you may not have seen a sulfur shelf. This large fungus, which is also known as “chicken-of-the-woods”, announces its presence with a bright orange top and gorgeous sulfur yellow underside. Called a bracket or shelf mushroom because of the way it extends from a tree trunk, the sulfur shelf is often found on or around an oak tree and often comes back year after year. This year, we discovered a huge specimen growing in the farmyard on our old willow.

Young sulfurs are moist, rubbery, and easily broken, while more mature specimens become pale, tough, and are often dotted with insect holes. Many think that the texture and even flavor is reminiscent of chicken, but those who would like to try it should be aware that, as with any mushroom, some individuals have a bad reaction, including light-headedness and nausea. "The neat thing is that it's impossible to misidentify," said Greg Mueller, curator of mycology at Chicago’s Field Museum. "It's the only big, bright orange bracket mushroom with sulfur pores growing on wood out there." This was pretty much the accepted wisdom well into the 1980′s, but as allergic reactions seemed to become more numerous, it was found that specimens growing on certain trees and in certain areas sometimes did cause problems and gastric distress. Eucalyptus, evergreens, and locust in particular were suspect and the advice now given is to avoid any sulfurs collected from these trees.

The sulfur shelf grows in large flattened fans that lie in horizontal tiers, sometimes becoming huge and weighing as much as a hundred pounds. It is more accurately called a polypore because, rather than having gills underneath its cap like many other mushrooms, it has tubes, or pores -- tiny holes dotting the underside. These are lined with spore producing organs, as fungi must produce enormous numbers of spores so that at least a few will land on favorable surfaces for germination.

All polypores have two or three kinds of cells -- the rapidly expanding inflatable generative cells, along with two kinds of reinforcing cells, referred to as ‘binding’ or ‘skeletal’. The hard woody conks you see on trees have all three and will persist on their hosts for several years. The sulfur shelf has but two -- the quickly expanding (and edible) generative type, and the more rigid, slower growing binding kind. These latter cells give the fruiting body strength and rigidity and can even hold it together for a time after the softer tissue dries out and collapses.

The sulfur may grow inside a tree for some 50 years in order to build up enough energy to form the colorful fruiting bodies, and during that time the fungus is feeding upon the tree's inner tissues, causing decay. All wood is composed mostly of two substances -- cellulose which is white and forms the primary wall of all plant cells, and lignin which makes up the brown inner wall in some cells, especially those of trees.

Polypores, such as the sulfur shelf, harbor both brown rot fungi that degrade only the white cellulose leaving the brown lignin to crumble to dust, and white rot fungi that decompose the lignin and leave the white stringy cellulose behind. As the decay proceeds, hollows are created that house all sorts of creatures, and eventually the fungi will accomplish the transformation of the tree into soil.

Meanwhile, springtails, nematodes, and other tiny beings graze on the fungi inside the tree, while fungus gnats, fungus flies, pillbugs, and various fungus beetles feed on the shelf fungus itself and are in turn picked off by birds. These fungi play an important role in the health and vigor of the forest but harvesting their fruits will cause no harm, and we can enjoy discovering the eye-catching color amidst all the green, and have it for supper, as well.

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October 4, 2011: The Awesome Butterfly


A few weeks ago our garden was alive with butterflies. Giant and tiger swallowtails were sipping nectar from the zinnias and phlox, monarchs were visiting the milkweeds, and we had to watch where we stepped on the gravel drive to avoid the red-spotted purples and tiny crescents and azures that were under our feet. Now those are all gone and the only hangers-on are the fritillaries and the ubiquitous cabbage butterfly.

Almost everyone is familiar with the cabbage “worm”. It is not uncommon for a gardener to find one flying around in the kitchen as its caterpillar often hides among the leaves of any of the harvested cole vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage or the like – and creeps off to hide in a corner. There it pupates and in two weeks or so it emerges a butterfly, ready to reproduce again wherever it can find a food plant for its larvae.

Most people would consider the fritillary to be a much more desirable insect. The top surfaces of its wings are a brownish-orange with wavy black lines and spots, but if you take the time to look at the underside of its wings (visible when the butterfly pauses and holds them closed over its body) you will see that they are covered with metallic silver spots. Chances are you have never seen the caterpillar of one of these beautiful insects, as it feeds only at night and then near the ground on violet plants.

The large, usually colorful wings are what transform these otherwise rather ugly insects into objects of beauty. A butterfly has four wings, two fore and two behind, attached to the middle segment of its body. Strong muscles move them up and down in a figure-eight pattern during flight, allowing some insects to reach speeds of 12 miles per hour and a few to travel 1000s of miles.

Butterfly wings are composed of two thin transparent layers of chitin, a protein that also makes up the outer surface of the body, and are nourished and supported by a network of tubular veins. These veins are extensions of the body's circulatory system and are filled with a fluid that serves much the same function as does blood in a bird or mammal. Within each of the major veins are also a nerve and a trachea (a fine tube that conveys air directly to the tissues).

Covering the wings are thousands of tiny plate-like overlapping hairs called scales, which create the colors and patterns we see. These scales contain melanins that give them black and brown colors, but the blues, greens, reds and iridescence are usually created not by pigments but their crystalline nature that scatters the light striking them, separating the colors. The scales cling somewhat loosely to the wing and come off easily without harming the butterfly.

Still, scales are very important to the butterfly. They form patterns that help their bearer to find a mate, as well as protect itself by blending into the background, mimicking another more dangerous creature, or warning of bad taste. It is thought that they evolved initially for providing insulation on wings and body, as dark colored scales would absorb sunlight, and they are also thought to help increase the lift-to-drag ratio in gliding flight. Scent scales are modified wing scales on male butterflies that release pheromones to attract mates.

Part of the secret as to how an earthbound crawling caterpillar can be transformed into a flying insect was revealed when researchers found that the larvae have four tiny developing wing disks under the skin in place of the spiracles that are apparent on the outside. Before the last molt, these increase dramatically in size and connect to tracheae in the body in the beginnings of the wing veins. They even begin to develop the patterns that will later decorate the adult wings.

When the caterpillar is fully mature, it will attach itself to a twig or other firm support with silk and hang motionless for a day or so. During this time, the wing stubs are forced outside the skin by pressure from the body fluid, and by the time the skin splits and falls away, they have adhered tightly to the outer cuticle of the chrysalis. Within hours, the new outer surface hardens and it is possible to see impressions of the miniature wings, as well as the head and antennae, legs, and abdomen of the adult butterfly. This chrysalis is usually incapable of movement, although some species can wiggle the abdominal segments or produce sounds to scare potential predators. Inside, the wing stubs become pleated and compressed from top to bottom as they grow, so that they can be rapidly unfolded to their full size.

When the adult butterfly emerges from its pupa, in several weeks or perhaps the following spring, its delicate wings are crinkled, wet, and uninflated. It hangs upside-down and pumps fluid into the wings to inflate them, and then must wait for several hours for the wings to dry and harden before it can fly. Who among us is not awed to witness such a transformation!

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September 27, 2011:  Woodchuck or Groundhog


The wild creatures around the farmyard are well aware of the presence of a big noisy collie, but tend to go about their business in relative safety – mostly I would guess because she is indoors during the nighttime hours when most are active. The woodchuck (or groundhog as it is often called) that lives in the shed under the woodpile is quite bold, however, now that apples have been falling from the tree a short distance from its doorway. It sticks its head out cautiously and scans the area for the dog, then makes its way over to the windfalls and helps itself. The sight of the chubby animal sitting up with an apple in its paws and munching away always amuses us, and we don’t begrudge the few it eats.

The woodchuck usually grows to about two feet in length with short, powerful legs and a bushy tail. It can weigh as much at 15 pounds in the autumn just before going into hibernation but will lose much of that during the winter and weigh considerably less in the spring.  Mostly vegetarian, it likes fruits and vegetables of all kinds, but when these are scarce, it will eat grasses, clover, tree leaves and flowers. Like all members of the squirrel family, it has ever-growing incisors that must be kept worn down and sharp by constant chewing.

Woodchucks are known for their complex vocalizations, involving a series of whistles, squeals and barks. Most noticeable among these are high-pitched squeals that are usually emitted to alert others of a predator, but they also make guttural barking sounds and low clicking sounds with their teeth.

Woodchucks are protected by Wisconsin law and there are no specified hunting or trapping seasons, although landowners may hunt or trap them on their property. Apparently, the original reason for protecting them was their value in creating homes for other small animals such as rabbits that hunters valued for sport. When North America was first settled, woodchucks were relatively scarce, but as forest areas were cleared and fencerows and meadows increased, the chuck's range expanded. Now, this species is common except where a high water table prevents digging. A woodchuck can move as much as 700 pounds of dirt in the construction of its burrow that can reach five feet below ground and extend length-wise for thirty feet or more. 
  
The female produces a single litter of three or four young in May. The youngsters are born blind and hairless but are weaned by late June or early July, and soon after strike out on their own. The life span of a woodchuck is usually about 3 to 6 years if they survive to adulthood, and they seldom range more than 50 yards from their den once they establish a territory. Adult animals are quite capable of defending themselves, but young ones are preyed upon by hawks, owls, coyotes, badgers, weasels, and dogs. Highway traffic takes a heavy toll on the animals of all ages.

By the end of October, most woodchucks are curled up in a profound sleep in their underground nest. So deep is this condition that even if the animal is warmed up, it requires several hours to awaken. Woodchucks are true hibernators and usually sleep all winter, although individuals may awaken during periods of mild weather.
Woodchucks are subjects for research because they have dramatic annual biological rhythms driven by hormonal signals caused by fluctuations in the hours of daylight. The cycles are so strong that even in the laboratory, where the temperature is maintained at 70 degrees year-round with ample food and water, some woodchucks still stop eating and hibernate. Human cycles, like those of woodchucks, are most likely also affected by photoperiod, although exposure to artificial lighting may confuse the results. Scientists hope that by studying the body functions in the woodchuck, they can better understand the underlying changes in human brain chemistry, body metabolism and hormone secretion.

One interesting study by Penn State biologist Stam Zervanos showed that male woodchucks routinely arouse toward the end of winter and suggests that they emerge temporarily to find females. He reports that the pair gets acquainted but then both go back to their separate dens to sleep, evidently satisfied that they have their mates secured. At the proper time, they awake again and mate – the male sometimes visiting several females before returning to his solitary lifestyle. Zervanos says that although the woodchucks may appear half-dead, "they seem to maintain a biological rhythm even during hibernation".

This habit of early emergence led to the idea that a woodchuck’s appearance was an late winter omen of spring . The most widely known woodchuck is Punxsutawney Phil, a Pennsylvania resident of the town library who eats dog food and ice cream.  For 120 years, on February 2nd, he (and his predecessors) has been pulled out from under a fake tree stump and asked to predict the coming of spring. It is said he does so speaking in ‘Groundhogese’, and he seldom errs. In Wisconsin, we have own prognosticator in Jimmy The Groundhog of Sun Prairie. Our Timbergreen members of the family may not be famous but we enjoy them anyway, even as we watch them snack in our garden.

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September 20, 2011: Snakeroot and Indian Pipe

We had a delightful group of third and fourth graders from the Lone Rock Elementary School visit us at the farm this past week, and their energy and enthusiasm for all things they saw – living trees and lumber, the 2000 year-old Native American cave-shelter on the hillside, our pond and the things they found in it, and the giant swallowtail caterpillar that stuck out its scent glands with its surprisingly potent odor – and endless questions were challenging.

We hiked through the woods but saw few wildflowers, as most have bloomed and formed seeds by this time of year. Still, two very different plants still displayed their blossoms – the white snakeroot and Indian pipe.

White snakeroot is a native plant common throughout the area that can be found blooming in open woodlands through September and October. Numerous flower heads are grouped into loosely-branched, flat-topped clusters and each small flower head is about 1/4 inch wide and contains up to 30 bright-white disk flowers. After blooming, small seeds with fluffy white tails will be released to blow in the wind. Early settlers gave it its name as they thought its underground tubers removed toxins from snakebites, but modern medicine has not been able to prove any such ability.

On the contrary, white snakeroot contains the toxin tremetol that is poisonous to horses, goats, sheep and cattle. When the plants are consumed by dairy cattle, the meat and milk can become contaminated and may poison any humans who eat or drink them. Milk of cows that had fed on snakeroot caused milk sickness, and during the early 19th century, when large numbers of immigrants settled in the Midwest, many thousands died. Notably, milk sickness was the suspected cause of death in 1818 of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln.

It was some decades before the cause of the illness was traced to snakeroot, although today Dr. Anna Bixby is credited with identifying the plant in the 1830s.  Legend has it that she was taught about the plant's properties by a Shawnee woman as she and her people had extensive knowledge of the herbs and plants in the area. In the 1920s, a U.S. Department of Agriculture study agreed that snakeroot contained a substance that caused milk sickness and dairy farmers were ordered to keep it out of their fields and their cows fenced. Today, it is highly unlikely that snakeroot will get into cow’s milk.

The other blooming flower is very different but is easy to recognize. Indian pipe grows only five or six inches tall and has tiny, scale-like leaves and a single curled over flower on top of each stalk. It is often thought to be a fungus as it has a waxy, whitish color, but this is because it has no chlorophyll, a green pigment found in almost all plants that allows them to obtain energy from light. Indian pipe cannot make its own food and has to obtain nutrients from another organism, and to do this, it establishes two special relationships -- one with a tree, and one with a fungus, taking nutrients from both at the same time.

It does this by tapping its roots into the root-like threads (mycelia) of a fungus which itself has invaded the roots of a tree. Many fungi and trees have this type of relationship; the fungus gives nutrients to the tree and the tree gives nutrients to the fungus. Indian pipe, however, takes nutrients from the fungus itself, and it also takes nutrients that the fungus had received from the tree and does not give anything back to either. It. Since it is not dependent on sunlight to grow, it can exist in very dark environments as in dense forest.

Indian pipe can only establish relationships with certain species of fungi and trees, but much is still be learned about them. It is known that they use Russula and Lactarius fungi, two common, fairly large and brightly colored mushrooms whose distinguishing characteristics also include brittle free white gills and the lack of any encircling tissue on the stem. The lactarius also emits milky latex when its gills are broken. Trees that have been found to be essential to these mushrooms, and thus the Indian pipe, are oak, beech and birch.

Indian pipe is a food source for small bumblebees, which visit the flowers for nectar. They pollinate the blossoms and tiny seeds form, at which time the plants turn black. The seeds need very special conditions to germinate so it is a real treat to find these strange plants.

Other flowers are blooming out in the prairies – asters, blazing stars, sunflowers, gentian, sneezeweed, and lobelia – but these two forest plants are welcome breaks from all the green of the woodlands. Color is beginning to show on the Virginia creeper and sumac, however, and soon the hills will be ablaze with reds and yellows. Enjoy it while you may.


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September 13, 2011: The Elusive Weasel

When we walk through the fields and woods at this time of the year there are far fewer living things in evidence now that almost all the breeding and rearing of young has been completed. Still, there are hints of continuing activities if you are alert, -- a raised tunnel across the trail, a partially eaten hickory nut, a couple of feathers or a tuft of fur discarded along the way, a snake skin, tree and shrub leaves peppered with holes, an abandoned bird nest, hoof prints in the dirt.

An animal we almost never see but think may be a full time resident on the farm is one of the weasels. There are two species in Wisconsin – the long-tailed and the least weasel, both members of a large family that also includes the mink, marten, fisher, badger, river otter, and skunks.  The distinctive characteristic all of these share is that they possess muscular glands under the tail that are capable of emitting sulphurous volatiles that are very effective in repelling attackers. 

We have seen tracks of the least weasel in the winter and had fleeting glimpses of one. It has brownish fur with white underneath in the summer, but it turns all white in November. It is the smallest of the family -- less than ten inches in length plus a 2-3 inch tail and weighs less than 8 ounces. It has a long slender body and very short legs and these give it a distinctive running gait, as at every bound the long body loops upward, reminding one of an inchworm. The least weasel has a large territory and males may roam over 35 acres while females usually remain within less than 10 acres. Weasels feed predominantly on mouse-like rodents and young rabbits and are adapted for pursuing prey down tunnels, though they may also chase prey from their burrows, killing them with a bite to the back of the skull or the neck.

The least weasel, like others in its group, does not dig its own den, but nests in the abandoned burrow of some other animal such as a mole or rat, relining the nest chamber with straw and the skins of its prey. It mates in the spring, and in a month, the female produces a litter of around 6 kits, that are less than a tenth of an ounce in weight and naked, blind and deaf. At four days, they gain a white coat of downy fur and they are weaned at 2–3 weeks of age. The eyes and ears soon open, and by 8 weeks, they are already killing prey their parents provide.

The long-tailed weasel prefers mixed habitats near streams or small rivers and some authors report finding them only in places with abundant water. They also are commonly found along roadsides and around farm buildings where mice are plentiful, however. The long-tailed has a home range of 30 to 40 acres, and population densities vary with season and food availability. In favorable habitat, there may be up to 18 long-tails per square mile but this fluctuates considerably with year-to-year changes in prey abundance.

This weasel has a black tip on its tail, a characteristic that is thought to confuse some predators as they focus on it instead of the animal itself. Hawks, owls, eagles, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and domestic cats as well as other members of the weasel family will eat a weasel – provided they can catch one. They are extremely agile and their long and slim bodies make it easy for them to escape into small holes. They are also able to follow their prey into burrows, and their needle-like canine teeth are designed to pierce the throat or brain of small animals.

Long-tailed weasels mate in late summer, mostly from July through August. It is an interesting fact that there is a long delay in the implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterus, and the young are not born until the following spring, (a gestation period of almost 9 months). A typical den is a burrow that may be 10 feet long and have two openings several feet apart. Average litters consist of six young that are blind and naked at birth. Their eyes open in about 5 weeks but at 3 months of age they are fully grown.

Weasels are easiest to detect in winter when leaf cover is gone and a thin layer of tracking snow reveals their whereabouts in the neighborhood. They leave staggered pairs of little footprints placed in a bounding gait fashion and their intense curiosity and insatiable appetite leads them to range widely in a seemingly erratic fashion. A weasel will stop to poke its little head into every hole, nook and cranny it can find.

The ferret is another weasel-type occasionally seen in our area, but it is always a domesticated animal that has been released or has escaped. Weasels and ferrets have similar body shape and size and are both are carnivorous and crafty, but ferrets have a long history of making interesting and entertaining pets while weasels seldom become tame.  Weasels are sometimes blamed for killing chickens, but their value in helping control rats and mice around the farmyard far outbalances any damage that they might do. Most of the time, we humans never know that a weasel lives nearby.

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September 6, 2011: Katydids


In my daily sweeps through the garden, yard, and nearby areas in a search for Japanese beetles, I have scared up several large green fluttering creatures that go by the strange name of ‘katydids’. These grasshopper-like insects usually stick to the treetops but these had ventured down perhaps in search of more tender leaves to eat. When they do come to the garden they are seldom seen as their oval-shaped wings are marked with veins making them look much like green leaves with legs.

The katydid name has an interesting origin. In the summer of 1743, Pennsylvania botanist John Bartram wrote in his journal, "The great green grass-hopper began to sing (Catedidist) these were the first I observed this year." Meriwether Lewis spelled it “chittediddle” in his 1804 record of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The name has also been spelled kittledee, kittydid, and cataded, among others, in attempts to imitate the sound.

All those names have faded out in favor of ‘katydid’ for the simple reason that the term is made up of familiar English words. All katydids don't sound alike, however, so that led to this traditional explanation: “Some of the insects say ‘Katy did,’ others ‘Katy didn't.’ Neither side wins the argument, but it gives them an excuse to argue all night.” Another story goes like this: “A young girl named Katy told a fib, then compounded the lie by saying she hadn't lied. When she died, her conundrum lived on in this insect's late-night debate whether Katy did or Katy didn't tell the lie. Most say Katy did.”

The katydid song serves a function in courtship, which occurs in late summer. The bottom surface of one of its front wings has a small ridge with fine teeth, while the top surface of the opposite front wing has a long hardened ridge without teeth. As the insect closes its front wings the file glides along the scraper causing tiny membranes in the wings to vibrate causing their typical sound. Both male and female emote, although the male is much the better singer. He starts to call from a chosen perch as darkness falls and the female’s ‘ears’ that are situated on her forelegs direct her toward to the loudest singing male as she replies in the same manner.

The female lays eggs in the ground or in plant tissue and then dies as autumn advances, leaving the eggs to hatch in the spring. Young katydids are called nymphs and look similar to wingless adults, but it takes three to four months for the nymph to reach adult size, shedding its skin each time it grows too tight. With its last molt, it acquires wings and is ready to mate and begin the cycle again.

You may not recognize the katydid song, but almost everyone knows that of the cricket. There are some 900 species of this common insect and they live in both fields and woodlands – anywhere there is the decaying plant material and fungi upon which they can feed. People with wood burning furnaces sometimes find that one or more has taken up residence in their basement woodpile and will entertain them off and on during the winter.  

The sound emitted by crickets is commonly referred to as chirping and in contrast to the katydids, only the male crickets sing. A large vein runs along the bottom of each wing, covered with teeth much like a comb and the chirping sound is created by running the top of one wing along the teeth at the bottom of the other wing. As he does this, the cricket also holds its wings up and open, presumably so that the wing membranes can act as amplifiers.

There are several types of cricket song: a loud calling song that attracts females and repels other males; a quiet courting song is used when a female cricket is near; and a strident aggressive song triggered by the close approach of another male cricket.

Crickets chirp at different rates depending on their species and the temperature of their environment. Most species chirp at higher rates the higher the temperature is (approximately 62 chirps a minute at 13°C in one common species although each species has its own rate). They also have tympanic membranes located just below the middle joint of each front leg, as do the katydids, which enables them to hear another cricket's song.

It is a challenge to identify the songs of most of the species of the grasshopper family as many are very similar and barely audible. Still, now that most of the birds have reduced their vocalizations to little more than occasional calls and the frogs are silent, they let us know that much is still going on in the wild world, even though autumn is almost upon us.


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August 29, 2011: Calling all Snakes!


We almost stepped on the little snake as it slithered down the sidewalk in front of the house. It could not have been more than 10 inches long and no thicker than the diameter of a lead pencil, and when I picked it up it was easy to see its orange-red belly as it wiggled and squirmed to get away. Aptly named a red-bellied snake, it is a common resident here at the farm and we see one on the road or other open surface every so often.

Red-bellied snakes spend much of their time underground or under logs, boards, rocks, or debris but come out to hunt their prey of slugs, earthworms, and beetle larvae. Small as they are, they give birth in late summer to 7 or 8 live young and these must be something to see as they are only 3-4 inches long. (Only the timber rattlesnake, garters, ribbon, queen, water and brown snakes also bear their young alive while all the others lay eggs.) The young snakes develop quickly and can double their length in their first year and become mature in their second.

There are some 20 species of non-poisonous snakes in Wisconsin and we have seen half a dozen here on the farm. The largest and most impressive is certainly the bull snake, a reptile of “special concern” in Wisconsin. (This designation is given to populations of species in the state whose numbers have dropped considerably in recent years, but have not yet reached levels considered “threatened” or “endangered”.) The bullsnake often reaches five feet in length and has a yellowish body with over 40 large, dark, body blotches that turn into dark black bands or rings on the tail. Bullsnakes favor open sand prairies, but since only a small percentage of these remain, they now are to be found in fields adjacent to bluffs and woodlands. They feed on small mammals, killing larger prey by constriction and simply swallowing smaller prey alive.

Bullsnakes emerge from hibernation in April and breed in May. Once fertilization has occurred, their eggs begin to develop and when fully formed are covered by a pliable leathery shell. The female then deposits a clutch of about a dozen eggs in a protected damp, and usually dark place, often along with eggs from other bullsnake females. These hatch into foot-long grey babies in August. Baby snakes have a tiny, sharp projection called an egg tooth on their snouts that they use to slice a hole in the eggshell so they can poke their way out. The egg tooth disappears soon after the snake hatches, but the yolk sac that nourished the unborn snake is often still present. Bullsnakes retire into hibernation in October into mammal burrows, sometimes alone or to share their hideaways with other species.

The 2-3 foot hognose is also a “special concern” snake. It is unique because of its sharply upturned nose, which earned it the name and which allows it to dig into the dirt, but also for several interesting behaviors. Hognose snakes will usually attempt to escape if threatened, but when cornered, these snakes perform an elaborate display that includes fanning out their necks, puffing up their bodies, and hissing. If this doesn’t work, they will roll over and “play dead”. This display is often accompanied by vomiting and defecation, which causes them to smell, and look, like a dead animal. Toads are their preferred food, and it is thought that their elongated rear fangs may help puncture and deflate toads during the swallowing process (toads tend to inflate themselves to avoid being swallowed by predators).  These snakes also have saliva that is mildly toxic, and they are quite harmless to humans.

In Wisconsin, four snakes are currently classified as “endangered”, meaning that they are on the verge of extinction. These are the queen, the massasauga, and the western and northern ribbon snakes. The timber rattler is classified as a “protected animal”, the Butler’s gartersnake is “threatened”, and five are designated “species of special concern” besides the bullsnake and hognose: western wormsnake, North American racer, northern and prairie ring-necked, and grey rat snake.

Fascinating facts about snakes: all must rely on their surroundings to control their body temperature, so in the heat of the summer, they hide underground or crawl into cool spaces with lots of vegetation. On cool days, they will lie out in the open where the sun can warm them. All Wisconsin snakes are predators and eat anything from sowbugs to other snakes. Their meals include such things as mice, snails, earthworms, salamanders, spiders, voles, frogs, young squirrels, and leeches. If the prey is too large to swallow alive, most non-venomous snakes kill their prey by wrapping their coils around the animal and tightening until it can no longer breathe.

Other facts: snakes “smell” by tasting the air with their tongues; they have no eyelids and cannot blink; they shed their skins several times a year; snakes can climb trees, swim, and race, often using their long rectangular underside scales to catch on stones, branches and other irregularities on the ground to help them move. Snakes perform an important service in holding down the populations of rodents and other harmful creatures and should never be killed. Even the poisonous timber rattlesnakes are shy reclusive creatures and as long as we watch where we step on the hillsides, we are pleased to have them as neighbors. 

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August 22, 2011:  Pesky Burs


Sometimes it seems as if Mother Nature is out to get us – or perhaps just to keep us conscious that it’s a wild world out there. Ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, gnats, and flies attack and bite us when we venture out-of-doors, and burs grab our clothing and skin and hold on so tight it sometimes takes a major effort to get ride of them. Most of the plants that are blooming in the woodlands during the summer and as well as many out in the fields seem to have one thing in common; they depend on mobile creatures such as ourselves and our pets to spread their seeds, and have developed a variety of insidious means to hitch rides.

Certainly the best known of the bur-forming plants is the burdock with the cocklebur close behind. The burdock is an alien biennial that produces a rosette of very large leaves in the first year and a branched six-foot stem with many lavender flowers during the second. Cocklebur is a native annual that usually grows about three feet high and has relatively large, long-stemmed triangular leaves, and two kinds of flowers – one that grows on short terminal branches produces only pollen, while the other that occurs in clusters in the axils of the leaves, produces seed. Both are members of the sunflower family, and have one-seeded fruits (burs) that are covered with long spines which are hooked at the tip. Burdock burs are rounder and have softer, more Velcro-like hairs than cocklebur. Cocklebur burs are oblong and have hooked spines on the bur, and have two spines on the end that are larger and not as strongly hooked.

Besides these two, there are a number of other “burred” plants on our farm with which we are all too familiar. In our woodlands we see Sweet Cicely, a plant with attractive fern-like leaves and white flowers, that forms black needle-like seeds that not only are sharp but also possess barbs that cause them to work deep into the flesh of their hosts. We have found these nuisances almost completely buried in our dogs’ skins. The plant is reminiscent of anise and smells much like licorice.

Another bothersome plant is agrimony, which is rather gangly and grows up to two or three feet high. The leaves are compound with deeply toothed leaflets that have little leaflets interspersed between the larger ones.  Long slender flowering stalks bear a line of multiple tiny yellow flowers during the summer that mature into cone-shaped seed capsules. The problem is that these are equipped with a ring of crochet hooks at the wide end that will dislodge at the slightest touch and latch onto the fur or clothing of any passerby.

Rough avens is a native perennial plant with light green stems that are covered with coarse spreading hairs. The lower leaves often are made up of five leaflets while the upper ones are usually three-parted or simple. The upper stems end in hairy stalks supporting one to three ½” white flowers, each consisting of 5 petals and 5 triangular green sepals around a large cluster of green carpels. Each flower is replaced by a cluster of small, dry, one-seeded fruits that have sharp hooks that can cling to the fur of mammals, feathers of birds, and clothing of humans.

Possibly the most abundant of the sticky-seeded plants is the tick trefoil, a legume that has alternate compound leaves and a central stem that ends in an long raceme of up to a dozen pale purple pea-shaped flowers. These are replaced by flat seedpods about 1-3" long that are rounded on both the upper and lower sides. The surfaces of these are covered with hooked hairs that can cling to clothing or fur, and individual segments can break off and cling to more than one passing carrier.

An interesting story goes with these descriptions. One day in 1948, an amateur Swiss mountaineer and naturalist, George de Mestral, went on a walk with his dog and returned home covered with burs. He inspected one through his microscope and saw numerous small hooks clinging to the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. It gave him the idea for a two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burs possessed and the other side with soft loops like fabric. He thought it might rival the zipper and named it Velcro®, a combination of the words velour and crochet.

Mestral's idea was met with resistance and even laughter at first, but he worked with a weaver at a textile plant in France, and perfected his "hook and loop fastener." This design was finally patented in 1955, and today his company, Velcro Industries, is a multi-million dollar company. Talk about silk from a sow’s ear...


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August 15, 2011: Doodlebugs and  Chiggers


Writers for horror films have often used insects as inspiration to spice up their movies, sometimes enlarging them to monster size to enhance the effect. In the Star Trek II film, "The Wrath of Khan!" they used a large scale-model of a little doodlebug, and most viewers probably didn’t realize that this remarkable creature really exists. Properly called an ant lion, the tiny insect makes funnel-shaped, crater-like pits in soft dirt or sand, and then waits patiently at the bottom to ambush any hapless passer-by that happens to fall in.

This doodlebug is the larva of a winged insect that looks much like a damselfly, and has an enormous pair of sickle-like jaws with several sharp, tooth-like hollow projections that pierce the victim. These inject venom that dissolves the prey’s body contents into a liquid that can then be sucked up. Ant lions seek out dry, sunny spots sheltered from wind and rain that has sand or light soil that is easy to move. Pushing itself backward, the larva first inscribes a circle on the ground. Then, digging deeper and deeper, it spirals in toward the center, throwing the dirt out with its long jaws.

When a crawling insect, such as an ant, inadvertently falls into the pit, it is virtually impossible for it to scale the loose sand on the steep walls. To make matters worse, the waiting ant lion flips up more sand, thus deepening the pit and causing a miniature landslide that knocks the struggling ant to the bottom and its open jaws. In contrast to the movie and fortunately for us and other mammals, this larva grows only to ½ inch in length.

When it is fully grown, the doodlebug moves deeper into the sand to construct a cocoon. It extends its heavy abdomen and extrudes white silken threads that glue the sand grains into a hollow sphere around it. When the cocoon is completed, the larva transforms into a pupa where it remains for several weeks or over the winter. When the pupa hatches, the transformed insect breaks through the wall of the sand cocoon and pushes itself up to the surface.

It climbs up onto a nearby branch or twig and hangs until its wings are expanded and dry, and then flutters away in search of a mate. At this point, it is about 1 ½ in. long with a wingspan of about 3 in., and has two pairs of long, narrow, many-veined wings and a long, slender abdomen. It can be easily distinguished from a damselfly, however, because it flies only at night and has longer, clubbed antennae. An adult ant lion may eat small flies or drink water, but its real purpose now is reproduction, and it lives only long enough to mate and lay eggs.

While ant lions are only an oddity for humans, the larvae of another tiny predator do attack us at this time of year. The chigger is less than 1/150 of an inch in diameter and almost invisible to the unaided eye, although when several cluster together their bright red color makes them easier to see. A single pass through infested grasses and weeds can collect dozens of these mites on one’s clothing or bare skin.

Chiggers have long legs and can move rapidly over a person's body in just a few minutes but usually stay on clothing until they come to an easy opening such as cuff, collar or waistband. When they find skin, they insert their tiny specialized mouthparts into skin depressions, usually at skin pores or hair follicles and inject saliva that contains a powerful digestive enzyme that literally dissolves the body cells. It is this liquefied tissue that the chigger sucks up for food. Left undisturbed, it will alternately inject saliva into the bite and then suck up liquid tissue for several days, gradually creating a bigger and bigger itchy welt.

