Spotted Sandpiper

Along the Willamette River out at Mt. Pisgah, there are areas where stones have been deposited and weathered smooth. These regions, known as bars, become more exposed as the water recedes during the dry months of summer. These bars are interspersed with small thickets of willow and provide a great environment for birds to bathe, drink water, forage for food, and nest.

Over the past few years, including this one, I have seen spotted sandpipers raising a family out at Mt. Pisgah. As I approach the river, I usually hear them before I see them. Peterson describes their vocalization as a “clear peet or peet-weet! or peet-weet-weet-weet-weet.”

When you see them you’ll notice that they have a curious behavior of bobbing their tails up and down. It is a fluid, teetering movement that even the new fledglings do. They usually fly low over the water. They have quick, fluttering wing beats interspersed with short glides.

During breeding, the breast of this elegant, little bird becomes adorned with spots. Its nonbreeding and juvenile plumage doesn’t have spots.

I read this about their behavior on the website All About Birds by The Cornell Lab: “Spotted Sandpipers were one of the first bird species described in which the roles of the males and females are reversed. Males are usually smaller, less aggressive, and tend the nest and young. Meanwhile, the larger females fight for territories and may be polyandrous, meaning they mate with more than one male.”

This year I see 3 fledglings. They leave the nest soon after hatching, and they are an adorable ball of downy feathers.

I love this bird. Check them out.

Bullock's Orioles Feeding Babies

You can hear the begging of little birds as the Bullock’s orioles are feeding their babies. The sound can be heard from quite far, and it seems like it would give away their location. I have certainly found a many nests this way. Both the male and the female are making trips to the nest with food every few minutes. It must be exhausting. They also peer down into the nest to look for a fecal sack. If they find one, they will remove it and deposit it as they fly away from the nest.

They weave a gourd-shaped nest that is usually located out at the end of a tree branch about 10 to 25 feet above the ground. It is made of natural fibers like grass and lichen. The interior part of the nest is usually lined with feathers or the cottony down of willow and cottonwood seeds. Unfortunately, they are also good at finding man-made fibers to use for nesting material like the white ribbon in this nest. I have seen Bullock’s oriole nests in which it looked like half the nest was fishing line. Thus, you will usually find their nests located in habitats near water like along the Willamette river out at Mt. Pisgah.

Tiger Lily

I have been watching this plant grow for some time now, and I finally found one flowering. These nodding flowers have bursting orange tepals that open and peel backwards. They are dotted with maroon spots that resemble freckles. The leaves are arranged in whirls around the stem in various intervals.

This magical plant reminds me that there is so much diversity and beauty to behold.

Tepal
One of the divisions of a flower perianth, especially one that is not clearly differentiated into petals and sepals, as in lilies and tulips.

Spittlebugs

This small insect gets it name from the frothy, bubbly “spittle” it produces to make its home. The horticulture extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the process: “They produce the frothy mixture by mixing air with fluid excretions, but not out their mouth, so it technically isn’t spit. The immature bugs feed face down on the stem, and as excess sap is excreted out the anus, it is mixed with a substance secreted by epidermal glands that enhances surface viscosity and stabilizes the foam to make it last longer. This mixture is forced out of the abdomen under pressure and as it is mixed with air, it forms bubbles. Some species can produce as many as 80 bubbles per minute.”

At this stage, spittlebugs are in their nymphal form. This foamy mass attached to a plant stem hides it from predators, insulates it from extreme temperatures and keeps it from drying out. For food, both the nymph and the adult pierce the stems of plants and suck the sap.

I chased one out of its spittle that was attached to a stalk of grass and took a couple of photos. It crawled up the stem and immediately began to make bubbles. You can see that it is getting close to becoming an adult. The adult stage of the spittlebug is often called a froghopper. It has powerful, springy back legs for leaping and their faces somewhat resemble a frog. They have wings but they rarely fly.

