Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed hawks can often be seen soaring in the clear blue skies of summer. As they circle overhead, the sun illuminates their tail's warm, red feathers from where they get their name.

Red-tail hawks love the arboretum. It has the perfect habitat of open, grassy meadows that support an abundance of animals, like voles, mice, pocket gophers, ground squirrels, and rabbits. These small mammals make up most of the hawk’s diet. In addition, there are many tall trees and snags adjacent to these open spaces where the hawks can sit, watch, and wait for an opportunity to grab their prey.

Red-tail hawks also nest out at the arboretum. I usually see their nests in the crown of tall cottonwood trees along the river. They will often refurbish an old nest used in previous years or build a new one. The nest is a sizable construction of dry sticks up to 6.5 feet high and 3 feet wide. The inner part of the nest is lined with bark strips, fresh foliage, and dry vegetation.

The call of the red-tailed hawk is usually given while soaring. Peterson describes it as an “asthmatic squeal, keeer-r-r (slurring downward).” The Cornel Lab characterizes it as, “a hoarse, screaming kee-eeeee-arr.” While those interpretations are useful, I think they don’t capture the essence. To me, the line from section 52 of Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself truly expresses the call of the red-tailed hawk: “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

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

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

Red-Tailed Hawk Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/overview. Accessed 7 July 2022.

Oceanspray

This striking shrub has been blooming out at the arboretum over the past week. It is aptly named oceanspray with its misty, white clusters of flowers. To me, the flowers cascade like frothy, salt water flowing over rocky shores as crashing waves retreat.

In contrast to its gentle, soft flower clusters, oceanspray also has the common name of Ironwood. The strong, straight branches were used by Native Americans for tools. They fire-hardened the limbs for uses like arrows, digging sticks, and spears.

Interestingly, this plant is common on both sides of the Cascades as it can live in dry to moist areas. It grows in open sites mostly at low to middle elevations.

These overcast, cool mornings over the past week coupled with the blooming oceanspray make a walk at the arboretum feel like a trip to the coast.

Moss and Stone

I want to share with you an excerpt from the book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer:

“The rocks are beyond slow, beyond strong, and yet yielding to a soft green breath as powerful as a glacier, the mosses wearing away their surfaces, grain by grain bringing them slowly back to sand. There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the ‘dialectic of moss on stone—an interface of immensity and minuteness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yang’ (Schenk). The material and the spiritual live together here.”

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. 1st ed, Oregon State University Press, 2003.

Schenk, George. Moss Gardening: Including Lichens, Liverworts, and Other Miniatures. Timber Press, 1999.

Bigleaf Maple - Powdery Mildew

Ick! The bigleaf maple leaves have become coated with powdery mildew as a cool, wet spring wrapped up and transitioned into the warm summer. Why are leaves of bigleaf maples particularly suitable hosts? What effect is this going to have on the ability of the chlorophyll to produce energy for the tree? I guess that photosynthesis will be greatly reduced with this hazy cloud of fungus covering the leaves. It certainly must be stressing the tree. Thus, I start to wonder how much this event affects the vitality or life force of the tree, especially coupled with the very dry conditions of last year.

My other thought is that this fungus is beautiful. Its frosty, white shroud is restoring harmony and balance. Thank you powdery mildew for your role.

The complexity of nature is truly incomprehensible, especially in one, short lifetime. There will always be more to know.

Western Fence Lizard

Meet the Western Fence Lizard. It has radiant blue patches on its sides and the undersurfaces of its legs are yellowish-orange. The adult male has a blue patch on the throat. This lizard can range in color from olive, brownish, or black. It can have a pattern of paired blotches, wavy crossbars down the back, or occasionally some striping.

I have been seeing this beautiful creature on dead snags, stumps, the bases of oak trees, and the small wooden bridges throughout the arboretum. These places allow it to regulate its body temperature and blend into its surroundings as it hunts for prey.

Its diet consists mostly of insects and some spiders. I saw this one eating ants that were crawling around on the stump.

