Newsletters

January 2015 - Bioreserve, Scarlet Tanager, Indian Cucumber

WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
JANUARY, 2015

 

"The book of Genesis tells us that God created man and woman entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it, but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work.” 

- Pope Francis

 

 

“The middle of the road is where the white line is – and that’s the worst place to drive.” 

- Robert Frost 

 

 

BIORESERVE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION – Building a Bioreserve constituency keeping in mind the reason for the Bioreserve's creation

We have assembled a PowerPoint presentation on the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve and have members who have volunteered to take it around to area groups and organizations with the hope of building a constituency that will lobby for this unique public open space parcel and advocate for its proper management by the Bioreserve's land holding agencies and organizations. 

 

In rapidly urbanizing eastern Massachusetts we would also like to spread the word that linking the Bioreserve via  greenway corridors to other protected open space parcels across eastern Massachusetts is vital to biodiversity and the future of the indigenous plants and animals that adapted and evolved to live in Massachusetts' coastal lowland and maritime forests.

 

For a quick overview of the PowerPoint presentation, we have made a video of the individual PowerPoint images. You can view it here:http://youtu.be/CAj9x71zQaU 

 

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."

- Baba Dioum 

 

BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) 

  Photo – USFWS, Steve Maslowski

 

Is the scarlet tanager the most brilliantly colored bird in the Bioreserve? Some people think so. A crimson-red bird with jet-black wings and tail flitting about in the sunlight in the topmost branches of an oak is quite a spectacle of movement and color ...although one can get a stiff neck trying to spot one in the thick foliage they pick to cavort in. These tanagers are 6 to 7 inches in length and have an 11 to 12 inch wingspan.

Scarlet tanagers are neo-tropical songbirds which return to northern forests each spring to breed, nest, lay their eggs and rear the next generation of scarlet tanagers. Males return north to claim a nesting territory arriving about a week before the females.

• Adult males cannot be confused with any other local bird. Female plumage is yellowish-green with darker olive-green wings and tail. Along with many other species of forest songbirds, once breeding is done, as summer progresses and these birds prepare to migrate south to their winter homes, adult males molt to resemble females and immatures except they do retain dark wings and tail.
• Scarlet tanagers are rarely found in urban areas or like cardinals and orioles in suburban backyards. They require large blocks of unfragmented forest for breeding. Those tanagers that fail to nest in thick forested areas are usually parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds who destroy the tanager eggs/young. Cowbirds shun unfragmented forests. 
• Although tanagers will occasionally forage in understory trees and shrubs they prefer foraging for inch-worms, other caterpillars and insects high in the canopy of deciduous forest trees. Due to the thickness of the foliage and height of the trees scarlet tanagers, as brilliantly colored as they are, are often not seen by those hiking through the forest below.
• In the summer scarlet tanagers frequent forests from the Mississippi River valley east to the Atlantic coast and from extreme southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. They spend the winter on the east slope of the Andes Mountains in the evergreen forests of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
• Male scarlet tanagers have a territorial and mating call similar to that of the robin, but raspier. In the spring they usually arrive in May and head back south in early September. 
• In May the males call constantly and display for females by spreading their wings and tail and flitting about the tree tops. Once mating takes place the scarlet tanager couple selects a tall oak or maple in which to nest. The female constructs a cup-shaped nest of twigs and lines it with grass and soft plant fibers. The nest is constructed on a horizontal limb in thick foliage in the tree canopy often 40 or more feet above the ground.

While with us in our northern forests tanagers lay 1 to 6 pale blue-green eggs which may or may not have reddish-brown dots on their larger ends. Tanagers nest only once a season. The female incubates her eggs for 2 weeks. Both male and female forage for insects to feed their chicks. The young scarlet tanagers are fully fledged and ready to leave home when about 2 weeks old although they hang around the neighborhood and beg food from their parents for another 2 to 3 weeks.

