On a patch of Larkspur, caterpillars were steadily eating the leaves. Small black pellets of frass dotted the leaves below. They were becoming plump and green. Pregnant from the energy of the sun captured by the leaves, they were ready to perform some of their own mysterious alchemy. They were going underneath the leaves. Where the leaf petiole met the base of the leaf blade, they were eating the underside of the leaf. This was causing the leaf blade to began to wilt as it nutrient supply was being cut off. As a result, the leaf died, turned a mottled brown, and draped like a cloth over them. Hidden inside they started spinning their silk cocoons. I don’t know what beautiful creature will emerge on some starry night, maybe it will visit me in my dreams.
Black Fly Larvae
There is a small creek that flows down the hillside at the entrance to the arboretum. The creek’s source of water is rain. So it starts flowing in the fall when the rain returns and stops flowing sometime in June when the rain mostly dries up for the summer.
Below the bridge next to the White Oak Pavilion, there is a small rocky bed where black fly larvae are attached to some of the rocks. Its body is shaped like a bowling pin. The bulbous part of its abdomen is attached to the rock. Moving upward, its body tapers in a little before slightly expanding outward to its black head.
To adhere to a rock, stick or other debris, they weave a silken pad and use small hooks located on their abdomen to hold onto it. They will position themselves in the current where they can capture food from the water flowing over their bodies. They use comb-like structures near their mouth that look like eyelashes to filter out microscopic food like algae and bacteria.
Like all organisms on the earth, they have evolved to have a role in the well-being of the environment where they live. They contribute to the health of the ecology of the stream by filtering algae and bacteria out of the water for food which provides the benefit of improving water quality. In addition, black flies are an important food source for fish such as trout. In the last source listed below, the Angler’s Covey website has a Bug of the Month fly tying video by Brian Hilbert at the end of the article. Trout will eat the larvae and the emerging adults floating to the surface. Dragonflies, birds and amphibians will forage on the adult flies. I have often seen American dippers gleaning the rocks in the current of a stream and I now wonder if they were eating black fly larvae.
I tilted one on the rocks a little to try and get a better photo and their bodies quickly contracted and hugged the face of the rock for protection. Seeing that wasn’t going to work, I returned the rock, but the larvae were a little out of the flowing water. As I watched, some of them starting moving back over into the current. They grabbed onto the rock with their mouths, detached their abdomen, moved it over, and then reattached. They repeated this until they were back in a suitable spot.
Some of them were disturbed enough that they detached. They are able to move downstream on a silken thread and reattach in another location by weaving another pad. The silk is thin like a spider silk and mostly undetectable in the water. I managed to get my camera at an angle where I could catch the sunlight on the thread. I pointed it out with a red arrow in a photo below.
After reading about the life cycle of black flies, I went back to try and find the pupae or emerging adults. I found the pupae on the underside of the rock. The pupae were inside these cocoons that were open on one side. A branched respiratory organ that looked like root hairs waving around in the water extended outward on one side. To adapt to the fluctuations in the water level, the pupae are miraculously able to obtain oxygen in or out of the water. I was unable to locate any newly emerged adults on the rocks or vegetation next to the creek. I’ll keep checking and let you know if I find any.
Thanks for reading my blog. I recommend reading some of the articles listed below for more information. Spring is exploding with life and I hope you are able to get out and do some exploring.
Sources
“Black Fly (Family Simuliidae).” Field Station, 3 Apr. 2012, https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/black-fly/.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Black Fly Biology. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dep/programs-and-services/bureau-of-labs/vector-management/black-fly/biology. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
Leinweber, Rachel. “Bug of the Month: The Often Ignored Blackfly Larvae.” Angler’s Covey, 14 Feb. 2024, https://anglerscovey.com/2024/02/14/bug-of-the-month-all-about-blackfly-larvae/.
Fimbriate Gall Forming
I’m back with an update on the fimbriate gall wasp. The leaves are emerging and there are fuzzy, bright crimson galls starting to form! I love the vibrant red color and as posted before, I want to add my own common name crimson comet gall for this gall.
There is an unimaginable amount of life unfolding around me that it is dizzying to think about. An event, such as the laying of eggs by these gall wasps, has a tiny window in which to witness it. On top of that, the wasps are tiny and easily overlooked too. Observing nature is a mix of things. Sometimes it involves researching what I am interested in seeing and being informed so that I set myself up to be successful by being at the right place at the right time. Most times it is about being curious, staying tuned into my awareness of all my senses, and trying to quiet my mind.
