Western Bluebird

I frequently see a small flock of western bluebirds at the arboretum. When the mistletoe berries are ripe, I see them in the oak trees around the parking lot. I also find them in the meadow above the creek trail, in the vicinity of the barn, or in the south meadow.

On this cool, sunny afternoon in the south meadow, they were perched on the lower limbs of bigleaf maple trees as they scanned the ground for insects. When they located their prey, they quickly dropped down to the ground to catch it. They would often return to the maple limb. Or they would fly low across the ground and then rise to perch on an old flower stalk.

I usually hear them before I see them. They have a soft call note that can be given in flight or from a perch. Peterson describes it as a short pew or mew. Their song is strung together into gentle, stuttering notes that Audubon’s website describes as “a short, subdued cheer, cheer-lee, churr.”

Male western bluebirds have a colorful blue on their head, wings, and tail. Complementing the blue is a rust-orange breast and upper back. The female’s coloration is more muted. Her blue shows up as a subtle tint in the wings and tail. Her breast is a pale, orange wash. The throat is blue in males and grayish in females. Their bellies are whitish.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Sources
Peterson, Roger Tory. Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. 4th ed. New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.

Websites:
All About Birds by Cornell
National Audubon Society

Hues of Evergreen

Standing out in the south meadow looking back at the hillside, I can differentiate between the two species of evergreen trees growing in the forest. The incense cedar has a yellow-green hue to it at the moment because it is covered with small, yellow cones that are releasing pollen. The other one is the Douglas-fir.

Bigleaf Maple & Sapsucker

While out walking the other day, I stopped to listen to a bird sing. Gazing out into the forest, I noticed that the base of this tree was black like it had been charred by fire. When I went over to investigate, I realized the base of the tree was riddled with holes made by a sapsucker.

My initial search on the internet turned up information on sugar maples. Oozing sap from the holes made by sapsuckers, for example, will soak the bark. A fungus known as Sooty Mold will feed on the sugars in the sap turning the bark black. I wasn’t able to find information about bigleaf maples, but it seems reasonable that a similar occurrence might be happening here. Or maybe the bark has simply become darkened from being saturated by sap.

I am reaching out to the Oregon State Extension to see if they have any information. I’ll keep you posted.

Bushtits Eating Poison Oak Berries

About a week ago, I posted about poison oak berries being an important food source for birds because the hardy berries will linger on the plant into the winter months. Up to that point, I reported that I had only seen chickadees eating the berries.

On Saturday, I was watching a flock of bushtits performing their acrobatic routine through the landscape. The next thing I know, they had descended on a patch of poison oak and started eating the berries. I was delighted to have observed another bird eating them.

It was fun to watch them cling to the plant in all sorts of ways as they ate the berries.

Himalayan Blackberry

Blackberries are easily spread when a new cane grows and the end arches back towards the ground. When the tip reaches the soil, it will begin to profusely grow new roots which will create a new plant.

Blackberries are also spread by animals. They will eat the berries and spread the seeds as they pass through their digestive system.

The Himalayan blackberry is from India, and it was introduced to North American via England in 1885.

It is a very invasive species that forms dense thickets that will shade out other understory plants.

I have been digging them up in the wetlands area to allow wildflowers like larkspur and bleeding heart to grow. New larkspur leaves can already be seen sprouting out of the ground!

Running Rivulets

The rain is steady.
The ground is saturated.
My hat is soaked.
My shoes are sopping.
My socks are spongy.
My rain gear is sodden.
My gloves are soggy.
My spirit is soaring with sonorous streams!

Small rivulets of water are running over the landscape seemingly along every path at the arboretum. A symphony of trickling and gurgling is softly resonating through the air. There are few sounds as soothing as the gentle cascade of water.

Red-tailed Hawk

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance. They make the latitudes and longitudes.”

Letter
Thoreau to Lidian Emerson
May 22, 1843

Happy New Year

May you find time to be in nature to absorb its serenity and carry it with you back into your daily life.

Tree Rings

A tree fell across a path at the arboretum during the recent snow storm. They cut the tree to clear the path which revealed its rings. I am reading a book about forests and thought that you would be interested in the following excerpt from the book.

“For all its size and vitality, for all its impressive thickening from year to year, most of the tissue of a tree trunk does not and cannot grow, once it has been formed. The tissue that adds to a tree’s size is confined to a microscopically thin layer, the cambium… As the cambium cells divide, the tree grows in diameter. The new cells formed toward the inside of the tree become wood, or xylem, and the cells on the outside become a layer called the phloem. Cells produced in the spring growing season are usually much larger than those produced in the summer. The small size and density of the summer cells make them look dark. It is the alternation of the dark summer wood with the lighter-colored spring wood of the following year which produces the rings in trees.”

