White-breasted Nuthatch

The white-breasted nuthatch is one of my favorite birds, and its curious, carefree spirit is an essential part of the oak savanna habitat of the arboretum. I always look forward to hearing its vocalizations and watching it hop and skip around on a tree.

It has an interesting behavior of moving headfirst down a tree as it forages. It will often pause and tilt its head back to have a glance at its surroundings. In David Sibley’s book What It Is Like to Be a Bird he says this about how nuthatches move around a tree:
”They do not use their tail for a brace when climbing—just their two feet clinging with sharp claws. The hind toe is particularly important for clinging, and it’s relatively large and strong. Usually they position one foot above the other so that the lower foot acts as a brace while the upper foot clings to the bark. This allows them to move easily up or down the trunk and at all angles on branches.”

It primarily eats insects, insect larvae, and spiders. They have pointy bills for probing into bark furrows and beds of moss and lichen growing on the tree. It also eats nuts and seeds. They love to retrieve bits of acorns from the parking lot that have been run over by cars. It will wedge a piece of acorn in the bark of a tree to hold it while it breaks off pieces to eat or will stash it for later. I also see it collect seeds like Douglas-fir.

Peterson describes its voice as: “Song a rapid series of low, nasal whistled notes on one pitch: whi, whi, whi, whi, whi, whi or who, who, who, etc. Notes of birds in interior West higher pitched and given in rapid series. Call a distinctive nasal yank, yank, yank; also a nasal tootoo.”

This is a fun bird to watch and get to know. I posted about this bird a couple of years ago and wanted to repost it. I hope to see you out there.

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

Sibley, David. What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing -- What Birds Are Doing, and Why. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.

White-Breasted Nuthatch Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/overview. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.

Oak Leaves

Check out these oak leaves that I put in a slideshow. I collected them off the ground under a cluster of oak trees. I was so surprised and fascinated by the amount of variation in shape. I wondered how the field guides on my shelf described the leaf’s shape. Here’s how four different books define it:

Cascade-Olympic Natural History:
“…deeply pinnately blunt-lobed.”

Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast:
“…deeply round-lobed oak leaves.”

Trees to Know in Oregon:
“Pinnately lobed with 7-9 rounded lobes; lobes often irregular.”

Trees and Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest: “…oval to egg-shaped… edges deeply lobed, lobes and leaf tip rounded.”

I searched for the term pinnately lobed and the University of Texas at Austin defined it as: “PINNATELY LOBED: lobes are arranged on either side of a central axis, like a feather.”

Having never seen an Oregon White Oak leaf, would you have visualized these leaf shapes in the photos based on the definitions from these books? Also, having seen an Oregon White Oak tree, what leaf shape would you have drawn from memory?

References
Botany Basics: Understanding Leaves. https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/news/entry/leaves. Accessed 10 Feb. 2024.

Jensen, Edward C., et al. Trees to Know in Oregon. Rev. April 2005., Oregon State University, 2005.

Mathews, Daniel. Cascade-Olympic Natural History. Raven Editions in conjunction with the Audubon Society of Portland, 1988.

Pojar, Jim, and Andrew MacKinnon. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Revised ed, Lone Pine, 2004.

Turner, Mark, and Ellen E. Kuhlmann. Trees & Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest. First edition, Timber Press, 2014.

A Tree Inside a Tree

Scattered across the ground, are heaps of branch tips of big leaf maples that broke off during the ice storm. I picked one up and admired its shape, color, and texture. I sat down, did a brief sketch of it, and continued to admire its beauty. Afterward, I cut a cross-section to see what it looked like inside. To my surprise, I found a small tree enshrined in a kind of mandorla. (In Italian it means almond. In religious art, it’s the almond-shaped aureole of light surrounding the entire figure of a holy person like the Virgin Mary.)

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Onset of Spring

Soft, white lights illuminate the wetlands. They twinkle like stars, guiding us through the grays of winter. I imagine moths dancing around their gentle flames in the night. They are brushes waiting to dip their bristles into the paint pot of spring.

