Naturalist Niche

At times, I feel a little over whelmed by the number of plants that I can not recognize in our backyard.  It brings me back to my college days of spending hours studying herbarium specimens for the week's botany quiz.  I am unfamiliar with several genus of common trees in the area.  Throw in new bushes, shrubs, ferns, weedy plants, and non-native lawn plants, and you've got an entire woods of unknowns.  I recognize how valuable my college classes were in devoting time and energy to the study of plants and animals.  I also realize that I just need to learn a few new species everyday to get back on my naturalist feet.







The place where I have been studying Connecticut trees, mushrooms, invertebrates and the like is at the dining room table, and I have named it the Naturalist Niche!  Usually in the late afternoon while outside with the dogs, I find something a mushroom, a bunch of leaves, berries, a feather.  Then I bring the item inside and try to identify it.  The Naturalist Niche has a number of reference books, containers for specimens, a magnifying glass, a dissecting microscope, a notebook, pencil, and ipad for internet searches. The Niche has good lighting and windows, a storage area (that is traditionally used to store fine china!), and the table is a good working surface.  Everything I need to investigate what is outside inside the cozy  house.

In the Naturalist Niche, I work to identify mushrooms using Mushrooms Demystified, and make spore prints.  I find mushroom identification a real challenge, so far I have identified a giant puff ball, two little brown mushrooms to genus Pananeolus and Psathyrella, and a bolete.  I hope to improve to the level of identifying with enough confidence to eat the edible mushrooms from our backyard woods.  I have identified more than a dozen trees, but I am afraid some tree identifications will have to resume in the spring as many trees have lost their leaves.  I am making a collection of pressed leaves.  I use the area to study birds including a white-breasted nuthatch (Sunday's post), drawing birds from photos in field guides, and identifying dropped feathers (I found the FWS has a great online resource for Id'ing feathers.)  The Naturalist Niche is one of my favorite places in the house because it feels good to come out of the fog and gain knowledge of what is around me.

Puff ball

Norway spruce cone and needles with a mushroom

Spore Print

Fly maggots attack the old mushroom!

A large pressed Tulip Tree Leaf, Liriodendron tulipifera

Northern Red Oak, Quercus rubra, pressed in the
 Altas of North American Freshwater Fishes, a hefty book!

White-breasted Nuthatch Study

Our new living room has a fantastic large window, and one of the first things that Jacob did since moving in to our new place was create a large bird feeder tripod.  We added three feeders and a suet cake, and have enjoyed watching a variety of birds from the comfort of our couch. Throughout the day Black-capped Chickadees, Tuffed Titmice, Blue Jays, Dark-eyed Junco, Downy Woodpeckers, and White Breasted Nuthatches are flying in and out of the yard.  We have also seen with less frequency White-throated Sparrows, Hairy Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Red-winged Blackbird, and a female Cardinal. 

Tuesday however brought an unfortunate event; a white-breasted nuthatch flew into the window and died. (Since, then I've taped bird silhouettes on the outside of window to help the birds see the glass.)  I was saddened to see this gymnast of the trees dead, but I decided to take advantage of the accident, and I did a nuthatch study. With the bird in hand, I was able to see it's overall body shape, really see how the feathers overlap, to see its upturned bill, and look closely a the feet.  I spent close to two hours sketching different angles, photographing, and then doing small watercolor of the beautiful bird.  I am glad I was able to get to know this bird better, and I predict a larger painting coming in the future.  Here are two links to blogs devoted to nature sketching and nature art http://naturesketchers.blogspot.com/ and

 http://kenjanuski.blogspot.com/ 

 A little more about why I think White-breasted Nut hatches are Olympic gymnasts.  White-breasted Nuthatches are insect eaters, who climb all over trees poking under bark, among leaves, and in cavities looking for their prey.  They have the ability to climb strait up, upside down, and all around the tree's trunk and branches. They are very active and do all their stunts with speed and a hopping, hitching gait.  They are also pretty noisy beeping with every hitch up the tree.  Birds of North America describes their call as "a low 'yank, yank'."  You can check these websites to learn more and hear a recording of a White-breasted Nuthatch. ( cornell bird lab and enature)

Great Gardens!

My father-in-law, Ansel Malcom is a fantastic gardener, and while we were visiting we enjoyed all the lush greenery.  Mom & Dad Malcom moved to their ten acre hide away over 30 years ago.  In fact, it is the same house and woods in which Jacob grew up.  Ansel started out with a more traditional vegetable garden, apple orchard, and lawn but the garden has progressed into a maze of native and ornamental plants.  When Jacob and I were first married, Ansel gave me two books that helped influenced his conversion to planting more natives and creating wildlife habitat: Bringing Nature Home: How you can sustain wildlife with native plants, and Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to your Backyard .  These books talk about how a traditional lawn is void of life, and how planting native flowers and bushes can attract lots of critters including insects, birds, and many other animals.

