Highlights

FEBRUARY 2019 - Bioreserve Walk

ACTIVITY ALERT - FEBRUARY'S EXPLORING THE SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS BIORESERVE WALK AND THIS COMING SATURDAY'S, FEBRUARY16,  SNOW MOON WALK

The sky was a bright winter blue when we started our hike this past Saturday. Air temperature was 23 degrees and a perfect sunny winter day for a walk in the piney woods, except for the ferociously cold wind gusts every now and then. . 
 
As we walked by some wet and swampy areas we watched for skunk cabbages poking above the ground, Although we didn't see any on this walk we have found them on past walks in February. Skunk cabbages are the first herbaceous plant to appear and flower in our neck of the woods. They appear so early because they are "warmblooded" using a process called thermogenesis that uses oxygen to break down starch stored in the plants rhizomes thereby producing heat.
 
Here's more info on the amazing skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) from one of our past newsletters.
 

Like New England’s much loved pussy willow, skunk cabbage is one of our earliest flowering spring plants. This year, due to the incredibly mild winter, skunk cabbage was up and about in area wetlands in early February.

The ground may still be frozen in spots and some snow may still fall, but with the rapidly lengthening days and therefore more focused sunlight …on those rare winter days when the sky is not cloudy and grey …fat, green skunk cabbage buds push up out of the sun-warmed swamp mud.

Protected inside each emerging purple and green mottled skunk cabbage bud, botanically called aspathe, is the delicate flower cluster, called a spadix.

The skunk cabbage is found in swamps and wetlands from Quebec and Ontario southward to Georgia and Missouri and is a member of the arum family.

Within the arums are a number of species that are “thermogenic.” Thermogenic plants have the ability to produce heat which allows them to shorten their period of dormancy thereby giving them a competitive advantage by allowing them to start growing while competing wetland species are still dormant in winter mode. The warmth also disperses the flower odor and encourages pollinating insects to hang around the spadix longer.

As the hood-like spathe unfolds, it exposes the pinkish-yellow skunk cabbage flowers which give off a carrion-like odor. The large leaves emerge weeks after the flowers.

Though the temperature may be hovering around the freezing mark one may notice swarms of small carrion flies and gnats hovering about the flowers. Attracted by the strong smell and warmth these small insects enter the sheltered spathe and in moving about ensure pollination.

The skunk cabbage is not a “skunk” …nor is it a “cabbage.” Bruise or cut the cabbage-like foliage and a pungent skunky odor is released. The odor given off by the skunk cabbage is nowhere near as powerful as that of its namesake, but is unpleasant enough to serve as a warning to creatures large and small that although abundant, green and succulent, the leaves and other plant parts contain calcium oxalic crystals and cause, in most animals, excruciating pain if chewed and swallowed.

Although shunned by most critters, a few species can eat skunk cabbage with apparent impunity. Black bears, fresh out of hibernation, feed extensively on skunk cabbage.  We have watched wild turkeys, in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB), eating young skunk cabbage leaves as they walk along foraging through wetlands in early spring. Wood ducks eat skunk cabbage seeds in the fall and our September 2011 “Bioreserve Fauna of the Month,” the great grey leopard slug, feeds on decaying skunk cabbage leaves in late fall and the following spring.

The skunk cabbage grows from a thick perennial starchy rhizome buried deep in the swamp muck. Like many other arum species these roots were gathered by Indians and then dried and ground into flour. The flour would then be stored for a minimum of six months to allow the poisonous calcium oxalic crystals to breakdown and dissipate before the flour was used.

Skunk cabbage was also used extensively as a medicinal plant by various Indian tribes and Indian herbalists traded and sold various skunk cabbage based medicines to early European settlers. Reportedly it was used as an anti-spasmodic to treat persistent coughs, bronchitis, asthma and similar maladies.

Take a walk to a wooded wetland near you and check out this hardy New England native.

 Skunk cabbage spathe and spadix

 

Here are a few photos from Saturday's walk. Thank you Liz!

