New Land Trust

Blackfly season, we all are anxious for it to end.  But what role does the blackfly play in the ecosystem?  Is our sacrifice of a drop of blood and some minor discomfort contributing to the productivity of the blackfly’s ecosystem?  In my opinion it is and I want to explain why.  Blackflies spend most of their lives as wormlike larvae living in streams, the swifter the better.  The larvae have mouthparts, shaped like beautiful finger-like fans, which they wave in the current to catch the tiny particles they eat.  Their diet thus includes tiny bits of dead leaves, algae and bacteria from the stream.  Since they prefer swift current and feed by filtering, they anchor themselves to the top of surfaces in the water so they won’t be washed downstream.  This location makes them easy targets for any stream predator, including dragonfly larvae and fish.  Add to that the fact that they can be abundant, with hundreds living side-by-side in a square foot of streambed.  Many studies have shown that blackfly larvae make up a big chunk of the diet of trout and salmon.  The larvae of these pesky flies are thus allowing plant and bacterial matter to eventually become trout and dragonfly tissue where it can then be available to terrestrial predators.  So where do we fit in?  Only the female blackfly needs to bite us, she requires blood proteins for complete development of her eggs.  Actually there are many species of blackfly, only a few feed on humans, most feed on other warm-blooded animals.  Nevertheless, the next time you scratch a blackfly bite, take comfort in the knowledge that your sacrifice contributed to the productivity of your local stream ecosystem, to the beautiful dragonflies flitting around you and perhaps to the flesh of the trout or salmon you may enjoy later on your plate.

I walked a few of the trails today to see what birds I could hear and see.  Here is the list of birds heard:

• Red- Eyed Vireo
• Ovenbird
• Black-throated Blue Warbler
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• Black & White Warbler
• Nashville Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Least Flycatcher (near 236)
• Eastern Phoebe (near 236)
• White-throated Sparrow
• Chipping Sparrow
• Tree Swallow (in nestbox in Meadow)
• American Robin (saw several)
• Hermit Thrush
• Northern Flicker
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• American Goldfinch
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Broad-winged Hawk

I would like to say that I could recognize all of these species when I hear them, but that’s just not the case.  I bring along a portable media player with all the local species vocals so I can listen and verify the ones I’m not sure about.  If you’re thinking about learning to bird by ear, I strongly recommend the CD  “Birding by Ear” as a starting point.  Two great online resources for listening to bird recordings is www.allaboutbirds.org or Bird Songs of New York State.  Just a warning, once you start birding by ear, every time you step outside your brain will be tempted by sounds that are ‘tuned out’ by most humans.

While turning off Saranac onto Sugarshack trail recently, I had to duck under this mature Beech tree whose trunk had broken about 7-9 feet above the ground.

This phenomenon is called Beech snap and it can be caused by wind or by Beech Bark disease, a fungal disease.  Beech is one of our hardwood species that is most susceptible to wind damage and there had been a very windy front come through with a recent snowstorm.  Evidence of Beech Bark disease includes ugly, black-rimmed wounds in the normally smooth gray bark.  These wounds, called cankers, are usually several inches long.   There is another sign of infection that will precede the cankers but requires a close look at the bark.  Tiny white tufts growing out of cracks in the bark indicate the presence of the scale insect that makes the entry point for the fungus that causes Beech Bark disease.  These tufts were easy to see on the bark of the fallen tree so it could have been wind or disease that caused this Beech to snap.

Scale insects are tiny insects that are related to aphids and similarly have a straw-like mouth used to feed on plant sap.  The scale insects use their mouthparts like a miniature tap to access the sap in the inner bark.  They feed and reproduce on the bark and their offspring move to nearby trees.  The disease fungus spores, carried by the wind, land on the bark and grow through the holes left by the insect mouthparts.  Once under the bark, the disease fungus slowly kills the tissues that transport water and nutrients.  The good news is, some trees seem to be resistant to this disease and there have been cases in which beech saplings have sprouted from the roots of trees that were killed by the disease.  The scale insect that paves the way for Beech Bark disease was introduced into Nova Scotia in the late 1800’s and has been slowly expanding its range southward since.  Areas without the scale insect do not have problems with this disease.

