A Place in the Choir

A fitting Master Naturalist carol for the holidays is A Place in the Choir.   This is best heard when performed by the Springfield Master Naturalist Choir as it was performed at the MN Christmas Party.  If you weren't able to hear that awesome performance, the next best thing is listening to this version on line.  It lacks many of the special effects and the "unique" vocalizations of our choir, but it will have to do.

For the original lyrics, you can go to this celtic-lyrics.com site. 
Enjoy the holidays and we will hit the ground running in January under the new Haworth administration.

Starlings

Starling- from Wikimedia Commons

Francis Skalicky has an interesting article on starlings in the Thursday News-Leader.  As usual, he has several interesting facts to add to the common knowledge.

The European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) has thrived in the United States since its arrival.  These "dark-colored birds with iridescent tints of green and purple" would be considered attractive if they were uncommon. Wikipedia says that they were introduced by Eugene Schieffelin who released 60 of them in Central Park in 1890.  The usual story was that he was trying to introduce the all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare.  There is apparently no concrete evidence to support this oft told story, and he may have been using them for insect control as he had done 30 years prior with his release of English Sparrows.  Either way, his 60 birds now have over 140 million living offspring now.

One unique trait of starlings is their beak musculature.  They have powerful muscles for opening their beak, unlike other birds.  This allows them to plunge their beak into the ground and open it up to find extra food.  The European Starling is further unique from all other starlings in its ability to rotate its eyes forward to look into the hole it is creating.  No wonder they have been so successful in competing with other species.


How do starlings cause damage?* 

• Consuming or damaging cultivated fruits such as grapes, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, figs, apples and cherries.  
• Competing with native cavity-nesting birds such as bluebirds, flickers, and other woodpeckers, purple martins and wood ducks for nest sites.  There is speculation that Red Bellied Woodpeckers are moving to more rural areas to avoid starling competition.
• Pulling sprouting grains, particularly winter wheat, and eating the planted seed. 
• Selectively eating the high-protein supplements that are often added to livestock rations. 
• Damaging turf on golf courses as they probe for grubs.
• Transferring disease such as histoplasmosis to humans and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGE) from one livestock facility to another. 
• Causing  6% of bird aircraft strikes along with blackbirds.   In 1962, an Electra aircraft in Boston collided with a flock of starlings soon after takeoff, resulting in a crash landing and 62 fatalities. 

Why have they out competed other birds?  Their ability to pry open the ground and look for insects in winter is felt to be a major factor, giving them an advantage over other birds.  Their aggressive eviction of other cavity nesting birds from available breeding spaces and their large flocks which deter many predators are other possible factors.  What ever it is, it looks like these European visitors are here to stay.

* see Economic Damage
Skalicky's article has a lot more information including theories on their flocking tendency.

Giant Coyote Killed

The MDC recently reported that a large Coyote was killed by a hunter in Northern Missouri.  It is legal to kill coyote during deer season.  At 104 pounds, this animal was three times the normal weight for a coyote.  If it looks like a wolf to you, you are not alone.  It took DNA analysis of hair samples to confirm that it was a coyote.

Wolves are no longer native to Missouri.  They were common when Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was touring the area in 1818 and stories of wolf encounters abound until the late 19th century.   A wolf was killed in Missouri in 2001. It had a Michigan radio collar and identification tags. In 2007, there was a report of a pregnant wolf and her mate which escaped from Predator World in Branson.  The female was killed by a farmer.  (Note: wolves are a protected species in Missouri.)

Northern Harrier

Last Saturday was the Natural History and Identification of Raptors Workshop held at Prairie State Park.  Jeff Cantrell gave an entertaining and educational seminar on various types of birds of prey seen in Missouri complete with some mounted examples.

The second half of the program was a field trip around the prairie.  It turns out that raptors are more intelligent than the attendees.  While we walked around in 34 degree weather with 25 mph winds, they pretty much stayed hunkered down some where out of the wind.

Northern Harrier- Joe Motto*

The star of the show was definitely the collection of Northern Harriers that they must keep for special occasions like this.  Said to be "uncommon migrants in Missouri", there were several gliding over the fields.  Well, not exactly gliding.  With the wind, they were hard pressed to maintain a flight path for more than a few seconds before being blown off course.  Their normal distinctive flight pattern follows the contour of the land, maybe 8 to 10 feet above the ground, attempting to startle prey into exposing themselves.  What they lacked in elegance of flight Saturday they made up with persistence.

Their breeding grounds are in Alaska, Northern Canada and down to the Baja Peninsula, especially in coastal areas, while their wintering area extends as far as South America.  Their normal prey is rodents, snakes, birds and insects.

A few interesting facts:

• Unlike other raptors, they depend on their acute hearing as well as sight to locate their prey.  They are said to be able to hear insects as they glide along close to the ground.  They have an owl-like "facial disks" which helps them gather and locate sounds
• Males may mate with up to 5 females in a breeding season.  They hunt and bring back prey while their mate(s) care for the young.
• They are attracted to smoke from far away, coming in to hunt in front of the flames to catch animals running from the fire.

Pictures and a recording of their call is found at allaboutbirds.org.
*  More of Dr. Motto's wildlife photographs are at this site.

Water- Fiji and Ozark

A couple of interesting water stories crossed my screen.  For a change, they are positive... at least a little bit.

Fiji Water- Inhabitat.com

First, from our friends at JRBP- that's James River Basin Partnership for you non-Springfieldians.  Here is a very entertaininng way to understand how we started getting bathed in bottle water ads.  Spend a couple of minutes watching the entertaining http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/.