After feeding on its host, the larva drops to the ground and becomes a nymph, then matures into an adult that has 8 legs and feeds on plant materials. The females lay 3–8 eggs in a clutch, usually on a leaf or under the roots of a plant, and die by autumn. It is only the early stage that causes us grief.

If you are as sensitive to chigger bites as I am, you may be interested in these tips that I gleaned from the internet and plan to try in the future: chiggers are most active in afternoons when the ground temperature is between 77 and 86 degrees. Wear tightly woven socks and clothes, long pants, long sleeved shirts, and high shoes or boots. Change clothes as soon as possible, and wash them. Regular mosquito repellents will also repel chiggers but I read that powdered sulfur is by far the most effective repellent.

Still, I read that the best precaution against chigger bites is simply taking a warm soapy bath with plenty of scrubbing as soon as possible. Attached chiggers are evidently removed by even the lightest rubbing and you can remove chiggers before they do much damage by frequently rubbing down with a towel or a cloth. Good luck!




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August 9, 2011: Tiger Swallowtails

It takes only about a month for a butterfly to develop from a tiny egg to an incredible flying machine. Its early life is spent as an elongated bag with legs looking nothing like its adult self, and its incredible appetite is often so particular that it may starve if not provided with a specific type of greenery. It grows so quickly that its skin cannot keep up with its increasing girth and must split and be discarded four or five times. The final molt reveals an entirely different object – a soft, legless, wingless thing that hardens into an unobtrusive pupa or (more properly) a chrysalis.

Inside the seemingly inert pupa, an almost unbelievable transformation occurs, and when complete – sometimes in a week or two or sometimes not until the following spring – the adult insect emerges from its casing and spreads its delicate wings. Each wing is made up of a membrane supported by a network of hollow veins and covered with thousands of miniscule scales that form the patterns that identify each species. The new creature no longer eats leaves, but extends a tube-like tongue to sip up the nectar that it finds inside the flower blossoms in our gardens.

Our largest butterflies are members of the family called swallowtails because they have projections on their hindwings that look a bit like the long, pointed tails of -- what else? -- swallows. We typically see three species, although a few others – the spicebush, zebra, and pipevine -- occasionally make an appearance. Relatively common are the black swallowtail that grows up on plants of the carrot family, the giant swallowtail whose larvae feed upon the prickly ash that is such a nuisance in our woodlands, and the tiger swallowtail.

You can easily identify the Eastern tiger swallowtail by its size and its bright yellow color, with black striped markings on its wings and body. The outer edges and lower portions of its wings are also black and marked with iridescent blue and orange. The tiger is found throughout the country and feeds on a variety of plants, but in Wisconsin its most frequent food plant is the wild black cherry tree, although one sometimes feeds on other members of the rose and citrus families.

Overwintering pupae hatch in May, but the largest numbers of tiger swallowtails are usually seen when their offspring mature in late July and early August. We see these beautiful insects flitting about in our flower gardens but sometimes they can be found on the ground sucking up moisture in damp spots. Males particularly participate in this behavior that is called puddling, during which they obtain the sodium ions and amino acids that they need for reproduction. Females will occasionally puddle, but are seldom seen in groups. Dung, carrion, and urine also attract them.

The male releases perfume-like pheromones to attract any passing females. When one responds, the pair join in a frantic aerial dance, then land on a branch and mate. Soon, the female begins to search the area for a place to lay her eggs. She uses her well-developed senses of smell and taste to find a suitable food plant, using the receptors located in her antennae and feet. When these tell her she has found a good spot, she moves about laying her tiny green eggs one at a time until they are all gone.

In approximately ten days, the caterpillars chew their way out of the eggs and almost immediately begin to eat the leaves of the host plant. Young tigers are brown and white and are thought to resemble bird droppings (camouflage?) but by the time they have molted several times they have green skins with two black, yellow, and blue eyespots behind their heads. At this stage they often hide inside a curled up leaf in such a way that an intruder might mistake the eyespots for those of a snake and presumably be frightened off.

Swallowtail caterpillars also have another unique protective device. Each possesses an osmeterium, an orange, fleshy organ that emits a foul-smelling repellent chemical. Normally hidden, the osmeterium is located on the first segment of the thorax just behind the head, and can be pushed out when the caterpillar feels threatened. The sudden sight of these twin projections is startling and presumably resembles a forked snake tongue.

When the caterpillar reaches its full growth, it will fasten its tail to a tree trunk, wooden post or other support with silk, and spin a thin silk girdle to support itself in an upright position. After a day or so, it will molt a final time, revealing a green or dark brown chrysalis that has two horn-like projections on the head and another on the thorax.  If this occurs early in the summer, the butterfly will continue to develop and hatch in two or three weeks, but if there is not sufficient time for the developing butterfly to mature, the chrysalis will go into hibernation and remain there until spring.

Butterflies are an added bonus to our yards and gardens, providing food for other creatures, pollinating our plants, and adding pleasure to our lives. I have always found them fascinating and hope you do, as well. 



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August 2, 2011: Bird Brains


We have been blessed with a particularly spectacular blueberry crop this year, but found that we have had to erect a netting tent over the whole area to keep any for ourselves. It did not take the robins and catbirds very long to find chinks in our armor, however. They did have two minor mishaps – one caught its leg in the netting, and another couldn’t find a way out and had to be rescued – but otherwise these avian marauders come and go almost at will. They are much too smart for us.

Another bird behavior we often exclaim about is that of the hummingbirds when we allow their feeders to empty. They have been known to peer in the kitchen window where we are sitting at the table and demand attention. Just how intelligent are these “bird brains”?

Avian brains got their bad reputation a century ago from the German neurobiologist Ludwig Edinger who concluded that without a six-layered cortex such as humans possess, birds could not possibly be intelligent and their brains only allow instinctual behaviors. This view is still found in many biology textbooks, but Dr. Harvey Karten, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, is challenging it.
   
“There is a bird way and a mammal way to create intelligence”, Dr. Karten said. “For example, in mammals, sensory information - sights, sounds, touch - flows through a lower brain region called the thalamus and enters the cortex at the fourth layer in the six-layered cortex. In birds, sensory information flows through the thalamus and enters specific clusters that are functionally equivalent to the fourth layer.”

Anatomically, a bird has a relatively large brain. Most species have large eyes with excellent vision and sensitive ears, and some also have good senses of smell and touch. They communicate with each other using visual signals as well as through the use of calls and song, but scientists have found it difficult to or measure or even define their intelligence. 

Meanwhile, anecdotal examples of bird intelligence continue to emerge from observers worldwide. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England found that relative to its body size, the crow brain is the same size as that of the chimpanzee. New Caledonian crows create complex tools with their beaks and feet, trimming twigs to fashion them into hooks. Some have been known to make spears out of barbed leaves that they use to probe into holes for prey.

The ability to count has long been considered an indicator of intelligence. E.H. Hoh wrote in Natural History magazine about diving birds called cormorants used by Chinese fishermen. (Perhaps you have seen pictures of the tethered birds that dive for fish and bring them back to the boat, but are prevented from swallowing them by rings around their necks.) The fishermen allow the birds to eat every eighth fish they catch and the writer reported that once their quota of seven fish was filled, the birds would not move again until their neck ring was loosened and they received their fish. "One is forced to conclude that these birds can count up to seven," he wrote.

At a university campus in Japan, carrion crows line up patiently at the curb waiting for a traffic light to turn red. When cars stop, they hop into the crosswalk, place walnuts from nearby trees and then wait for vehicles to crush the hard shells.
Californian crows have also been observed dropping walnuts onto a well-traveled road after evidently seeing nuts fall naturally from an overhanging tree. The crows already knew about dropping clams from a height on the seashore to break them open, but found this did not work for walnuts because of their soft green outer shells.

Some birds have amazing memories. Clark nutcrackers can hide up to 30,000 seeds and recover them up to six months later. Furthermore, if they see another bird watching them as they cache food, they return later to rehide it.  In a laboratory, researchers found that chickadees would not cache seeds in the presence of potential thief (a red-breasted nuthatch that they had previously seen pilfering their seeds), and choose instead to hide them in the presence of dark-eyed juncos that don't normally raid food caches, indicating that they could distinguish between species and were well aware of the threat from the nuthatches.

Today, in the journal, Nature Neuroscience Reviews, an international group of avian experts insists that nearly everything written in anatomy textbooks about the brains of birds is wrong. They argue that the avian brain is as complex, flexible and inventive as any mammalian brain. Certainly some birds are naturally smarter than others, but given their wide range of behaviors we are just beginning to understand that birds are far more complex than we ever imagined. They assert that a reanalysis of avian brains gives new credibility to many behaviors that seem odd coming from presumably dumb birds, but everyone agrees that there is still much research to be done.


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July 28, 2011: Beauiful Beetle Pests!

Insects commonly lay large numbers of eggs, as predators eat the great majority of their offspring before they can mature to reproduce. It is usually only when a species is introduced into a new area where no such controls exist that numbers skyrocket and cause damage. Take the invasion of Japanese beetles, for instance:

The original population was detected in New Jersey in 1916, and the pests have gradually moved westward through the country. The adult beetles are known to feed on over 400 species of broad-leaved plants, and emerge from the ground in the middle of the summer. The first beetles out of the ground seek suitable food plants and begin to feed, releasing a pheromone (chemical) that attracts others.  After the females mate they burrow into the soil to lay a few eggs and then return to feed and then mate again. This cycle of feeding, mating and egg laying continues until each female has laid 40 to 60 eggs.

The hatching larvae feed on a wide variety of underground plant roots including those of ornamental trees and shrubs, garden and truck crops and turf grasses, tunneling deeper in the winter and then returning to the surface as the soil temperature warms come spring. The mature grubs form pupae in June and emerge as adults a few weeks later. We saw our first individuals only a few years ago in this area and now, in spite of running a beetle collection several times a day throughout the season, we have literally thousands of the insects around our farmyard.

Despite our disgust at the damage they inflict, it is hard not to be impressed by their striking appearance. The adults are a brilliant, iridescent green color, their wing covers are copper-brown and they have a row of five tufts of white hairs on each side of the abdomen. I even considered trying to create a mosaic by gluing their dried bodies to some object or another, but decided I had better things to do.

Such brilliant color seems strange because, unlike birds, the beetles rely on chemical attraction instead of showy hues to attract mates. It also might seem that the colorful appearance of these beetles would advertise their presence to predators although it is important to understand that what those hunters discern may be entirely different from what we see. Entomologists point out that the leafy environment the insects inhabit is often lit up by flashes of sunlight as breezes blow and the glistening surfaces of these beetles may blend in well with those surroundings.

Many insects, including the Japanese beetles, show iridescent colors. Iridescence is an optical phenomenon in which a hue changes as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. When talking about iridescence, it helps to remember that light is a wave and can be described by its wavelength (the distance between identical points on the wave). Waves can also be described by their phase -- the position of their crests (high points) and troughs (low points). When two waves are in phase, their crests and troughs would match if placed on top of one another. If the phase of the two waves is different by some multiple of one full wavelength, the two waves are said to have constructive interference and this is what happens in iridescence. It causes the two waves to complement each other and strengthen the reflection, and creates more intense colors than ordinary pigments ever could.

Constructive interference amplifies the colors of a butterfly's wings. As small as they are, butterfly wings are covered by thousands of microscopic scales split into two or three layers, and each scale also has multiple layers separated by air. When light hits the different layers, it is reflected numerous times, and the combination of all these reflections causes the very intense colors that you see in many species. Some butterfly displays even extend into the ultraviolet spectrum, which is visible to butterflies but not to humans.

The outermost surface of iridescent beetles is made of many stacks of slanting, plate-like layers, which are oriented in different directions and can act as a reflection diffraction grating. These layers bend, and then reflect the incoming light in the same way and produce structural colors by interference in the same way as the scales on butterfly wings. A layer of pigment below the refractive plates of beetles often enhances the effect of the iridescence although the exact mechanism of the structural color for many species is an open topic of research.

Most insect structural colors are in the green-blue-violet range, but red, gold, and copper colors may also be produced. The shade of color and its intensity are determined by several factors, including the thickness and spacing of the layers of the scales, the number of these layers, and the angle of the incoming light. Possibly the most spectacular beetle in our area is the dogbane beetle – a native insect that is much better behaved than the Japanese beetle and is found only on that wildflower. Perhaps knowing a bit about these various showy insects makes them easier to tolerate in the garden although I will admit that it has not changed my opinion of the pesky ones.




July 21, 2011:  When a Berry Isn't a Berry


In our younger days, we were enthusiastic about harvesting the native fruits that grow on the farm -- spending hours collecting raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, and even mulberries. We ate our fill and then froze the rest, later processing them into jams or adding them into muffins or pancakes.

First to ripen were the raspberries. We never found many of the red variety, even though there is a native species that reportedly can be found throughout the Midwest, as well as a European type that has escaped into the wild. The two species are difficult to tell apart as the most distinctive physical difference is the presence of gland-tipped hairs on first-year canes on the native plant.

Both red raspberries have perennial root systems that put up biennial stems – that is, each cane lives two years. In its first year, a new, unbranched stem grows quickly to its full height of five or more feet, bearing large compound leaves with five or seven leaflets. In its second year the stem produces side shoots that bear smaller leaves and racemes of white flowers. (A raceme is a simple bloom cluster such as the lily of the valley in which the flowers are borne on short stalks at equal distances along a stem and open in succession from the lowest to the tip).

Botanists tell us that the raspberry is not a berry at all, but a cluster of individual fruits they call drupelets around a central core. A drupe is a fruit in which its flesh is enclosed in a skin and surrounds a hardened shell with a seed inside. In raspberries, the drupelets separate from the core when picked leaving a hollow, in contrast to most of their relatives where the drupelets are firmly attached to the core.

While we seldom see red raspberries, we have great numbers of black raspberry plants – locally called blackcaps. The black raspberry is closely related to the red raspberries, sharing the distinctively white underside of the leaves and fruit that readily detaches from the core, but differing in the ripe fruit being black, and in the stems being more prickly. The black fruit makes them look like blackberries, though this is only superficial, with the taste being unique and not like either the red raspberry or the blackberry.

Black raspberries are high in anthocyanins and have proved to be very useful as natural dyes and, since anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants, of a great deal of interest in them for their potential value in medicine. Extensive work has been ongoing at Ohio State University to evaluate their benefit for cancer treatment, and the first clinical trials on patients with esophageal cancer are in progress.

Researcher Gary Stoner recently joined the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, bringing his work on the value of black raspberries from Ohio State. His team removes the juice, freeze-dries the berries and grinds them into a powder that is then given to patients with precancerous lesions. They found that the treatment works on areas it actually touches like the mouth and esophagus, thought not through the blood stream and not on full-blown cancer. "They increase your ability to detoxify carcinogens. ... They reduce oxidative damage from free radicals," Stoner said.

Mature blackberry plants form a tangle of dense arching stems, the tips of the branches rooting where they reach the ground. Vigorous and growing rapidly in woods and in hedgerows, blackberry shrubs tolerate poor soils, readily colonizing wasteland, ditches and vacant lots. The flowers on blackberries are more showy than those on raspberry canes and may be pale pink or all white. The fruit is also much larger and ripens after the other berries have gone. Blackberries must be pulled from their stems as the drupes are firmly attached to their cores. The stems usually have numerous short curved very sharp prickles that are often erroneously called thorns and much of the horticulture effort has centered on developing prickle-free cultivars.  

The final type of berries we pick in our woods – the mulberry -- grows on a small tree and is actually of more interest to the wildlife than us. There are two mulberries in the United States, and ours is the red, the native species, in contrast to the introduced white mulberry. It bears great numbers of juicy, dark-red to purple fruits that songbirds especially enjoy but we find rather tasteless. We found that our collie Sunny has found them tasty however, as she ate so many she gave herself indigestion.

As the years have gone by, we have been content to leave most of the harvesting of these fruits to the wildlife, but enjoy watching the various animals, birds and other creatures enjoy them. They make up an important part of the food chain for many of our residents.

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July 12, 2011:Cougars, and bears, and wolves, OH, MY!

The Wilson Creek area was somewhat agog this last week after a picture circulated on the Internet reportedly taken by a game camera belonging to a local resident. It clearly showed a cougar (also known as puma, mountain lion, panther, or catamount) with the carcass of a deer in the background, and seemed to prove that the animal was roaming in our own backyards.

We have heard tales of this big cat being present in southwestern Wisconsin as long as we have owned the farm, but this is the first presumably solid evidence that the stories might be true. Bill and I knew for a fact the source of one of these instances as we had a hand in its creation. Years ago, our two collies came home stuck up with burdocks and full of rotting venison that they promptly threw up on the living room rug. Determined to avoid a repeat performance, we followed them up over the hill to a thicket where we found the remains of a deer. We knew we had to dispose of it in such a way as to prevent the dogs from continuing their visits and hoisted the carcass up out of their reach into the lower branches of a nearby tree. Imagine our surprise and amusement when we heard that it had been discovered by a hunter who reported that only a cougar could have stashed it there.

The cougar is a large tawny-colored cat with black-tipped ears and long tail. An adult male may be more than eight feet long nose to tail, and weigh some 150 pounds while an adult female can be 7 ft long and weigh about 75 pounds. It can run as fast as 30 mph, jump 20 ft from a standing position, and vertically leap 8 ft. It prefers to hunt a large mammal such as a deer but will eat small animals if desperate. It hunts alone, usually waiting in ambush and killing with a bite at the base of the skull to break the neck. What cannot be eaten immediately is buried or partially covered to hide it for a future meal.

Wild cougars probably disappeared from the state by about 1910, but reports again began to surface in the 1940s of their presence in the state. Although wildlife biologists felt that these were probably cases of escaped captives or wrongly identified, it is true that established cougar populations are found as close as North and South Dakota. Transient cougars dispersing from these areas have been known to travel hundreds of miles in search of new territory. Characteristic evidence of cougars include tracks, which are about three inches long by three and a half inches wide and typically show no claw marks, or suspicious kill sites, such as deer carcasses that are largely intact and have been buried with sticks and debris. Since 1991, the Wisconsin DNR has conducted a standardized system of collecting reports of cougars and other rare mammals.

Genetic testing confirmed the presence of two male cougars in December 2009, in northwest Wisconsin. One of these cats had traveled through the suburbs of the Twin Cities in early December and probably crossed the frozen river near Stillwater, Minnesota. It was later detected near Cable in Bayfield County. Another animal was killed in traffic in the Chicago area after passing through the state.  Several other encounters have occurred in the past two years, the closest being a probable attack on a young heifer on a farm in the Town of Wonewoc.

Experts tell us that all sightings have been young males, and that female cougars do not wonder far from their home ranges and are not likely to set up housekeeping this far East. Still, the reports continue to occur, and although it was finally revealed that the photo of the animal in the local e-mails was only posted as a joke, we can’t discount the possibility that one of these impressive and potentially dangerous cats will pass through our area.

In fact, what I consider a reliable source reported strange and very loud roars from an unseen animal across our valley just last week!  Here’s another reason to keep your eyes open!



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July 6, 2011: Babies and More Babies

Babies are everywhere you look around the farmyard. Bird babies of all colors and sizes fight over who should get first use of the bathing facilities at the little pond. Rabbit babies overrun the lawn. Kestrel babies squawk constantly, complaining they are on the verge of starvation while making so much noise it must be extremely difficult for the harried parents to catch a mouse or sparrow that has not been warned of their presence. Fawns gamble in the hay field. Tadpoles of all sizes line up along the edges of both ponds, while toads and grey tree frogs still sing and presumably continue to lay eggs. Caterpillars are appearing, along with holes in the leaves of all sorts of plants.

Most wild babies have to grow up quickly as the great majority ends up as meals for other species, and the faster they become proficient at moving around and caring for themselves, the more likely they are to survive. Two weeks is a common length of time for the average songbird to grow from a blind, naked mite to a fully feathered creature capable of flying about (although most do depend upon their parents to teach them how to find food for another couple of weeks). Rabbits can care for themselves by the time they are a few weeks old and a little brown bat can fly when only 18 days old.

If a species is going to sustain itself, each breeding female must replace herself with another breeding female before she dies. (The survival of any one male is less significant as most take many mates during their lifetimes.) The numbers are amazing. Take American robins as an instance. In order for robins to continue to arrive each spring and nest in our apple trees, each pair will have two or sometimes three broods each year. Each brood contains three to five eggs, so a female could produce from six to fifteen young each year and therefore up to thirty babies in the two years she usually lives, and considerably more should she survive longer. If she and her mate only need to replace themselves, what happens to all those extra offspring?

A coyote pair has an average of six young each year, although it may be as few as two and as many as a dozen. They can expect to live 6-8 years, according to the DNR statistics, and if so, will probably have had at least 30 pups and possibly as many as a hundred.

Consider the cottontail: a female that survives long enough to leave its nest can expect to live about a year, although some have been known to live four or five years. She will have three or four litters each year with three to eight young per litter, although a few up to l0 have been reported. Therefore, she would probably have had at least 25 young and possibly many more. Farther south, cottontails may breed year round with as many as 7 litters a year. We should be overrun!

The female Monarch lays about 400 eggs during her six or eight months of life, and it has been estimated that our common toad produces close to 5000 eggs. It is not known how long these amphibians live in the wild laying long strings of eggs each spring and filling many a puddle and pond with their tadpoles, but they have been known to subsist for more than 30 years in captivity. 

One of the most prolific breeders of all the mammals is the meadow vole, a small, common rodent that lives in grassy fields and marshes and is a close relative of our deer mouse and that pesky house mouse. It is a short stubby rodent with a rounded face, small eyes, short fur, and a very short tail. There are 4 species of voles in Wisconsin but only the meadow vole occurs in any numbers. It lives above ground, creating little round tunnels in grassy vegetation and eating foliage and seeds and sometimes tender tree bark, and can cause severe damage, especially during winter when it is active under the snow.

Females can have 10 litters per year if conditions are favorable, and if one assumes an average litter contains six offspring, the numbers are staggering. Voles are born naked and blind but they are fully furred after 10 days, and reach sexual maturity at 5-7 weeks. The arithmetic becomes complicated, but if a single female bears litters of six babies in March and April and her female pups begin their own litters just two months after birth that would then reach breeding age in another two months, by the end of the season her total offspring could top 1000 new rodents.

Some of these various babies are killed in accidents and a fair percentage are struck down by disease, but the great majority becomes part of the wild food chain. They are preyed upon by hawks, owls, foxes, domestic cats and dogs, snakes, crows, herons, shrews, skunks, bullfrogs, snapping turtles, largemouth bass, and raccoons. Nature can be cruel to an individual but the goal is survival of each species and barring major problems, this usually is accomplished and the babies are certainly cute.


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June 28, 2011:  Bucky and Friends

We live in The Badger State, display the animal’s picture on our clothing and other items, and cheer the teams that carry the name, but chances are that few of us have ever seen one of these creatures in the wild. They are highly elusive animals, and are most active at night. As a result, even basic information like how many are still in Wisconsin and where they can be found is unknown. This knowledge is essential for badgers' continued survival in the state, as much of their native habitat has been converted to agriculture.

The badger is a member of the weasel family and is roughly the size of a large raccoon. The female weighs 15 to 17 lbs whereas a male can reach 25 lbs or more. It is a distinctive looking animal with long grey hair, a stout, flattened body, short legs, and a white stripe that runs down the snout. It has large claws on its strong front limbs that it uses for digging, and is especially adept at capturing burrowing mammals such as woodchucks, ground squirrels, and gophers. It will eat almost anything it can catch, however, and also feeds on voles, mice, ground-nesting birds, insects, and carrion, providing an important service in helping to control rodents and other agricultural pests.

Badgers are solitary animals and despite their "waddle-like" walk, most hunt over large home ranges that vary in size depending on the availability of prey. Kits are born in the spring and remain with their mother until late summer at which time they strike out on their own -- sometimes traveling long distances from their mother's range. This is a very dangerous time as many are killed while attempting to cross roads and railroads.

Annual badger hunts in Wisconsin used to harvest up to 4600 animals. The average price for a pelt was $1.95 and the fur was used for clothing as well as shaving brushes. The take eventually began to drop, however, and only 128 animals were shot or trapped in Wisconsin in 1954, with an average pelt value of only 29 cents.

In 1957, the badger became Wisconsin's official state animal, suggested by the nickname given to some of Wisconsin's earliest European settlers, Cornish and Welsh miners who spent much of their time tunneling in the dirt like badgers. Also, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, adopted Buckingham U. Badger ("Bucky") as their mascot. Badgers had a reputation for being fearsome and tenacious, two characteristics that made them popular as mascots for the teams. At the same time they were given protected status and all hunting and trapping was halted.

Emily Latch, a recently arrived assistant biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee thought it strange that there was no current research being carried on about the badger when the state used the animal as its mascot, and decided to do something about it. She suggested that little study had been done on the badger because it was neither endangered nor a game animal in Wisconsin. Plus, it was difficult to find.

"They're nocturnal, they're mean, they're underground, they're solitary - all of which makes them difficult for research," said Latch.  "I didn't want the badger to fall into the situation where you've got Bucky Badger but no badgers". So she and a graduate student recently started the Wisconsin Badger Genetics Project to learn more about these secretive, nocturnal, digging machines whose preferred grassland habitat has been increasingly lost.

With funding from the Department of Natural Resources, they recently set up a web site - <badgerresearch.uwm.edu> - and printed fliers to get the word out. They hope to collect DNA samples from as many badgers as they can through both road-kill and live animals. Once they learn more about their population and distribution, they hope to correlate information with habitat and perhaps reintroduce animals to promising areas where they have been eliminated.

As part of the project, they hope to set up video and trail cameras, using tracking stations that capture claw prints, and perhaps even affix radio transmitters to some of the animals. Except for nursing mothers, badgers typically stay in a burrow for only a few days before moving on and digging another den. The researchers are encouraging people who see burrows, especially active ones, to contact them so they can set up hair snares (designed to grab a few hairs without hurting the animals) in an attempt to obtain DNA.  At this point, they report that they have obtained five samples from each of Dane, Iowa, and Columbia Countries, but only one in Sauk and none in Richland County.

Collecting the genetic signature of as many different animals as possible is the primary goal and they hope to begin to estimate population numbers, movement patterns, and even territory sizes. We are asked to help in this study so keep your eyes open for burrows and be sure to report any activity you see.
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June 21, 2011: Silk a Miracle Fiber

Drive along a country road after a foggy night and you will probably see hundreds of spider webs, made unusually visible by the dew droplets caught on their strands. One common variety is spun by the bowl and doily spider, a tiny arachnid only about a quarter inch long, that weaves a fairly complex structure consisting of an inverted dome shaped web, or "bowl", suspended above a horizontal sheet web, or "doily".

Other sheet web types include the classic cobweb – a messy, irregular but quite effective trap with sticky outer threads, and the funnel web that includes a hideaway that houses the spider. It feels vibrations of an intruder, rushes out and bites it, and carries it back into the funnel. The orb web spider, in contrast, constructs a rectangle-like frame of silk and then adds numerous rays of sticky silk radiating from the center to the frame with spirals of silk laid down over all.

Spider silk is a remarkably strong material with tensile strength comparable to that of high-grade steel, although it has only about a fifth its density and a strand long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than 18 ounces. All spiders produce silk and can make up to seven types. By winding the varieties together in varying proportions, spiders can form a wide range of fiber material for different uses. These include constructing a web to capture prey, as well as wrapping up paralyzed creatures for future use. Some enclose their eggs in silk sacs that protect them until they hatch, and others line their nests with the fibers. Newly hatched spiderlings often extrude several threads into the air and let themselves be carried away by upward breezes to populate new areas.

Spiders have special glands that secrete the silk proteins, which are made up of chains of amino acids dissolved in a water-based solution. The spider pushes the liquid solution through long ducts, leading to microscopic spigots on the spider's spinnerets, typically located at the rear of the abdomen. These wind the strands together to form the sturdy silk fiber. New information just released is also thought to prove that some tarantulas can produce silk from glands on their feet that seem to help them negotiate slippery inclines.

The best-known type of silk, however, is not that of spiders, but is found in the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm – an insect that no longer lives in the wild and is completely domesticated. Its larva makes silk in its salivary glands and has a spinneret on its lower lip from which it draws the fiber. The shimmering appearance of silk is due to its triangular prism-like structure, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles, thus producing different colors.

There are five major types of silk of commercial importance, obtained from different species of silkworms: these are Mulberry silk that constitutes the bulk of world silk production; Tasar silk produced by another species of silkworm which is reared outdoors on Asan and Arjun trees; Oak Tasar, a finer variety produced in both India and China by two different varieties of silkworm; Eri, a silk spun from open-ended cocoons unlike other varieties of silk, and created by a domesticated silkworm which feeds mainly on castor leaves; and Muga, a golden yellow color silk that is exclusive to India and is obtained from a semi-domesticated silkworm that feeds on the aromatic leaves of Som and Soalu plants.

While spiders and the larvae of many moths and butterflies are well known producers of silk, they are not the only invertebrates that use it. Dr Tara Sutherland and her Entomology group from The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia are looking at silks produced by other insects.  “Most people are unaware that bees and ants produce silk, but they do and its molecular structure is very different from that of the structure of moth and spider silk. The cocoon and nest silks we looked at consist of coiled coils - a protein structural arrangement where multiple helices wind around each other. This structure produces a light weight, very tough silk,” she says. Honeybee larvae produce silk to reinforce the wax cells in which they pupate, some ant larvae spin solitary cocoons for protection during pupation, bumblebee larvae spin cocoons within wax hives, and weaver ants use their larvae as ‘tools’ to fasten fresh plant leaves together to form large communal nests.

The first successful man-made silks were developed in the 1890s of cellulose fiber and marketed as art silk or viscose, a name officially changed to rayon in the 1920s. Nylon, the first synthetic fiber, was developed in the late 1930s and used as a replacement for Japanese silk during World War II. Its properties are far superior to rayon and silk when wet, and so it was used for many military applications, such as parachutes. In the present day, imitation silk may be made with rayon, mercerized cotton, polyester, or a blend of these materials: still, despite a generally similar appearance, genuine silk has unique features that have never been duplicated. We still have much to learn from Mother Nature.



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June 14, 2011: Weeds, Weeds, and More Weeds!

This is a Year of the Weed. If you are gardener or just enjoy looking at cultivated areas, you probably have noticed that undesirable plants have been growing with a bit more enthusiasm than usual and we have had to work harder to hold them in check. I suspect this has been true because this spring’s cool temperatures and abundant rainfall has favored them over more delicate plantings and they took over before we realized it.

A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered to be a nuisance, and the name has normally applied to unwanted plants in farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, and woods. More specifically, the term describes plants that grow and reproduce aggressively to the detriment of more desirable growth. Weeds may be unsightly, or crowd out or restrict light to other plants or use up limited nutrients from the soil. Some weeds have thorns or prickles, while others have chemicals that cause skin irritation or are hazardous if eaten, or have parts that come off and attach to fur or clothes.

The State of Wisconsin has named some 75 plants to be considered invasive or noxious weeds. Some twelve of these are trees, and include Norway maple, Chinese elm, and white poplar. Another dozen or so are shrubs such as Japanese barberry, honeysuckle, Russian olive, and euonymus. A few are grasses including reed canary grass, quack, and even Kentucky bluegrass. Some so called weeds are even considered desirable by some and have been sold and planted deliberately -- periwinkle, crown vetch, multiflora rose, forget-me-nots, purple loosestrife, dame’s rocket, and orange daylily, among others.

A new invasive species rule, Chapter NR 40, took effect September 1, 2009, that aims to keep out new invaders and allows the DNR to move more rapidly to prevent them from getting established when they're detected. So many different non-native species have been documented on land and in water that you might think there is no hope that invasives can be contained or controlled, but that is not the case for all species. A team of DNR staff specialists and the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species working with an advisory group identified over 120 species as being invasive and grouped them as plants, fish and crayfish, other vertebrates and invertebrates and plant disease causing microorganisms. Each organism was classified as either prohibited or restricted, warranting different actions.

Prohibited species are those that are not yet known to be established in Wisconsin that would likely cause serious problems if left unchecked. As a prevention strategy, no person may transport, possess, transfer or introduce any of these species without a permit and when a prohibited species is discovered, the goal is to eradicate it if feasible or at least prevent it from spreading. Wisconsin DNR staff will work with the landowner to determine the best method of control, and where possible, will seek to find funding, equipment, volunteers or other assistance to help with the control.

