Willow Pussies Appearing

One of the earliest signs of spring are willow flowers peeking their silver heads out of the bud scales which have surrounded and protected them all winter. These soft silver tufts—as well as the plant itself—are named for their resemblance to tiny cats’ paws. The soft, silvery hairs insulate the emerging spike of flowers, or catkin, within a willow flower bud.

Pussy willows are dioecious, meaning there are both male plants and female plants. A male willow has only male catkins; female willows have only female catkins. The first catkins to emerge in the spring are usually males. The hairs, or “pussies,” that emerge when male willow buds first open trap the heat from the sun and help warm the center of the catkins, where the flowers’ reproductive parts are located. This trapped heat promotes the development of the pollen deep within the hairs. Eventually the reproductive parts of the male willow flowers – the stamens – emerge, but until they do, we get to enjoy their silvery fur coats.  (Female catkins tend to develop and open a little later than the males, and their silver tufts are more diminutive.)

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Spring Has Sprung!

Many, many thanks to my NC family for the cards and well wishes during my recent hiatus.  Your generous gestures hastened my return to good health, and I am very grateful for your kind and caring thoughts. 

There are many signs of spring that are announcing themselves to our various senses as we enter into the month of March.  Some, such as Eastern Chipmunks that are waking up from their intermittent winter naps and scurrying in and out of burrows, can be seen. The smell of boiling sap saturates the air. And the first Killdeer returning to northern New England can be heard as they issue forth their plaintive “killdeer” calls. Our mostly bare, thawing ground this year affords even the earliest of these migrants easy access to earthworms and other invertebrates. Look for these vocal members of the Plover family on mudflats, in mowed fields, on road shoulders and in pastures as they establish their territories this spring. (Photo: Killdeer)

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Naturally Curious Hiatus

In an effort to keep getting out into the field year-round and photographing whatever I see for as long as I can, I am having the first of two knee replacements in the coming days.  As a result Naturally Curious will have a brief hiatus.  Posts will resume as soon as possible!  Thank you for your patience and understanding. Meanwhile, indulge your natural curiosity and keep an eye out for northern visitors like this Snowy Owl! (Photo: female Snowy Owl & Meadow Vole)

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Red Foxes Occasionally Seek Shelter In Winter

Red Foxes are just beginning their mating season and they will give birth sometime in March or April.  In the weeks before the litter arrives, they will either reclaim a den or make a new one and prepare it for occupancy. It is unusual for them to consistently use a den other than for this occasion. 

In the winter, as a rule, rather than look for shelter they tend to curl up in the open, wrap their tail around themselves, tuck in their noses and rest. However, in exceptionally cold weather they will seek protected areas such as old dens in which to sleep. The frost that you see around the perimeter of the opening of this den tells you that on this (rare, this winter) sub-zero night (and judging from the number of tracks, on several nights), there was a warm body inside.  (The temperature rose in the days after this photograph was taken and a light snow revealed that the fox had vacated the den and a striped skunk had sought shelter there.)

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Woodpeckers To The Rescue

The U.S. Forest Service calls non-native insects the “wildfires of the East,” given the damage they cause to trees. One pest, the Emerald Ash Borer, has killed hundreds of millions of rural and urban ash trees. Strategies including ash tree removal, beetle traps, breeding resistant trees, parasitic wasps and insecticides have all contributed to the effort to control beetle populations once outward signs of damage, like yellowing leaves and dying branches or D-shaped 1/8″ beetle exit holes, have been detected. 

Robert Haight, a Forest Service researcher in Minnesota, has initiated an attempt to identify beetle-infested ash trees BEFORE they show these signs of damage by keeping an eye out for woodpecker (and nuthatch) activity.  One study found that woodpeckers ate 85% of the Emerald Ash Borer larvae in infested trees. These bark-foraging, insect-eating birds remove the outermost layers of bark in order to get at the Emerald Ash Borer beetle larvae within the tree. This removal of outer bark leaves splotches of lighter colored bark which are easy to detect.  Early detection can result in early treatment, both natural and chemical, which bodes well for the survival of the tree. (Photo: female Pileated Woodpecker; Inset Photo of infested trees visited by woodpeckers by Christine Atkins)

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White-tailed Deer Urine: Potentially Deleterious

There is certainly no shortage of White-tailed Deer urine where there are White-tailed Deer. Research shows that a typical deer releases about 64 ounces of urine per day in good weather conditions and 42 ounces in bad weather conditions, which comes to approximately 150 gallons per year. 

White-tailed Deer often winter in areas (“deer yards”) with coniferous trees such as Eastern Hemlock, Northern White Cedar and Balsam Fir that provide shelter from the wind and prevent deep snow from accumulating. Researchers have found that the deer’s urine significantly influences the types of plants that grow in these yards, due to the nitrogen they excrete in their urine. It builds up in the soil and when spring arrives, the chemical acts like fertilizer, encouraging the growth of some nitrogen-loving plants, including hardwood seedlings. If this happens winter after winter, the conifer-filled deer yards can disappear, replaced by different types of trees that may not do as good of a job blocking wind or catching snow. (Smithsonian Magazine)

(NB: If you are truly naturally curious and sensory oriented, you might enjoy scooping up a handful of White-tailed Deer urine-soaked snow and taking a whiff.  It (along with beaver castoreum) is one of my favorite wildlife scents.  A sweet pine-like odor will cling to your mitten or glove for days.)

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Carolina Wrens: Year-Round Residents In The Northeast

Carolina Wrens, long considered a more southerly species, are highly susceptible to severe winters which markedly decrease their populations. As a result, their numbers in the Northeast have historically been low.  However, Carolina Wrens have been expanding their range northward over the past century, with the first Massachusetts nesting reported in 1901.  In the mid-1900’s there was a significant northward range expansion, attributed to the increasingly warm winters we’ve experienced. 

The Carolina Wren is now a more common sight in New England and ranges even further north into Ontario.  An increase in the number of bird feeding stations in the past half century as well as reforestation of eastern forests have inevitably contributed to the extension of the Carolina Wren’s northern range, but scientists feel it’s mainly attributable to global warming.

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A Bobcat’s Near Miss

Tracking a predatory animal gives one great insight into the energy it expends trying to survive. Bobcats, stealthy ambushers that they are, are not always successful at capturing their prey, and energy is expended whether they are successful or not.  In this case (see photo), a Bobcat was unsuccessful in capturing its avian prey (note feather imprints and bobcat tracks).

On average, Bobcats consume about 1-2 pounds of food, or between 800-1,200 calories, a day to sustain their energy needs.  That means that a Bobcat needs to capture at least two Gray Squirrels, or one Eastern Cottontail or eight Eastern Meadow Voles a day to survive.  It can’t afford too many near misses!

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North American River Otters Treading Water

Your chances of seeing a North American River Otter are greatest now, during the winter, when this nocturnal/crepuscular member of the weasel family is more likely to be active during the day.  Often near water, they pop up for a breath of air in openings in the ice created by springs, beavers or muskrats. 

When you see an otter with its head above water, as is pictured, know that this position requires it to be treading water or sculling its tail back and forth the entire time it’s at the surface due to being “negatively buoyant” — a term that refers to its being more dense than the water it replaces. 

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Red-bellied Woodpecker: What’s In A Name?

One has to wonder why the English naturalist Mark Catesby gave the Red-bellied Woodpecker the common name he did in a book he wrote in the early 1700’s.  While Linnaeus later changed the bird’s scientific name from Picus ventre rubro to Picus carolinus (it has since been changed to Melanerpes carolinus), he kept Catesby’s common name which remains unchanged to this day.

The slight blush of rose on the Red-bellied Woodpecker’s belly feathers hardly seems prevalent enough to warrant a bird being named for it, yet that is exactly what happened. Usually if a bird’s name is descriptive (Eastern Bluebird, Black-throated Green Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, etc.) it does just that – describes its appearance.  Not so much in this case, however!  (Photo: female Red-bellied Woodpecker)

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