It's a Beautiful Thing

My dad forwarded this video to me. I thought I'd share with it with you. There are good folks in the world.

Please - if you are a fisherman, please be sure to take care of your gear when it gets fouled in trees, rocks, bridges, etc. You may not save a whale from certain death, but you could prevent the death of birds, turtles, or other wildlife. And if you see tangled line while out paddling, swimming, hiking...collect it. You, too, could save a life.

The Yellow Flowers of Fall

While touring the native flowers around my yard, I came to the conclusion that there are an awful lot of yellow flowers out this time of year...and they all look the same!

Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum)

Green-headed Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata)

Rosinweed (Silphium Trifoliatum)

Sneezeweed (Helenium sp.)

Unknown, but probably yellow

 

 Ooops!  Not a yellow flower!

Now, in all fairness, not everything is yellow (although I did leave out the woodland sunflowers and the western sunflowers, which are also yellow, rayed flowers).  A few other colors are lingering:

 Rough Blazing Star (Liatris aspera)

Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta)

                                          Prairie Heart-leaved Aster (Aster oolentangiensis)

Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariaefolia)

Yellow Giant Hyssop (A. nepetoides)

Horsemint (Monarda punctata)

The Rosinweed is one I've been waiting to bloom - love the name, the rabbits kept eating the plant, so I have been chomping at the bit to see what this wonderful plant would look like.  Here it is:

I do like the form of the plant - it's compact, solid, growing quite tall all of a sudden, and the whole of the plant is riddled with flowers and buds.  Had I looked at the scientific name, however, I probably could've guessed it would be a rayed, yellow flower - it is a Silphium, after all. 

The prairie heart-leaved aster was another I was eager to see in bloom.  Asters as a whole can be very confusing flowers to ID, especially since they readily hybridize (scandalous!) and I was looking forward to seeing one with such a delightful name, although I must admit I haven't seen a single heart-shaped leaf on the three plants I put into the native flower bed.

 Also known as Sky-blue Aster, this is one of the last asters to bloom in the fall.  The flowers, as you can see, are a delicate pale purple.  I'm guessing the bees are gonna be lovin' this plant now that many of the others have given up the ghost for the season. 

And out in the fields all around the house?  What is blooming there?  Assorted grasses and knapweed.  In other words, they are pretty barren - even the knapweed is Spartan this year.  The field behind my house is brown...90% brown.  Not a spot of color to be seen anywhere.  Hopefully I will be taking care of this in the years to come:  big plans to burn it and plant native flower seeds...and shrubs...and trees.  We shall see what the budget can support!

BB in the BB

I love my "bird TV".  How delightful it is to sit on the sofa and look out the window at the antics of the birds (and other wildlife).

I admit, I don't always keep the bird bath cleaned and filled...I go in fits and spurts on that.  I filled it about a week ago, and then a week of hot, hot weather evaporated most of the water, and what was left had become quite slimy (algae?  bird schmezz?).  So, a couple days ago I schlepped the hose over to the bird bath and gave it a good scrubbing, after which I filled it right up with cool, clean water, and then headed off to water the shrubs and wildflowers I recently planted as part of my on-going effort to naturalize the landscape.

Soon the birds had found the newly watered plants and the clean bath.  They went to town.  Not only were there easily a dozen or two sparrows flitting around in the grass, but a family of bluebirds decided it was bath time.

And, just for laughs and giggles, here they are in action:

(The background sounds are either traffic on the road, Dr. Who on the computer behind me, or the dog.) 

It's amazing how just a small bit of water can bring so much life to a yard.  

Changes

Because some folks (including me) find that the "prove you're not a computer" verification bit of these blogs is becoming increasingly frustrating to fill out ("Is that a 'c' or an 'e'?"  "Are those numbers or letters?"), I have removed it from my comment box. 

I hope this enhances our interactions!

From Bat Conservation International

August 2012, Volume 10, Number 8

Living Inside a Deadly Trap

The "pitcher" of pitcher plants is a death trap for insects and other small invertebrates. These vine-like plants of the genus Nepenthes grow in the nutrient-poor soils of peat-swamp forests. To compensate for the lack of nutrients, the plants developed trapping structures shaped like pitchers and partly filled with liquid. When small creatures fall into the trap, they drown in the liquid and are digested by enzymes produced by the plant. So what are bats doing roosting roost in these lethal pitchers?

A Hardwicke’s woolly bat settles into a pitcher plant. Photo by Michael Schöner

Professor Ulmar Grafe at the University of Würzburg in Germany discovered that Hardwicke's woolly bats were regularly roosting in pitcher plants in Brunei (on the tropical island of Borneo). Grafe wanted to investigate that peculiar relationship and invited students Caroline and Michael Schöner to join his team.

The researchers traveled to Brunei and quickly found Hardwicke's woolly bats roosting in pitchers. They attached miniature radio-tracking transmitters to the backs of all captured bats and followed each bat for up to 12 days through the dense, swampy jungle. The Schöners said they were astonished to find that all the woolly bats in the study area roosted only in pitchers of Nepenthes hemsleyana plants. Each bat was settled in, head first, above the digestive fluid in a well-defined region – a girdle-like structure below which the pitcher tapers significantly. The bats fit so perfectly that they don't even use their feet to hold on the pitchers' walls.

