Vernal Pool Training

This weekend I did my first serious Master Naturalist training. A large group from my local chapter went to learn about vernal pools in preparation for a research project we are starting. Vernal pools are temporary pools that usually form during winter and spring rains and then mostly, or totally, dry out during the summer and fall. This cycle prevents fish from taking hold; thereby, reducing the number of predators on the amphibians that use the pools to breed. This makes vernal pools key habitat for a number of species. Locally, the common amphibians in vernal pools are the spotted and marbled salamanders. These pools also hold frog eggs and tadpoles, and the larvae of many insects.

Training started with an introduction to the ecology of vernal pools and the main species we would expect to find in them. We then headed out into the field to explore two pools. It was a beautiful day to be out. Probably the warmest day so far this year and most of us soon lost our jackets. 

At the first pool, Anne, our instructor, showed us several specimens in bottles of what we might encounter. All but one, the fairy shrimp, had been collected in the pools we were visiting.

Fairy Shrimp, not so common in the pools we will be monitoring

There was a wide range of weird creatures, mainly insects, that Anne showed us. There were crustaceans, a tiny freshwater clam, dragonfly larvae, midge larvae, and water beetles that live in the leaf litter at the bottom of the pools. After the showing us the bottles, Anne waded out into the pool and quickly found egg masses of the spotted salamander.

Anne, our instructor, collecting a salamander egg mass 

 As the eggs mature, a symbiotic algae appears. The algae photosynthesizes and produces oxygen which the embryo uses and expels carbon dioxide that the algae needs for photosynthesis.  This helps the growing embryos grow faster. Then in 2010, scientist discovered that the algae is actually in the embryonic cells where they photosynthesize and provide energy directly to the salamander cells. Making the spotted salamander the first vertebrate species known to have a photosynthesis symbiotic relationship. In the picture below the upper egg mass is several weeks old and has the algae already growing. The lower egg mass was probably laid in the last two weeks and the algae isn't apparent yet.

Spotted salamander egg masses; with and without symbiotic algae

 The spotted salamanders come to the pool during late winter on a cold, rainy night to mate and lay eggs. The males generally arrive first and set out little mounds of sperm on leaves or other debris. The female then follows and captures the sperm to fertilize her eggs which she then attaches to vegetation in the pool.

The egg masses are held in a very gelatinous mass. The one below probably has about 70-100 embryos.

In one of those ways that species vie for resources, the marbled salamanders come to the dried pools in late fall to lay their eggs so that their larvae emerge in the spring when the spotted salamanders are just coming to lay their eggs. In both species, the larger larvae will eat the smaller ones as they emerge. Below is a larval marbled salamander that we caught.

 At the second pool we came across frog eggs. They look like the salamander eggs but a bit smaller and the egg mass is much looser. As seen above, the salamander eggs stayed in a tight clump when picked up, the frog eggs almost "run" through your fingers.

 At this pool we also picked up a leech. The first I've ever seen.

A leech in the net is worth none on the leg

The leech really changed its body shape as it moved around. As shown in the net above, when still, it would pull itself tight together, sometimes almost becoming a ball. But when it would swim, it would stretch out to several inches long. The movie below shows it swimming around in a bag.

Also in this pool we find a newt, below, and several more insect larvae.

Our final find was a pair of leopard frogs that were surprisingly engaged with each other (snicker). They jumped out of the net onto Elisabeth's arm.

It was a quite interesting class and now I'm really looking forward to starting our project. More about that in a future post.

San Luis NWR

California has been suffering from severe drought this year. When I spent a couple of weeks in the southern Bay region it was a topic every morning on the local news. Lucky for them, it did finally rain over the weekend that I was there. That made some small changes to my plans. I had heard a lot about the shorebirds and waterfowl that winter in the Central Valley. I had two locations as options for my weekend get away. The weather forecast was for several inches of rain to the north and only about an inch to the south. So I headed south to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge complex. And then luck for me, the rain dropped off around noon on Saturday and stayed away for the rest of the weekend.

Here are a few of the shots from San Luis Refuge.

Although some of the ponds were rather dry due to the drought, these Northern Shovlers were abundant. These two were flushed by a passing Northern Harrier (also very abundant).

San Luis is a wintering spot for Sandhill Cranes. I came across this group of about 25 birds feeding in the grain fields. There were a lot of little battles between birds. Not sure if they were setting a pecking order or fighting over food.

There was a small pond near the entrance to San Luis that in the morning had a few Black-necked Stilts, like this one, and a Greater Yellowlegs.

A Snowy Video

Finally we had a storm during the day this year. During the last few storms, the snow has all come once it is dark out so I got no videos of them. But this time it started around 1:00 pm local. There was still a few inches that fell over night but at least there is something.
The images were captured by my BirdCam on the time lapse setting. Then combined in Photoshop Elements.
Enjoy.

A winter Storm

In coastal Virginia we don't normally get heavy snows. Two to three inches is enough to shut things down for the day like they did just last week. But yesterday a big storm formed off the coast and dumped significant snow on us. Something we see maybe every three to five years. The National Weather Service reports 8 inches near us and that is consistent with what we see. There were drifts that are probably pushing a foot or higher. The storm left the yard very pretty.

Early this morning the birds were out filling up to stave off the cold. The high today was only 24F; again something that we only see a few times a year. This White-throated Sparrow was picking seeds that had fallen on top of the snow.

