HollerPhenology

Out in the holler: sweet bubbies and sweet babies

Just before noon today, I went out to get some photos for this post and, just by chance, caught the fledging of four Carolina wrens! I thought they had already gone because I hadn't seen parents taking food to the nest for awhile, thus I'd planned to weed-eat around the patio today so I could get on with my 2018 planter projects. As I came to the edge of the porch, I startled the mother wren (she had a bug in her beak) and she went into hiding near the planters. I decided to delay the weed-eating until I figured out where this wren family was in their process.

A few minutes later I saw both parents near the nest with food, but staying just out of reach of the chicks. I noticed one chick had already flown to a ledge above my house's rock foundation, and at least three others were visible at the edge of the nest:

Carolina wren parent perches above the nest while 3 chicks look up. May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Soon, two more of the chicks flew down to join the first one:

Two wren fledglings sit on a ledge (top left and right) while a third (center of image) hangs on to a foundation stone. May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

One by one they flew off toward a brush pile -- I could hear the adult male singing from that direction. The one in the image below was the last of these three to fly off:

A Carolina wren fledgling takes a break near the nest before flying away. May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

When the mother wren came back to the nest, the last chick came out a little further, crouched low, then fluttered down to the ledge. I got a somewhat blurry photo of the exit before my camera battery dropped out of warp:

Last wren chick prepares to take a flying leap. May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

As I write this post, wren calls and songs still fill the air space beyond my window. I might weed-eat later, but for now it feels good just to write this post and enjoy what I've seen today.

So, around the corner from all the sweet wren babies, the sweet bubbies -- aka Carolina allspice, Spicebush, Sweet Betsy, Sweet shrub, and Sweetshrub -- are out:

Calycanthus floridus buds on May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

These bushes attract a number of butterfly and other insect species. Over the years I've gotten quite a few pictures of bubby bush visitors whose vibrant colors are easy to capture against the large green leaves and dark flowers.

I was really surprised to look out into a very rainy holler yesterday and see that my Siberian iris is flowering. It's been four or five years since they last bloomed. I blame weird spring weather for this flower drought.

Siberian iris (Iris siberica) on May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Another reason I delayed firing up my weed-eater this week is that so many flowers that bees and butterflies use have been in the line of fire. In the last two days, however, both white and red clovers have bloomed in all parts of the yard, so I feel like I can at least whack a path around the patio and to my car without taking too much of their food out of production.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) on May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I could swear that all of this lyreleaf sage popped up overnight. I noticed a few plants blooming along the lane this week but today when I looked out my study window, the yard was pale purple:

Lyreleaf Sage (Salvia lyrata). May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I usually hold off any major mowing until these plants finish their flowering cycle. Bees and butterflies seem to like them, so I tolerate a few pathways around the house being knee high in vegetation until more nectar species are available.

Lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) on May 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The first Amur honeysuckle flowers opened on April 26th. I finally remembered to get a photo for HollerPhenology:

Amur honeysuckle flowers on May 1, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Yesterday I made my annual run to my favorite Knoxville nursery to get plants for my patio garden. I didn't have a chance to get any planted today because of the wren and weed-eating delays, but bees and butterflies have already found them in their temporary pots. I saw my first spicebush swallowtail of 2018 checking out the lyreleaf sage and all of the new plants, and several carpenter bees have visited them, though much of their activity today has involved courtship and turf wars. I saw a couple of bumble bees on the clovers, too.

 

 

The bird is the word in the holler this week

An amazing new bird week started the day after my last post. On Monday, the 23rd of April, within a space of 2-3 minutes, I saw all of these birds right outside my study window (and not near the new bird feeder that no one has discovered yet!): a pair of tufted titmice, blue-gray gnatcatcher, male indigo bunting, two white-eyed vireos, a brown thrasher, cardinal, blue-headed vireo, male yellow-throated warbler, and an American redstart -- the first one of its species I have ever seen.

But it didn't stop there. On the 24th, I noticed a female Carolina wren catching food and flying toward a nest under my satellite dish. Over the next couple of days I saw both parents bringing food to the nest with greater frequency.

