Winners and Losers

How hot was it?  A fried squirrel.

I knew it had been hot when this squirrel sprawled out on the deck to cool off.  After another 100 degree day, it had dropped to 62 degrees deep in the valley.  This squirrel found the residual cool of the deck as the day warmed up and threw caution to the winds just three feet from where I sat.

Every change in nature creates winners and losers.  The drought and scorching temperatures this month creates lots of losers.  The winners are hard to find but they are there, those species that like it hot and dry.

Click to enlarge

Our local drought on Bull Creek has been even more severe than the surrounding area, getting no rain from the last three fronts passing through in June and July.  The creek bed is mostly dry gravel, a good 90% becoming a losing stream.

We had an unusual number of fawn sightings in early June with at least 4 separate does with 2 and one with 3 fawns.  We would see them every time we were out on the property.

Doe and fawn- Click to enla

The last two weeks we have found 3 dead spotted fawn and one doe at scattered locations without signs of predation.   In fifteen years prior we have only found 2 dead fawns.

This picture was taken along Red Bridge Road.  The doe was 15 feet away and made no move to run or even walk away.  You can appreciate her emaciation - note her flank in the picture below.  The fawn was also scrawny and moved very slowly, even though it appears to be several months old.

Note ribs and sunken flank

Aside from the tree and shrub leaves which are all drooping and dry, there are few weeds to browse and the fields are crisp with an inch of brown stubble.  I suspect that this is all the impact of drought and starvation, making them more susceptable to disease as well.  Deer that are sick frequently head to water, which is where we have found some of our dead deer.    

And what are the winners when it comes to drought?  One would be Horse Nettle, Solanum carolinense, virtually the only green plant in the garden area that we don't water.  It is growing all alone on stretches we sprayed two months ago in preparation for the fall garlic planting.

Not a true nettle, it is a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade family. It is a perennial native of the southern United States and apparently loves the hot and dry climate.

Its fruit has been called the "devil's tomatoes" as they, like the whole plant, contain solanine, a toxic alkaloid.  Between toxicity and the tiny thorns, this means that the only green plant around can't be eaten by wildlife.

The drought has hit Kansas hard.  An Ellsworth Independent Reporter story describes a city law banning all outdoor watering, including gardens.  Ironically that doesn't include the city owned golf course because of the cost of replacement turf.  "We can't afford to lose the greens," according to the city administrator.  Once again, winners and losers.

MDC has information on deer diseases such as hemorrhagic disease and blue tongue.

Harvestman

Click to enlarge

I enjoy watching a Granddaddy Longlegs hanging on the outside walls of our creek house any time, day or night.  Usually there are more in the vicinity, moving cautiously along the wall, reaching out with their incredibly spindly legs to touch one another as if to say, "Is that you? This is me."

They are one of the first insect-like creatures I learned to name.  "Granddaddy Longlegs" are harvestmen, arachnids in the order Opiliones.  The eight-legged Arachnida class incudes spiders, ticks and scorpions.  Occasionally spiders with exceptionally long legs are called granddaddys as well.

The harvestman's most striking feature are those long legs.  If we had the same leg to body ratio, our legs would be over 40 feet long!  You can tell them from spiders by their bodies.  Harvestmen have their cephalothorax (head and chest) fused with their abdomens, creating a single oval body.  Spiders such as the one below right, have a separate cephalothorax (tan in this case) and abdomen (colorful part below.)

Spider- abdomen & cephalothorax separate

Harvestman- fused abdomen

They differ from spiders in other ways as well.  For one, unlike spiders, harvestmen have no venom or silk glands.  While spiders suck up their calories as liquid, harvestmen have mouth parts that allow them to take in chunks of solid food.  This allows them an omnivorous diet, eating small insects, plant material and fungus, and in some species even dead organisms and bird dung.  They hunt prey primarily by ambush but some species stalk as well.

They can be seen, standing on six legs, swinging around their longer second pair of legs in the air.  These serve the function of antennae, sensing their surroundings.  Their front legs have three sections, ending in pincers used to groom, fight rivals and tear up food to deliver into their mouths.

Note red spots on leg

Frequently you will see harvestmen with 5-7 legs.  As a survival strategy, their legs can easily be detached by a predator.  (Notice the missing leg in the closeup picture above.)   Once detached, it continues to twitch for up to an hour, entertaining the predator while the harvestman moves on.  This occurs because of a clever pacemaker located in the femur (the segment nearest the body) which continues to send contraction signals intermittently down the leg.