There is only one generation each year. The nymphal stage lasts about 6 to 8 weeks and the adults emerge in late spring to early summer. In late summer to fall the females will lay eggs that will over winter. When they hatch in the spring, we will see the white, foam attached to plant stems again.

Spittlebugs and leafhoppers resemble each other and are related. Leafhoppers generally are smaller and more slender than spittlebugs. The adults will be springing into action soon, and I’ll be trying to tune in my awareness to find them. Maybe they’ll sit still for a photo.

spittlebug_upclose_web.jpg

Grass in Bloom

As I was walking along the creek trail yesterday morning, I could see plumes of pollen billowing up in the air. A slight breeze was blowing, and a small cloud would erupt when the grasses collided. Insects landing on the grass were also sending pollen flying. So if you are allergic to grass pollen and are looking to set the world record for the most sneezes in a day, then head on out to Mt. Pisgah and have yourself a serious sneeze-o-rama.

Grasslands support a rich diversity of flora and fauna and cover a large part of North America . On Audubon’s website, they state that historically the grasslands were 550 million acres that stretched from Alberta to Mexico—fewer than 40 percent of that remains today. It is estimated that 30 - 60 million bison lived in North America and roamed mostly on the plains in a vast sea of grass.

At Mt. Pisgah this habitat of open fields of grass and other plants that is interspersed with oak trees is known as an Oak Savannah. Native peoples who inhabited this area used fire as a means of maintaining these open areas. Today this is achieved through mowing it.

Tiger Swallowtail

This butterfly bebops around the landscape as if the musical notes of Charlie Parker are its driver.

As it flutters about in its happy-go-lucky way, it flashes its colorful cloak.

It rarely seems to want to land, and when it does, it is not for long. I fortuitously captured this photo as it momentarily paused on an oak leaf. I saw it stop by the flower umbel of a cow parsnip today for a brief sip of nectar.

I’m looking forward to continuing to watch this beautiful creature.

Robin Feeding Babies

The robins are busy collecting insects, caterpillars and worms. They are up at the break of day to began foraging, and they will work tirelessly until dusk to feed their babies. Both parents feed them and the nestling phase usually lasts around two weeks. It seems hard to believe that they grow up that fast and are ready to leave the nest. It won’t be long before we will see young robins with their speckled breasts chasing their parents and begging for food. Actually I saw a robin fledge yesterday evening. I’m getting ready to head out and see what’s happening this morning. See you out there!

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Red Columbine

Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

Flowers form the most interesting shapes and vibrant colors.

Red columbine’s flowers face downward which is usually described as nodding. They are red and yellow with five long petal spurs. The spurs have a bulbous tip at the end and if you look up into the flower you’ll see a yellow cup at the beginning of the spur. The petal-like sepals spread out between each spur. There is a central tuft of stamens and styles protruding. The leaves are compound with nine round-lobed leaflets, and they are mostly basal on tall leafstalks.

The genus name Aquilegia is a Roman term, which refers to either water-bearing or eagle claws (Cascade Olympic Natural History, Daniel Mathews). The spurred petals resemble an eagle's talons.

In Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast it says: “The common name is derived from Latin columbina meaning ‘dove-like.’ The arched petals and spurs of the flowers resemble a quintet of doves arranged in a ring around a dish (a favourite device of ancient artists).”

It has been flowering for a few weeks and is starting to go to seed. The new seed pods are fuzzy and green with a long pointy tip. They are usually 5 clustered together with a papery crown ringed around the base. From above it resembles a star.

You can see them growing in the Patricia Baker wildflower garden. While I was looking at this plant, a bumblebee, a hummingbird, a small bee and a moth were visiting this plant.

Manroot or Bigroot

Whether you prefer to use the common name, Manroot or Bigroot, it sounds like a goofy name for a plant. Wondering how big the root is, I looked up photos on the internet. The roots are pretty big, and a couple of websites stated that they could weigh up to a couple hundred pounds.