During my holler walk on April 27th, I heard the first wood thrush of the season, and, on the 28th, the song of a common yellow-throated warbler. 

Wren feeding nestlings on April 28, 2018. [Video: Cathie Bird]

I'm now into day 5 of the wren nest watch. After getting my video camera charged up for the occasion, I caught one of the parents -- the mom, I think -- bringing more food to the nest.

Yesterday while I was watching the wrens, I saw another holler neighbor crawling up my porch steps while my cat, Buddy, looked on:

Left to right: rat snake, buddy. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Once it crawled out of sight, I decided I should monitor its progress, first, to make sure it didn't turn back toward the wren nest, and, second, to make sure it didn't try to go through the pet door.

Up on the porch, I got the next two photos of the snake, and of the snake approaching my dog, Shadow, who came close to sniff but otherwise took alternate routes to his favorite porch spots:

Rat snake on April 28, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Left to right: Shadow, rat snake. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Very slowly the snake kept moving across the porch, occasionally winding its way up the hemlock sticks then back down to the rails. When I was sure it intended to keep heading north, I went back to wren watching.

Plenty of new things happened with trees and flowering plants as well this past week. The other American beech I observe for Nature's Notebook leafed out, and the Amur honeysuckle now has flowers.

Dogwood-3 has flowers, too:

Dogwood-3 flowers on April 28, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

After a rough growing season last year, Cutleaf Toothwort-1 has safely arrived at its fruit production stage. This is the first year I've seen its fruits develop this far. I hope to catch their ripening and seed drop in days to come:

Cutleaf toothwort (Dentaria lacinata) fruits on April 28, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Finally, here's a dwarf crested iris in bloom -- not too many out yet:

Dwarf crested iris (Iris cristata) on April 28, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Such an exciting week in the holler, and it's only the end of April!

 

Out in the holler on Earth Day 2018

I watched Today Show coverage of the very first Earth Day in 1970 from a motel room in Denver, Colorado. I remember it well. I had just graduated from Michigan State, just gotten married, and wasn't sure what I'd be doing next. The room served as temporary housing for us while we waited to hear what my husband's next field assignment with the Federal Highway Administration would be.

I had spent the previous few years studying environmental interpretation, hoping to work as a naturalist, or maybe write about nature and the ecological systems of planet Earth. It blew my mind to see so many people celebrating that day -- in retrospect, the demands of completing undergraduate education had drawn my attention into a much smaller geographic area than the world I studied.

Now, 48 years later, as I enter the final decade or two of my life on the planet, I celebrate this Earth Day writing a post at HollerPhenology.

American beech (Fagus grandifolia) on April 22, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I thought Beech-1 would leaf out sooner than it did. It was not until yesterday morning that I saw a few buds that looked like the image above. Today, more buds are breaking, and many others already have little leaves hanging down:

New leaves of American beech on April 22, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

This particular beech is a very mature one. You can see its huge trunk behind the leaves in the image above. As I recall, this tree produced nuts last year, so it will be just the leaves I'm watching for phenophase shifts this season.

Dogwood (Cornus florida) on April 18, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

A few days after my last post, Dogwood-3 (above) started its flowering cycle. Today it has quite a few buds as well as some leaves starting to emerge.

I can't get real close to white oak-1's buds, however, a view through binoculars and a telescoping camera lens both show what looks like buds breaking:

White oak (Quercus alba) on April 22, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I have never seen flowers or nuts on this tree, but it's surrounded by other oaks that bomb my roof and driveway with acorns every fall. Then, it's kind of like trying to walk on ball-bearings out there. This year I have a bunch of baby oaks sprouting in my planters (thanks to squirrels and their kin), and around the yard:

Sprouting acorn on April 18, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Looking out across the holler's landscape and beyond this week, I can see that the pale spring greens, reds, golds and purples create more of a continuous coloration of hillsides.

On April 20th, in the planters, I spotted this butterfly milkweed (photo above) coming out.

