Brookside Gardens in June 2015 - Part 2

The small animals on or near plants are sometimes the challenge I choose for photography. The walk around Brookside Gardens resulted in a few worth sharing:

The spider on the yucca flower

A damselfly that must have been tired since it stayed put for such a long time. It is an ebony jewelwing!

A mourning dove enjoying the summer sunshine in the garden

Bees at the hollyhocks. I always associate hollyhocks with a great aunt’s house. She always had them planted around the side steps to her house.

A bee on a hydrangea. Brookside has quite a variety of hydrangeas these days and this type seemed the most popular with the bees the day I was there.

Brookside Gardens in June 2015 - Part 1

Brookside Gardens is blooming all over! The renovation to the ponds that had so much of the garden fenced off is open and green. The drainage areas are much improved and many of the bridges were replaced too.

I found myself doing some photographic experiments as I wondered through the garden - a red fire hydrant with white hydrangeas (1) and one yellow leave among so many green ones (13). There were lots of opportunities for looking closely at flowers (2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14), capturing the range of colors for cone flowers (3,6, 9), and remembering caster beans in gardens during my childhood prompted by seeing the plants at Brookside this year ( 8). I couldn’t resist a photograph of the cycad (12) in the conservatory either; I notice the plant every time I walk into the conservatory!

Mt. Pleasant Farm - June 2015

I am missing treks to Mt. Pleasant Farm for elementary school field trips. Since they have ended I’ve been doing other things/other places but I did take one short hike around one of the loops last week - just because I was missing the place.

The water lilies in the water feature of the Honors Garden have buds.

The summer flowers are beginning to unfurl.

The early ones - like butterfly weed - are already attracting butterflies.

I was thrilled that a bluebird stayed on a branch long enough to be photographed.

This is my favorite to bring groups to look up the stream and ask ‘which tree trunk has been has been across the stream the longest.’

One sharp eyed second grade student looked through the foliage and pointed out the shelf-fungus on the stump beside the stream nearby.

Last but not least - the milkweed is just about to burst into bloom. Hopefully the Monarch Butterflies will find the plants and plenty of eggs….and set the stage for a larger than usual cohort of Monarch Butterflies in summer 2015.

Bird’s Nest Fungus

As I hurried back to the car to meet my husband after his walk at Centennial Park I spotted some tiny birds nest fungus in the mulch of a raised bed beside the path near the canoe and paddle boat rentals. Photographing them took a few just minutes.These fungi are only a little larger than a pencil eraser. I noticed their color first

Then some dimples

And finally some ‘eggs’ where the covering had torn away to reveal them in the ‘nest.’ Notice the one at the top middle of the image below that still had part of the covering.

A Story Derived from Feathers

As I neared the boat ramp near Centennial Lake I noticed a relatively large feather on the sidewalk.

I noticed other feathers caught in the grooves of the ramp

And in the grass.

Then I noticed there were a lot more feathers near the parking area.

The breeze was already separating them so I must have just barely missed the action.

What do you think happened?

The feathers are all dark and quite large. There were enough of them on the ground that it was obvious that they belonged to a bird that did not survive. The bird that attacked must have been large as well….and carried the prey away from the area.

Woodland Gardening

Last week I attended at session on Woodland Gardening at the Maryland Master Naturalist Annual Conference….which influenced my observations during a walk at Centennial Lake this past weekend.

The idea of woodland gardening is to create outdoor spaces that mimic woodlands. My planting the sassafras and spice bush in the back of my yard - moving the forest further into my ‘yard’ by another 3 feet - was my first attempt at it but I’m already thinking about my next project and looking at woodlands for ideas.

The talk presented some principles of woodland gardening and I noticed examples of these in my walk:

Distill the essence of the forest. One ‘essence’ that I find awe inspiring is the view upward. It would take a long time to create such a few in a garden. I will be content with the wall of green where the forest begins toward the back of my yard.

Celebrate light. I noticed light that filtered through the trees to the woodland floor

And highlighted leaves of the trees from above.

Sculpt with layers…which means mimicking or allowing succession to take place.I noticed that the park maintenance was not cutting as much of the grassy area around the lake - letting a meadow develop. There was a lot more milkweed in the park than in previous years which bodes well for any Monarch Butterflies in the area.

