11-11-11 and Attacking the Alien Invaders

On 11-11-11, we woke to a snowy world.

Okay, so it wasn't terribly snowy, but snowy enough to make things white.  Toby always has to sample the snow.  I keep telling him it's not really good until February, but he insists on forming his own opinion.

By afternoon the snow had melted away, but it was lovely while it lasted.

By the weekend the temps had soared back into the 60s.  I have some time off coming to me at work, so I stayed home Saturday to take advantage of the balmy weather and attack the remaining woody invasives in my yard:  honeysuckles.

Armed with a bowsaw, a set of loppers, a bottle of concentrated RoundUp and a paintbrush, I sallied forth and had at it.

Before long I was left with several piles of trunks and branches, and had my fingers crossed that the freshly painted stumps would not sprout come spring 2012.

This morning I was very pleased to find that juncos and sparrows (I don't know which ones) had already taken possession of the new brush piles (you can just see a junco to the left of center in the photo below - they all flew away when I came back out with my camera). Brush piles are highly underrated by homeowners.  I suspect it is because most people are rather obsessed with The Perfect Tidy Lawn.  Not me - give me a messy yard any day.  I let the grass grow, I plant trees and shrubs in random locations, and I will probably leave these piles of brush lying about.  They make terrific cover for small birds, who will flitter and flutter in and out of them in search of food and shelter.  I may even move a pile over near the birdfeeders.  I just hope the branches don't resprout (like the honeysuckle branches did back at my house in Newcomb).

As I was sawing and lopping my way thru the tangle, I discovered some stout stems growing among the shrubbery and trees.  One thing stood out on these stems:  the large, white leaf scars.

I knew this leaf scar.  It was familiar.  I wracked my brain trying to remember which species it belonged to. Ash?  Walnut?   The phrase "monkey faced leaf scar" kept teasing me.  It was one we used in my dendrology class, oh these many years ago, to remember the species.  Grrrr!  It was dancing around the edges of my memory and I just couldn't come up with a definite answer, although I was leaning towards the walnuts.

There were two reasons for this.  One:  there are a LOT of black walnuts around.  A LOT.  And two:  the ashes have been pretty much wiped out by the emerald ash borer here in Michigan.

I grabbed my copy of Harlow's Fruit and Twig Key and thumbed through it. No luck.

As I sit here at my desk, now, with various books littering the surface around me, I find myself still stumped.  The one clue I need I don't have - a sample of the pith!  This requires cutting off a twig and splitting it open to see the middle.  The stems don't have any branches, so I am reluctant to cut, for I'd have to take the terminal end of the entire plant, and I don't want to do that.

Moving on, we next look at the bundle scars - the bits/spots inside the leaf scar.  If this were one of the walnuts, there would be three bundle scars, one in each lobe of the leaf scar, and they would be rather horseshoe-shaped (making the scar look like a monkey's face).  These are not - they dot the leaf scar all around the curved edge.  Therefore, not a walnut. 

Frustration sets in.

Finally, as a last resort, I Google "walnut leaf scar" and look at images.  There it is!  I open the image and take a closer look.  Alianthus altissima - tree-of-heaven.  Invasive species!  I've never seen one of these.  The leaf scar is the right shape, the bundle scars are in the right locations, and it sports a solitary bud at the top of each leaf scar. 

So now I have to know what this tree looks like.  I Google it and there it is.  It looks like a sumac.  Could it be that all these trees along the roadside that I thought were sumacs are actually Alianthus?  Knowing how invasive this species is, it wouldn't surprise me. 

I just popped over to Gary's office and we looked it up in his handbook of invasive plants, and there it is - a perfect match for my photo above.  Looks like I've got a few more stems to cut and dab when I get home.

And...Speaking of Invasives...

Driving in my car...put on the radio...

As I was cruising home two nights ago (6.5 hours on the road - I was at a conference up in Midland), I saw these large, blooming plants along the side of the road...MY road. 

I did a double take.

No.

Could it be?

I asked Gary yesterday:  is giant hogweed in Michigan?  He said yes, but not too prevalently, yet.  Well, I said, I think I saw some yesterday along my road.

So this morning I stopped and took photos.  As you can see from the first image, it is large; the only thing I could think to use for scale was the road sign (I didn't want to go near it).  Y'see, giant hogweed, another invasive species, is also highly dangerous.  Any contact with this plant can cause severe "contact dermatitis" that is exacerbated by exposure to light.

Huh?