A few fleabanes have planted themselves in my planters as well. I usually let them do their thing, since they will have finished flowering before I need to plant anything else in their spot. Their flower colors range from white to pink to purple, adding some nice color in the yard before I dare plant the more cold-sensitive garden species. The fleabane below is over in the Echinacea patch, so it's in a safe zone:

Fleabane (Erigeron sp.) on April 18, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I think this is probably a common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus), but I'm still in the process of learning to differentiate the fleabane species that grow here. I had been calling flowers like this daisy fleabanes, but I think it has too many of the white rays to be Erigeron anuus. Now I need to take a closer look at the leaf structures to figure this out.

Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) on April 18, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Wild geraniums are flowering up and down the holler. I look forward to these every year. I took the image above from a slightly different angle than usual, giving a bit of a profile to the pistil and stamens rather than viewing them head on. Bees and butterflies seem to like this species, too.

Dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis) on April 22, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Near my house there is a large area with lots of dwarf cinquefoil (above) this week. And just to compare the difference, here's an Indian strawberry growing a couple of feet away from the cinquefoil:

Indian strawberry (Duchesnea indica) on April 22, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Earlier in the week I found violet wood sorrel leaves near some of the other plants I observe. Here's a little colony of them:

Violet wood sorrel (Oxalis violacea) on April 18, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I finally got a photo this week of what I think is a "sweet betsy" trillium. It's on a steep hillside with tricky footing, otherwise I would have tried to get closer to see all of its parts better. According to my look-here-first guide for southern Appalachian wildflowers, the Sweet Betsy and Yellow trillium form 'hybrid swarms' in Tennessee. Sweet Betsy is more prevalent until you get to the west flank of the Smoky Mountains, the authors say, where it's replaced by yellow trillium.

Trillium cuneatum, a.k.a. Sweet Betsy, on April 17, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Just a few notes on birds before I finish up: I saw a male hooded warbler and great blue heron in the holler this week. I had been hearing the hooded warbler for a couple of days, and it sounds likely that I'll have a nesting pair of them near the house again this season. Other bird voices common in the holler this week were titmice, white-eyed vireos and blue-headed vireos.

I bent down to pull some vegetation away from the edge of my planters a couple of days ago and found this skink sunning itself. I think this one is a broad-headed skink, not the eastern five-lined species I observe for Nature's Notebook:

All in all, a great Earth Day week out in Frog Pond Hollow.

Trillium, hepatica, wood anemone and other shifting phenophases this week

 Southern red trillium (Trillium sulcatum) on April 14, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I love that it's raining in the holler today, 4" since yesterday afternoon. First, we needed some; second, I'm content to be huddled indoors with a cup of coffee, my dog and my cat, blogging instead of roaming the holler looking for stuff.

The major flower story in the greater holler neighborhood this week has to be the trillium. Both Southern red and large-flowered trillium (pictured above and below, respectively) have drawn my attention, more so than the yellows (T. luteum) that blend in with the general greenness of early spring. I think there are a few "sweet betsies" (T. cuneatum) around as well, but since their maroon buds have opened, the group I found shows the yellow and green flower form and not the maroon, and they are difficult to differentiate from the yellow trillium around them.

Trillium grandiflorum on April 12, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I may take the back road through the Royal Blue wildlife management area on my next trip to town. I have seen more of the bronze and maroon sweet betsies at the lower end of Old 63 near Jacksboro.

On Friday the 13th, I found some amazing broadleaf toothworts with lots of flowers open. The one below is in a group of 4-5 plants that are quite tall now and looking very sturdy, even after some challenging freezes this week. What drew me to this group was a West Virginia white butterfly sipping at the flowers. I came very close to getting a picture of this butterfly on a species that is a preferred food source for the West Virgina whites in their caterpillar phenophase, but it was flitting around too much to catch a good image.

Broadleaf toothwort (Dentaria diphylla) on April 13, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Very often I start seeing sharp-lobed hepatica about the same time rue anemone comes out. So far, the leaf below is one of the only one's I've seen this season.