Unlike other Nepenthes species, the digestive fluid inside the Nepenthes hemsleyana pitchers is limited to the lowest part of the cone, so the bats never contact it. Normally these bats roost alone, but some pitchers provide enough space for a mother with its pup.

While roosting in the pitchers, bats can hardly be seen from the outside, the students report. Thus, the pitchers provide a secure roost that helps bats avoid detection by predators. All things considered, pitcher plants seem well adapted for the bats. But what's in it for the plant?

Previous studies had found that Nepenthes hemsleyana captures seven times less prey than other, closely related species. Perhaps bat feces serves as a kind of fertilizer that compensates for the lack of nutrients. To test this hypothesis, the team collected tissue samples of plants that had been occupied by bats and compared their nitrogen content to pitcher plants that did not host bats. They found that plants used by bats gained more than 33 percent of their nitrogen from bat droppings. "We now have strong evidence that the relationship between pitcher plants and woolly bats demonstrates a mutualism that benefits both partner species," the Schöners said.

The research continues as the Schöners work toward doctoral degrees at the University of Greifswald. "We hope to learn whether Hardwicke's woolly bats and N. hemsleyana plants have co-evolutionary adaptations for one another, and exactly what each partner gains from this relationship – and what price each pays for it," they said.

BCI Members can read the full story of this unusual relationship between bats and plants in the Fall 2012 issue of BATS magazine.

How cool is that!  Once more:  "Nature never ceases to amaze!"

Lotus Position

What a beautiful day we had on Sunday - another in a serious of glorious days.  Possible rain was in the forecast, but it never materialized, which was terrific because I had a paddle planned with GREAT, the Grand River Environmental Action Team.  Every month from April through October they sponsor a paddle on one of the waterways in south central Michigan.  Sunday's trip was to Kent Lake, a man-made lake north of Ann Arbor, where the Huron River was dammed.  The lake is located in a very popular county park:  Kensington Park.  And the big draw...well, you'll see it in a moment.

Over 20 boats set out from the boat launch - canoes and kayaks both.  Other water vessels on the lake included sailboats, motor boats, pontoon boats and paddle boards, but the lake is big enough (1200 ac) that we were not crowded.

Are those vultures in the tree?

Nope - they are cormorants.  Apparently this is their place - every year these birds hang out on this tiny island, perched in this dead tree and on other branches around the back side of the island.  They were fairly oblivious to our group, eying us on occasion, but mostly getting on with their preening and sunbathing.

In the far distance you can see our destination:  that low band of light green.

Not the swan...

but the lotuses!  American lotus - a rare plant in Michigan, it is much more common further south.  This patch appeared suddenly in this lake about seven or eight years ago.  No one knows for sure how the first plants arrived, but it could've been via people or wildlife, people, of course, being the most likely route.

Just how big are the flowers?  Take a look below!

The large leaves stand upwards of two feet above the water, and the colony is quite dense.

The lotus was once an important food plant to the native peoples, who ate both the seeds and the roots.

You might recognize the center of the flower, and the dried pod below, from dried flower arrangements. 

I shook out some seeds and will chuck 'em in the pod at work to see if they will grow.

I managed to paddle through the pads and get up close to many of the flowers.  They are just spectacular.

One of the really amazing things about the lotus is the leaves.  The surface of the leaf has microscopic structures that work to repel water.  It is so efficient at this that scientists are studying these structures to see how they can be copied for creating clothing that repels water.  I tried to shoot some video of the water rolling around on the leaf - not easy to do in a boat, holding the camera in one hand and manipulating the water on the leaf with the other, without tipping over.  It looks like mercury!  Remember those days when we were kids and someone would get a hold of a dollop of mercury and you'd watch it roll around on your hand or desk?  Water on a lotus leaf is much safer.

By the time I finished photographing the lotuses, the rest of the group had paddled on.  So, I took my time to tour the various coves around the islands.  I saw a number of turtles out sunning on the logs.  Most were map turtles - a new turtle species in the wild for me.

Typical of most turtles, they didn't hang around very long once they were aware of the approaching boat.

Three turtles and a duck.  Can you see all three turtles?  I only saw the big map turtle when I took the photo.  It promptly dove into the water, and then I saw the soft shelled turtle on the back end of the log.  The third turtle, which is in the middle and has its tail facing the camera - I didn't even see until I looked at the photos later that evening.

And this poor little green heron (or green backed heron, depending on your field guide)!  I saw him first in the shadows of one island and followed him for 15 or more minutes, drifting ever closer to get a photo.  He finally flew across the shallow water to another log, this time in the sunshine.  If you zoom in on the photo, you can see he's caught a damselfly.

And here he is swallowing it. Gulp! 

Shortly thereafter he turned his back and walked down the submerged log - just to get away from me.  I let him go.

All too soon it was time to head back.  The folks from GREAT had loaded most of the borrower boats back on the trailers and were ready to go.  We bid them all farewell and thanked them for the opportunity to come out to Kent Lake and see the lotuses in bloom.

There were lots of buds on the plants, so if you'd like to go out and see them for yourself, there is plenty of time to do so.  It's well worth the trip to see these glorious flowers.

Unplug