In the poem Sometimes by Mary Oliver, she wrote:
“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
So here I am trying to pay attention, be astonished, and tell you about it in my blog in hopes that you will be inspired to spend time wandering around outside exploring nature. Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope that you are enjoying spring. See you out there!
P.S. The last photo below shows an old leaf from last year that is still hanging on and it looks like it had a fimbriate gall on it.
Gall Wasp Laying Egg
The leaves and the male catkins have been bursting out of their buds over the past week. I have been out exploring the oak limbs and admiring the beauty of the rose-colored tips of the new leaves. I found a tree where the buds were just about to open and discovered a small insect clinging to many of them. It appeared that it was injecting its ovipositor into the bud to lay eggs. I was so excited to find these, and I immediately wondered if it was a gall wasp. My guess is that it is possibly the fimbriate gall wasp (Blog Post: Fimbriate Gall Wasp, May 1, 2024). To find out, I went and fetched a couple of pieces of twine and tied them to 4 or 5 places where the insects were laying their eggs. When the leaves emerge, I will see if a gall is forming. I’ll keep you posted on what I discover.
As the days grow longer, I hope that you are finding time to be out in nature immersing all of your senses in the spring weather, wild flowers, hatching insects, bird song, etc. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I’ll see you out there.
Northwestern Salamander Eggs & Algae
It can take from 4 to 8 weeks for the eggs of northwestern salamander to hatch, develop into larvae, and exit the gelatinous egg cell. As the salamanders develop, a symbiotic relationship forms. Algae starts to grow inside the gelatinous fluid surrounding the developing embryo. The algae uses the carbon dioxide and nitrogenous waste from the developing embryo for photosynthesis and cell growth. In exchange, the embryo gets the vital oxygen it needs and a balanced embryonic environment from the removal/recycling of its waste. Amazing!
Humble Bumble House
The weather has been very springy out this week with unseasonably warm temperatures and sunny skies. The flowers are starting to bloom and bumble bee queens have awoken from their long winter’s nap. I have seen them nectaring on red-flowering currant, hound’s tongue, and Oregon grape. To seize the day, I made a small bumble bee house to hopefully attract a queen to build a hive.
I cleared a small bit of ground and put some sticks down to form a base. Then I put a flat rock on top of that to act as a platform for a mouse nest. This will hopefully keep it off the ground to help it stay dry. Bumble bees are attracted to the scent of old rodent nests to start new colonies in the spring. The rodent burrow provides a dry cavity and the old nest provides insulation to help the queen keep the new hive warm. I put a flower pot on top to act as the cavity. I added some some rocks on top to slightly elevate the lid so the drain hole in the bottom of the flower pot can allow for some ventilation. I created a small entrance with a few branches and put some rocks in between as a porch for bees to land on. I covered the pot with leaves and put some old pieces of wood in the front as a small roof for the entrance.
The life of a bumble bee colony is an annual cycle. It starts off in the spring when the overwintering queen emerges. She will start the nest by building small wax cells to lay her eggs which will be female worker bees. When these bees hatch, they will start helping to build the nest and forage for nectar and pollen for the developing larvae. At this point the queen will stay in the hive and focus on laying eggs. Depending on the species and the availability of forage in the environment, the nest will grow over the summer to be about the size of a small football and contain 50 to 400 or 500 bees. In the late summer, the queen will lay eggs that develop into males and new queens. The males and new queens will leave the colony in search of mates from other colonies. The males don’t return to the nest at this point and you might see them spending the night on plants. The new queens will continue to return to the colony until it is time to search for places to hibernate at the end of the summer. The old queen, the female workers, and the male bees will all die at the end of the season. Next spring the cycle starts over again.
The bumble bee nest is not as orderly as that of the honey bee with its honeycomb of hexagonal cells. Bumble bees make clusters of spherical cells for raising brood and storing small amounts of honey. Over the summer as the colony grows, the nest develops into this fascinating conglomeration of cells. Hopefully a queen bumble bee will find my flower pot and find it an enticing place to start a new colony.
Source
“Bumble Bees: Nesting and Overwintering | Xerces Society.” Xerces.org, xerces.org/bumble-bees/nesting-overwintering.
“Bumblebee Nests.” Bumblebee Conservation Trust, https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/learn-about-bumblebees/beginners/bumblebee-nests/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.
