Young Eyes

An afternoon spent in the woods with Lindsay and her father Kevin led to a series of discoveries I would not have made on my own. The next few blogs will describe the adventure of seeing the land with "young eyes."

American Toad?- Bufo americanu

The woods look a little different to a set of young eyes.  They aren't distracted by the conversation of their elders recalling the time they saw a bear on the tree when there is something that just wiggled a leaf on the ground.  It also helps that those eyes are set lower to the ground.

Lindsay is quick and fearless when it comes to catching critters.  This little toad escaped several times, only to be recaptured and studied before its final release.  This wasn't its first adventure in life.

She found it on our driveway, the edge of a glade on top of a short bluff twenty feet above the creek.  It started life as one of thousands of eggs laid by its mother in slow moving water along the edge of Bull Creek.  As the drought progressed, the creek dried up, leaving only a few inches of water, pooling in a desert of dried gravel.  Most of its fellow eggs became emergency rations for a wide variety of minnows, shiners, frogs and carnivorous aquatic larvae struggling to survive.

Life as a tiny black tadpole wasn't much easier.  Everything seemed to be chasing the dense school of its classmates which were picked off one at a time.  Just in the nick of time its little legs developed as its tail shriveled up.  It started its land journey as a half inch toadlet, searching for small insects and avoiding birds, snakes and other dangers.

... and the cycle starts again.

Eventually, by a series of random hops it arrived on our drive, only to be caught by a giant blonde biped.  It was fortunate that this particular mammal wasn't hungry, only curious.  Our toad may well grow up to feed on the insects drawn to the cabin lights and eventually head down to the creek to rear next year's toadlets.

Springtail Invasion

Springtails hit the wall

Our friend Georgia saw thousands of tiny insects crawling up the side of her house.  They seemed to be emerging from the wet soil during a rain storm, covering a wide area.  They were a gray color,  less than 1/16 of an inch long and they tended to hop.  Her questions were what are they, could they become a problem by invading the house and should they be sprayed?

She happened to have her old dissecting microscope left from her days as a biological microscopist and was able to get some magnified pictures.  We sent the pictures to Dr. Chris Barnhart who identified them as springtails, a harmless horde.  With this information, she spared thousands of lives.

High magnification- Georgia P.

Springtails (Collembola) are hexapods (six legs) but are no longer considered insects by some researchers based on DNA studies and anatomical variations.  Insects have external mouth parts while springtails' mouth parts are internal.  These authors argue that springtails and their 6-legged insect cousins evolved from separate lines.

Although a few species are found up in trees or on the edges and surface of ponds,  many species are found in damp soil and leaf litter.  They consume dead plant and animal matter, eventually contributing to the creation of soil.  They also consume fungal mycelia and transport mycorrhizal fungi which contribute to
the growth of plants.
 

Furcula set to spring- Wikimedia

They get their name from an escape mechanism that allows them to "jump."  A structure called a furcula is attached to the abdominal tip.  It folds under the body, held under tension like a spring.  When danger approaches it snaps, with the springtail sailing quickly in the air.  They can jump as high as two inches, 30 times their body length,  the equivalent of a 5'10" man jumping 175 feet straight up...from a standing start!  While not quite in the league with fleas, it is
still pretty impressive considering they aren't using their legs.

End-to end, 16 per inch

Springtails commonly emerge in massive numbers in homes or other human structures such as Georgia reported.  Although they don't bite like fleas or carry disease, their migrations can be alarming and lead to calls for help by homeowners.  They usually die off in a week.  Prevention includes eliminating damp places for them to gather.  The ucdavis.edu website has advice on management.

Thanks to the ever observant Georgia Pozycinski for the pictures and the call.

Hummingbird CPR

Emergency Medical Transport

Our friends, John and Jane Ann Johnson are a frequent source of interesting bird observations.  John's extensive training as a cardiologist led to saving a bird's life.  Well, maybe the training didn't have anything to do with it, but the result was still great.  First there was the safe handing of the injured bird- Emergency Medical Transport.  Next came the technical skills needed to safely introduce fluids.  Here is his story:

"Thursday I found another dead hummingbird on the hangar floor. They can never get out, even with both big doors open. This happens once every week or two. I picked her up to toss her in the trash and she flopped once- still alive, barely.