Above ground, this plant is a magical vine that is covering the landscape — it seems to be growing at least a few inches every day. It is forming a dense blanket on the ground in some places. It also has branched tendrils that are grabbing ahold of anything they can curl around and hoist the plant up into trees and shrubs.

The male and female flowers are separate and on the same plant. Loosely clustered male flowers emerge on a narrow stalk from the leaf axil, and that is what you see filling the landscape with soft, white stars. The female flower is short-stalked, usually solitary, and also emerges from the same axil.

This native perennial is in the Cucurbitaceae family which is the gourd family of flowering plants. Manroot grows a spiky, fibrous fruit that is not edible. Small fruits are already beginning to form behind the female flower.

Manroot (Marah oreganus)

Western Screech Owl

I found this western screech owl the other evening thanks to the help of a friend. I saw a robin on the path foraging on all of the small, green caterpillars that have been repelling from the trees this week. As it was darting back and forth across the trail, it was giving its vocalization that signals possible danger or disturbance. It makes a series of calls that sound like tuk tuk tuk tuk. After a couple of minutes it flew up to a tree branch and made a few more alarm calls and flew away. As I stood there surveying the landscape for about 5 minutes the robin returned. Again, it began to forage, but still vocalizing its agitation. I began to wonder if the demands of parenting had started to frazzle my friend and/or maybe she wanted me to move on. Once again, she flew up to a tree branch nearby, alarmed and flew off down the path. A few minutes later as I looked around I was gifted the beauty of seeing this magnificent little creature sitting at the entrance of a tree cavity. Its coloration and feather pattern resemble the bark of trees which allows it to blend in excellently with its surroundings.

Western Screech-Owls are carnivores that mostly eat small mammals. Their diet also includes birds, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. They are nocturnal and usually leave their roost to forage around sunset and return a little before sunrise.

Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii)

Click the link below to All About Birds to hear their vocalizations:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/sounds

Black-headed Grosbeak

The song of the black-headed grosbeaks started flowing through the air as they arrived on the scene in the last week or so. The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America describes their voice: “Song consists of rising and falling passages; resembles American Robin’s song, but more fluent and mellow. Call a flat ik or eek.”

Along with their robust song, you will also see them darting through the canopy as they began to establish their territory and find a mate.

As I was watching a pair fly around in an Oregon ash, I witnessed their brief copulation. In most birds, the male and female have a cloaca. During mating the cloacal openings of both male and female birds swell and protrude slightly outside of their bodies. The male will usually get on top of the female. She will move her tail feathers to the side so they can rub their cloacas together. At that moment, the male will quickly transfer his sperm to the female to fertilize her egg.

Life is amazing!

Male Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)

Cedar Waxwing Courtship

I read the following excerpt yesterday about cedar waxwings on The Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website.

“During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift.”

This morning I watched the male pluck an Indian Plum berry and fly over to a nearby limb where the female joined him. They gently passed the berry back and forth four or five times before it was eaten. This is a tender, sweet way to form a bond and become a pair.

Cedar Waxwings

In an old copy of How to Know Birds by Roger Tory Peterson he describes cedar waxwings: “Dressed in tans and grays, the sleek Waxwings are the most ‘tailored’ birds. They are called Waxwings because of shiny red droplets that look like sealing wax, at the tips of the secondary wing-feathers. But you must be very close to the bird to see this feature. The best field marks are a pointed crest and a yellow band at the end of the tail.”

Cedar waxwings are social birds and they can be seen and heard foraging in flocks. I see them every afternoon along the river trail moving through the trees and their vocalizations are a high, thin lisp or zeee that is slightly trilled. They are gleaning insects and caterpillars off of the foliage. You can also see them catching insects on the wing along the river too. They will perch on a branch and swoop out over the river like a flycatcher. Or they will weave back and forth zig-zagging over the water as they catch insects.

Cedar waxwings feed mainly on fruits throughout the year. Their name is derived from cedar berries they consume in winter. Soon the Indian plum berries will begin to ripen, and they will start gobbling them down well before I think they are ready to eat.