Farb, Peter and The Editors of LIFE. LIFE Nature Library: The Forest. New York, Time Incorporated, 1961.

Poison Oak Berries

As I was walking around today, I saw that some of the poison oak berries are still lingering around.

I realized that I had started writing this post about a month ago, and somehow it got buried under a pile of other ideas.

During the fall when I took this photo, I frequently saw chickadees foraging poison oak berries. Supposedly their are a number of different birds that eat the berries, but I only have observed chickadees consuming them. I will see juncos on the ground around thickets of poison oak shrubs, but I am unable to see if they are eating the berries that have fallen on the ground.

I read in a few places that the berries are full of important nutrients for birds, but there weren’t any specific vitamins, minerals, etc. listed. I’m sure that they at least provide a source of energy, because the action-packed chickadee will know what is best for fueling its motor to keep it zipping around the landscape.

The chickadees appetite for poison oak berries has an unfortunate consequence, especially for people like me who are quite allergic to the plant. The seeds can be spread throughout the landscape as they pass through the chickadee’s digestive system.

Snowy Day

Here are a couple of photos from a snowy winter’s day. I hope that everyone was able to get outside and enjoy the snow. The next few days are going to be chilly. Stay cozy and warm.

The Sun

During the darkest days of the year, it seems appropriate to reflect on the most important source of energy for life on earth—the sun.

Its diameter is 864,000 miles. This is 109 times that of the earth. It is a flaming ball of electrically charged gas that tops 27 million degrees Fahrenheit at its core!

It is all too miraculous to believe. We are floating in space orbiting around a star that is 93 million miles away!

How are we supposed to wrap our minds around this incredible world bursting with infinite, truly unbelievable forms of life?

Spotted Towhee

A familiar sound at the arboretum is the rustle of leaves of spotted towhees foraging. They hop backward with both feet to sweep away the leaf litter in search of food. Their diet consists of insects, spiders, seeds, acorns, and berries.

Towhees stay in the security of dense shrubs or right along the edge where they can quickly retreat to safety. Additionally, their spotted pattern and earth-tone coloration make them well camouflaged.

They have an interesting call note that you can often hear as they communicate with one another. Peterson describes the sound as a “catlike gu-eeee?.” Personally, their call reminds me of the mysterious, prehistoric past when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I amusingly imagine a baby pterodactyl calling for its mom.

Their songs are more friendly and sweet-sounding. Peterson describes it as a “chup chup chup zeeeeeeee” or a “drawn-out, buzzy chweeeeee.” Click here to go to the Audubon website to listen to their songs and calls.

Birds also communicate nonverbally. When watching spotted towhees you will often see them flicking their tail feathers open. In a flash, white patches on their outer tail feathers are revealed. On Cornell’s website All About Birds, this behavior indicates that the bird is being disturbed or alarming to signal potential danger. This could also be a way for them to silently check in with their companion nearby without having to call to them and possibly reveal their location.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Black Knot Fungus

When the deciduous trees lose their leaves for the winter, the life that was slightly obscured and perhaps overlooked can become more easily seen as the landscape becomes more open.

On the left-hand side of the main trail, as it winds between the wetlands and the river, black knot fungus can be seen infecting many of the small trees of the understory.

The bumpy, black growths that grow along stems and trunks are called galls. The growth of these galls is stimulated by the release of chemicals from the fungus that makes the tree grow abnormal plant cells. After the first year, the galls appear velvety, olive green. After the second year, they reach maturity and turn knobby, rough, and black. The spores will overwinter and release the following spring.

Black knot fungus can be tolerated by many trees without negatively affecting the health of the tree. On the other hand, these fungal galls often cause damage by cracking open branches or the trunk of the tree. This makes it susceptible to wood rot fungi or other maladies.

Black knot is a fairly common disease of trees in the genus Prunus, which includes many fruits such as plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots. There is a nonnative cherry tree that has spread throughout the arboretum. I guess that many of the infected trees I see out in the wetlands area are these cherry trees.

Hooded Merganser

I have seen a few hooded mergansers paddling around the edges of the river out at the arboretum lately.

Both males and females have a distinct, fan-shaped crest that they can raise and lower. Its hooded silhouette is a good identification clue from a distance.

The male has a white patch on the crest, a white breast with two black bars, a white wing patch, and rusty brown flanks.

The female has a gray-brown body and a brown crest. She blends in well with the surrounding earth tones of the vegetation on the river’s edge.

Their diet consists of small fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans, amphibians, vegetation, and mollusks. They have a slender, serrated bill that makes it optimal for grasping their prey.