Have you ever had a rash from poison ivy?  Well, this is many many times worse.   Here, I'll show you (I swiped these off the internet):

This plant has been used to poison (kill) people.  It is a baaaad plant.  If you see giant hogweed, do NOT approach it (unless you are heavily garbed in clothes you are willing to throw out).

It can, however, be controlled, especially when the infestation isn't too large.  Here is a notice on eradication put out by the NYS DEC.

Still, I wasn't 100% sure that this was giant hogweed.  After all, I do have a tendency to rush headfirst to conclusions only to bash into a wall of misidentification.  So, I continued to look, for I know there are some look-alikes for this horrid plant.

Sure enough, I was right - I was wrong!  The leaves were the key for correct identification of this plant.  It turns out that what I found is cow parsnip (which I erroneously thought had yellow flowers).  Cow parsnip (a native plant) can also grow to monumental heights (up to ten feet), and also has enormous leaves, but the leaves are more like a maple leaf than, oh, say a fern leaf.  They are lobed, but not deeply lobed.  Take a look at the bottom leaf in the second photo.  Now compare it to the giant hogweed leaf below.

These two plants are related, and although cow parsnip is not as dangerous as giant hogweed, it, too, contains a phototoxin that can cause some pretty bad contact dermatitis (burns) for those who choose to tangle with it.  Like poison ivy, though, it seems that not everyone is sensitive to the chemical, so it is possible that one can contact the plant without any adverse reactions.  But why take the chance?

I'm just glad to know that it isn't the highly invasive giant hogweed growing along the sides of my road.  Whew!  Dodged a bullet there.

Lime Lake

Shortly after I rolled in to work yesterday, Gary asked if I'd like to accompany him on a jaunt over to Lime Lake, a local park that is part of the Falling Waters Trail.  He'd taken the Tuesday Morning Group out there and had see so many terrific things, but had left his camera at work, so he wanted to go back and get photos of some of the nests they found.  How could I refuse?  So, of course, I said "Sure!"

Here we are at Lime Lake, which is actually two smallish lakes, sort of man-made.  On the far side here there is a fen, so there was definitely water in the area prior to man's involvement.  And why did man get involved?

Here you can see some of the remnants below the water's surface of the once rather prolific marl mining operation that was here.

Only a few feet from the shoreline the lake's bottom drops dramatically to a depth of 30 feet or so.  This was the mine pit.

Marl, which is a limestone, was dug up here for use on the agricultural fields all around.  The soils in this part of Michigan are no the best in the world, as I've noted before (especially on my gardening blog).  Some parts are acidic, others are alkaline.  The marl, which is a crumbly substance, was used to help balance the pH and make the soils a bit more fertile. The sign below tells all about it.

 

But, our primary reason for this trip was the nest below.  It's the nest of a warbling vireo, a small grey bird with an oriole-like song.  Sort of.  Gary described the song as "squeeze me, squeeze me, squeeze me 'til I squirt."  We did see the bird, and we definitely heard one or two, but no one was at the nest when we stopped by.  If it weren't for Gary's eagle eyes when it comes to all things bird, I don't think anyone would have seen this nest - it is very well hidden. (It is in the center of the photo.)

I was happy to see this familiar-looking plant:  sumac.  To the untrained eye, this looks like it could be staghorn sumac, the species I am familiar with from back home.  However, it has no fuzzy coverings on its stems, and the leaves are very smooth.  This is smooth sumac, another native, and one that is quite prolific in these parts.  I may, in fact, already have some on my property.  It is certainly a species to cultivate for a) it is native and b) it produces fruits that are important to our native birds.  I need to acquire some more.

Now, this fellow was a surprise.  It was zipping along the paved path in quite a hurry.  It's rather cylindrical shape and striking coloring made me want to photograph it, but I had to slow it down first.  Voila!  My foot made a great barrier.  I snapped a couple shots and off it dashed again.  Gary thought it looked rather cockroachish.  Hm.  The only cockroaches I've ever seen were the Madagascan hissing cockroaches we had at the zoo where I worked.  I've written about cockroaches, I have a great book about cockroaches, but I've never lived where cockroaches lived.  I sent this image off to BugGuide, and within minutes I had an answer:  it is definitely a cockroach, but it's been forwarded to the appropriate experts for species ID.  Will keep you posted.  On the one hand, it's rather exciting to add a new critter to my life list of things I've seen, but on the other hand, shudder, cockroaches!  I'm not sure how I feel living where these guys exist.