Wolf Lichen
I took a photo of this brightly colored yellow-green llichen and iNaturalist identified it as a wolf lichen. I wondered if the color of the lichen resembled the color of a wolf’s eye or its eye shine seen at night. Or perhaps wolves were known to use it as food to gain vital nutrients or medicine in some way. Or perhaps it was somehow used in courtship and pair bonding. I didn’t know and my imagination was filled with wonder and curiosity.
The Latin name of this lichen is Letharia vulpina. Letharia translates to “lethal or deadly” and vulpina translates to “fox.” From the results of DNA testing this lichen was split into two species to include Letharia lupina. Lupina translates to “wolf.” It is lethal to foxes and wolves because of the bright yellow pigment in the thallus known as vulpinic acid, which is toxic to meat eaters. I read that in Northern Europe in the 1750’s this lichen was ground into a powder and sprinkled on meat or mixed into fat with ground glass and put into dead animal carcasses to poison and kill wolves and foxes too as the Latin name suggests. That is where the name wolf lichen originates. The only association with wolves and this lichen is humans using it as a poison to kill them! This name has to be changed. Many peoples and cultures revere wolves, foxes, and other members of the Canidae family like coyotes, myself included. They are beautiful, sovereign creatures that share and call the earth their home and are important in supporting the balance of nature.
The part that also struck me as interesting is that with some lichens like this one, I forget that it has a photobiont inside that is photosynthesizing because it isn’t green at all. The cortex of some lichens contain pigments like the bright yellow vulpinic acid of Letharia vulpina. These pigments serve as a sunscreen for the photobiont against excessive UV radiaton from the sun. Some lichen pigments also contain antimicrobial properties that protect it from bacteria and other fungi. I also learned on a lichen walk out at the arboretum that this antimicrobial property deters the growth of surrounding moss from overtaking it.
The cortex of many lichens also change color in response to moisture. For example, when the cortex of Lobaria pulmonaria becomes hydrated, it becomes translucent revealing the photobiont inside and the lichen turns green. When Lobaria pulmonaria dries out, the cortex becomes opaque to protect the photobioant inside and the lichen turns brown or gray color. See my post: Rehydrating Lichen 01/30/23.
I hope that you are enjoying the lengthening daylight and all of the birdsong and spring flowers. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.
Resources
“Letharia Vulpina Complex (Wolf Lichens).” 10,000 Things of the Pacific Northwest, 4 Dec. 2020, http://10000thingsofthepnw.com/2020/12/04/letharia-vulpina-complex-wolf-lichens/.
Mirus, Rachel Sargent, and The Center for Northern Woodlands Education. “Lichen Colors Offer Protection.” The Center for Northern Woodlands Education, 20 Dec. 2021, https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/lichen-colors.
Xanthorhoe
This day I had noticed small debris drifting through the air. Chickadees and jays were poking around the upper canopy of the trees dislodging bits of leaves, lichen and moss as they looked for food. This fragment was different. It danced across the sky above me. It fluttered up and down. There was the slightest movement of air that I only noticed as I stood still, which I often do. This papery snippet seemed lighter than air. It floated. I watched it gracefully tumble down in front of me. It landed. I briefly lost it, like it had been absorbed into earth. I walked over and slowly kneeled on the ground where it landed. A creature was resting. Small waves washed over its body—brown bands of sediments settled on a sandy shore as the water slowly receded after a rain. These undulations reminded me of the elements of the earth that are pulsing through its body the same as mine. We are alive together in this moment. We sat quietly observing the world.
Coyote Marking Territory
This coyote has been hanging around the entrance to the arboretum for a while this winter, which I have seen individuals do in years past at this time of year. Usually it keeps its distance as it hunts and roams around the open, grassy areas, but this year this one has become a bit more comfortable with people. A few people have reported to me that they have seen people feeding it in the parking lot, but I have not witnessed it myself. That might help explain why it has been seen more frequently in and around the parking lot. Please do not feed any animals at the arboretum. This day, I was photographing some lichen on an oak branch, when I looked over to see that it had snuck up on me. It was watching me and inquisitively sniffing the air. It then slowly trotted a little ways up the gravel road leading to the administrative building, stopped, and defecated on the road—a bold statement indeed. What is it saying?
Coyote scat is frequently found on the trails at the arboretum. Like other canines, it defecates in conspicuous spots like trails, roads, prominent rocks, or other elevated spots such as fallen trees. The intentions of placing the scat in these locations is primarily to communicate to other coyotes and animals that this is its territory. Under the section on red foxes in his book Tracking and the Art of Seeing, Paul Rezendes says, “Most wild canines have anal scent glands and are actually depositing scent on scat. Some scientists believe that animals can identify other individuals from these scents.” Beyond establishing who you are and your territory, what information is being passed on to other coyotes and animals in these scents is not fully understood, as far as I can ascertain from the reading I have done so far.