Restricted species are usually fairly widespread throughout the region and the chance of statewide eradication is low. Many of these species have already caused substantial economic and environmental damage and some are known to harm human health. If a restricted species is present on your property, control is encouraged but is not required.  Some plant species are listed in both categories – restricted where the species is already established and prohibited in large portions of the state where it has not been found.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has received a federal grant of nearly $806,000 to pay for herbicide spraying of an invasive aggressive weed starting this August. Phragmites, also called the common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world and is found on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Bay of Green Bay. In North America, it was commonly considered an exotic and often invasive species introduced from Europe, although there is evidence that one variety was present long before Europeans arrived on the continent. Phragmites can grow up to 20 feet tall and commonly forms extensive stands which may be as much as 1/3 mile across, spreading 16 feet or more each year by horizontal runners. It likes damp ground but can grow in standing water up to 3 feet deep, or even as a floating mat, crowding out native species and obscuring waterfront views.

The Nature Conservancy suggests several guidelines to help slow the introduction and spread of invasive species. Know what plants you have in your yard and on land over which you have some control and be sure any plants you introduce are not invasive. Clean your shoes before you hike in a new area to get rid of hitchhiking weed seeds. (This is especially important in areas infested with garlic mustard.) Don’t move firewood that might harbor forest pests. When boating, clean your boat thoroughly before transporting it to a different body of water and don't release aquarium fish or plants, or live bait into the wild. We can prevent more than forest fires...


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June 8, 2011
: Gnats: Pesky Critters


One of the irritations that we sometimes encounter at this time of year is walking into a large swarm of tiny insects or perhaps sitting on the porch and finding ourselves engulfed. They buzz around one’s head, and often seem to be particularly attracted to the eyes and nose. They are sometimes called gnats, flies, midges and no-see-ums, and contrary to popular belief, these tiny flying insects are not "babies", but adults. Just what are these pesky critters?

Gnat is the common name for any of the small, winged insects in the fly family. The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name, such as mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, and butterflies, and it is a huge order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, including mosquitoes, gnats, and midges. They are attracted to the carbon dioxide in your breath because the rotten fruits and stuff upon which they depend for food also emit CO2 vapors and they are investigating to see if you are good to eat. Body odors such as sweat and lactic acid, combined with heat, are also enticing agents, and any moisture, whether on the body or in standing water, attract them as potential breeding grounds or sources of blood.

Adult gnats range in size from one to three millimeters, depending upon the species, and can be separated into several general types. Black gnats are seldom truly black and there are over 1,000 species worldwide. They lay their eggs in all types of moving water and their larvae spend about ten days clinging to rocks and water plants before emerging as adults. These prefer to feed on flower nectar, but females also feed on blood and will bite humans. They often move about in large swarms and although they are most active in the morning, they are more apt to bite as nightfall approaches. These flies also have been known to spread disease and have caused river blindness in Africa and parts of North America.

Biting midges (including what are called no-see-ums, sand flies, and punkies) are a group that is closely related to black flies. They are found in almost any aquatic habitat throughout the world and the females of most species are adapted to suck blood from some kind of host animal. Larvae are always found in damp locations such as under bark, in rotten wood, compost, mud, stream margins, tree holes, or water-holding plants. The smaller members of the family are tiny enough to pass through typical window screens, and camping tents are often equipped with extra-fine mesh netting to keep the pests out.  Many of the blood-eating species are found in beach or mountain habitats and may be carriers of disease-causing viruses, protozoa, and filarial worms. In humans, their bites can cause itchy, red welts that can persist for more than a week, the discomfort arising from an allergic reaction to the proteins in their saliva.

House gnat is the name many people use for small flying insects they see in their homes. Most commonly encountered is the fruit fly that can often be found hovering near food in the kitchen. Many of these are brought in with the fruits and vegetables from stores, but some also can come in from the garden. These can be any of the hundreds of species but fall into two general categories – larger, colorfully marked insects or a smaller type that includes the important species that are used in modern research.  Also sometimes found in the home are fungus gnats that thrive in the damp soil of over-watered houseplants. Their larvae feed on decomposing organic matter in the pots, and if the population is large, the plant's roots and root system will be in danger. They are most harmful to small plants and large healthy plants are less likely to be damaged.

Frit or grass flies are usually yellow or black and appear shiny due to the lack of any hairs. The majority of their larvae feed on plants, mainly on grasses, and can be major pests of grains. A few species will feed on eye secretions such as tears and other body fluids, and are particularly bothersome around one’s face.

Gall gnats are very fragile small insects characterized by long antennae and hairy wings, unusual among the flies. Their larvae damage plants by producing chemicals that cause the host plants to form abnormal swellings that both protect and feed the growing grubs. Many are economically significant such as the important insect pest of wheat, the Hessian fly, whose galls can cause severe damage to the crop. Other important pests include the lentil flower midge and the alfalfa sprout midge on legumes, the raspberry cane midge on fruit crops; and the rosette gall midge on goldenrod stalks.

Husband Bill contends that two simple procedures are effective in thwarting any of gnats that attempt to harass you: breathe forcefully off to the side to divert their aim on your CO2, and wave a black cherry leafy twig in front of your face. Good luck...

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May 30, 2011: Nests of all Kinds

When I passed the open machine shed in the farmyard, a female robin squawked and practically collided with me as she flew out in a rush. It was obvious that she had tucked a nest onto one of the shed beams and there it was at eye level in plain sight.

The female robin builds a cup nest of mud, sticks and grasses in a protected area on a firm support. It can be anywhere from ground to treetop in height but the site must be on something sturdy enough to anchor the nest securely in place and where it would be protected from sun, wind and rain. It should also be very close to a good feeding area and not too far from water.

It takes a female robin untold numbers of trips to gather materials to build the nest. She begins by collecting mouthfuls of mud in her beak after a soaking rain and laying a foundation. Then she gathers several hundred tiny twigs and dead grass blades and uses her bill and feet to weave them together, cementing them to each other and to the support with mud. After each addition, the female climbs into the growing structure and uses her body to compress the mud, smoothing and shaping it with her breast. The nest must be tight and snug enough to cradle the eggs and hold in warmth, but large enough to hold four or even five growing nestlings.
     
Other bird nests vary from a simple accumulation of materials on the ground to elaborate refuges in secluded sites. Scrape nests are simple depressions in the ground -- sometimes with a few stones or twigs added -- or in the leaf litter. Such nests are used by ruffed grouse, pheasants, quail, nighthawks, vultures, many ducks, and most shorebirds. Bank swallows and belted kingfishers burrow right into the ground to create nests that are very effective at protecting eggs and young from predators and most bad weather.

Cavity nests are also used by woodpeckers, owls, wood ducks, and some songbirds but these holes are not in the earth but in trees. Woodpeckers use their strong beaks to create hollows in living and dead tree trunks and branches, and the other birds take over the holes for their own use when the woodpeckers abandon them.

Bald eagles, that use substantial sticks as much as two inches thick and several feet long, make sturdy and long lasting platform nests. They may look like a jumble of materials, but the sticks are usually placed in layers, beginning with a triangle, followed by more rotated, triangular layers. Hawks, geese, cranes, and herons also build relatively flat nests--some located on the ground, in trees, or on the tops of rooted vegetation or debris in shallow water.

The most complex constructions are associated with orioles that build intricately woven pendant nests. The female chooses a tall tree that has hanging branches and winds a long animal hair or plant fiber around a strong twig. She adds another fiber winding it around the first and the twig, and keeps adding and weaving material until she has a tangled mass hanging from three or four anchors. This will become one side of the nest. The female then starts weaving in fibers and twigs to form the nest's skeleton, and weaves in more fibers to fill it out. As it starts to get round, she sits inside and pushes and presses on the bottom and sides to shape it until it feels secure.

Many of these more complex nests require days and even weeks of work, but after one use, most nests are abandoned. Even the cleanest bird family can't keep mites, lice and flies out, and once they get started, they can really multiply fast, making an old nest unsafe for a new batch of babies. At least 2500 species of mites from 40 families are closely associated with birds, occupying all conceivable habitats in the nests and on the bodies of their hosts, and no birds are free from a mite associate. These mites have short generation times and can rapidly build up huge populations. Blood-feeding nest mites can slow development or even kill chicks.

Our family had some experience with bird mites while staying over-night in a cabin some years ago. Only a thin wall separated a recently occupied phoebe nest outside under the eaves from where our young sons were sleeping in upper bunks. The hungry mites promptly moved indoors and by morning, the boys were covered with bites.

It is believed that nest building is primarily instinctive, as birds tend to build nests that are very similar to others of their species, regardless of where they are located. In addition, captive birds raised by themselves also build similar nests proving that they were not learning techniques from example. That said, some learning is also involved because older birds usually build 'better' nests than young birds that are making their first attempt. Some also seem to like special adornments, and candy wrappers, cellophane, shredded money – even barbed wire – have shown up in nests. Keep your eyes open and see how many different types you can discover.



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May 24, 2011: The Amazing Ruby Throat

You have to be impressed with a ruby-throated hummingbird: it is only about three and a half inches from its beak to the tip of its tail and weighs only about 1/8th ounce; its body temperature is at least 105ºF and it breathes 250 times a minute at rest and 1200 times when flying; its wings beat an average of about 50 times each second and it normally flies at about 30 mph but may go as fast as 60 mph when diving; and most live three or four years, a surprisingly long life for such a tiny creature with a long and difficult migration.

Probably the most intriguing fact for many scientists (as well as us amateurs) is the fact that the hummingbird flies to Mexico or Central America each fall and then returns to the same feeders or gardens to breed year after year. What's more, according to professional banders working for many years, they often stop at the same spots along the way and arrive on the same date! How do they do that?

There doesn’t seem to be any one answer. Young, inexperienced birds appear to have an inborn ability to travel in a particular direction for a specified time and distance on their first migration, but on the return journey and forever afterwards they seem to use a variety of cues to guide them back to the area from which they came.

Available evidence clearly indicates that most birds have a number of ‘compasses’ that can be used for orientation and determining their location. Thus, many birds can determine where they are and then select a course or direction that will take them to their goal. They can potentially choose from several compass mechanisms, including magnetic cues as well as the location and movement of the sun and stars.

Many birds have iron oxide particles in certain neurons in their heads, primarily in the upper beak. Electrophysiological recordings from associated nerves and the results of several behavioral studies indicate that these iron-based receptors provide birds with information about magnetic field intensity and direction. The earth’s magnetic field, caused by electrical current generated by its rotating molten core, is slightly tilted relative to the spin axis so the two poles (magnetic north and south) are located several hundred kilometers from the geographic poles. Field lines leave the earth at the southern magnetic pole, curve around, and then re-enter the earth and the northern magnetic pole.

The compasses we use simply point to magnetic poles. In contrast, the avian magnetic compass is an inclination compass; that is, birds use the inclination of magnetic field lines relative to the earth’s surface. It is thought that the magnetic field may be translated into a visual pattern transmitted to the brain from the retina allowing the bird to determine its direction of movement relative to a magnetic pole and the magnetic equator.

Day-migrating birds use the sun's position in the sky -- and where it is at different times of day -- to stay on course. (Scientists think the pineal gland on the tops of birds' brains is sensitive to light.) Birds using the sun for orientation must compensate for the sun’s movement, a task made more difficult by variation in the speed of movement during the day. In addition, the rate of change in the sun’s azimuth varies with latitude and season. Despite this apparent complexity, birds that use the sun compass appear to have a precise understanding of how the sun’s azimuth changes.

Star-compass orientation has also been demonstrated in several species of night-migrating songbirds, but it has been determined that birds that use stellar cues for orientation must learn to use this ‘compass’ by observation. Experiments have also revealed that birds do not rely on specific stars like the North Star, but from the position of stars and constellations relative to each other and to the celestial pole.

When nearing its goal, a bird likely uses finer landscape features such as general topography, patterns generated by areas or patches of different habitat types, bodies of water, and, in some areas, man-made features such as roads and tall buildings. Finally, birds likely use specific features or landmarks in their breeding territory or wintering area, to determine that they have arrived at the desired destination. Some scientists wonder whether birds even use their senses of smell and hearing to locate familiar places.

All of this innate programming and learned information in a hummingbird takes place in a brain about the size of a grain of rice, and if that doesn’t make you shake your head in bewilderment, nothing will. Mother Nature continues to amaze and tantalize us with the wonders of her creation.



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May 17, 2011: Flowering Trees


While daffodils, tulips, and the wildflowers such as trillium and anemones are highly prized in our gardens, the plants that really draw our attention at this time are the flowering trees. Few sights can rival a magnolia or apple tree in full bloom, but the fact is every tree flowers in the spring, even before the leaves appear.

Blossoms are the reproductive structures whose function is to allow sperm to unite with eggs in plants. They come in a bewildering variety of shapes and sizes, but all must have at least one of four basic parts. The typical flower has both male and female structures. The basic unit of the male organ is known as the stamen, and there may be any number of these usually radiating out from the blossom's center. When the stamen is sexually mature, an organ on its tip splits open and yellow, dust-like pollen emerges carrying within them the plant's male sex cells. The female structure is found in the center of the blossom and contains an ovary that produces egg cells. It possesses a sticky tip that collects the pollen and becomes the pathway for pollen tubes which direct the male cells to the ovary.

Before a typical flower opens, it is folded neatly inside a small tight bud that protects it from insects, temperature extremes, sunlight, and other things. When conditions are favorable, the tough covering splits and spreads into segments called sepals, and as the blossom continues to enlarge, this structure remains at its base. (Some flowers have no sepals at all but others may be quite prominent and petal-like.) Inside the sepals are usually found the petals, typically five. These are almost always thin, soft and brightly colored to attract creatures that help pollination. Inside the whorl or whorls of petals are the stamens and inside those are the ovaries that produce the egg cells and ultimately the seeds.

Flowering crab, apple and magnolia trees have what are called perfect flowers—that is, they possess all four basic structures displayed prominently for all to see.  These can pollinate themselves, but many of our other trees have what have been designated as imperfect flowers. Each contains only one set of reproductive organs, so they are either male or female and it takes both types to create seeds. Imperfect flowers may be pollinated by animals, insects, weather or humans, but they will always need some sort of outside help in order to transfer the pollen.

Oak trees flower in two stages: first comes the production of the male flowers on long slender stalks called catkins that emerge from mixed buds at the ends of the branches; second are the female flowers, which are located at the base of a leaf node on a new branch or twig. The timing of the two stages is staggered on any given tree to prevent self-pollination.  The male flowers have no petals and so are relatively inconspicuous but they contain pollen sacks that swell and release the pollen into the wind. The wind carries the pollen to neighboring trees that have already opened their female flowers.

Catkins form on the trees in late summer, remaining tight, smooth, and closed throughout the winter. They begin to expand in early spring, with most flowering before the leaves appear, or at least before the leaves get too large. As catkins rely on wind to spread their pollen, this arrangement prevents the leaves from interfering with fertilization. Other trees with catkins include willows, aspens, poplars, birches, alders, mulberries, walnuts, and hickories. In the Willow family, both male and female flowers occur in the form of catkins, and usually a given tree is either male or female. Some species such as pussy willows start out with a silvery fuzz, followed by stamens with yellow, pollen-bearing heads.

American elm is one of the first trees to come into flower, and has perfect, creamy-brown to greenish red flowers. The blossoms do not have petals, but are noticeable because they sway on drooping stalks when most other trees still stand bare and seemingly lifeless. Maple flowers are also very early and may be green, yellow, orange or red, depending upon the species. Though individually small, the effect of an entire tree in flower can be striking and they are a welcome source of pollen and nectar for bees.

Aspens have drooping male catkins but many other male catkins are small and upright. Birches also have small, upright female catkins but the female flowers of most of the various species take other forms, usually smaller and round, and these develop later in the year into acorns, alder cones, hickory nuts, walnuts, and other fruits. Walnuts, hickories, and oaks flower a bit later and after the female flowers are fertilized, the male catkins wither and drop.

It is tempting to just smell the wild plum blossoms along the road and to feast your eyes on the flowering crab trees in the village, but also take time to look for all the other flowers on the trees in our yards, woodlots and forests.

   

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May 5, 2011: A Walk in the Woods

One of the most spectacular songbirds that spend the summer with us is the rose-breasted grosbeak. It belongs to the cardinal family and has the same large beak – hence that part of its name. Adult birds are about seven inches long and the male has a jet-black head, wings, back and tail, white patches on its wings and underparts, and a bright rose-red patch on its breast. The adult female has dark grey-brown upperparts and looks much like a large sparrow except for its outsized beak, and is nearly twice the weight of its mate.

We have had several males visiting the one basket feeder we are still maintaining, and have enjoyed their relatively friendly ways and certainly their showy plumage. It was with dismay, therefore, when—right before our eyes—one was snatched off the basket and borne to the ground in a flurry of feathers. A female sharp-shinned hawk not much bigger than the grosbeak had seen the activity in the old apple tree, and helped itself to an easy meal.

The sharp-shinned is the smallest hawk to reside in the United States and Canada and has become a regular visitor to bird feeders, where it eats the birds, not the seed. These days, fewer of the hawks may even be migrating south, preferring instead to stay farther north where they have found a dependable winter food source at feeders.

Sharpies typically nest in forests, preferably those with conifers, and place a substantial platform of large conifer twigs on a horizontal limb high in a dense tree. Both males and females engage in territorial displays in which the birds fly with stiff, slow wing beats while exposing white under their tails, and giving their "kik-kik-kik" call. They capture birds by quietly sneaking up on them and then pouncing, or after a short chase.

We have been pleased to greet other old avian friends, as well. A male hummingbird showed up last Wednesday at the nectar feeder on the patio door, making us glad that we had made up a supply of syrup and put it out. According to a website where watchers post their sightings, the first hummer was spotted along the Gulf coast the end of February, and one was seen in this area the middle of April, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Still, it is hard to imagine the distances that tiny bird traveled since it left us last fall and we are glad to see it back.

The nectar feeder in the front yard has also attracted a pair of northern orioles this week. I don’t know how these birds manage to extract syrup from the small holes in the feeder, but presumably their tongues are long enough to reach it. I should put out some jelly, as it would be easier for them to get.  A wren has also been singing several places around the farmyard, checking out the houses Bill cleaned out for him to inspect, and claiming them with a few twigs. Robins are already nesting in the sheds and we have picked up broken bits of blue eggshells so I assume there are babies in some of the nurseries. We have even seen barn swallows skimming the fields near the house for flying insects, and one guest reported seeing an indigo bunting—often the last migrant to appear each spring.

Much as we enjoy watching the birds return, the wildflowers command an equal amount of our attention, and a constant procession of blossoms keeps us revisiting each trail every few days to avoid missing any of them. The bloodroot, Dutchman’s britches and hepatica blossoms are almost gone, although the leaves are still growing larger and their seeds are yet to come; the anemones, bellwort, violets, and Virginia bluebells are in full bloom; and just emerging are the blue wood phlox, shooting stars, columbine, and may apples.

The star of our wild garden show is the yellow ladyslipper, with the showy orchis a close second. We always replant at least half of the ladyslippers we dig for the sale so that now there are some hundred plants just in our wild garden as well as many more out around the farm. The golden pouches shine in the sun when fully developed and each year more appear as the plants divide and maybe even seed. Although these wild orchids have no federal protection, Wisconsin lists them as plants of special concern, and we are pleased to see their numbers increase on our farm as well as to distribute a few each year to others.

The showy orchis is a much smaller member of the orchid family that s occurs in small clusters. Each plant has a 6-8 inch stalk rising between two flat, glossy leaves and displaying up to a dozen flowers, each of which consists of a pink hood over a white, spurred lip petal. This was the first wild flower I found when I cleared the area for my wild garden and so is especially treasured.

May your springtime be blessed with warm breezes, bright sunshine mixed with sufficient showers, singing birds, myriads of fragrant colorful flowers, and the will to see, hear, smell, and feel the wonders that surround us.



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May 3, 2011: A Walk in the Woods


The last couple of weeks, we have been spending long delightful hours in the wild garden preparing for our open houses and marveling at the richness and variety of plants that flourish there. The plot was originally the grape arbor of the old bachelor who owned the farm, and after he died the neglected vines spread across the ground sheltering a sparse collection of miscellaneous odds and ends.

When we first explored the area, there was little but a couple dozen spindly aspen, hickory, and elms growing on mostly bare ground. Still, it was close to the farmyard and the discovery of several showy orchis plants hiding among the weeds led us to guess that it might be a potential spot for a wild garden. We thinned out the remaining grape vines and cut a number of the unwanted trees.

We laid out paths and covered them with sawdust, collected plants from other spots on the farm where they grew in profusion, and bought in others that were native to Southwest Wisconsin. Each year since, their numbers have increased and now each spring is a treasure hunt to find the seedlings that have spread throughout the area. The various parts of our natural woods tend to produce just a few species in any one spot, making one wonder if the conditions are special in each particular location, but here, the plants all thrive together. Whatever the reason, the results are worth getting out and seeing, and if you didn't make it last week, we hope you will visit this Saturday or Sunday.

A wild garden is home to far more things than wildflowers, but whether creatures make their presence known depends upon their shyness, the time of day or sometimes the weather. Warm sun brings butterflies and bees to visit the blossoms of the prairie flowers; birds are enthusiastically establishing their territories and pairing up regardless of the weather; and the snakes are emerging from their winter shelters. Warm evenings bring out the moths, singing tree frogs and toads, mice and other burrowing rodents, and sometimes the larger animals like raccoons and possums.

Many of the migrant birds have not yet arrived, but the chipping and song sparrows, as well as the phoebes, are here and busily setting up housekeeping. The chipper is a small gray-breasted sparrow with a bright rufous cap and a black line through its eye. Its chicks develop at an amazing rate. Each starts as a blind, naked mite weighting less than 2 grams, and 14 days later it is fully feathered and flying. The song sparrow is larger than the chipper and can be identified by its song as well as its streaked breast with a prominent blotchy spot at the center.

The Eastern phoebe, a flycatcher, also arrives early for one who depends upon flying insects for food, and I would think that they must go hungry on many of these cold spring days. All of the flycatchers have wide, flat bills that have hairy bristles at the base, presumably to help them funnel insects into their mouths, and they fly out from a perch to snatch prey in mid-flight. We have several pairs that nest around the farm buildings, and a favorite usually builds under the eaves of the little stone building we use as headquarters for our plant sales. For many years the female used a site directly over the doorway but she has since moved around to the back of the building, no doubt considering the human traffic too intrusive.

We often have spied an occasional tiger swallowtail butterfly along with the painted ladies, cabbage, blues, and tortoise shells that usually appear on warmish days in April. The tiger has distinctive yellow and black striped markings and usually has a wingspan of four or five inches. An interesting fact about its development is that its mature caterpillar has markings that resemble large yellow eyes with black pupils on its green body, and when it wraps itself in a leaf, looks remarkably like a snake. This year with its slow warm-up, all the butterflies are scarce.

It is hard to miss the activities of the amphibians. The spring peeper is a woodland tree frog that must find semi-permanent water in which to lay its eggs. The male makes a distinctive peeping much like that of a baby chick and a large chorus can be ear splitting. We almost never see a peeper during the rest of the year as they do most of their hunting and moving about after dark, but they appear by the dozen at our ponds in April. Another tree frog, the eastern gray, is about 2 ½ inches long and may be any color from bright green to gray, depending upon its surroundings, its temperature, and its activities. If you can catch one, you would find that the insides of its thighs and legs are always bright orange and that it has large toe pads that allow it to climb on any surface, even glass windows.

We enjoyed seeing so many of you last weekend at our first open house and hope the weather will be more amiable this coming weekend. There are still many dozen varieties of potted native plants for sale, and you are welcome to just come and enjoy a spring day in the Wisconsin outdoors.  You could also bring your mother to view the wild garden or buy a plant for her for Mother’s Day.


April 26, 2011: Courting Birds

Most people consider bluebirds to be their favorite songbirds, and so are usually willing to forgive almost any strange behavior they might exhibit. I was surprised then to have neighbors across the hill expressing somewhat negative feelings about them. It seems that a pair has claimed a bluebird house near their barn and are now showing their displeasure on any vehicles parked in the vicinity. Evidently they mistake their own images in any reflective surfaces—particularly the side mirrors on the family cars—for competing bluebirds, and not only attack them repeatedly, but deposit their droppings in such a way as to completely cover the surfaces.

Bluebirds are not the only birds to cause problems in the springtime. Woodpeckers are notorious for hammering on wooden shingles, cedar or redwood siding, and metal or plastic gutters, particularly those materials that produce loud hollow sounds. Unlike most other birds, woodpeckers do not sing and so advertise their territories and attract mates by drumming. The exact pattern of the drumming will vary in tempo, length and rhythm depending on the woodpecker species, and they have special physical adaptations that allow them to peck quickly and repeatedly on hard objects without hurting themselves. Thicker skulls cushion the birds' brains and heads from hard impacts, and strong neck muscles allow them to drum for long periods of time without strain. Their bills are also thick, straight and sturdy to withstand drumming impacts.

Every species of bird performs its courtship in a slightly different manner. These differences help to ensure that only birds of the same species will mate, and that each bird is attracted to a member of the opposite sex. Before mating season, many male birds grow colorful plumage that they show off in various ways. Others that are less colorful often use complicated and individual songs to identify themselves and to attract a mate. Depending on the type of behavior, how the birds react in courtship can also display strength, health and mating desirability, allowing different birds to choose the best partners and ensure viable offspring.

Singing is one of the common ways birds try to attract a mate and songs vary in complexity or variety. Singing can also advertise the boundaries of one bird’s territory and warn off competitors. For some species, only the males will sing, while for other species the pair may duet as part of the bonding ritual.

Bright plumage colors and elaborate displays of prominent feathers, skin sacs or body shape can show off how strong and healthy a bird is, advertising its suitability as a mate. Peafowl are one of the best-known bird species for their stunning display with the males’ extensive fans, though other birds may use subtle changes in posture to show off their plumage just as enthusiastically.

Physical movements, from daring dives to intricate behaviors including wing flaps, head dips, or different steps can be part of a courtship ritual. In many species, the male alone will dance or perform aerobatics for his female while she observes his actions, while in other species both partners will interact with one another. Dance mistakes evidently show inexperience or hesitancy and the pair often fair to mate.

The birds may lightly preen one another, sit with their bodies touching or otherwise lean on one another. Offering food is another common act of the bird courtship behavior for many species. Typically a male bird may bring a morsel to the female, presumably demonstrating that he is able not only to find food, but that he will share it and is able to provide for her while she incubates eggs or tends the brood.

Some birds even seek to attract a mate by showing off their architectural skills. Constructing nests before the female arrives is a way for males to claim territory and show the suitable nesting areas they can defend. They may also decorate the nest with pebbles, moss, flowers or even litter to make it more eye-catching. The female may then choose the nest she prefers, or she may still build her own after mating with her chosen male.

It is an interesting springtime activity to observe their varying courtships going on all around us, but discouraging persistent courting birds can be a challenge for a homeowner. This is important not only to avoid unsightly messes, but also to prevent the enthusiastic birds from hurting themselves. Sometimes, all it takes is moving a vehicle or covering its mirrors, but often the only final solution is patience, for the birds will soon be too busy raising a family to continue the behavior.

Do come out to the farm and visit us one of the next two weekends at our open houses. There will be lots of birds, and also wildflowers to see and purchase if you wish, as well as tours of the woodworking business. We’ll be looking for you.


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April 19, 2011: Consider the sparrow...

When many people speak of sparrows, they are usually thinking of the house sparrow, a plump brown and gray bird with a black bib. It is a noisy creature that can be found almost anywhere in town or rural areas and flies about in small flocks, pecking around on the ground. It occurs naturally and without a problem in most of Europe and Asia, but has followed humans all over the world and thrived. In the United States it is usually known as the 'English Sparrow', to distinguish it from native sparrow species, and the birds we see are descended from birds imported from Britain between 1850 and 1875 as a means of pest control.

Along with two other introduced species, the European starling and the rock pigeon, these are some of our most common birds. Though described as tame and semi-domestic, they remain wary at the same time that they take advantage of human food and shelter. At least three broods are reared in a season and now in mid-April, nest-building has already well begun. The nest is typically an untidy litter of straw and rubbish, abundantly filled with feathers.

While the house sparrow has been around all winter, three other native American sparrows are just arriving back from their winter migration. The song sparrow, field sparrow and chipping sparrow spend the summer in our area and might be confused with it, although they are members of a different bird family and display none of the undesirable behavior of that bird.

Listen for the song sparrow, a russet-and-gray bird with bold streaks down its white chest. It perches on the tip of a branch of a low shrub or tree and sings its beautiful song. It is found throughout most of North America, but it varies in size and coloration depending upon its location.  Like many other songbirds, the male uses its song to attract a mate as well as defend its territory, and females have been observed to prefer the mates whose songs are most complicated and varied.

The song sparrow nest is usually placed near the ground in a clump of grasses or weeds, sometimes even close to human habitation in the garden. The female normally only lays only one clutch of eggs each breeding season unless the nest is destroyed, although in exceptionally good conditions, one female was seen to rear four broods. The nest is a simple, sturdy cup made of loose grasses, weeds, and bark on the outside, and lined with grasses, rootlets, and animal hair.

Song sparrows eat mainly seeds and fruits, but also feed on many kinds of insects and other small creatures in summer. They walk or hop on the ground and flit through branches, grass, and weeds. Courting birds fly together, fluttering their wings, with tails cocked up and legs dangling. They are primarily monogamous, but up to 20 percent of all song sparrows sire young with multiple mates each breeding season. In fall, they may band together in loose flocks and often fly from perch to perch, characteristically pumping their tails downward as they fly.

The smaller field sparrow is also singing right now, a simple, yet distinctive song of repeated clear whistled notes on one pitch that increase in rate until they make a trill. It is a common, drab sparrow of brushy pastures and old fields and can best be identified by its pink beak and reddish cap.

If a male field sparrow survives the winter, it usually returns to breed in the same territory each year, and will begin to sing as soon as it arrives. It sings until he finds a mate (usually not the same as the past year’s as the female is less likely to return to the same territory), but after that sings only occasionally.

The field sparrow typically will fly to the top of a grass or weed stalk, let its weight carry the stem to the ground, and then begin removing any seed. It also feeds on insects and other small creatures. Its nest is placed on or near ground in a grass clump or at the base of a shrub, and is an open cup of large grass blades interwoven with finer grasses and lined with grasses, rootlets, and hair.

The third even smaller sparrow is the chipper. Its loud, trilling song is one of the most common sounds of spring in woodlands and suburbs, and the bird sports a bright rufous cap that makes adults fairly easy to identify. When we had horses, we sometimes found their small delicate nests made entirely of long hairs from tail or mane. Chipping sparrows mainly eat seeds of a great variety of grasses and herbs, but also hunt for insects and small fruits such as cherries.

The next time you see a small brown and gray bird hopping around on the ground, take time to look and listen closely. It may be one of our native American sparrows and you will enjoy learning to recognize the three described above as well as others that also visit us. If you see none in your area, come visit us at one of our wildflower openhouses, April 30th and May 1st, or the following weekend. You likely will see all three plus many lovely flowers.


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April 12, 2011:   Hepatica: First Among Many

One of the minor miracles that occur every spring is the appearance of the ephemeral woodland wildflowers. The snow has been gone and the ground thawed for only a short time, and already the pink, white and lavender blossoms of hepatica have opened in the woods. How do they manage that? Some say that it is the protective downy hairs that cover the hepatica flower buds when they emerge that may help insulate them from the cool temperatures, while others think the moist earth probably buffers the extremes of the day and night temperatures. Also, the flowers close on cloudy cold days and at night.

Perhaps the hepatica can withstand the inclement days of early April because of their makeup. Botanists tell us that the colorful parts of their flowers are not petals but hardier sepals, modified leaves that enclose and protect the pistil and stamens (the reproductive organs). They also say that what appear to be three sepals just beneath the stamens are actually another type of modified leaves called bracts. By looking carefully, one can see that the bracts are not attached immediately beneath the colorful flower parts as they would be if they were sepals, but these terms make little differences to us non-scientists who just enjoy their beauty. There are two sub-species, a round-lobed variety and the pointed-lobed type, but only the shape of their leaves separate them. The pistils and stamens turn green after fertilization, and this is one characteristic used to separate this plant from the closely related anemone.