Sharp-lobed hepatica leaf (Hepatica acutiloba) on April 9, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Small but conspicuous white flowers of the wood anemone have appeared in the holler this week, many of them growing near other species I routinely observe at Nature's Notebook. I found this one near buckeye-1:

Wood anemone (Anemone quinquifolia) on April 13, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I took its photo because the flower is larger than many I've seen for this species, perhaps because of the rich soil and somewhat protected space it occupies along the banks of Hudson Branch. On my holler walks, I often take several minutes in the space around buckeye-1 just to look around and notice what else is there. The diversity of species in that relatively small area never fails to amaze me.

Robin's plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) on April 14, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The Robin's plantains are peaking along the drier stretches of Terry Creek Lane. The flowers of this species open at the end of a hairy stem, often several inches above its (also hairy) basal leaves. The plant spreads with runners, which is why I often find them in small colonies along the road. A relative of Robin's plantain, the common fleabane, is ubiquitous around my yard, and just starting to flower this week.

Rue anemone, early buttercup and mountain stonecrop on April 9, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

With more species making their spring appearance, I find intriguing groups of multiple species such as the row of rue anemone, early buttercup and mountain stonecrop above. I love to look for new combinations of plant neighbors on my holler walks.

As the forsythia, Amur honeysuckle and multiflora rose leaves approach full size, the red maples, dogwoods and hop hornbeam are just getting started. The apple and flowering crabapples have a full load of open flowers this week. I think one of the American beech trees I observe will move into the breaking-leaf-bud phenophase within the next 1-3 days.

This week I can report that carpenter bees, honey bees and other pollinators are present around the house and, especially, the apple and crabapple blossoms.

Early yesterday morning, I drove to Knoxville with the windows down. From my end of the holler all the way to the interstate I heard black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice calling out and being answered by others of their own species. When I got back to the holler that afternoon, I saw my first fox sparrow in awhile, and even caught a little bit of it in a photo. During the week, I heard titmouse, chickadee, white-eyed vireo, blue-headed vireo and Carolina wren songs several times a day.

The most amazing and lucky day for two blue jays happened on Friday the 13th, when a red-shouldered hawk came swooping down at them. The jays crowded in toward the trunk of a huge hemlock and managed to avoid persistent attempts by the hawk to get at them. The tangle of branches and needles prevented the hawk, with its larger wingspan, from getting close enough to catch the jays.

A neighbor shared a fun link to the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency's live elk cam on Hatfield Knob in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. I saw elk several times when I checked the webpage, and even observed some courtship behavior during one viewing.

And the rain continues: 4.5 inches in the rain gauge now.

 

Dogwood, mapleleaf viburnam, early buttercup, marsh blue violet, and blue-headed vireo out in the holler

The mapleleaf viburnam, one of the "shady invader" project species I observe at Nature's Notebook, finally broke out of its buds this week. I took the photo of its first leaves (below) today, 4 days after I noticed the first bud burst. Multiflora rose and Amur honeysuckle -- two other project species -- have both been out for awhile.

Mapleleaf viburnam (Viburnam acerifolium) on April 8, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

On the same day, I saw the first broken buds of the cloned dogwood (Cornus florida "Appalachian Spring") I observe as part of another USA-NPN campaign. I also watch a native Cornus florida farther down the lane, however, it hasn't emerged from its winter break yet. As far down as Knoxville, of course, lots of 2018 dogwood season events are already underway.

Emerging leaves of Cornus florida "Appalachian Spring" on April 8, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The apple tree has a few small leaves and some flower buds now. I saw some open flowers near the top of the tree. On April 6th, the flowering activity on most of the tree looked like the image below. Some flowering plants took a bit of a hit with the frost this morning. I hope the apple made it through.

Apple blossom buds on April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Among the latest early spring wildflower arrivals is the early buttercup (below). Other yellows out in the holler belong to dandelions, Indian strawberry and maybe some cinquefoil, though I haven't had time to get close enough for positive ID's yet.