In What It’s Like To Be A Bird, David Allen Sibley writes: “The diet of waxwings is mainly fruit for much of the year, and they have several adaptations related to this. They have a relatively small bill, but it opens into an unusually wide mouth, allowing them to swallow large fruit whole. Their tongue has inward-facing barbs to help pull fruit into their throat.”

Happy Birdwatching!

Blacktail Deer

I briefly watched this deer the other day browsing on the new leaves of an Oregon Ash. In reading about blacktail deer, I found that they have a varied diet that can include hundreds of different kinds of plants, fruits, nuts, etc. Naturally their food sources of forbs, grasses and browse can evolve throughout the year as the seasons change.

In Cascade Olympic Natural History, Daniel Mathews writes, “They strip the old-man’s-beard lichen from tree limbs; it contains few nutrients, but enhances the deer’s utilization of plant nutrients in the winter diet of twigs, evergreen needles and leaves. Like other cudchewers, they are able to live on this high-roughage diet thanks to cellulose-digesting bacteria in their first (precudchewing) stomach. They have to browse for the nutritional demands of these bacteria; inadequate protein can kill the bacteria, leaving the browser literally starving to death with its belly full.”

For me, this really underscores the importance for the preserving the diversity of life. Animals have evolved in complex ecosystems that need to be taken care of and protected. It is crucial for our health and wellness.

Definitions:
Forbs (sometimes referred to as herbs) are herbaceous (not woody), broadleaf plants that are not grass-like.

Browse is the leaf and twig growth of shrubs, woody vines, trees, cacti, and other non-herbaceous vegetation available for animal consumption.

Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

Cow Parsnip

Cow-parsnip is a native perennial. Its Latin name is Heracleum lanatum. It comes from Greek - Heracleum is from the Greek hero Hercules, and lanatum means wooly. The plant’s growth is certainly robust, and the stem is especially fuzzy. It can grow up to 10 feet tall, and the leaves can be 16 inches wide.

It is starting to bloom. The umbels are breaking out of their satchels and unfolding into white umbrella-like bouquets. I’ll be watching to see what insects it attracts.

So far, I have only seen one animal eating this plant, the camas pocket gopher. A couple of weeks ago I watched one pull half of cow parsnip down its hole. The plant was younger and a bit smaller than the one pictured here. You can see the plant sticking out of the hole in the last photo below.

A word of caution:
I read in a number of places that the sap from this plant can cause skin damage (blisters or hyperpigmentation), especially to light-sensitive people.

Cow-parsnip (Heracleum lanatum)

Golden-crowned Sparrows

Small flocks of golden-crowned sparrows have been using the arboretum as their winter home. I see them at the entrance, the wildflower garden, along the quarry road and the road out to the south meadow. They are never too far from the cover of a small thicket of shrubs that they can use for safety from predators. That said, they seem to be a friendly bird that will allow you to get close to them if you are quiet and move slowly.

This spring I noticed them eating lots of leaves of new plant shoots. I didn’t realize birds would include so much plant vegetation in their diet. I also see them foraging on new tender, grass seeds.

They are often palling around in a mixed flock with white-crowned sparrows. I captured a photo of them together that you can see below.

The golden-crowned sparrow breeds in shrubby tundra habitats near the coast or in the mountains in Alaska and northwestern Canada. I imagine that they will be migrating soon. Good luck on your journey. See you in the fall.

Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)

Sawflies & Bracken Ferns

There is a small wetland area out at the arboretum known as The Seeps. I was out there the other day, and I came across all of these small creatures dancing around in the sunlight that was breaking through the clouds. They were in this patch of bracken ferns that were sprouting up and beginning to unfurl. Periodically they would land and deposit eggs. I don’t know if they were laying the eggs on the fronds or piercing part of the plant and laying them inside. Trying to capture a photo was a little challenging. They are sensitive to movement, and they are small. After awhile I managed to take a couple of photos. A knowledgeable friend of mine identified them as sawflies. I found a photo of the species Strongylogaster distans Norton, and it seemed like a good match.