Integrate woodland textures. There are redbuds planned along some of the walkways at the edge of the forest. Their heart shaped leaves and bean-like seed pods are like a gateway to the larger trees in the forest.

Parks and Gardens Day Trips

I am enjoying day trips to parks and gardens this spring - both old favorites and new ones. The places on my old favorites list are below - with the ones I’ve done in past few months in italics (does not mean that I might not see them again soon!):

Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum

Brookside Nature Center

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens

Longwood Gardens

National Arboretum

US Botanic Garden

Patapsco Valley State Park

There are new ones on my list too. I’ve started putting pink post-it notes around the calendar on the refrigerator when I read about new places I want to see. The ones in italics on the list below are the two we’ve done already recently (and I want to do both of them again):

Adkins Arboretum

Conowingo Dam and Susquehanna State Park

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area

Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area

I’m sure I’ll be adding to the 'new' list soon after buying Barbara Glickman’s new book: Maryland’s Public Gardens & Parks yesterday at the annual Master Naturalist conference!

Violets and Rattlesnake Fern

Violets and rattlesnake fern have been ‘finds’ over the past few weeks. Violets were not new to me - I notice them when they bloom every spring. What I had not noticed previously was the seed pods that are produced afterward. This year they seem to be everywhere - or I am just recognizing them for what they are.

The rattlesnake fern is new to me. It is a very different kind of fern. I saw it first in the Patapsco Valley State Park near Belmont and then noticed many more plants at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. I’ve added arrows to this picture ---- everywhere I noticed one there seemed to be other growing nearby! It looks different than many ferns in that the fronds come from a central stalk and

The spore producing frond is almost like a ‘flower’ above the leaves. I found myself wanting to photograph the variations of that spore producing frond!

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area

Last weekend, we hiked the Wildlife Loop Trail in the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. It was an outing that had been on my list for this spring and it finally was at the top. It is less than 15 minutes from our house!

The trails are rustic. There are two documented trails that have different entry points. The Wildlife Loop (the one we chose to do in this first trip to MPEA) was the trail originating from the parking lot at the Trotter Road parking area. We walked along old farm roads or mowed paths. The vegetation was lush with vines - sometimes with obvious invasive plants like honeysuckle and multiflora rose...and then there was the native grapevine too. Some areas along the road had been turned into meadow and the milkweed was getting ready to bloom.

Some of the trees were kept cleared of vines and were doing very well. I always enjoy seeing the heart shaped leaves and seed pods of redbud this time of year.

One of the maples was growing very fast and this branch must have been tall enough to be above browsing by deer.

The trail meanders downhill toward the river and then back up. Close to the end - I noticed leaves with droplets of water accumulated around their edges. It was a nice finale.

I’m already planning another hike to MPEA. I want to hike the other trail…spend more time at the river’s edge…go as early as possible while it is still cool…and remember bug spray!

Bigleaf Magnolia

One of the trails we sometimes take from Belmont into Patapsco Valley State Park has quite a stand of Bigleaf Magnolias. They look like a tropical plant in the understory of the forest. The leaves live up to the name of the plant! In this stand, most of the trees have long slender trunks - sometimes with only one ‘umbrella’ of leaves at the top. The deer population around Belmont is quite high so their growth pattern could be influenced by deer browsing on their buds and leaves. There were quite a few plants that were a clump of 2 or 3 spindly trunks. The canopy over the plants may be getting too thick as well; they are understory trees but they evidently need sunlight too.

When I hiked in the area last week, a few of the trees were blooming! Unfortunately - the blooms were high in the trees. I captured several using the zoom on my camera.

Then we found one that appeared to be lower than the rest. One of the leaves under the flower showed evidence of how easily the big leaves can be damaged by wind. These trees grow in a sheltered area of forest and would not do well as landscaping trees surrounded by yard.

We carefully used a walking stick to pull the branch down for some photographs of the inside of the large flower. More confirmation that it is indeed a magnolia!

Mt. Pleasant Farm - May 2015

I’ve been at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm quite a lot this month; it is the peak of the spring field trip season for elementary schools. In the quiet before the buses arrive I capture a bit of the scene:

The flower pot people dressed for summer,

The plantings in bloom on the way to the Honors Garden, and

The wood frogs in the small pool just inside the Honors Garden.