Early buttercup (Ranunculus fascicularis) on April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I found a couple of marsh blue violets among their common blue and longspur relatives this week. This one was under the apple tree. The image below doesn't show the dark veins on the other half of the petals. I couldn't get it to stand up straight enough to catch a view of it without out seriously messing with the plant, so opted for a future try as more of them come out.

Marsh blue violet (Viola cucullata), April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I did finally get a decent photo of some long-spurred violets, which are up and open in larger bunches throughout the holler this week:

Long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata) on April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

In addition to cutleaf and slender toothwarts, I found this flowering broadleaf toothwart. Most of the toothworts in the holler grow down in the Hudson Branch floodplain, an area that definitely represents a "moist, rich woods or alluvial" environment that typically hosts them.

Broadleaf toothwort (Dentaria diphylla) on April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I was recently reminded that Dentaria leaves are a primary food source for caterpillars of West Virginia White butterflies (Pieris virginiensis), which I see quite often in the holler. I intend to keep a sharper eye out for these when I'm around toothworts from now on.

Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) on April 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Today as I sat down to write this post, I saw a blue-headed vireo in the trees outside my window. I thought I'd heard one earlier in the week. They have a song that clued me in pretty quickly to their presence. As I finish this post, I see more wings in the air beyond my window: two titmice and a female cardinal now join me for the publish button ceremony!

Buckeye leaves, trout lily, violets, and other stuff out in the holler this week

Buckeye-1 leaves on March 29, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

First, an update on last week's buckeye bud burst: from that tight wad of reddish-green that was the terminal bud came all of these leaves. I'm really happy to have this young buckeye on my observation list because I can get so close to it. Last year I discovered lots of mature buckeyes growing across the creek from Buckeye-1, but I have to view their phenophases with binoculars.

The trout lily community has many more members this week with buds and flowers:

Trout lily-1 on March 29, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Just down the lane from Trout lily-1, I found two more growing close together, and got the earliest photo yet of a newly emerging bud. Four days later, both plants had flowers. You can see them at my photo blog here.

This lily community has so many members that it's hard to get to some of the other plants I observe without stepping on somebody. Over the years, though, I've marked a certain path in mind, and stuck very close to it when I walked through this area of the holler. By now, the safe way through is pretty clear, but I limit my trips off of the lane to protect these small plants as much as possible.

Cutleaf Toothwort-1, March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Last year, very few toothworts made it to, or through, their flowering phenophases in the holler. Cutleaf toothwort-1 (above) has a full load of flowers now, but like many of its relatives, it had no flowers last season, then quickly yellowed and died. I'm pretty sure cold air and frosts at critical points in their development played a part in the toothwort demise. This year they seem to be doing better. Cutleaf (Dentaria lacinata) and Slender (D. heterophyla) toothworts -- historically with a flowering season from March to April -- both have individuals up and flowering now. Fineleaf toothwort, another early species, also grows in the holler, but I have not seen any for several years. If I ever find another one, I'm going to mark it.

The fourth toothwort species in the holler, Broadleaf toothwort (D. diphylla), has leaves up now but typically flowers later (April to May) in this part of Tennessee. With the exception of one cutleaf toothwort, the broadleaf toothwort was the only species I saw with flowers last year.

Toothwort-2 on March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Both trillium plants I observe have unfurled leaves this week but no sign of buds yet:

Trillium-1 on March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Just a few inches from Trillium-1, however, this Trillium grandiflorum has a new bud:

New bud on White Trillium, March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

A few yellow trilliums that came up a week or so ago have open flowers. Further down the lane I spotted one of the red trillium species with buds, though not sure which one it is yet.

Foamflower, another early spring species, and one of several Saxifrage Family members that grow in the holler, is up. The one below is the first I've seen with buds:

Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The Violet family has great early spring representation in the holler. I found several longspur violets up, but failed to get decent photos of any. However, many of the common blue violets -- like the one below -- opened enough to verify their identity this week: 

Common blue violet (Viola sororia), March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Sweet white violet leaves and buds started appearing around March 25th. I found these open flowers later in the week:

Sweet white violet (Viola blanda) on March 29, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

So much more is happening now, from my end of the holler to the end of Terry Creek Lane, that I'll just list a few for now:

Plants with leaves, buds or flowers up now: woodland phlox, dwarf crested iris, Robin plantain, wood vetch.

