Leader for today’s Ramble: Bay Noland-Armstrong

Authors
of today’s Ramble report: Linda
and Don. Comments,
edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin (at) uga.edu.

Insect identifications: Don Hunter,
Heather Larkin

All the photos that appear in this report,
unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter. Photos may be enlarged by
clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen. Not all of Don’s photos from
today’s ramble made it into the ramble report, so be sure to check out his
Facebook album at this link.

Number
of Ramblers today: 31

Today’s emphasis: Birding the woods and right-of-way

Reading: Bob read a poem, “The Garden,” from his newly published book, Between Birdsong and Boulder, available now at Avid Books and online.
He will be the featured poet at The Globe for the Wednesday, May 1,
Word of Mouth gathering, where he will be presenting a 30-minute set of poems from the new book. The event starts at 7:00 and Bob will read at 7:30.

The Garden

Across the cosmos

creation unfolds

serene fury



throughout the void

galaxies promenade

with a stately spin



somewhere novas explode

black holes swallow stars

gamma burst, sterilized planets



but safe on a remote shore

bathed in radiance

behold the blue oasis



sky and ocean

land and sea

teem with life



wondrous forms

striving through strange seas
in the garden of continuous creation

Announcements and other interesting things to note:
Sandy Creek Nature Center’s next
work day is Saturday, May 4, 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon. Volunteers will help with
removing invasive plant species and maintaining the Nature Playscape. 
Participants should bring water and wear comfortable, weather-appropriate
clothes and closed-toe shoes. All tools, including gloves, will be provided.
For more information, call the Nature Center at (706) 613-3615 or register here.

Sandy Creek Nature Center and the
Oconee Rivers Audubon Society are hosting an Accessible Bird Hike in
the Greenway and parking lot of the nature center, Saturday, May 4, from 8:00 to
10:00am. Attendees will learn basic bird calls and observe a few features
that can lead us to identifying birds. This free program is for all ages;
however, children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 706-613-3615. No registration is required

The Garden has announced plans to
re-route and convert the existing mulched trails in the Dunson Native Flora
Garden to paved, ADA-approved trails. Comments on this proposed plan may be
sent to the Garden’s Director, Jenny Cruse-Sanders (crusesanders@uga.edu) and the Garden’s
Director of Horticulture, Jason Young (Jason.Young@uga.edu).

Women were trailblazers in
American horticulture.

13-year Cicada Emergence, What We Know.

Today’s Route:  We left the
Children’s Garden arbor, and walked through the Lower Shade Garden and the
Dunson Native Flora Garden, then out into the sunny right-of-way. We headed
north up the ROW for a short distance then turned south and followed the ADA trail down to the river
and back.

OBSERVATIONS:

Bay

Today’s
ramble was led by Bay Noland-Armstrong, a graduating senior in Wildlife
Sciences in UGA’s School of Forestry, who is also completing a Certificate in
Environmental Education. We are honored that she chose the Nature Ramble as a
capstone project for her certificate program and especially pleased that she
chose to share her passion for birding on this ramble. In addition to identifying many birds by sight and song, Bay shared some important information about conserving birds.

How to Help Birds (remember C-W-D):
Cats:  Keep them inside! And you can take them on a walk. Yes, cats can learn to wear a harness and walk on a leash. And they can enjoy the outdoors if you build them a “Catio” — contact Catio Bob, a local catio builder. Here’s a photo of a friend’s kitten Gus happily wearing his first harness and leash. Also good to know is that ACC’s leash ordinance applies to both dogs and cats.

Windows: Prevent collisions! The American Bird Conservancy has a great webpage devoted to ways to prevent birds from colliding with the windows at our homes.

Disease: Clean your bird feeders! We should clean our bird feeders about every two weeks. Take them apart and wash them in a dishwasher on the hot setting or hand wash with soap and boiling water. Dry feeders completely before refilling. Clean the ground below feeders to prevent build-up of seed hulls and mold. More info here.

Some more recommendations from Bay: Provide multiple feeders to prevent competition. Most birds prefer black oil sunflower and suet. Provide bird houses and other shelters. Provide water year-round and clean regularly. Plant a variety of native plants around your house. Do not use pesticides.

