Things I’ve Seen

After a cold December and the eighth warmest January on record, February is doing it again; we’ve had so many storms in the first two weeks I’ve lost track. This view is of my back yard after one of them; a light one, by the looks.

We’ve also had cold, but not much of the bitter below zero kind. Still, as this view of the Ashuelot River in Swanzey shows, temperatures in the teens for a few days are enough to get rivers freezing.

We’ve had plenty of wind too, and below zero wind chills one day. Because it has been so cold when the snow falls it falls as light powder which blows and drifts easily. In one spot it had been blown into a snow wave; curled just like an ocean wave.

I tried to be clever and get a photo through the curl of the snow wave but all I had was my cell phone so it didn’t work out very well. I was trying not to get snow all over the phone while kneeling and bending in the snow.

Unfortunately the river is on the low side and calm, so I couldn’t get any photos of waves at my favorite spot for wave watching. With the drought last summer cancelling most of the wave action I’m starting to feel wave deprived. I love to see if I can tune in to the rhythm of the river and click the shutter at just the right moment.

This earlier photo of river waves shows what I was hoping to see, but we need more rain or snow melt to make this happen again. And then we’ll need some sunshine too.

I love the beautiful rich, warm orange brown of oak leaves in winter. They and beech always add a little color to the winter woods. And quite often add sound as well, when the wind blows.

I’m not the only one who appreciates oaks in winter; a deer came along and ate buds from this branch. They’re having a rough time of it this winter I think, with lots of snow on top of ice it’s very hard to get around. I tried to wade through knee deep snow the other day without snowshoes on and was quickly turned back. I’m not young enough for that anymore. It’s exhausting.

I saw what looked like a bundle high up in the top of a tree one day.

A closer look showed it to be a bundle of leaves; a gray squirrel nest. Leaf nests start with a floor woven from twigs with damp leaves and moss packed on top. A spherical framework is woven around the base and leaves, moss, and twigs are stuffed into it until a hollow shell of about 6 to 8 inches across has been created. Gray Squirrels can have nests that are up to 2 feet wide. This one was quite big; at least the size of a soccer ball. Squirrels will also use hollow trees as nests when they can find them. Last spring I saw a hollow tree with three baby gray squirrel heads poking out of a crack, but of course I didn’t have a camera ready.

Gray squirrels have 4 toes on their front feet and 5 on their rear feet, and when they’re bounding along at speed the tracks have the smaller front feet behind the rear feet, as this photo shows. Gray squirrels don’t hibernate. I see them every day when it is warm enough, out foraging for nuts and seeds. Like deer they can have a hard time of it in the winter. Only 25% of gray squirrels survive their first year but those that do might live 4 or 5 years, and can have 2 litters of young per year. They were a favorite food of Native Americans. Some tribes considered the squirrel to be a messenger who often alerted them to danger.

This birch tree seemed to be keeping an eye on things.

And so did this woodpile.

Even the lichens seemed to be watching with their many different colored eye like fruiting bodies (apothecia.) They were really vying for space on this tree that grows beside a pond, so they must all be moisture lovers. There are at least 6 different lichens in this photo. I think the large one in the center is a rosy saucer lichen (Ochrolechia trochophora.) The color of its apothecia can range from pink to orange but these looked more red than pink or orange.

Most of the grapes have been eaten by the birds except for a few unappetizing examples. We have quite a lot of wild fruit growing in this area and I keep hoping that it will attract Baltimore orioles, but I never see them. There used to be lots of them when I was a boy and I used to like seeing their hanging basket nests in the trees. I haven’t seen one in probably 50 years, since they cut down the last American elm on the street I grew up on.

Galls are much easier to see in winter than they are in summer and some can be really interesting so I usually watch for them. This is a stem gall which was formed when willow gall midges (Rhabdophaga) burrowed into the willow’s stem last year. These galls are usually red and are very hard and tough. I’m not sure if the holes in this example were made when midges burrowed out, or if birds burrowed in. Many bids including wood peckers rob different galls of their larva.

The small cups found on native witch hazel shrubs (Hamamelis virginiana) at this time of year are formed by four bracts that curve back. The strap like flower petals unfurl from these cups on warm fall days. Soon the spring blooming vernal witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis) will be unfurling their petals on warm days.

I wanted to get a photo of the way the windblown snow sparkled in the sunlight but instead it came out looking like white stone.