Flares of green are igniting across the hillside. Cascading, white lamps emit rays of light and levity. The renewal of spring is beginning to shine.

Willow Catkin Emerging

I wanted to post some photos of willow catkins emerging because I found their forms, colors and textures so elegant.

Alders Blooming Part II

The female catkins are in a small cluster above the male catkins. The females are about a quarter of an inch long. That’s fairly tiny and easily overlooked, especially if they are dangling from branches above your head. In the photo, you can see the red styles protruding out from underneath the green scales. This will form a small woody “cone” about an inch long with winged nutlets inside. “Cone” is in parenthesis because it seems that this word is reserved for the fruit of conifers. The “cones” of the alder are referred to as strobiles.

Alders are wind-pollinated and the female flowers do not produce nectar. The insects are drawn to the pollen of the male catkins.

The woody strobiles in the photos are still hanging on the tree from last season.

Alders Blooming

Sunday’s high was 69 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celcius). It’s kind of hard to believe since it was only two weeks ago that we had below-freezing temperatures and a brutal ice storm.

Alders are blooming. I want to say this one is a white alder, but, for me, they can be tricky to tell apart from red alders in the winter. Anyways, there were many of these cool syrphid flies with black and yellow bodies roaming around on the catkins eating pollen. This must be a very appreciated food source for this time of year. I read that some species overwinter as adults, which this one seems to be doing. They were cooperative in allowing me to look at them and take their photo. There were also lots of honeybees collecting pollen. I could see yellow pollen baskets or saddlebags clinging to their back legs. I found two other flies on the catkins too and they were a little more jumpy if you got too close or moved too fast. Other small flies were on the catkins but they are small and are easily stirred into flight. I saw a jumping spider catch one of them and crawl out onto a twig with it.

It’s interesting how many insects are still active and how many plants bloom in winter.

Red-flowering Currant

I was making a cup of tea the other day and the little square tag attached to the teabag had this quote on it by Lao Tzu: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” I agree, earthtime is slow. That said, I am often surprised every spring by flowers that have seemingly appeared overnight! So, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite plants early so you can tune in and watch as it starts to grow. The buds on the one in my backyard are already starting to open.

Meet the red-flowering currant. This native shrub has vibrant, pink flower clusters for which the plant is named. The flowers are a welcome splash of color in early spring, a great source of nectar, and are visited often by bumblebees and hummingbirds.

Ripe in early summer, the berries are blue-black with a white, waxy bloom. Its frosty, cool surface reminds me of a celestial life form that has become peppered with cosmic freckles in its travels through the universe. This shrub could easily be called Blue Stardust berry or Blue Galaxy berry. I love the contrast between the radiant, pink flowers and the wintry-blue berry.

The field guide Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast states that the fruit is “unpalatable” or “edible but insipid.” I find the taste to be okay, but the berries are seedy.

The leaves are 1.5 - 4 inches, 5-lobed, and form an elegant shrub that can grow from 5 to 12 feet tall.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Resources
Mathews, Daniel. Cascade-Olympic Natural History. Raven Editions in conjunction with the Audubon Society of Portland, 1988.

Pojar, Jim, and Andrew MacKinnon. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Revised ed, Lone Pine, 2004.

Arboretum Closed After Ice Storm

Ice storms are a powerful force of nature. The weight of all the ice coating the limbs is a tremendous load to bear. In the wake of this recent storm, many trees have fallen or were severely damaged. It’s heartbreaking to see and difficult to process. Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and Lane County Parks are forming a plan to start clearing the paths and healing this cherished place where so many people come to renew their spirits in nature. The websites and social media pages of Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and the Lane County Parks are the best ways to stay informed about this process.

Twice-stabbed Lady Beetle

I found this interesting lady beetle the other day in the redwood grove. Its entire body is a shiny, polished black, which gives it a well-armored look and feel. Its wings each have a bold red-orange spot that is kind of blotchy and not a well-formed circle.

