Wetland Field Notes 2008
Observations of plants and animals as I explore the wetland - Pam Feagler
January 12, Saturday
Jim and I were at the lake today to do a little winter
cleanup...actually, Jim was playing with his new metal detector and I was doing
a little cleanup. Other than tree branches and odd bits of trash there
wasn't much to pick up. It was a beautiful sunny winter day, and not a
single bird was singing. Tree branches sighing in the wind was all that
could be heard. The sunshine sparkled off the calm water and reminded us
that the days are getting longer...
We
did see both bald eagles today in their favorite tree across the lake. We
will always enjoy the sight of these birds no matter how many times we see them.
What a success story for America to have saved these amazing creatures from
extinction.
June 1, Sunday
This spring should have been a high point for us, with so much to
celebrate for the wetland's tenth anniversary...but it has not been so. I
have not been here to work at or enjoy the wetland I love so much. I have
spent the last three months with my Dad in Indiana as he declined from brain
cancer and finally passed away on May 1. When a loved one is facing the
end nothing else in life is more important than being there for them.
Daily issues, traffic jams, the evening news, corporate ladders, fashion
trends...nothing in life is more important than love. I am back home now
and committed to the mission of the wetland. We need to finish the demo
cleanup, finish the Memorial Tree Garden, apply for new funding, get electricity
back to the shelter, and a multitude of other tasks to make this wetland a place
of joy and peace.
July 15, Tuesday
Sherrie brought me a baby bird today, sadly the victim of a neighborhood cat, to
be identified. Baby birds are sometimes difficult simply because they look
nothing like the adult version. First season feathers can be different
colors with different markings until they go through their first molt to gain
the familiar adult markings.
Most bird field guides give minimal descriptions of fledglings, with few
pictures to consult so this youngster was a little tricky. My first guess
was cedar waxwing...the face mask, two scarlet tips just peeking out of its wing
feathers...but the orange tail feathers threw me. Waxwings have brilliant
yellow tips, this was oriole orange, and my three field guides provided no clues
to the variation.
I consulted my friend, the internet, searching by "orange tail feathers", and learned something new. This was a newly fledged waxwing and the orange was the result of its diet. Waxwings typically lay eggs and raise young much later in the summer than other birds. They begin feeding berries and insects that are available in mid July to their chicks. The orange is due to a steady diet of tartarian honeysuckle berries that are ripe and abundant at the wetland right now. The pigment in the berries causes the tail feathers to turn brilliant orange, but it is temporary. After the first molt the orange feathers fall out replaced by the waxy yellow ones. I was sorry to see this little guy up close...but happy to learn something new.
August 7, Thursday
There is a subtle change that happens each year at the end of
July. I listen for it, the change that marks the ending of summer and the
beginning of fall. It is obvious at the wetland and in my own back yard.
Each day in July I listen for the symphony of bird songs, and each day that
passes the songs are less. Finally, the birds are silent and something
else takes its place as August begins...cicadas. I realize that from
childhood the sound of cicadas has always given me a feeling of melancholy, and
I didn't understand why until recently...it means I won't hear birdsong again
until next year and I can't help but feel a little sad. Spring is my
favorite time of year, life is blooming all over creation. Multitudes of
birds are singing in a wild chorus attracting mates, defending territory,
calling to their young...maybe even just for the pure joy of singing. That
all disappears, as part of the natural cycle of life, at the end of summer.
Today, the lake is quiet, not even any blue herons or chimney swifts to watch. And where have all the Cedar Waxwings gone? Last year I couldn't count the multitudes swooping over the water catching insects, this year I have barely counted a few dozen...We do have more wood ducks than I originally thought. I am seeing the monarch butterflies all over the place, and I wonder if these are the final batch that will migrate back to Mexico for winter. What a wonderful story of survival for a creature so delicate. We need some rain, even though the lake still has a good water level it has turned green with algae as the temperature goes up and the oxygen goes down.
August 16, Saturday
With the sighting of a black-crowned night heron on the island and a group of
great egrets along the far shore this week, we know that fall migration is just
beginning. Hopefully, we will see the multitudes of birds that used to
appear in migrations before Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast. The barn
owls have been very vocal lately, starting about 10:30pm several will start
calling until you can hear them all over the wetland. It is quite eerie to
listen to their screech on a full moon walk through the dark woods as we did
tonight. Their sound is similar to a red tailed hawk, but much shorter and
clipped at the end. The night was beautiful, with a brilliant full moon
illuminating cloud tufts. It was cool with no breeze, and the night sounds
were a challenge to identify. I spend so much time figuring out daytime
nature I am not very good at the nighttime stuff. This calls for more
night hikes...