New bird songs: hooded warbler, yellow-throated warbler.

Nesting pairs: Carolina wren and eastern phoebe couples are building nests near the house.

More butterflies showing up: West Virginia white, Horace duskywing.

And...the first carpenter bee of the season came to the window and looked in at me!

 

Caught in the act: Buckeye Bud Burst

Buckeye-1, March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Bucky! I pretty much shouted for joy to have caught Buckeye-1 with leaves just breaking through its bud scales. Such are the simple pleasures of a phenology observer.

When I did my holler walk on March 23rd, I wasn't sure what I'd find. Two inches of snow in the early morning hours and most of the day of the 21st covered most plants. That night and the next, we had freeze warnings, with daytime temperatures just high enough to melt most of the snow. Many of the plants I observe already had leaves, buds or flowers; I guessed others were close to popping up because I'd been seeing their relatives in lower elevations of the holler for several days.

Trillium grandiflorum, March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

When I finally got out for a closer look on the 23rd, I found everybody in good shape. Stuff that had already come up, as well as new arrivals like the buckeye leaves and white trillium (above) looked lively and undamaged. I also found yellow trillium (see photo below), many with buds forming, in several locations by the house and the creek.

Trillium luteum, March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Never knowing what I'll find, and being surprised, is yet another joy of tracking life cycles of plants, birds, insects and animals in the holler. In my last post I noted that yellow trout lily (aka dogtooth violet) leaves had emerged, so I knew buds and flowers would be along soon. Here's what I saw around the marker for dogtooth violet-1 before I even got to the buckeye and trillium flags:

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Further down the lane, I noticed that Jewelweed-3's leaves had grown some. The photo below illustrates the presence of initial growth--the larger, rounder structures, and the first phenophase I watch for in spring--as well as the first actual leaves, another phenophase, visible between them at their base. As the leaves grow, the initial growth will turn yellow and drop off. Until then, when I submit data on Nature's Notebook for this plant, I'll mark that I observed both phenophases for Jewelweed-3.

Orange Jewelweed-3 on March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The star chickweed, another common early spring flower in the holler, started coming up about the same time rue anemone did this year. This one only has a couple of flowers now, but during its usual season from April to May, these chickweeds will have many flowers per plant. In the holler, I often find them near violets and trout lilies--very photogenic groupings. I'll try to illustrate this in a future post.

Star chickweed (Stellaria pubera), March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Rue Anemone-1 (below) made it through the snow and freezes and shows one of its flowers fully open and moving toward the seed phenophase. This is one of the plants I thought might take more of a beating with the harsh weather last week. 

Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The amur honeysuckle and multiflora rose plants I observe have lots of leaves now, some of which have reached full size, even as other parts of the plant have breaking buds. Here's the multiflora rose on March 23rd:

Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), March 23, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Last night we had a few minutes of hail accompanied by thunder, lightning and heavy rain here in the holler, a total of 6-inches of rain out of this last system. Many of the flowering plants I observe have at least some shrub and tree cover above them, which helps break the impact of hail. I'm guessing I might see a lot of forsythia blossoms on the ground today, as that bush is more in the open. I hope to get out later to see what's up--or down.

By the way, I added a new Phenology album to my Flickr pages. I'll add photos and comments there that illustrate phenophases of the species I observe for Nature's Notebook. You can also access my photostream from the Flickr link in the sidebar.

Toothwort flowers, yellow trout lily leaves, and other early risers in the holler

Early risers such as this cutleaf toothwort (Dentaria lacinata) continue progress through their phenophases, despite freezing night temperatures. Flower buds on this plant opened around March 17, 2018 [Cathie Bird photo]

 

After my last post, I decided to track daily weather highs and lows more closely for awhile, and notice how different plants fared. So far, the coldest temperatures of any 24-hour cycle have not lasted long -- for the most part, just 2-3 hours of freezing air before it starts getting warmer again. The lows themselves have not been more than 6-7 degrees below 32ºF. I'm speculating that this situation is consistent with weather history of the holler.