Bay

Bay identifies a Scarlet Tanager by its call as ramblers search the canopy for a glimpse of this gorgeous bird. Photo by Chuck Murphy

The forest canopy in the
Lower Shade and Dunson Gardens was filled with bird song this morning,
something ramblers often comment on this time of year but seldom stop to appreciate.
Bay introduced the group to the Merlin app created by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology –– a powerful tool for identifying the birds whose songs we were
hearing.

Below are images of some of
the many bird species we saw or heard in the forested areas of the Lower Shade
Garden and Dunson Native Flora Garden (a complete species list is at the end of
this report).

Summer Tanagers were heard in the forest but despite their brilliant color were not seen until we came out into the right-of-way. This photo of a Summer Tanager by Chuck Murphy was taken during today’s ramble. Chuck’s nature photography is spectacular; visit his website to see more of his work. Bird photos below were taken by other photographers at other times and places and are not associated with the Nature Ramblers; click on their linked names to see where their photos were taken. Each of these photographers made these photos freely available on the internet.

Red-bellied Woodpecker Photo by Dawn Lane

Red-eyed Vireo   Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Chipping Sparrow Photo by Dick Daniels

Wood Thrush

Don noticed how the forest canopy has almost completely closed overhead, heralding a transition on the forest floor. Spring ephemerals are going dormant after completing a year’s worth of photosynthesis in the weeks of early spring. The Trout Lilies, Spring Beauties, Virginia Bluebells, Dutchman’s Breeches, and trilliums that delighted us six weeks ago have withered or completely disappeared from sight, retreating underground until next March.

Mountain Laurel is flowering now in the Lower Shade Garden and Dunson Garden. Another nearby place to see hundreds of flowering Mountain Laurel is Victoria Bryant State Park, along the trails beside Rice Creek.

Each spring seems to bring a new species to light in the Dunson Garden; this year, it’s Four-leaved Milkweed. In Georgia, this species naturally occurs only in the mountains, where it grows in the speckled light of moist deciduous forests. Although this particular plant lacked the characteristic mid-stem whorl of four leaves, the color and shape of its flowers are distinctive: the petals, hoods, and horns that make up the flower are white; the petals are sharply downcurved; and the horns are much shorter than the hoods. Below, there’s a drawing by Jean Putnam-Hancock that shows the unusual arrangement of flower parts that is characteristic of milkweed flowers.

Several Viburnum species are in flower this week in the Lower Shade and Dunson Gardens. This native species, Arrow-wood Viburnum, is found in moist forests throughout Georgia. Its flowers are in showy clusters up to 4 inches wide. The small, white, five-lobed flowers are pollinated by a variety of flying insects and require cross-pollination to set fruit.

Tulip Tree flower on a Dunson Garden path One of my favorite mid-spring events usually occurs out of sight, high in the canopy of Tulip Trees. Only when a squirrel bites off a flowering twig to drink the  sap and then drops the twig to the ground do we get to enjoy these spectacular flowers. The fallen flowers are often hosting ants seeking the nectar that is produced in minute glands embedded in the orange patch on each petal. Tulip Tree flowers produce an amazing amount of nectar; each flower produces about one-third of a teaspoon of nectar. One study found that a 20-year-old tree produced 8 pounds of nectar in a single season. In addition to ants, the flowers are visited by many pollinators including Honey Bees, native bees, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, all of which enjoy the nectar. Bears have also been seen sipping Tulip Tree nectar from twigs and eating the flowers. Pick up one of the fallen flowers, brush off the ants, and lick the base of the petals––you won’t regret it.

Dimorphic Jumping Spider on a Golden Ragwort leaf in the Dunson Garden

Once in the sunny right-of-way, a whole new suite of birds put in an appearance. Some of these species are shown below.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Indigo Bunting Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Red-tailed Hawk We saw a wonderful display of two hawks building a nest (or tending their young?) across the river and up the hill, on an electrical pylon. Photo by Alan Vernon

I don’t expect to see Osprey this far inland but Jorma spotted one soaring over the right-of-way. Photo by Tom Koerner

Don spotted lots going in the insect world of the right-of-way…

Adult Flatheaded Mayfly Adult mayflies are only about an inch long and have four, heavily veined wings; the front pair of wings are much longer and usually hide the hindwings when they perch. They have two long, slender appendages extending from the tip of their abdomens. Adults are winged and live only for a few hours or days; the nymphs are aquatic. Mayflies are an important part of aquatic ecosystems, providing food for many other aquatic animals. They often hatch in swarms that drive humans and fish crazy.