Along with the losses caused by cowbird intrusion tanagers suffer predation from sharp-shinned, Cooper's and red-shouldered hawks; screech, long-eared and barred owls; ravens, crows, jays and grackles. Raccoons, opossums and weasels don't actively search for tanager eggs, but should they encounter a nest full of eggs while foraging about in the tree tops they will promptly gobble them up.

The Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve with its relatively unfragmented forest is important scarlet tanager habitat. Large blocks of unfragmented forest are necessary for the continued survival of this species.

 

 

 

BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Indian Cucumber (Medeola virginiana)

 

The Indian cucumber is the only species in the genus Medeola. It is a member of the lily family and is commonly found growing in rich, moist soil on the forest floor in partial shade.

 

The Indian cucumber gets its name from the white, crisp, edible rhizome (underground stem) in the soil at the base of the plant. The rhizome smells and tastes like the fruit of the domestic, commercial cucumber we grow in our vegetable gardens and find in grocery store produce departments.

 

The single, unbranched stem that grows from the rhizome has one or two whorls (circular arrangement) of lance-shaped leaves, the number depending on the health and age of the plant, completely encircling the stem. The lower whorl, or single whorl of a single whorl Indian cucumber, contains 5 to 9 leaves. On those plants with an upper whorl there are 3 to 5 leaves in that whorl.

 

Fully mature Indian cucumbers may reach 2 feet in height and produce drooping, yellowish-green and brown flowers, ½ inch wide, at the top of their stem below the top whorl of leaves in late May and June. The recurved petals and sepals of the flowers number six and each flower also has six long reddish-brown stamens. Though small, each Indian cucumber's 3 to 9 flowers resemble those of larger lilies that have recurved petals such as those of the large and showy turk's cap lily.

 

The flowers contain both male and female reproductive organs and upon pollination by forest bees and flies small green berries begin to form. By early autumn the berries are pea-sized and when fully ripe turn purplish-black and their stems lengthen so they extend above the top whorl of leaves and the leaves, now below the berries, turn red where the leaves meet the stem. The berries are mealy and inedible to humans. Indians ate wild cucumber rhizomes. Forest mice, voles, hares and deer will eat the rhizomes as well as the berries.

 

Indian cucumber is found in moist forests from the Mississippi River valley east to the Atlantic coast and from Ontario and Quebec south to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.

 

 

 Photo – Wiki media (Creative Commons)

 

WELCOMING WINTER – Stay active, stay warm! 

We know some folks that spend a lot of time each summer hiking, camping, swimming, fishing, biking, exploring their natural environment and doing other things, too, out in nature ...but once winter arrives they barely poke their head out the front door.

 

Don't be one of those wimpy people. We are New Englanders. We interact with our native environment all year long. If you stay active during the winter you'll be in better shape to enjoy all that the outdoors offers when spring and summer return.

 

Winter hiking, ice skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, birding, nature photography, geocaching and orienteering are some of the wintertime activities that will keep you warm and active. 

 

*This can be your first outdoor activity for 2015: Winter Full Moon Walk. 

 

Come walk through the nighttime forest along trails illuminated by the full moon. Listen for coyotes calling or the “who cooks for you” call of the barred owl. The moon is sometimes shy and other times the moon decides to play hide and seek with the clouds so it is a good idea to bring along a flashlight in case the moon is in a mischievous, uncooperative mood. 

 

We will meet a hundred feet north of Watuppa Reservation Headquarters, 2929 Blossom Road, Fall River, MA at 8 p.m., January 3, Saturday (rain date January 31). Dress for the weather. Approximate length of walk is 2 miles.

 

 

2014's Full Moon Walk found lots of snowflakes and few moonbeams. Although the snow limited last year's participation, the few that attended had a magical time listening to the swooshing sound of falling snowflakes as they walked along silvery trails through the dark forest.

 

 

For other wintertime activities and meetings click on our Calendar.   

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