There are many (and I do mean MANY) bluebird nest boxes along the trail, quite a number of which are there because of Gary's involvement with the creation of this trail.  We didn't see any bluebirds, but the boxes were all in use.  This one was stuffed full of plant material - house sparrows.  Invasive species - Gary removed the nest.

Most of the residents, however, were tree swallows, and there were tree swallows by the dozen flying around.  In fact, there were so many that it seems they'll nest in any available box, including boxes in need of repair,

and kestrel boxes, which are built for rather larger birds.

The general rule of thumb when putting up bluebird boxes is to pair them.  This is because tree swallows are rather territorial and will evict bluebirds in order to have the nest box.  If the box is paired with another, the theory is that they swallows will keep other swallows from nesting next door, allowing the bluebirds to move in in peace.  Well, here are two bluebird boxes and a kestrel box, all in a row, and each one had a tree swallow family in residence.  Many of the swallows had fledglings that had either a) just been kicked out of the house and the parents were now rebuilding for a second brood, or b) were in the process of coaxing the kids out for their first flights.

This turtle nest didn't make it.  Raccoons, skunks, foxes...they are all known to dig up turtle nests to have a fresh egg meal.  These eggs seemed a bit on the smallish side, so the nest probably wasn't the usual snapping turtle nest.  It could be a painted turtle's nest.  When Gary and the group were out here on Tuesday, they saw a large softshelled turtle (think pancake with legs, tail and head) laying eggs.  This is why one should always bring a camera along.

There were plenty of insects flying around, including this little European skipper - yes, a non-native butterfly.  It was "accidentally" turned loose 101 years ago in Canada, and is now taking over North America.  Skippers in general have a rapid and rather erratic flight, and they usually fly close to the ground.  This makes sneaking up on them a bit of a challenge.

And speaking of sneaking up on insects, I had some fun trying to sneak up on this calico pennant dragonfly.  It seems that every time I about had it lined up for a shot, it took off (I swear it was thumbing its nose at me).  Eventually, however, it perched for a few seconds allowing me to get a few nice images.  This is the male of the species.  The female would look similar in pattern, but instead of red and black, she would be yellow and black.  This seems to be a rather common trend in dragonflies.

We found a small patch of Deptford pinks in bloom.  It's a pretty little plant, native to Europe, and although it is found rather extensively here in the US, it doesn't seem to be a problematic plant.  Although, Gary did point out that even though it isn't really "invasive," he wonders what native plant would be blooming here instead if this plant hadn't come over.  It's an interesting question.

While not all non-native species are problematic, too many wreak havoc within our native ecosystems.  All along the trail ash trees were marked for cutting.  Some were dead, some still had leaves, but all were impacted by the emerald ash borer.  Back in New York, this highly destructive insect is only starting to get a hold on the landscape, but here in Michigan it's work is already done.  There are no (or nearly no) mature ash trees left.  The adult beetle bores into the trees, lays eggs and leaves.  The larvae eat the tree, and when they emerge, they leave these rather large holes behind (see below).  The end result:  the tree dies.  It seems that, like the American beech, young trees (saplings) are unaffected, but as long as this insect remains here, we will not have any more mature ashes in this country.  

Some places are taking action by cutting down all their ashes before the beetle arrives:  if there is no food, the insects will die off (that's the theory).  They did the same thing with chestnuts back in the day.  It's a nice idea, but I don't know how effective it is in the long run.

I suppose some folks may think that we naturalists harp a bit too much on alien invaders/non-native species.  The truth of the matter, however, is that with this highly mobile global world today, insects, plants, fungi, etc. have easy access to new frontiers.  When they arrive on foreign shores, if they are able to find food or a host, then they go to town unchecked, for their natural predators/control agents stayed back home.  There's nothing to slow 'em down.  People who are not in touch with the outdoors may think this is a non-issue - there are plenty of other plants (etc.) around, so what difference does it make if one or two species disappear.  The things is, it's not just one or two species.

Remember the food web?  We all learned about it when we were kids.  Everything is attached to everything else in nature.  If you wipe out all of a particular native plant, for example, what happens to the insects that depended on that plant for a food source?  If those insects now die out, what happens to the birds who depended on those insects to get them through the first days of spring, for even seed-eating birds rely on insects for their young?  Like ripples on a pond, loss of native species have far-reaching impacts that we many not realize until it is too late.

This is why we naturalists go on and on about eradicating non-native vegetation and replanting areas with the native plants.  We don't want to lose all those things that make North America, Michigan, New York, Alabama, Oregon special. 

End of rant.