Next, there has been a lot of interesting discussion of hydraulic fracturing, lovingly referred to as "fracking".  CNN reports that the New York State Legislature has passed a limited ban on this controversial method of drilling for natural gas.  It goes to their Governor for signature within the week.

Fracking area in Arkansas

Fracking is the use of millions of gallons of high pressure water and chemicals pumped deep underground to hydraulically fracture (break up) rock and force oil or especially natural gas into a production well.  This process has been around for 60 years, but has dramatically increased in use due to the development of shale natural gas formations and the switch to lower cost water based formulations as is being used in the shale formations in north central Arkansas.  (If you are thoroughly familiar with fracking, you can stop reading here.  If not go to this excellent video which shows how fracking is done.) 

So what is the fracking problem?  That is the problem.  We don't know yet what all the problems are and how serious they can be, yet its use is expanding in our region.  In other words, studies are underway and we are part of the experiment.  The quotes below are from David Casaletto in the November Ozarks Water Watch.

1. "Millions of gallons of water are being injected deep into the earth under the drinking water formations. The water that does not return to the surface is being removed from the water cycle."  (This is of concern in the Ozarks where we are involved in studying solutions to the rapidly declining water resources in the Joplin area.  A cynic might say that the last thing we need is to pump available water underground and out of reach.)
2. "The water that returns to the surface is polluted with drilling chemicals and natural pollutants."  We don't even know what all of these pollutants are and do not have the facilities to remove them even if we did.  Want your own free source of methane in your well water?  Watch this CNN News story from Pennsylvania.
3. " Contamination of drinking water: As we know from the Gulf oil spill, accidents do happen. The wells have to be cased completely through all the drinking water formations to prevent drilling chemicals from mixing with drinking water. If the casing fails, contamination could occur."
4. Earthquakes are a potential concern.  While no official position has been taken on this, fracking deliberately cracks rock formations deep in the earth and Mother Nature may not like it.  There is anecdotal evidence in Arkansas* and other sites (see Oilprice.com) that earthquakes can result.  Since there is a normal background rate of earth tremors, it is hard to prove or disprove the association with fracking.  Kind of a roll of the dice with our planet.
   

An excellent video shows how fracking is done.
More detailed information is available through Wikipedia.
See the November 29 Ozarks Water Watch for details.

Urban Coyotes

http://www.amazon.com/Photographic-Field-Butterflies-Kansas-Region/dp/1933466863We have made several postings about deer, turkeys etc. that are getting used to living in close proximity to humans.  It makes sense that coyotes would start to show up, but in  downtown Chicago?  Marlyss Simmons, our Secretary-for-Life, sent me this story.

A great story reported by NPR.org tells of 60 urban coyotes (not cowboys) which have been radio collared to track their habits in an urban environment.  They are living on rats and voles as well as cooperating with the "the largest urban study of coyotes in the world."  The first one was named "Big Mama" and with an unknown mate she has had 45 pups and now they are grown and having pups of their own.

There are occasional reports of pets attacked by coyote in places such as Chicago, Grapevine Texas and Palm Beach Florida.  These are usually small dogs or cats and are certainly incidental to their usual urban diet of rats, rabbits and voles.  Occasionally there will be a curious interaction with humans.  A coyote in downtown Chicago walked calmly into a Quizno's sandwich shop and climbed into a refrigerated case.  It nestled quietly in among the fruit juice.  Either a vegetarian or just wanting to cool off. 
Actually, seeing a coyote in the wild is somewhat uncommon.  They are stealthy, shy, and usually avoid humans and dogs.  I have seen a coyote twice on Bull Creek in 15 years although we hear them commonly.
As they become accustomed to humans we can expect them to be bolder.  There was a time in the past when the Missouri Department of Conservation would take live animals to the fair for demonstration.  A story on the MDC blog describes an employee who took one of these demonstration coyotes home and released it in the wild, only to see it return and try to open the doorknob as it had seen humans do while it was in captivity.
The complete story of the Chicago coyote study with pictures, maps of their travel and a video is at the NPR site above.

Talking Turkey

You probably know that turkeys are native to the Northern Hemisphere.  So how did they get the name turkey?  Possibly for a variety of reasons.  Wikipedia says that it came from their resemblance to guineafowl which had been imported to Europe from Turkey.  The name stuck.  Others attribute the name to the Native American name of "firkee" for the bird.
The red, white and blue head of the turkey gives it a patriotic look.  Benjamin Franklin wrote that the turkey would be a better choice for the American bird than the eagle.  He felt the eagle was a carrion feeder which stole from other birds.  He goes on:

"For the truth the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on."

Either way, it was brought to Europe by a 16th century explorer by the name of William Strickland.  He even had he bird included on his family crest.  The Aztecs had all ready domesticated the turkey as a major source of protein, and it is likely that the Spanish importation of the birds led to their domestication in Europe.  Once the domestic turkey was developed in Europe, it came back to the United States in its current form.

Meanwhile, back in the States, the population of the native birds dropped to an estimated 30,000 before restoration efforts brought them back from near extinction.*  Currently wild turkeys are thriving, and have become a popular game animal.  As Franklin noted, they can be aggressive in areas where they become too familiar with humans, leading to attacking us.  This seems only fair as hunters killed 247 this year in Greene County alone.  As a mild threat, they can intimidate.

One final question finally comes up.  For a bird that is supposed to be dumb, how can they be so hard to hunt?  MDC has posted an entertaining short video on wild turkey trivia.