The Western fence lizard is also in the diet of other animals. To escape from predators, it can miraculously shed part of its tail. The dropped tail will wriggle like a living creature, which allows the lizard to escape while the predator is trying to catch the detached tail. The tail usually regrows in 3 to 5 weeks, is never identical to the original, and is almost always shorter.

The male is often seen displaying when it is defending its territory or trying to attract a potential mate. It will flatten its sides to show its blue patches and quickly does up and down movements with its front limbs that look like “push-ups.”

If its radiant blue doesn’t get your attention, this next bit of information that I found on the website of the National Science Foundation might. It states that “In the Western region of the U.S., the Western black-legged tick, or Ixodes pacificus, is the primary vector for Lyme disease bacteria. Up to 90 percent of the juvenile ticks in this species feed on the blood of the Western fence lizard, common in California and nearby states. A previous study by UC-Berkeley entomologist Robert Lane found that a protein in the Western fence lizard's blood killed Borrelia bacteria, and as a result, Lyme-infected ticks that feed on the lizard's blood are cleansed of the disease-causing pathogen.”

Researchers wanted to further test the Western fence lizard’s role in the Lyme disease ecology. They relocated the Western fence lizard from test areas and found “that 95 percent of the ticks that no longer had lizard blood to feast on failed to latch onto another host.” That certainly makes things more complex and interesting. The Western fence lizard both kills the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and also supports a huge population of ticks.

Nature is composed of many interconnected parts, and it can be difficult to see how it all functions together. What I do know for sure is that nature will always be an endless source of wonder, discovery, and learning.

Hope to see you out there.

References
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. A Chanticleer Press ed, Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1979.

Numbers of Lyme Disease-Carrying Ticks Plummet in Absence of Western Lizards. https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118655. Accessed 23 June 2022.

Western Fence Lizard. https://friendsofedgewood.org/western-fence-lizard. Accessed 23 June 2022.

Black-headed Grosbeak Babies

When the baby birds are born, they are nearly naked with their eyes closed. They have sparse grayish-white down which you can see on their heads. As one rears its head back wanting food, the light shines through illuminating its apricot skin color.

Both males and females equally share the chick-rearing duties of sitting on the eggs and feeding the young.

The nest is a loose construction of small sticks that is surprisingly sturdy. Sometimes, the sticks are woven in such an open and airy fashion, that the eggs are visible through the bottom of the nest. This may aid in regulating the temperature of the nest when brooding the eggs and raising the baby birds.

These fragile, tiny creatures are also pretty hardy. They have had to endure some cool, rainy temperatures this spring.

Chipmunks Eating Serviceberries

I have been watching the berries ripen on the serviceberry shrub to see if the rust will coat all of them. So far, many of them are untouched. Some are starting to turn red, and a few are turning blue. I first tuned into this with the help of a chipmunk. I heard it nervously chirping, and when I went over to investigate, I saw it running around a serviceberry eating the fruit. I am not sure why it was alarming, but it seems to feel vulnerable in the shrub for some reason. I have noticed it doing this a few times. Another mystery is that it is eating the green berries. Is it richer in a certain nutrient that it craves at the moment? Is it more interested in eating the flesh of the berry, the seeds inside, or both? Anyways, I love watching this little creature scurrying around and investigating the world.

Ring-necked Snake

I wanted to see one of these this summer, and I was pleasantly surprised to find one resting for a moment on the trail the other day.

This snake has a beautiful two-toned coloration. It is slate gray to green above. On its underside and a small ring just behind its head is a striking bright reddish-orange or yellow. When disturbed, it coils the tail upward to reveal the bright underside as a defense strategy to deter a predator. Colors such as red, yellow, and orange are often associated with venomous species. In addition, this flash of color can be used to temporarily confuse a predator while it makes it escape.

On the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) website, it had the following to say about the ring-necked snake:

“The ringneck snake requires moist micro-habitats such as downed logs, rocks, or stumps. It is found in a variety of vegetation types, but is most closely associated with pine-oak woodlands and moist canyon bottoms. It also can be abundant in Willamette Valley grasslands.

These snakes feed mainly on small lizards, snakes and salamanders and also slugs, earthworms, frogs, and insects.”

References
ODFW website - snakes
ODFW Living with Wildlife - Snakes

Osoberries Ripening

The osoberry is a small, native shrub in the rose family and is found throughout the arboretum. It grows in dry to moist open woods and stream banks.

At the moment, the berries are ripening. They begin as peach-colored, turn reddish, and ripen to blue-black. The male and female flowers are on separate shrubs, so you’ll only see the berries on the female shrubs. They grow in small clusters and are about 3/8” in diameter. Its Latin name is Oemleria cerasiformis. Cerasiformis means cherry-shaped, and they are similarly one-seeded. They are a significant food source for many animals.

Walking along the river path, I hear the high-pitched, trilling whistle of the cedar waxwings, and see them as they swoop down to the lower canopy for berries. They will pluck them one at a time and swallow the entire fruit whole. The berries are bitter, but if you watch the cedar waxwings, you might get to see something sweet.

The male will use the berries when courting a female. The Cornell Lab’s website All About Birds had this to say: “During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift.”

Other birds and animals are also devouring the berries (even though most of them haven’t completely ripened). California ground squirrels are climbing through the shrubs, eating the flesh of the berries and gnawing away the shell of the seed to get the tender morsel inside. I have found many clusters of nibbled shells still attached to the shrub. In addition, robins are gobbling them up, and chipmunks are scurrying through the limbs picking berries.

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

Serviceberry Rust

Serviceberries mostly grow as low-spreading shrubs, but they can also develop into trees up to 30’ tall. They produce edible, sweet fruits that birds, bears, and people eat. This plant is dotted throughout the landscape at the arboretum. I was looking forward to sampling them, and I was also interested to see what birds were eating them. Unfortunately, I found out that an orange fungus likes them too, which renders them inedible. On the other hand, I think that the fungus has a beautiful orange color and an interesting growth pattern. The shapes remind me of small flowers or splashes from tiny water droplets.

So far I haven’t found a serviceberry shrub out at the arboretum that isn’t infected by this rust. I wonder if something is out of balance in the ecosystem that allows this fungus to proliferate. That said, I am hopeful that I will find one somewhere at the arboretum that was missed by the fungus.

Bleeding Heart Seed Pod

The bleeding hearts are forming their seed pods. The pods grow out of the corolla mouth and can be up to 2” long. The seeds are c-shaped, black, and have a pebbled, shiny surface. On one end is a white, oil-rich appendage known as an elaiosome, which is attractive to ants. They will collect the seed to eat the elaiosome and discard it, thus helping to disperse it.

There were 18 seeds in the pod I opened. I took them over to some ants and dropped the seeds in their path. They immediately investigated them, and within about 1 minute, all the seeds were carried off. It is amazing all the interesting ways seeds are spread.

As I looked at the seed more, the shape of it and the white elaiosome (rich in lipids and proteins) attached to the end reminded me of a small fortune cookie. I am sure the ants would agree that it was a fortuitous find.

Oak Treehopper Adults

The oak treehopper nymphs (see post on April 25) have been becoming adults over the past week or so. The diversity in form and color in the insect world is spectacular.

Western Screech-Owl

The Western Screech-Owl is a beautiful bird that lives year-round at Mt. Pisgah.

It is a small owl with a length of about 8.5 inches. It has conspicuous ear tufts and yellow eyes. Its coloration and feather pattern resembles the bark of trees which allows it to blend in excellently with its surroundings. It is usually gray, but its color can vary. In northwestern humid regions, it is usually a darker brown. In arid areas, it is paler and grayer.

It is a nocturnal animal that usually leaves its roost to forage at sunset and returns a little before sunrise. It spends the day either in a cavity or perched at the entrance. During the breeding season, the male roosts near the nest cavity.

It lives mainly in forested habitats of deciduous trees. The arboretum provides the perfect environment with Oregon ash, Oregon white oak, cottonwoods, and big-leaf maple trees. These trees, especially the Oregon ash, provide plenty of cavities for shelter and nesting. In addition, the trees border open meadows where it loves to hunt.

It is a carnivore that mostly eats small mammals, such as mice, voles, and pocket gophers. Its diet also includes birds, insects, spiders, fish, lizards, snakes, and frogs.

The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America describes its vocalization as a, “Series of hollow whistles on one pitch, running into a tremolo (rhythm of a small ball bouncing to a stand-still).”

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

Pileated Nestlings

Yesterday evening I decided to sit near the pileated woodpecker cavity to see if I could learn more about the status of the nest. The last couple of weeks that I went by the nest, I didn’t see or hear any activity around the nest. I was starting to grow concerned that the nest had possibly failed somehow. After about 20 minutes, I saw a little pileated at the entrance. I was so delighted and relieved to know that there was at least one in there. He curiously looked around at the outside world for a few minutes and then settled back down inside. About 10 minutes later, two heads emerged at the entrance to have a look around for a few minutes. I continued sitting there and watching. After being there for 45 minutes, I was surprised that a parent had not come by to feed and check on them. I decided to move on just in case my presence was influencing the parents. Slowly walking away, I caught a glimpse of the female moving quietly through the trees. I continued to slowly move along and soon saw the male too. The parents were quiet and seemed to be intently studying their surroundings. Happy to know the family was together and well, I moved on.

Rose Checkermallow

This pink flower grows on a fairly tall flower stalk and quickly catches your eye as you walk out into the south meadow.

When I got back home and started reading about this wildflower, I saw that there were other checker mallows. In order to distinguish Sidalcea malvaflora ssp. virgata (which I think this one is) from other checker-mallows west of the Cascades, look for hairs arranged in a star pattern and the notched petals.

They have soft, long strands of hair growing at the base of the stems, while shorter strands arranged in a star pattern cover the upper portions of the stems.

This star pattern sounds cool. I am going to go back out there tomorrow to see how noticeable this feature is, and hopefully, I will be able to take a photo of it.

I will give you an update tomorrow.

Seeds Forming

As the flowers lose their petals and start developing their seeds, they recede into the landscape. Seeing the old flower stalks and seed heads is usually tricker than I imagine. I have often returned to showy patches of wildflowers to collect seeds wondering where they all went. As I take time to look, the stalks and seed pods start to reveal themselves. They aren’t as showy, but they take on another subtle beauty with lovely forms. This is especially true as they mature and open to release their seeds. For me, it is like a whole other flower has formed and bloomed.

Bracken Fern Sprout

The spring is cool and wet. Bracken ferns are sprouting through the copper, fiery mat of last year’s leaves.

Note:
Unfortunately, the photo is a tad blurry. Maybe my camera had trouble focusing in the pouring rain. Nevertheless, I liked the visual and wanted to share it.

Coyote

One of the most beautiful animals in North America lives among us here at the arboretum—the coyote. The color of its fur is a varied palette of earth tones. Myriad hues of browns, grays, blacks, and whites are woven together to form a magical coat. It is a thatch work of clay, dry grass stalks, morning sun, bird songs, river sediments, decaying pine needles, a summer breeze, wildflower seeds, frost, burnt trees, lichen, pollen, moths, and moonlight.

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

Blue Butterfly

A cool, quiet blue dye
delicately tints
the ephemeral life
that lives in all eternity
softening my eyes
and lightening the path
as I walk along
collecting memories.

Radiant Green Needles

From the end of the Douglas fir branches, luminescent, green needles are emerging. Their incandescence was warming as I walked around in the cool rain. They seemed like tiny fireworks bursting forth in celebration of the life-giving rains of spring.