The fact is that most of our native woodland wildflowers must bloom before the trees leaf out. This strategy allows the plants to utilize the sun’s energy to photosynthesize and thus make essential carbohydrates while the sun’s rays are still able to reach the forest floor. In some plants such as the Virginia bluebells and Dutchman’s breeches, the plants complete their entire production of leaves, flowers, and seeds within a few weeks and then disappear completely until the following spring. These store the carbohydrate manufactured by the leaves in underground tubers or corms that lie dormant throughout the rest of the summer and winter, and so are able to produce new plants quickly when spring arrives.

In the case of hepatica that has neither a tuber nor corm, the leaves produced in the spring of one year remain on the plant through the winter and into the next spring’s blooming period. It is thought that these leaves may even photosynthesize to a minor extent on warm winter days and are ready to begin full food manufacturing before the leaves of other plants have even appeared. The old leaves wither only after the flowers have begun to form seeds and by May, fresh green leaves unfurl and begin to capture the sun’s energy once again for the coming year’s growth.

The seeds of hepatica have a small, fleshy appendage called an elaisome which is very attractive to ants. These insects collect the seeds and carry them back to their nests where they consume the tasty part and then discard the seeds that often then germinate and grow in their new locations. Rodents, the prime consumer of most of the seeds, are less likely to find all of them if they are spread out around the area instead of just dropping below the mother plants, so the ants are important agents in ensuring their survival.

Hepaticas may be the first flowers to bloom in the woods but several other species join them in succeeding days. The blossoms of the spring beauty are smaller but just as lovely, and more buds are present that continue to open over a longer period. They have five white petals with fine pink stripes, and their leaves are narrow and almost grass-like. Both the leaves and stem rise from pea-sized underground corms that Native Americans and early settlers found were very good to eat, and as the plants spread into large patches, it was not difficult to find a meal, despite their small size.

Bloodroot, whose name comes from the reddish sap found in its thick branching rhizome, has a much larger and showier flower than either the hepatica or spring beauty. Each flower bud emerges wrapped in a single lobed leaf, and then opens to display eight to twelve delicate white petals. The blossoms last only a day or two but the rhizome spreads into a thick patch that usually continues to produce sprouts for several weeks. The flowers are pollinated by small bees and flies, and after the blossoms drop their petals, seeds develop in elongated green pods. The leaves expand to their full size and eventually go dormant in mid summer.

This is a lovely time to visit the woodlands. Mosquitoes, gnats and deer flies are not yet a problem, and leafy foliage has not blocked the view of the surrounding hills nor hidden the birds – both migrants and nest-builders. Each day or two, new wildflowers will open their blossoms and soon the shadbush and wild plum will be blooming as well. Don’t miss them.


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April 5, 2011:  Ever Seen a Lichen?


This is the “in-between” period along the trails – the snow is gone and the branches of most trees and shrubs are bare, the grasses are brown and mostly knocked flat, the colors are all grays and browns. Leaves and flowers are present only in our dreams, but if you look closely you can still find patches of bright green scattered here and there. Mosses and lichens that go unnoticed most of the year stand out now and there are more of these than you might think.

Lichens are often confused with mosses, in part because many common names for lichens include the word “moss.” In fact, the two organisms are radically different and are not even in the same kingdom. Lichens are fascinating, however, and often overlooked because they are small and not very showy. They grow all over the world and are used for dyes, animal fodder, ornamentation, medicines, and religious practices.

A lichen is unique because it is made up of two very different organisms that are completely dependent upon each other -- a fungus and either algae or cyanobacteria (often called "blue-green algae"). Despite the “algae” name, cyanobacteria are units that live inside cells, in contrast to algae that can vary from small, single-celled organisms to complex multicellular forms and may resemble plants. Cyanobacteria live in water, and can manufacture their own food but because they are bacteria, they are quite small. They often grow in colonies large enough to see, however, and have the distinction of being related to the oldest known fossils, more than 3.5 billion years old. They remain one of the largest and most important groups of bacteria on earth.

Many Proterozoic oil deposits were formed by the activity of cyanobacteria, as was the oxygen atmosphere upon which we depend. They are also important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in the cultivation of rice and beans. The other great contribution of the cyanobacteria is their role in the life of plants, living within their cells and making their food in return for a home.

The symbiotic (mutually beneficial relationship) nature of lichen was not fully understood until the 19th century, when the idea was first raised. Lichens form a fascinating example of cooperative relationships in nature, with the fungus using the algae or bacteria to produce energy, while the algae or bacteria enjoy the support and protection the fungus provides.

Lichens take several forms. Some have a brightly colored crusty appearance and can be found growing flat on rocks. Others are leafy or stringy and are often found on the ground or around trees. These usually form stalks, which sometimes develop bright fruiting bodies. Still others are gelatinous lichens that are made mostly of blue-green algae with only a little fungus present.  The gelatinous appearance is from the mucilage commonly found on the exterior of blue-green algae cells.

The body of most lichens is quite different from those of either the fungus or alga growing separately, and may resemble a simple plant. The fungus surrounds the algal and cyanobacteria cells, and in many species the fungus penetrates their cell walls. The algae and cyanobacteria use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide into organic carbon sugars to feed the lichen, while the fungus retains water, and sometimes provides minerals obtained from the surface on which it lives.  Both partners gain water and mineral nutrients mainly from the atmosphere, through rain and dust.

Lichens reproduce in several ways. Many produce fungal spores that then attempt to capture partner algae or bacteria, while others reproduce through fragments of the lichen that break off and scatter. They do not have roots and so can grow in locations impossible for most plants such as arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts, and toxic slag heaps – but they are also abundant on leaves and branches in rain forests and Midwestern woodland, on bare rock, and on exposed soil surfaces. Lichens are widespread and may be long-lived and may be useful to scientists in assessing the effects of air pollution, ozone depletion, and metal contamination.

Moss, on the other hand, is a plant and one of the most genetically diverse on Earth, including some 10,000 species. Moss can be found all over the world as well, and it forms a major role by holding back erosion, retaining water, and feeding numerous animal and insect species. Moss has been around in various forms for millions of years, and it reproduces by casting out spores. Like lichen, moss can also reproduce from broken off parts of the parent plant.

I never really believe in spring’s arrival when crocuses and other domestic flowers bloom in the garden, as they are often fooled into appearing too early, but since I began this article, the temperatures outdoors have moderated a bit and the first buds have opened on the hepatica in the woods. Now that is something to celebrate!

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March 29, 2011: Turkey Vultures Perform a Vital Service

I’m a week late with this news but decided to report it anyway on the slight chance that you might want to put the occasion on your calendar for next year. Every March 15 since 1957, the city of Hinckley, Ohio, has eagerly awaited the return of the buzzards. The celebration starts at 6:30 AM at the Hinckley Reservation where early risers share coffee and treats and compete for the first sighting. The buzzard has become a sort of local folk hero, and, among other things, it has been the mascot and logo for Cleveland rock station, WMMS, "the Home of the Buzzard" for decades.

“Buzzard” is a common name for the turkey vulture. This large bird with the bald red head is native to the Americas from southern Canada to the tip of Cape Horn. The typical adult has a six-foot wingspan and weighs only about 3 pounds. Its body feathers are mostly brownish-black, but the feathers on the wings appear to be silvery-gray beneath. It is awkward on the ground with an ungainly, hopping walk but is beautiful in flight. While soaring, it holds its wings in a shallow V-shape and often tips from side to side, frequently causing the gray flight feathers to appear silvery as they catch the light.

The turkey vulture plays a critical role in our environment as it helps recycle the bodies of dead animals, and the lack of feathers on the head seems to play an important role in keeping the bird clean of contamination. The corrosive enzymes in its stomach and sophisticated immune system are able to kill a number of deadly organisms, including salmonella and bacteria that cause anthrax, hog cholera, and botulism.

In India, South Africa and Spain some years ago, vultures were maligned as undesirable ugly carrion feeders and their populations plummeted due to poisoning, shootings and an avian virus. Eventually it was realized that their disappearance was accompanied with an increase in disease and polluted waters. Finally, the governments of these countries established captive breeding programs to reestablish the populations, and today “vulture restaurants” have been created to ensure that these increasingly endangered birds survive. 
   
Turkey vultures are very social birds that mate for life.  They are slow breeders but can live to be 40-50 years old.  The birds soar together in groups, sometimes forming large spiraling “kettles” as they catch updrafts. The breeding season takes place in the spring and courtship rituals involve several birds gathering in a circle, where they perform hopping movements around the perimeter of the ring with wings partially spread. These actions take place in relative silence as the birds lack a syrinx (a avian voice box) and can only utter hisses and grunts.

The female generally lays two cream-colored spotted eggs on the bare rock or ground in a protected outcropping, a burrow, inside a hollow tree, or in a thicket. Both parents incubate, and the helpless young hatch after 30 to 40 days. Both adults feed the chicks by regurgitating food for them, and the young fledge at about nine to ten weeks although family groups remain together until fall.

The turkey vulture has excellent eyesight and can see a dead animal from afar and also keep an eye out for other vultures that may have found a meal. It is particularly fond of dead snakes but will also take advantage of road kill of any type.  When food is scarce, it has also been known to eat vegetables such as rotting pumpkins and sometimes fruit and grasses. In addition to sight, the turkey vulture forages by smell, an ability that is uncommon among birds. The olfactory lobe of its brain, responsible for processing smells, is particularly large compared to that of other animals. However, the carrion needs to be at least 12 days old for them to smell and they prefer freshly dead animals to those that are more decayed. 

At night, the vultures roost communally, often using the same sites for generations. Come morning, they are often seen high in a tree with their wings outstretched to the sun. Their wings have long hollow bones filled with air and as the sunshine warms them, the air in their wing bones expands, making it easier to fly.

The turkey vulture has few natural predators. Its primary form of defense is regurgitating semi-digested meat, a foul-smelling substance that deters most creatures intent on attacking the bird or raiding its nest. The corrosive vomit will sting the face and eyes of any predator that gets close and seems to send it scurrying.

In the fall, turkey vultures migrate southward, soaring in great circles that steadily move southward through Mexico and Central America and other points further south. The winter is spent cruising the rainforest canopy searching for food, and in late winter, they begin movement back north. They often ride the winds of storm fronts, and have been observed flying as high as four miles. More often than not, they arrive in the Midwest on or about the Vernal Equinox (around March 20th), right in time for the Turkey Vulture Festival in Hinckley. We saw the first arrival circling over the farm on March 21, so it was right on schedule. These birds should be welcomed for the incredibly important service they provide.

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March 22, 2011: Eyes Up for the Whooping Cranes!

Imagine a bird that is five feet tall, has a wingspread of 7 ½ feet and can live about 25 years with a little luck. This describes an adult whooping crane, a giant white bird with a red crown and a long, dark, pointed bill. Flying overhead, the whooper shows black wing tips on its white wings, a long neck held straight out ahead and long dark legs trailing behind. The only other very large, long-legged white birds in North America are the great egret, the great white heron, and the wood stork, all of which are at least a third smaller than the whooping crane. Herons and storks also have quite a different body structure from the crane, usually crooking their necks as they fly.

At one time whooping cranes were relatively common in North America and there were thought to be some 15,000-20,000 of them. Then, in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, habitat loss and hunting drastically reduced their numbers. By 1860 their population had fallen to less than 1400, and by 1941, only 15 whoopers were known to exist – all members of a small flock that migrated between Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast. Conservationists worked with local, federal and international governments to protect the flock and encourage breeding. The whooping crane was declared endangered in 1967 and by 1970 there were 57 birds. 

Several attempts have been made to establish new breeding populations in other areas due to the very real concern that a disaster might strike a single flock. In 1975, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service initiated a project that involved placing whooper eggs in the nests of sandhill cranes. Although 85 chicks from the 289 whooping crane eggs did hatch and grow up to migrate, they imprinted on their sandhill foster parents and refused to mate with their own species.

A second effort involved the establishment of a non-migratory population near Kissimmee, Florida and this area now is home to about 22 cranes. There have been major problems with them, however, as they have had a high mortality rate due to accidents and predators and they also have not reproduced as hoped. It was finally decided that no further birds would be added to that flock although research continues.

The third and most successful attempt has involved teaching new generations of cranes to migrate down a flyway laid out east of the Mississippi river. Young whooping cranes were raised in isolation at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin and trained to follow ultralight aircraft to a winter refuge in Florida. This reintroduction began in the fall of 2001 and new groups of birds have been led south each autumn since. Most of these cranes have returned to Wisconsin each spring and finally, in 2006, two whooper chicks were hatched of parents that were led by ultralight on their first migration in 2002, the first whooping cranes hatched in the wild of migrating parents east of the Mississippi in over 100 years.

Whooping cranes nest on the ground, usually on a raised area in a marsh. The female lays 1 or 2 blotchy, olive-colored eggs, usually in late-April to mid-May. The eggs average 2½ inches by 4 inches and hatch in about 30 days. Both parents brood the young, although the female spends the most time on the nest, and the parents feed the young for 6–8 months after birth. These birds forage while walking in shallow water or in fields, feeding on various crustaceans, mollusks, fish (such as eel), berries, small reptiles and aquatic plants as well as waste grain, including wheat and barley, during migration.

Adults have very few predators, as even eagles are unlikely to be able to tackle one, but the young are vulnerable to a number of predators until they can fly. The bobcat is the only natural predator known to be both powerful and stealthy enough to prey on adult whooping cranes away from their nesting grounds.

The Aransas/Wood Buffalo flock is the only naturally occurring wild migratory population of whooping cranes in the whole world, and every whooper alive today either hatched at the Canadian nesting grounds or is a descendant of a whooper that hatched there. This year, on a February flight over the Aransas/Wood Buffalo refuge, an observer counted 238 adults and 42 juveniles for a total of 280 whooping cranes. With the addition of a confirmed report on February 8th of a single whooping crane in north Texas, the flock size is now thought to be 281.

The Necedah/Florida flock numbers 101 at the beginning of March this year. As of last week, all the youngest cranes are still at their Florida release sites, but migration has begun.  Just one early bird from the western flock is migrating, but at least 25 older cranes in the eastern flock are on the journey north. One pair was back on the Wisconsin nesting grounds on March 9, and others have been seen in Indiana. A friend at church reported that he saw one overhead two weeks ago, so keep your eyes and ears open for the big birds. What a thrill it would be to see one!


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March 15, 2011: Have You Ever Seen a Mole?


Some biologists have said that the Eastern mole is the least understood of all the American mammals and as far as I could discover, most of the research done about it has been concerned only with killing it off. It certainly is a strange animal. No sooner is the snow cover gone and the frost out of the ground than lawns and other grassy areas are dotted with mounds of dirt, sometimes arranged in long lines and sometimes seemingly randomly placed. The mole is a veritable digging machine, equipped with specialized shoulders and front legs ending in large wide forefeet. It seldom emerges from its maze of underground tunnels and when it does it is only to get rid of excess dirt from its excavations.

The Eastern mole is about six inches long and weighs about four ounces. Its body is covered with a thick velvety fur (unique in that it has no pile direction so that the animal can go forward or backward in a tunnel with ease) and it has a short, scaly, hairless tail. It finds its way around and detects prey by its acute senses of smell and touch as it has only rudimentary eyes partially covered with skin that do little but perceive light, and no external ears, although it can detect vibrations and some sounds.

One study found that a male mole ranges under an area of perhaps 300 by 400 yards, while a female tends to stay in an area of about 60 by 60 yards. Home ranges often overlap and several individuals have been found using the same tunnel systems. Some of the passageways are deep and relatively permanent that are used as burrows and as routes to feeding sites while others are closer to the surface and used as runways for collecting food. Winter tunnels tend to be deeper than summer tunnels as the animals are active all year long and must stay beneath any frost layer.

Moles can dig tunnels up to 5 yards long in one hour using their large powerful forefeet. When they burrow, they essentially "dive" into the earth; they first thrust their forefeet into the soil and then follow with the head and body as they rotate their forelimbs and pull the loosened dirt backwards. Because of specialized bone and muscle construction, moles can exert a lateral digging force equivalent to 32 times its body weight. (As a comparison, a 150 lb. man would be able to exert a 4800 lb. lateral force.) The energy required to construct a permanent tunnel system is great and to protect his work the mole scent marks most of the home range daily as it travels through the system in search of food. This warns other moles that the system is occupied and may advertise a female’s scent when she is ready to mate, a signal easily picked up by a rutting male crossing her tunnel.

A mole has twice as much blood and twice as much red hemoglobin as other mammals of similar size, allowing it to breath easily in its underground environment of low oxygen and high carbon dioxide. Its main prey is earthworms but also eats insects and their larvae, as well as some vegetable matter. A mole has high-energy requirements and will consume up to 100% of its body weight in food each day—some 45 to 50 lbs. of worms and insects per year. It also aerates and turns soil through its extensive tunneling activities, although these often damage pastures and garden by injuring bulbs and root masses and bring down the wrath of the landowner.

In late March and early April, a male will start to move around in search of females. He will mate with any he can find, continuing until no more can be found. After mating, the female prepares a nest chamber of dry vegetation underneath a boulder or the roots of a plant, and in about five weeks gives birth to two to five young. They are cared for and nursed by their mother in her nest and tunnel system until they are weaned. Then they continue to share her tunnel system for about a month until they are able to forage on their own, when they leave and establish their own tunnel systems.

Strange as the Eastern mole seems, an even more bizarre mole also can be found in Wisconsin -- the star-nosed mole. It reportedly prefers low wetlands, but we have seen one here one the farm. Its nose is a highly specialized sensory-motor organ, consisting of 11 pairs of fleshy finger-like appendages that look something like a pair of sea anemones perched on its face. Although the nose is less than half an inch in diameter, its surface is covered with 25,000 mechanoreceptors called Eimer's organs. (That makes it the most sensitive organ in the entire animal kingdom--about 6 times more sensitive than the human hand, which contains about 17,000 receptors.)

The mole’s nose substitutes for its missing eyes, and approximately half of its brain is devoted to processing sensory information from it. The star-nosed mole can touch 13 separate areas of the ground every second, and can locate and consume 8 separate prey items in under 2 seconds. Once prey has been identified, it is captured with tweezer-like incisors, whose movements are coordinated with those of the star. If I hadn’t seen one of these weird creatures myself, I might have believed it was one of Alice’s friends escaped from Wonderland.




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March 8, 2011: Consider the Bluebird


The flash of blue on the telephone wire along the road was a welcome sign that spring really is imminent. Granted that bluebirds sometimes stick around all winter when the weather is open and mild, this certainly hadn’t been the case this year and I was sure that this sighting was significant.

The Eastern bluebird is a small thrush with a big, rounded head, large eye, plump body, and alert posture. The males are vivid, deep blue above and brick-red on the throat and breast although the color blue in birds always depends on the light, and males may look plain gray-brown from a distance. Females are grayish above with bluish wings and tail, and a faded orange-brown breast.

Bluebirds need mixed prairie surrounded by trees that offer suitable nest holes. They feed mostly on insects during the summer, either hunting in the grass or snatching them from the air, and fruits and berries during the fall and winter. As settlers cleared the eastern forests for homesteads and pasture, they created large, open areas that provided exactly the kind of habitat that the birds needed, and they quickly moved into it. Forest clearing reached its peak around 1830, and as an additional bonus to the birds, wooden fence posts were erected around fields that provided additional nesting holes as they rotted and woodpeckers created and then abandoned cavities searching for grubs.

A major problem arose about the same time, however, as English sparrows and European starlings were introduced into the countryside, both very aggressive cavity nesters that competed with the bluebirds for nest sites. Then, too, it gradually became common farming practice to clear out fencerows, install steel fence posts, and cut any dead or dying trees, thus eliminating nesting sites. The bluebird numbers declined drastically until the 1970’s when the problem was recognized and bird lovers began providing and monitoring nest boxes throughout the eastern half of the country.

In early March, bluebirds start checking out nesting sites. The adult male bluebird typically selects a suitable cavity and will begin carrying in nesting materials consisting of straw, grass and pine needles. When a female appears, the male will sing and flutter, wings half open, tail spread. It then perches near the female, preening her feathers, and may offer food. If the female accepts him, the two will mate and may stay together for several seasons.

Only the female will build the nest. She begins by weaving the straw, pine needles, or similar materials into a typical bowl shaped nest that may be several inches tall inside the cavity. She will then line it with fine grasses and occasionally a few feathers. It usually takes several days to construct a nest to her satisfaction and it is another couple of days before she will lay her first egg. She will continue to lay an egg a day until her clutch is complete, usually four or five but sometimes as many as seven eggs.   

The female will not begin to brood her eggs until all are laid, and then it takes about 18 days before they hatch – usually with in a few hours of each other. The chicks are naked and helpless, but in just four weeks, they will have left the nest and be flying. The male continues to feed the youngsters a few more days until they have learned to feed themselves, while the female lays another clutch of eggs and begins another family.     

In late August and September, bluebirds molt, and it is at this time that the young of the year loose their spotted breasts so that they resemble adults. Some of them winter in the southeastern states and even down into Central America, but if food is plentiful they sometimes stay in the vicinity of their nesting area. Small flocks of wintering bluebirds are not an uncommon sight in southern Wisconsin, feeding on native berry-producing shrubs such as red cedar, grapes, and dogwood. They ordinarily do not visit feeders but sometimes can be enticed to take mealworms or a mix of peanut butter, oatmeal, and yellow cornmeal held together with melted suet.

There are two other bluebirds in the United States – the Western and mountain bluebirds. Male Western bluebirds have a fully blue throat and chestnut shoulders while male mountain bluebirds are mostly a lighter sky blue all over, without the reddish underparts. Female bluebirds are more difficult to distinguish, but the Western and Mountains have dark or dusky (not white) chins, and a grayish rather than clear white belly. The ranges of Western and mountain bluebirds only overlap a little with Eastern bluebirds, mainly in central and west Texas. You should never confuse any of the three with male indigo buntings that are entirely blue and considerably smaller, with the thick beak of a finch.

When I walked out onto the deck this morning I was greeted by a melody of song – bluebird, cardinal, titmouse, chickadee, and I was sure I heard a redwing in the distance. What a treat that is!



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March 1, 2011:  Feet and Tracks

Hiking up the trail to the ridge is much easier this week than last, as the snow depth has been reduced to an inch or two in most places and only in scattered areas is it still deep. Many times during the summer when I walk the paths, I don’t see a single creature except an occasional bird, and that was the case on this week’s treks as well. The big difference is that, although I may not see anything, the last two inches of snow cover and our recent milder weather has provided a perfect canvas for recording tracks, and the evidences are plain that lots of animals and birds are present and moving around.

Deer are, of course, the most obvious travelers, but squirrels and rabbits also hop from tree to tree and bush to bush in considerable numbers. A raccoon walked along this way, and an opossum ambled that. A flock of turkeys walked down the trail, dragging their feet as they went and leaving long stripes. There are surprisingly few mouse prints, compared to a few weeks ago, but perhaps they are staying underground or under what snow there is, as we know they are there.

It is interesting to observe the great variations in the feet that make the prints, and these are often uniquely suited to their owner’s lifestyle and environment. Even what an animal eats can depend on what kind of foot it has to help it get to that food.

All species can generally be divided into three types: those that place the full length of their foot on the ground such as humans and bears; those that walk with most of the length of their digits but not the soles in contact with the ground such as dogs and cats; and those that travel on the bones of their toes with their wrists and ankles held off the ground, such as deer and horses. Deer feet are actually two elongated toes comparable to the third and fourth fingers on one’s hand, with the second and fifth "fingers" located behind the hooves and called dewclaws. Their hooves are like big, thick toenails.

A dog walks on his toes like a deer, but its foot has four pads on the ground, each with its own toenail. Those parts of the foot that are similar to the human wrist and palm of the hand are held off the ground and we usually think of them as its lower leg.  Animals adapted for speed like deer, have relatively longer lower limb segments; however, their feet tend to be relatively useless as tools. On the other hand, a dog's paws are not as helpful in running as the feet of a deer, but can dig and hold some objects, while cats, still less adept at running, have arms and paws that that can grasp things.

Animals that hunt and kill their food need feet that are padded so they can quietly sneak up on their prey and sharp claws to catch and kill it. Other animals need feet that will allow them to escape predators by running or climbing. Animals that live in the water need feet that help them swim, and some have feet much like ours with toes and padded soles, but with toes that can curl round tree branches. Climbing claws are curved and sharply pointed to dig into tree bark while digging claws are broad and blunt, and burrowers often have wide, flat paws that that act like scoops or shovels, sometimes made wider by fur or bristles.

All birds are toe-runners, and the various species have feet designed for running, perching, grasping, wading, and paddling. Most songbirds have four toes with the first big toe turned backward while the other three forward as it needs opposing toes that wrap around a twig. Birds that usually run on the ground often have the backward toe higher up the leg out of the way, and possess thick, powerful toes with well developed nails. Swifts, that can hang on vertical surfaces, have all their toes turned forward, while woodpeckers are equipped with two toes forward and two backward. In ducks, the three front toes are connected with a web of skin.

Knowing something about the feet of the various creatures is a big help in identifying the tracks one sees in the snow or in mud or dust. This is perhaps far more than you wanted to know about tracks unless you are a hiker and are out these late winter days. Then you will want to note the number of toes on the track and other details, and with a little luck, you will be able to identify all those other creatures that have passed by. Knowing your neighbors gives an added enjoyment to your outdoor sorties.

It snowed again last night and the ground is covered with a sparkling fresh blanket. I used to think it as being white, but realize now that was only my limited perception. As I look out upon the deck, yard, and neighboring field I see many shades of blue, gray, and now gold where the rising sun is striking it. 

Many people travel to far places where warm temperatures and green grass and flowers await, but to us, the winter landscape is part of Wisconsin’s lure. It is like living in two very different worlds, and experiencing one makes the other more interesting and pleasurable.



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February 21, 2011:  And Skunks.... Oh, My!


We are always on the watch for animals at the edge of the road but the skunk that appeared almost under our wheels the other afternoon took us by complete surprise. It is common for skunks, raccoons, and opossums to venture abroad as temperatures moderate, but this was before the current warm-up and I can’t imagine why it was out. In any case, there was a soft thump and the car filled with the strong odor that almost everybody knows is very bad news.

Skunks are best known for their ability to secrete an oily, pale-yellow liquid with a strong, foul odor that they can use as a defensive weapon. They have two scent glands, one on each side of the anus and these produce a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals such as methyl and butyl thiols traditionally called mercaptans, which have a highly offensive smell often described as a combination of rotten eggs, garlic and burnt rubber. Muscles located next to the scent glands allow them to spray with a high degree of accuracy, as far as ten to fifteen feet. The smell aside, the spray can cause irritation and even temporary blindness and is sufficiently powerful to be detected by a human nose anywhere up to a mile downwind. The odor of the fluid is strong enough to ward off bears and other potential attackers and can be difficult to remove from clothing and a car.

Skunks are reluctant to use this weapon, as they carry just enough of the chemical for five or six uses – about 15 cc – and require some ten days to produce another supply. Their bold black and white coloring however serves to make the skunk's appearance memorable to any creature that has come into contact with one. Where practical, it is to a skunk's advantage simply to issue a warning without expending scent and one does this by the use an elaborate routine of hisses, foot stamping, and tail-high threat postures before resorting to the spray. Interestingly, skunks usually do not spray other skunks, with the exception of males in the mating season. Though they fight over den space in autumn, they do so with teeth and claws.

Skunk spray is detectable by the human nose at concentrations of only 10 parts per billion. The smelly compounds are also mixed with other chemicals that make the scent stick. This is why dogs that have been sprayed sometimes have a faint skunky odor for several weeks, because although the chemicals have been mostly neutralized, trace amounts still cling to fur. I read that the chemicals which cause skunk spray to cling are now used in cosmetics and perfumes for lasting odor power, after the thiols have been removed.

It is easy to take one’s sense of smell for granted (unless it is lost) and forget that in order to detect the odor of something, molecules from that thing have to make it to the nose. Everything one smells is giving off molecules, and these are generally light, easily evaporated chemicals that float through the air into your nose. At the top of your nasal passages behind your nose, there is a patch of special neurons about the size of a postage stamp. These have hair-like projections called cilia that increase their surface area, and an odor molecule must bind to these cilia to trigger the neuron and cause you to perceive a smell. We are told that humans can distinguish more than 10,000 different smells, and it is thought that there are hundreds of olfactory receptors, each encoded by a different gene, each recognizing different odors.

The importance and sensitivity of smell varies among different organisms; most mammals have a good sense of smell, particularly carnivores and hoofed animals that must always keep track of each other. It is estimated that most dogs have an olfactory sense approximately a hundred-thousand to a million times more acute than a human's, and bloodhounds, especially, have noses that are up to one-hundred-million times more sensitive. They were bred for the specific purpose of tracking humans, and can detect a days-old scent trail. Even more receptive is the sense of smell of the silvertip grizzly that is seven times greater than the bloodhound. Using their elongated claws, these bears must be able to find burrowing animals and nests as well as roots, bulbs, and insects deep in the soil or snow. They can detect the scent of food from up to 18 miles away, and because of their immense size they often scavenge new kills, even driving away packs of wolves and human hunters.
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There are a variety of remedies for skunk spray, but only by neutralizing the chemicals with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda is it really possible to get rid of it. Even then the odor often lingers, and clothing and other objects must be treated with bleach to completely remove it. If this is impractical, and the smell has drifted throughout your house or car, all you can do is air it out.

Wolves, foxes, coyotes and badgers seldom attack skunks – presumably having had a previous bad experience of being sprayed. An exception is the great horned owl –– which, like most birds, has very little sense of smell and is the animal's only serious predator. Vehicles are probably their greatest threat, however, and a great number are killed on the roads. We could find no sign of our animal, however, and it may have survived its encounter. All that remains is its lingering smell.


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February 14, 2011:  The Cooper's Hawk

We were startled one day last week when a bird crashed into the living room window amid a great flurry of feathers. When the dust settled we saw a medium-sized hawk sitting on the porch railing, peering around in all directions. We stayed still to avoid scaring it off and waited for it to jump down to the deck to grab its victim, but it was soon obvious that its dinner had been able to escape both the hawk attack and the window, and was gone.

It was only two weeks ago that I confidently reported that the Cooper’s hawks had moved south and had perhaps traveled as far as Panama, but this bird obviously didn’t read my column. It had a pale breast streaked with narrow crosswise bars and was about the size of a small crow, with a large head, slender body, broad wings and a very long tail. We thought at first it might be one of the look-alike sharp-shinned hawks, but it had the distinctive rounded tail that clinched the identification.

Among the bird world’s most skilful flyers, Cooper’s hawks are now relatively common in woodlands across the country and are most likely to be seen cruising along a forest edge or above a field using just a few stiff wing beats followed by a glide. Even when crossing large open areas they rarely flap continuously. One typically flies with its neck outstretched and has been described by birdwatchers as looking like a "flying cross".

The Cooper’s hawk will attack almost any medium-sized bird. Studies list the European starling, mourning dove, and rock pigeon as common targets along with the American robin, several kinds of jays, Northern flicker, and quail, pheasants, grouse, and chicken. It typically tears through tree canopies at high speed in pursuit of one of these birds, but dashing through vegetation is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the wishbone. When it does snag a bird it kills it by squeezing it in its razor-sharp talons, in contrast to the falcons that usually kill their prey by biting them.

Courting birds display by flying with slow wing beats, then gliding with wings held in a V. As in most hawks, males are significantly smaller than their mates and are in some danger as females specialize in eating any medium-sized birds. Perhaps for this reason, males tend to be submissive to females and to listen for the reassuring call notes the females make when they are willing to be approached. The male makes a bowing display to its mate after pairing, then does much of the work of building the nest and providing nearly all the food for it and the young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.

The nest is placed about two-thirds of the way up on a horizontal branch or in a crotch of a large tree, and is a pile of sticks about two feet in diameter and a foot high with a cup-shaped depression in the middle. The female usually lays 3 to 5 pale blue eggs and incubates them between 30 to 36 days. The hatchlings are covered in white down and weigh just one ounce, but are able to crawl around in the nest. They are brooded for about two weeks and then the female sometimes joins her mate foraging for food. The young leave the nest two weeks later, but return to be fed until they become independent at around 8 weeks.

Not too long ago, Cooper's hawks were considered to be “threatened”. They were often called chicken hawks and shot on sight as they were thought to prey on poultry, but it is now known that such attacks are rare so they are seldom hunted these days. Also, their breeding success was reduced by the use of the pesticide DDT, but the ban of DDT ended that threat. Now the main threat is loss of habitat as logging often makes what woodlands remain unsuitable for breeding. Still, Cooper’s hawk population trends are strong today and they are increasingly seen hunting smaller songbirds in backyards with feeders. They will perch in trees overlooking the feeders, then swoop down and scatter the other birds in order to capture one in flight. Now if they would just concentrate on English sparrows...

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February 8, 2011: Two Fierce Creatures

You probably have never seen a shrew, and if you did happen upon one, you might have thought it was a mouse with a very short tail. Luckily, our common species -- the Northern short-tailed shrew -- grows only to about five inches in length counting an inch-long tail and weighs only about one ounce, for it has sharp, spike-like teeth and a voracious appetite that causes it to eat 80-90 % of its own body weight in live food daily. It incidentally is also among the very small number of mammalian species that have venom glands. Shrew venom is a neurotoxin that is powerful enough to immobilize or even kill small prey species like frogs and mice and can cause swelling and irritation in humans.

Now, picture an animal that weighs twice as much and is just as fierce and hungry. This describes the least weasel, the smallest of the weasel clan. It has an eight- to ten-inch slender body, short legs and a flat, narrow head, with black eyes and round ears. In the winter its coat is completely white, while in the summer its upperparts are a rich chocolate brown over white underparts. This weasel uses a thick, oily yellowish fluid with a very potent odor called musk to mark the borders of its hunting area or territory. This is stored in special scent glands that are located at the base of the weasel's tail and informs other animals of its presence, sex, and activities.

We have only seen one of these elusive weasels twice in the 40 years we have owned the farm, but we know they are here. Weasels are easiest to detect in winter when a thin layer of tracking snow will show where they move about in the neighborhood. They leave staggered pairs of little footprints placed in a bounding gait fashion that often make sudden right-angle turns and seldom travel far in any one direction. A weasel will stop to poke into every hole and cranny it can find and if its sensitive nose and ears detect a tenant it will squeeze its slender body into the tunnel after it.

The least weasel is active year-round and spends its time, day and night, hunting, feeding, and sleeping. When it hunts, it runs down its victim, wraps itself around it and kills with a bite to the base of the skull. Both male and female least weasels have body diameters no larger than their prey, which allows them to follow a victim into a burrow, tunnel, matted grass and even under the snow. When it is able, a weasel will kill more than it can eat, and then stores the excess in its den or in small caches scattered about for future meals.

Small rodents make up the majority of the least weasel's diet, although they can take prey larger than themselves, including rats and rabbits. On average, this small carnivore must consume half of its body weight every day to survive – the equivalent of at least two deer mice or one meadow vole. When rodents are not readily available, the least weasel will look for birds' eggs, nestlings, insects, and most anything that moves.

The weasel has an interesting behavior that has caused much speculation through the years. After making a kill it often performs a frenzied series of sideways and backwards hops, often accompanied by an arched back and hissing noises.  Observers have named this a “ weasel war dance” and it is thought to be caused simply by its excitement in a successful hunt, but it seems to be unique to these animals.

Most breeding occurs in spring and late summer and females can have multiple litters throughout the year.  A litter may contain up to six young and the kits are born wrinkled, naked, blind and deaf. In 11 days, they are covered with a fine white body hair, and by 18 days they have brown hair on their backs with white bellies. At this point, they are eating solid food and by the time they are five weeks old, they are able to kill their own prey. Males reach sexual maturity at eight months, while females reach maturity at four months.

Two other species of true weasels live in Wisconsin. The largest, at 18 inches, is the long-tailed weasel. It seems to prefer an area near water, while the smaller short-tailed weasel is more often found in heavily-forested and brushy areas farther north. The short-tailed weasel is known as an ermine in the winter when it is white, and its pelt has long been highly prized and was used in the robes of the royalty in England. These two species of weasels generally find mates in late summer, but the young are not born until the following spring in a strange process called delayed implantation. The embryos undergo an initial development of about two weeks, then remain dormant in the uterus for some eight months before implanting and continuing growth. 

Finding a meal is hard work for both the shrews and weasels and avoiding becoming a meal is even tougher as they have a multitude of enemies but cannot afford to hide away. They have to travel about their territories alert to every sound, every smell and every motion around them. We've historically trapped shrews and weasels as pests, varmints or scraps of fur only suitable for a decorative trim on collar or cuff. In fact, both are valuable insect and rodent controls and play important roles in our wild world.



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February 1, 2011:  Where are all the Birds?

With the temperatures often hovering just above zero and the snow blanket up to a foot deep in some places, it is comforting to know that many of our summertime residents are basking in tropical lands. At the same time, we know that a considerable number tough it out right here. Mostly it has to do with available food. Berry eaters such as robins and bluebirds can sometimes find sufficient supplies to stay fairly close although they usually have to move around. Ground-bound creatures such as woodchucks, ground squirrels, bats, snakes, turtles, and frogs hibernate, and sleep out the winter months, while others such as bears, skunks, raccoons, opossums are not "true" hibernators but take long naps and are easily awakened from their winter slumbers if the weather allows.

Insect-eating birds make up the most of the travelers, and the distances some of them cover are hard to believe. Our tiniest species is the ruby throated hummingbird that crosses the Gulf of Mexico to winter on the Yucatan Peninsula and beyond. (It was once believed that so fragile a bird could not accomplish such a trip by itself and must travel on the back of a larger bird.) Other small birds that join them there for the worst weather months are the several warblers that nest here at the farm – the yellow, blue winged, and redstart.

How the various species evolved to act as they do is hard to understand. The robin and bluebird are close relatives of the wood thrush, but while they both can sometimes be seen about during mild winter periods, the latter bird will make its way as far as Panama every year.  Among the woodpeckers, the red-bellied, pileated, downy, hairy, and red-headed stay all year, while the sapsucker and flicker migrate. The kestrel (a small falcon) can be seen sitting on a wire watching for prey at almost any time, while the closely related sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks head for warmer climes in the fall.

Most amazing among the travelers are a few of our very common birds. The barn swallow is one of our favorites here at the farm and is easily identified by its long, deeply forked tail, deep blue back and orange-buff breast and belly. It can be seen all summer long foraging low over fields and water snagging flying insects. These swallows are reported to fly in large flocks across Central America, traveling as much as 600 miles a day. You would think they might just stop there in such an inviting tropical area, but instead, sometimes go on to all the way through South America as far south as Argentina.

Two other closely related species that migrate to far places are the whip-poor-will and the nighthawk. Both are medium-sized well-camouflaged birds that forage at night, although the whip-poor-will is a bird of the countryside while the nighthawk is more commonly seen above lighted parking lots at shopping centers. They, like the swallows, migrate to Central and South America, following the Texas coastline down through Mexico.

Several of the flycatchers – such as the kingbird and peewee – also winter in South America. The kingbird has a dark head and back over a white chest and belly, although its most distinguishing marks are the white ends of the tail feathers. The peewee is smaller with rather drab grey plumage, and wing bars. Both species move down to the Gulf States in the autumn, and then follow the coast west through Texas into Mexico. I suppose some may drop off along the way, but many keep going into Columbia and Brazil, traveling thousands of miles each way.

Eastern phoebes – another common flycatcher here at the farm -- are quite hardy for a bird that feeds extensively on flying insects, and are regularly found throughout the southern United States and Mexico in winter. To survive cold spells, they supplement their diet with fruits such as sumac, poison ivy, bayberry, and holly. Over 20% of their winter diet can be comprised of fruit, compared to less than 5% in spring and summer.

Most of our other migrants spend the winter in the southern states rather than make a longer trip. The catbird goes to Florida, as do the flicker and sapsucker. Our friendly little chipping and song sparrows can often be found in Florida and Texas, although some don’t go any farther south than Tennessee and Kentucky. The red-winged blackbird and towhee will stay throughout the lower mid-west unless deep snows there force them farther south, and house wrens are known to winter in northern Mississippi and Louisiana.

Migration is not a pleasure trip for the birds. They must move long distances through unfamiliar territories with unknown perils, sometimes encountering big bodies of water and high mountains. Their destinations are already populated with resident birds that undoubtedly object to their arrival, and the food supply must stretch to accommodate them. Still, most survive, and will soon return to gladden our hearts.



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January 25, 2011: The Bob-tailed Cat


There is a picture going around on the Internet in our area of a bobcat that was trapped in a coyote leg trap somewhere nearby. Historically bobcats were abundant throughout the state, but logging and settlement reduced their ranges. Also, they were thought to be a threat to livestock by early settlers, and killed whenever found. Now sightings are very rare in the southern half of the state.  We have heard rumors of the wild cats living here through the years, but this is the first actual proof we have seen.  Imagine meeting a cat twice the size of your house pet and weighing 20-30 pounds.

The bobcat has large ears that have pointed tufts of hair at the ends, an orange-tan coat with black stripes on the face and spots on the body, and a short tail that is black on the top and white beneath. It can be confused with the lynx, an animal found farther north, but the bobcat has smaller footpads, a slightly longer tail, shorter black ear tuffs and more well-defined spotting on the coat. Bobcats are on the move during twilight hours of sunrise and sunset during the summer, but on winter days they may be abroad at any time. Male bobcats often cruise a 25-square-mile area and females somewhat less. Young bobcats may wander as much as 100 miles to find an unoccupied territory to make their home.

Each week they travel many miles along logging roads, railways, and trails made by other animals to move between resting areas, food sources, or hunting areas, marking their territory boundaries with feces, urine, and gland secretions. The bobcat is strictly carnivorous and the largest percentage of its diet is comprised of rabbit, squirrel, and sick or injured white-tailed deer.  It will also feed on smaller rodents, shrews, reptiles, birds, turkey, grouse, and even insects, but prefers rabbit-sized animals. The bobcat has been known to occasionally feed on carrion but only when relatively fresh. When it finishes eating, it will sometimes cover up any remaining portions with sticks or leaves for later consumption.

Bobcats will take several different mates throughout their lifetime. The young become sexually mature at about 9-12 months but a pair typically will have its first litter of kittens at two years of age. The female will establish a den in a cave, rock crevice or hollow log, and carefully line it with dry leaves, moss, or grass. Two or three 10-12 ounce kits are born between April and July. They are fully furred, although it is 10 days before their eyes open. They grow quickly and at 4 weeks old, they will leave the den and eat solid foods caught by their mother (the father does not aid in raising the young). The kitten's survival depends mostly on how much prey the mother is able to catch.

In Wisconsin, it is legal to harvest bobcats by both trapping and hunting. The first attempt to manage their numbers was in 1867 when a $10 bounty was offered.  The payments were reduced to $5 per animal in 1923 and over the next 40 years, an around 400 animals were taken each year, resulting in a greatly reduced population, living mostly in the northern third of the state.  Bounties ended in 1963 and the first regulated harvest season took place in 1970. In 1980, a season bag limit of 1 bobcat per hunter/trapper was set, as well as a protection of bobcats south of State Highway 64. In 1983 the harvest season length was set at 2.3 months and the WDNR made it mandatory to turn in the carcasses for collection of age, sex, and reproductive information.

As of 2003, the WDNR estimated the bobcat population in Wisconsin to be 2,590 animals, with the bulk of the animals in the northern half of the state and only occasional sightings reported as far south as Dane, Iowa, and Sauk counties.  Records show that 253 bobcats were harvested in the state for 2002. Some wildlife supporters have pressured the state to halt all hunting and trapping of these animals, arguing that their numbers are dropping each year, but at this point, the WDNR has no such plans.

The fate of the trapped cat described above is unknown, but the word is that it did not seem to be severely injured and was released. We were pleased to hear this, but we did wonder who was brave enough to open the trap...

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January 18, 2011:  Owls: The First Sign of Spring


While we may feel like we are in the midst of a never-ending winter—getting up and eating dinner in the dark, experiencing snow after snow with bitter winds to boot—some creatures out in the wild are thinking Spring! If you have ventured out into the woods lately, you very well may have been entertained by a pair of great horned owls dueting in the woods. The song is a series of five to seven muffled hoots and can be heard over several miles. The male, though smaller than the female, has a deeper voice, so it’s easy to recognize a breeding pair.

The great horned owl is a large bird that may have a wingspan of up to five feet and stand two feet tall. Its back can vary in color from a reddish brown to a grey but its underside is a light grey with dark bars with a white band of feathers on the upper breast. If you can get close enough to see its head, you will see large, staring yellow-orange eyes set in an orange-buff facial disc. Its name comes from the tufts of feathers that appear to be "horns" which are sometimes referred to as "ear tufts" but have nothing to do with hearing at all.

Increasing day length stimulates the mating urges each spring, although the exact timing is also affected by the weather. As unbelievable as it sounds, day length is not sensed through the bird’s eyes but by the amount of light penetrating the skull directly into the brain, according to Michael Caduto in his book Keepers of the Animals. The pineal gland is a small pine-cone-shaped endocrine gland located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres. In birds, the pineal gland is light-sensitive and birds have thin skulls that daylight can penetrate. In response, it produces hormones that initiate breeding activities, as well as other behavior. 

The great horned owl requires a very long nesting season to raise its chicks and must begin early if they are to be independent before winter strikes again.  By mid-January, a pair will have mated and set up housekeeping in last year’s nest or perhaps claimed an old crow or red-tailed hawk nest. It is not unusual to find a nest in late winter where the female is covered with snow, protecting her eggs or even chicks with her heavily feathered body.

In our woods, it is more common to hear the distinctive conversations of the barred owl, a medium-sized gray-brown owl streaked with white horizontal barring on the chest and vertical barring on the belly. It has a round head with a whitish/brown facial disk with dark brown trim. The eyes are brown, and the beak is yellow and almost covered by feathers.

The barred owl is a highly vocal bird giving a loud and resounding "hoo, hoo, too-HOO; hoo, hoo, too-HOO, oooooo" with the last syllable dropping off noticeably. Other calls include "hoo-hoo, hoo-WAAAHH" and "hoo-WAAAHHH" used in courtship. Mates will duet, but the male's voice is deeper and mellower. They also many other noises including various hoots, whines, and squeals, sometimes sounding like barking dogs, whooping monkeys and even screaming or laughing human voices. Like some other owl species, they will call in the daytime as well as at night but unlike most others, both males and females hoot, both for mating purposes and to define their territories.

As the nesting season approaches, the male will chase after the female giving a variety of hooting and screeching calls. When it comes close, it displays by swaying back and forth, and raising its wings, while sidling closer. Courtship feeding and mutual preening also occur. Pairs mate for life and territories and a nest site is maintained for many years, usually a cavity originally excavated by a woodpecker. The female lays two to four round white eggs, one every two to three days.

Incubation begins with the first egg laid so the resulting chicks hatch in succession after about 4 weeks. If there is sufficient food, this difference in age is no problem, but if hunting is poor, the smaller chick or chicks often starve. When the young leave the nest, at about 4 weeks, they are not able to fly, but crawl out of the nest using their beak and talons to sit on nearby branches and it is usually another month or more before they are able to fly.

The parents care for the young for at least 4 months, much longer than most other owls and families remain loosely associated throughout the summer before the young disperse. These owls are solitary in nature, only staying with their mates during the nesting season but a pair will maintain its territory for many years. If you are lucky enough to host one, you will likely hear their haunting calls for many years to come.



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January 11, 2011:   Squirrels in Winter

There seems to be an unusually large number of squirrel tracks on the trails this year, and Sunny is not the only one who finds these busy little animals intriguing. All rodents, including squirrels, mice, rats, porcupines, beavers, chipmunks, guinea pigs and voles and have one characteristic in common. They have two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws that must be kept short by constant use. This continual wearing away keeps the teeth very sharp and allows the animals to bite into hard nuts and wood, but if one is prevented from gnawing, its teeth will grow so long that it will not be able to close its mouth. Rodents are found in vast numbers on all continents other than Antarctica: in fact, forty percent of all mammal species are rodents.

Squirrels are especially interesting because many of them have adapted to life above ground in the trees. We have two species of tree squirrels in southern Wisconsin – the grey and fox squirrel. It is estimated that there are some 8,000,000 in the state, and although about a quarter of these are harvested by hunters each year, they seem to have no trouble keeping their population healthy. 

The fox squirrel is the larger of the two species, measuring about 20-22 inches of which almost half is tail, and weighing up to two pounds. It has rusty grayish-brown upper parts and a yellowish-orange belly and chest, although black and red phases also occur.  The gray squirrel averages several inches shorter and 6-8 ounces less, and while normally a varied gray in color with a white chin, throat and belly, it can also be all black or white. Both species have large bushy tails that act as rudders when the animals jump from high places, as warm covering during the winter, and as a means of communication with other squirrels.

The squirrel has muscular hind legs that allow it to leap more than 20 feet, and long hind feet that are double-jointed and equipped with sharp claws to help it scramble head first down a tree trunk. If a squirrel should fall, it can land safely from heights of 30 feet and more, and we have often seen one just drop to the ground seemingly to avoid having to climb down. When danger threatens, a squirrel will sidle inconspicuously around the trunk of the tree, keeping just out of sight. When it remains motionless against tree bark, it is very difficult to see.

Squirrels mate from late January through February and again in May though early July. The male will vigorously defend his territory from other males and then mate with every female he can catch. After breeding, the female prepares a nest, which may be the winter den in a tree cavity that she has lined with shredded bark and plant fibers, or if an existing cavity is not available, she will build a round leaf nest in the crotch of a tree, at least 25 feet above ground.

She weaves a platform of twigs about two feet in diameter and then packs it with damp leaves and moss to form a solid base. She then erects walls and a roof of interwoven twigs and vines and fills them in with leaves, moss, and twigs. Inside, she forms a nest cavity about six to eight inches in diameter and lines it with shredded bark, grass, and leaves. Although these nests look flimsy from the ground, they have been found to be surprisingly warm and dry. During winter storms or severe cold, the squirrel may not leave the nest for days but it does not hibernate and feeds on stored nuts and acorns.

In the early days of our country, hardwood forests were so extensive that it is said that a squirrel could travel from Florida to Maine without setting foot on the ground. This favorable habitat allowed squirrel populations to reach very high levels at times. When the first settlers arrived in Wisconsin, they found a huge population of squirrels, and in fact, some communities actually paid bounties for them to prevent crop damage. During this time there were enormous squirrel emigrations, and in 1842, a gray squirrel migration lasted four weeks and involved, according to one observer, nearly half a billion squirrels. As forests were burned or cleared for agriculture, squirrel population quickly declined.

During modern times, squirrel emigrations have not been as spectacular, but in 1964, millions of squirrels emigrated from the north of Georgia to the south. Then, in 1968, a migration of squirrels occurred in much of the eastern United States where some reports of the population went as high as eighty million animals.  In New York State, squirrel road kill was a thousand times higher than usual, and an estimated one hundred thousand drowned squirrels were pulled out of one reservoir. No definitive explanation has ever been accepted for these occurrences, but it has been generally believed that bumper nut crops were certainly involved.

The unusual number of squirrel tracks we are seeing in the snow may be connected to the large acorn crop we had this past fall, but I doubt if the population is high enough to cause an emigration. Then, too, I’m sure that the hawks, raccoons, opossums, coyotes, foxes, and owls will be alert and happy to take care of any surplus.


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January 4, 2011:  Bird Counts

The story is told that in past centuries, it was tradition for the men to take part in a "Side Hunt" on Christmas Day. Teams (sides) were chosen and participants would go out with their guns to shoot as many creatures as possible, and whichever group brought in the biggest pile of feathered and furred quarry won. I don’t know how wide a practice it was – or even if it really existed at all, as information on it is rather sketchy – but the idea is appalling.

Presumably, it was this slaughter that caused ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the newly organized Audubon Society, to propose a different holiday tradition around 1900 -- a "Christmas Bird Census" -- that would count birds during the holidays rather than shoot them. Twenty-seven dedicated birders located from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, California accepted the challenge and tallied a total of some 90 species. So began the Christmas Bird Count.

We are now nearing the completion of the 111th count, which began on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 and will end on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. Tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas have taken part in this effort that has become a family tradition for many. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out each year regardless of the weather, reporting their sightings to be tallied by the Audubon Society.

Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are and how they seem to be faring. Bird populations are dynamic and constantly changing and no single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time. The declining bird populations reflect growing threats to many bird species resulting from habitat loss and fragmentation caused by development and human recreation. Other contributing factors include competition from non-native species, diseases such as the West Nile virus, collisions with vehicles and structures, and weather-related injury. 

On the other hand, it is encouraging to discover that the numbers in some species have rebounded as we have learned what was causing their problems and been able to alleviate them. The bald eagle and the peregrine falcon are no longer considered endangered and there are other birds whose populations have also increased. These indicate that we can make a difference in some cases, despite the generally discouraging statistics.

It is too late this year to take part in the Christmas count but you do have an alternative opportunity. The 14th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, a four-day event, will be held from February 18 - 21, 2011, and anyone can participate, from novice bird watchers to experts. Each will be asked to count any birds seen during the four-day period and to record the highest number of birds of each species seen together at any one time. To report the counts, there is an online checklist at the Great Backyard Bird Count website. It’s free, fun, and easy -- and it doesn't matter whether you report the five species coming to your backyard feeder or the 75 species you see during a day's outing at a wildlife refuge.

Each checklist submitted helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society to learn more about how the birds are doing -- and hopefully how to protect them and the environment we share. Last year, participants turned in more than 97,200 checklists online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded. As the count progresses, anyone with Internet access can explore what is being reported from his or her own town or anywhere in the United States and Canada. It is also possible to compare this year's numbers with those from previous years.

A third opportunity is still available in the 2010-11 FeederWatch, (information also available on line) although this will cost you $15 to cover materials, staff support, web design, data analysis, and a year-end report. This project began November 13, but there's still time to join as it runs through April 8, 2011. You will be asked to count any birds that appear in your yard to take advantage of something that you have provided (food, water or natural plantings). Again, for each species, you will report only the highest number of individuals that you have in view at one time so that you will avoid counting the same bird more than once.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that one in every five Americans is an active birdwatcher, and while most just feed in their own backyards, others travel around the world to seek out new species. Bird watching is a fun and educational hobby that anyone can enjoy with just an identification guide and a pair of binoculars. No matter where you live, there are birds around, and adding a bird feeder or birdbath to your yard can help bring the birds to you. If you truly want to pursue this hobby, though, you should to keep some records on the birds that you see. Start making a list (birders call it their life list) to record your sightings, and then add your observations to those of others around the country by joining one of the “Counts”.


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December 28, 2010: Blue Birds: Birds that aren't blue!

Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen… The blue jay sitting on the edge of into the seed basket dipped its beak into the pile, each time coming up with a fat sunflower seed and then tipping back its head and swallowing it. At the count of twenty I thought surely the bird must be full to the brim, but it only jumped down into the center of the basket and continued without a break. Hard as it might be to believe, that bird ingested 60 seeds before flying off, answering the question as to why the seed supply always seemed in need of replenishing.

Carter Johnson and Curtis Adkisson, in their article, Airlifting the Oaks in the Natural History Magazine, studied the oak planting abilities of eastern blue jays. They kept track of 50 jays and found that they gathered and cached 150,000 acorns in 28 days, about 110 acorns per day for each bird. Blue jays are energetic hoarders, storing acorns and other booty in cracks and crevices of tree trunks or in loose soil where many that were not later eaten would subsequently sprout.

A blue jay can carry up to five acorns (or evidently 60 sunflower seeds) at once by swallowing and carrying them in the upper part of its large, expandable esophagus. The hoard is then regurgitated at chosen storage sites around the area. Blue jays are members of the crow family and are highly intelligent with good memories, and they usually retrieve most of the stored material. They eat mostly acorns, nuts, and seeds with a few insects and small vertebrates thrown in, and are not above feasting on eggs and nestlings of other bird species if available. Blue Jays are adaptable and will take advantage of almost any food source, eagerly coming to backyard bird feeders.   

It is always hard to remember that the bright blue on these birds is produced by a trick of the light, rather than an actual pigment. Most other bird feathers get their brown, black, and gray colors from melanin, the same dark biological pigment that affects human skin, or carotene that shows as yellows, oranges and reds. Both kinds of pigment act to absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect the rest, causing them to appear to our eyes as color.

A blue jay's feathers do have melanin but it is below the surface under a layer of bubble-like cells. These bubbles reflect and scatter blue light waves, while the melanin absorbs the other colors of light. That is why the blue jay's feathers look blue in sunlight but a darker gray-blue in the shade, as the melanin is more visible. White is also a structural color; that is, we see feathers as white when their structure reflects back to our eyes the full range of the light wavelengths that strike them. When a white feather is observed under a powerful microscope, the surface resembles cut glass or snow. It lacks melanin and contains many more air bubbles than does a blue feather.

In contrast to the melanin that can be manufactured in their bodies, birds must obtain red, orange or yellow carotenoid pigments from the seeds and berries that they eat. These pigments are manufactured only by plants, and when the bird acquires them through its food, they are dissolved in fat globules and then deposited into their growing feathers. In the 1800s, this process led to the captivity of untold numbers of the beautiful red bird we call the northern cardinal. It was found that these colorful birds would adapt readily to life in an aviary if introduced as nestlings, and would sing several months of the year.

They became much-sought-after cage birds, and thousands were trapped in the south in the winter and sent to northern markets, and thousands more were sent to Europe. Cardinals are noted for their loud, clear whistled songs, and even the females will sometimes join their mates in singing. These songsters were highly valued, but it was soon observed that their colors faded in captivity and it was only later that it was found that this was due to the foods they were routinely fed. This trade was halted, fortunately, with the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

The cardinal was originally found only in the southeast parts of the country, but its range has expanded northward in the last 100 years. In 1886 it was seen only occasionally north of the Ohio River but by 1895 it had reached the Great Lakes and by 1910, it was discovered in southern Ontario. Since the food supply is the major factor in winter survival for birds, it may be our hobby of backyard feeding that has allowed it to survive our Wisconsin winters and grace our lawns and trees.

The image of a northern cardinal perched upon a snowy branch is so striking that it is used extensively on Christmas cards, calendars, clothing and all sorts of holiday decorations; in fact, I would be willing to bet that I am not the only one who has exclaimed about the beauty of such a sight outside the window this week. Add to that the blue of the jays, the gold of the finches, and the bobbing red heads of the woodpeckers, and winter loses much of its depressing drabness. A happy new year to you all!




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December 21, 2010: The Chickadee: A Christmas Bird

It seems strange that chickadees can be found on so many of the decorations offered for the Christmas season. Certainly they grace numerous holiday cards, but you can also find them on tree ornaments, clothing, tree skirts, pillows, throws, stockings, and who knows what else? There are perhaps more chickadees than reindeer!

Why should this little bird be so popular? It is almost universally considered endearing—probably because it is almost cartoon-like with its oversized round head, bright black eyes, tiny body, and its curiosity about everything, including us. The chickadee’s black cap and bib, white cheeks, gray back, wings, and tail, and whitish underside with buffy sides are distinctive. If you feed the birds, you probably have discovered that it watches you constantly from a nearby perch and is the first to return to a feeder after you fill it.

The chickadee is a part of the Titmouse family that is widely distributed in North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, in England, and across Europe. There are five species in North America: the black capped chickadee which makes its home to the north, the chestnut backed chickadee found in the Pacific Northwest, the Carolina chickadee which is found in the southeast, the mountain chickadee found in the west, and the Mexican chickadee found in Arizona, New Mexico and mountainous areas of Mexico.

Chickadees are usually seen in pairs or small groups. When nesting is over and the young fledge, they often form small flocks of up to a dozen birds that will roost and forage together until the next mating season. Finding food in the winter is often tough, and hunting together seems to increase their chances for success. This group concept also helps as a predator defense system with many pairs of eyes to look for and voices to warn of approaching danger.

If you have chickadees at your feeders you have probably heard their many calls and even conversations, as they are seldom silent. Thirteen distinct types of vocalizations have been classified, many of which are complex and can communicate different types of information. The song is a simple, clear whistle of two and sometimes three notes, the second and third a step lower than the first, but the most familiar call is the familiar “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” which gave this bird its name.

This call may sound simple to our ears but is astonishingly complex. It consists of up to four distinct units that can be arranged in different patterns to communicate information. A recent study of the call showed that the number of “dees” usually indicated the level of threat from a nearby predator. It was found that alarm calls triggered by small, dangerous raptors had a shorter interval between chick and dee and tended to have extra dees, usually averaging four instead of two. In one case, a warning call about a pygmy owl – a prime threat to chickadees – contained 23 dees.

“Black-capped Chickadees have a wonderful assortment of adaptations for the winter,” writes biologist Susan Smith, who has long studied them. “Carefully hidden food items, dense winter coats, specially selected winter roost cavities, and perhaps most remarkable of all, the ability to go into nightly hypothermia, thus conserving large amounts of energy, greatly increases the chances of survival,” she said. This lowers the chickadee’s body temperature down to about 12 or 15 degrees (F.) below their normal daytime temperature of 108 degrees (F.), and allows the bird to reduce its heat loss by about 25%.

The chickadee is largely an insect eater and spends much of its time gleaning insects, eggs and larvae as it clings to a tree trunk, twig or branch. As the temperature drops and when such food becomes scarce, it switches to pine, birch, and weed seeds and any berries it can find. It loves sunflower seeds, peanut kernels, peanut butter mixes and suet and becomes a regular and eager visitor to any feeder it can discover that offers them. The bird will typically take one seed, fly away and perch nearby to eat it or else hide it for later use. Often the flock will settle nearby, each member waiting its turn to grab a seed, and conversing about the situation.  With a little patience, some of the bolder birds will even accept seed from a person's hand.

All of us at Timbergreen Farm send you our best wishes for a joyous holiday season and hope you will spend part of it outdoors enjoying the chickadees and other wildlife, as well as the beauty of our Wisconsin countryside.



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December 14, 2010: A Walk in the Snow

A walk in the woods is a very different experience in contrast to just a few short weeks ago.  Then the views were splashed with gold, maroon, and scarlet but now all is black and white. Only a family of crows harassing a passing hawk across the hill breaks the silence—a radical change from the noisy crunch of dried leaves underfoot and the conversations of the migrating birds as they moved through the tree branches or flew overhead in loose clouds or ever-changing formations.

Snow is an important feature of the winter landscape. Mice and other small mammals build complex tunnel systems beneath the surface to link their burrows with food storage sites that protect them from the worst cold and many predators. The air spaces between the snow crystals in a mantle of loosely packed snow serve as insulation for the ground below (one scientist reported that ten inches of fresh snow is approximately equal to a six-inch-layer of fiberglass insulation) so while a deep snow layer may have its upper surface drop to extremely cold temperatures, the ground temperature beneath may remain around freezing. All the small creatures and plants benefit.

Fresh snow is basically a blanket of crystals that reflects the natural white light that hits them but sometimes sparkles in red, blue and yellow.  Within the layer of snow there are many different surfaces reflecting in many different angles and the light bounces all over and then scatters back out of the snow making it appear white. However, cold, dry nights can squeeze moisture out of the air and the top layer of snowflakes, causing it to crystallize into faceted patterns similar to a diamond. This can bend and split light into its rainbow of wavelengths the way a prism does, sometimes creating brilliant colors.

Snow also allows us to see evidences of the variety of creatures that live and move around in the winter woods. After hunters have taken their harvest of deer (I read that in Sauk County alone 6000 were killed), one would think that these animals would be scarce, but their tracks prove that such is not the case. Now we can follow their movements as easily as Sunny does, and our eyes can see what her nose tells her.

Deer may be the most obvious animals but there are other signs as well. A coyote has left its scat in the middle of our trail—a clear signal to other coyotes that this is its territory. A dead shrew lying on the snow may have been attacked by a predator that quickly discovered that it wouldn’t make a good meal and spit it out. Squirrels hopped from tree to tree, leaving their paired tracks as they went. They also left evidences of digging for buried acorns or other nuts, scattering dirt and dead leaves in their wake. A flock of turkeys passed by—their tracks leading right down to the bird feeders in the yard.

Tracks of a variety of mice and shrews formed highways between shrub stems. Most hopped across the surface, sometimes leaving clear tail marks, while a few tunneled just below, causing the snow to lift into ridges. These soon collapsed but the animal was long gone, leaving just an open furrow that ran from the exit hole to where it reentered its under-snow world. We noticed one patch of little bluestem grass whose seeds had become accessible due to the deep snow that was now packed down by tiny feet.

Other tracks are also in evidence: along the path, clumps of the white stuff fell from overhanging branches leaving a series of irregular marks; in another spot a strange arc pattern was formed by a heavy grass stem swinging back and forth in the wind; a long groove showed where a snowball rolled down the slope, perhaps kicked up by a passing animal. Sometimes these were hard to distinguish from those made by animals.

Beautiful as the snow is on the trail, it makes hiking much more difficult, particularly going up and down the hillsides. For one thing, I am encumbered with several pounds of extra clothing including heavy boots. Then, too, the footing is uncertain, as obstacles are now hidden and the surface is slippery. I carry a staff, but still stumble and slide as I make my way along. Paths that I recently climbed with only a few stops to catch a breath now require longer periods of recuperation before making my way to the ridge.  More snow is on the way so Sunny and I make our way homeward, looking forward to a warm cup of tea while Sunny chews the ice balls from between her toes and dreams of future excursions.

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December 7, 2010:  Beware of the Hawks

When we think of meat-eaters in the wild, it is usually animals that come to mind—wolves, coyotes, and cats of all kinds—but the great majority are actually birds. Many of these seem relatively harmless to us such as robins and bluebirds, the warblers, even woodpeckers, but there are some species that are quite fierce.

Hawks are carnivores that belong to the category of birds known as raptors -- birds of prey. They have strong, hooked beaks and their claws, or talons, are long, curved and very sharp. Prey is killed with the long talons and, if it is too large to swallow whole, it is torn to bite-sized pieces with the beak. Based on general body shape and flight habits, hawks are classified into three different groups: the accipiters, the falcons and the buteos.

The sharp-shinned hawk, the Cooper's hawk, the goshawk and the Northern harrier are accipiters. They have long tails and short, rounded wings that enable them to dart through and around trees in pursuit of other birds, their principal prey. Typically, they fly low with a series of rapid wing beats followed by a brief period of sailing, then another series of wing beats. Accipiters are usually found in brush and timbered areas.

One of these may find that your bird feeder an excellent place to hunt, as the small birds that are attracted to your seeds and suet are its favorite food. It doesn’t take long for the chickadees and sparrows to realize that it is a dangerous place to visit, however, and they look for safer spots to feed until the hawk gives up and moves on.  If your feeders seem unusually quiet, look about in the nearby trees for a hawk on the prowl.

Much of what we know about our winter birds comes from Project Feeder Watch, an undertaking of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.  Participants all over the continent count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send in their data to scientists who track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. Each reporter contributes $15 to join, making Project FeederWatch largely self-sustaining, and birders everywhere are urged to take part.

One of their conclusions is that almost a third of all predation deaths at feeders are caused by sharp-shinned hawks.
To survive, these birds must capture and eat an average of one bird per day, and that is a difficult feat as watchers report that only one strike in three is successful. They have especially long middle toes and large eyes, adaptations that help them to capture the small, agile birds that make up almost their entire diet. Both the Cooper’s and sharp-shinned have been known to cache uneaten prey in trees for later use.

Falcons, on the other hand, prefer open country. They include the peregrine falcon (often called the duck hawk), the merlin (called the pigeon hawk), and the little American kestrel, (called the sparrow hawk). Falcons have streamlined bodies, long, pointed wings and long tails. A series of strong, rapid wing beats gives them extremely fast flight in open country, and their swiftness allows them to overtake and capture other birds on the wing. The American kestrel is the smallest of our hawks and feeds mainly on mice and insects. It is the only one of the falcons that hovers over its intended prey and the only one that often stays year around. Because of its habitat and range, it is also the only falcon or accipiter that most people are likely to see.

The buteos are sometimes called buzzard hawks and are the largest of the hawks. They are the broad-winged, broad-tailed soaring birds that are often seen circling high in the air or perching in dead trees or on telephone or power poles along the road. The most common is the red-tailed that can be observed all year long. The broad-winged and red-shouldered are relatively rare and migrate south for the winter, while the rough-legged hawk is a northern nester and can be seen only in the winter, usually sitting on a perch overlooking an open field.  These hawks are much too big and heavy to be very successful at catching birds and most of their diet is made up of rodents. They will attack pheasants and other ground-nesting birds, however, and red-tails find the young of these birds particularly easy prey in the early summer. 

Since the beginning of recorded history, birds of prey have been both hated and revered. The sport of falconry -- using raptors as hunting aids -- has been practiced in Asia and Egypt for thousands of years and The North American Falconers Association still holds an annual meet attended by dedicated birders from around the world. Yet until recent years, birds of prey have also been ruthlessly trapped and shot because they have been accused of attacking game and domesticated animals. Now all are protected by federal law and it is better understood that they hold an important place in the balance of nature, as do all predators.


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November 30, 2010: Nasty Natives

Now that the vegetable and wildflower gardens are cleaned up and tucked in for the winter, we have turned our attention to clearing and treating areas of nuisance scrub growth. The trails that allow us to hike around and across our hillsides and valleys are continually encroached upon by a variety of spreading plants and it is a never-ending fight to keep them in check. We know that many of our now-wooded areas were once savanna, where scattered white and bur oaks grew on land carpeted with prairie grasses and flowers, but the repression of the once common wild fires and later the end of cattle grazing in the woods has allowed other trees and shrubs to invade and squeeze out all but the most persistent grassland and woodland plants in much of the area.

It is common to blame alien introductions for the problem, but many of the invasive plants are robust natives that persist and thrive under conditions where other more retiring plants may be overwhelmed. Most are introduced as seeds carried in by the wind or by a wild passerby, but once started, many spread by sending out adventurous rhizomes in all directions. (A rhizome is a specialized stem that grows horizontally just below the soil surface and puts up new growth and ultimately a new plant at each node.)

Northern prickly ash has always been one of the most troublesome, partly because of its nasty thorns, but also because it spreads so enthusiastically. When the soil is soft, it is sometimes possible to pull out a long series of young sprouts, each attached to its neighbor. In time each shoot would grow into a smah tree from 10 to 12 feet high, with compound leaves made up of from 5 to 11 leaflets. The greenish-yellow flowers appear in April before the leaves appear and the fruits are clusters of dark red, berry-like capsules, each containing one or more shiny black seeds. Both the berries and the bark were traditional remedies for indigestion and toothache for early people, and the wild creatures eat them and distribute the indigestible seeds wherever they go.

Another pest is the sumac that is present in both the staghorn and the smooth varieties and which often can only be told apart only by the long hairs on the twigs and fruits on the staghorn. Sumac rarely reaches over 10 feet in height but it forms spreading colonies of multi-stemmed clones. Their twigs are coarse and angular, and they bear compound leaves that turn a brilliant red in fall. On female clones, clusters of red fruit develop at the end of the stems in late summer and persist into winter, each fruit containing a single seed. This woody invader will crowd out other plants, and although it doesn’t have thorns like the prickly ash, it seems determined to re-sprout and has proved very difficult to control.

A third group of rhizome-growing plants that we sometimes view with dismay is made up of red and black raspberries and blackberries. When they grow on good sites (which doesn’t seem to happen very often), they produce delicious fruit and we pick and eat them with great pleasure. Generally, however, the patches around the farm produce few berries and consist only of long thorny arching branches that seem determined to wrap around and trap any intruder.

Raspberry canes generally live 2 years and may grow five or six feet long. Purplish-red with a white bloom and hooked prickles, they not only spread by rhizomes but readily root at the tips and form new plants wherever they contact the ground. Blackberry canes tend to be more coarse, and sometimes grow as long as eight feet. When these thorny stalks are draped with the numerous climbing branches of the many wild grapevines that cling to everything they touch with curly tendrils, you have an almost impenetrable thicket. It must be painfully cut out plant by plant, rooted out when possible and painted with a brush killer when not.

Wild grapes are perennial, woody vines with dark gray-brown bark that is sloughed off in long, narrow strips. They grow thicker and higher than most other native vines and may reach more than eighty feet into the canopy, clinging by means of tendrils which coil themselves around tree limbs and twigs. The leaves of grapes could be described as somewhat maple-like and are fairly large, often six to eight inches wide. Their tiny flowers are greenish-white and are borne in large clusters that hang from a main stalk opposite a leaf. The fruit is small and sour but is an important wildlife food, and makes good jam for humans, as well. The major problem with them is that if they can’t find a tree to climb, their many branches spread across the ground, putting down roots and new sprouts as they travel and forming bothersome barriers.

In addition to these constantly spreading plants are other natives that we also try to discourage—poison ivy, grey and red osier dogwoods, red cedar and box elder trees, to name only a few. And we won’t even mention all of the non-native species that have invaded our area. It is a never-ending battle, and perhaps one that we are sure to lose, but we fight on and enjoy our time in the out-of-doors as we work.

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November 23, 2010: All About Moss

While making our way gingerly through a patch of prickly ash below the rock cap on the hill, friend Cindy spotted an unusual sight for the middle of November. There, clinging to the surface of one of the sandstone rocks was a blooming hair-bell. These delicate blue blossoms are common in May and June on the ridge prairie remnants but hardly expected with winter right around the corner. The fact that it had taken root on bare rock in the shade was also strange, and even more unusual that it could produce a cluster of flowers.

There are other green plants to see in the woods, however, that we seldom notice until all the more dominant species have died or gone dormant for the winter.  Many of these are mosses, very simple growths that are notable because they lack conventional roots, stems, and leaves. They are thought to have been the first green land plants to develop during the evolutionary process and have proved so successful that they have not changed throughout the millennia.

In northern latitudes, look for mosses on the north side of trees and rocks (although south-side exposures are sometimes found). South of the equator the reverse is true and it is assumed the reason for both locations is that the sun-facing side of trees dries out more quickly. In deep forests where sunlight does not penetrate, mosses grow equally well on all sides of the tree trunk.
 
Even though they lack the internal structures that carry sap and nutrients up and down the tissues of most other plants, moss is present all around the globe wherever there is sufficient moisture. The small, soft plants seldom grow over four inches tall, and lack a waxy covering on their “leaves” to prevent water loss. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp shady locations and need liquid water to complete fertilization.

The life of a moss plant starts from a spore, a reproductive cell that is different from a seed in that it contains little stored food and has only one set of chromosomes instead of a paired set. The spore germinates to produce a mass of thread-like filaments that look like a thin green felt, and may grow on damp soil or rocks. From this mat emerges a clump of shoots that resemble stems covered with tiny leaves.

Reproduction in mosses seems complicated. In the spring, the moss female organ emerges as a small flask-shaped clump of cells that grows from the tip of the shoot. At the same time capsules containing the male sperm emerge and are held up on the top of stalk-like structures. When it rains, sperm are able to swim down their stalks to the female organs where fertilization occurs and a spore-plant begins to grow out of the top of each shoot. This consists of three structures—a foot that anchors it and helps it to absorb water and nutrients, a long erect stalk, and a pod-like capsule at the end. Within the capsule, spore-producing cells with two sets of chromosomes split to form reproductive spores, from which the cycle can start again.

There are hundreds of species of mosses and among the most conspicuous here at the farm is the hair-cap moss with erect stems and densely hairy caps that give them their name. They have pointed “leaves” arranged spirally around their stems and are often found in fairly dense colonies.

Farther north in Wisconsin, large deep colonies of peat moss are common. This is the fundamental species of bogs, forming and acidifying much of the habitat in which other plants can grow, its stems held upright by the close growth of its neighbors. Sphagnum is by far the most economically important of the peats and is used extensively as a soil amendment, packing material and fuel.

Unrelated plants are also called “moss” such as club moss, a ground hugging evergreen perennial plant with dense spirals of yellow green leaves; moss rose, another name for the garden creeping phlox; carageen, is a type of algae sometimes used in health foods; reindeer moss, which is actually a lichen; and Spanish moss, a parasite that grows in long streamers and is often seen in the southern sections of the country.  Many of these also reproduce by spores but have other characteristics that set them apart. We may not see these fascinating plants in our woods, but others are waiting to be discovered.


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November 16, 2010:  Bucks, Pileated, and Witch-hazel

The woods may seem quiet as November creeps into winter but that does not mean there is nothing to see. A bald eagle circles over the field, watching for the slightest movement that might mean an unwary mouse is feeding in a patch of weeds. Sunny flushes a deer and sends it leaping across the trail, although it is more of a game for both of them as she has not the slightest chance of catching it. The sun is low in the south, even at midday, but it will sink even more before the Solstice on December 21st.

We can tell that the whitetail buck deer are vying for mates, as they have marked numerous young trees and patches of ground to give notice to potential mates and rivals of their presence. Their antlers have reached full size and the initial cartilage that allowed them to accomplish such fast growth has mineralized. Then the skin covering that supplied the new appendages with oxygen and nutrients has sloughed off and the deer have polished their hard surfaces on the fragile tree bark. The bucks have also scraped spots on the trails with their front hooves to expose bare earth where they urinate to leave their scent.

A riddled aspen stump has left evidence that a pileated woodpecker has been feeding. Chips litter the ground beneath it and the rotting wood was no match for that large bird’s formidable beak. Other woodpecker holes can also be seen higher in the trees and natural cavities that have been enlarged, but none rival those of the pileated.

It is true that most of the plants are dormant now but a few continue to carry on until heavy freezes will finally bring all growth to a halt. The stalks of many of the blackberries still hold some of their mahogany and purple leaves, and there are scattered patches of light green where greenbrier has spread over some of the underbrush. This native vine has two varieties here at the farm—one that has small dried berries on short stalks at leaf nodes while the other has 2-inch tight purple berry clusters hanging from its strong stems.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the woods, however, is the witch-hazel. We have a steadily expanding patch of this large shrub in one spot on the back ridge and visiting that area is a late fall tradition. While you might assume that the plant historically had some connection with a woman with magical powers, the name “witch” actually has its origins in Middle English wiche, from the Old English wice, meaning "pliant" or "bendable". It seems that twigs of the shrub have long been used as divining rods, and this function gave it the name.

There is nothing very noticeable about witch-hazel for most of the year but it has slightly aromatic branches and leaves, and an extract of the bark has long been a remedy for numerous ills. I never would have identified it from its form or wave-toothed leaves had it not been for the bright yellow flowers it produces at this time when little else is showing any color.  After all the other trees and shrubs have shed their leaves and are standing bare and brown, this plant comes into bloom, displaying its one-inch rather scraggly looking blossoms.

This is not the only thing strange about witch-hazel, however, as fruit, flowers, and next year's leaf buds all appear at the same time—a rarity among trees. Each flower has four slender petals and the fruit is a capsule containing two glossy black seeds. Last year’s seed pods still hang on the branches ready and waiting and soon will pop open, flinging the seeds over a wide area. (Few plants distribute their seeds at the same time they open their blossoms but the witch-hazel does just that.) Then, late next autumn, this year’s capsule will split explosively, ejecting the seeds with sufficient force to fly for distances of up to 30 feet.

Exploring the woods has been lovely this fall, but it is likely that we will soon have to don heavy parkas, boots, and mittens when Sunny demands a walk. Snow is now being mentioned in the weather forecasts but that only brings a new interest to any excursions, as tracks of all kinds prove creatures seldom seen are out and active.  We keep looking for a bear but in the meantime there is always something interesting to look for...





November 9, 2010: Winter Birds


A few weeks ago the woods were atwitter with little birds, but now as one walks the trails, they seem empty and quiet. Most of the local nesters have taken flight toward the south to escape the winter, and those that remain are busy storing food for the difficult months to come. Many woodpeckers stay, as do the goldfinches, chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, blue jays, English sparrows, and red-tails; still we miss the hummingbirds, most of the thrushes and finches, and all the warblers.

One species that we always welcome at this time of the year, however, is the dark-eyed junco. These rather non-descript birds make up the small flocks that fly up as you drive the country roads, flashing their white outer tail feathers. Otherwise they are mostly gray or brown with white bellies and could be mistaken for just another sparrow. You can also hear their very high-pitched chipping calls as they converse in the underbrush.

Juncos are one of the strange bird types that consider Wisconsin to be the “southland”, and arrive here in October and stay until March or April. They breed among the evergreens or mixed forest areas in Canada, building their nests in cup-shaped depressions on the ground and lining them with fine grasses and hair. They mainly eat insects and seeds, foraging on the ground, but leave their frigid homes and are happy to come here and take advantage of the feeders that many of us put out.

Another new arrival that we sometimes see at our feeder is the red-breasted nuthatch, a cousin of our familiar white-breasted nuthatch that is a year round resident in our area. The two act much alike, climbing up and down tree trunks headfirst and poking for insects in the bark, but the red-breasted is a bit smaller and has reddish underparts and a white stripe above each eye. Its call is similar but higher-pitched than that of the white-breasted, and some have likened it to a tin trumpet.
 
The red-breasted prefers mature, wet, coniferous forests and breeds all across Canada but can sometimes be found in the northeastern and western United States. It excavates a nest in dead wood, typically close to the ground and often applies sticky conifer resin to the entrance of the hole that may help to keep out predators or competitors. It is also known to hoard excess food by wedging nuts into bark and then hammering them in with its bill.

There are several other winter visitors to southern Wisconsin feeders that we seldom see here at the farm: the American tree sparrow, with its rusty crown and a black splotch on its plain breast; the purple finch, a dull rose-red finch with stripes on its sides and belly; the pine siskin, a small streaked finch with a flash of yellow in its wings and tail; the common redpoll, an even smaller finch with a rosy breast, red crown and black chin; and the evening grosbeak, a much larger bird with a dull, gold body with black on its wings and a short tail.

The snow bunting, horned lark, and rough legged hawk do not seem to come to our yards but can sometimes be seen along the roads after the snow covers the ground. The snow bunting is a mostly white bird that breeds on the arctic tundra and treeless moors, while the horned lark also comes down from the high Arctic and northernmost Europe and Asia. It is mainly brown-grey above and pale below, with a striking black and yellow face pattern. The summer male has black "horns", which give this species its name.

A rough legged hawk has hunted along Neuheisel Road for a number of winters and we always look for it to be sitting atop one of the power poles there.  It, too, nests in Arctic tundra and taiga regions and evidently finds the winter months much more pleasant in the river valley than on its breeding grounds. Its distinguishing marks are its white tail with a dark terminal band, as well as the feathered legs from which it gets its name. We spied it for the first time this weekend and will be watching for it on its favorite station each time we go into town, happy that it has made it through another year.

Looking for and identifying these and other visitors makes up somewhat for the absence of our summer regulars and adds variety to the bird lists that some of us keep. Keep your bird books handy!   




A few weeks ago the woods were atwitter with little birds, but now as one walks the trails, they seem empty and quiet. Most of the local nesters have taken flight toward the south to escape the winter, and those that remain are busy storing food for the difficult months to come. Many woodpeckers stay, as do the goldfinches, chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, blue jays, English sparrows, and red-tails; still we miss the hummingbirds, most of the thrushes and finches, and all the warblers.

One species that we always welcome at this time of the year, however, is the dark-eyed junco. These rather non-descript birds make up the small flocks that fly up as you drive the country roads, flashing their white outer tail feathers. Otherwise they are mostly gray or brown with white bellies and could be mistaken for just another sparrow. You can also hear their very high-pitched chipping calls as they converse in the underbrush.

Juncos are one of the strange bird types that consider Wisconsin to be the “southland”, and arrive here in October and stay until March or April. They breed among the evergreens or mixed forest areas in Canada, building their nests in cup-shaped depressions on the ground and lining them with fine grasses and hair. They mainly eat insects and seeds, foraging on the ground, but leave their frigid homes and are happy to come here and take advantage of the feeders that many of us put out.

Another new arrival that we sometimes see at our feeder is the red-breasted nuthatch, a cousin of our familiar white-breasted nuthatch that is a year round resident in our area. The two act much alike, climbing up and down tree trunks headfirst and poking for insects in the bark, but the red-breasted is a bit smaller and has reddish underparts and a white stripe above each eye. Its call is similar but higher-pitched than that of the white-breasted, and some have likened it to a tin trumpet.
 
The red-breasted prefers mature, wet, coniferous forests and breeds all across Canada but can sometimes be found in the northeastern and western United States. It excavates a nest in dead wood, typically close to the ground and often applies sticky conifer resin to the entrance of the hole that may help to keep out predators or competitors. It is also known to hoard excess food by wedging nuts into bark and then hammering them in with its bill.

There are several other winter visitors to southern Wisconsin feeders that we seldom see here at the farm: the American tree sparrow, with its rusty crown and a black splotch on its plain breast; the purple finch, a dull rose-red finch with stripes on its sides and belly; the pine siskin, a small streaked finch with a flash of yellow in its wings and tail; the common redpoll, an even smaller finch with a rosy breast, red crown and black chin; and the evening grosbeak, a much larger bird with a dull, gold body with black on its wings and a short tail.

The snow bunting, horned lark, and rough legged hawk do not seem to come to our yards but can sometimes be seen along the roads after the snow covers the ground. The snow bunting is a mostly white bird that breeds on the arctic tundra and treeless moors, while the horned lark also comes down from the high Arctic and northernmost Europe and Asia. It is mainly brown-grey above and pale below, with a striking black and yellow face pattern. The summer male has black "horns", which give this species its name.

A rough legged hawk has hunted along Neuheisel Road for a number of winters and we always look for it to be sitting atop one of the power poles there.  It, too, nests in Arctic tundra and taiga regions and evidently finds the winter months much more pleasant in the river valley than on its breeding grounds. Its distinguishing marks are its white tail with a dark terminal band, as well as the feathered legs from which it gets its name. We spied it for the first time this weekend and will be watching for it on its favorite station each time we go into town, happy that it has made it through another year.

Looking for and identifying these and other visitors makes up somewhat for the absence of our summer regulars and adds variety to the bird lists that some of us keep. Keep your bird books handy!   


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November 2, 2010:  What is a "Mast" Year?


It is hard to walk any of our woodland trails without crushing some of the acorns underfoot that presently carpet them. It has proved to be an unusually prolific seeding year (traditionally called a mast year) for the oaks, and all of the wildlife will benefit. The term "mast" comes from the Old English word "maest", meaning the nuts of forest trees that have accumulated on the ground, especially those used as food for fattening domestic pigs. Acorns are a valuable though often unreliable source of food for more than 180 different kinds of birds and mammals such as squirrels, blue jays, crows, woodpeckers, deer, turkey, quail, mice, chipmunks, ducks, and raccoons, to say nothing of insects and other invertebrates.

Acorns start out as a few cells at the tip of the oak branch. The end of each twig can have flowers of both sexes as well as new leaves. With mild, sunny weather in March or April, some cells swell into a vase-shaped ovary topped with tiny, sticky, fuzzy knob (the pistil), ready to capture any wind-blown pollen. The ovary walls become the acorn, and the petals and sepals fuse into what becomes the "cap" on the acorn.

Other cells at the tip of the branch elongate and swell into a tiny spray of yellow balls. These "catkins" have many tiny spheres, and each opens and releases thousands of pollen grains. These are blown into the air and some reach the pistils of potential acorns and pollinate them. Pollen and female flowers appear on a tree at slightly different times thus assuring cross-fertilization, and at the same time, other bud cells divide and grow into the leaves.

The acorn is a hard, one-seeded, dry fruit like a chestnut or hazelnut and contains about 35% water, 10% fat, 4% protein, and 4% crude fiber.  It can vary in length from less than 1/2 inch to more than 2 inches and is made up of an embryo enclosed in seed leaves (properly called cotyledons) and covered by a shell. When it germinates, it first puts out a strong root that buries itself into the ground, and then later an upright shoot.

Botanists divide oaks into two groups—white oaks and red oaks (or sometimes called black oaks). The trees in these two groups differ chiefly in the shape of their leaves and in how long it takes their acorns to mature.
Oaks vary widely in size and in the way they grow. Some never become taller than small shrubs while others reach heights of more than 100 feet. Many live for more than 200 years but grow slowly and usually do not bear acorns until they are at least 20 years old.

Wisconsin white oaks have grayish bark and leaves with seven or nine rounded lobes. Their acorns form in the spring, mature during the summer, and are shed in the autumn when they germinate almost immediately.  Good white acorn crops are irregular and occur only every 4 to 10 years. Bur oaks are the largest of the whites and can grow up to 80 feet tall with a leaf canopy diameter of up to 100 feet. Their acorns are the largest of all the native acorns and can reach 1½ inches long. Each is almost round with a bur or moss-like fringed cup covering half or more of the nut. It can send down a taproot four feet deep just in the first year.

Wisconsin red oaks are divided into three species—the northern red, the black and the scarlet oak. All three usually have leaves with seven or nine sharply pointed lobes and their acorns need two growing seasons to mature. In forest stands, red oaks begin to bear fruit at about age 25 but usually do not produce seeds abundantly until about age 50 and then at irregular intervals, usually every 2 to 5 years.

The acorns of the red oaks have a relatively high content of tannin (a bitter compound used to tan hides), compared to those of the white. Native people used rock grinders to break open the red acorns, and they would soak them in the streams for many days before using them. Most animals prefer those of the white oaks, but eat the reds as well, as poor nutrition absorption due to tannins may be overcome by the sheer volume. So, deer, pigs, squirrels, quail, jays and many other wild animals eat as many acorns as they can, although they sometimes leave them for a few weeks on the ground to leach before they eat them. The good news is that on these mast years, there are often more acorns than the animals, birds, and insects can eat, leaving some to germinate and assure that oaks will flourish for many years to come.

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October 24, 2010: What's So Different About Woodpeckers?

Whoever first named the woodpecker could not have given it a more descriptive moniker. Only a few of the 180 species spend much time doing anything else, and those live in areas where there are no big trees. All woodpeckers have some characteristics in common: strong, pointed beaks that act as chisels to remove bark to find hiding insects; long sticky tongues, which possess bristles that allow them to grab and extract insects deep within a hole; feet which have two clawed toes pointing forward and two back to help them grasp a vertical surface; and stiffened tail feathers, which they use as props so they can peck away.

The largest of the seven woodpecker species in our area is the pileated, a term that comes from the Latin word for  “capped”. It is nearly crow-sized, and is mainly black with a red crest and a white line down the sides of the throat. We often see one flying from tree to tree in the woods, showing flashes of white from its underwings and giving its typical ki-ki-ki-ki call. It is an important member of the wildlife community as it is constantly ripping up old stubs and stumps in its search for ants (its favorite food).  In addition, it excavates a new nest cavity each year and then abandons it for the use of other birds and animals in succeeding years.

In contrast to the large pileated, the downy woodpecker is the smallest woodpecker in North America. It is mainly black on the upper parts and wings, with a white back, throat and belly and white spotting on the wings. Adult males also have a red patch on the back of the head, which the female lacks. They feed mainly on insects, but also eat seeds and berries, and in winter, downies are regular visitors at our birdfeeders.

Strangely, the much larger hairy woodpecker has virtually identical plumage to the downy, although they are not closely related. The hairy is medium-sized and is about 10 inches in length, while the downy is only 6 ½ inches long. Both are permanent residents and forage on trees, pecking off insects at the bark surface in summer and digging deeper in winter.

Another medium sized woodpecker we often see at our feeders in the winter is the red-bellied. Its common name is somewhat misleading, as the most prominent red is on the head. It is mainly light gray on the face and underparts but has distinctive black and white barred patterns on its back, wings and tail. The reddish tinge on the belly that gives the bird its name is usually hard to see.

The redheaded woodpecker is a rather close relative of the red-bellied, but looks entirely different. It is strikingly tri-colored, with a jet-black back and tail, white underparts, and a red head and neck. Once abundant, populations have seriously declined presumably since the arrival of European starlings that compete for nest sites in dead trees in the woodlands.

The Northern flicker has two characteristics that set it apart. It is one of the few woodpecker species that often migrate at least a short distance southward for the winter, and is the only one that commonly feeds on the ground. We have the yellow-shafted variety in Wisconsin, while a similar species—the red-shafted—lives farther west, the names referring to certain feathers in their wings.

The only other woodpecker we see in Wisconsin has elaborate plumage and a fancy name—the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The male is predominately black and white with yellow underneath and red forehead and throat, while the female is similar but has a white throat. The sapsucker has the clever habit of drilling holes in trees and then eating both the sap and the insects that are attracted to it. It is also the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is completely migratory, sometimes going as far south as Panama.

Male woodpeckers almost always have bright red on their heads that flashes as they pound on a tree, sending both visual and auditory signals to potential mates or rivals. This is primarily a spring activity but may occur at any time, and the birds sometimes damage buildings, road signs, and any other handy objects that might hide edible prey or just act as sounding boards for their pecking. This can be a problem if it is your house siding that is being attacked!


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October 17, 2010: Flies and More Flies

This is the time of the year when householders often wonder where they have gone wrong to have attracted or even propagated the flies that are crawling on their windows, buzzing about their kitchen, and generally making big nuisances of themselves. That is the bad news; the good news is that the insects’ presence is not the result of anything anyone has or has not done. These are probably cluster flies.

Cluster flies are common household pests that resemble houseflies, but have not come from poor garbage disposal, feces, rotting carrion or any other putrid material. Their similarity to houseflies is only superficial as they hold their wings parallel to the body instead of in a triangular arrangement as do houseflies, they are covered with fine golden hairs, and, most importantly, they lay their eggs on earthworms instead of decaying material. The larvae consume the worms, pupate, and in the fall, emerge and look for warm, sheltered spots in which to spend the winter. This makes our homes attractive refuges for them and the only way to prevent their entry is to seal every available crack.

Houseflies, on the other hand, typically lay their eggs on animal feces and garbage. They originated on the steppes of central Asia, but now occur on all inhabited continents and are always found in association with humans.  White, legless maggots hatch from the eggs and grow to about one-half inch before entering the pupal stage and forming a dark brown cocoon. The adult houseflies emerge in as little as two days under optimal conditions and can fly one or two miles in search of suitable egg-laying sites. Houseflies spit out saliva onto solid food to predigest it, and then suck it back in as they can only ingest liquids. As many as ten to twelve generations may occur annually.

Stable flies are often confused with houseflies but are larger and both males and females feed on the blood of animals, including humans, often biting around the ankles. The bites are painful but are not known to transmit disease to humans. Females lay their eggs in rotting straw and manure, moist piles of animal feed and yard waste.

Blowflies are often called bottle flies because their shiny blue, green, black or bronze color resembles colored bottle glass. Blowflies are about the size of houseflies or slightly larger, and lay their eggs inside the bodies of dead animals although they are also attracted to garbage. The gases produced cause the carrion to have a bloated appearance leading to the common name. Another similar fly is the flesh fly that is dark-colored like the housefly but slightly larger. It also usually seeks carrion or scraps of meat on which to lay its eggs.

Gardeners often have to combat another fly when they bring fruits and vegetables into their kitchens. The fruit fly is only about 1/8 inch long and usually has red eyes. It lays its eggs on fermenting fruits or other moist, organic materials, and upon emerging, the tiny larvae feed on the soft surface. The reproductive potential of fruit flies is enormous; given the opportunity, each female will lay about 500 eggs, and the entire lifecycle from egg to adult can be completed in about a week. Fruit flies are primarily nuisance pests but they do have the potential to contaminate food with bacteria and other disease-producing organisms.

There are some 120,000 different kinds of flies. They, along with gnats, maggots, midges, and mosquitoes are all close relatives and make up one of the four largest groups of living organisms. There are more known flies than vertebrates, and only the cold arctic and Antarctic ice caps are free of them. The economic importance of the group is immense as flies transmit an untold number of diseases and destroy great quantities of food, especially grains and fruits.

Despite this negative picture, flies are vital members of the wildlife community. They are pollinators or regular visitors of more than 500 species of flowering plants and pollinators of over 100 cultivated plants. In addition, they are near the bottom of the food chain and so provide a major portion of the prey of many of our birds, insects, and a number of other creatures.  We couldn’t do without them, nuisance that they may be.

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October 12, 2010:  If Spiders Could Fly....

This might seem to be a strange time of the year for babies to arrive, but in the spider phylum, it is quite commonplace. Furthermore, the spiderlings are usually so small that they would go unnoticed except for one characteristic—their mode of transportation. As soon as they crawl out of the egg casing, they extrude threads of silk into the air and let themselves be carried away by passing breezes.  You have undoubtedly seen these delicate strands as they glisten in the sunlight and perhaps wondered at their source.

The spiderling raises its abdomen and releases a thread that grows longer and longer into the wind until there is sufficient upward lift to carry it off. Although most rides are only of a few yards, they can at times reach heights of up to 33,000 feet and be transported to every spot on the world. Spiders are often one of the first inhabitants of a devastated area like that after the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa in August 1883. Within six months scientists had already reported microscopic spiders spinning their webs. Many sailors have reported that spiders have been caught in their ship's sails, far from land.

Spider silk is a fiber composed of complex protein molecules that the creature uses mainly to make webs or other structures which catch prey, or as nests or cocoons for protection for their offspring. Although different species of spider and different types of silk have different protein sequences, a general trend in spider silk structure is a sequence of amino acids, some of which stack to form hard crystals, while the rest remains as elastic less-organized material. These give spider silk its extraordinary properties.

A spider's dragline is only about one-tenth the diameter of a human hair and is remarkably strong. Its tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade steel but with the advantage of being extremely lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than 18 ounces. It is also especially elastic, able to stretch up to 140% of its length without breaking. Steel can be stretched only 8% and nylon around 20%.

There are seven different known glands located on a spider's abdomen which produce silken thread and each produces a type for a special purpose. Each spider possesses only some of these glands and not all seven together.  For example, one common California garden spider produces five different types of silk: dragline silk is very strong and tough and is used for the web's outer rim and spokes and the lifeline; capture-spiral silk is sticky, extremely stretchy and tough and used to trap prey; tubiliform silk is very stiff and used to create egg sacs; aciniform silk is the toughest and is used to wrap freshly captured prey; and minor-ampullate silk is used for temporary scaffolding during web construction.

Humans have used spider silk throughout history. Polynesian fishermen used the thread of the golden orb web weaver as fishing line, while in the New Hebrides, spider web was used to make net pouches for carrying small objects. Some tribes in New-Guinea used webs as hats to protect their heads from the rain.
During World War II, the threads of some orb weavers were used as hairs in measuring equipment and the threads of the black widow in telescopic gun sights.

In 1709 a Frenchman, Bon de Saint-Hilaire, demonstrated the possibility of making fabric from spider silk. Many egg cocoons were boiled, washed and dried and the thread was collected with fine combs and used to produce socks and gloves. It was soon found that this would never be profitable, however, as 1.3 million spider cocoons were needed to produce one kilogram of silk.
     
There is commercial interest in duplicating spider silk artificially, but it has been very difficult to find a viable process. The most promising involves cloning spider genes and inserting them into the DNA of E. coli bacteria that would then replicate them. This seems to work on a small scale but not in the quantities needed.

In the mean time, the spiders continue to manufacture their amazing silk to catch their food, house their young, and even to fly a little...    


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October 5. 2010: Bears: Who'd Have Thought?


On several occasions we have encountered black bears while visiting northern Wisconsin and found it interesting, but it is a different experience to have proof that one is wandering in our neighborhood. While no one to my knowledge has actually seen the animal, its image was captured by a wildlife cam last week just down the road. (A wildlife cam is a flash camera that can be installed in the woods and is triggered by any creature that passes by.) Now everyone is on alert, wanting to catch a glimpse.

Fifteen years ago, bears were uncommon in central Wisconsin and almost never seen in the south, but that is not the case these days. Karl Malcolm, wildlife ecologist, says that a healthy bear population up north has forced bears to seek new territory. Following nature's highways—rivers and wooded stretches—they have moved south and are now spreading throughout Wisconsin's patchwork of forest and farm fields.

Black bears are an important and impressive part of Wisconsin's dwindling wild landscape. Adult male boars can grow up to 6 feet in length, usually weigh 300-400 pounds, and measure 2 to 3 feet tall at the shoulder. The smaller females, or sows, weigh up to 450 pounds and measure 4 to 4.5 feet long. Infant cubs are born quite tiny but by the time they are two months old, they weigh about 6 pounds.

The black bear is usually covered with dense, coarse black fur although brown and cinnamon color phases can occur. About 25 percent have white markings of various shapes and sizes on their chests. They lumber about on short, pigeon-toed legs giving a roly-poly appearance but they are very strong, especially in their legs and shoulders. When they need to, they can gallop over 30 miles per hour, climb trees, swim, and can stand erect on their hind legs and walk for a few steps.

Black bears are omnivores; that means they eat anything—fruit, berries, nuts, grass, leaves, insects and insect larvae, fish, honey, trash, the grease from grills, small mammals and carrion. As they have moved south they have developed a taste for corn and especially sunflower seeds, and therefore are attracted to birdfeeders.

A Walworth County property owner has reported seeing a black bear north of Delavan on Hazel Ridge Road in Sugar Creek Township. DNR Spokesman Greg Matthews reports that this sighting is the 31st this year, with most of the animals in Dane, Sauk, Iowa and Grant counties. An adult male bear needs about 27 square miles of his own territory for mating, while a female bear tends to stick within eight square miles of her den.

Any lone bear seen at this time of year is most likely to be a young male that is looking for new territory, but even a few females with cubs have been observed. One such was reported near Leland this spring, 10 miles north of Mazomanie in Sauk County. “That tells us she was bred down here,” Matthews said. “So we have at least one confirmed permanent residence.”

Young boars were sighted this year in Verona and Waunakee, a single bear in the Town of Clyde in Iowa County, a young boar hit and killed by a vehicle on Interstate 39 north of Portage in Columbia County, plus several reports in Crawford and Columbia Counties. It is thought that most of the bears leave the area after the breeding season, presumably to return north, although female bears with young evidently remain in the south throughout the summer.

Although a few bears are obviously making themselves at home in our area, the DNR states that there is no cause for alarm. While they are wild, strong and unpredictable, humans have co-existed with bears in northern Wisconsin for centuries and only a few common sense measures are recommended. Don’t knowingly attract a bear to your yard by leaving pet food or smelly garbage outside; they do come to bird feeders so you might want to stop feeding during the summer, as well. Should you meet one outdoors, wave your arms and make noise to try to drive the animal off. Then slowly back away and give the bear an escape route.

Black bears are most active at twilight though they sometimes are out and about anytime, day or night. They are actually timid and generally afraid of people, so consider yourself fortunate if you chance to see one.


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September 28, 2010: Collies and Burs


Collies are our favorite dogs, and we have had one or two in the family for the last 50 years. Daisy joined the others early in the summer, taking her place in our fond memories, and a few weeks without a dog convinced us that we needed to fill the vacant hole she left, even in our advanced age.  Now Sunny has claimed our hearts and enlivened our days, and we wonder how we could have thought we could get along without her.

Sunny’s family gave her up to the humane society in the spring as she was too lively and vocal in their new urban home, and the Minnesota-Wisconsin Collie Rescue group placed her with one of their foster families until a home could be found. She was five years old and seemed perfect for us and so she has proved to be. She has made it her job to keep the deer, rabbits, woodchucks, and squirrels away from the farmyard and chases them up into the wooded hillsides with great enthusiasm. The only problem is that she also sweeps the area with her long fur, collecting a variety of burs and sticky seeds.

Most of our plants have completed their growth processes and have either died or are going dormant, and Mother Nature has developed some fascinating techniques for the spread of each species. If all of its seeds fell to the ground under the parent plant, the result would probably be overcrowded masses of a single species in a limited area, but this is seldom the case.

Some plants provide their offspring with sails or parachutes and then hold them up in such a way that the wind can lift them into the air and carry them some distance before dropping them to the ground. Some give the seeds tasty appendages that entice insects or other creatures to carry them off to their nests, while others surround the seeds with edible fruits or berries that accomplish the same goal.

Equally ingenious is the trick of encasing the seeds in coats that grab hold of any passing creature, forcing it to carry them away. A considerable number of plants cover their seeds in this manner armed with an array of sharp curved hooks, such as those found on avens, stickseeds, tick-trefoils, and burdock.

Yellow, or the very similar, woodland avens are not well known species, but if you spend any time in rough country you undoubtedly have picked up some of their seeds. In the summer, they bear small yellow five-petaled flowers that are then replaced by spiny green balls that will adhere to anything that touches them. They can grow several feet tall, making a patch of them a formidable barrier.

Tick-trefoil (often called stick-tights or beggar's-ticks) has lovely pink flowers arrayed on arching stems at a time when the woods are often dark and lacking in much color. However, the plants later produce slender legume fruits that break into small, one-seeded joints covered with tiny barbed hairs. The individual joints are so flat that they are exceedingly difficult to remove from your clothing when the barbed hooks latch onto the threads in your socks, pants or sweater.

Virginia stickseed is another weed that has become quite common in our woodlands. It is a member of the borage family and has small white flowers that hang in slender racemes during the summer. The flowers are easy to miss but the numerous prickly fruits that hang downward from its stems will come off with the slightest touch and stick so tightly to fur or clothing that they are almost impossible to remove.

The most familiar is probably the burdock, with its one-seeded dry fruit enclosed in leaf cup covered with long hooked spines. One day in 1948, an amateur Swiss naturalist, George de Mestral, went on a nature walk with his dog and returned covered with burs. He examined them under his microscope and saw the numerous small hooks clinging to the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. The story has it that he envisioned a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of his pants and called it Velcro® a combination of the words velour and crochet. And the rest—so the saying goes—is history.

 
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September 21, 2010: The Miracle of Migration


There are definite hints of autumn in the air, and walks around the farm indicate that many of the birds have already left us for their winter homes. Swallows, thrushes, warblers, and flycatchers are tropical birds from Central and South America who visit us for only a few short summer months.

It is believed that they and other birds migrate because this behavior expands the available nesting and food gathering areas of the world. Tropical days are only 12 hours long but northern summers have extended days that provide many extra hours for gathering food. It takes a great amount of effort and time to feed three or four youngsters, that will increase their hatching weight up to 50 times in just two weeks. When nesting is completed and the weather is becoming cold and inhospitable, however, these birds return to their true homes. Often at least a month is spent in transit each way leaving only three or four months with us. Some species begin to leave as soon as their young have become independent, while others stay long into the autumn. Fall migration is a protracted, often individual process propelled by shortening daylight length, falling temperatures and north to northwest winds.

Birds have a number of unique characteristics among the wild creatures. Feathers provide the insulation necessary to maintain a high body temperature, ranging from 107° to 113° F. Long wing feathers act as airfoils that help generate the lift necessary for flight. Well-developed pectoral muscles power the flapping motion of the wings and a streamlined body shape and lightweight skeleton composed of hollow bones reduce the amount of energy necessary to fly. They have hearts which proportionately weigh 6 times more than those of a human and can beat 1000 times a minute when in flight. The avian respiratory system consists of two lungs plus special air sacs, and takes up 20% of a bird's volume compared to 5% in a human.

In addition to these general characteristics, migratory birds exhibit specialized traits. Migrants generally have longer, more pointed wings than non-migratory species, a feature that further minimizes air resistance. Also, the pectoral muscles of migrants tend to be larger and composed of fibers that are more richly supplied with nutrient- and oxygen-carrying blood vessels. Migrants also possess internal annual clocks which are set by day length and weather, and among other things, these signal the bird to acquire and store an impressive quantity of fat.  A typical summer warbler weighs about 11 grams, but in the autumn it may increase its body weight to 20 grams. In human terms, this fuel strategy would be equivalent to a 150-pound person gaining 15 pounds of pure fat per day until tipping the scale at 300 pounds, and then shedding 1.8 pounds per hour through vigorous exercise.

There are about 200 species of migratory birds. The majority are songbirds such as warblers, thrushes, tanagers, and vireos, but there are also many shorebirds such as sandpipers, plovers, and terns, some raptors such as hawks, eagles and vultures, as well as a number of types of waterfowl. Migration distances vary greatly between species and even between individual birds of the same type. The shortest migrations are made by birds that breed in the southern United States and winter in Mexico or the West Indies, a trip that can be as short as a few hundred miles. These include some of the vireos, warblers, buntings, northern parulas, and gray catbirds.

Some of the longest migrations are made by shorebirds that nest in the arctic tundra of northernmost Canada and winter as far south as Tierra del Fuego (the southernmost part of South America), a one-way distance of up to 10,000 miles. Other birds that winter in South America include common nighthawks, Swainson’s hawks, red-eyed vireos, purple martins, barn and cliff swallows, blackpoll, cerulean and Connecticut warblers, scarlet tanagers, and bobolinks. A round-trip migration distance for many of these species is as much as 13,600 miles. The absolute champion is the arctic tern that travels 22,000 miles each year.

It is estimated that 90 percent of songbirds hatched in any given year fail to reach maturity and migration is a major killer. Untold numbers of migrants die each year by striking plate glass windows, utility lines and towers, and automobiles, in addition to the millions of birds that fall prey to domestic cats. All these human-related challenges come in addition to the natural risks of storms, water barriers, sudden temperature drops, and natural predation.

We can help traveling birds by providing a source of water (especially moving as in a waterfall or fountain), leaving rough areas in the yard that can provide shelter and food (insects and plants going to seed), landscaping with evergreen and fruit bearing trees, shrubs, grasses and vines, and maintaining nectar and other feeders until migration has ended. We certainly treasure the species that spend the long winter months with us, but anticipating the return of the migrants is one of the great joys of springtime.
   

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September 14, 2010: A Batty Story

It is always exciting to be part of a wildlife study, and an opportunity arose this week to help in a survey being conducted by a section of the DNR concerning our bat population. Our farm had somehow been identified as having two caves and it was hoped that they might be serving as wintering hibernation sites for some the state’s bats. Most bat species in North America feed on night-flying insects, many of which are pests of forests, agriculture, and garden crops or pose risks to human health and they play an extremely valuable role in our scheme of things. The number of insects consumed annually by one million bats is staggering--equivalent to 694 tons—indicating their extraordinary importance—and they are now threatened.

Wisconsin has seven species of bats. The largest and most widespread in the Americas is the hoary bat, but even it seldom weighs more than one ounce. The hoary bat, red bat and silver-haired bats live a solitary life in the woods where their beautifully colored, silky fur blends in with their surroundings.  Each fall they fly south, reportedly to the Gulf States, where they hibernate over winter perched in the branches of trees. When warm weather returns, they fly north to spend the summer in Wisconsin, often to the same tree each year to raise their young.

Wisconsin’s four other bat species remain for the winter but have to find places where they can hibernate, as the insects upon which they depend for food disappear with frost. They survive the long winter on a few grams of stored fat, accomplishing this by dropping body temperature and slowing metabolism. Two species, the northern myotis and the eastern pipistrelles are common but relatively unknown. The myotis hides in rock crevices, under bark or in hollow trees while females with young prefer heavily forested areas.  The pipistrelles, our smallest bats, are sometimes mistaken for moths and are rare near human structures, preferring instead to roost in dense foliage. Both are thought to hibernate in caves in winter where they are safe from freezing temperatures, but they have not been studied to the extent of the big- and little-browns. 

Big-brown and little-brown bats are widely distributed throughout Wisconsin and roost in colonies, often in accessible buildings that are close to large insect populations such as barns. Our barn is the summer home of a number of little-brown bats, tiny dark brown animals that weigh less than ½ ounce and have wingspans of up to 11 inches. I read that a little-brown bat may eat up to 900 small insects in an hour, and average colonies may consume 500,000 insects or more each night. The little-brown females form nursery colonies of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of individuals while the males are thought to spend the summer in scattered solitary roosts. They usually hibernate in caves and mines, often clustered on cave walls or ceilings curled up like furry balls.

They mate in the autumn, before hibernation begins, and over winter the male's sperm is stored inside the female's body. The infant is conceived in spring and the female returns to the nursery colony, often to the same place where she was born. There is usually one baby born per female each year and it clings to a nipple constantly until it is two weeks old. At that point, it becomes too large for its mother to carry and will hang in the nursery while she forages. At three weeks it learns to fly and by four weeks, it reaches adult size. Only about half the babies survive to adulthood.

The big-brown bat is the one most commonly seen in the summer, as it often roosts in colonies in tree hollows, wall spaces, and buildings. More tolerant of cold conditions than other species, it is the only one that may over-winter in walls and attics. It is larger in size than the little-brown, with an 11-13” wingspan and weighing 1/2 to 5/8 ounce. While hibernating, the body temperature may be only slightly above freezing, enabling these animals to survive in attics or more exposed parts of caves or mines. This species has lived in our attic for some 35 years without any problem, and with all the benefits of their insect control.

All of these hibernating bats (but particularly the little-brown due to its habit of forming large winter colonies) are feared to be at risk due to the appearance of a strange new disease. White-nose syndrome has already killed more than 1 million bats since first being detected in New York in 2006, and the disease is now spreading westward. Its distinguishing characteristic is a white fungus that grows on infected bats' noses. Scientists do not understand how the fungus kills, but they do know it infects the bats' skin and appears to interfere with hibernation. During winter, healthy hibernating bats arouse briefly about every two weeks, but infected bats wake up every few days, perhaps because the fungus is itchy and irritating, and some scientists believe this speeds the depletion of their energy stores and leads to starvation. Some also believe that the bat’s immune system may detect the fungus and respond by mounting a protective immune response, burning precious calories in the process.

Members of the study team organized by the Department of Natural Resources visited us this past week, and we hiked up to the various rock openings that had evidently been deemed to be “caves” in their records, but we found no sites that they felt could over-winter bats. They will be examining caves and mines throughout the area, hoping to document the population while looking for any signs that the dread disease has reached Wisconsin. We wish them well.



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August 29, 2010: Sounds of a Late Summer Evening

Warm August and September evenings are filled with a chorus of strange sounds, with insects such as cicadas (often mistakenly called locusts), crickets and grasshoppers often predominating. Annual cicadas are mostly large, blackish insects with greenish markings and large, clear wings. They feed underground on tree roots for two to three years in their nymph stage before emerging as singing adults, but due to overlapping generations, we can hear some every year during late summer. Their loud buzzing sound is made only by males, and is produced by vibrating internal structures within their hollow drum-like abdomens.

Crickets sing at different tempos depending on their species and the temperature of their environment. Most species chirp more quickly the warmer the temperature (approximately 62 chirps a minute at 13°C in one common species). It is often possible to calculate the temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps produced in 14 seconds. Crickets, like all other insects, take on the temperature of their surroundings, and as the temperature rises, their chemical reactions such as those involved in the muscle contractions used to produce chirping, occur more rapidly.

Only the male crickets chirp. A large vein running along the bottom of each wing has "teeth," much like a comb does. The chirping sound is created by running the top of one wing along the teeth at the bottom of the other wing. As he does this, the cricket holds its wings up and spread, so that the wing membranes can act as acoustical radiators.

It takes a bit of imagination to hear the “katydid..katydidn’t” song of the long-horned grasshopper that has been given that name. It is usually about two inches long and looks much like a green leaf with legs. It makes its sound by rubbing a scraper, which is the sharp edge of its front wing against a file found on the rough edge on the lower wing, a process much like that of the cricket. The male starts to sing from a chosen perch as darkness falls and the female’s “ears” that are situated on her forelegs direct her toward to the loudest singing male. An interesting research item is that the female can recognize her male counterpart only when they are at the same temperature.

We are not the only listeners to the insect chorus, as another interested party lingers at the edge of the woods. The Eastern screech owl is a small, nocturnal, woodland bird. It is only about 9 inches long and weighs about 7 oz., but it is a formidable hunter, out from dusk to dawn, but most active during the first four hours of darkness. When prey is spotted, the owl dives quickly and seizes it in its talons. Small prey will usually be swallowed whole on the spot, while larger objects are carried in the bill to a perch and then torn into pieces.

The male screech owl has a lower-pitched voice than the female. His most common call is a mellow, muted trill—each call lasting 2 to 3 seconds and consisting of about 35 notes, repeated at various intervals. A second more recognizable call is a descending whinny, often given during courtship, although we have been hearing it in the farmyard the past few nights. A mated pair will sometimes sing a duet consisting of both songs and also have been heard to bark or hoot at other times.

This little owl flies fairly rapidly with a steady wingbeat, rarely gliding or hovering, but may flutter with erratic movements when maneuvering through wooded areas. Its wings are broad and the head is held tucked in giving the bird a stubby appearance when flying. It is an opportunistic hunter and will attack any suitably-sized prey although the most favored are small rodents and deer mice. It will also hunt rats, chipmunks, squirrels, shrews, bats, and moles as well as any birds it can catch, and will gobble up large flying insects and anything else it considers edible.

Step out of doors after sunset and listen to the sounds of the evening. Another world awakens as darkness falls, and musicians tune up their instruments for our wonder and pleasure.



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August 24, 2010: All That Glitters is not Gold


The grassland outside my study window has taken on an almost uniform yellow color, as have most of the fallow fields in the area. Even the most disinterested person usually knows goldenrod when he or she encounters it—perhaps even more than the ubiquitous Queen Anne’s lace. About 100 perennial species make up the goldenrod family, most being found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas across North America.

The botanical name of this remarkable plant, Solidago, means “to make whole” and it has been used as a healing herb since ancient times. For Native Americans, it was a staple medicine, as nearly every tribe had at least one variety close at hand. Called “sun medicine,” it was used to treat everything from wounds and fevers to rheumatism and toothache. It was also used as a charm, smoked like tobacco, woven into baskets, burned as incense, and made into a dye.

Learning that goldenrod sap contained natural latex, Thomas Edison decided to see if he could use it as a source of rubber. He produced a resilient, long-lasting product that Henry Ford made into a set of tires for his own personal automobile. From the common weed that grew to an average height of 3-4 feet and contained 5% yield of latex, Edison produced a hybrid that grew to 12 feet and yielded 12% latex. His research was turned over to the U.S. government when he died in 1931, but the project was dropped and never revived, even when rubber became almost impossible to obtain during World War II.

Probably due to its prominent, golden yellow flower heads in late summer, the goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The fact is that the pollen causing these allergy problems is mainly produced by the ragweed that blooms at the same time as the goldenrod, but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and is thus mainly pollinated by insects. To get the pollen in your nasal passages, you’d have to sniff a flower close to your nose. Frequent handling of goldenrod and other flowers, however, can sometimes cause allergic reactions.

A common sight among any cluster of goldenrod stems is the presence of round or elliptical swellings called galls. These can be caused by fungi and viruses, but most commonly by insects; for example, when certain flies and moths lay eggs on a plant stem or leaf, their larvae hatch and tunnel into its tissue where they feed on the plant's cells. The plant reacts by producing a tumor-like growth that houses and feeds the grub.

There are three different insects that use goldenrod in this fashion: the apple gall fly, the elliptical gall moth, and the rosette gall midge. This last one--a miniscule fly--lays its egg in a leaf bud and the presence of the grub somehow keeps the stem from growing and elongating, resulting in a thick tuft of leaves usually at the top of the main stalk. The other two insects cause ball-like galls to form on the plant stem that remain through the winter.

Although goldenrods are easily recognized by their showy arrays of hundreds of bright yellow flowerets, the various species are often difficult to distinguish. Canadian goldenrod is our most common and weedy type. There is some experimental evidence that this species inhibits the growth of other plants by exuding chemicals through its roots, although reportedly these results were obtained in the laboratory and have not been proven in the field. The main problem it causes is that its root system is made up of creeping rhizomes that cause the plants to cluster, forming dense colonies that may crowd out other plants.

It is virtually impossible to eliminate this species from an area, but removing seedheads and treating with an herbicide, not just once but repeatedly as new plants appear, will hopefully create a situation where diverse competition will hold it in check. Perhaps this is for the best as some authors say that goldenrod is one of the most valuable plants on the continent to feed our pollinators. Its high protein pollen and tremendous nectar yields give many species of bees and wasps their last good feed of the season.


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August 17, 2010:  Swallow Tales

Swallows and martins are members of a family of songbirds that are known for feeding on the wing. They snatch up flying insects, selecting the larger ones (regrettably, mosquitoes are somewhat down on their preference list), and avoiding stinging insects such as bees and wasps. Their flight may be fast and involve a rapid succession of turns and banks when actively chasing fast moving prey, or slower and more leisurely as they fly in circles, alternating flapping with gliding to catch less agile victims.

We have six species in Wisconsin and they can be separated into two groups—those that nest in cavities and houses, and those who construct nests of mud that they plaster beneath overhangs, either natural or manmade. The Northern rough-winged and bank swallows are fairly common plain brown birds with light underparts and forked tails that nest in cavities near the water, usually in burrows that may be up to two feet in length. These birds forage in flight over water or fields, flying low to scoop up flying insects, and both migrate to the Gulf coast and south to Central America in winter. The Northern rough-winged swallow derives its name from the outer wing feathers, which have small hooks or points on their leading edges.

The tree swallow will nest in a natural or artificial cavity near water but will also readily use a nest box, including one built for bluebirds. We had a pair some years ago in a birdhouse near the farmyard, only to have house sparrows chase them off, never to return. The adult tree swallow has iridescent blue-green upperparts, white underparts, and a very slightly forked tail while the female is more greenish and less colorful.

The largest of the family is the purple martin, with an average length of 8 inches from bill to tail. Adult males are entirely black with glossy steel blue sheen, and a slightly forked tail while females and young are less showy. (Within the family, the name "martin" tends to be used for the squarer-tailed species, and the name "swallow" for the more fork-tailed species.)

Purple martins catch a variety of insects from the air but fly relatively high, so mosquitoes do not form a large part of their diet despite many claims to the contrary. They make their nests in cavities, and in many places they are almost entirely dependent on man-made housing. The birds suffered a severe population crash following the release and spread of European starlings during the last century, as the more aggressive starlings and house sparrows took over many of the martins’ nesting sites and killed their young.

Cliff swallows often breed in large colonies. They once placed their conical mud nests beneath cliffs, but now usually build them under overhangs of man-made structures such as barns, bridges, and the like. The gourd-shaped nest is a covered bowl made of mud pellets, with a small entrance tunnel on one side. A neighbor’s barn down the road is host to dozens of these birds, and they often greet us with great swoops and acrobatics as we pass. These are also the famous swallows whose return every year to the Mission San Juan Capistrano from Argentina is celebrated with a festival, although in recent years, the swallows have been nesting in the Chino Hills to the north.

Probably the most frequently observed member of the family is the barn swallow, a bird that often reminds me of a butterfly with its lovely colors and long tails. I was amused to note that the first three internet sites listed after a Google search were concerned with getting rid of these birds despite their desirable qualities, as they are so comfortable with building their nests near humans that they invade porches, patios, and any available similar area. Not only do they plaster their mud nests onto the building siding, dropping bits on the floor below, but their chicks deposit their droppings there as well—a mess not often welcomed by their human neighbors.  

The adult male barn swallow is about seven inches in length including its tail. It has steel blue upperparts and a rufous forehead, chin and throat that are separated from the off-white underparts by a broad dark blue breast band. The outer tail feathers are elongated, forming the distinctive deeply forked "swallow tail", and there is a line of white spots across its outer end. The female and juveniles are less colorful and have shorter tail feathers. It is a fact that males with longer tail feathers are generally longer-lived and more disease resistant, and are more attractive to females.

One characteristic of the barn swallow that we find particularly intriguing is that it seems to “play”. We have watched one carry a leaf high into the air, let it go, and then snatch it as it flutters down before carrying it aloft again. After a bit, another bird will swoop in and grab it to join in the game. Once several were playing with a leaf on the shed roof, allowing it to slide down the slope before flying down to capture it. Wouldn’t it be fun to know what goes on in their minds at such times?




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August 3, 2010:  Bob..White!....


We have had a new family in the area the past few weeks. Where they came from is a bit of a mystery, as I’ve asked around among our closest neighbors and no others have even seen them, let alone had any hand in introducing them. In past years we have heard the distinctive whistle perhaps two or three times —“bob-White! bob-White!”, but the birds seemed to leave as quickly as they arrived and we saw no more of them. We understand that these birds are notoriously difficult to see, keeping hidden in tall grass or standing crops, and reluctant to fly, preferring to sneak away instead. Even when flushed, they keep low and soon drop back into cover.

This time, however, it was a family—at least 14 mostly grown chicks and 2 adults. I saw them first parading down the road in a line (and so was able to get a good count), and later several times around the farmyard. Then one morning I was surprised to see half a dozen perched on the railing of our north deck, while the others explored the garden below. Since then they have again visited the porch, perhaps to get an elevated view of the premises, and we wonder at their tame behavior.

The Virginia quail is a native “game bird”— a designation given to those species that are hunted for sport or food, including pheasants, quail, grouse, and several other less well known types. It is more commonly called northern bobwhite or bobwhite quail because of its characteristic call, and its brown, speckled body weighs only 5-6 ounces. The male is distinguished by having a white chin and upper throat and a white stripe running from the bill to the back of its black head while the female is a little larger in size, and has tan collar, eye strips and undersides.

Quail are bred and kept as poultry in some parts of the world both for eggs and meat. The common quail of Europe was previously much favored in French cooking, but quail for the table is now more likely to be domesticated Japanese quail. These are commonly eaten complete with the bones, since these are easily chewed and the small size of the bird makes it inconvenient to remove them. The eggs of quail are considered a delicacy, and are sometimes used raw in sushi.

Northern bobwhites can be found throughout the eastern United States west to the Great Plains, usually in hayfields, pastures, prairies, and oak savannah. They forage in nearby row crops and small grains such as millet, wheat, milo sorghum, and other grains; however, quail are also fond of weeds such as ragweed, partridge peas, and various vetches. Grasshoppers serve as the primary diet of young bobwhites and are eaten by adults as well.  Shrubs, brush piles, and hedgerows are used for hiding and roosting and this woody cover is vital for winter survival.

Quail travel in coveys (groups) of five to 30 birds during the non-breeding season, but in March and April, pairs begin to form. Nests are established on the ground hidden in dense underbrush, but usually within 20 yards of openings such as fields or roads. A female quail will lay one egg a day until twelve to sixteen eggs have accumulated and then will brood them for about 23 days. If the first clutch of eggs is unsuccessful, a breeding pair (perhaps the same pair or the female may accept a different mate) will attempt to produce another clutch. When the eggs hatch, chicks are up and running almost immediately and will leave the nest within 24 hours, although they often stay with the adults through fall and winter.

Northern bobwhites were abundant historically in southern and central Wisconsin, but intensive market hunting in the late 1800s and subsequent changes in agricultural practices have resulted in dramatic declines. They are now concentrated in the southwestern part of the state, with only scattered populations elsewhere. Whistling bobwhite quail route surveys have been conducted since the summer of 1949, and the number of calling males per stop has decreased steadily, with a spectacular drop in 2007 to 2009 of 74%. Winters temperatures were below average with above average precipitation for those winters with record rainfalls at the peak of hatching. A more significant long-term factor is thought to be the changes in land use with continued losses of grasslands.

The effort to save the species has taken two forms: bobwhites are being propagated in captivity in large numbers for release on hunting preserves and natural areas, and considerable work is being been done to restore the weedy, protective, and food-rich "edges" that the quail prefer. In the first half of the 20th century, smaller farmers had gardens and crops divided by overgrown hedgerows and fencerows that provided close cover for birds. Large-scale agriculture cleared much of the land, but now Conservation Reserve Programs (CRP) and state-designed programs are putting large areas back into suitable habitat. Also, Quail Forever has over 100 chapters in 25 states that are working hard to encourage quail habitat projects such as tree thinning and burning.

We hope that at least a few of the family will survive to nest next spring, and that quail will take up residence in our valley. We will be listening for the bobwhite call come spring. 

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July 27, 2010: The Not-so-Lowly Milkweed

I used to think that milkweed was little more than a nuisance weed, sprouting where I did not want it, displaying blah-colored flowers, and generally being of little use except as food for the monarch caterpillar.  I have since revised my opinion, as I have found that even the common variety has a heavenly smell and its flowers are complex and unique. At one time or another I have found specimens of at least seven species here on the farm, each of them displaying the characteristic flower made up of 5-parted cups crowned by five swept-back petals.  These are always arranged in clusters, sometimes held erect, other times drooping on long stems.

All of the milkweeds, as every kid soon learns, have a sticky white sap in their stems and leaves. This sap has been used to treat various ailments through the centuries; in fact, the plant’s Latin name, Asclepias, was taken from Aesculapius, the legendary Greek god of medicine. The treatment success rate of these doctorings is pretty vague but the practices of applying the sap directly on a wart and as a natural remedy for poison ivy are still common.

Milkweeds may cause mild dermatitis in some who come in contact with it, and analysis has shown that they contain alkaloids, latex, and several other complex compounds including cardenolides, a type of steroid, some of which are toxic and may seriously affect the heart. The latex contains about 1 to 2% natural rubber, and unsuccessful experiments were conducted by both Germany and the United States during World War II in an attempt to use it as a substitute for tropical rubber. After the War, these efforts were abandoned until Standard Oil of Ohio became involved with milkweed in the late 1970s predicting that billions of barrels of synthetic crude oil could be recovered from the biomass of milkweed. Milkweed was grown like hay—it was cut, dried, baled, and a crude oil substitute extracted—but they found that the price was too high and the yield was too low.

