Odd and ends

Lichen and bark

I’m still coughing from that dratted, awful cold but mostly I am back to normal.  Here on Roundtop, spring is starting to spring.  I see yellow-rumped warblers fairly regularly.  The American coot that set up shop on the little snowmaking pond is still there. The bird seems healthy and happy, but why it has chosen this little pond to hang out on when bigger ponds and lakes abound isn’t something I understand.

The dog-toothed violets/trout lilies/etc. are just about ready to bloom.  The stalks are up but the flowers aren’t yet out.  I will check the patch later today again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few flowers open before evening.

Except for two days, the entire month of March here has been above average in temperature.  For a while, it looked as though the month would rank in the top five warmest March’s since recordkeeping began.  Those two cooler days were enough to drop the month into the #7 slot.  So far the month is 6.7 degrees warmer than average, which is pretty warm.

At the moment the wind is fierce, following a day of light showers and fog.  With this kind of wind I don’t venture outside very often or too much.  It’s the kind of wind that brings down branches but hopefully not trees.  Still, I feel a lot safer with a roof over my head.

Last of the green



Greenshield lichen

December is only just getting started but already the weather her eon Roundtop has been through more changes than you could expect over en entire month. It’s too warm, then it’s cold, then it’s going to get warm again and then there’s rain or maybe ice. I barely know what to wear from hour to hour, let alone from day to day. 

My photo today is a greenshield lichen . Actually this is two organisms, a fungus and an algae, so it’s not a plant at all. This and the mosses are about the only thing around the cabin that’s still green.

The lichen is common on Roundtop, but I think this example is a particularly nice one. Many are smaller and appear less three-dimensional. Lichens are usually quite sensitive to pollution, which is why you don’t see them very much in urban areas. This one is flavoparmelia caperata and grows mostly on trees. There’s another variety of caperata that seems to prefer rocks, and I have that one here too.

It was a quiet day on the mountain.  The most exciting thing that happened was a quick sighting of a golden-crowned kinglet. It was too fast to even reach for the camera, let alone get a shot of it.  Ruby-crowned kinglets are more common here--or at least more commonly seen.  The bird likely won't hang around very long, but they are always fun to see.   

A little greenery

With 60 degree weather in February, I almost expect to see leaves popping out at any second. Apparently, the leaves know better, as I see no evidence of popping. Even the grass is still brown and brittle. So the only green things around are the mosses and lichens, such as this moss-covered tree.

The temperatures are so balmy that I have look up into the night sky, just to make sure the winter constellation Orion the Hunter is still there and not replaced by spring’s Leo the Lion.

In a normal winter, I would be thinking that snow, even a big snow, is still possible in March. A March snow doesn’t usually last very long here, but this year, I don’t see much potential for a March snow. Even though long-range forecasts are notoriously wrong, the temperature forecasts aren’t even close to being able to produce snow. Winter is done. The only real question is how long will it take for spring to arrive?

A little rain

A little rain is falling on the mountain this morning. Very little, actually, and not nearly enough to impact the nearly 5 inch rainfall deficit. Still, it’s enough to likely end the red flag fire warning that the area is under currently. At least I hope so. This is certainly the first time I’ve seen one of those in March.

In any event, the overcast skies made it too dark to take a photo this morning, so I am posting one I took on Monday evening. Today’s photos is a lichen. Pennsylvania has over 400 species of lichens, I’ve read, but I’m not really able to identify many of them. Sometimes I think I can identify the family, but further investigation often makes me doubt even that much.

What I can tell you is that a group of small trees in this one spot are pretty much covered with this particular lichen. I am thinking this is one of the so-called green shield lichens, which are both common in my area and commonly grow on tree bark. If so, then this is not a plant. Green shield lichens are a combination of a fungus and either an algae or a photosynthetic bacteria.

Like all lichens, they tend to be sensitive to pollution, which is why they are not commonly seen in urban areas. However, that said, this particular lichen family is apparently at least somewhat less sensitive than most. They are said not to harm the trees on which they grow.

I suspect this is flavoparmelia caperata, the common green shield lichen. This variety likes clinging to tree bark, but will also grow on rocks, and the round or oval rosettes are typical. The surface of the lichens gets greener when wet—that’s the algae part migrating to the surface.

Maybe it will be greener tomorrow. I'll have to check.

A few good lichens

The lichens on this rock are amazing. So many colors, such interesting patterns. It’s even more interesting to look at them up close, with a microscope or a good hand lens. To me, they look like a coral reef, with all sorts of interesting shapes, some feathery, some hairy. Lichens can "make a living" where virtually nothing else can. They don’t have roots, so they draw water and nutrients directly from the air. When conditions are poor, they simply close up shop and wait for things to get better.

Many insects live in or on them and later become food for larger animals, so lichens are a critical part of the food chain. In some places, large animals forage on the lichens in winter. Birds and small animals often collect them for nesting materials.

And yet, lichens are not widely studied. Let’s face it, they’re not the most exciting thing on the planet. The don’t even grow very fast, perhaps just a millimeter or so a year. So when an area of them is wiped out, it can take decades, even centuries, for them to recolonize that area. And changes to a forest bring changes to lichens. Something like the end of the chestnut trees brought entirely new group of lichens to the forest.

In Pennsylvania, some 30% of the identified lichens are found in two or fewer counties. Many species are thought to be in trouble, but they are so poorly studied that no one knows how much trouble they are in. They have been called the "canaries in the mine" because they are one of the first organisms to go when something is wrong in a habitat. Identifying them is almost impossible for an average person like me. For one thing, more than 15,000 species have been identified, which makes a good field guide nearly impossible. And the differences between species are often minute, requiring both testing and a microscope.

So what are these lichens? Well, I can safely call them a crustose-type, which essentially means they are deeply fixed into the rock and are basically 2-dimensional. They form circular colonies and are some of the slowest growers—in that one-millimeter a year range. Other types are foliose, which means they are leaf-shaped and 3-dimensional, and fructicose, which stand upright, often with a cupped shape. They are usually found on trees, not rocks.

Around my cabin, I have a lot of rocks and a lot of lichens. To me the lichens look pretty healthy, as best I can tell. Of course, my best in this one isn’t very good. But if they start to disappear, I’ll let you know.

Moutain Textures

One good thing about the recent bio-blitz is that it forced me to start looking more at things in the natural world that I don't normally look at. I don't usually pay much attention to lichens and/or mosses, and I still can't identify them, but now at least I'm looking at them. In so doing, I'm finding that they are a lot more interesting than my previous inattention would indicate. Here's a tree on Roundtop with several kinds of lichens and mosses on it.

I found a Web site that said Pennsylvania had just under 400 species of them. It had some photos but the photos were such close-ups that I can't really ID my lichens from them. Anyway, I found the lichens on this tree particularly interesting because of the different colors and shapes.

The mountain is very lush with greenery right now. An inch of rain on both Thursday and Saturday nights saw to that. Summer's canopy is so dense at the cabin that I have to walk out to the end of the driveway to see the sky. It will be that way until October or so, when the canopy starts to thin out again. It's a little tough to get used to that each year. One thing I like about winter is the view I have. I can see over to the mountain to the west and the edge of the new pond about .25 mile to the north. Now, I can see no more than 50 feet in any direction and less to the west. The forest both shelters and confines me at the same time.