August 25, Monday
What a gorgeous day we had today! It was in the 70's with a steady breeze
and constant sunshine. The white egrets are still here, they perch across
the lake on a clump of dead willow trees. Mostly they just roost, preen
feathers, and squawk loudly throughout the day. I was talking to a some
ladies having a picnic today, and spotted the osprey circling around the island.
I pointed it out to the ladies so we watched as it glided down to the water and
plopped down to catch a fish. It was a good size fish because the osprey
had a slow take-off from the water with it in its talons. It flew up to a
tree and presumably had a great lunch. We don't get to see that very
often, in fact this is the first time I have seen the osprey this year.
This late in August we see a variety of flowers blooming...iron weed (intense purple) and wingstem (bright yellow) are everywhere. The woodland sunflower is still blooming, and the brilliant yellow cut-leaf coneflower along the river trail has spread throughout the woods creating a sunny glow in the under-story. It is quite beautiful. Great blue lobelia is blooming in its usual small boggy patch by the patio. The island is still covered in pink swamp hibiscus, which has been blooming since the first of August. Some patches of flowers are very small which makes it more fun to hunt for them. The trick is to know what should be in bloom and then scout the woods looking for color...it's a fun hobby.
November 7, Friday
What an exceptionally beautiful autumn we have been having! I can't
believe we are still enjoying almost 70 deg days into the first week of November.
The days have been sunny with frosty nights, making the leaf colors more vibrant
than usual. Of course by now they are falling at a pretty fast rate but
this past month has been sheer joy to watch. The lake is very low right
now, just a foot deep throughout. Besides the white egrets and a few
pied-billed grebes we have seen no other water birds passing through this fall.
Three years after Katrina I had hoped that migration paths would recover, and
maybe they have in some areas but not in ours.
We have also been wondering where the osprey has been, we have seen it only a few times this season. I think we found the answer...a few weeks ago some friends and I were watching the pair of bald eagles perched in a tree, mostly they just sit there and survey their kingdom. This day, we watched an osprey fly over the lake and one of the eagles promptly flew out of the tree and started chasing the osprey away. The bigger eagle made aggressive contact with the osprey in midair until the smaller bird just flew off. The eagle then returned to its perch...now we know why the osprey has not been seen at the lake this year. I guess 30 acres of water is not big enough for both birds.
A walk in nature heals the soul, somebody has said this before me... Feeling blue?... feeling overwhelmed by stuff?...feeling disconnected from the simple joys of life?...take a walk in nature. It might sound simplistic but it works. Step onto a tree lined path, turn off the ipod and listen to the music of nature. Especially in the fall, listen to the rustling leaves and the scurry of small animals in the undergrowth. Watch the rippling water bouncing sunlight back to you. Close your eyes and smell the air filled with earthy scents of the changing season. Touch the bark of a tree and know that it protects a truly marvelous living being within its knotty shell. Walk slow to take it all in, then walk faster to exercise your muscles. Put it all together and you can't help but feel better. It works for me, it works for my friends, and it will work for everyone who tries it.
Then, pick up a copy of "Last Child in the Woods, Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv. This amazing book explains how society has been disconnected from nature, the consequences of that disconnect, and how to find our way back. Read the book, then find your own natural sanctuary, like the Zoar Wetland, and reconnect with the natural cycles that can heal our lives. This is a "shout out" to Todd from Indiana, a recent visitor to the Zoar Wetland. Come back soon with your family and get knee-deep in a wetland...
November 11, Tuesday
It doesn't take long for the trees to go bare. All of a sudden the view
through the trees opens up, which imparts a new beauty to the woods. With
the lake so low right now and nothing growing this is the best time to trek
through areas of the wetland that are usually off limits. This is the time
to inspect the woods, clean up random trash, and look for animal tracks. I
couldn't do it today, with deadlines looming I have to stay focused on paperwork
but I will save a day to get outdoors. This morning, there was a layer of
ice across most of the lake. It's pretty unusual to have ice forming this
early because there is too much wave action for the water to easily freeze.
If we get two weeks of 20deg or lower then ice will form and be solid enough to
walk on, but the days have been so warm lately that I can't believe the water is
freezing already.
I am resisting the urge to cut back all the wildflower stems that have died. The flower gardens are a dull brown and look shaggy, not much to brag about. Urban life conditions us to manicure nature to make it look good...but, those brown stems are holding onto a rich supply of food for a multitude of winter birds. Those seeds needed to ripen on upright stems so the birds have easy access to food above the coming snows. Once early spring arrives the seeds will be gone and I can cut the stems back and rake out the beds before the new spring growth. In the meantime I will watch the goldfinches devour the seeds of the purple coneflowers and bee balm, as beautiful a sight as the original flowers were.