The different species can be difficult to tell apart. Iowa State University’s BugGuide had this to say: “Several species of Chilocorus in western North America cannot be separated by external features, along with an introduced species. C. stigma is also best included in this grouping for those on the boundary of known ranges.” I wonder how they decide on a different species, especially if they can’t be separated by external features.

The introduced Kuwana’s lady beetle (Chilocorus kuwanae) pretty much looks identical to Chilocorus stigma, a native to the U.S. and Canada. Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences writes: “ Spots of C. kuwanae tend to be deep red and rectangular and located near the center of the wing. In contrast, spots of C. stigma tend to be more orange-yellow, round and oriented more toward the head of the beetle.” Again, there are very subtle differences in differentiating between the two that seem like it could be difficult to tell in the field.

My focus quickly started to shift away from the quagmire of identification to wonder and appreciation of nature. Like other lady beetles, they are beautiful and beneficial insects that help maintain the balance of nature by eating other insects, such as aphids and scale insects. See you out there!

Bird's Nest Fungus

The last few days the weather has been exciting with dark skies full of drenching rain approaching on the horizon. As the storms moved past, the sun bobbed in and out of residual clouds of foamy whites and ponderous grays wading across the sky. Rays of light illuminated beads of rain hanging on the branches, and tiny spectrums were refracted on their surfaces. As I sat watching the droplets fall from the canopy, I discovered a small caldron brimming with magical coins nestled on the forest floor—a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Winter is Springing

Even though winter has just begun, many plants are slowly beginning to sprout and grow in the hillside forest and the wetlands. The wrapped leaves of the giant trillium are pushing up through the soil. The first leaves of Nuttall’s toothwort are formed and scattered across the landscape. The paw-print-like leaves of the western snakeroot are a vibrant green. The toothed leaves of the purple snakeroot are spreading open. The feathery leaves of cicely have nudged their way up through the layers of decaying leaf litter. The waterleaf is starting to form its carpet of greenery. There are small bouquets of larkspur arranged throughout the wetlands. A patch of stinging nettles is starting to develop.

I love all of the different shapes and shades of green.

Incense Cedar Branch Tip Mystery

The male cones of the incense cedar are out by the millions, literally, and they are starting to release their pollen. The male cones are small but they are easy to see. If the male cones are out releasing pollen, then the female cones must be around too. They are not as obvious, and I used Oregon State University’s incense-cedar webpage to help me out with identifying them.

If you look at the first photo below, you can see the light brown male cones and on the end of the branch, you can see the female cones. I took a few close-ups of the female cones to show you the small compact, rosette of leaves that forms a small nodule at the tip. They start to turn slightly yellow as they form.

I decided to cut one open to see what it looked like inside. To my surprise, the first ones I cut open were slightly discolored and had a small, orange caterpillar inside. I started to wonder if this caterpillar was causing the little nodule on the tip of the branch. I eventually found one that didn’t have the caterpillar inside. It is the fourth photo below and it appears that it contains some sort of ovaries to receive the pollen. That photo was taken with a macro lens that I fit over my phone. I wanted a more magnified image, and I tried looking at the cone under a microscope in the nature center at the arboretum. They were pretty much the same as my macro lens. Plus the microscopes are fairly old and the image quality wasn’t as good as I would have liked.

I have continued to open these female cones and every one of them has contained that caterpillar. I didn’t want to pick anymore off the tree so I looked on the ground in the golden carpet of male cones that had fallen off. Mixed in are a bunch of the female-looking cones and the few that I opened had the orange caterpillar inside. So far, I have only been able to find that one cone that didn’t contain a caterpillar.

So, at the moment I still have mysteries to solve, questions to answer. What is that orange caterpillar going to become? Were the eggs laid inside the female cones or do tips with the caterpillars look similar to the female cones at this point? I also want to know why so many male cones are dropping off the tree, has all of their pollen been released already? There are so many falling off the trees at the moment, that you can see them bouncing off the ground and feel them pelting the top of your hat. Why are the tips with the female caterpillars being dropped too? Will the caterpillar survive on the ground? Is this part of its life cycle?

