Hiking out on the Rock Furnace and the Roaring Run Trails this past Sunday, Deborah and I saw several birds and flowers that announce the developing spring. Many of these early spring flowers are quite small. They add a faint haze of color to the sides of the trail, and you have to stop and adjust your eyes in order to really see them. They are worth taking the time to look, though.
Two birds:
Eastern towhee (also called the “rufous-sided towhee”): My first towhee of the spring was actually hopping around in my front yard under my bird feeder. He was eating some of the shelled corn that I put out there for the larger birds and the squirrels (and the skunks and possums, too). I watched the towhee work the hard, corn kernels with some difficulty, but he finally cracked them and got them down. The towhee is a versatile omnivore that eats fruit, seed, insects, and many other types of invertebrates. Towhees are described as “short distance,” seasonal migrators throughout our area, but may, if there is a reliable food supply, remain in a given site the year round. An over-wintering towhee surviving on birdfeeder seed was observed not far from campus (C.Hone, Personal Comm.). Towhee numbers are declining throughout its range due in part to brown headed cowbird nest parasitism and, possibly, due to direct competition with European starlings for food.
Eastern phoebe: Along the Rock Furnace Trail there are very few birds even in the height of summer. One bird, though, that has been present from early spring to mid-fall in all of the years that Deborah and I have hiked there is the eastern phoebe. The phoebe is a small, gray-brown flycatcher that is notable for its sharp “chip” call and its distinctive tail bobbing behavior when it perches (typically on relatively low, isolated tree branches). The male phoebe is one of the first arriving migrators of the spring and is a harbinger of the changing season. The males fly in from their southern US and Central American over-wintering sites and stake out their potential mating territories in anticipation of the later arrival of the females. These male phoebes are intensely territorial not only to other phoebes but also to humans. When we walk on the part of the trail that cuts through a male phoebe’s territory, the bird stays close to us flying back and forth ahead of our path, “chipping” and “bobbing” at us the entire time. It can feel like the bird is being gregarious or even sociable, but he is probably saying, in phoebe, thank goodness, utterly horrible things about us as he tries desperately to get us to leave.
Seven plants:
Spring beauty is a small, native perennial plant that makes tiny (1/2 inch wide) white, flowers that are striped with subtle, pink lines. It is a hardy species that can withstand disturbance which explains why it is so abundant throughout our forests! ON Sunday, Deborah and I watched tiny carrion flies pollinating the flowers and could only imagine the flower scents to which they were being drawn. Not all flowers have sweet odors!
Common chickweed is a European species that was intentionally introduced into North America by settlers. It escaped from these early gardens, though, and became a very common “weed” of grassy areas, roadsides, fields, and forests. It is a low growing plant with oval-shaped leaves and small (1/8 inch), five-petal, white flowers. It was originally valued for its medicinal uses (a skin soothing agent) and for its nutritional value (a rich source of many vitamins and minerals).
Purple dead-nettle is not the prettiest name for a plant. It is, like chickweed, a European species that was intentionally grown in the gardens of European settlers. The plant, though, escaped from these domesticated confines and is now a common “weed” of disturbed areas, roadsides, fields, forests, and gardens. It is member of the mint family and, so, has very distinctive, square stems. Its lower leaves are green and its upper leaves are purple. Its purple-red flowers grow among the upper leaves. The flowers are often densely covered with bees and are a rich source of pollen and nectar. The plant is also rich in iron and vitamins and was used medicinally as an astringent, and a diuretic, and a laxative.
Dutchman’s breeches is a native perennial found in moist woodlands and shaded hillsides. It is a plant that is very sensitive to disturbance, so its presence indicates that its forest habitat has been stable and un-traumatized for a number of years. The leaves of Dutchman’s breeches grow in dense masses near the ground and are highly divided into many segments. The white and yellow flowers are on tall, upright, leafless stems and hold the larger two of their four petals in a position that resembles an upside-down pair of white fluffy pants. This plant contains a number of powerful alkaloid chemicals that have been used, with some danger, in folk medicines.
Squirrel corn is a close relative of Dutchman’s breeches. It is also a native perennial and has very similar leaves looking, highly segmented, basal leaves. Its flowers are also held up on leafless stalks and are white, but they are more rounded in appearance (almost “heart-shaped”) and have light purple highlights. The name “squirrel corn” comes from the corn-shaped root tubers of the plant that are found just below the surface of the soil.
(Deborah has taken pictures of both Dutchman’s breeches and squirrel corn and has put them out on her personal page: http://www.personal.psu.edu/dys100/dutchman_and_squirrel_corn.jpg)
Spring cress is a native wildflower of the mustard family that is found in moist woods often near streams. It is an erect (6 to 24 inches tall) perennial with oval shaped basal leaves and lance-shaped stem leaves. It has four-petal, white flowers that are about ½ inch wide.
Yellow corydalis is another native perennial of the open woods and slopes. It can reach fifteen inches in height and has clusters of six to sixteen, small (1/2 inch wide), yellow, tube-shaped flowers that grow above it finely divided masses of leaves. This plant also has traditional medicinal uses (it contains abundant alkaloids) but can be toxic even in low doses.
In addition to these tiny flowers, we saw the first two butterflies of the season: a polygonia butterfly (either a “Question Mark” (that’s its name!) or a “Comma,” out on the Rick Furnace Trail), and a Mourning Cloak out on our own Penn State New Kensington Nature Trail. The Mourning Cloak is extremely interesting in that the adult butterflies hibernate in tiny crevices frequently under the bark of trees and are among the first invertebrates to emerge in the early spring. Check out the species page about Mourning Cloaks on our Virtual Nature Trail ( http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/mourningcloak.htm ).
The pace of the seasonal change is quickening! Get out and see it soon!
Happy spring!