One morning I arrived early enough to walk around one of the short loops and saw a rabbit…that was long gone by the time the children arrived…

And tree swallows at the nesting boxes. Surprisingly - one morning a pair of tree swallows was so intent on building their nest that my hiking group of second graders watched them carrying sticks into the box and chasing away other tree swallows!

May 2015 turned out to be an excellent month for field trips to Mt. Pleasant Farm!

Birds at Conowingo Dam

My husband had read about the Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam - particularly in the early winter - so we decided to reconnoiter the location last weekend and then plan to go back late in the year. The location is only an hour from where we live. Wow! We were surprised when we got there and saw the number of birds fishing at the base of the dam.

There were mature and immature bald eagles - sometimes in groups

Sometimes interacting with smaller birds -

Soaring up high to the top of the dam -

Surveying the river from a dam abutment

Or the rocks to the side.

There were quite a few great blue heron as well. Both my husband and I tried to catch them in flight.

This heron had just landed on the water and looks startled that the cormorant is so close!

Here is a series my husband took that show the way the heron’s wings look as the bird flies very low over the water.

There were quite a few cormorants and it seemed like there was always one wrangling a fish.

We also saw quite a few black vultures and tree swallows….but the Bald Eagles were the big draw for us. Both of us want to go back with slightly different equipment and a little bit earlier in the morning. 

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for the earlier days of May 2015.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden. For a few weeks every year - the gates open to a wonderland of flowering azalea bushes and dogwoods. The tall trees make it a shady cool area even as the temperatures get warmer. It is usually at its best for Mother’s Day.

Red Tailed Hawk at Belmont. The first day of BioBlitz there was a red-tailed hawk that watched from a perch tall in a sycamore for the arrival of the first student. What a beginning to the event!

Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam. I’ll do a post later with more about our day trip to Conowingo. There were at least 10 eagles feeding on fish come from the flow from the hydroelectric generation dam….and there were great blue herons, cormorants, tree swallows, and black vultures too….and that was just what I immediately noticed.

Whooping Crane lecture at Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge. Do you see a theme? I hadn’t noticed how many of my ‘celebrations’ this month included large birds until I put this list together. The birds are hatched and prepared for release at Patuxent.  It was interesting to understand how the researchers and volunteers disguise themselves so that the young birds don’t imprint on the human form as ‘parent.’ I’m glad they’ve had enough success to celebrate.

National Arboretum. Every time we go there is something new to see….and old favorites. I celebrated that I recognized an Eastern Towhee in the leaves there during the visit this month.

Strawberries. A quart of strawberries was the first offering of my Gorman Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership. They were eaten before I thought to take a picture! The berries freshly picked from local fields always taste better than the ones from the grocery store. They evoke memories of previous springs and other strawberry fields….finding the berries among the green leaves…taste treasures.

No cavities. I had a dental appointment and was pretty sure a filling was going to need to be replaced because a small piece had chipped off leaving a small divot in the front surface of the tooth (no sensitivity or discoloration). But the dentist decided to just watch it! Hurray!

Volunteering for nature fieldtrips and BioBlitz. Seeing the wonder of discovery in the outdoors from a child’s perspective is awe inspiring. It happens almost every hike I lead…every time I assist I give to identify a ‘find’ ---- celebrating the wonder of children in the natural world.

Rain---finally. We are at close to average for precipitation in our area right now but I noticed a dry spell when I had to fill the bird baths and water my deck garden….but then we started having some afternoon showers. One of them caused a rainbow too.

A last cool day before summer. The forecast is for 90 degree days this coming week but the Memorial Day weekend had cool mornings….and we savored the perfect weather for being outdoors.

Dragonfly Wings

There was a dragonfly in a petri dish to be looked at under the microscope at one of the demonstration tables of the Belmont BioBlitz. I took a picture with my camera in ‘close up’ mode - without the microscope; the magnification is enough to make it interesting but I need to have better control of the light source to avoid reflections.

Even though butterflies are more generally colorful - I find the dragonflies more interesting. It is just getting warm enough to see them this season and observe their behavior: diving through the meadow and sitting on the tip of meadow grasses. Later we’ll see them near water on lotuses or water lilies and stroking over the water to lay their eggs. May camera speed is not fast enough to catch the two wings on each side moving independently.