In late morning we saw our neighborhood fox again. This is the third time this month we have seen it up in the main part of the yard. We had only seen a fox a couple of time prior to this year and back in the wooded area. The fox was too "sly" for me to get a good picture but here it is up on the sandbags that I use for flood protection when hurricanes hit. You can see the tail behind the ladder on the side of the shed.

My wife and I bundled up and went out for a walk in the yard. There were a lot of animal prints and I tried to get photos of them.
This is bird prints near the feeder. Obviously there has been a lot of activity today.

The birds were even wandering over the top of the barrel garden. This is the same barrel as in third photo above.

And here is an interesting one that I can't quite tease the story out of. There is a wing print to the left of the feet prints. This would suggest a bird, maybe a dove, trying to take off. But it is only on one side. And the foot prints continue on for quite a while with no more wing prints. So maybe it was just a single flap of the wings. But then there is a pair of small prints to the right that are unconnected to anything else. They differ from the main line of prints and there is nothing in front of or behind them. So maybe another bird landed her to harass the first? Maybe they are from different times and are unrelated? It will remain a mystery to me for now.

Below are the prints of the fox. These were made when we saw it run across the yard just before the picture of the fox tail above.

I was surprised by how deep the prints were. The go almost all the way to the ground. I would have expected the fox to be lighter than that.

And I wrap-up with a few pictures of the marsh. The first is the snow on the pier. The wind did some weird things and cleaned most of the snow off, or never let it accumulate in the first place, but not all of it.

And parts of the creek were frozen but not all of it. Surprisingly, the wider part was frozen, as was the small canal across from us. But the creek was free-flowing at our dock which is in between the frozen spots.

And then, in spots in the marsh where water runs, the snow had collapsed; presumably as the tide went out. It created some interesting visual patterns.

More unusual visitors

We have had a couple of almost reasonable weather days since the last snow storm and that has brought it's own group of unusual birds. Sunday as we were watching the birds come and go to the feeders, my wife noticed a Chipping Sparrow sitting on the bird bath. And then a second on the ground near the butterfly garden. And then another. And another. And another. I'm sure you are getting the picture by now. I ended up counting 20 Chipping Sparrows. And there might have been more as they barely stuck up above the grass and I probably missed some of them. Several White-throated  and Song Sparrows joined in the fun and the whole lawn and alive with their movement. And while scanning for more sparrows, Sharon saw a Woodcock sitting in the garden.  It was sitting for about 30 minutes but during that time it would occasionally start vibrating its body up and down without moving its head at all. It then started probing the garden dirt and stayed for at least another hour.

Winter visitors

For the past day we have had a winter storm come through. Forecasts as to its impact varied widely yesterday but we ended up with a modest 1-2 inches of snow over night. I had set up my time lapse camera in hopes of making a video of the storm. I was foiled on two fronts. First, the snow didn't start until after dark and second, when it did snow, some collected on the front of the lens and blocked the view. So there isn't even a picture of the yard after the snow fell.
But the storm did bring a load of birds to the backyard. There were almost 30 House Finches running back and forth between the shelter of the pine trees covered with vines and the feeder. It got so busy at times that I started a reservation system.
There were also a full range of sparrows. We had several of the typical White-throated and Song Sparrows plus a Swamp Sparrow, uncommon this far up in the yard. And a Chipping Sparrow; to the feeder, no less.

As the birds were preparing for the storm last night we had a visit by a pair of Northern Flickers.

This morning before breakfast we saw an Eastern Red Fox walking through the back of the yard. It wandered to one side and back to the other, then towards the way back of the yard and then back down the path. Later in the day we went out and could see the prints left in the snow.
And when we continued our walk out into the marsh we had a yard-first: a pair of Eastern Meadowlarks.

An Ipswich Sparrow

On the way home from Christmas travels, my wife and I stopped at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge for a morning of birding. While the main draw is the large number of wintering ducks and geese, we were intrigued by reports of several Snowy Owls on the beach. We checked with a ranger to see where the owls had been seen most recently and she told us that they had not been seen in two days. Since we saw a Snowy Owl over Thanksgiving weekend, we figured we wouldn't spend a long time hunting for these. But we did drive down to the end of the parking lot and have a look around. There were a large number of people out walking the beach and fishing so any owl would be a good distance away.
But sine the light was now behind us, we decided to scan Tom's Cove for any waterfowl or shorebirds that were too hard to see from the main road. There wasn't much in the water but as we approached we saw a pale sparrow working through some beach grass. It wasn't very cooperative in giving us good views but did stay in the same general area for several minutes. And a second one joined a few minutes later. We searched our field guides but couldn't quite nail the identification down. I took several photos in hopes that they would help. After returning to the car and consulting the books in more detail we returned for some more looks, with an eye on what was needed for identification. Since it was a bit of a puzzle for us I thought I would walk through it here.

An early look at the bird

The sparrow was pale and ran across the sand instead of flying. We quickly closed in on either the Ipswich subspecies of Savannah Sparrow or a Vesper Sparrow. Although we have seen Savannah Sparrows before, I don't remember seeing an Ispwich and the Vesper would be a life-bird. A Savannah should show a bit of yellow in front of the eyes and have a shortish tail. The Vesper would have a longer tail and a distinct white line along the bottom and back edge of the cheek patch. The tail was how to see most of the time but gave the appearance in the field of not being noticeably short. And there is a distinct line around the cheek patch. But a Vesper shouldn't have distinct lining on the head, especially the line above the eye, the supercilium. After much back and forth and looking at the photographs when we got home, we decided it was an Ispwich that just wasn't showing any yellow. A second bird that we saw when we returned has the slightest hint of yellow as seen in the bottom two photos.