This is what my approach to work looked like early one recent morning after another snowstorm. It’s very beautiful but I’m ready for the kind of beauty that is found in spring. The outlook is good; the weather people say we’ll see above freezing temperatures from now well into March, so that means that our maple syrup season will start any day now.

Snow was falling
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.
~Mary Oliver

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Spring Fever

As a professional gardener I was never surprised that work slowed down a bit in the winter here in New Hampshire-ground that is frozen solid doesn’t hoe well. Each year at about this time I’d start to feel a little anxious-full of energy and excitement- wanting those southerly winds to bring us some spring weather. After it finally got here and I’d had a day or two of working in the warm sun again I’d be walking with a spring in my step, whistling a happy tune.  (If you need a happy tune to whistle, just click here.)

March 1st is the meteorological start of spring here in the North Eastern U.S., and at dawn that day I positioned my tripod on top of the crusty snow for a shot of the waning gibbous moon stuck in the trees.  The clouds parted just long enough in the morning to get a glimpse of it, and then it clouded over again. The astronomical method of dividing the year into seasons names March 20 as the first day of spring.

Over the weekend I followed an abandoned road that was hacked through the bedrock in the early 1700s. Ledges line parts of that road-this one is about 12 feet high with ice that looks impressive but is rotting and dangerous to climb. It’s hard to describe rotten ice but it is weakened by melt water running over and through it due to warmer temperatures. Once you’ve seen it, you know it. Since it means spring is nearby, I like to see it.

 

Mosses can go through some very cold temperatures and still look like they have just come up in the spring. I thought it would be a cinch to identify this one but once again, nature threw me a curve ball. It resembles both Fissidens and Neckera mosses, so not only am I not sure of the species, I can’t even get to the genus. Whatever it is, I thought it was unusual and beautiful enough to include here.

One of my favorite native shrubs is hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides,) which will be covered with large white, showy flowers in May. Its buds have no scales so they are open to all that nature can throw at them all winter long, just like those of witch hazel. This particular bush was really stunning last spring and I found myself wishing it was in my yard. I can’t wait to see it in bloom again. The flower bud between the two tiny leaves tells me that it will. If you would like to see what it looks like when it is blooming just click here.

Split gill mushrooms (Schizophyllum commune) wear fuzzy white coats in winter. Actually they wear these coats at any time, but when they’ve had adequate moisture they appear less fuzzy. The common name refers to the way the folds on their underside resemble gills that have split lengthwise. I haven’t been able to find out if they stay this way all winter or if they start growing in spring, but seeing them makes it feel like spring.

 

Nothing says spring in New Hampshire like a sap bucket hanging from a maple tree. Once spring turns on the flow it doesn’t stop until fall. It’s a good sign that the earth is thawing.

At first I thought this was a jelly fungus but the small bit to the left shaped like a jelly bean didn’t fit with a jelly fungus. Then, because there are lichens that mimic jelly fungi, I thought it might be one of those, but again, the jelly bean didn’t fit. I finally decided that the only thing that is tomato red and looks like a jelly bean that I know of is wolf’s milk slime mold (Lycogala epidendrum,) also called toothpaste slime mold. The smeared parts are “jelly beans” (fruiting bodies) that have been crushed. If slime molds are growing it must be warming up.

 

I found this odd specimen on a willow branch. Since it is smiling, maybe it’s just as happy that spring is coming as I am. Actually this is a stem gall which was formed when Rhabdophaga midges burrowed into the willow’s stem last year, but I can see an eye, a nose, and a smiley mouth. And even a pointy hat.

The skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is looking very red this year. Last year it was a much darker purple. There is a large swamp in Swanzey, New Hampshire where hundreds of these plants grow. Many grow on a hillside that is submerged for much of the winter but dries out a bit in spring, making it easier to get photos of them.  Seeing them is always a good sign that spring is near. Smelling them is difficult.

 

The cloud deck over Mount Monadnock shows what our weather has been like for the past 2 weeks. Short glimpses of sun are all we’ve seen through small breaks in clouds that stretch from horizon to horizon. Spring is coming, but it isn’t coming quickly or easily-it seems like it’s going to have to be pried from the cold fist of winter one warm, sunny day at a time. I’ll just have to be patient, like the mountain.

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.  ~Henry Van Dyke

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July Forest Finds

There are days when I’m searching for wildflowers when I can go for hours without finding any, but those are also the days when I often see many other interesting things. It is those things “other than flowers” that will be found in this post. I found this Clymene Moth (Haploa clymene) hanging out on a wilted bee balm leaf. This one was quite easy to identify because of the upside down cross on its wings. (Some see a dagger) According to what I’ve read the larva feed on several different tree species including oak and willow. Clymene means “renowned one” in Greek. Apparently this moth is only found in the eastern part of the country.From a distance I thought this was another moth or a butterfly, but was a feather.I found these pinesap plants (Monotropa hypopithys ) growing in a very dark, dry forest and was surprised to see them. They are a relative of Indian pipes (Monotropa uniflora) and like Indian pipes have no chlorophyll. They are also thought to be parasitic like Indian pipes. Pinesap plants have several flower buds on each stem and Indian pipes have only one. If these plants come up in the summer they are a yellow color like that in the photo, and if they come up in the fall they are usually a reddish color. I’ve been waiting a week or more for this group to stand up, but they haven’t yet.  It’s almost as if they’re frozen in the position seen in the picture, because they haven’t moved. This pine root was in the middle of a trail I was following.  How many shoe bottoms did it take to wear it away like this, I wondered. I love the way these worn roots look as if they have been carved, sanded and stained. I realized, while admiring this one that it would be an impossible to duplicate this by carving because the bark trying to cover over the wound is a large part of the whole.I thought this was a caterpillar on this willow tree but it turned out to be an Elm Sawfly Larva (Cimbex Americana.) These come in other colors like pink, white, green and gray, and like to hang out in willow trees. The elm sawfly is the largest species of sawfly in North America. In addition to the black stripe down their body they also have a row of black dots on each side of their body which can just barely be seen in this photo. The black dots are spiracles, or breathing tubes. These larvae also feed on elm, maple, cottonwood and birch but their favorites are willow and elm.Turkey tails (Trametes versicolor) are a lot harder to see in the summer than they are in winter because of the undergrowth, but I still see them now and then. These were quite large and grew on a tree that had fallen across a trail.I sat down on a stone to take a break and turned and saw what I thought were red capped mushrooms growing on a moss covered stone. Each tiny cap was probably about half the diameter of a pencil eraser. Now that I see the detail in the picture though, I wonder if they aren’t young lipstick powder horns (Cladonia macilenta.) Since I’ve never seen lipstick powder horns I can’t be 100% sure but the description in the book Lichens of the North Woods comes very close to matching these. I wish I had checked them for gills but I didn’t want to destroy them just to satisfy my curiosity. I like to leave things as I find them so the next person can feel the same sense of discovery that I felt.This one I do know without having to look it up. It is a yellow amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. The amanita family contains some of the most poisonous mushrooms known. Amanita muscaria with a red cap is supposed to be more common than yellow, but the yellow ones are all I ever see.Like turkey tails, beard lichens are also harder to find in summer because of all the leaves on the trees but this one grew on a branch that was overhanging a beaver pond, making it easier to spot. This might also be Boreal Oak moss (Evernia mesomorpha) according to the book Lichens of the North Woods. I know where several large colonies of blue bead lily (Clintonia borealis) grow and in the spring I saw hundreds of flowers. Not all flowers become fruit though; out of hundreds of blooms I’ve seen only two berries. It has taken a few weeks of searching to find them, but I’m glad that I did so I could show why the plant is called the blue bead lily. The fruit is certainly blue and is also said to be mildly toxic. It is supposed to have a terrible taste as well. Native Americans used the plant to treat bruises and burns and the root was used in a medicinal tea. The freshly dug root is said to attract bears. Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora,) is a wildflower in the wintergreen family which is common enough but is usually seen with its flower nodding and pointing downward. When the flowers start bearing seeds they begin to dry out and slowly turn upright to the sky. The flower then becomes a fruit capsule before the plant finally turns brown and dries out completely. The Monotropa part of the scientific name means “one turn” for the way the flower turns once, from nodding to upright. Uniflora means one stem, because there is only one flower per stem. These seed heads of the yellow hop clover (Trifolium aureum ) look bright red to me but all of the books say that they’re brown so I’ll go with that for a color since I’m somewhat color blind. These seed heads are how the plant got its common name because someone, somewhere once thought they looked like hops. And they do-sort of. Each of the rounded parts that look like scales was a flower, and each holds one small seed.I saw this gall on a willow branch one day and thought it looked a lot like the apple galls found on oak trees. The only difference is that it looks as if it has been pasted onto the branch with mud. I’ve spent many hours trying to identify this with no luck, so if anyone knows what it is I (we) would love to hear from you.

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature ~ Cicero

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