The wing structure seen in the photograph could be a Zentangle. Are the lines veins or just structural elements?

Next time I go to Arizona, I’ll photograph my son-in-laws mounted collection of spiders and insects!

Belmont BioBlitz

This is the last day of the Belmont BioBlitz! About 400 middle school students have participated over the 4 days. The first day was very hot…the second day was humid…the fourth was breezy but near perfect otherwise. The forecast for today has a higher probability for rain (hopefully it will hold off until the Bioblitz is over and the students have boarded their buses after a picnic lunch).

A red-tailed hawk was in the area on the first day - on the roof of the building housing the ‘tech’ for the Bioblitz and then on a high branch of a sycamore that was well within the range of the spotting scope.

A mockingbird that has a nest in a nearby river birch used the same roofline more frequently and griped at the ‘too many people’ in the area.

I was responsible for helping student identify what they found. The reference books were spread out on outdoor tables near enough of wi-fi reception where they could sync their iNaturalist observations while working on identification and then go into the tech room to make sure all the data was recorded.

Several insects visited my tables - and student made some last minute observations!

Some of the animals from the nature center were popular. Katrina - the diamond back terrapin usually in a large tank of water in the nature center - was out and about in the grass.

Maize the corn snake was also a new experience for many of the students.

And at the very end of yesterday - a plant that we haven’t identified yet. I need to quiet time with the books!

In the end - success is more about the new perspectives many of the students have demonstrated than the details of one particular observation.

Belmont Manor Cemetery

The cemetery at Belmont Manor and Historic Park was featured in two activities last week: a field trip for 6th graders and a lecture about the results of a recent ground penetrating radar survey done there. So - I’ve been thinking more about it.

It is a walk from the manor house - past the formal gardens to the edge of the forest. There is a fence around it although the survey found some graves outside the fence. Were they graves of slaves or was the fence built long after the grave markers deteriorated and the fence was built around the area of existing headstones? Was the very large tulip poplar just outside the fence growing before the fence was built? The fence is not a prefect rectangle; there is a jog to accommodate the tree!

There were graves found in an area within the enclosure that had not markers. Are they graves from the 1700s? The manor was finished in 1738 and the builder died in 1772. They survey detected pieces of metal probably nails, hinges and fasteners produced by the iron forges and blacksmiths at Belmont. All the markers still visible are from the 1800s or 1900s.

There is one grave that I find particularly sad  - for a 2 year old child. It is a reminder that many children did not live to adulthood in the time before vaccines and antibiotics. Prior to the survey - the headstone seemed to be all by itself in the back of the cemetery. But now the survey has revealed the other graves that were probably still marked when the little girl was buried in 1834.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New app puts the world's biodiversity in the palm of your hand - The Map of Life app makes it easier to identify local wildlife. It’s a location specific reference for amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, turtles, bumblebees, butterflies, dragonflies, and trees. The down side is things you find that are normally in that locality. I’ve already experienced one - a bigleaf magnolia growing in the woods in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. It is a tree that usually grows further south. The app will still provide information but it is not quite as easy as plants/animals that are ‘normal’ for the area.

What happens to our bodies after we die - Maybe some of the concepts in the article are a little familiar from all the CSI programs on television these days….but it’s hard to separate fact from fiction in those programs. This post from the BBC is on ‘fact’ side.

Idle Electronics and Appliances Waste $19 Billion Annually, Study Says - A study done with 70,000 residential customers in California found that 23% of home electricity usage was from always-on but inactive devices. That can’t be good. Appliance designers need to work on reducing that….and maybe consumers need to be content with stoves and microwaves that don’t have clocks!

Harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay are becoming more frequent - Ugh! Even with all the work being done to reduce the nutrients going into the bay…the growing population of people and animals is overwhelming the progress made.

Everybody Dies: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy - It is not just about preserving your legacy…it’s also to whoever will be handling things for you. Wills need to include more than they did 50 years ago!

11 Ways to Increase Electric Car Adoption - My next car might be electric. For my day to day driving it would already be acceptable. It would not work for road trips - and that is a problem even though it is only a few weeks a year.