Hooded mergansers nest in cavities of live or dead trees that are usually close to water. Therefore, it is important to have older, mature trees with sizable trunks which have either developed a natural cavity or have one excavated by a woodpecker.

Forest Gnome's Christmas Tree

As I drive around town, I see lots full of beautifully trimmed Christmas trees. There are cars with a tree tied to the top and trucks with a tree in the back. There are trees decorated with lights and shiny ornaments in the front window of homes and the front yard. It is a magical time as we come together and celebrate, and it lifts my spirits to see everyone’s decorations.

Out at the arboretum with the image of these trees fresh in my mind, I saw a clump of moss or liverwort growing on a small branch and immediately thought it looked like the shape of a Christmas tree ready for decorating.

Muskrat

Recently, I have been fortunate to observe a muskrat out in the lily pond area. It has been merrily swimming around collecting aquatic plants and eating them under the safety of a thick shelter of willow branches overhanging the water.

The “musk” part of its name comes from two musk glands found beneath the skin at the ventral base of the tail. These musk glands are used during the breeding season to mark scent posts to establish territory and to signal the male’s maturity. The “rat” part of its name is misleading. It has a naked, scaly, narrow, slightly flattened tail that is similar to a rat, but it is not a rat. That said, they are both classified as rodents.

Muskrats love water and their habitat is marshes, ponds, lakes, streams, and other wetlands.

Its body is designed for water. They have a dense coat of waterproof fur that is overlaid with coarse guard hairs. Its hind feet have specialized hairs that grow on the sides of its long toes to help propel it through the water. It has a third, clear eyelid called a nictitating membrane that protects its eyes underwater. Amazingly, it can stay underwater for up to 17 minutes! Also, to be able to gnaw on plants in the water without drowning, its incisors are outside its lips.

For housing, muskrats may either decide to dig a burrow in the bank or build a small lodge made out of plant materials, small sticks, and mud.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Burt, William H. and Richard P. Grossenheider. A Field Guide to the Mammals: North America north of Mexico. 3rd ed. New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.

Rezendes, Paul. Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks & Sign. 2nd ed. New York, HarperCollins, 1999.

Woodland Seascapes

It’s a rainy day. Looking for a little shelter, I sit down underneath a Douglas-fir tree. Its bark is a cascade of craggy steps and cliffs. It is reminiscent of a molten past that is now cooled and solidified.

Droplets are softly falling as the rain slowly filters through the dense tree canopy. The base of the tree flares out slightly and catches the moisture. As the water flows down this gentle slope, an abundance of life is growing. Magical creatures are forming a miniature seascape that is a mosaic of shapes, colors, and textures.

Captivated by these beautiful lifeforms, I realize that it is impossible to comprehend the complexity of life woven into and around the life of a Douglas-fir tree. Its lifecycle can span more than a millennium. It can live to be from 500 to 1000 years old, and it can then take another 400 years for it to decompose. May we someday once again set aside space for these fellow beings to fulfill their lives and create majestic, hallowed forests.

Oregon Ash

Oregon Ash trees are a beautiful mess. Lounging in its shade in the summer, all seems to be in order with its full, lush canopy. As the leaves fall off and its branches are revealed, I am left wondering, “What the heck has happened to this tree?”

As this tree matures, its shape usually becomes perfectly disordered. The forces of nature love to sculpt Oregon ash trees into a magnificent structure of tangled branches, a meandering trunk, dead limbs, and numerous cavities. Thus, you don’t really see this tree being used in a planned landscape in the city or around someone’s home.

This past bird breeding season I tracked the location of many nests. Along the river path that begins at the White Oak Pavilion, the trail is lined with Oregon ash trees. Nearly every one of them has a natural cavity somewhere along its trunk, and most of them had a cavity-nesting bird using it—European starlings, northern flickers, white-breasted nuthatches, and Bewick’s wrens. In the branches of the tree, there were robins, mourning doves, cedar waxwings, and Bullock’s orioles.

Even though it doesn’t have the majestic shape of the Oregon white oak, the incense cedar, or the Douglas fir, the Oregon ash is an unsung hero.

Miniature Lampposts

While watching a chipmunk scurrying around through the leaves along the lily pond trail, something caught my eye. The sun had just come out from behind a cloud and scattered across the ground. At that moment, it illuminated these tiny globes. In some places, they appeared sprinkled across the ground. In other places, they were lined up along the edge of a leaf or blade of grass. My guess is that it is a type of fungus. Interestingly, it was growing on dead, decaying leaves, and it was growing on live, green plants too.

What is this creature? How does it fit into the web of life?