I spent the next 90 minutes with an eye dropper filled with hummingbird nectar trying to revive her. She became more animated, began to flap her wings a bit, and finally flew off. Pretty neat...and surprising."

Catheter skills come in handy

There is a lot of advice available on what to do when you find an injured bird.  Birds have high metabolic rates, requiring lots of food.  Most species have complex diets spanning the range of seeds and insects to fish, small mammals and even scavenging dead animals.

Fortunately, John's bird had relatively simple dietary needs in this crisis.  Hummingbird feeder solution provided both calories and hydration.  Hummers do consume insects, but during the current migration period they mostly need energy in the form of nectar, natural or artificial.

Here are some general hummingbird tips from our own Charley Burwick:

• Do the right 4:1 water and sugar mixture, do not use red coloring
• Keep the feeder fresh, usually in hot weather no longer than 2-3 days, clean with bleach, and rinse thoroughly
• Use a feeder hanging from the garage door, or even on the ground when a hummer is caught in the garage (common occurrence)
• Keep at least one feeder up until the end of the calendar year, you may get a rufous hummer that migrates this direction in the fall, and some ruby-throated are really slow leaving, especially the females, and first year birds.

Anyone who has ever tried to get a bird to fly out of their house or garage can commiserate with the problem of pointing one out of a hangar.  This is even more complex at the Botanical Center's Butterfly House, a mesh enclosed structure where everything looks like an exit.  I can recall watching a bird flutter around the ceiling of Hammon's Hall during a symphony concert.  Possibly it thought that Camille Saint Saen's suite Carnival of the Animals was on the evening's program.

As with deer in our suburban neighborhoods, we are having to learn to live with nature, and visa versa.  Increasing human populations expand into what was previously wilderness.  As our footprint on the planet increases with larger structures, taller glass buildings and more wind turbines, we will likely have more opportunities to deal with injured birds.

Wildbirdcarecentre.org has a lot of good information on the care of injured wild birds.

Food for thought

Click to enlarge

This was found in the middle of the woods, 300 feet above Bull Creek.  It was spread in a dense mat, bright green standing out against the browns of the drought challenged trees.

This provides habitat for several creatures far from their usual home.  It also provides high protein nutrition for birds fortunate enough to find it in this remote location.

What is it?  Comments below.

Beware the Cherry

By Jennifer Ailor, Master Naturalist

Black cherry is a fairly common tree in the Ozarks’ woodlands. The timber is valuable, and birds and other critters love the clusters of tiny bright red cherries in summer and fall.  But black cherry trees aren’t good for cattle and horses, and if you have any in your pastures or fencerows, they should be removed if you want to keep your livestock safe.

The problem is that the leaves of the tree, especially when wilted, can deprive livestock of oxygen if eaten. The leaves contain prunasin, a cyanide that can be fatal.  In conditions like this summer when trees are stressed by the heat and lack of water, wilting breaks down the prunasin and releases the cyanide, according to the University of Missouri Extension.  Symptoms of poisoning include gasping, weakness, excitement, dilated pupils, spasms, convulsions, coma and respiratory failure. Not a pretty sight.

Cherry bark- like potato chips

When removing cherry trees, which have a tendency to sprout, the Extension recommends promptly applying a systemic herbicide to the fresh stump. And, of course, remove all branches and leaves that livestock might munch on. If you don’t want to use a herbicide, be prepared to cut sprouts for several years.

I have a small cherry in my horse pasture. You can bet its days are numbered.

Editor's note: 
Black cherry, Prunus serotina is a native tree whose range extends to the eastern border of Kansas.  It is a pioneer species, being one of the first trees to grow in disturbed soil, frequently replaced later by other species.  Imported to Europe, it has become naturalized and is now considered an invasive species in many forests.

A wide variety of moth larvae and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars feed on Prunus species.  In the spring you may locate black cherry and plums from a distance by the dense nests of the Eastern Tent Caterpillars which are dependent on trees in the Prunus and Malus (apple) family.  Early pioneers treasured black cherry fruit for making rum and brandy called cherry bounce.  We are more likely to encounter our bounce in a jelly or Black Forest chocolate cake.