Observing these small creatures reminded me that there is an entire world occurring mostly unnoticed. Reading on the website of the Smithsonian, it says that there are some 900,000 different kinds of living insects known in the world (approx. 91,000 in the United States). It is estimated that there are somewhere between 2 - 30 million yet to be discovered. Additionally, insects probably have the largest biomass of the terrestrial animals. Apparently it has been calculated that “at any time, it is estimated that there are some 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive.” This is blowing my mind.

Read this brief article published on the Smithsonian’s website. It’s awesome.
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos

Moth - Ctenucha Rubroscapus

The seeps are a small wetland habitat along the road out to the old quarry. Recently out there, I found a few of these caterpillars grazing on green, round vegetation that I think might be a type of sedge. They were all out at the tip, moving down the stalk as they ate. I am always delighted to find the larva stage of a moth or butterfly, because I feel that they can be tricky to locate. In my readings, I found that many species have specific host plants and habitats. So hopefully this knowledge can help guide me in my future searches for moths and butterflies.

Moths at rest do not press their wings together vertically above their bodies. Rather, they hold their wings flat over their abdomens in a near horizontal position. Most are active at night and are well camouflaged to avoid predation during the day.

Adult (Ctenucha Rubroscapus): Wingspan 4.5 centimeters. Wings black, edged with white distally. Thorax black, laterally with two red longitudinal lines, prothorax with a red apical patch. Head red and black. Abdomen iridescent blue.

Ctenucha Rubroscapus

I found this resource online to identify the species of caterpillar:
https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/technology/pdfs/FHTET_03_11.pdf

Lepidoptera of the Pacific Northwest: Caterpillars and Adults
Jeffrey C. Miller
Department of Rangeland Resources, Oregon State University
Paul C. Hammond
Department of Zoology, Oregon State University

Goldenrod Spider

I noticed that small samaras were starting to emerge out of the flowers of the bigleaf maple, and I went over to have a closer look. I saw a dead bee in the flower cluster, and I realized that a spider was holding on to the end of it.

The goldenrod spider doesn’t spin a web to catch its prey, it uses the tactic of camouflage. It patiently waits on a flower to ambush an unsuspecting insect, such as a bee foraging for nectar. It has a unique ability to change colors depending on which flower it is hiding on. It can either be white like the petals of a daisy or it can turn yellow to blend in with the flowers of a goldenrod. The process of changing colors isn’t instantaneous, it takes days to accomplish.

It is also known as goldenrod crab spider because it holds its legs out to the side like a crab as it waits on a flower.

Goldenrod Spider (Misumena vatia)

Red-legged Frog

I was slowly walking along the zig-zag trail the other evening. I heard a slight rustling and saw a garter snake gently flowing through the green carpet of plants along the path. A moment later, this little frog popped out in front of me. It turned and started hopping away. I’m sure it sensed the snake’s presence. I took a couple of photos as it made its escape. Not wanting to add any stress to a tense situation, I moved on hoping it made it to a safer location.

Amphibian is a Greek word. Amphi means “of both kinds" and bios means "life." An amphibian’s life cycle usually starts off in an aquatic environment and moves to a terrestrial one upon maturity. Frogs began their life in water as tadpoles and move onto land as an adult. That said, frogs usually don’t venture to far from water because their skin needs to stay moist. Most amphibians breathe through their lungs and their skin. So their skin needs to stay moist in order to absorb oxygen. Fascinating!

Since the health of a frog’s skin is crucial to its survival, it is very sensitive to its environment. For this reason, frogs are considered indicator species — their presence or absence can tell us about the health of an ecosystem. Unfortunately, we have seen the decline or extinction of frog species throughout the world. It’s a warning that we need to be better caretakers of nature!

I hope you read more about frogs. Their lives are an absorbing topic.

Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora)