another amphibian day

 Glassy pond water- no amphibs!

Another amphibian day! Yesterday we went out to monitor amphibians in a couple of ponds. We found around 90 Pacific chorus (tree) frog egg masses and I don't know how many long-toed salamander egg masses (maybe 15), including 3 adult salamanders darting around in the pond. Mind you, this is a small ephemeral pond and wetland with a road on two sides and houses all around. Being ephemeral keeps the bullfrogs from invading and eating them. This pond was amazingly prolific for its size and location. Of course, yesterday morning was amazingly sunny and unbelievably cold! When you're staniding around recording the findings or in the water (not me) for 1 1/2 hours your toes and fingers do go numb!

 The tangle

The next pond we visited, we found nothing. This tangle of shrubs with large cottonwoods all around it felt so wild but not a sign of any amphibian use. While I waited for my coworkers findings I took a few photos. At least it was a tad bit warmer in the afternoon. All in all a sunny, cold, satisfying day outside enjoying the early bird song, beauty of the clear water, cottonwood buds, and fresh air.

Common witches hair lichen over the pond

“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.” 

Henry Davis Thoreau

Amphibian monitoring

Male Long-toed salamander

Yesterday was amphibian day. I went to my favorite city park, Carkeek Park in Seattle to participate in an amphibian monitoring training. At one time, I worked as a naturalist there developing and teaching lots of natural history programs to all ages. I digress. Yesterday was the second part of the training on how to properly monitor for amphibians in wetlands. A coworker and I attended since we are going to incorporate this into our monitoring program at work.


When I worked at Carkeek, the manmade wetland was too "new" to support amphibians; the Ph of the water was off. It's great to return and see Pacific chorus frogs and long-toed salamanders have reclaimed the area. The group found a chorus frog egg mass and a long-toed egg mass. For many reasons, I decided not to muck around in the wetland. I was standing on the boardwalk when I saw a tiny object writhing around in a muddy boot print. The WDFW biologist went over and picked up a male long-toed salamander. I don't know if you can tell in the photo, but there's a fin of sorts on the top of his tail. It's called a "tail blade". This signals he's looking for a female to mate with and continue their progeny. He does not have the tail blade outside of breeding season. We found two so there were likely more around. Being our earliest breeding salamander it's no wonder we found them in the cold and rain of February.


This salamander is one of our most widespread but you wouldn't know it. The adults spend most of their lives hidden away under the ground so are rarely seen. Bad news for the chorus frogs- long-toed larvae eat them as tadpoles. Doesn't seem like good survival strategy to lay your eggs right next to theirs. 


here's a link to the Seattle Times article-
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/picturethis/2017598685_pondwatch.html
Oh, and the part about the biologist finding the salamander; well you already know who really found it. 

Hummingbirds and Robins

No photos for this entry. The male Anna's hummingbird that was chattering away at me this weekend on top of the giant butterfly bush was a bit shy whenever I grabbed the camera. What's amazing is that we have an Anna's here and how in the world do these little guys make it through the winter here? The torpor they go into must be deep. There must also be enough folks feeding them and enough insects to keep them going. The theory is they moved up here from California and were able to stay through the winter because of all the feeders left out. It took them awhile to get to Camano. It seems they have made it to British Columbia, though! Amazing birds. Here's a bit of information on them. Seems I was right about the insects!


http://www.wildbirdshop.com/Birding/Annas_hummers.html

Sunday I actually saw robins feeding on the snowberry bush. I have watched birds for decades now and have rarely, if ever, seen birds eat snowberry. The books say they feed on them but I think it's a last resort food. There are plenty of worms and other food items in the Pacific Northwest at this time of the year for the returning and migrating-through robins so I can't imagine why they felt compelled to feed on the big white berries. I'm glad we planted it; it's a fast-growing and lovely shrub. Planting natives is the best way to feed the birds anyway. The robins were also camera shy. They'd be in a frenzy yelling at each other and feeding on berries and then I'd sneak up with the camera and they'd disappear. Here's some information on snowberries.

https://green.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Plant.aspx?Act=view&PlantID=36

"...Many a larger animal might be concealed, but a cunning ear detects the arrival of each new species of bird."                   Thoreau

Keep listening! Things are happening.

Edison Bird Festival

I decided to go up and check out the 1st annual Edison Bird Festival today. I saw that there would be a presentation by Denver Holt, an owl researcher and Bud Anderson, director of the Falcon Research Group and an old friend. I hadn't seen Bud in years and I was curious about Denver Holt.

On the way there, via the back roads (Fir Island, etc.) I saw several Red-tail hawks, bald eagles, and northern harriers (including a wonderfully close-up view of a silvery male), and one American kestrel. All that without even trying! And that was just the raptors. I also saw tons of snow geese, trumpeter swans, great blue herons, mallards, pintails, and wigeons.

Denver gave a great presentation on his research on snowy owls in Barrow, Alaska from 1999-2011. I learned a bunch of fascinating tidbits about them. Did you know that 3 days of heavy rains in the tundra kills the young? Or that they don't just eat lemmings- they can take an arctic fox, ducks, young geese, shorebirds, and jaegers! That's one tough owl. I also learned that no one really knows for sure why they have come down in such large numbers this year. Bud answered questions and showed a few identification slides of Skagit Flats raptors. Real slides- not those fancy-schmancy powerpoint fake slides. :) 

After the talks I decided to drive through the Samish Flats. I was quickly losing the light. I didn't get far before seeing northern harriers and red-tails again. Then I saw a smaller silhouette sitting in a short tree or tall shrub. It sat a bit forward and was lighter than the others. I pulled off the road, opened my window, and heard the strangest bark-screech. Looking through the binoculars I identified it as a short-eared owl. I couldn't figure out who it was talking to until I saw another one fly by in the distance. I've been amazed at how easy it is to see short-eared owls in the right habitat this year. I usually have to work to find them.

I took a short drive toward Samish Island and as I came back a very large raptor flew down in front of the truck. Light in the upper parts of the body, I recognized it as a rough-legged hawk. It landed in the field next to me but there was no safe place to stop and see if it caught it's dinner. I did slow down enough to get a good look at the hawk. What a treat before the lightness dimmed. A couple more red-tails on power poles and I was on my way to get some grocery shopping done.
Quite a day without even trying!

Candlemas

February 2nd- in the Pacific Northwest on the west side of the mountains reminds me that spring is around the corner. Yes, we will still get cold temperatures and maybe even snow. The point is that yesterday and today we had that high 50s to 60 degree sunny weather we often get for about a week in February. I was too busy yesterday to get out much. Today I wandered around our little piece of property and found what I expected. Red-flowering currant's dark magenta blossoms swelling and beaked hazelnut catkins emerging. I have noticed on my daily commute that the hazelnut catkins are completely out so I'm wondering why mine are so slow. No matter it brings joy to my heart to see life emerging.

The great surprise was digging around in the bigleaf maple leaves (I was looking for the little irises and little daffodils I planted) and finding a three-inch tall nettle! Okay, I know, they are out in February, I just forgot, momentarily of course. It was a wonderful discovery under all those leaves. Life returns, light returns, green returns. don't forget that if you have pollen allergies, now's the time to start taking nettle- tea, tincture/extract or not as effective capsule form.

I read there were some intense snowstorms in some parts of the country this weekend. Makes me realize that we have it pretty good here. Although, I have it recorded that last year on February 24 we received 24 inches of snow, so we still could be in the weather news. It doesn't matter to most of us here because we know it ends and the birds sing and the green returns so robust it can take your breath away. Welcome to it all!

All nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair-

The bees are stirring- birds are on the wing-

And winter slumbering in the open air,

Wears on his smiling face a dream of spring!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge