Shagbark Hickory Buds Opening

Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) is immediately recognizable by its large, flat plates of bark that curl away from its trunk, giving the tree a shaggy appearance.  Its attributes are well known: Shagbark Hickory nuts are sweet and edible (to humans and wildlife). Its tough but flexible wood is used for sporting equipment, tool handles, ladders and flooring, and it’s a source of high-quality charcoal for smoking bacon, ham and other meats.  But to me, its most outstanding feature is on display right now, as the scales on its swollen buds open and fold back, petal-like, revealing new foliage that will soon expand into large, compound leaves.

Male Gray Treefrog Ardor Grows When Female Is In Sight

The peak of Gray Treefrog courtship and breeding occurs in another month, but males are already actively calling near bodies of water. Frogs are highly sensitive to motion so visual cues play an important part in their courtship.

Male Gray Treefrogs are significantly more likely to give their musical, bird-like courtship calls when they are able to see an approaching female, and their calls are longer if females are nearby and within sight. This is a good thing, as research has found that female Gray Treefrogs choose mates on the basis of advertisement calls and prefer long calls to short calls. (To hear a Gray Treefrog calling, go to https://musicofnature.com/calls-of-frogs-and-toads-of-the-northeast/, scroll down to “Gray Treefrog” and click on arrow. Spring Peepers and Green Frog in background.)

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Young Hardwood Leaves

Have you ever noticed that the color of many of the tender, young leaves on shrubs and trees that are emerging at this time of year have a reddish tint?  The red color of many spring leaves is due to the same pigments responsible for the brilliant reds of autumn, the anthocyanins. This spring coloration is temporary; eventually, as they produce the green pigment chlorophyll necessary for photosynthesis, the leaves turn green.  There has to be a reason for this phenomenon, and several theories have been proposed.

Researchers have found that young oak leaves (which can be quite red-see photo) are attacked less by insects than young green leaves. The red coloration of young leaves contains high concentrations of tannins and anthocyanins which together may act as a defense against herbivorous insects. It has also been suggested that the anthocyanins may help the leaves withstand cold and screen them from damaging ultraviolet rays as well as air pollution.

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Red Admirals Returning

Our northern population of Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) migrates to southern states in the fall and over the winter a new generation of Red Admirals matures to fly north in early spring. They can be seen now feeding on dandelions and other early-blooming flowers as well as sap and bird droppings.

Adult Red Admirals live for about two weeks and during this time they mate and lay their green, hairy eggs on all species of nettle, where they are well camouflaged.  Black, spiky larvae hatch and feed voraciously on nettle plants before pupating and emerging as vibrant orange-striped, white-spotted adult butterflies. There are two summer generations in the Northeast.  Male Red Admirals are highly territorial, which is why they are commonly encountered chasing each other from their preferred roosting spots.

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White Trillium Flowering

Queen among spring ephemerals is the Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), whose bright white three-petaled flowers can carpet the forest floor at this time of year, given the right (not highly acidic) soil. Because the base of its petals overlap, the flower has a funnel-like shape and as they age, the petals turn pale to deep pink.

As its genus name indicates, this trillium, like others, has its parts arranged in threes or multiples of three – three leaves, three sepals, three petals, six stamens, three stigmas and an ovary that has three sections. Never take a Large-flowered Trillium flower for granted – the plant must grow for 16-17 years before producing a flower. Plants in excess of 70 years of age have been documented.

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American Bitterns Courting & Establishing Territories

Because they live in marshes amongst dense vegetation where sight is restricted, American Bitterns communicate with each other largely through their calls. These calls are made at a very low frequency which allows them to be audible at great distances.

The call heard most often, especially early in their breeding season, is low, resonant, and composed of three syllables that sound something like “pump-er-lunk,“ preceded by a series of clicking and gulping sounds. The male bittern accomplishes this by inflating his esophagus while simultaneously contorting himself quite violently. He repeats the call up to ten times, and uses it to establish his territory as well as to advertise for a mate. You can hear the American Bittern’s call by going to http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_bittern/sounds. (This post originally appeared on 5/11/15.)

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Zombie Moths

There is a group of fungi in the genus Cordyceps that are capable of manipulating the behavior of insects that they invade. There are well over 100 known related species (Ophiocordyceps spp.) that infect a wide variety of insects, including butterflies, moths and beetles, and at least 35 that perform “mind control” on their hosts. Fortunately, humans appear to be immune from these fungi.

One Cordyceps fungus replaces a moth’s tissues (see photo) and controls the moth’s end-of-life movements in an attempt to increase the likelihood that its spores are dispersed to new hosts. The spikes you see on the pictured moth are a result of the fungus’s invasion of the moth. (Photo by Janni Jacobs; discovery of this Zombie Moth in Vermont by Jake Jacobs)

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Hepatica Leaves

Round-lobed (Hepatica americana) and Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) are two of our earliest plants to flower, blossoming in early to mid-April, before tree leaves have unfurled, allowing the sun’s rays to reach the forest floor. 

The leaves of these plants are evergreen; new ones are produced in May.  They remain on the plant for a full year, through the next spring’s flowering period. (Many spring wildflowers, or ephemerals, produce leaves, flowers and fruits in a short amount of time and then disappear.) Not only do hepatica leaves photosynthesize on warm winter days (if snow hasn’t buried them), but even worn and tattered they go into high gear in the spring, photosynthesizing before the leaves of other plants have even appeared.  Thus, hepatica is able to produce its flowers earlier than most other spring wildflowers. (Photo: Round-lobed Hepatica, Hepatica americana)

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Ospreys Renovating & Building Nests

It’s hard to imagine doing something as intricate as building a nest without the use of hands, but birds do it year after year.  With Ospreys, the male generally brings the bulk of the material to the nest site and the female arranges it. He may break dead sticks off nearby trees in flight or (more often) snatch sticks from the ground. Material is added to the nest throughout the nestling period.

When returning to a pre-existing nest, both birds engage in rearranging the nesting material that remains from the previous year before adding new material (see photo).

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Common Hazel Flowering

Early in the spring, before its leaf buds begin to open in late April, Common Hazel flowers are displayed. Both male and female flowers can be found on the same shrub. The male catkins dangle in the breeze, shedding their pollen (there are about 240 male flowers in each catkin), while the minute (1/16”-1/8”) maroon female flowers spread their star-like styles open in order to catch the wind-dispersed pollen.

Pollen from the male flowers can pollinate and fertilize the female flowers on the same plant, although male flowers often mature before female flowers. Interestingly, the pollen germinates as soon as it reaches a receptive flower but the fertilization process does not take place for several months. If successfully pollinated and fertilized the female flower will develop into one to four nuts.

If you look closely at the photo inset, you can see the tiny light-colored specks of pollen that have landed on the sticky styles.

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