The message I took away from the coyote defecating on the trail is that the coyote is a beautiful, fascinating creature that calls the arboretum its home. I need to honor its life by respecting its right to be here, and be a thoughtful steward of the arboretum in order that it may flourish and give it space to live out its life here in peace and harmony.
Resource
Rezendes, Paul. Tracking & the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks & Sign. 2nd ed., HarperCollins, 1999.
Burrowing Owl
I decided to break protocol and write a post about an encounter in nature outside of, but not far from, the arboretum. Well, if I climb up to the top of Mt. Pisgah on a clear day and look to the north, I bet can see out to where this burrowing owl was hanging out. Maybe I will start to extend my blog to all the area that I can see from Mt. Pisgah. That said, I honestly have enough things to write about at Mt. Pisgah for the rest of my life and never come close to exhausting it all.
While attending the Willamette Valley Bird Symposium, burrowing owls came up in conversation and we saw on eBird that burrowing owls had been sighted in the area recently this winter. I had seen this before, but I hadn’t gone to try and find one. The range map from All About Birds by Cornell Lab has Eastern Oregon in the northern part of their breeding range. They had this to say about their migration: “Migratory in northern part of range; partial migrant in SW states, where individuals make yearly decisions whether or not to migrate.” It appears that some burrowing owls make the decision not to migrate out of Oregon too and spend the winter around the Willamette Valley.
So, a friend and I decided to go try and find one the next day after the symposium. When looking for this owl, we thought that it would be found near a culvert pipe along the road that would simulate a natural burrow that it might use. Their natural burrows in Eastern Oregon are old burrows dug by mammals like badgers or ground squirrels. All About Birds had this to say about their habitat: “Breeding pairs stay near a dedicated nesting burrow, while wintering owls may move around and may roost in tufts of vegetation rather than in burrows.”
Before coming across this owl, we found many owl pellets next to culvert pipes beside the road. There hadn’t been much rain in the forecast so most of the ditches and the culverts were dry. When we pulled off to park on the side of the road to scan the area with our binoculars and have a look around, I saw this owl before getting out of the car. So we just sat in the car and watched it for a while. I was surprised that it was right next to the road and didn’t fly away. After observing a few cars and trucks zooming down the road, I wished it would fly farther away from the road. I am sure that burrowing owls get struck and killed by passing vehicles. Also this side of the road was fairly clean from garbage, but the other side was littered with lots of alcohol bottles, beer cans, and other trash. Seeing this beautiful bird standing there really made the surrounding landscape that was devoid of natural habitat stand out in stark contrast. Loss of habitat is the number one reason for the decline of bird species. I wonder where it would go to seek shelter when rain fills these culverts with water.
I imagine in the winter in this habitat of farm fields, this burrowing owl is mostly eating small mammals like mice and voles. The owl pellets we found were full of fur and small bones. That said, All About Birds lists quite a variable list of prey that almost seems like it will pretty much eat anything it can catch. Here’s what they report: “Burrowing Owls eat invertebrates and small vertebrates, including lizards, birds, and mammals. Invertebrates, especially insects, constitute the majority of food items, while vertebrates make up the bulk of the diet by mass. Burrowing Owls commonly hunt grasshoppers, crickets, moths, beetles, mice, voles, and shrews. They also prey on dragonflies, giant water bugs, earwigs, caterpillars, scorpions, and earthworms, frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, turtles,and salamanders, bats, ground squirrels, small weasels, young rabbits, songbirds, waterbirds, baby ducks, and even young burrowing owls. Females catch more insects, mostly during the day; males take most of the vertebrates, mostly at night.”
I don’t know if you can quite tell from the photos, but this bird is fairly small at about 9.5 inches. Its body is brown with a mottling of brown spots with bars occurring on the belly. They have yellow eyes with a fairly bold white eyebrow above. It would occasionally stand up to stretch and it has noticeably long legs.
This is such a beautiful bird and a real treat to sit and observe one for a while. We have ground squirrels that build burrows on the open hillsides of the arboretum. Maybe a burrowing owl will come spend a winter there sometime and maybe it already does and I just haven’t noticed. I would like to plan a trip out to Eastern Oregon sometime and possible see them in their breeding habitat.
Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there!