Hiking under a deep blue winter sky.


Cold, clear water in Mill Brook 




Early morning following the trail through the piney woods

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ACTIVITY ALERT - SNOW MOON WALK AND NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY

Saturday night found us walking by the light of February's Snow Moon. Not a cloud in the sky. One couldn't have picked a better winter night for a walk through the forest. 
 
Although we couldn't get a coyote to respond to our calls, we did hoot along with some zany barred owls that not only gave their characteristic "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" calls but also threw in some cackles and yelps and at times sounded a lot like tropical monkeys. A neat performance and admission to the concert was free. 
 
For a few photos from Saturday's walk see below the following barred owl info. 
 
The following information on barred owls in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve is from one of our past newsletters. 

 

Photo - Courtesy - CC-BY-SA-3.0 (httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0)], Wikimedia Commons

 

Big, about 2 feet tall with a 48 inch wingspan, attractive and vocal, the barred owl is found in dense forest, especially wooded swamps, throughout the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB). This owl's native range In the United States extends from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast. They are also native to southern Canada and in recent years have expanded their range into the Pacific Northwest and northern California.

 

Forest ramblers and folks living adjacent to thick woods are familiar with the hooting call of this “hoot” owl ...“Who cooks for you ... Who cooks for you all” ...most often heard in the evening at nightfall. During spring mating season the call can often be heard all day long too as males and females call to each other and claim territories. Even a poor imitation of this call will often bring the owl flying in for a close-up look. Sporting a coat of barred ...hence the name ...brown and white fluffy feathers and large black eyes the barred owl is the most common owl out in the SMB. 

 

Barred owls have an extensive vocabulary. Not only do they hoot, they also screech, hiss, howl, cackle, click their beaks loudly when nervous or angry, and make monkey-like sounds while pumping their head up and down. Many who think they've heard a fisher “screaming like a woman” in the nighttime woods have really heard a barred owl.

 

In the SMB the only other woodland owl that can be mistaken for the barred own is the great horned owl. The great horned owl also has a hooting call, but fewer than the barred owl's 8 hoots in length and with different rhythm. The great horned is also larger than the barred owl, has yellow eyes instead of black and has ear tufts (horns) on its head. 

 

Like hawks during the day, owls hunt at night. Unlike hawks, barred owls can see well both night and day. Their hunting method is to sit silently in a tree until a woods mouse, chipmunk, vole, wood frog or small bird appears on the forest floor below their position. They also prey on large forest beetles and other insects. Like most owls their modified wing feathers allow for silent flight and their prey item on the forest forest rarely knows there is an owl coming in from above ...until it is too late.

 

Barred owls will also eat smaller owls if the opportunity presents itself and in turn will be eaten by the larger great horned owl.

 

The barred owl breeds and nests early in the year in the thickest and darkest part of hardwood and conifer forests. Mated pairs will use the same nest, usually in a hollow tree, year after year. If a hollow isn't available they will take over an old hawk, raven, crow or squirrel nest. Barred owls lay 2 to 4 eggs and the female incubates the eggs about 28 days. Both parents take care of the young owlets and feeding a large brood may require constant day and night hunting by these normally nighttime hunting birds.

 

Owlets leave the nest when five weeks old. They remain dependent on their parents for food as they develop their hunting skills over the summer.

 

In the SMB barred owls are permanent residents, but some do move to more southern locations during extremely cold and snowy weather.



Moonstruck on Blossom Road at the start of the walk.



A stop to view King Philip's Spring where King Philip (Metacomet) and his followers spent three days camped at this location in late July, 1675, after fleeing from colonial forces following the Pocasset Cedar Swamp fight in Tiverton.




 

Tom in the lead leaving Corduroy Trail.




Listening for the howl of a coyote or the hoot of an owl.



March's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk will be March 9, Saturday. We may be exploring the northern end of the Bioreserve and visiting Big Hemi or we may head south and bushwhack our way across the Bioreserve to Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust's Wernick Farm. More info in a week or so. Stay tuned!

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