Why Metamorphosis?

A friend sent me a thought provoking article titled How Did Insect Metamorphosis Evolve? from Scientific American.  When you consider that everything an organism does uses some of its precious energy, something like metamorphosis doesn't initially make sense.

Incomplete metamorphosis *

First, consider what is involved in metamorphosis.  Incomplete metamorphosis refers to the process that insects such as grasshoppers, stick insects and a number of other species go through to grow.  It begins as an egg with a nymph emerging, undergoing molts while resembling the parent, although lacking the final stages of adulthood such as sexual organs and in many cases, complete wings.

Complete Metamorphosis begins as an egg which produces the larva.  After multiple molts, the larva pupates and emerges as a completely different organism, both in appearance and function.  Think of the caterpillar pupating and the butterfly emerging.

Complete metamorphosis *

Complete metamorphosis requires a lot of energy.  Any time an animal or plant expends energy, such as a deer growing horns or honey locust producing long thorns we assume that it had some advantage to the organism.  

The article above discusses the theories of how metamorphosis evolved.  At the last, it answers my question of "why bother to change forms?" Why curl up in a dormant state, wrapping the body in silk and then transform into a totally different body, frequently with not only different structures but even changing food sources such as changing from a herbivore to a predator?  There must be some survival value.  As the article states, "Metamorphosis was so successful that, today, as many as 65 percent of all animal species on the planet are metamorphosing insects."

So what is the advantage to metamorphosis?  Here is the answer in their words:

"The primary advantage of complete metamorphosis is eliminating competition between the young and old. Larval insects and adult insects occupy very different ecological niches. Whereas caterpillars are busy gorging themselves on leaves, completely disinterested in reproduction, butterflies are flitting from flower to flower in search of nectar and mates. Because larvae and adults do not compete with one another for space or resources, more of each can coexist relative to species in which the young and old live in the same places and eat the same things. Ultimately, the impetus for many of life's astounding transformations also explains insect metamorphosis: survival."

 Unfortunately this doesn't answer my last question- why does the honey locust still have thorns?

Thanks to Kevin Firth
*  Drawings from MuseumVictoria.com 

Purple Passion Flower

If you want to get Barb excited, let her find a new or unexpected wildflower.  She yelled "stop" as we were driving along the field edge in an area cleared by the cleanup of a fallen tree last winter.  It was a big cluster of purple passion flowers.  The flower is so distinctive that even I can identify it now.

The passion flower plant is said to have medicinal properties discussed below, but the "passion" isn't what you might be thinking.  When the Spanish discovered this flower in Peru in 1569, the Friars saw symbols of Christ's Passion in the blossom, the source of its common name.  They took this as a positive sign that they had his blessing on their mission.  The interpretations of these complex symbols are described here,

Purple passion flower, Passiflora incarnata, is a flowering vine which spreads along the ground until it finds a convenient shrub or tree to climb.  As the vines sprawl along the ground they develop root suckers, (rhizomes), increasing their local spread.  This means that all the plants within this space are most likely genetically identical.  In gardens, they can tend to take over but they have a lot more competition in our valley.

The leaves are distinctive, all with three fingers similar to some sassafras leaves but with deeper indentations.  They are far more numerous than the scattered flowers.  The leaves serve as the larval food source for the Variegated Fritillary and its southern cousin, the Gulf Fritillary which arrives in late summer.

Passiflora produces a very distinctive fruit, called a Maypop, although why "May" escapes me as it fruits in late summer.  It is also called a wild apricot or apricot vine.  It produces a large green berry that turns orange, providing a good food source for wildlife.  It can be eaten raw and was eaten by Native Americans.  Passion flower seeds have been found in some thousands of years old archeological sites.  No less than John Muir called it "the most delicious fruit I have ever eaten."  Ours are just starting to form, probably quite a struggle in the midst of the drought.

Fruits are forming

The plant, fresh or dried has been used to treat anxiety and narcotic withdrawal.  There are a lot of ongoing studies to determine its effectiveness in these and a variety of other disorders.  These are summarized on the National Institutes of Health web site.


More pictures are at missouriplants.com.