Fruits of Fall- Bush Honeysuckle

MDC Pamphlet *

We have written on several of the bright fruits of fall lately.*  Now for the bad news.  If you are seeing bright red berries on bushes with yellow-green leaves when other plants have lost theirs, you are likely seeing our prolific invasive species, the bush honeysuckle.
These Lonicerna species were brought here from Asia for their beautiful flowers, bright red berries and their fragrance.  Its species have spread throughout the Eastern US where it is recognized as an official "noxious" or "invasive species".  It is rapidly spreading throughout Missouri, and can be seen along almost any roadside fence line or woods.  Ironically, some are endangered species in Japan!
Colorful fragrant flowers with bright red fruit- what's not to like?  In the words of the Alien Plant Working Group:

"Exotic bush honeysuckles can rapidly invade and overtake a site, forming a dense shrub layer that crowds and shades out native plant species.  They alter habitats by decreasing light availability, by depleting soil moisture and nutrients and possibly by releasing toxic chemicals that prevent other plant species from growing in the vicinity.  Exotic bush honeysuckles may compete with native bush honeysuckles for pollinators, resulting in reduced seed set for native species.  In addition, the fruits of exotic bush honeysuckles, while abundant and rich in carbohydrates, do not offer migrating birds the high-fat, nutrient-rich food sources needed for long flights that are supplied by native plant species."

Click to enlarge

Not all Lonicera species are invasive, but unfortunately some sources do not mention their invasive characteristics.   Birdsandblooms.com's Top-10-Berries-for-Birds  for instance doesn't differentiate between the noninvasive and invasive species that are readily available for purchase.

Bush honeysuckles stand out this time of year as they still have their leaves, islands of yellow-green leaves and bright red fruit among the bare branches of native bushes.  So where can you find them and what can you do?  Unfortunately bush honeysuckle is found invading parks, untended lots in downtown Springfield and even formal gardens.  Once spotted, you can pull the smaller ones which have shallow roots.  Larger plants should be cut at the base and the stump treated with stump killer such as 20% glyphosate such as Rodeo or Roundup.  All the information you need is at this MDC website.

A good source of photographs for identification is at this  Vanderbilt.edu website.

*   Curse of the Bush Honeysuckle pdf is available here or at the Conservation Nature Center.
** Fruits of Fall I and Fruits of Fall II.

Bees Cook Wasp

Bee Defenders

from Wikimedia

There is an interesting 3 minute video on Wimp.com how Japanese bees destroy a predatory wasp scout by cooking it.  You may be familiar with the "waggle dance" that bees use to communicate the location of food to their clan.  There are a lot of studies on this aimed at breaking the code.  These Japanese bees use a similar dance to coordinate their attack on this threat to their hive.
How do they cook a wasp?  By combining their body heat, they raise the hive temperature higher that the wasp can tolerate while still in the bee's comfort range.  This probably sounds familiar to any of us who share a thermostat with someone else in the house.

For more interesting facts about bees, check out todayifoundout.com.  There is a long list of bee factoids that I hadn't heard before.

Please Pass the Arsenic

from Science/AAAS

A new report in Livescience.com describes a bacteria which can utilize arsenic in place of phosphorus.  Until now science has considered phosphorus as one of the six key elements* serving as the building blocks of life on earth.

Other studies had shown that some microbes are able to chemically process arsenic, that is they can tolerate it without being poisoned.  The new study by NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey studied a proteobacteria found in the sediments of an alkaline lake that is naturally high in arsenic.
The new finding was the ability of the organism to use arsenic in place of phosphorus in its DNA, building on arsenic rather than just being able to tolerate it.  Scientists gradually reduced the phosphorus available to it, and generation after generation over a year survived without any additional phosphorus.  Studies showed that the microbe substituted arsenic in place of phosphorus in its DNA and got along just fine.

This finding expands the possibilities of life not only in new and unusual places on earth but even the potential existence of life cycles built on different elements elsewhere in the universe.  An expanded discussion is found at Space.com.

* carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur.

Interesting Elements

Rocks Make Life and Vice Versa
An interesting seven minute Robert Krulwich interview on NPR Thursday discussed the coevolution of rocks and life.  Elements formed early in the life of the universe began combining to form different minerals we see today.  While life also developed from these elements, what effect has that life had in the development of rocks?

I think you will find the effects of life on rock evolution fascinating.  I won't spoil the surprise ending for you but here is a hint.  "The more life there is, the more rocks there are."

Cocktails from the Past

Ice Core- from Wikimedia

Krulwich's blog has explored more interesting science, including the taste of 10,000 year old soda water.  Dr. Paul Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, told ediblegeography.com about core drilling through glaciers to sample glacial ice cores.  This ice is formed from compacted snow that fell in the distant past, pressed into ice in the depths, literally frozen in time.

"A hundred and thirty-eight feet down, there is snow that fell during the time of the American Civil War; 2,500 feet down, snow from the time of the Peloponnesian Wars, and 5,350 feet down, snow from the days when the cave painters of Lascaux were slaughtering bison.  As the snow is compressed, its crystal structure changes to ice. But in most other respects, the snow remains unchanged, a relic of the climate that first formed it."

When asked if they ever tasted the ice, he explained that after they have fully studied and archived the cores, the excess cores will just be discarded.  At that point they will occasionally taste the ice from a known level.