Resource
Burrowing Owl Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Burrowing_Owl/overview. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
Looking for Fairy Shrimp
The Sunday before last members of the site committee for the arboretum met up for the day. Our first task was to put on our waders and go out to the wetlands to see if there were any fairy shrimp this winter. When we got there, we discovered that wearing our waders wasn’t necessary. The area was without water except for a few small, shallow puddles full of decaying leaves. Even though we have had very little rain so far this winter, I was still surprised. There is a measuring stick in the ground out there from a previous project years ago. Last year at this time, we recalled the water measured around three feet on the stick and there were some areas that I stayed out of because the water started getting near the top of my waders.
As I approached the area, I noticed that there was six or seven song sparrows busily foraging. Whatever was in that little bit of water must be yummy because they didn’t flush when we approached and they were energetically pecking in the water. I dipped the side of a small white tray down into the leaf puddle and a heap of mosquito larvae, fairy shrimp and these tiny, red organisms came flooding into the tray. This was a song sparrow buffet!
I didn’t know that we would arrive just in time at this area to catch the water level before it receded below the surface. I hadn’t brought my camera because wading around through this area full of water can be tricky with a mushy ground and hidden limbs to step over. Also, in my waders it is difficult to bend at the knees very far because the boots and overalls are all connected as one unit. I went back the next day to take some photos and the water had already sunk below the surface except for a small cupful next to a fallen branch. There was a song sparrow there heartily foraging and other song sparrows, towhees and a pacific wren were picking at the surface of the leaves at all the creatures left stranded from the receded water.
I am alarmed at how little rainfall we have had here this winter. I hope the fairy shrimp had time to complete their life cycle. I was also surprised to see so many mosquito larvae. There have been many days below freezing in January. The water in the wetlands down at the bridge had a layer of ice on the surface that day. The upper part of the wetlands might be a small microclimate, enough to allow mosquitoes to breed. I didn’t imagine them being active this time of year. It made me more curious about their life cycle. The birds were certainly aware of this area and I am sure were grateful to have an abundant food source so easily available.
I hope that you have a place to go near where you live and are able to regularly spend time out there exploring. Be well.
Mistletoe
Mistletoe can be seen growing in the Oregon White Oak trees out at the arboretum. They are evergreen and keep their fruit into the winter which is a beneficial food source for birds like Western Bluebirds.
Mistletoe is a hemiparasitic plant. This means that it takes water and nutrients from its oak tree host, but also contains chlorophyll and is able to perform photosynthesis to produce some of its own food. The amount that it performs photosynthesis varies once the plant becomes established and varies between the different species.
An oak tree recently fell at the arboretum next to the old barn. At the top of the tree there was some mistletoe growing which was now easily accessible as the tree lay on the ground. I trimmed off a small branch that had some mistletoe growing from it and took it over to the wood shop where Patrick neatly cut the mistletoe in half with a band saw so I could see what it looked like on the inside. It was really interesting and beautiful to see the internal structure of where the two plants grew together. Thanks Patrick!
Patrick removed the branches of the mistletoe so that it would fit through the saw. In the photo, you can see me holding the branch in my hand and the mistletoe growing out of the top. He made two vertical cuts, one through the mistletoe and one about an inch to the right on the oak branch.
In the photo, I am holding the mistletoe stem and showing you the part where the mistletoe and the branch were cut in half vertically. The top half is the mistletoe and the bottom half is the oak branch. When the mistletoe germinates, it grows down into the vascular tissue where it taps into the xylem and/or phloem. In general, most hemiparasites are primarily parasites of the xylem in order to obtain water and inorganic nutrients. Holoparasitic plants do not photosynthesize and therefore will tap into the phloem as well to obtain nutrients like sugars produced during photosynthesis from the leaves of the host plant.
It is interesting to see the woody tissue of the mistletoe and the oak branch growing together. Once the mistletoe establishes itself on the branch by growing rootlike structures in the vascular tissue, the mistletoe’s growth becomes synchronized with the growth of the oak branch. This coordinated growth area is called the meristem. Essentially, the mistletoe starts to grow like a “branch” on the oak tree limb. In the second photo, you can see that it has a woody stem, a thin layer of bark, and lichens start growing on it. Reading about the biology of the interaction between mistletoe and its host plant can be a bit complex, for me anyway, but that is the overall idea of it from what I understand.
There’s more! There’s also a structure growing beneath the bark of the oak limb growing longitudinally from the mistletoe. These are called cortical strands and help to further establish the mistletoe by gathering nutrients and anchoring it onto the branch. The cortical strands will start to send sinkers down into the branch as well to further assist in securing the mistletoe to the host. This root-like structure of cortical strands and sinkers comprise what is known as the endophytic system of the mistletoe.