I’ll keep you posted when I find out anything. Nature is an inexhaustible source of mysteries and wonder. I hope to see you out there.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I feel that is always good to ring in the new year with the dark-eyed junco. They have a gentle spirit and are often at the entrance to welcome you to the arboretum. May we all be more gentle with each other and with nature as we journey together into 2024. May your time in nature be peaceful and rejuvenating. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Winter Butterfly

During the second day of winter, there was a brief period of sunshine and warmth in the afternoon. I was down by the river sitting on a log soaking up some rays and my surroundings. To my surprise, a butterfly came fluttering over and flew around me. It also decided to perch on a log and take in the warmth of the sun’s rays.

I looked it up and decided that it was a California Tortoiseshell butterfly. On Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site, Dr. Art Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, states: “The ‘Tortie’ overwinters as an adult and can sometimes be seen sunning itself in midwinter on mild days.” Hooray!

Where was it waiting for this warm and sunny afternoon on the second day of winter? It must find fascinating places to shelter from the cold and rain.

It was a reminder to me to be open to the unexpected, or maybe it’s better said that I need to go out into nature without expectations.

Reference
Nymphalis Californica | Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site. https://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/butterfly/nymphalis/californica. Accessed 29 Dec. 2023.

River Debris Bouquet

Plant debris from the high water flowing across the gravel bar wraps around willow branches growing along the river’s edge creating these beautiful bouquets. They eloquently capture the fluidity of the water and the torrential spirit of the river’s rain-swollen stream.

River Debris Nest

We had some steady rain about a week ago. The river was swollen and swirling with mud and debris. There was enough water to flow over an old gravel bar that is covered with a thin layer of soil. Along the edge of the gravel bar there are willows, old fallen trees, blackberries, cottonwoods, etc. Heaps of debris get caught on this vegetation and create these beautiful nests or dam-like formations. They are mostly constructed of stalks of grass and sticks. All of the small, light matter settles out on top of them as the water recedes. As I poked around, I found all kinds of fascinating objects and took a heap of photos to show you. I spent hours out there looking. I felt that I was constantly finding new and interesting shapes, colors and patterns. It was as if a ship full of treasures had crashed upstream and all of the riches had washed ashore.

Decaying Leaves

The decaying leaves are
thick and red.
The rain soaks through them
enriching the marrow
of the earth.
The river is swirling
and muddy
and full of elemental silt.
The rushing water
pushes and pulls
against the river’s hips,
its menstrual flow
bringing life.
Someday my body will reenter
the stream as the rain falls
from the sky.
Dissolving my memories
and unlocking my emotions,
reabsorbing into the moss.

Exploring Moss

My visit to a patch of moss was most certainly an adventure in a miniature world. As I peered into this small-scale landscape, I found many interesting life forms.

On the tip of a cluster of leaves, I found a small snail. Without magnification, it looked like a small piece of dirt.

Small mushrooms grew throughout the patch and appeared like tiny, illuminated lanterns.

Peeling back a bed of moss revealed a small spider eating a red mite.

The webbing of a tiny piece of fishnet lichen looked like it could ensnare a giant.

I held out my sketch pad next to the trunk of a tree and lightly brushed my hand over a patch of moss. Many creatures too small to identify landed on the paper and began crawling around.

Farther down on the tree, I saw a granddaddy long legs looking for food. It was cool to watch as it moved across the top of the moss and sank its body into the canopy to look inside.

This is only a small glimpse of the amount of life and diversity in a bed of moss. It is fascinating to think about all of the life unfolding in front of me that I am so unaware of.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The rain-saturated reefs of mosses and lichens growing throughout the arboretum soften my eyes and quiet my mind. The ruby-crowned kinglet scribbles a path through the canopy. Its body bounces from limb to limb in a ricochet of darting straight lines and cursive swoops. Overstuffed with joy, a stitch loosens across the top of its head slightly opening a seam. I catch a glimpse of a flare, a brilliance, an illumination. Unravel the threads and let the coins spill out of your purse. Reveal your hidden treasure, a sleeping ember waiting to catch a breath of air and ignite your ruby crown!