There are so many treasures in Ansel's gardens.  Both the natives and the exotic plants provide beautiful flowers and foliage.  Many of the exotic plants are tropical, and some like brugmansia have enormous night scented flowers.  The natives are not out done creating thickets of flowers.  I saw butterflies, bees, tons of birds, eastern box turtles, chipmunks, and squirrels. Another treasure were the 50 foot pine trees that Ansel and Mary Carol planted when they first moved to the property.  The apple trees in the orchard have all grown past their prime, and Ansel is letting the field go wild.  He has planted many native trees in the openings, lets the wild flowers and grass fill the area, and mows pathways through to create a variety of fun walkways for spotting birds, and bunnies.  When I see vast empty lawns and compare the rich life of Ansel's gardens, I wonder why more people aren't letting their places go wild.  

While I was in Virginia for this visit, I had a fun time following Ansel through his garden and hearing interesting facts about each of the plants.  I enjoyed getting advice about some of the plants I like to grow, and I left Virginia with twice as many plants as I started with on our move from Austin to Connecticut.

Some of the Tropical species include: Elephant ears, Banana Trees, Brugmansia, Bouganvilla

Animals below are Carpenter and Honey Bee, Milkweed bugs, a female Ruby-throated Humming bird, and Bambam

 Jacob next to a pine tree about the same age he is!

Settling in

It's been a while since my last post and posts lately have been very inconsistent.  The change in routine, preparing to move, and moving made it hard for me to settle down enough to write.  During this down time, I have receive quite a bit of encouragement to continue blogging and it's good to know that others enjoy my blog, too.  I really appreciate the encouragement and thank you for reading!

We are now in Chaplin, CT, and Jacob is working at UCONN in Storrs, CT where he is a post doc working on a frog genome.  We arrived on October 8th, about 2 weeks ago and I am finally getting a rhythm again.  However, the routine is subject to change as I in the middle of a job search, hoping for something in environmental education and with kiddos.  For now, I am going to be volunteering at a greenhouse on campus once per week and helping out with nature programs when I can at Goodwin Forest Conservation Education Center both opportunities should provide lots of blogging material.  

So far my I really like Connecticut.  It is very beautiful, and both Jacob and I are very happy to be in a rural community rather than the noisy city.  The trees are enormous with fall colors painting the landscape.  Farm fields with dairy cows and rock wall fences break up in the woods as you drive a narrow winding road.

The climate is much different than any I have experienced.  It is wet and there are mosses, ferns, mushrooms, and big leafy vegetation growing everywhere.  Giant Night Crawler earthworms under every rock (no more buying earthworms from Walmart for programs!).  Slugs and salamanders are also found hiding under rotting logs. Since, it is fall the weather is cool, cool enough for jackets and long pants, and it keeps insects in hiding.  An insect program here at this time of year would be a failure in contrast to Austin, TX where it is possible to find bugs in the middle of winter.  I am anticipating winter with a bit of apprehension since this will be the first 'real' winter I will experience with long nights, lots of snow, and average highs in the 30s.  But I just have to think of the endless summers with temperatures over 100 in Austin, TX to remember change is good even if it's a little scary. Stay tuned for to come in the Chaplin, Connecticut.  

Asheville North Carolina

Growing up in Southeast Arizona gave rise to my enjoyment of the outdoors and its critters and plants.  However the species of desert grass and scrub lands are very different the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  For one thing Southern Appalachia is the salamander capital of North America while Arizona has is only one common species of salamander, the chunky tiger salamander, and it's found mostly in muddy cow watering holes.  The vegetation around Asheville, NC is extremely different from AZ with huge forests of deciduous trees, and mosses and ferns growing on every surface.  I really enjoyed the time we spent flipping moss covered rocks and logs looking for the small amphibians, and squishing around in the rain.  

Me in front of one of the only wild American Chestnut trees with a seed in my hand.  These trees used to grow throughout eastern US, but unfortunately most are now done due to a fungus blight.  

 

The American Chestnut

 

The source of all the lovey greenery; streams trickle over mossy rocks and over waterfalls.  

A big chunky Dusky salamander about 5 inches long was found under a log.  The next photo down has a baby dusky a water dog, but it's small with good camouflage. 

 

A red-backed salamander, plethodon sp.

This one's a Slimy Salamander.  It's really slimy, but that's it's name, too.

 

Here's a marbled salamander.

A red salamander who didn't want to posse for the camera! 

Jacob having fun looking for salamanders in the trees!  Just kidding!

A fantastic 2" snail that Jacob found for me! 

 

Hope to return soon!

Montgomery, and Asheville

The second leg of our journey took us to Montgomery, Alabama to see Jacob's grandpa and then northward. 

We enjoyed hearing stories, visiting, and seeing that gramdpa's home hadn't changed since Jacob's boyhood. 

We passed through Atlanta, GA and South Carolina to reach the Smokey Mountains and Asheville, NC.

It was so good to see mountains on the horizon and to climb up into the cool air, tall trees, and verdant plant life.  

My next post will include salamanders and other highlights from Asheville.