I hadn't done such close surveillance before and had not thought much about resilience of wild plants to what seemed pretty darned cold for little lives out in the woods. Thinking more about it this week, in light of considerations for how long earth, air and water stay warm during a day and how long they have to cool down before a reversal, it made more sense to me why most wild things seem to do pretty well even though this human worries about them!

Initial leaf of a yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum), March 17, 2018. [Cathie Bird photo]

I have seen frost on my car during this period but not on the ground or plants. So far. Most wild plants I observe seem to do okay with one session of frost, but not with several in a row.

Rue Anemone-2 (Thalictrum thalictroides) has moved beyond its initial leaf stage, and has multiple flowers. March 17, 2018. [Cathie Bird photo]

One of the species that has not shown signs of a spring breakout is the apple tree down the lane. When earlier-than-usual warming periods began happening a few years ago, this tree responded with disastrous results. What I notice now is that it doesn't start budding or leafing out during the first warm days, even though other plants do. The quince bushes also seem to have adapted in this way, although they put out what I call "test buds" early, then more as the warm periods stretch out. Speculating again: the apple and quince are making adjustments to a warming climate.

Echinacea leaves are up, March 6, 2018. This particular group grows in front of a large rock that probably serves as a bed warmer of sorts. [Cathie Bird photo]

I'm seeing leaves of several violet species throughout the holler. The haldberdleaf yellow violet (below) grows in the woodland edges close to my house. I don't observe this species for Nature's Notebook, but they are one of my favorite early spring flowers.

Haldberdleaf Yellow Violet (Viola hastata), March 6, 2018. [Cathie Bird photo]

The day I checked on yellow violet progress, I also scanned the area for yellow trillium and leaf bud activity on a nearby Mapleleaf Viburnam. No action here yet, but, on my way back from town on Saturday (the 17th), I spotted a yellow trillium in the lower regions of Terry Creek. I look forward to emergence of the four trillium species that grow in the holler neighborhood.

Narcissus in my rock garden, March 6, 2018.

Activity in rock garden and planter areas includes narcissus, daffodils, phlox and bee balm. Orange daylily and iris leaves are much bigger than they were at the time of my February 27th post. A few dandelions are up, and grass on the lane and around the house will need to be mowed soon.

This morning as I wrote this post, a pair of eastern phoebes flew around an old nesting site on the porchlight above the planters. I'll check later today for placement of new nesting material. They have plenty of bugs to keep them energized for now!

 

Out in the holler: goldfinches, white wood aster, heath aster

American goldfinches returned to this end of the holler as soon as the Echinacea patch fruits ripened, and I finally got a decent photo of the female. She and two males harvested the seeds for about a month before returning -- most likely -- to the huge fields beyond my observation plot. I still see them or their relations when I drive out to town.

American Goldfinch female (Carduelis tristis) feeding on Echinacea seeds, September 19, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

My last sighting of goldfinches up here was on September 24th when I saw one of the males feeding on yellow crownbeard, just around the corner from the Echinacea patch.

This year I added a couple of asters to my observation list: white wood asters and white heath asters. I delayed reporting observations on these species until they had flowers, even though I'd been watching areas where I'd seen them growing. I'm more familiar with the flower phenophases of most forbs -- once the flowers are present, I start anchoring images of their leaves into memory so I can catch their initial growth the following season. Next year, of course, I'll have the marker flags to help me out.

Wood asters -- lots of them -- populate the moist woods behind my house. If I have not already sensed a shift into fall energy, the flowering of Eurybia divaricata gives me a shove. I identified these plants very soon after my move to the holler seventeen years ago.

White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata), September 19, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

White heath asters, on the other hand, have only recently begun to grow around my house. I think this is only the second or third year I've noticed them. They have integrated the Echinacea patch that grows on ground disturbed by construction of an addition to the house in the late 1990s. I'm wondering if they were seeded by birds that visit the Echinacea, or maybe by my dog, who brings all kinds of seeds into the yard and house in his fur!