They also have stink glands under the first pair of legs.  They signal that "You don't want to eat me- I taste terrible."  Another set of glands can lay a secretion for their colleagues to follow.

A female harvestman (how is that for an oxymoron?) has eggs fertilized by copulation via the male's penis.  She may deposit the eggs soon after or carry them for months.  The eggs then hatch anywhere from 20 to 180 days later!  The young go through 4-8 molts before reaching maturity.

Erythraeidae mites- Click to enlarge

One of my two specimens of Leiobunum vittatum  pictured also has another feature- mites!  It turns out that there are specific species of Erythraeidae mites whose larvae parasitize harvestmen.  The larvae bite a hole in the tough outer layer and insert a tubular stylostome through which they suck out body fluids.  You can see them dangling from the legs by their stylostome.  And I thought chiggers were bad!


MoBugs.com has a more comprehensive 2013 blog.
More information is at this texas site.

Crayfish High and Dry

Fishing Hole?- Click to enlarge

The drought and scorching temperatures takes a toll on aquatic critters as shrinking water supplies constrict their living space.  With much of the middle section of Bull Creek dry, what little water moves is through losing streams under dry stretches of gravel hundreds of yards long.  Needless to say there isn't much oxygenation in what water remains.

There are lots of stories on the impact of the drought on fish and aquatic creatures.  To my surprise we can still find hog nosed suckers and few smallmouth bass in even the small areas of water upstream from the swimming hole.  That raised the question- just what do they do in a drought?

I got some information from our former fisheries biologist, Mary Culler:

"I trust that many of the critters in the stream were able to swim downstream to deeper waters near the lake, but I am sure there have been some that have been trapped in pools. When I was with MDC we worked on a study on Rock Creek near Roaring River and documented that several crayfish species burrow beneath the gravel towards the water table when the intermittent stream went dry.

It was a very interesting study, we would begin digging in the stream in an area that was completely dry, and within a foot deep there were several crayfish living beneath the stream bottom where they had enough moisture to survive. Also, at one site, we hit the water table and discovered a madtom catfish living about 6 inches below the dry stream bed."  The study from 2009 is published here.

Prairie Crayfish- MDC

This should not have surprised me as crayfish can live in environments seemingly devoid of water.  The colorful prairie crayfish lives its life on- what else? - prairies.  To quote from this article from MDC:

"The prairie crayfish occurs widely in grasslands and prairies of northern and western Missouri. It is sometimes called the grassland crayfish. It lives in burrows that are often a long distance from any surface water. These may be six feet of more in depth. Most public prairies in Missouri support large populations, but this crayfish is seldom seen by visitors because of its secretive habits."

The prairie crayfish is a valuable member of the prairie community.  The crawfish frog (Lithobates areolatus depends on the crayfish for its year round home.  Other species also use these tunnels including snakes, lizards, frogs, and other amphibians.  Gratitude being in short supply in nature, some of these same creatures will dine of the crayfish as well.

Although the aquatic populations of Bull Creek are undoubtedly set back a few years, they will return to previous levels in a few years.  They just have to "dig in" for a while.

Hummingbird Breeze

Even with the hundred degree days, Bull Creek valley frequently reaches the low to mid sixties around 6:00 AM, sheltered as it is from the early morning and late evening sun.  Sitting in the porch swing reading the other morning, my legs were actually a little chilly.  Then I realized that the breeze seemed to be hitting all sides of my bare legs.

No wind was stirring the dangling shriveled leaves which were falling straight down when their petioles gave up their dry, tenuous grasp on their twigs.  There were hummingbirds swarming the feeders just three feet above my head, more than twenty were fighting for one of the spigots, only to be driven away by several rivals.  Suddenly it hit me that I was feeling the wind from their collective wings, and unnatural, or rather nature-al breeze.  

Without moving, I got out my pocket camera, grateful again for technology that allows recording much of what we see in nature, including videos.  After several minutes of filming, I returned to reading in the air-conditioned comfort of a porch swing, enjoying the busy humming of battling birds.

We are seeing hummers all day long now, going through two quarts of sugar water a day.  This is a record for us and probably relates to the nearly complete lack of nectar resources in the valley.  Trumpet vine is now blooming, one of their only alternatives.  Maybe on the other hand they like the chance to compete with their friends in an aerial game.  Remember, they have no internet connection and their tiny little cell phones don't get reception in the valley.

Either way I am happy for their company, and for the hummingbird breeze.