Finally, in 1987, the Natural Fibers Corporation was organized with two goals—to grow milkweed, not as a source of crude oil, but to process its pods to recover salable floss as a fill for jackets and bedding. The milkweed filaments from the pods are coated with wax, and have even been thought to be superior to down feathers for insulation. During World War II, over 11 million pounds of milkweed floss were collected in the United States as a substitute for kapok in life preservers (kapok was the fluffy, yellowish fiber used for stuffing at that time that was harvested from the seedpods of a tropical tree) and the boys and girls from Wisconsin schools alone collected 283,000 bags of milkweed fluff. This effort has led to a commercial product called Hypodown that is used in comforters and pillows in the bedding industry. This is a combination of white goose down and milkweed that is touted to trap and suppresses the dust and dander that plague people with allergies.

Pollination in milkweeds is accomplished in an unusual manner, as the pollen develops in "pollen sacs" that grow in pairs and are situated in the slits of each flower. When an insect visits the flower, its feet or mouthparts often slip into one of the slits and make contact with these sticky objects. The sacs with the pollen inside are then carried to the next plant and trapped in its slits allowing cross-pollination to take place. The flower cluster then develops into a number of elongated pods holding overlapping rows of seeds tucked inside. Each seed is equipped with white silky filament-like hairs and is carried off by the wind as the pods dry and split open. 
Reportedly, most animals and insects avoid eating milkweeds because of their bitter taste, but some beetles, moths, and true bugs (besides the highly publicized monarch butterfly) have adapted to feed on the plants despite their chemical defenses, and even seem to gain protection from predators in this way. Interestingly, all of these seem to be brightly colored with orange and black, and some authorities suggest that the colors are signals warning of their bad taste. It is also true that some other plants actually benefit from their proximity to a milkweed as it repels some pests such as wireworms. These are the larvae of a variety of click beetle species, many of which attack a variety of plants and are serious agricultural pests.

Regardless of its commercial value, we enjoy half a dozen species of milkweed on the farm. There is the bright orange butterfly weed, the showy purple milkweed, the poke milkweed with its drooping clusters of whitish flowers when few other things are blooming, the several green types that seem to appear and disappear for no reason, and the whorled milkweed, a delicate plant with radiating linear leaves and small clusters of white flowers up the stem. Other types grow elsewhere in various habitats, most notably the swamp milkweed that has lovely purple blossoms. The next time you see one of these beauties, take time to appreciate its blossoms and its aroma, and examine any insects feeding there. You may be surprised at you what you find.

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July 20, 2010: Nests and More Nests

Even the most unobservant walker has at some time discovered a bird’s nest, although it is often long after the family it nurtured was grown up and flown. Birds use nests to protect their eggs and nestlings from predators and weather extremes, and to help keep eggs and nestlings warm. We usually think of them as supported by tree branches, but some birds build nests on the ground, some in bushes, while still others attach their nests to the sides of cliffs. Barn swallows are most often seen around barns, porches and other outbuildings, while chimney swifts, as the name implies, favor chimneys and other man-made enclosures. Wrens will nest in almost any cavity, from an empty watering can to a coat pocket (as well as David’s jeans).

Nest building is thought to be primarily instinctive as the structure and materials of nests are very similar across a species, even when birds are raised in isolation from others of their kind. Still, some learning is also involved because older birds usually build 'better' nests than younger birds (especially those in their first breeding season). Birds can make hundreds of trips to collect materials, and while most seem to prefer grass and twigs, some use almost anything that they can carry—even candy wrappers, cellophane, shredded money and barbed wire. Which of the pair actually does the building varies by species, and in some cases, both collect materials and join in the construction. One of the more peculiar routines is that of the male marsh wren, which builds as many as 10 dummy nests in his territory before the female arrives. She then makes her choice and finishes it with a lining of soft materials.

Researchers from Ohio Wesleyan University suggest that some birds may select nesting material with antimicrobial agents that protect their young from harmful bacteria. "If the fresh herbs and plant materials that parent birds bring into the nest have a sufficient concentration of antimicrobial compounds, they could protect the nestlings from harmful bacteria," says researcher Jann Ichida. Ichida and colleagues tested 12 different volatile plant materials against feather-degrading bacteria and results showed that several types of plant materials and extracts did in fact inhibit the growth of a number of harmful bacteria.

Not only are the method of construction and materials used important to nesting success but some birds consider orientation as well. In one study, it was found that horned larks consistently situated their nests adjacent to and north of objects such as a tuft of grass or a rock, thus shading them in the hottest part of the day and providing increased daytime ventilation of the prevailing winds. In addition, the shade may also help conceal the nest from predators.

To hold a nest together and secured in place, birds need good adhesives and use a variety of natural substances to do the job, including mud, saliva, spider webs, caterpillar silk, leaf mold, and certain plant fibers. Materials that make up the nest can be intertwined, and sometimes are actually woven together using grass, strips of leaves, and twigs.

Bird nests vary from a simple accumulation of materials on the ground to elaborate refuges in or on secluded and elevated locations. It is interesting to note that nest construction and placement often correlates with the ability to fly. Scrape nests that are just simple depressions in the ground or in the leaf litter are used by turkeys, grouse, chickens, quails, and pheasants—all relatively weak fliers. Doves, cuckoos, herons and egrets use a bit more effort and build simple ground nests or crude elevated nests.

More efficient fliers usually construct nests in a bush or tree or on a cliff or rock ledge, and young raised in elevated and cavity nests have strong wings and chest development along with smaller legs. Some of the most complex nests are associated with swallows, orioles and weaver finches. The latter two groups often live in areas where there are many predators and build their intricately woven pendant nests hung from the thin branches of bushes and trees. Perhaps the most predator-proof nests are those of swallows and swifts that often construct mud structures attached to the most remote overhanging feature within their territory.

Most birds construct a new nest for each brood, and there is good reason. There are at least 2500 species of blood-feeding mites and ticks from 40 families that are closely associated with birds, and virtually no species is free of one or another. Adults and nymph stages of these blood feeders live in the nests or on the birds themselves, and usually multiply rapidly, sometimes building up huge populations that can cause considerable damage by slowing development or even killing chicks. With this in mind, it might be wise of David to consider retiring those old jeans that are currently holding the wren nursery and get a new pair.


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July 13, 2010: Horns on Worms?

The sun had just set and the sky was a palette of pastel pinks, yellows, and purples—a sight worth savoring—and I walked out onto the deck. I disturbed the hummingbird that was getting its sugar fix for the night, but then another flyer took wing almost under my feet. I ducked as it came within inches of my head but then laughed at my reaction for it was just a moth, albeit the largest one I had seen this year. It fluttered off before I could make identification, but its size led me to guess that it might have been a tomato hornworm or, more properly, a five-spotted hawk moth.

This is a large, heavy-bodied moth with narrow front wings, a mottled gray-brown color with yellow spots on the sides of the abdomen and a wing spread of 4 to 5 inches. Its larvae feed only on tomato plants or their relatives such as garden peppers, potatoes and eggplant, and weeds such as horse nettle, jimsonweed and nightshade. Eggs are deposited singly on the leaves in late spring and hatch six to eight days later. The larva is white but as it grows it sheds its skin several times, and eventually becomes pale green with white, lateral "V-shaped" markings and a black projection or "horn" on its tail that gives the caterpillar the name "hornworm."

Hawk moths are somewhat different from the giant silk moths that I have enjoyed tending in past years. The silk moths look and act more like butterflies with their wide outstretched brightly-colored wings. Then too, their larvae encase themselves into silken cocoons before splitting their skins a final time and transforming into pupae. When these hatch, the adult silk moths live only long enough to mate and lay eggs and then die as they have only rudimentary mouthparts and eat nothing during their short lives. The males have wide feathery antennae, while those of the females are somewhat narrower and less showy.

The hawk moth, on the other hand usually has narrow forewings that are patterned to look like tree bark, leaving any color to be displayed on the hind wings or body where it is mostly hidden when at rest. It flies more like a hummingbird, with rapid beating of its wings, and has the ability to hover, a capability that has evolved only three times in nectar feeders: in hummingbirds, certain bats, and these moths. Its antennae are generally not very feathery, even in the males, but its body, legs, and wings are densely covered in narrow scales that look much like hairs. It feeds as an adult through a long tube proboscis that it keeps curled tightly until needed and then extends to probe deeply into flowers to reach any nectar. The larvae do not spin cocoons but simply burrow into soft dirt and there transform into pupae, protected only by their hard brown “skin”.

Besides the tomato hornworm (that is often not a welcome resident in our gardens), we have several other hawk moths in our area. The catalpa sphinx moth is brown in color with a wingspan of about 3 ½ inches. Its larvae feed exclusively on catalpa trees and when they mature, one can find a number of the yellow caterpillars with the wide velvety black stripe down their backs on the ground searching for a soft spot into which to burrow.

More common is the white-lined sphinx moth, a more colorful insect whose wings are marked with (guess what?) white lines, and who will visit your petunias, phlox and other fragrant evening flowers. Take a flashlight and walk through your garden at dusk and you very well may see the reflections of your light in the eyes of one or more of these lovely moths. Their larvae feed on any of the varieties of portulaca, and if your yard is anything like mine, you will have plenty of this around that you may know as pigweed or purslane. This is a trailing annual weed with small yellow flowers and reddish, fleshy stems and leaves whose joints will form roots when they come in contact with the ground.

If my moth was a tomato hornworm, I will have to watch my tomatoes carefully in the coming weeks to see if they have been targeted as food for its offspring. Soon, any resulting caterpillars will reach their mature size of 3 to 4 inches, at which point they will drop from their plants and burrow into the soil to pupate. Adult moths will emerge in about 2 weeks and will mate and deposit the eggs for another generation. These caterpillars will form pupae by early fall that will remain in the soil all winter and emerge as moths next spring.

We find these caterpillars are easy to control if their numbers get too large, as their presence is obvious from the areas of devoured leaves and they can be simply picked off. There are also natural factors that help to control them. The egg stage and hatching larvae are often eaten by various predatory insects such as lady beetles and green lacewings, while the growing caterpillars are targets of a small braconid wasp. This insect lays its eggs directly on the caterpillar and when the eggs hatch, its larvae burrow in and feed on the inside. These mature, emerge, and spin cocoons that appear as white projections protruding from the hornworm’s body, and eventually kill it.

I grow plenty of tomatoes, however, so that I can share some of the plants with the few caterpillars that are likely to make it to maturity. Having these beautiful moths flying around our home on summer evenings is one of the pleasures made possible by having a big garden in Wisconsin.


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July 6, 2010: Butterflies


Until the rain brought an end to our lovely stretch of fine weather, it has been difficult to walk from the porch to the road without scattering dozens of butterflies. Painted ladies, red admirals, red-spotted purples, and a few other species flitted about, mostly on and above the gravel driveway. The first two species are insects that cannot tolerate our winter conditions and either are killed or migrate to warmer areas each fall. Then in the spring the butterflies must move up into the state again, and often do so in large numbers. The red-spotted purple is hardier and the last brood of the summer goes into hibernation as larvae, pupating and emerging as adults the following spring. 

Perhaps it was the warmth of the sun but there also was probably moisture beneath the stones that drew them. Butterflies seem to detect the same basic flavors as we do, sweet, sour, salty and bitter, but have different perceptions as to what they find desirable. Manure, urine, decaying plant wastes, and other damp debris will bring them by the dozen, presumably to obtain certain minerals and salts that their bodies require.

It is easy to assume butterflies are attracted to our gardens by seeing the bright colored flowers; however, what more likely brought them was the perfumed invitation that the flowers were sending out. Butterflies have very sophisticated senses of smell and taste as these are their main windows on the world, rather than the sight and sound that we and most other animals use. Many of the receptors are on their antennae, the two "feelers" that all insects have on their heads and which give them an enormous amount of information about their surroundings.

Antennae are usually segmented tubes, moved by tiny inner muscles. These may be covered with minute hairs, knobs, bristles, or scales that are extremely sensitive to odors and chemicals, movements, and physical contact. The main functions are usually smell and taste, however, and butterflies often wave their antennae about as they "sniff" the air for telltale scents and odors. Insects need two antennae, incidentally, to establish direction.  Tiny as they are, they can distinguish which is receiving the stronger scent and therefore can fly toward the source.

Insects use smell to communicate, orientate, navigate, detect humidity, find food and water, locate suitable egg-laying sites, and identify friends and foes. The olfactory receptors are porous pegs or cones covered by a very thin layer of cuticle, and containing sensory nerve cells. They can detect scent molecules in the most minute quantities and are usually concentrated on the antennae, although there may be some on the mouthparts as well. Butterflies and moths can be drawn to mates over distances of a mile or two by the pheromones produced by one or the other.

Butterflies rely on taste as well as smell to determine whether liquids are suitable to drink. Taste receptors are similar in structure and function to the olfactory receptors as both detect the presence of various chemicals, airborne in smell, and by contact in taste. Taste receptors in insects are usually found on and around the mouthparts but butterflies have them on their antennae and on their feet as well. Thus, a butterfly is led to a food source by the smell, lands upon to it taste with its feet and then probes with its feeding tube for confirmation. A monarch butterfly's sensors have been shown to detect a sugar solution of only 0.0003 percent strength and are more than 2000 times more sensitive than those on the average human tongue. Observers have also determined that the taste receptors in the feet trigger an increase in the butterfly's internal blood pressure that causes the tube-shaped tongue to uncoil automatically.

In addition to the antennae, butterflies have bristles and hairs growing on their bodies and legs. Each one grows from a socket and has a ball joint at its base that can move freely in all directions.  The socket is supplied with a network of microscopic nerve fibers that detect and transmit any movement to the brain. Insects also are supplied with fluid-filled chambers that are lined with tiny bristles and contain solid granules called statoliths. As the insect moves about, the statolith tends to remain stationary in the chamber and the bristles on its wall detect its position, relaying information about the insect's orientation and balance.

We have a great variety of butterflies and moths that live in our yards and wild areas, some with wingspans of less than an inch or so. Despite all the fascinating complexity of their bodies, the beauty of their wings, and their value as pollinators, butterflies are considered to be just another delicious if somewhat elusive meal for the birds that inhabit our farmyard.


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June 26, 2010:  An Accessible Volcano Caldera


Walking around on the floor of a volcano crater is an experience. Jets of boiling hot water spurt into the air from holes in the earth’s crust and gases and steam rise from fumaroles on every side. Visitors must keep to the boardwalks that allow them to reach many of the more scenic spots, and they are warned not to stray off the paths or risk breaking through the thin crust that separates them from the heat below.

Yellowstone Park lies on top of an area where hot, molten rock rises towards the surface, and over the past 17 million years or so, volcanic eruptions have caused the overlying land to collapse forming a geographic depression called a caldera that is some 45 by 30 miles. The largest violent eruption excavated the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone around 150,000 years ago, and the most recent lava flow occurred about 70,000 years ago. Currently, volcanic activity is visible in the form of 10,000 geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser. The Yellowstone caldera still experiences between 1000 and 2000 measurable earthquakes a year, though most have a magnitude of 3 or weaker. The most recent swarm, as a close grouping of quakes is called, started after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake and was the second largest ever recorded in the Yellowstone caldera.

Geologists closely monitor the Yellowstone plateau, which rises and falls about half an inch yearly: however, from mid-summer 2004 through mid-summer 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upwards significantly, with 8 inches of rise at the White Lake GPS station. Fortunately, by the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed and appears to have stopped, so that the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory now state that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future although such events are not really predictable."

Our country has done a number of things right through the years, and one of them was the establishment of the national park system. Yellowstone is one of the gems of this group and contains some 3470 square miles of forests, grasslands and water (an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined), with altitudes from about 5300 to 11,400 feet. In addition to the geothermal vents, there are approximately 290 waterfalls, 15 ft. or higher and flowing year-round, the tallest being the lower falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 ft. The park also contains one of the world's largest petrified forests. It boasts 67 species of mammals, including 7 species of native hoofed animals and 2 species of bears, 322 recorded species of birds (148 nesting species), 16 species of fish, 6 species of reptiles, 4 species of amphibians. It harbors 2 threatened species, the Canada lynx and the grizzly bear, and one endangered species, the gray wolf.

The animal we saw most frequently in the park was the bison. It can be up to 6 feet tall, 10 feet long, and weigh up to a ton. The heads and shoulders are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns, which they use in fighting for status and for defense. We felt it also has a sense of humor as we twice watched a huge animal leading its buddies in a leisurely stroll along the center of the park road blocking all traffic. We could imagine him saying to his cohorts, “Let’s go have some fun with those dummies in the automobiles.” I’m sure the people in the back of the mile-long lines of stalled vehicles could only guess what was causing the problem. 

It was surprising to see how slow was the recovery from the 1988 fires that affected a third of the park. Five fires apparently burned into the park that year from adjacent public lands, but the largest, the North Fork Fire, started from a discarded cigarette and burned more than 410,000 acres. Many of the canyons and hillsides are still covered with standing snags as well as criss-crossed fallen trunks and branches, and the regenerating trees among them are only about ten to fifteen feet high, even after 22 years. It will be many years before the park will reach its pre-fire appearance.

Driving across the country past fields of corn, then vast areas that are good only to pasture cattle and finally lands where only occasional antelopes seem to be able to eke out a living, gives us a new appreciation for the courage and fortitude of our ancestors who followed that route less than 200 years ago. Each stream and hill must have presented a challenge, to say nothing of the larger rivers and finally tall mountains that lay in their paths.

One of the moving moments of our trip west occurred at the Garden of the Gods, a public park donated to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the estate of Charles Elliott Perkins. We rounded a corner among the huge rock outcroppings and came upon a large group of teenagers sitting together on the hillside. It was a high school choir from Florida on a trip to Colorado and they were singing “Oh beautiful for spacious skies...” a song written by Katharine Bates in 1895. She had traveled by train from Massachusetts and was inspired by the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its alabaster buildings, the wheat fields of Kansas, and the view of the Great Plains from Pikes Peak. We, too, felt the awe she expressed in her poem as we traveled much same route. We live in a beautiful country.


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June 15, 2010: Strange Lights in the Meadow
 
Mother nature has done it again – put together another seemingly impossible scenario that our scientists with all their expertise and ingenious paraphernalia have not been able to duplicate – and it has to do with a little bug that almost all of us as children collected on a summer’s evening. A firefly is about ½ inch long, cigar-shaped, and flies about in our yards, but what makes it exceptional is the light it gives off, as even its eggs and larvae glow. There are about 136 different species around the world and they are common in the eastern half of this country as well as in warm, humid areas around the world.

Usually at dusk, the male firefly emerges from hiding and flies about, emitting one or a series of short flashes depending upon his species, at regular intervals. The female waits on a low perch, and when a male approaches, will give off an answering flash. Exchanges of signals are repeated several times until the pair find each other and mate. Then with luck the male will escape, as given the chance female will devour him.  After mating, the female will deposit her eggs in damp soil, and in about three weeks young sowbug-like larvae will hatch with tiny spots on their undersides that glow softly. All firefly larvae produce light, possibly as a defensive measure, as it has been shown in the laboratory that predators avoid such glowing objects after experiencing their taste. The larvae are voracious predators that eat earthworms, snails, slugs, and mites, injecting strong digestive juices into their prey before sucking out the insides and leaving an empty skin. Most firefly larvae live one to two years and are found in rotting wood or other forest litter. In late spring they change into pupae, and in about 10 days, emerge as new adult beetles that will live as long as it takes to mate and produce eggs, often only a few days.

The last few segments of an adult firefly’s abdomen are made up of thousands of specialized cells that contain luceriferin and luciferase, rare chemicals that generate light in the presence of oxygen, together with an enzyme that provides energy for the process. The light emitted by fireflies is unique in that nearly 100 percent of the energy is given off as light. This is in contrast to tungsten electric lights where only 10 percent of the energy is emitted as light and the other 90 percent is given off as heat. Although a few other insects can produce light, fireflies are the only ones that can flash their lights at will and it has only been recently that scientists have discovered how it is accomplished.

Neurobiologists at Tufts University were puzzled because they could find no nerve link to the light-producing cells in the firefly’s tail, although they did find that they could cause the cells to glow if they exposed them to molecules of nitric oxide gas in the presence of oxygen. Furthermore, they observed that the cells had a thick outer layer of mitochondria, a substance that reacts with oxygen to create energy for the cell and guessed that these mitochondria might be blocking any light-creating chemical reaction. They also discovered that a signal from the insect’s nervous system activated an enzyme that produced nitric oxide that deactivated the mitochondria producing the light. As the nitric oxide signal decayed, the mitochondria resumed their oxygen consumption that turned the light off -- all of this occurring in a fraction of a second. The fact that nitric oxide passes through cell membranes, degrades within seconds and must be made fresh for each use makes it an important transmitter and signaling molecule.

The really fascinating part of this story is that scientists have found that luciferin and luciferase are extremely useful as markers in research on such problems as cancer, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis and heart disease. As all living cells already contain the energy-providing enzyme, injection of the firefly's chemicals cause flashes of light that can be measured and used to detect energy problems in human cells. Now, electronic detectors, using firefly chemicals, are used to signal that milk, food or water may be contaminated with bacteria, and detectors have even been placed in spacecrafts to look for earth-life forms in outer space. I read that if as little as one quadrillionth of a gram of the enzyme enters the rocket's detector, a flash of cold light will be given off and recorded by earth-bound scientists.

Although most of the luminescent species are insects, the capability is also present in some bacteria, fungi, algae, one-celled animals, segmented worms, arthropods and fishes. Some, like the fireflies, use their light in courtship, while others use the flashes to frighten off enemies or attract prey. The colors produced vary, as well, as some are red, others blue-green or yellow. The problem is that not only are luciferin and luciferase rare but they have proved difficult to synthesize. This has made the propagation of fireflies a high priority activity in some circles and the Sigma Chemical Co. of St. Louis, Missouri purchases and provides fireflies throughout the world for conducting research in a wide variety of scientific areas. I am told that they will pay a penny for each bug if you will send them at least 25,000. Our bugs are completely safe from me, anyway...
 




June 8, 2010: One Bear, Two Bears, Three Bears, More???


Bears are very much in the news these days and I thought we might do well to learn a bit more about them. North America has three or four bear species, depending upon whether you count the grizzly and Alaskan brown bear as variations on a theme or different species. The brown bears live on Alaska's coastal range and nearby islands. Standing erect, some males (boars) tower over eight feet, and on four feet, stand as high as four and one-half feet at the shoulder. Most big males weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds with females averaging between 500 and 800 pounds. Grizzlies are somewhat smaller, standing three and one-half feet at the shoulder and weighing up to 800 pounds. Once widespread throughout much of western North America, grizzlies can now mostly be found from inland Alaska across northern Canada to the Hudson Bay, although a few remain in Montana and Yellowstone Park.

The polar bear is a huge, long-necked, pear-shaped animal with thick, whitish-yellow fur. Despite rumors to the contrary, a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs” with some 20,000 to 25,000 bears. Adult boars stand four feet at the shoulder and are about eight feet in length and weigh about 1,000 pounds while females are typically smaller and lighter.

The black bear is the smallest of the North American bears and is thought to have arrived from Asia on the Bering Land Bridge about 500,000 years ago. Unlike the formidable grizzly, the shy black bear has learned to adapt to man, and inhabits forests, swamps and mountains from Alaska to the Gulf Coast. Though known to attack when provoked, the black generally gives humans a wide berth.

Black bears mate in June and early July and will breed with several mates. During the 7 1/2 month gestation period, the fertilized eggs float free in the sow’s uterus until late November when the egg implants into the uterine wall and begins to develop. (This phenomenon is called delayed implantation.) The cubs are born while their mother is still in her winter sleep and are only 6 to 8 inches long, weighing 7 to 12 ounces. They develop rapidly and are able to leave the den in late March with the female. The sow is a very attentive, protective teacher, feeding her cubs and protecting them from other adult bears, especially boars that would kill the cubs. Since it takes cubs 2 years to become independent, sows do not breed every year and don’t chase her cubs away when she again becomes pregnant. They will reach full size in 4 to 6 years.

Black bears locate their food by relying on their keen sense of smell. They feed mostly at twilight and through the night, and then spend the daylight hours loafing in dense cover. They have large canine teeth, but their molars are flattened for grinding and chewing tough plant food rather than slicing through flesh, and plants make up a large portion of their diet. They will eat just about anything, however: fruits, berries, green leaves, tubers, acorns, nuts, ants, beetles, bees, insect larvae, honey, fish, mice, squirrels, eggs, dead animals, greasy grills, and garbage.

If food is scarce, bears will wander and will be seen more frequently during daylight hours. When they first emerge from their dens in mid-March they are very hungry and because plants are still dormant at this time of year, they must rely on small mammals and carrion for food. As plants begin to sprout, bears switch to mostly green leaves. With their powerful forelimbs and strong claws, they also rip open rotten logs and anthills to feed on the insects, eggs, and larvae hiding inside. They particularly enjoy tearing open beehives in trees to feast on the stored honey.

In early summer the bears gorge on wild strawberries and juneberries, then on raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, blueberries and elderberries as each ripens, sometimes eating leaves, stems and all. Later they switch to apples, wild grapes, acorns, and nuts – items that that are high in fat and will help them put on the weight they need for their long winter's sleep. Sometimes bears attack domestic livestock, particularly lambs, piglets and calves. They will also raid beehives, orchards, cornfields, and backyard birdfeeders, and can cause damage when they rummage through garbage cans or demolish greasy grills left out overnight. Healthy black bears can live 20 or 25 years, and hunting is the primary method used to control their population from becoming too large for society to tolerate.

Although some black bears can become a nuisance, they are a very important and beneficial part of Wisconsin's wild community. With proper management, they will continue to provide thrilling subjects for observation, photography and study. Report bear sightings to DNR wildlife biologist Becky Roth, Spring Green, at 608-588-3432 or email at Rebecca.roth@wisconsin.gov.


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May 25, 2010:  Robins, Brown Thrashers, etc.


After months of waiting for spring, suddenly it almost seems like summer. The wooded hillsides are varying shades of green again, the lawn grass needs to be mowed every few days, iris are blooming in profusion, and not only do the male robins awaken us each morning with their songs, but their first chicks are out of the nest and pleading for food with never ending chirpings.

The American robin is a member of the thrush family, all medium-sized birds with rounded heads, longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs. It is named after the European robin because of the male's bright orange-red breast, though the two species are not otherwise similar. The female tends to be duller than the male, and the juvenile is paler yet and has dark spots on its breast. During the breeding season, male robins grow black feathers on their heads to attract females but once the mating season is over, these feathers are lost.

While robins occasionally over winter in the northern part of the United States, most migrate south, departing in September and October and returning north in February and March. The robin begins to breed shortly after returning to its summer range and is one of the first North American bird species to lay eggs. The nest is built by the female and is commonly located in a dense bush or in a tree fork, although she is very adaptable and will build in all sorts of locations. She collects long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers held together with mud and moulds the nest into a cup shape with her body and feet. She often then adds a final lining of soft grass, before laying 3 or 4 “robin’s-egg-blue” eggs. It takes about 2 weeks to incubate the eggs and the young stay in the nest for about 15 days.  The female will begin a second clutch almost immediately after they fledge, while the male continues to feed the first youngsters another week or so.

The robin’s diet is mostly made of up fruit and berries supplemented by insects, larvae and worms. The reason we see so many robins searching the lawns for worms is that these are the main food of the chicks in the nest. At times, the robin will cock its head to the side toward the ground and it was previously assumed to be listening for a worm. Now it is understood that the bird is really watching for any tiny movement, as its sight is much more acute than its hearing. When it does find a worm, it often has to tug hard to pull it out of its hole. This is because a worm's body has hair-like bristles called setae that help the worm crawl and also to grip and anchor it firmly in the ground.

While many of our bird species are declining, the robin is doing very well and is thought to number about 320 million individuals. At one point, the bird was even killed for its meat, but it is now protected by the Migratory Bird Act. Its only problem is that it is a known carrier for West Nile Virus. While crows & jays are often the first noticed deaths in an area, the robin may be more responsible for the transmission of the virus to humans. This is because while crows & jays die quickly the robin survives longer, spreading it to more mosquitoes that then transmit the virus to humans and other species.

The robin is not the only bird we are watching these days, as a pair of brown thrashers is also busy in the back yard. These birds are robin-sized but are bright reddish-brown above with thin, dark streaks on their buffy underparts and have long rufous tails. They like to feed on the ground, poking long curved bills into the grass and ground debris to find insects, seeds, and almost anything else edible they can find. We assume the nest is in one of the thick shrubs back of the pond but have been reluctant to look for it as the thrasher is notorious for attacking any intruders and is quite capable of drawing blood with that sharp beak.

The brown thrasher’s most interesting characteristic is its song, as researchers have been able to document some 3000 distinct phrases—many of them mimicking the songs of other species or other sounds. The male sings a series of short repeated melodious segments from an open perch, each one repeated once. These repetitions also set the thrasher’s song apart from those of its close relatives, the Northern mockingbird or gray catbird, as mockingbirds repeat in groups of 3 or more while catbirds do not repeat themselves at all.

The main enemy of both the robin and brown thrasher is the housecat, as the birds often nest in urban communities where the cats abound. In rural areas, owls, hawks, crows, jays, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons also attack them, although most of these enemies feed on the young or eggs, not the adult birds. Only 25% of the young survive the first year and the average lifespan is only about 2 years. Populations of brown thrashers are declining slowly across their range, perhaps because of loss of habitat in the East and the elimination of fencerows and shelterbelts across the Plains states.

We spend many contented moments sitting on our porch watching the various species of birds come to drink and bathe in our little pond. Several types of finches, warblers, hummingbirds, flycatchers, jays, bluebirds, red-wings, grackles, woodpeckers, tanagers, grosbeaks, and mourning doves (and I’ve undoubtedly missed some), visit us regularly and entertain us with their antics. We have great birding right at our doorstep!


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May 18, 2010: When is a Mouse not a Mouse?


It must be tough being a mouse. Almost every animal and bird in the area wants to eat you, and should you find a warm and seemingly safe house in which to live, the human resident sets a trap and tries to do you in. Furthermore, there are a number of other related species vying for all the available territories and food.

There are two general groups of so-called mice in Wisconsin. One is made up of jumping mice – mouse-like rodents that are distinguished by their enlarged hind limbs, cheek pouches, and very long tails that are used for balance while bounding. In Wisconsin these rodents can sometimes be found in forest, pasture, cultivated fields or swamps. They are nocturnal and generally live alone, and when disturbed, they leap off with enormous bounds of eight or ten feet in length. The female places her nest in clefts of rocks, under downed timber or in hollow trees, and there are generally three litters in a season.

Members of the second group are called murids and include true mice, rats, and voles. These typically have slender three to four-inch bodies plus scaly tails, and pointed snouts with prominent whiskers. Murids generally have excellent senses of hearing and smell. The various species may live almost anywhere and eat a wide range of foods with the aid of powerful jaw muscles and gnawing incisors that grow throughout life. Murids breed frequently, often producing large litters several times per year. They typically give birth between 20 and 40 days after mating, although this varies greatly between species. The young are born blind, hairless, and helpless.

The house mouse is one of the most numerous murid species and was originally native to Asia—perhaps India. It spread to the Mediterranean area about 8000 BC, across the rest of Europe by 1000 BC, and has since been carried to all parts of the globe. It has been domesticated as a pet and has been bred as a laboratory animal where it has proved to be an important tool in biology and medicine.

The typical house mouse is 3 inches long with another 3 inches of tail. It is usually brown or gray and has short hair and a naked tail and ears. House mice thrive in and around homes and commercial structures as well as in open fields and agricultural lands. They consume and contaminate food meant for humans, pets, livestock, or other animals and often cause considerable damage to structures and property. They also can transmit pathogens that cause diseases such as salmonellosis, a form of food poisoning.
We are much more sympathetic with the white-footed mouse, a native species. It is about the same size as the house mouse but has white underparts. This mouse can climb trees and uses its tail as a prop and to help balance as it climbs. It is usually found in brushy fields and woodlots and eats seeds, nuts, berries, fungi, and insects. It is adept at food-hoarding and stores nuts and seeds during the winter months when other food sources are scarce.

The deer mouse is very similar to the white-footed but has a longer multicolored tail. It also is a climber and likes to nest high in a tree while the white-footed tends to stay closer to the ground. The female deer mouse can breed at all times of the year, and so has the highest reproduction rate among the murids. Deer mice feed on seeds, fruits, spiders, leaves, and some fungi, and during the winter months, invertebrate creatures compose about one-fifth of the deer mouse's diet.

A third mouse, the Western harvest mouse, is larger and can be found from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast in grasslands, prairies, meadows, and marshes. These mice average more than 5 inches in length plus a 3-4 inch tail, and have