A Morning Walk

 Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright...although it remained below freezing.  When I arrived at work, I decided it was imperative that I work on learning the property.  After all, I've been here three months now, so it is about time I became familiar with the place I was hired to interpret.

So, camera in hand, I hit the frosty trails.

 Frosty branches in wetland.

 Frosty deer scats on boardwalk.

 Very frosty railing along boardwalk.

 Frosty vegetation on the ground.

Frosty leaf.

This tree trunk fascinates me every time I walk by.  Three holes, each atop the last.  Why?  What caused the crease in which these holes reside?  There must've been some sort of damage done to this tree, which caused the crease (the tree's continual growth giving the original injury rounded sides).  This damage must have in turn attracted insects, which took up residence inside.  And then the insects attracted birds, which excavated the holes.

Not all strange growths on trees are due to nefarious causes.  Burls, like the one seen below, still confound scientists.  Some may be caused by external agents (similar to galls), but not all can be attributed to specific causes.  Whatever their source, they don't seem to harm the trees on which they grow, and they are often sought by woodworkers, for burls make spectacular bowls, with their swirled grains and tight growth patterns.

Now, here's an impressive specimen of poison ivy.  Sadly, but with good reason, most people despise poison ivy, for it harbors an oil to which most of us are allergic (see my post from last summer about my own run-in with the stuff). 

Still, it is a native plant, growing both in vine and ground-cover form, that produces white berries that are important to many bird species as a source of food.  In other words, PI is an important part of the native landscape; we humans just need to learn how to live with it!

My primary goal on this morning's walk was to cover the perimeter trail(s) - I wanted to see parts of the property I hadn't seen yet.  Much of the property is either hardwood forest or open field/prairie.  There is, however, a nice patch of conifers out along the northeastern perimeter.

The winged wahoo (I just love that name) is quite prevalent in several parts of the property.  A highly invasive non-native, it is, never the less, kind of attractive, especially when viewed through a macro lens.

I was soon nearing the edge of our property. 

Definite signs of previous human use soon became apparent.

And then I found myself facing one of the neighboring farms. 

I turned around and retraced my steps, and before long I was at a lovely vernal pool.  These temporary habitats form in the spring (vernal) from the melt waters of winter's snows and the added moisture of spring rains.  Last week, they were full of frog song.  This week, they have been pretty silent, thanks to the return of below-freezing temperatures.  Still, I did hear a lone chorus frog calling a couple times during this walk.

Previously I posted a video of this glacial pond, recording those very frog songs.  Today I found myself on the far side of the pond.  I had no idea a trail went along this side.  There's even a bench here, where those who are so inclined can sit quietly and enjoy the sights and sounds of this pond.

Today, however, things were a bit frosty for sitting for any length of time.

Following the trail just a little bit further, I found myself back at the burn.  It was now almost a week since we burned, and I was curious to see if there was any new growth yet.  I suspected not, since the weather had turned chilly - not conducive to seed germination.

My trip through the burn will be posted next.  Stay tuned.

Readdressing Same

I feel I must make further comment with regard to yesterday's post.

Here are a couple things we must keep in mind when we suddenly discover some benefits to invasive species.

1.  These data reflect the highly seasonal dietary needs of just three species of migratory birds.  What about the other migrants?  What about the birds that stay year round?  And what are these same three species eating during the spring migration when said fruits are not available?

2.  We have to look at the BIG picture.  For example, do these invasive plants have any other benefits, or are they highly selective?  Further example: are there any local insects that benefit from the presence of these plants, and on the flip side, are there insects that are negatively impacted by same?  What most of us fail to realize is that insects are vital links in most ecosystems, and many insects are dependent on plants (sometimes a single plant) as hosts at some point in their life cycle (food for adult, food for larva, shelter for adult, shelter for larva, shelter for egg, protection from predators via chemical compounds ingested....etc.).  Here is a terrific example of this whole point, about which I only learned this last year:  there is a particular butterfly (the mustard white, Pieris oleracea) whose larva has limited host plants, all in the native crucifera family (mustards).  These plants are becoming quite scarce, thanks to the incursions of that Top Ten Invasive Plant known as garlic mustard.  The larvae do not thrive on garlic mustard - it doesn't supply the nutrients they need for optimal growth. For a quick summary of this butterfly's status in Massachusetts, go here.