White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides), September 26, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The first heath asters I observed in the area grew further down the holler along the lane that goes through my neighbors' field. Over the years I noticed them spreading up the Hudson Branch drainage toward my place. Identification of these plants as Symphyotrichum ericoides is still in the realm of "my best guess", however. Plants commonly called "white heath aster" come up under several genus/species designations in plant guides and online sources, and differentiation has not always been clear to me. I'll keep following this but, for now, I'm going with this ID.

So, now that the asters are flowering, I'm reflecting on observations of holler phenophases over the spring and summer of 2017. Last year, an early spring followed by late summer/early fall drought and wildfires shaped what I saw in the holler and in my neighborhood. An early spring came again in 2017, but spring and summer were noticeably wetter, and generally cooler. Add to this the ongoing maturation of plant and animal communities that have been relatively free of significant disturbance for several years. In my next post, I'll share some thoughts about all of this.

Related articles

American goldfinches feeding from socks

Sightings in the holler: wood sorrels, blackberry, maple-leaf viburnam, lyreleaf sage, wood thrush

I have been recording the presence of wood thrushes for several years, but had not seen active individuals until one flew up out of the grass and landed on a branch, at eye level, only 10 feet or so from me on April 24th. I had my camera but focused on a mental picture so I could double-check the field marks when I got home. I'd have to say that was the most treasured sighting since my last post.

This spring, I discovered several new colonies of Oxalis violacea -- the violet wood sorrel -- mixed in with violets, orange jewelweed, wingstems and several other species:

Violet Wood sorrel (Oxalis violacea), April 25, 2017, [Photo: Cathie Bird]

This week, the fading O. violacea have been succeeded by their yellow relatives, Oxalis stricta, in numbers greater than I recall ever seeing before:

Common wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta), April 30, 2017 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

In other areas of the holler, multiflora rose bushes were loaded with flowers this week. The one I observe is in a shadier spot, and slower to flower. I saw its first flowers on April 25th, and got this photo on the 30th:

Multiflora rose flowers, April 30, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I ended last week's holler report with a screen shot of a storm system that ended up dumping 10+ inches of rain in 2 days before moving on. For a few hours, Terry Creek came over the access lane and bridge, trapping me at the high end of the holler. Because many of the plant and tree species in my Nature's Notebook observation area grow on or near the banks of Hudson Branch, I was worried. When I did my first holler walk on Monday after the storm, I was happy to find all of them unharmed. Here's a photo of a downed tree and the gravel deposit it created; the white flowers in the bottom right area of the photo belong to Multiflora Rose-1:

Material left by areal flooding last weekend in the main channel of Hudson Branch, about 20 feet from the multiflora rose [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Also flowering in the past week: the mapleleaf viburnam...

Mapleleaf Viburnam, May 2, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

and blackberries, yay! Later in the season, I'll start taking a container on my holler walks so I can bring some ripe berries back to the house:

Blackberry flowers, April 30, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Higher in the holler, and closer to my house, the lyreleaf sage is plentiful and peaking:

Lyreleaf Sage, May 1, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I don't see a lot of bedstraw in the holler, which makes it more fun when I do spot some:

Bedstraw (Galium aparine), April 30, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I think the early spring and its erratic temperatures made it hard for the Dwarf Crested Iris. Very few bloomed this year (photo below) and the ones I saw seemed smaller than usual:

Dwarf Crested Iris, April 26, 2017. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Another group that seemed to suffer from early emergence into shifting air temperatures and weather patterns was the toothworts. I saw only one plant of one species with any flowers -- a Dentaria diphylla -- though many individuals of at least three of the four species found in the holler made it into the leaf phenophase.

Among the species showing up last week, but for which I rarely snag photos: whitetail dragonflies, tent worm caterpillars, little satyr butterflies.

One of my main projects this week is to settle a bunch of new garden plants into their permanent homes. The annuals I got from the greenhouse will give butterflies and insects something to sip on while the perennials put their flowering act together.