Again, reading about all of the biology of the interaction between mistletoe and its host plant is complex, but this is my basic understanding of it. I recommend that you check it out and do some further research, maybe you’ll be saying to yourself, “C’mon Bryan. It’s not that complicated.”
My sincere hope is that this blog inspires you to go outside, check it out, and maybe do some more research into the topic. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there!
Resources
Ehrenberg, Rachel. “Marvelous Misunderstood Mistletoe.” Knowable Magazine, 18 Dec. 2020, https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2020/marvelous-misunderstood-mistletoe.
Glatzel, G., and B. W. Geils. “Mistletoe Ecophysiology: Host–Parasite Interactions.” Botany, vol. 87, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 10–15, https://doi.org/10.1139/b08-096.
Whiteman, Noah K. “Mistletoes.” Current Biology, vol. 33, no. 11, June 2023, pp. R467–69. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.035.
Springtail Takes a Bubble Bath
The other day I soaked some moss in a small dish for about 20 minutes to really hydrate the moss and energize a very tiny creature that lives in the moss called a waterbear. After soaking, I lightly stirred and shook the moss out in the dish and placed it under a microscope. While inspecting the dish for waterbears, I came across a springtail on the surface of the water that had been washed out of the moss into the dish. While watching it, I noticed that it was moving around on the top of the water tilting back and forth. I saw a bubble appear at its mouth and it retrieved it with one of its legs. It then proceeded to rub the bubble on its antennae and its head. It continued to produce more bubbles and groom its entire body. Occasionally it would attempt to spring away, but landed back into the dish. I would reposition it under the microscope and before too long it would start grooming again. Fascinating!
Springtails live in the moist environment created by the layer of leaves I spoke about in the previous post. Upon a little research, I found that they have a fluid bubble that they bathe with to keep themselves clean, especially their antennae which are their sensory organs. The fluid bubble is also necessary to waterproof themselves to help keep from drying out.
The springtail’s scientific name Collembola refers to their two inflatable tubes known as Collophores located on the underside of the first segment of the abdomen. They help in bathing by reaching the hard to reach places. They can also stick it to the ground to flip themselves over if they end up on their back after springing through the air. I found a small segment of a BBC documentary series called Life in the Undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough that talked about springtails. Click here to watch. It’s about two and half minutes long. This part about springtails was great, and I am looking forward to watching the whole series.
Springtails are important beings to a healthy ecosystem and have such interesting lives. They live right under our feet, but mostly go unseen and are out of our awareness. There can be up to 10,000 springtails in one cubic foot! I would love to see the environment where that many springtails are living so densely populated.
Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there!
Sources
“BBC One - Life in the Undergrowth, Invasion of the Land, Little Leapers.” BBC, 22 June 2009, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003km37.
“Springtails.” Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/gardening/springtails/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Today, Entomology. “The Collophore Helps Put the Spring in Springtails.” Entomology Today, 27 Aug. 2015, http://entomologytoday.org/2015/08/27/the-collophore-helps-put-the-spring-in-springtails/.
Spring in Winter
The winter sky is low. I feel like I have to duck under the shallow ceiling of amorphous, gray clouds as I walk around the arboretum. If the sun peaks through, it is just above the brim of my hat. In the hibernal landscape, I found an amazing “spring” hiding under a bed to put some bounce in your step to help alleviate any winter blues.
Beneath the oak trees, a patchwork of brown leaves blanketing the ground creates the perfect home for springtails! Oak leaves are high in tannins and lignin which causes them to decay at a slower rate. It can often take years for them to break down. This insulative bed of leaves helps regulate moisture and temperature creating a favorable home for many creatures in the leaves and the ground below. These leaves also add a layer of protection from potential predators by giving them a place to hide.
The other day I knelt down at the edge of the leaves and peeled back the top layer. I was immediately greeted by a lively burst of springtails emanating forth in every direction. A unique characteristic to most springtails is a forked tail-like structure called a furcula. It is folded underneath their abdomen and held in place by a latch called the tenaculum. When the tenaculum is released, the furcula quickly flips open. This acts as a spring as it pushes downward against a surface, launching the springtail into the air to hopefully evade predators.
Springtails are important detritivores. They primarily feast on decaying organic matter which cycles nutrients back into the ecosystem. In addition, as they burrow and wiggle around in the soil eating and searching for food, their small tunnels help build the soil microstructure. Along with decaying organic matter, they eat fungi, algae, and bacteria.