Polished Lady Beetle visiting Dock flowers Polished Lady Beetle is one of three native “spotless” Lady Beetle species in the U.S.; it’s found throughout most of the eastern half of the country. Notice the crisp, white marking on the back of its “neck,” more accurately called a pronotum.

Asian Lady Beetle with its tell-tale seventeen spots on its elytra (wing covers that protect the more delicate wings).

Versute Sharpshooter resting on a Groundsel leaf The Versute Sharpshooter is one of the largest of the approximately 23,000 species of leafhoppers in the world. After an adult inserts its sucking mouthparts into a plant, a pump in the bulging portion of its head pulls fluid from the vascular tissues of the plant. Since this fluid is 95% water, sharpshooters have to extract huge quantities of fluid in order to extract enough nutrients to survive.

BIRD SPECIES HEARD OR SEEN TODAY IN ORDER OF OBSERVATION
Carolina Wren     Thryothorus ludovicianus

Red-eyed Vireo     Vireo olivaceus

Tufted Titmouse     Baeolophus bicolor

Red-bellied Woodpecker      Melanerpes
carolinus

Chipping Sparrow     Spizella
passerina

Eastern Towhee     Pipilo
erythrophthalmus

Wood Thrush     Hylocichla mustelina

Downy Woodpecker     Picoides
pubescens

Summer Tanager     Piranga rubra

American Robin  Turdus migratorius  

Indigo Bunting     Passerina cyanea

Northern Cardinal    Cardinalis cardinalis

Acadian Flycatcher     Empidonax
virescens

Rose-breasted Grosbeak     Pheucticus
ludovicianus

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Polioptila
caerulea

Pine Warbler     Setophaga pinus

Kentucky Warbler     Geothlypis
formosa

White-eyed Vireo     Vireo griseus

Palm Warbler     Setophaga pinus

Baltimore Oriole    Icterus galbula

Louisiana Waterthrush     Parkesia
motacilla

Yellow-throated Vireo    Vireo
flavifrons

American Goldfinch     Spinus tristis

Mourning Dove    Zenaida macroura

Ovenbird     Seiurus aurocapilla

Eastern Phoebe    Sayornis phoebe

Blue Jay     Cyanocitta cristata

American Crow    Corvus brachyrhynchos

Black-and-White Warbler     Mniotilta
varia

Northern Waterthrush    Parkesia
noveboracensis

American Redstart     Setophaga
ruticilla

Cape May Warbler   Setophaga tigrina 

Blue Grosbeak     Passerina caerulea

Prothonotary Warbler     Protonotaria
citrea



SUMMARY OF NON-BIRD SPECIES

Mountain Laurel     Kalmia latifolia

Four-leaved Milkweed     Asclepias
quadrifolia

Rattlesnake Fern     Botrypus
virginianus

Solomon’s Plume     Maianthemum
racemosum

Solomon’s Seal     Polygonatum
biflorum

Arrow-wood Viburnum     Viburnum dentatum

Crimson Clover    Trifolium incarnatum

Shore Spider     Pardosa milvina

Polished Lady Beetle     Cycloneda
munda

Rumex     Rumex crispus

Southern (Wild) Chervil     Chaerophyllum
tainturieri

Flatheaded Mayfly     Maccaffertium
vicarium

Versute Sharpshooter    Graphocephala
versuta

Groundsel     Baccharis halimifolia

Eastern Calligrapher    Toxomerus
geminatus

Sweet Gum     Liquidambar styraciflua

Multiflora Rose     Rosa multiflora

Asian Lady Beetle     Harmonia
axyridis
Tulip Tree   Liriodendron tulipifera

Dimorphic Jumping Spider     Maevia expansa

Golden Ragwort     Packera aurea

Painted Buckeye     Aesculus sylvatica

Pale Yellow Trillium     Trillium
discolor

Carolina Anole    Anolis carolinensis

Tuft-legged Orbweaver     Mangora
placida

The “Field Trip” teacher by the Visitor Center is sporting a new pair of glasses

And, as ever….

Carolina Anole sipping dew from a Hosta leaf