"Probably the most exciting thing about it is when you have real ice — that's where the snow has been gradually compacted and eventually formed into ice, and the density has increased. When that happens, if the ice is old, it will often trap air bubbles in it. Those air bubbles can contain carbon dioxide from ten thousand years ago or even a hundred thousand years ago. And when you put an ice cube of that ice in a glass of water, it pops. It has natural effervescence as those gas bubbles escape. You get a little a puff of air into your nostrils if you have your nose over the glass. It's not as though it necessarily smells like anything — but when you think about the fact that the last time that anything smelled that air was a hundred thousand years ago, that’s pretty interesting. "

How does this relate to Missouri?  Studying ice cores is a way of determining what climate changes occurred in the past and give us some clues about what to expect in the future.  The technology and challenges of ice core sampling is described in this ediblegeography.com blog.

More technical information than you need is in this Wikipedia article.

Ant Farmers Use Pesticide

Leaf-cutter ants- Wikipedia

Ants beat us to the discovery of pesticide use by millions of years.  A report in Livescience.com describes the association of leaf-cutter ants and the fungus crop they raise with the help of bacteria.
 
There are at least 230 species which farm fungus on leaves to eat as a primary food source.  Another fungus, called Escovopsis attacks and parasitizes the ant's fungal crop.  The ants have learned to "weed" the leaves by lapping up the spores of the invaders.

Previous studies have shown that the ants carry bacteria on their bodies.  These have been identified as Pseudonocardia, related to bacteria that have led to the discovery of antibiotic agents in the past.  What is new is a report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society which has shown that leaf cutter ants carried predominately two specific strains.

"The researchers also tested how effective different Pseudonocardia strains were in suppressing fungal growth, particularly that of the ants' nemesis Escovopsis. Here, they found that the parasite was more susceptible to the antibiotics produced by Pseudonocardia than were other fungi. They also noticed that strains of Pseudonocardia found dwelling on ants were more effective against the parasite than free-living strains." 

When ant queens take flight to set up a new colony, they carry the fungus with them, ready to start a new farming operation like we carry seeds of familiar crops.  Also like us, they may carry the parasitic fungus, an early form of an "invasive species".  

An instructive video from Science Nation demonstrates the ants at work.  Research may even lead to the discovery of new antibiotics or how leaves might be converted to biofuel.

Bobcat Melodies

Do you ever hear night time animal cries and wonder what made them?   Birds and mammals can make some scary sounds which are difficult to identify.

We were discussing sightings of bobcats while sitting around a fire at the Missouri Native Plant Society meeting last week.  Suddenly we heard distant haunting night sounds, a cross between a baby's cry and a screech owl.  Most of us guessed it was a bobcat cry.

According to Wikipedia, bobcats (Lynx rufus) are crepuscular, that is they are active in the hours around dawn and dusk.  This is a time that brings out certain species such as deer, rabbits, rodents, skunks, as well as many insects.

"The bobcat is crepuscular. It keeps on the move from three hours before sunset until about midnight, and then again from before dawn until three hours after sunrise. Each night it will move from 2 to 7 miles (3.2 to 11 km) along its habitual route.^[13] This behavior may vary seasonally, as bobcats become more diurnal (active during the day) during fall and winter. This is a response to the activity of their prey, which are more active during the day in colder months.^[12]

Was it a bobcat?  Who knows?  Cats have a wide variety of vocalizations (think Tabby's meow, hissing at the dog, and mating cats under your window at night.)  It turns out that bobcats are also versatile vocalizers.

There is some help on animal sounds available on the Web.  Many sites like junglewalk.com and thryomanes are geared to exotic animals from around the world.  An extensive library of audio and video can be found at macaulaylibrary.org.  I was not successful in finding a single source for North American mammal sounds.  Let me know if you can find a good source. I did find a variety of bobcat vocalizations at http://www.soundboard.com/category/Science-Nature.aspx.  From now on, I will probably think every nocturnal muffled scream is a bobcat until proven otherwise.

You can read this Missouri Conservationist  article on bobcats from the May issue.

Complex Mayflies

Mayfly- Click to enlarge

I have been under the impression that the presence of mayfly larvae in a stream is an indicator of high quality water with good oxygenation.  In some cases that is true, but the whole story is more complex.

There are 15 families of Mayflies found in Missouri,  all lumped in the order Ephemeroptera.  The name reflects their ephemeral existence because of the mouthless adults life span of a few hours to two days.
We tend to think of their presence in streams as an indicator of good oxygenation because some species with fixed gills require flowing water with adequate oxygen content.  It turns out that some other species have developed motile gills to tolerate lentic* (still) water in ponds and lakes as well as low oxygen conditions.

The larvae that we look for in macroinvertebrate sampling will molt from 12 to 45 times over two weeks to two years before reaching adulthood.  Even then they are not done, as the last molt before adulthood is quite different from a human teenager.  It comes out as a "dun", a dull colored, sexually immature winged creature which then molts into the adult capable of mating.  No other insect has this intermediate form.

Swarm hatch on truck

Although many mayflies deposit their eggs in masses by dipping their ovipositor in the water as they fly, others drop them singly or from the air over water.  When the eggs hit the water they begin to develop immediately.  A female may drop as many at 500-3000 or more.  If they drop them all at one time, there may be a swarm hatch all at once, sometimes dramatic in number.

Mayfly nymphs usually live on detritus or algae which they scrape off the stream bottom.  For this reason, well oxygenated streams with clean silt free bottoms are especially important as the nymphs fulfill a reluctant role near the bottom of the food chain. While some have evolved to withstand low oxygen and stagnant waters, the presence of lots of nymphs in lotic* (moving) water is usually an indicator of good quality water.  Trout fishermen (the top of the food chain?) also use Mayflies' presence to help them choose which fly to tie on.  You gotta love them.


