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| Fletcher Wildlife Garden | profile | all galleries >> Previous FWG blogs >> 2008 Blogs >> FWG blog: November 2008 | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
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I collected a few seeds of various plants commonly found at FWG, and photographed them using a microscope. It opens up a whole new world when doing this because the seeds of many plants are so minute that we rarely see them or pay attention to them.
Another shot of the Queen Anne's lace seed, this one showing a much more spiky appearance.
The seed stem of the common plantain is pretty uninspiring! But when you take it apart and look at the seeds, each individual seed is quite lovely.
This is quite decorative! Goldenrod seeds are also eaten by many species of birds and small animals.
These seeds are minute and yet they too are important food for birds. I've seen chickadees and finches perched on the stems of these plants and pecking out the seeds.
This tiny seed is rarely seen as it is normally encased in a fuzzy red coating. Scores of these seeds, coated in red fuzz, make up the conical-shaped sumac clusters we see. These too are another important food source for birds and animals.
The common hoptree near FWG in the Arboretum, also has lovely seeds as these clusters show. Squirrels are mad about them!
The minute winged seeds of the birch are absolutely beautiful when viewed close up. When a catkin is broken apart, this is what you get. These seeds are eaten by many birds, but American goldfinches in particular seem to really enjoy them.
Today was lovely and mild, and very pretty with the snow softening the landscape.
In the New Woods, there were four red squirrels, three of them hanging out together.
It was fun to once again look for animal tracks and signs of activity in the snow. Here is a photo
Meanwhile, a little further on, a chipmunk had staked out a spot underneath a crabapple and was busy storing the fallen bounty in his cheek pouch.
Occasionally he'd retreat to one of several temporary snow tunnels.
Someone asked me recently whether the fruit of the amur corktree (a species appearing increasingly at FWG) was eaten by wildlife. I hadn't actually seen any evidence but speculated that it must be as the fruit vanishes from the trees, and seedlings are popping up in various locations. Today I saw a mix of robins and starlings feeding on the fruit in the Arboretum in a tree not far from FWG.
Next to the corktree was a small common hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata), the seeds of which were being consumed at a great rate by at least 6 grey squirrels.
Back at the FWG, the Amphibian Pond is quickly regaining last winter's name of "the duck pond". There were at least 45 mallards and one black duck there today, up from around 15 the other day. Will we reach the peak of last winter when we counted upwards of 200 mallards in there?!
A few of the mallards that have come to the FWG pond in the last few days as water elsewhere freezes over.
Diane Lepage visited the FWG on Sunday. She said "When I arrived I went in the BYG and there were House Finches, BC Chickadees, Crows. I then walked to the other feeder and saw 1 female cardinal, BC Chickadees, more Crows, around 20 House Finches and later saw A. Goldfinches. On my way back to the centre I saw a Robin and was able to photograph it.
There have been up to 10 robins around recently. Diane was able to get a good photo of this one.
This beautiful cooper's hawk, a first-year bird, has been hanging around the FWG and Arboretum for several weeks now. In this photo, she was sitting very near the feeder in the Backyard Garden, causing a minor amount of disturbance amongst the smaller birds. Chickadees were scolding in a half-hearted way, but most birds flew to the feeder, more or less ignoring her. Eventually she flew down to the Arboretum where a big adult red-tailed hawk was being pursued by crows. The cooper's did a quick mid-flight detour and landed in the same tree as the red-tailed, calling quite piercingly. After some time the red-tailed hawk flew pursued by a posse of crows and the cooper's. This went on for the next hour, with the two hawks eventually landing up in a big red oak back at the FWG.
Meanwhile, this is one of about half-a-dozen chickadees that were flying to the feeder to grab a seed, under the eyes of the cooper's hawk.
Over on the farm, opposite FWG, a huge flock of snow buntings was busily feeding in the wheat stubble. There must have been in excess of 200 birds.
When the buntings took off and wheeled above the wheat fields, it was a spectacular sight. This poor quality photo gives only a slight indication, and is of only a tiny fraction of the entire flock.
When the birds landed in the wheat stubble, they vanished. It was only when I saw that the land seemed to be seething and moving, that I realized it was the several hundred plus buntings, scuttling through the wheat, pecking at seeds.
In one of the large spruce trees in the Ash Woods, there is a witches broom that has been there for some years. Every so often some little creature uses this growth to nest in. One winter, it was clear that some birds were roosting there, because every day a new accumulation of bird scat appeared. Not sure who was using it, but perhaps cardinals, for we found some cardinal feathers in there. This time, it looks like a mouse had a nest in there. This was constructed of lots of plant down or fluff, including that of dog-strangling vine.
When a plant is as invasive as this one is, it is easy to forget that even pesky plants can be beautiful. In spring, the flowers of this species are very attractive when seen up close, and in winter there is a beauty to the bleached seed pods.