Springtails are tiny arthropods that until recently were considered insects. Around the year 2000, they were reclassified in the class Collembola. They are similar to insects but along with DNA testing, they have characteristics such as internal mouth parts and unique structures like a tube-like collophore and the aforementioned furcula that play a role in separating them out into the class Collembola.
They are one of the most abundant arthropods in the soil mesofauna and one of the most interesting. The other day I found what appears to be three different kinds in and under the oak leaves out at the arboretum. I am going to continue researching and exploring these wonderful creatures and I hope this small introduction inspires you to do the same.
Happy New Year!
Sources
“All about Springtails (Collembola).” A Chaos of Delight, https://www.chaosofdelight.org/collembola-springtails. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
Class Collembola – ENT 425 – General Entomology. https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/class-collembola/. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
“Springtails.” Missouri Department of Conservation, https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/springtails. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
Springtails | Colorado State University Extension Website. 20 June 2025, https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/springtails/.
Western Meadowlark
There is a large meadow on the east side of Mt. Pisgah with a small creek running through it that carries rainwater off the hillside down to the Coast Fork of the Willamette river. Thickets of buckbrush fill in the slope as it rises out of the meadow with oaks scattered around the hillside. These layers create good habitat for a diversity of birds. One that I found over there this fall was the Western Meadowlark, the state bird of Oregon.
As I walked along the trail, I flushed a few hidden in the tall grass. Some flew up into to the lower limbs of nearby oak trees. From their perch in the tree, I could easily see their bright, yellow breast with a bold, dark ‘V.’ Some of them settled back down further up the hillside. As they flew over the meadow, their flight consisted of alternating short, rapid wing beats with glides as they flew just above the top of the grass. As they descended back onto the ground, their tail fanned out revealing a flash of white from their outer tail feathers. The upper side of their bodies are a mottled pattern of brown, black and buff, which allows them to easily disappear into the meadow.
As you may have noticed, meadowlarks have a pointed, stout bill that aids them in a foraging method called gaping. It inserts its bill into thick grass or the ground and then open its bill. This pries apart the grass or ground to reveal seeds or insects hidden underneath.
Western Meadowlarks are messengers of beauty and wonder. They have a melodious, warbling song that embodies the spirit of the West—vast landscapes and open skies. I hope you have had the opportunity to hear one sing.
On its website, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology had this fact that I thought you might include in some cocktail party conversation during your holiday celebrations: “John James Audubon gave the Western Meadowlark its scientific name, Sturnella (starling-like) neglecta, claiming that most explorers and settlers who ventured west of the Mississippi after Lewis and Clark had overlooked this common bird.” Honestly, I think Audubon flubbed this one. This bird’s Latin name could be changed to something that appropriately reflects its spirit and beauty.
Happy Solstice
Happy Solstice! I hope that you find time to be out in nature. I wish you peace and good health in your body, mind, and spirit.
Nebulous Tangerine Dream
While researching biosheens for the last post, I came across iron bacteria as a possible organism that creates them. When I looked them up, I saw that they produce a brilliant orange cloud in the water which I didn’t see around the bridge where I witnessed the biosheen. So I went back out to the arboretum to see if I could find this nebulous, tangerine dream.
Iron is the fourth most common element in the earth’s crust and vital to life. The biogeochemical cycle of iron through the biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere is often cleverly referred to as the Ferrous Wheel. Iron is constantly cycling through the environment in two states, ferrous iron (Fe2+) and ferric iron (Fe3+). Ferrous iron has a positive charge of plus two because it has lost two electrons and ferric iron has a positive charge of three.
This orange cloud is a result of oxidation (losing electrons) by iron bacteria converting ferrous iron (Fe2+) into ferric iron (Fe3+). The most common acceptor of this electron is oxygen. Ferrous iron is highly dissolvable in water in anerobic (oxygen-free) environments. Where this water leaches out into aerobic (oxygen-rich) environments, iron bacteria thrives. Iron bacteria obtains energy when it transfers an electron from ferrous iron to oxygen creating ferric iron which is insoluble in water. This insolubility creates a beautiful orange soup of ferric iron and iron bacteria swirling around in the water.
For me, the ferrous wheel was a fascinating and dizzying ride full of science that I spent lots of time reading about. The importance of iron will surely find its way into more posts in the future. For example, iron is vital for the production of chlorophyll which is a key component for photosynthesis. For now, I feel this amount of information is enough to get you started doing some research of your own, good luck.