The Missouri Stream Team newsletter has all this information and a lot more.  Just go to their
facts site  and download #14.

*Words for the day:
Lentic ecosystems are still waters such as marshes, ponds, and lakes. 
Lotic ecosystems have flowing water such as springs, creeks and rivers.
Now don't you feel better?

Ain't Nothing Shaking

National Institute of Biology, Slovenia

We think of insects communicating with clicks and chirps, but shaking?  A story in livescience.com* explains the mechanics of stinkbug communication, and it ain't stink.  It turns out that stinkbugs and burrower bug's leafy habitat isn't just for eating and shelter.

Researchers used lasers to detect the vibrations on leaves created by 21 different species of bugs they studied.  The vibrations are very low frequency but would be audible to us if they were louder.  The principal is similar to a tin can telephone, very rudimentary, but pretty sophisticated for a bug only one-half inch long.

"The insects displayed a wide array of vibration-producing methods, from fluttering their abdomens to shaking their entire bodies to tapping their front legs on the plant surface. Different species had different vibration patterns, limiting cross talk. Male and females of the same species also had distinct calls. For example, the researchers reported, female southern green stinkbugs call out with relatively long vibrations spaced far apart, while males call out with short bursts of vibration spaced closer together."

Different species produced a variety of frequencies, patterns and durations of calls.  Some shook their whole bodies, other just tapped their front legs on the leaf.  However they did it, it turned on another bug.  Just think, the old rock song "Ain't Nothing Shaking but the Leaves in the Trees," might have been a love song among stink bugs.

* Reported November 18, 2010 in Cancun, Mexico, at the second Pan-American/Iberian Meeting on Acoustics by researchers from the National Institute of Biology in Slovenia.

This from Bob Ranney

 On January 22, the MO League of Conservation Voters will hold an open conference on conservation related legislative issues to be faced in Missouri over the next year.  The meeting will be on the MU campus in Columbia.  Participants will have access to a wide range of presentations, but also must select a breakout session they want to attend.  The subjects include:

• Citizen Advocacy
• Climate Change
• Energy and Green Building
• The Green Economy/Jobs
• Public Land Use
• Solid Waste Reduction
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Transportation and Land Use
• Water/Floodplain development

This should be a very informative conference that will bring us up to date on issues of concern to all conservation oriented Missourians.  Because the emphasis here is on legislative action, we can’t go as representatives of our chapter, but it would be great if a group of us could go together.

For more information go to this web site.

To sign up for carpool, call Bob Ranney at 417-379-1757 or email rjranney@sbcglobal.net

American Burying Beetle

from Wikimedia

I just finished reading an article* by the Director of the Center for American Burying Beetle Conservation (CABBC).  In the words of Dave Barry, "I am not making this up."  Behind this long name lies a interesting story.

The American Burying Beetle (Nicophorus americanus) is an endangered species initially found in 35 states but now only occasionally is found in seven.  In addition to its colorful body, its colorful habits are worth exploring.

The beetles are drawn to the smell of decomposing flesh from as far away as two miles!  Once there, they mate (gets a little strange, doesn't it?) and then go about burying the carcass.  The may lay on their back together and use their 12 little legs to move the body to the right spot.  Once there, they strip off any fur and feathers, converting it into a little meatball which they cover with antibacterial secretions.

They live underground most of the time as their kids are growing up.  They can call their cute little white larva to supper with squeaking sounds they make with their wings.  They actually feed the little ones when they are young by regurgitating partially eaten rotten meat into their mouths.  Apparently their young don't like brocolli either.

Like other burying beetles, americanus carries mites on its body.  Somewhat disgusting to look at under magnification, they serve a purpose.  The mites eat fly maggots that are voracious competition for the dead meat so they are apparently welcomed passengers.  As my mother would say, "Each to his own taste said the woman as she kissed her cow."

The CABBC is located at the St. Louis Zoo.  There they raise the beetles in captivity and are considering reintroducing the beetle into the wild.  As you can see from the map, we are close to the known range for the americanus which is still found in Arkansas and Oklahoma.  Keep your eyes open and maybe you can put Missouri on the map.

* From Missouri Update, a publication of the Nature Conservancy.  To read the story, Go to http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/missouri/, then click on the bison photo that’s labeled "Read the 2010 Missouri Update" to download the pdf file.  The Nature's Undertaker article is on Page 14.  While you are at it, Page 1-5 has a good story on Bison.

Stream Nutrients

Determining the health of a stream is complex, especially when you factor in the factors of location, soil, and especially the impact of human activity on the watershed.  Any attempt to develop a standard scale is all the more difficult.
Take for example the nutrient levels of  total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP).  In the words of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources on the DNR Website:

"Too much nutrient loading to a water body can cause rapid growth of algal blooms, organic enrichment and depletion of dissolved oxygen. Too little may result in insufficient enrichment of the aquatic food chain, which would be detrimental to a healthy aquatic biological community."

It is complicated further by the varying geology and human density around the state, making it difficult to set a standard for the state.  A heavily karst region like the Ozarks will have smaller nutrient levels that a muddy Northern Missouri stream.  The answer to which is better?  "It depends."
One thing we know is that our Stream Team monitoring is an important tool in the assessment of the stream health.

"An assessment of algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish communities in streams with low-level nutrients found that algal communities correlated well with increasing nutrient levels. Using algal community data to investigate nutrient conditions have been shown to be a successful method in many water-quality monitoring programs."

