Semipalmated Plover Migration Winds Down
During the peak of their migration in the fall (August and September), Semipalmated Plover sightings occur inland but are especially concentrated along the East coast. Sightings are decreasing now as we approach the tail end of their flight from their Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding grounds to their wintering grounds which range from the southern U.S. through southern South America.
In general, plovers (Charadriidae) are small to medium-size, plump shorebirds with long wings and short necks and rounded heads. The Semipalmated Plover, during the breeding season, has a black crown, eye patch and single breast band. These areas are brown in nonbreeding adults (pictured).
Fortunately, there is no evidence that the estimated breeding population of 200,000 birds is diminishing. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “The Semipalmated Plover is among the few plovers whose numbers are apparently increasing, perhaps owing to its versatility in food and habitat choice, its wide-spread coastal winter distribution, or its habitat expansion in the sub-Arctic as a result of disturbance by both humans and arctic geese.”
For those curious about this shorebird’s name, “semipalmated” in a wading bird’s name indicates that its toes are webbed for part of their length (barely detectable in photo, but if you look hard you’ll see partial webbing in the left foot).
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Some Spiders Still Active
Spiders are ectotherms – warmed and cooled by their environment. In the fall, those outdoor species that remain alive through the winter begin preparing themselves by producing antifreeze proteins that allow their tissues to experience below-freezing temperatures. When a small particle of ice first starts to form, the antifreeze proteins bind to it and prevent the water around it from freezing, thus preventing the growth of an ice crystal. Some species survive in temperatures as low as -5 degrees Celsius.
The pictured hammock spider, still active in late October, is nourishing itself by drinking the dissolved innards of a fall-flying March fly, whose name comes from the predominantly springtime flight period of most March Flies (of the 32 species in the genus Bibio in North America, only three fly in fall).
A common belief is that once cold weather appears, outdoor spiders seek shelter inside houses. In fact, only about 5% of the spiders you find in your house lived outside before coming into your house, according to Seattle’s Burk Museum. The reason people tend to notice them more inside may be because sexually mature male spiders become more active in the fall, wandering far and wide in search of mates.
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Eastern Red-backed Salamanders Still Active
The Eastern Red-backed Salamander is the most abundant terrestrial vertebrate in New England. Unlike many salamanders, it is terrestrial year-round – living, mating, laying eggs, feeding, and hibernating.
Eastern Red-backed Salamanders can occur in two color phases, lead-back and red-back. The lead-back phase salamanders are a consistent gray to black color while the red-back phase is characterized by an orange to red stripe down the length of their body and tail. In both phases, they are distinguishable by their mottled white and black undersides and five toes on their hind feet.
Due to its lack of lungs, this slender salamander must live in damp or moist habitats in order to breath. It is active into late fall, inhabiting rotting logs or living under moist leaf litter, bark, stones, etc. When cold weather really sets in, it will hibernate down to 15 inches in the soil, or in deep leaf litter or rock crevices. (Congratulations to Helen L., the first NC reader to correctly identify the latest Mystery Photo as an Eastern Red-backed Salamander!)
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Reminder: Naturally Curious Calendar Orders Can Be Placed Until Nov. 10
There are roughly two more weeks left in which orders for 2019 NC Calendars can be placed. The calendars are printed on heavy card stock and measure 11” x 17” when hanging. There is one full-page and one thumbnail photograph (new this year) per month. The calendars are $35.00 each (includes postage). Please specify the number of calendars you would like to order, the mailing address to which they should be sent and your email address (so I can easily and quickly contact you if I have any questions). Your check can be made out to Mary Holland and sent to me at 134 Densmore Hill Road, Windsor, VT 05089.
Guaranteed orders can be placed up until November 10th. Orders placed after this date will be filled as long as my supply of extra calendars lasts. (To be candid, I have had so many last-minute requests in past years that I have not been able to fill all of the orders placed after November 10th, so if you want to be sure of having your order filled, I encourage you to place your order before that date.) Calendars will arrive at your door by mid-December. Thank you so much!
Monthly subjects: January – Snowy Owl; February – Otter Slides; March – Spotted Salamander; April – Spring Peeper; May – White-tailed Deer Fawn; June – Gray Fox kit; July – Red-bellied Woodpeckers; August – Chicken of the Woods; September – Monarch; October – Moose; November – Ruffed Grouse; December – Black Bear mother & yearlings.