Also part of this story, I put my hand down in the water to see how it felt. It looked slimy, but I was unable to feel it. I expected it to cling to my hand when I pulled it out, but it didn’t stick to my hand at all. I scooped up some in a container to have a look. I immediately noticed that I had caught a small organism and it was excitedly darting around. That creature was me swimming around in this nebulous, tangerine dream—it was a metaphor, a reminder of a world so unbelievable in its infinite complexity and bewilderment.
Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there!
Biosheen on Wetlands
During the first couple of weeks of November, the surface of the water was covered with a thin film that had become fractured and had a colorful sheen suggestive of an oily substance.
One way biological surface sheens can occur is the result of bacteria decomposing organic matter. Places like the wetlands become a suitable environment for bacteria to flourish because the flow of water is very low or not at all which can lead to low levels of oxygen in the water. With the heaps of newly added leaves from deciduous trees and shrubs growing in the wetlands, the perfect, soupy environment has been created to break down all this plant material and create a biosheen.
A biological sheen can appear similar to a sheen caused by petroleum. To tell the difference, a biological sheen breaks into irregular or jagged edges when the surface of the water is disturbed and petroleum sheens stays together in a slick.
After I made time to do a little research on the phenomenon, I went back to area to investigate if it felt oily, had an odor, etc. Disappointingly, I found that it had completely disappeared. I stood there wondering about it and wished I had been more curious earlier. Where did it go? Why was its presence so brief? Did it dissovle? Did another organism eat it?
I have been looking around the internet and haven’t come across more specifics on how biosheens are created as a byproduct of decomposition and more details of their makeup. I will leave it there at that moment as I continue to solve this puzzle.
Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I look forward to seeing you out there.
Coyote Scat - Grapes?
On the road through the meadow, I came across some coyote scat that blended in well with gravel surface. I was a little disappointed to see that they changed their diet, and I wasn’t seeing any more of the bright orange apple scat. The menu appears to have switched over as the apples ran out, now it appears that they are eating grapes. There is a vineyard on the other side of the river from the arboretum. The water is still pretty shallow and the current isn’t very swift so they could easily cross, or they could always use the bridge.
Coyotes are opportunistic predators that eat a wide variety of foods that includes lots of fruits. When I found the apple scat, it was interesting to see sizable chunks of apple fairly undigested. In this pile of scat, I found a berry that had been swallowed, passed through the coyote’s digestion system and out the other side as a whole grape! I rolled it out of the scat and realized that somehow it hadn’t been smashed or punctured, which doesn’t seem possible. In one of the photos below, I rolled the grape over to the side and put a couple of seeds beside it. The arboretum caretakers Patrick and Conner came by as I was investigating the scat and they thought it looked like grapes in the scat too. Patrick thought I should go over to the vineyard and see what kind of grapes are growing and compare them. That’s a good idea. Afterwards, I gently pushed on the berry with a stick. It popped and the juice oozed out with a couple of seeds. I wondered what surprises might show up next in the coyote scat. Do coyotes eat rosehips?
Pholiota Mushroom
This cluster of golden mushrooms vibrantly glowed in the afternoon sun this fall. They were popping out of the side of a willow tree growing in the wetlands. Its sunny, yellow-orange cap was adorned with orange scales and was moist and sticky. This gelatinous quality of the cap was referred to as viscid in the mushroom guides I have. Underneath, it had wonderful gills radiating out from a scaly stalk.
This mushroom is classified as a saprobe—a group of fungi that act as decomposers. They get their nutrients from feeding on dead and decaying wood, leaves, litter, and other organic matter. It was interesting to see them growing from the sturdy trunk of a live tree. I wondered if a mischievous forest gnome had glued the stalks to the side of the tree. Later, I read that some of the species of Pholiota grow on live trees. That said, farther up the tree on the end, it was damaged and decaying which maybe has worked its way down into the center of the tree where these mushrooms were emanating.
Identifying mushrooms is tricky business. Every time I read about them, the guide books refer to look-alikes and needing to look at spores along with other factors such as habitat, time of year, etc. So I only feel comfortable identifying this one down to the genus Pholiota.
I have been struck by the abundance and variety of mushrooms this year. I wondered if the weather conditions this year had brought forth more mushrooms. This seemingly would make it easier to notice ones that are usually there this time of year because they are in greater numbers. Either way, I am especially enjoying encountering them throughout the landscape this fall.