Unfortunately, there are tremendous scientific and political opinions on what Numeric Nutrient criteria should be.  I suspect that any criteria put out, like many other solid numeric criteria such as the econimic numbers we read daily, will be the "best guess" available at the time, interpreted by the organization with the "Final Word.'
This isn't meant as criticism, just an observation that with complex data, sometimes you just have to take a position to believe in and adjust it later.  In the words of a famous philosopher:

"Everybody should believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink."
                              — W.C. Fields

David Casaletto* wrote the story in the Ozarks Water Watch newsletter quoted above that has a lot of good information on the subject.  This is a great resource for other local water issues and is available by email simply by signing up at http://www.uwrb.org/

* David Casaletto is the President and executive director of Ozarks water Watch and Acting executive director of Table Rock Lake Water Quality.

Gnarley Beaks

Chickadee- USGS Photo

Avian Keratin Disorder

Mysterious new disorders in wildlife are always worrisome signs of possible pollution or other human impacts on wildlife.  Some like white nose syndrome signal a new infectious disease.  Others like the thinning of egg shells in birds of prey and waterfowl have led to the banning of DDT, an action which may have contributed to the comeback of the bald eagle.

A new troubling finding called Avian Keratin Disorder is cropping up in the Arctic.  There is a rising incidence of beak disorders in Alaska and the Pacific northwest.  Initially noted in a few crows, it is now estimated to occur in 17% of the coastal Alaska crow population.  Now it is found in 6.5 percent of adult black-capped chickadees in Alaska.

"The keratin layer of the beak becomes overgrown, resulting in elongated and often crossed beaks. The deformity showed up in adults birds, most often in the upper beak but sometimes in the lower beak or both.  The abnormality sometimes is accompanied by elongated claws, abnormal skin or variations in feather color." *

Nuthatches and woodpeckers have lately been seen with beak distortions as well.  They all have in common the tendency to live year round in the area, but they have totally different food sources and habitats.  These factors suggest that the disorder is spreading.

The cause is unknown with theories including infection, nutritional deficiencies and pollution as factors.  Similar problems have been associated with environmental pollutants such as organochlorines in the Great Lakes region and selenium from agricultural runoff in California.  There should be more information as awareness of the condition increases.

*This story as reported in the Los Angeles Times.    The study is available in abstract in Auk, a Quarterly Journal of Ornithology.
Lisa Berger provided a 2007 resource that has a much deeper look at the disorder.  Download this pdf   

Unlikely Bedfellows

"Politics makes strange bedfellows"
   -Charles Dudley Warner (1850)

What brings together a brothel, a staunch opponent of the Endangered Species Act, and the Nevada Department of Wildlife?  You guessed it, a threatened Amargosa toad.  This inspiring story is reported on NPR.  In today's atmosphere of blame and angry voices, this is a model of the combined interests of groups with different agendas creating a common good.

First the toad, a desert species which survives along a small river and in warm springs of a xeric climate.  Ranching, mining and off-road racing in the Oasis Valley have been associated with declining numbers of the toad and calls to put it on the endangered species list.
Enter David Spicer, a rancher, himself feeling endangered by the potential threat to his way of life by the Endangered Species Act and his distrust of government intervention.   In stead of a militant attack on the forces of government, he creates habitat for the toad, increasing their numbers.  From the NPR story:

"What you're seeing tonight are the results of active land management, active habitat management," Spicer says.  He has run miles of underground pipe around his property to create breeding pools and wet habitat for the toads.  Spicer grew up with the toads and wants to preserve them, he says.
But here's the surprising thing: Another reason, and perhaps the major reason Spicer has gone to such lengths is because he really, really does not like the Endangered Species Act.
"Nobody trusts the government anymore," Spicer says. "Nobody wants to work with the government. The government always wants to take something from you."

There are still 24 species in the area that are endangered or threatened, so there is a lot of work to be done.  The hopeful lesson to draw from this is that we don't have to agree with each other's political philosophy if we can find common cause in an outcome.  For instance, protecting your land and way of life as well as a toad.

And the brothel?  Sorry, you have to read the story at NPR.

Rain Barrels in Winter

Rain barrel winterizing advice from Karl Haworth.

Well it's that time of year again and freezing temps are here. For those of you who put in rain barrels during the summer wasn't it wonderful to have rain water for your plants. I used one of my barrels to keep my fish pond filled as the evaporation during the hot spells dropped the water level.
Now is the time to put the barrels away to await a warm spring day. I have one still in operation but the temps in the low 20's can cause damage to the connections and extended cold can rupture the barrel. Last year I tried to leave the hose connections open at the bottom thinking that would work but  alas not so good.
This year I have taken the barrels out of operation and used 4 inch plastic drainage pipe to fit between the gutter drain pipe and the over flow which with my system goes under ground. Or you can just put a section on the down spout to carry the water away from the house. It is important to have tubing as large as the rain gutter pipe keeping water away from the foundation to prevent a cracked foundation.
Maybe in the future we can come up with a design that will work better with freezing weather but I still think it is a good idea to empty any debris in the bottom and turn the barrels bottom up till spring.

Plans to make a rain barrel are at this Springfield website.  Much more information, a video and a discount offer is at here.

Fruits of Fall- Part II

Buckbrush Symphoricarpos orbiculatus
 

Click to enlarge

Much as learning the Latin names can be a pain, I again learned their value.  After looking up buck brush and finding it didn’t fit my common plant, I discovered there is buck brush and buckbrush (without the space)!

Our common “buckbrush” produces dense clusters of small quarter inch coral red fruit, each with two pale smooth seeds.  It is browsed by white tail deer, but is eaten by birds and small mammals only when they are desperate.  Cattle avoid it so it is frequently found around the edges of fields which have been grazed in the past.