Mystery Photo
Any idea what lurks under the bark of this rotting log (look through hole)? If so, go to the Naturally Curious blog (www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com ) and enter your “comment.”
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Snapping Turtles Entering Hibernation
Most Snapping Turtles have entered hibernation by late October. To hibernate, they burrow into the debris or mud bottom of ponds or lakes, settle beneath logs, or retreat into muskrat burrows or lodges. Once a pond is frozen over, how do they breathe with ice preventing them from coming up for air?
Because turtles are ectotherms, or cold-blooded, their body temperature is the same as their surroundings. The water at the bottom of a pond is usually only a few degrees above freezing. Fortunately, a cold turtle in cold water/mud has a slow metabolism. The colder it gets, the slower its metabolism, which means there is less and less of a demand for energy and oxygen as temperatures fall – but there is still some.
When hibernating, Snapping Turtles rely on stored energy. They acquire oxygen from pond water moving across the surface of their body, which is highly vascularized. Blood vessels are particularly concentrated near the turtle’s tail, allowing the Snapper to obtain the necessary amount of oxygen to stay alive without using its lungs.
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Giant Puffballs Maturing
Puffballs are aptly named. When their spores mature and the fruiting body splits open, rain drops, an animal passing by, or the wind cause puffs of spores to burst into the air, dispersing them far and wide. While puffballs vary tremendously in size, most would fit in your hand. Exceptions include Giant Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea), one of which was collected in 1877 in New York state and measured 5 ½ inches by 4 ½ inches by 6 ¾ feet. The greatest recorded weight for a Giant Puffball is 44 pounds.
The production of spores takes place on basidia – club-like structures inside the fruiting body. The number of spores that these fungi produce is impressive. Mycologist Henry Buller estimated that a Giant Puffball measuring 16” x 11” x 8” (a fairly typical size) would contain more than 7 trillion spores. (If you want to grow your own Giant Puffball so you can count the spores yourself, you can even purchase seeding spores online!)
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Young Milk Snakes Soon To Hibernate
The eggs that Milk Snakes laid last June or July hatched recently and the six-inch young snakes as well as the adults that produced them will only be evident (and then, mostly at night) for the next few weeks. Hibernation is around the corner, and these snakes often seek out the cellars of old houses with stone foundations in which to spend the winter. Should you come upon a Milk Snake, please spare its life. They are not poisonous, and you couldn’t ask for a more efficient mouse catcher (Mice accounted for 74 percent of a study of Milk Snakes’ stomach contents.).
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Ospreys Migrating
Banding birds, and the retrieval of these bands, has provided valuable information on the movement of birds. Today we also have the benefit of satellite telemetry, in which a bird carries a tracking device and its location is calculated via satellites that orbit the Earth. The following is just a sample of what this tracking technology has revealed about the migration of Ospreys.
There are significant differences in male and female timing of migration (females leave up to a month before males), distance traveled and overwintering locations. There is strong fidelity to overwintering sites as well as to migration flyways. Breeding pairs of Osprey do not migrate or overwinter together, and adults do not migrate with their offspring. Ospreys rarely migrate at night over land but inevitably migrate at night when undertaking longer (more than 12 hours) water crossings.
Subtle insights into migratory behavior can be gained by the findings of satellite telemetry, as well. Their first flight south by juvenile Ospreys is often largely over water. A majority of juveniles migrating over the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to the Bahama Islands flew as many as 1,500 miles over a period of up to 58 hours. The fact that no adults or 2nd year birds took this route over water suggests that juvenile Ospreys learn the coastal migration route during their first trip north.
Overwintering habitat preferences have also been assessed. Of 79 Ospreys tracked by satellite, 30.4% overwintered on coasts, 50.6% overwintered on rivers, and 19% overwintered on lakes or reservoirs, with differences based on both sex and region of origin.
These few facts don’t begin to exhaust the information gathered from banding and satellite telemetry on Ospreys, much less many other species. They just serve to illustrate how modern tracking technology compliments and increases the information formerly gathered by firsthand observation and banding.
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Yews Fruiting
Unlike many other conifers, Yew does not actually bear its seeds in a cone. Botanically speaking, a modified scale wraps around a single seed and forms a fleshy, red fruit called an aril. Both the seed coat as well as the foliage of Yew contain toxic alkaloids. Birds’ digestive systems do not break down the seed coats on the seeds so they are unharmed by eating the berries, seed and all, but the human digestive tract begins to break down the seeds and toxins are released.
For hundreds of years, people used Yew alkaloids as both a method of suicide and a chemical weapon during hunting and warfare. Even sleeping beneath the shade of a Yew bush was once considered dangerous. Today paclitaxel, a plant alkaloid derived from Yews, is used as an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug (Taxol is one of its brand names).
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Woolly Bears Seeking Hibernacula
The Isabella Tiger Moth typically has two broods during the summer. The caterpillars (Woolly Bears) in the first brood pupate and emerge as adult moths mid-summer. The second brood overwinters as caterpillars and pupate in the spring. The Woolly Bears we see crossing roads at this time of year are second-brood caterpillars in search of protective hibernation sites (hibernacula).
Old-timers predicted the severity of the coming winter by the relative lengths of the black and brown bands of the caterpillars when they became easy to observe in the fall – the longer the black sections and narrower the brown section, the harder a winter they were in for. In fact, this may have had some validity, as brown hairs (setae) are added to the middle band every time the caterpillar molts. Therefore, the older the caterpillar, the wider the brown band. If winter comes early, the caterpillar’s brown band would be relatively narrow due to the fact it didn’t have time to mature fully and develop a wider brown section before hibernating.
The adult stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth is often overlooked, due to the appeal of the larval stage. This tan moth, with a wingspan of 1 ½ – 2 inches, has tiny black markings on its wings. Male and female are sexually dimorphic and can be distinguished by the color of their hind wings. Males have yellow-pale orange hind wings while the hind wings of females are rosy. (Photo: Woolly Bear; photo inset: female Isabella Tiger Moth)
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How Does Weather Affect Foliage ?
Peak foliage has arrived in northern New England and will soon be evident further south. It’s fairly common knowledge that there are three main pigments that affect fall leaf colors: chlorophyll (green), carotenoids (yellow) and anthocyanins (red). Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in leaves throughout the growing season. Most anthocyanins are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells.
The amount and brilliance of the colors that develop in any particular autumn season are related to weather conditions that occur before and during the time the chlorophyll in the leaves is dwindling. Temperature and moisture are the main influences.
A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions – lots of sugar and light – spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which produce reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.
The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring or a severe summer drought can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors. (U.S. Forest Service, USDA)
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Stinkhorns Maturing
There are a group of fungi known as stinkhorns — aptly named, as their foul odor can be detected even by the human nose. All stinkhorns first appear as an “egg” which can be up to two inches high. When the eggs rupture, the appearance of the different species of fungi in this family (Phallaceae) can differ dramatically, but many have a phallic-like shape. At maturity, all stinkhorns produce an olive-green to olive-brown slimy substance that has a putrid smell (to humans), but is very appealing to many insects. This slime is loaded with the fungi’s spores. Insects landing on a stinkhorn get their feet covered with the spore-laden slime while they are busy ingesting it. Once the insects depart, the spores are dispersed far and wide.
Stinkhorns appear suddenly, and their growth can almost be observed, as they go from the egg stage to maturity with impressive speed. While these fungi are not poisonous, it is doubtful that having smelled them, anyone would desire to eat them. (Photo: Dog Stinkhorn aka Devil’s Dipstick, Mutinus caninus)
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Beechdrops Flowering
Congratulations to “imachayes,” producer of wondermyway.com blog, for being the first (of many) readers to correctly identify the most recent Mystery Photo as a Beechdrops flower. A fairly inconspicuous brown stem produces two types of flowers, cleistogamous flowers that self-pollinate without ever opening, and chasmogamous flowers that open, but are often sterile. Those that are not sterile are pollinated by ants as well as other insects.
Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) is a flowering plant that lacks chlorophyll and thus cannot photosynthesize and make its own food. Instead, this plant obtains nutrients from American Beech trees. It belongs to a family of plants (Broomrape) whose members live as root parasites. Beechdrops insert a root-like structure called an haustorium (see photo inset) into an American Beech tree’s root and absorb enough nutrition to sustain themselves and produce flowers between August and October. Being annuals, Beechdrops don’t live long enough to damage their host trees.
Because they lack chlorophyll and obvious leaves (their leaves are scale-like and pressed flat against their stem), Beechdrops are easily overlooked. Keep an eye on the forest floor near American beech trees for these 5 – 18-inch plants which are flowering right now. (Photo: Beechdrops at base of an American Beech tree; inset: root system of Beechdrops)
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