Harbinger of Spring

Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa) is the first wildflower we see in spring, this year at the end of February.  It's name reflects the fact that it one of the first wildflowers to bloom in the Midwest.  It is also known as "Salt and Pepper" because of its white petals and dark reddish anthers.  Because it frequently grows on the forest floor, it adapts to the otherwise shady environment by blooming as early as mid February, before the trees leaf out and block the sunlight.

Many woodland flowers adopt this early blooming strategy.  The term Spring Ephemeral describes plants which grow stems, leaves and flowers, quickly bloom, go to seed and the die back early  in the spring.  The remainder of the year their surface features disappear, leaving roots and rhizomes underground for the rest to the year.  These plants tend to be found in forested areas.  More types of ephemerals can be found int Wikipedia.
The following Spring Ephemerals are found on Bull creek:

• Spring Beauty
• Shootingstar
• Harbinger of Spring
• Dogtooth Violet (Trout Lily)
• Hepatica (Liverleaf)
• Bloodroot
• Rue Anemone

One final note- The  Harbinger of Spring bulb is edible.  So are beavers, okra and raw oysters, but that doesn't mean I would enjoy eating them.  The Cherokee were known to chew an unknown part of the plant for toothache- it's probably better to see your dentist. 



Ebony Spleenwort

I recently heard from Cindy of Lake of the Ozarks Chapter who told me about another MN Blog written by one of their members.  Sandy Nelson is writing Ozark Naturalist's Journal at ozarknature.com. She has a gift for photography and has some great pictures of lichen this posting.  You will now find her Blog link to the right column of this page.

The third posting down was on Ebony Spleenwort with a nice set of pictures showing them nestled in between snow and crustose lichen.  I had seen this fern up on our hillside and could never figure why a green leafed fern was called ebony which is a dark brown, nearly black, wood.  Sandy answers this for me in her picture- it is the stem, called a rachis, that gives it the ebony name.
It is very tolerant of many conditions and can grow on rocks, which best describes my "soil" in the hills.  This is a good time of year to find it and its fern cousins as there isn't a lot of colorful competition on the hillsides at present.  Go to her site at http://ozarknature.com/  to learn more.

Long-winged Monarchs

I just read results of a University of Georgia study of migratory and non-migratory Monarch butterflies.  The nonmigratory animals from Hawaii, Costa Rica, South Florida and Puerto Rico have smaller bodies and wings.  Their studies support the findings in migratory birds that the best shape for long-distance flight involves long wings with a narrow tip to help reduce drag.  The eastern migratory butterflies also have larger bodies, presumably storing more fat as fuel for the trip.
There is evidence that the migration of Monarchs to Mexico may be threatened in the long run.  In addition to storms which can threaten their winter haven, there has been a 30 year decline in the population of migrating females.  While the overall population appears stable, the loss of migrating Monarchs could threaten the long winged variants.
This article is at Freshare.net, a site suggested to me by George Deatz of Friends of the Garden.  Freshare.net is "A community of people who enjoy the Ozarks outdoors".  It is based in Arkansas and published by Robert Korpella, a freelancer writer.  I think you will find other posting of interest and I have added their link to our blog.

Calling all Birds and Bees

"In the spring, a young man's fancy, turns to thoughts of..... Birds and Bees?  Ah yes, but how to attract them?  Now is the time to consider planting native species of plants.
The March 4 program of the Sierra Club is on Birds, Bees and Butterflies: Using Native Plants to Attract Pollinators to Your Gardens. Presenters are Alice Counts, owner of Bluebird Lane Wildflowers near Willard and former director of conservation education at Dickerson Park Zoo, and Myra Scroggs, Greater Ozarks Audubon Society president and retired biology teacher. Both Counts and Scroggs have years of experience in native plants and wildflowers.
The program will feature native Missouri wildflower images by Kay Johnson and information on growing native wildflowers in home gardens. Counts will focus on perennials that attract add color to gardens and also attract pollinators.
The program starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.  Come early for refreshments and networking at 6 p.m.

Owl Pellets Solve Galapagos Mystery

We consider a cough a problem while owls find it a solution to their problem. They tend to swallow small animals such as little birds and mice whole.  What to do about all those feathers and bones?  They cough them up in 1-2 inch pellets which frequently accumulate under their perch.
I was surprised to learn that hawks, shrikes, herons and gulls also regurgitate undigested parts in pellets, called "castings" when they come from hawks.  They are thought to scour their digestive tracts clean.
Francis Skalicky's article in the News-Leader describes studies of owl pellets thousands of years old which found remnants of birds long extinct in the Galapagos Islands.  These studies have confirmed the presence of some now extinct birds described by Darwin, whose existence was doubted by some experts until now.  Details are at Carolina.com
Humans may have been responsible for the birds extinction as we introduced- either deliberately or accidentally- rats, cats, goats, and other species that found defenseless native species which couldn't compete with them.  This invasive species story may sound familiar to you now.
Would you believe you can order owl pellets over the internet?  Of course you would.  To see what you can do when you find an owl pellet, check this MDC site.
See, mom was right- there is a good reason to chew your food well before swallowing.

Shade Grown Coffee

by Bob Ranney
Charley Burwick, a member of the Springfield Plateau Chapter of Missouri Master Naturalists, recently routed an article on shade grown coffee to  the membership.  That article was published on a blog called The Drinking Bird and can be found via this link: Guatemala: Coffee is life

 The article is an eye opener for readers whose knowledge of coffee doesn’t extend beyond their morning cup.  It certainly was for me, and I thought there must more sources  than just Guatemala, so I kept looking.  One of the more interesting sites I found featured a simple, but illuminating slide show on the Smithsonian Friends of the Zoo website.  Each of its twenty-eight slides are accompanied by one or two paragraphs of facts that add a little broader scope to the issue.

The vital point introduced by The Drinking Bird is that once an environmentalist is aware of behaviors that contribute to environmental degredation, changing his or her own behaviors to help stop that degredation becomes their responsibility.    So, being a coffee drinker and having a conscience, environmentalists are naturally led to wonder where to find shade grown coffee.  And, lo and behold, we find another link on the Smithsonian page by Googling bird friendly coffee, but it says that there is no source of such coffee in Missouri. 

So what to do now, give up?  Not the Springfield Plateau type.  Ultimately I found it here: http://www.atlantaaudubon.org/aaswww/sgc/sgcsources.htm.  Still no local sources, but the mail still runs – rain, sleet, snow or angry in-laws - so find a vendor you like and order some.  The price is about double that of locally available coffee, but I'll try to cut consumption in half - which won't hurt my health - and drink it good conscience. (It's available in decaf, too.) Then, the next time I watch a Baltimore Oriole eat one of the orange slices we put out for her, I'll be proudly sipping some of the world’s best coffee.  Why not join me?

House or Purple Finch?

-by Barbara Kipfer
Finches are frequent winter visitors to our bird feeders in the Ozarks.  The American gold finch is readily identifiable by its yellow color, even though it hasn't yet brightened its feathers for the mating season.  Another visitor, the house finch, is commonly mistakenly identified as a Purple finch.   The purple finch has a brighter color to its body, described by Roger Tory Peterson as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.”
  House finches are much more commonly seen in Missouri than purple finches.  This somewhat more drab cousin to the purple finch has much less color on its body.  (See
allaboutbirds.org)  It is a relative newcomer to the Ozarks. They were native to the West Coast, where they were collected, then sold as popular house pets on the East Coast where they were marketed as "Hollywood Finches."  Fearing the enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which included prohibiting the sale and keeping of these wild birds, a New York City pet shop and others released their finches in 1940.   Although few in number, they have thrived and out competed our purple finches, but at a price.  They are susceptible to Mycoplasma gallisepticum, or house finch conjunctivitis, a purely avian disease.  This is thought to be the product of inbreeding and they may acquire resistance with time.
The whole story is available in Francis Skalicky's News-Leader article, with details at Wikipedia.