3.  What were these three species of birds eating a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, thousands of years ago, before these non-native plants arrived on the scene?  There had to be suitable fruits around, otherwise the birds would've died off long ago from starvation.  So, if these non-natives were once more removed from the landscape (admittedly highly unlikely), would the birds find something else to eat, like the pokeweed fruits, which also featured high on the list?  Would they also turn to the dogwood fruits, and wild grapes?  Would they something else to snack upon that was high in sugar but low in lipids?

4.  What are the negative costs to the ecosystem created by these plants?  Do they out-weigh the benefits?

I'm sure that field biologists and researchers can probably come up with a much longer list, but I think this gets the point across.  Yes, it is very interesting that the birds actually do exhibit a benefit to having these invasive plants on hand, but that doesn't mean that we should let invasive honeysuckles, buckthorns, et al, run rampant and unchecked over the landscape to the expense of everything else.

Something to think about.

When Non-native Plants Turn Good

Who would've thunk it?  First, that a program about thrushes would turn out to have some very interesting information on plants, and secondly, that highly invasive non-native plants might turn out to be beneficial.

Tonight I attended a program sponsored by Jackson Audubon.  The speaker was Julie Craves, a researcher at the Rouge River Bird Observatory (RRBO), which is located in Dearborn, MI, which is near Detroit.  The topic was "Birds and Berries," and it was about her nearly twenty years of research on the importance of urban spaces in the stop-over ecology of birds during the fall migration.

A weighty topic that could literally encompass tens of species of birds (her nets caught 111 species, but not all of those were migratory), Julie chose to focus on three species:  grey-cheeked thrushes, Swainson's thrushes, and hermit thrushes.

To sum up ever so briefly her many years of research, here is what she did and what she has discovered.

During the fall, she and some students set up mist nests in a 300 acre spot of green space there in the heart of a highly developed urban environment.  Birds are captured daily during the designated research period.  Once free from the mist nets, the birds are placed in cotton bags and hung quietly to await their turns for "processing."  Processing involves determining how much fat is on the birds, assessing visual evidence of diet (e.g., purple-stained feathers around the vent indicated a diet of purple berries, such as wild grapes), and banding each specimen that is to be included in the study.  If the birds cooperatively leave a stool sample behind in the bags, all the better, for each sample is taken to a lab and dissected.  Why?  Because when birds eat the fruits available to them in the autumn landscape, most of the consumed seeds pass right through their digestive tracts.  The seeds are separated from the guano, identified (apparently easily done), and counted.

What Julie expected to find out was just which native plants were vital to the birds' diets.  What she actually found out, much to her surprise, was how important the non-native plants are, primarily Amur honeysuckle, common buckthorn and glossy buckthorn.

Anyone who has even a passing interest in invasive species knows that these are three of the top invasives that are threatening American ecosystems.  Here we are (we being biologists, ecologists, nature enthusiasts, et al), trying to eradicate, or at the very least control, these species, and suddenly we learn that they are important for the birds.

The big question is:  why are these non-native plants preferred in these birds' diets over the fruits of the native plants, plants that evolved along with the birds for millenia?

Here are some of the current thoughts.  Many of the native fruits are high in fats (lipids), which, while high energy foods, also require more energy to process.  The non-native plants, on the other hand, are producing high-sugar fruits.  Sugar is readily used by the birds' bodies, providing a quicker source of energy.  They also pass through the birds' systems pretty quickly, allowing them to eat even more.

When the birds stop-over somewhere while on migration, the purpose is mostly to refuel.  They have to consume approximately 4% of their body weight in food every day, often putting on 4-6 grams before they take off again. 

For years, the common "wisdom" was that the non-native fruits had little nutritional value for birds.  The fruits passed through the birds' systems pretty darn fast.  Now it seems that this is all part of the strategy to store quick energy.

So, what is the take-home message here?  Should we all go out and preserve stands of invasive plants?  Not necessarily.  What we need to do, however, is start to consider the value of these plants in the changing landscape.  A new ecosystem is developing in the wake of this vegetative invasion, and it seems that at least some animals have adapted to the change, making the most of what these plants have to offer.

Bottom line:  we still have a lot to learn about this world in which we live.  Food for thought.

Now That's Creative!

Are you looking for something interesting to do with all the invasive plants on your property? Then you might be interested in reading this article, which I discovered this morning via a link on the NY Flora Association's blog.

If you are plant nut like me, then not only will you find the article interesting, but you will also cheer on the creative genius of Patterson Clark. Here is a man who didn't merely recognize a problem, but found a creative way to turn that problem into an asset. He does this by using invasive plant species to make paper, ink and printing blocks for his artwork.


We can use more people like Patterson Clark.