While skiing on Stardust the other day, I snapped this photo of some tracks.  I knew they were rabbit or hare tracks because the back foot is twice as large as the front and the front foot tracks are not side-by-side.  Red squirrels make smaller tracks and they set both their front and back feet down side-by-side.  In my arrogance, I assumed these were Snowshoe hare tracks but after looking at a field guide (Scats and Tracks of the Northeast by J. Halfpenny and J. Bruchac), I’m not so sure.  Insects and birds are really my thing you see.   Tracking is something I want to learn more about but I just haven’t made the time for it, perhaps you can relate.

Both Showshoe hare and Cottontail rabbits occur in our area.  Hares are larger and can have a longer hopping stride than rabbits.  Based on my reading, I think my fatal flaw here was that I didn’t have a ruler with me to measure aspects of the track that would have easily helped me tell the difference.  The hind foot of the Snowshoe hare is around 4 ½ inches long and nearly as wide whereas the Cottontail hindfoot is an inch shorter and only an inch wide.  Also important is the width or straddle of the trail, which is measured from the outside of the left footprint to the outside of the right footprint.  Snowshoe hare trail width is about 6 inches but Cottontail rabbit trail width is usually 3-4 inches because their back feet are narrower.  Either way, I learned something new and that’s why nature is grand!

Better trackers than I, please feel free to comment on the photo.

While cross-country skiing along the Saranac trail toward the Meadow the other day, I happened to hear a high, silky seeet call. I stopped and was fortunate enough to see two Golden-Crowned Kinglets, the smallest of our resident birds. These tiny birds weigh about 5 ½ grams, less than two pennies, but survive our long winters. From a physiological perspective, they are amazing birds, as I will explain below. I was able to pish them to within 6 feet of me, so that I could see the bright yellow strip of feathers on the top of their head, from which their common name is derived. Kinglets are in the genus Regulus, which means ‘pretty king’. Their drab body coloration is similar to another resident, the goldfinch, but kinglets never just ‘perch’, they are always moving, and for good reason. The smaller a warm-blooded animal is, the more heat it loses through its body surface, thus it must work harder at replacing the calories it is losing as heat. Kinglets are carnivores, getting more energy per gram of food than seed-eating species. Amazingly, during the winter they are able to find enough caterpillars, aphids, gnats, insect eggs and other protein sources to survive but studies indicate that they lower their body temperature at night to stretch their energy reserves. Not surprisingly, the kinglet’s feather coat contains four times as many ‘insulation’ feathers by weight than ‘flight’ feathers. This feather ratio was calculated by Bernd Heinrich and is part of the wealth of information on these birds that can be found in his book “Winter World”. Because of their tiny size, kinglets push the envelope of warm-bloodedness, having to forage ceaselessly to maintain a constant body temperature during our cold winter days.

Although the kinglets I spied were in a mostly deciduous forest, these birds are commonly associated with conifers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ruby-crowned Kinglet can be found at NLT too, as I have Ruby-crowns at my house which is within a couple of miles. I look forward to early spring when the kinglets and other residents start singing (before the migrants return). It’s easier to find tiny birds by sound than by sight. Hmm, that sounds like a good topic for a blog…..

One of my favorite spots at NLT is on Guadalupe trail, near where it begins off the Saranac trail. It’s an open area with thin soil that is covered with lichens and mosses.

By the time I’ve walked there from 236, I usually give in to the temptation to sit a spell on the mosses. I’m intrigued by the lichens there for many reasons, the latest of which is the chance to use a new field guide called “Lichens of the North Woods”. At first glance, the area seems only to contain the grayish lichen called Green Reindeer Lichen. On closer inspection though, you will see that some of the lichen clumps are more of a sage green and are neatly rounded. These are the closely related Star-tipped Reindeer Lichen.
If you get down on your belly and really start to look (as I did for a short while), you’ll start to see more lichens, such as the tiny bugle-shaped Pixie cup lichens (above) and the red-topped British soldier lichens (below). I feel sure I would have found others if I had kept looking.