Long-term study on ticks reveals shifting migration patterns, disease risks  with a larger version of the infographic here (click on the image to make it even larger) - Maryland has the dog tick, Lone star tick, and deer tick ---- and Lyme disease…not good. One of the places where I lead hikes is part of a study to identify the diseases ticks carry in the area.

Maryland and Food Self-Sufficiency - More and more people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and some are attempting to become locavores. The findings for Maryland are probably pretty typical. The three foods Maryland produces in enough quantity for our entire population are: chicken, lima beans, and watermelon!

Forests at Valley Forge National Historical Park Coming Back After Deer Culling - There are quite a few areas along the east coast that have an overpopulation of deer. I know the forest behind our house has very few small trees because the deer eat the saplings before they grow taller than the deer can browse. I appears that the Valley Forge National Historical Park is having some success with their program…but they are still monitoring to verify that the forest is indeed sustaining itself.

Real Plants and Fungi That Look Like Something from the Monstrous Manual - A series of videos. The Venus Flytrap film is dramatic!

Belmont Manor and Historic Park - May 2015

I’ve been at Belmont several times since the Master Naturalist class - volunteering as a naturalist for school field trips. There are several trees with very showy blooms right now: a horse chestnut

I’ve been at Belmont several times since the Master Naturalist class - volunteering as a naturalist for school field trips. There are several trees with very showy blooms right now: a horse chestnut

And the tulip poplars. I was very pleased to find one with branches with blooms low enough to photograph easily.

Belmont is known for its viewshed.  From the front door of the manor house…there are no other signs of encroaching structures. It is like taking a step back in time.

Before the Europeans came - the area would have been forested. The biggest trees in that forest would have been American Chestnuts (destroyed in by Chestnut Blight in the 1900s) and the mulch on the forest floor would have been quite deep since the native biota were not as effective as earthworms at decomposing leaves.

The manor house was built in 1738. Much of the forest was cut to make fields for farming (for food and tobacco as a cash crop) and to make charcoal for iron forges (iron ore being readily available in the area. There probably were fewer trees than seen today from the front of the manor house. Over time the soil became less fertile and wheat became an important crop as well. For forests trees were represented in fence rows, along the entrance road, and on slopes as agricultural practices incorporated soil conservation practices. In the early 1900s, Belmont pastures hosted thoroughbred horses.

The pond that is seen just before the distant trees in the image above was added in the 1980s to retain water from a natural seep. It is a late addition to the view….but seems to fit.

Brighton Dam Azalea Garden

Today is Mother’s Day and I’m remembering the first year I was a mother on Mother’s Day. We made our first visit to Brighton Dam’s Azalea Garden that year and I carried by daughter in a carrier on my back. She stayed awake for most of our walk around the garden.

This year the garden seemed to be in near peak bloom when we were there on Friday. As we walked in there were Canadian Geese protesting on the lake and when I got home I realized I had managed to get a picture of one in mid-honk (and a lot of the pollen floating on the water's surface).

The gardens are wonderful from every angle - looking up

Up close

360 from the observation (the benches with the movable backs always appeal to me)

The gazebo near the entrance looking toward the dam

Surprising colors of azaleas

The white and pink dogwoods near the entrance…but always near the end of the loop we walk

And last but not least….jack-in-the-pulpits under the dogwoods.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Dogwood, Fiddleheads, Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Does everyone have plants that they look for in the springtime forest? After I moved from Texas to Maryland many years ago - l noticed plants that were not common at all where I had lived in Texas…and now I look for them every spring. I hope the people that grew up in Maryland (and other areas where they are ‘native’) appreciate them as much as I do.

Dogwoods are popular as landscaping trees but I like them most in the understory of the forest. They start blooming before the taller trees create the deep shade of summer.  A few years ago a disease killed or damaged many of the dogwoods and it seemed like there were a few years that hardly any dogwoods bloomed. But there seem to be many in bloom this year. They are back!

I enjoy the new ferns returning every spring - and the fiddleheads that unfurl. In the beginning the fronds are so tightly coiled that they look solid rather than layers of tissue that will unwind. It is a wrapped gift of nature that those fiddleheads become fully formed ferns in just a few weeks.

Last but not least - Jack-in-the-Pulpits. Last year they seemed to be everywhere. They are not as numerous so far this year - maybe the weather caught some at the wrong time. They are odd looking flowers. I spotted these at Brookside Gardens last week.