Ivory-marked Borer

Ivory-marked Borer- Eburia quadrigeminata

This beautiful beetle was easy to identify as a long-horn beetle.  The key characteristic of that family is antennae which are far longer that their body.  After searching through the long-horn beetles in all my insect guides I finally found this 1/2" long beetle in the Cerambycidae family of long-horn beetles.

In addition to its extremely long antennae, its beautiful ivory spots are raised like ivory inlays on an old fashioned piece of furniture.  This is appropriate as described in its story below.

The Ivory-marked Borer/Beetle Eburia quadrigeminata eats leaves and twigs.   Their eggs are laid in the cracks of dead trees.  Their larvae bore into the solid heartwood which isn't as nutritious as live trees.  They may stay when the wood after harvest, becoming a part of a wall or furniture.

This beetle is not just another pretty insect but has a great story to tell. It has one of the longest life cycles documented. It usually goes from egg to adult over 2 years, but has emerged from flooring, beams and furniture 10 to 15 years after the materials were manufactured. To quote the University of Florida Book of Insect Records:

"The wood boring beetle, Eburia quadrigeminata (Cerambycidae), when feeding in dry wood, may have its development so greatly retarded that adults emerge from furniture and flooring many years after manufacture or installation. Delayed emergence of E. quadrigeminata in 1915 was discovered from a birch bookcase 40 years old."

One woman called a pest control company after hearing a gnawing in her house. They found this borer in a five year old chair! In another case, E. Quadrigeminata crawled out into a Cairo Egypt home out of an imported French cabinet, the first known finding in Africa. Talk about an invasive species!

Road Killers

One test of human nature is whether a driver tries to avoid hitting a turtle when it is safe to do so.  A more interesting test is what kind of driver would go out of the way to hit one.  An interesting "scientific study" has provided the answer.

An investigator put either a rubber snake, a rubber turtle or a rubber tarantula on the shoulder of a highway and recorded who swerved to hit them.  He used a rubber leaf as a control although that might have been harder to see from a car.  The results from 1000 vehicles studied were very interesting.

• Four percent of drivers stopped to move the "animal" to safety. (Never the tarantula)
• Six percent swerved onto the shoulder to hit it
• The frequency of attempted animal murder?  Turtle- 1%  Snake-  1.8%  Tarantula- 3.2%
• The "killer vehicles"?  Trucks and SUVs- 89%  Cars- 11%

For the "gory" examples and a little naturalist fun, watch this Youtube video.

Pine Ridge Church Snakes

Pine Ridge church

The last blog on Bull Creek neighbors' reports of clusters of copperheads gathering around their houses reminded me of a past news story.  In 1965 through 1967 there were several newspaper stories about venomous snakes congregating around Pine Ridge Church during gospel services with music.  The church is only five miles from our Bull Mills place.

In Tales of Bull Creek, the late John Mitchell describes visiting relatives on Highway H around July 20th, 1965.  He encountered a man carrying a large box. When asked the man what was in it, he replied, "Copperheads.  We are having a revival at the Pine Ridge Church and when the hymn singing starts the snakes come from everywhere.  We've killed over a hundred so far."  Curious about this, he went over to the church where he describes the scene:

"There an amazing sight awaited us.  While part of the congregation were singing to the accompaniment of guitars in the church house, others, men and boys, were outside with flashlights and rifles shooting snakes.  The church yard and surrounding brush land were alive with crawling copperheads." *

John went to the Springfield News-Leader the next morning and told Frank Farmer the story.  They went back to the church the next evening and when the music started, the snakes returned and the shooting started anew.  Frank Farmer's Pine Ridge story** in the News-Leader was picked up by national newspapers, the 60's version of "going viral" before Youtube.

This event led to the Pine Ridge Snake Hunt which was held annually for  about 10 years, benefiting charity in Chadwick, Missouri which was called the Copperhead Capitol.  There were prizes for the most snakes killed and the largest and second largest venomous snake.  It ended in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Pine Ridge Church still is going strong and this picture of a later "snake hunt" is off their blog.  The handwritten caption says "the start of the Pine Ridge copperhead snake hunt."  As a sign of the times, Pine Ridge Church is currently preparing to replace the outhouses with indoor toilets.  Copperheads didn't stop the trips to "the necessary" but increased bear sightings have.

Based on the Pine Ridge Church story I was going to stop singing and playing the guitar on our deck on Bull Creek, but Barb feels that my singing will actually repel snakes.

*    Chapter from Tales of Bull Creek
**  Newspaper Stories of the time.
Editor's note:  Pine Ridge Church is just down the road from our "Pine Ridge Dan" Crane's cabin.
addendum August 2017.  More history at Ozarks Alive.