Multiflora Rose Rosa multiflora

Multiflora Rose

Love the fruit- hate the plant!  Originally introduced from Asia, it was thought to be of value as a natural hedge for cattle.  It was also valued as it (1) grows well without any care + (2) has no natural predators + (3) can grow anywhere = INVASIVE SPECIES.   It has vicious recurved thorns which grab and hold on to you.

It was planted by some transportation departments along roads as a crash barrier.  I don't know if it stops a crashing car or whether a careening car avoids it because of the thorns!  Another supposed virtue was its ability to attract wildlife.  The fruit (technically rose hips) are colorful and apparently tasty in the spring and attract wildlife, tricking them into spreading its seed everywhere a bird can poop. 

"Multiflora rose reproduces by seed and by forming new plants that root from the tips of arching canes that contact the ground. Fruits are readily sought after by birds which are the primary dispersers of its seed. It has been estimated that an average multiflora rose plant may produce a million seeds per year, which may remain viable in the soil for up to twenty years. Germination of multiflora rose seeds is enhanced by passing through the digestive tract of birds" DCNR

More information is at the Plant Conservation Alliance "Least Wanted" site.
Wikipedia

Asian Lady Beetles

Last week, shortly after the first freeze of the year, I was up at Three Trees, an open vista on a ridge with three large oaks in a cluster.  Each time I stopped there I noticed little bites on my exposed skin.  I was being swarmed with Asian Lady Bugs, Harmonia axyridis, which I hadn't encountered anywhere else.  Each afternoon this would occur only there.  Swiping them off my skin left their faint foul scent on my hands.

Why only here?  Tim Smith answered the question in the Missouri Conservationist Ask the Ombudsman column several days later.  To quote him:

"Each fall, during a warm-up following the first cold weather, the insects gather on the sunny sides of houses and other structures as they look for cracks and crevices where they can find shelter from the coming winter.  Many will survive the winter and appear again in the spring as temperatures warm and they try to exit the house."

Hackberry Bark

 Right beside the three shaded oaks stands a large hackberry tree, its bark exposed to the warm sun.  And there they were, crawling around its deep bark fissures, looking for a warm winter shelter.  At least these were out in nature rather than joining the hundreds that choose to live with us at our house.

Tim provided more information on the MDC Fresh Afield blog last year.  According to Wikipedia, they were brought to the United States in 1916 to control insect pests of plants, but were not successful.  In 1988 they were observed in numbers in New Orleans, and since then they have spread.  By 1995 they were occasionally found in the Midwest and became common in 2000.

Subsequently, they have also contributed to the decline in native ladybugs, presumably by out competing them.  They also have reached pest status to the higher biped mammals, both because of the swarming numbers, their little bites and unpleasant odors and the tendency to move into our buildings.  For information on these pests including control recommendations, check out http://ohioline.osu.edu/hse-fact/1030.html

Bearly Tracking in the Ozarks, Part 2

In one of last month's blogs I wrote about the Missouri Department of Conservation bear tracking project.  The goal was to trap 15 bears and attach GPS collars which will track their travel for a year before automatically coming off.  Our land on Bull Creek has attracted bears in the past and we set up a bait station to try and catch one.  Nearby sites had luck, in one case catching the same bear several times and recording its rapid weight gain.  GPS readings showed that it passed through our area but it never hit our food. 

The technique begins with attracting bears with desirable odors such as rotting shad and sardines, peanut butter and anise oil.  Bears have an acute (but apparently not sophisticated) sense of smell, seven times as sensitive as a bloodhounds.*   Once they arrive they would feast on out of date pastry which was replaced daily.  Jelly pastry is supposed to be especially savored, although its charm was lost on me after it sat in the barn for 1-2 weeks.

Click to enlarge

The pastry began disappearing daily and a game camera showed a raccoon who soon invited some of his friends for dinner.  Over two months we developed a supper club of six raccoons.  Several seemed to gain weight over the weeks and we had to start the two fattest ones on insulin.  Last week they built a small shrine and started worshiping me as the God of Food.  Incidentally, today's word from Mark Bower- a group of raccoons is called a "gaze".

Soon we had pictures of deer that came by to sniff but being strict vegans, they passed on the treats.  Then we had pictures of several visits from Wily Coyote and his friends, (a "band") apparently ignored the raccoons as their numbers never decreased.

The pastry was replaced every 1-2 days with the help of my neighbors, Larry, Doug and Willie.  I have several butt pictures of them at work.  Those will be the subject of a later blog if they don't pay up promptly.

After several months with no results we are winding down the effort.  We are close to the Cobb Ridge Campground where campers throw their food in the fire ring before they leave, so we had stiff competition.  And, I will be bring pastries to the next Master Naturalist meeting.

*  Americanbear.org

Paulownia

My neighbor Larry Whiteley and his 10-year old granddaughter Anna Whiteley showed up after a youth season deer hunt with an unexpected trophy from our timber stand improvement.  It was time to "Stump the Master Naturalist", something that is not at all difficult to do.  The leaf measured 22" across and the stalk was moist and somewhat hollow in the center.  It looked exotic, more likely to live in a jungle.

An email to our favorite MDC forester brought an immediate response, (I think she was sitting there waiting for my next question). "Paulownia!"  Since it was on our land, we knew it had to be an invasive species.  Right again.

The Princess Tree, Paulownia tomentosa, was introduced as an ornamental and landscape tree around 1840.  The wood has commercial uses as quality furniture wood, veneer, carving wood and for musical instruments in addition to its pulp wood potential.

"Royal Paulownia is a native of China has a most dramatic, coarse-textured appearance, with its huge heart-shaped leaves and large clusters of lavender flowers in the spring. Paulownia flowers are borne before leaf emergence so they stand out nicely, especially against an evergreen background. With a rapid growth rate, Princess Tree can reach 50 feet in height with an equal spread in an open landscape."  About.com

So why are they invasive?  Part of the answer it found in NPS Least Wanted.

"Princess tree can reproduce from seed or from root sprouts; the latter can grow more than 15 feet in a single season.  The root branches are shallow and horizontal without a strong taproot.   Seed-forming pollen is fully developed before the onset of winter and the insect-pollinated flowers open in spring.  A single tree is capable of producing an estimated twenty million seeds that are easily transported long distances by wind and water and may germinate shortly after reaching suitable soil.  Seedlings grow quickly and flower in 8-10 years.  Mature trees are often structurally unsound and rarely live more than 70 years."

Click to enlarge

How did its winged seeds get up to a heavily wooded hillside miles from any garden?  Who knows?  How invasive it is only time will tell.  However, if this picture is any indication, they are here to stay in our urban environments.  Lets just hope that they can be converted to biofuel.

See an extensive collection of pictures at Invasive.org
Wikipedia on Paulownia

Sensitive Briar

Click to enlarge

I came across one of my favorite plants while hiking our glade.  The Sensitive Brier (a.k.a. Catclaw Brier) or Mimosa nuttallii is a delicate plant which is quite shy.  Its fame comes from its ability to fold up its leaflets temporarily when it is touched or sometimes when the sky turns overcast.

The pictures to the right are before and after a light touch.  The action takes place in less than a second.  Cleverly called "rapid plant movement", it is a property of several plants in the Mimosa family.  The Venus Flytrap's capture of insects is another example of rapid plant movement.  Also some plants are able to flip out pollen with their petals at half the speed of sound!

One second later

By clicking on the picture, you can appreciate the small recurved thorns on the stem.  When brushing the leaves to get them to perform, the thorns painfully remind me to go easy. In spite of these tiny thorns, cattle love to graze on the brier.

Beautiful delicate blossoms appear in early summer.  A more detailed description is at Wikipedia.  You can watch the leaves fold up in a short video of another Mimosa species.

Sadness of Frost Flowers

A Sadness of Frost Flowers

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Looking out the window at Bull Creek after the first hard frost, I feel the excitement and sadness of seeing frost flowers.  White clumps around the base of dried stems. looking like windblown tissues along the road.  You have to bundle up and go outside to appreciate the delicate curls of ice, ribbons so thin that you can see your fingerprint through them.  They can vary in height and width, but never fail to create delicate curves.    

The immediate sadness comes when I realize that another year has passed.  It heralds the end of garden vegetables, the disappearance of many insects which have provoked wonder over the last year, the last of the native flowers and soon, the last of the colored leaves of fall.  But most of all, another year has passed, each one passing more swiftly.

Frost flowers are not grown by by humans.*  Nature mainly decides where and when their host plants occur, the random acts of seed dispersal and neglect.  Frost weed (Verbisina virginica) and yellow ironweed (Verbisina alternafolia), their most common hosts, grow along the edges of our fields and roads, pretty enough when flowering but ignored when among much more dramatic and colorful competitors that most would call desirable.  They are the wardrobe assistants in nature's beauty pageant.  To my knowledge, few gardeners ever deliberately plant them.

Pealed stems- Click to enlarge

Once the "flowers" are gone, the dead plant base is left with its peeled epidermis.  Usually the next hard frost or two will create smaller flowers of narrow ice ribbons around the base as nature squeezes the last drop of liquid up from the roots.  Fear not, for Verbesina is one tough dude, it will be back in numbers next year.

Over time, people have invented collective nouns for groups of animals- a murder of crows, a gaze of raccoons.  There is a shorter list of collective nouns for plants- copse of trees, a rope of onions.
I would propose calling a cluster of these winter beauties a "sadness of frost flowers."

* Last months blog on Frost flowers mechanisms.

Sticks in Love

Click to enlarge

Stick insects seem to come out in great numbers in the fall.  There are 33 species in the US, compared with 2,000 species worldwide.   They belong to the order Matodea, and our most common species is the Northern Walking Stick (Dipheromera femorata).  This species eats the foliage of deciduous trees, mainly oaks.

Their defense is in their resemblance to dry sticks with green legs looking like leaf petioles.  They even have the ability to rock back and forth like branches blowing in the wind.  When approached, they may freeze in a defensive maneuver like deer and rabbits frequently do to avoid detection.  In addition to looking more stick-like, holding still offers other protection as most predators will avoid eating dead prey.  Amazingly, if this fails and something tears its leg off, it can escape and then regenerate a new leg, a very unusual trait among its fellow insects.

Stick insects grow from the eggs laid in leaf litter in the fall.  They grow by molting, the youngest being simply smaller versions of the sexually mature adults.  It is common to find mating pairs such as the ones above, with the male tightly clasping the back of the female.  The reason we find them mating so often is that the male will hang on for days.  This is thought to be a behavior not driven by the male’s excessive lust so much as to prevent other males from fertilizing his female and displacing his gene pool.*

Another trait is the population explosions seen in some years.  In 2008, we saw this occur with stick insects all over our Bull Creek house and trees.  Who knows?  Maybe it was lust after all.

* This behavior and other strategies are discussed further in Olivia Judson's book, Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, p. 9.
For more than you ever wanted to know about walking sticks, look at Phasmatodea.com