While walking through the Old Field at FWG today, I was thinking how abundant the galls on goldenrods are this year, both bunch galls and the round "apple-shaped" galls. The round ones on the goldenrod stem are a great food source for birds and small animals. Inside each one of these galls live a fat, juicy white grub, the larvae of the goldenrod gall fly. Both downy and hairy woodpeckers are frequently found pecking away at these galls. Less well known is that red squirrels and mice will also feed on the grubs.
As you can see in the photos, these galls have been well chewed.
While many plants have only one gall, quite a number have two, and some have three. I don't know about you, but I actually find the galls quite beautiful, particularly at this time of year, when they have an almost sculpted appearance, like a piece of abstract art.
While I was at FWG it snowed quite heavily for a few minutes, yet at the same time the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Not long after the snow stopped, the sky became multi-coloured with patches of bright blue interspersed with dark navy. When the sun came back out the lighting was dramatic! I managed to snap a quick photo of the pond just before the conditions changed again.
A cluster of oyster mushrooms on a log at the end of the ravine (technically in the Arboretum, but... oh well) were frozen solid. I was unable to capture their pearly luminescence when the sun hit at an oblique angle (but took a few photos later). It was quite a sight.
Well, today was beautiful! An unexpected gift from the gods with warm temperatures and sun. Despite that, we know winter is truly coming. And if we doubt it, the animals are certainly letting us know that this brief Indian Summer is only a blip. As noted in earlier emails, different species of wildlife, have different ways of coping with cold weather. Both gray and red squirrels need warm places to spend winter nights. Nest boxes serve the same purpose as tree cavities and many reds will build a nest inside them.
Grey squirrels build large leafy nests, sometimes two or three close together. Red squirrels on the other hand, will make grassy balls,lined with bits of seed fluff, grass, leaves, and whatever comes to hand. Last year, a red squirrel gathered quantities of dog hair (from a long haired dog that had been groomed in the parking lot)and stuffed its nest with it. Nests made in conifers, the typical nest tree for red squirrels, provide more protection, as you can see in this attached photo. However, both squirrel species prefer cavities, which are safer and offer much more warmth. Red squirrels in particular, will choose a cavity over a grassy nest anytime. Often you'll see a fairly fresh grassy nest, probably built in the autumn, falling to pieces by November because the squirrel has abandoned the nest for a better place, usually a cavity. In fact, grassy nests are not used for winter as much as people seem to think.
Brushpiles are also important for animals, as both a place to keep warm and a place to hide from predators. In some years, flocks of white-throated sparrows, when disturbed,have vanished into nearby brushpiles. Other birds also use them. Small mammals find refuge here, and some burrow into the ground beneath the brushpiles, thus finding added security. These piles are also frequently used as perches or lookouts by a variety of birds and animals.
Red squirrels create caches (or stashes)of food. Piles of pinecones, mounds of walnuts, are all giveaways that a red squirrel lives in the vicinity and is prudently preparing for the winter ahead.
Now is the time to look for bird nests at FWG, exposed as the leaves fall. This baltimore oriole nest was constructed in a Manitoba maple, unusually low for a species that typically suspends their nest from a higher vantage point. In this nest, you can see the strips of birch bark that the birds have woven into it.
Chipmunks sometimes use the cup nests of birds, such as this robin nest, to temporarily store seeds. And mice will sometimes renovate a bird's nest with lots of grass and plant fibres to create a cosy home for themselves.
In the last posting, I mentioned that we're finding more and more of the exotic Euonymus trees in our garden. One quite large one is in the Ravine, near the Interpretive Centre. These trees, native to E. Asia and the Himalayas, have spectacularly beautiful seed pods as these photos show. There are several species in the Arboretum, with differently coloured pods. Whether they will become invasive, is unclear at the moment.
Another photo of the seedpods.
Another tree popping up in different parts of the garden, the amur corktree, is also an exotic from the Himalayas, and it is considered by those in the know, to be a tree to watch as it has the potential to spread aggressively. Here is a photo of the fruit which is very visible at present. I have seen squirrels investigating this fruit, but am still not entirely how much it is used. Clearly, some critters eat them as the seeds are being dispersed around the garden.
For many years I've been keeping track of who eats what at the FWG. With the advent of digital cameras, it has been easier to document the various critters and their food source. This grey squirrel (black phase) is clearly enjoying the crabapples as much as the birds and chipmunks do. Notice the soft pink haze behind the squirrel? Those are the seedpods of an exotic Euonymus tree. Many species are grown in the adjacent Arboretum, and over the past few years, I've been finding more of them popping up at FWG. Another exotic appearing more frequently at the garden in recent years is the amur corktree. More about exotics in another posting!
Another rich source of food for many birds and animals is the Manitoba maple, a tree much hated by gardeners and naturalists. The former, because it grows quickly and seeds prolifically, and the latter because it is native to the prairie provinces, not here. However, it does help many animals survive the winter. This little chipmunk was very busily gathering seeds.