The most amazing thing about lichens is that they are actually two organisms in one. A lichen consists of an algae living within a fungus. The relationship is so intimate that you cannot distinguish the fungal tissue from the algae without a microscope and they are rarely able to survive without each other. Each partner brings adaptations that, when combined, allow lichens to survive in environments with minimal water and/or nutrients or in environments subjected to extremes of temperatures and radiation. Ecologically speaking, lichens on bare rock, soil or tree bark trap organic matter around them, paving the way for plants to eventually grow.

It was muggy and buggy at the bird walk on May 22. Nevertheless, I had good company and the birds were singing so it was worth it. Below is a list of the birds. Most of these birds were heard but not seen. It was overcast so the activity level was low.

1. Alder Flycatcher
2. Least Flycatcher
3. Eastern Phoebe
4. Ruffed Grouse
5. Black-throated Green Warbler
6. Black-throated Blue Warbler
7. Black & White Warbler
8. Chestnut-sided Warbler
9. Yellow-rumped Warbler
10. Ovenbird
11. Red-eyed Vireo
12. American Robin
13. White-throated Sparrow
14. Broad-winged Hawk
15. Great Blue Heron
16. Black-capped Chickadee
17. Red-breasted Nuthatch
18. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

If you haven’t walked the Bunkhouse trail, off upper Saranac, now might be a good time to try it.  On the weekend of April 17-18, a nice little stream was bubbling busily alongside the part of the Bunkhouse trail between upper Saranac and the Bunkhouse building.  This flow of this little stream will likely subside to a seep later this spring so see it while you can.  Its final destination is Smithkill Brook, a beautiful permanent stream on the NLT property.  The best access to Smithkill Brook is directly across from the Bunkhouse building, just follow your ears.

It’s evident that beavers have been recent residents of Smithkill Brook.  Beavers can do amazing things with mud and sticks, as can be seen in this great S-shaped dam that exists on the brook.  Their front teeth grow continuously so chewing keeps the size of these teeth in check.  You may have noticed that a beaver’s front pair of teeth are orange.  The front layer of these teeth is thicker than the back layers so the teeth wear down at an angle, keeping them sharp.

While walking at NLT in early April, it’s hard not to notice that there are already bright green plants on the forest floor.  Some of these are true mosses but the larger ones (relatively speaking) are called club mosses.    These photos I took at NLT depict some different species of club mosses, the Princess Pine or Ground Pine (Lycopodium obscurum) and the Shining club moss (Lycopodium lucidulum).  Hopefully if you scroll over the photo you will see a caption. Club mosses are just a bit more advanced than true mosses but more primitive than ferns.

I am currently reading “Gathering Moss”, a wonderful book on the natural history of true mosses by R. Kimmerer.  The diversity, ecological intricacies and historic human uses of true mosses are very interesting.

Appreciate the beauty of these non-flowering plants while we wait for the trilliums and trout lilies to appear!

It was overcast and cool on Thurs. April 8 at 8:15 when I took a quick walk at NLT.  Conditions were not great for birding but below is what I saw and heard on the trails:

Upper Saranac: Saw a White-breasted Nuthatch, heard a Robin and Chickadees singing and a grouse drumming

Luke’s Lodge/Sugarshack: Heard a Winter Wren, a Brown Creeper and a Hermit Thrush singing

Lower Saranac: saw a Song Sparrow

Meadow: heard both a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Hairy Woodpecker drumming in the distance

Zen – saw 2 Brown Creepers and heard a Song Sparrow singing out by the road

If the sun had been shining I’m sure there would have been more activity.  Keep your eyes out for a bluebird in the Meadow, one nested there last year.

New to birding by ear?  Go to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “All about Birds” site, allaboutbirds.org, scroll over Birding Basics and click on Bird ID Skills.