Bio-blitz 3 (Mammals and an Osprey)

Spring is rushing headlong through Roundtop. I am ever amazed at which the speed of the landscape around me can change. I see differences from night to morning.

The first photo was taken looking up my driveway. Redbud trees are starting to color, but the trees still have a long way to go to be fully leafed out.

Today, I'm recording the mammals for my bio-blitz.



White-tailed deer - at least 5 that I know of and likely more. Dog and I often startled a doe who is still running with last year's twin fawns and 2 other adult deer.

Gray squirrels - I've seen as many as 7 at one time.

Raccoons - I've had 4 different ones at the semi-feral cat feeders, and there are 5 of the cats that were dropped off here at Roundtop.

Rabbit - I've seen 3-4 at once.

Groundhogs - These aren't usually at the cabin but are at the edge of the ski slopes, sometimes wandering into the woods. 2-3

Red fox - 2 that I know of and likely more.

Skunk - 1 (I hope)

Oppsussum - 2 at least

Mice - Field mice and white-footed mouse (My Maine Coon cat Ben caught one of these last week and left it by his food dish).

As I was driving into the cabin last night, I came across this Osprey perched above the old snowmaking pond. Sorry the for poor quality photo. The sky was very overcast. I don't get to see ospreys at the cabin but a few times a year, and I can't remember the last time I saw one perching, so it was a photo that deserved taking, regardless.

Bio-Blitz Part 2 with New Arrivals!

Sometime between the last notes of yesterday’s avian evening symphony and the first notes of this morning’s dawn chorus, I’ve had two new arrivals. The wood thrush and the ovenbirds have arrived!

These two species always (and I do mean always) arrive here at exactly the same time. The actual day of arrival differs slightly, but I never have the one species arrive even a day before the other. It does seem as though wood thrush arrive with slightly greater numbers than ovenbirds. This morning I heard 3 thrush to 1 ovenbird. In another few days, the ovenbirds will likely outnumber the thrush.

It makes me wonder. Do these birds migrate together? Do they take the same bus north? Do they hang out together on their wintering grounds? I have no idea, though I like the idea of that last. Since they arrive together, is it possible the same birds are neighbors for life, wherever they go? I wonder if anyone has attempted to find out?

Butterflies
Eastern blue- this is a tiny pale blue butterfly that’s one of the first butterflies of the spring and also one of the most common. I usually first see them on opening day of trout season. This year trout season came early and the butterflies came later, but they’re here now
Cabbage white – doesn’t everyone have these?

Birds
Black-throated green warbler – I saw 3-4 of them this morning
Yellow-rumped warbler – just one so far
Chipping sparrow – they’ve arrived!
White-throated sparrows – they’re still here and those yellow lores are twice as bright now as they were this winter!
Blue Jay
American Crow
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Phoebe
Chickadee sp.
Tufted Titmouse
Hairy woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Carolina wren
Turkey vulture
White-breasted nuthatch
Brown Creeper
American Goldfinch
Great horned owl
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Mockingbird
Eurasian Starling
Common Grackle
American Robin
Eastern Bluebird
White-throated sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch

Bio-Blitz - Day 1

What could be more perfect than bio-blitzing around the cabin on the day when spring explodes into its fullest self? Not much, I’m sure. First, I get to spend even more time outside than I usually do. Second, I have a purpose to be outside even longer than I usually do. I don’t have to pretend I’m doing outside work. I don’t even have to pretend I’m thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’m bio-blitzing, thank you very much. Everything else can wait.

My goal for the cabin bio-blitz is to make a concerted effort to identify more plants. I tend to be a bird and animal kind of girl. I will stop dead at the sound of a bird calling in the distance to try and identify it, while every day I walk right past the little green things on the floor of my front forest and not have a clue about what I’m not seeing. For me, bio-blitzing will be an educational project that will force me to find/buy more guidebooks so I can identify what I’m looking at.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:
Trees (9 species):
Red oak – these are majestic beauties
American beech- 2 large ones in the front forest. Their light gray bark is beautiful
Tulip poplar
Hickory
Sassafras – my dad taught me to chew the end of the leaf stem when I was a kid. Now that's a good flavor!
Redbud – I can begin to see the red, but they’re not fully in bloom yet
Dogwood – I have 2 small ones just starting to bloom.
American Chestnut - one of these looks pretty large to me. I'm holding my breath that it will continue to do well.

Plants (13 species):
Mayapple – the most common plant at the cabin right now. I’ve counted 87 plants in about 2 square yards, got tired of counting, so I stopped. It's safe to say hundreds are here, and more are appearing every day.

Trout lily – known locally as dog-toothed violet (but it’s not a violet). I have a nice bed of these right behind where I park the car. That’s where I took this photo (top photo).

Bloodroot - Currently, I have about 18 flowers in 3 different bunches. The root of the bloodroot was used by native Americans and others to make red dye. Isn’t it amazing that someone would even think to dig up this little plant to look at the root and then somehow figure out that you could make dye from it? All I can say is that you must only need a little bit to make a lot of dye or there used to be a lot more of these plants around than there are today. Notice how the leaves of this plant kind of curl around the stem (second photo). That's typical.
Spring beauty – I usually have tons of these, but so far this spring they are slightly less abundant than usual. More are appearing every day, though.

Wild violet - I have several bunches of these right by my front steps but they’re not blooming yet.
Coltsfoot – several plants out by the lane
Bleeding heart – Native to the area but I planted the one I have.
Wild raspberry – I’m already waiting for these to be ripe. There’s nothing that tastes as good as wild black raspberries.
Autumn olive – I think
Multiflora rose – Another invasive species
Wild grapes

Dandelion

Grass

Moss and lichens – boy, are these difficult to identify. The majority of the Web resources I’ve found are checklists without pictures. I did learn that in a "preliminary survey" Pennsylvania was found to have 363 species of these. I think I will just let this go for now until I can find a good guide. Let's just say I have lots.

Tomorrow: Birds, butterflies, and mammals