Many animals are themselves food for others, and the chipmunk in the previous photo may become prey to the crow in this photo. Crows are omnivores, eating whatever they can find, be it fruit, seeds, garbage or animals. One crow at the garden had recently caught a chipmunk and was being pursued by others for a share of the spoils. Crows are also carrion eaters, which is not a bad thing as they help clean up road-kill, and it also means that the animals that lost their lives, are at least helping another one survive.
There is nothing more remarkable than the great wildlife migrations of the world. Here in Ottawa, one of the most noticeable migrations is that of Canada geese. Today, the geese were pouring over the garden, wave after wave of them, stirring the air with their lonesome calls.
Although the FWG is a beautiful place and most of the blog images showcase that side of it, reality does intrude. The very things that make it a great place for wildlife to live, and for humans to walk and observe nature, are the same things that make it a lure for parties. That dense, flourishing vegetation, with places to hide away, is irresistible. It seems that Friday night there must have been a gathering in the Old Field, as flattened grass, cigarette ends, and this bag full of empty beer cans attests. At least there wasn't a fire!
Hasn't the weather been amazing lately?? This morning was particularly beautiful with mist shrouding the landscape, softening the hard edges, giving an air of mystery to the commonplace. I was rather sorry when it lifted. However, once the sun burned it away, the temperature rose and it was a really perfect day. It certainly made for some moody photos with that wonderful soft lighting as the sun broke through the mist. Naturally, it brought out lots of wildlife as well. There were even insects around, including about 6 grasshoppers, a greenbottle fly, a few yellowjackets, some flies that looked like they could be Tabanids, and a lovely hover fly which looks like it is probably either an Epistrophe sp. or a Syrphus sp. It was on a golden alexander in the new area of the Butterfly Meadow where about half a dozen of these plants are still in bloom. Just below the FWG in the Arboretum, was a clouded sulphur butterfly.
There was a good variety of birds: song sparrow (1), tree sparrow (1), dark-eyed junco (3). chickadee (16), black duck (1), Canada goose (2 on the pond), white-breasted nuthatch (1), American goldfinch (15), cardinal (3), house sparrow (3), robin (1), house finch (2), downy woodpecker (2), red-winged blackbird (3), and cedar waxwings (3+). Down in the Arboretum the Canal was full of birds. Canada geese and mallards as you'd expect, lots of ring-billed gulls, some great black-backed gulls, and 5 or 6 double-crested cormorants, including this banded 2nd year bird.
There were also numerous hooded mergansers, surely one of the most exquisite little ducks around! Here you can see both males (with the white head) and females.
Of course, squirrels and chipmunks were very active and visible. I amused myself by looking for signs of food caching by these enterprising animals and found the usual apples, walnuts and cones piled up, or stuck into forks of trees.
I've been trying to capture birds and animals feeding on different wild food sources. Today it was mostly crabapples, birch and Manitoba maples on the menu, and of course walnuts!
But I also found several magnolia seedpods deposited in a spruce (we have two large magnolias at the FWG)
and mushroom hung up to dry (squirrels, just like humans, find mushrooms a delicacy, and they often dry them by hanging them in trees and shrubs).
An apple in the fork of a tree, a favourite place to store food for later.
Finally, a couple photos of yet another lovely little fungi, this one called Plicaturopsis crispa. It is very small, very common and quite pretty.
Ooops, I called this Panellus crispa, but as was correctly pointed out (thank you!), this is Plicaturopsis crispa as I should have known, because I had added it to the Fungi gallery, under its proper name.
The cool, damp weather didn't deter birds and mammals at the FWG where there was a lot of activity. Robins, cardinals, chickadees, mourning doves,starlings, goldfinches, house finches, were there in good numbers, while there were smaller numbers of downy woodpecker (2), hairy woodpecker (1), dark-eyed junco (2), house sparrow (3), and red-winged blackbird (1)
Chipmunks are still very visible. Four chipmunks had taken over a crabapple tree, while a fifth one waited below for his buddies to throw fruit down! After the quieter summer season, red squirrels are also very visible now, and you can piles of walnuts and cones in several locations.This little guy is the one waiting beneath the tree for the others to send some fruit his way!
There was even an insect, a winter moth, usually called Bruce spanworm,(Operophtera bruceata) fluttering around (and several of them on the farm yesterday). I thank Diane Lepage for identifying this moth for me from a photo taken in Larose Forest the other day. I've now seen them in about 4 different locations, including FWG, and Diane tells me they are quite common in late fall-early winter. This photo is from Larose as it is better than the one I took today
Buckthorn and sumac are popular hosts for a really beautiful little fungi called Schizophyllum commune. Or at least, I think it is beautiful
Here you can see the topside of this tiny fungi
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