Megan's Nature Notes

One of my favorite and frankly underrated wildflowers: Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense). You can find these flowers in deciduous woodlands mainly by their heart shaped leaves. If you take the time to brush away the leaf-litter at the base of the plant, you will be treated with the unique flower. This flower attracts flies by mimicking the color of rotting flesh. Native peoples used the wildflower as a spice by using the root. Researchers have found two antibiotic compounds in the plant that made it important for treating wounds. Get out there and experience spring! Every wildflower has a story to tell!

I found this beauty at one of my parks, Hell Hollow Wilderness Area. This is Purple Coral Fungus. It gets its name from the similarity in its structure to coral. These beauties love the forest floor and can often be found near hardwoods.

An in progress story. Vets Park has been heavily impacted by deer for a long time. Though deer may seem cute and cuddly, these herbivores have lacked predators to control their population since the elimination of predators like the wolf and mountain lion from the east. With decreased human hunting pressures and them taking advantage of urban and suburban landscapes, many natural areas are suffering. Yes, deer are native; but without predatory pressure to regulate numbers, things quickly spiral out of control. Vets Park, a suburban park, is a prime example of this. Plants that deer preferentially graze on disappeared from the park. A deer culling program was instituted by the city and after several years we now have trilliums in the park for the first time in many years. Not only do we have trilliums, we have a population of blooming white trillium! On my walk this morning, I noticed other wildflowers that deer like to browse on popping up! This story isn’t finished and more monitoring and management will need to take place. However, this is a small win for our native trillium.

Happy glorious witch hazel season. Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one of my favorite woodland trees. This beauty is often overlooked since it is an understory tree. However, at this time of year, they really shine. I found this one at Blair Ridge Park while working this week and it just took my breath away. Witch hazel is different from other trees by blooming in the fall and winter. It is thought that this helps it attract more pollinators instead of competing with other species of trees. Later, these flowers will develop into seeds that will literally burst forward and slingshot its seeds into the understory to begin the next generation of witch hazels. The name is thought to come from the word wych, which means to bend. It was also thought to be used as the divining rod of choice for the Mohegan people to find places to dig wells. Native peoples used this plant for colds, dermatological aids, fevers, period pains, sore throats, sore eyes, emetic, antidiarrheal, arthritis, asthma, toothaches, sore muscles, and much more. The Cherokee also used the leaves and twigs to make tea.

It’s that time of year where monarch caterpillars are feeding and growing quickly. Soon this little caterpillar will get large and mature enough to “j” and cocoon up in anticipation of metamorphosis into an adult monarch butterfly. Then comes the long journey south during migration. Here in Ohio, we get monarch generations 2, 3, and 4. 3 and 4 have the ability to migrate south.

Claybank Tiger Beetle (Cicindela limbalis) at Liberty Hollow Park. These fierce little guys can be found on sparsely vegetated banks and cliffs. The cliffs at Liberty Hollow were filled with them and one decided to be cooperative with me. These cool invertebrates take two to three years to become adults.

Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) at Liberty Hollow Park today. These gorgeous lilies really stand out compared to other nearby blooms. Canada lilies are pollinated by large butterflies (like great spangled fritillary), halictid bees, and hummingbirds. This plant is also food for the caterpillar stage of several borer moths. Unfortunately, this plant is declining in areas with high deer browse pressure. Canada lily traditionally was used for stomach disorders (Algonquin), rheumatism (Cherokee), snakebites (Chippewa), and as famine food with acorns to make bread (Cherokee and Huron). This plant was found on the traditional lands of the Erie and Mississauga peoples.

Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) I found at the Cascade Road property today. I love these plants and they always take my breath away when I get a glimpse of them. They shove all plant convention away and don’t have chlorophyll. Instead, they get their food from parasitizing mycorrhizal fungi. They are often found associated with beech, oaks, and hemlocks. This plant is mainly pollinated by flies and bumblebees. Traditional uses included: anticonvulsant (Cherokee), dermatological medication for warts and bunions (Cherokee), eye drops (Cherokee), toothaches (Cree, Woodlands), cold remedy (Mohegan), and as an indicator for mushroom abundance later in the season (Thompson).

A bit of a neat find out at Lake Erie Bluffs this week are the weird growths on the leaves of the Black Cherry trees growing along the bluff rim trail. These tiny finger galls are caused by a highly specialized mite called the Black Cherry Finger Gall Mite (my thats a mouthful) that only feeds on Black Cherry leaves. The galls appear on the upper side of the leaves and are mostly clustered at the base of the leaves and towards the midrib. These strange little mites have three distinct forms: the female that feeds on the growing season leaf (protogyne), the male that also feeds in the growing season, and the female that overwinters (also known as the deutogyne). The overwintering females emerges with the leaf from the leaf bud in the spring. As these females feed on the leaf, a chemical in their saliva causes the leaf cells to expand and form a pouch, which it then uses to lay its eggs. After laying the eggs, the overwintering females die. The cycle starts all over and the overwintering females that hatch out over the summer will crawl into the leaf buds to await next year. So if you see a Black Cherry and can check out it’s leaves, look for these strange structures.

Bird-friendly Plants and Top Gardening Tips for Fall How can you attract birds to your yard this fall? Check out our top tips for gardening with bird-friendly plants and other ways to help birds.

Graphic courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

This graphic was part of a larger study that was published last year. Our birds are declining at a rapid rate. Let’s all take steps to help prevent that decline.

Here are some ideas of what you can do:

1) If you have a pasture, consider not cutting it until February or March to allow habitat for migratory and wintering birds.
2) Put decals on your windows to prevent collisions.
3) Plant native plants to draw insects and produce native fruits and seeds for birds to feed on. They look great and are good for all kinds of wildlife.
4) Consider decreasing your lawn and planting the above native plants to create a wildlife habitat.
5) Plant/allow field borders to grow up around crop fields to provide habitat and food.

Graphic courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is a fairly common wildflower here in Eastern and Central North America. These flowers are drought tolerant and are a flower of open fields and grasslands. They are often put in seed mixes for wildlife and pollinators because of its many benefits. It provide nectar for butterflies, bees, and other insects AND provides an awesome source of seeds for seed eating birds. In fact, you should leave these plants standing over the fall and winter as food source for birds like American Goldfinch. This plant is also the host plant for the Gorgone Checkerspot Butterfly and the Bordered Patch Butterfly. Native peoples would use a tea made from the roots to treat parasites and colds; an external wash for sores, snakebites, and swelling; and the juice from the roots for earaches.

This is a Pearl Crescent Butterfly (Phyciodes tharos). It’s a gorgeous little butterfly that I found in a glade a month ago. It’s found widely in North America, except the west coast, Mexico, and southern Canada. It inhabits open areas like pastures, road edges, fields, vacant lots, open pine woods, and, of course, glades. The host plants for the caterpillar are smooth leaved true asters like Smooth Aster and New England Aster.

Hey everyone! Check out this awesome segment on CBS Sunday Morning about David Sibley. His bird guides are some of my favorites.

For the birds: Illustrator David Allen Sibley

Luna Moth (Actias Luna). I found this guy in the back yard this morning. A bird has snipped off one of his tails but he is still beautiful and a survivor. This lime green beauty is a Nearctic moth and can get up to two generations per year here in the southern United States. The larvae of these moths can make a clicking sound and regurgitate stomach contents to deter predators. Their elongated tails are thought to be used to confuse echolocation detection by bats. The adults also lack mouth parts and don’t feed during their brief flighted lives.

In short, am I a lunatic for the Luna moth? Yes, yes I am.

To many, a glade looks like a spent wasteland. Little vegetation seems to grow upon it and bare rock and soil is often seen. However, because of the harsh conditions of these glades, only those plants that survive these harsh conditions prevail and flourish. The glades I saw last week at the Abbey are excellent examples. I had never seen so many pale purple coneflowers and gray-headed coneflowers growing in one place. The sheer amount of blooming wildflowers were honestly shocking and breathtaking. These are the areas we need to save and are in great danger of being destroyed because they are often considered by the lay person as being a waste of space.

Wild Bergamot/Bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) is a wildflower in the mint family. It’s fairly widespread and abundant across North America. It’s aromatic leaves can be used to make tea and the oil from the leaves was formerly used to treat respiratory ailments. Native Americans used the leaf tea to treat flatulence, colds, fevers, stomach aches, nosebleeds, insomnia, and heart trouble. Not to mention, the pollinators LOVE it. I stumbled upon these beautiful flowers in a power line at my family home place in Dickson County, TN. The power line was full with them along with Butterfly Milkweed and Mountain Mint.

Pictured is a Tiger Swallowtail on a Wild Bergamot.
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THIS! Yes, birds can build in inconvenient places. However, the whole process will be done in around 20-25 days. Not long to wait to give these young birds a chance at life.

Lesser Grapevine Looper Moth (Eulithis diversilineata). The host plant of this moth is Virginia Creeper and grapevines. The name “looper” comes from the caterpillar arching it’s body upward into a loop where the head and tail almost touch while moving. When these moths rest in the adult form, the body curls so much that the tail almost touches the head. It is found across eastern North America.
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This tattered beauty is a Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela). As the name suggests, these butterflies like to stay close to forested habitat. They often fly higher than other small satyrs and ascend into the trees when alarmed. This species is common to eastern North America and a lot about its ecology remains unknown. Their host plants consist of woodland species of grasses but no specific species of grass host plant has yet to be verified. This one was found in my parents’ back deck and has obviously been through a tough life. Happy pollinator week! ————————————————

Book recommendation time! Our Native Bees by Paige Embry is an excellent way to learn more about the native bees in North America. I learned a lot about native bees. For example, did you known that European honey bees can’t pollinate some plants because they can’t do buzz pollination. Tomato plants have to be buzz pollinated and bumblebees are one of the species that use this method to get the plant to release its pollen. So without our native bees, we might have a whole lot less tomatoes in our lives.

Happy Pollinator Week!

Lets talk about the bird on the cover photo of this page. This magnificent bird is the Scarlet Tanager. It is stunningly beautiful with males having jet back wings and a bright red body. The females are more understated with yellowish-green bodies and darker wings. Immediately, when faced with such a stunning bird, you think there is no way it could be native to North America. Scarlet Tanagers are actually one of our neotropical migrants, which means they spend the summer breeding here in North America and then head back to South America for the winter. They breed mostly in the deciduous forests of eastern North America. You probably hear them sing without realizing it. They have been described as having a song that sounds like an American Robin with a sore throat. Their call is also a distinctive "chick-burrrr". The Scarlet Tanager currently belongs to the family Cardinalidae. This family is known for its bright plumaged individuals like (you guessed it) Northern Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, Painted Buntings, Summer Tanagers, and Western Tanagers.

Even though Scarlet Tanagers are fairly common, they are facing some serious threats. They are vulnerable to habitat loss in both the summer (breeding) range and in their winter habitat. For breeding, they have been found to be more successful in larger blocks of forest. In smaller forested areas where they attempt to breed, they often have poor nest success and are parasitized by a common nest parasite here in North America, the Brown-headed Cowbird (this will be the topic of a future post).

I caught this individual with my field team in 2016 in my first field season as a graduate student. It was during migration, which is the only time you will catch one of these birds in the open salt marshes of southern Louisiana. It had likely descended on the salt marsh to rest after flying all night over the Gulf of Mexico from Central or South America. It was a huge surprise and delight to have this guy fly into our nets on a hot spring day.

*All birds pictured on this page were handled and captured with the appropriate federal permitting.

With this profession, you see some good every day BUT you see a heck of a lot of bad. Two properties I have recently visited have this common problem: Poison Hemlock.

Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a highly toxic invasive species. This species is beginning to run rampant in many of the areas in Kentucky that I’m working in. It was introduced in the 1800s for its “ornamental value” like so many other of our invasive species. Historically, it was actually used as medicine for treating muscle spasms, cause sedation, and treatment for tumors. It is most famously known as the method of death chosen by Socrates. All parts of the plant are toxic. This plant is most easily identified by the purple spotting on the stem. The leaves are lacy without hair underneath the leaf.

These plants are sometimes mistaken for Angelica, cow parsnip, wild parsnip, wild chervil, wild celery, and Queen Anne’s lace. The consequences are extremely serious. Initially, there is an excitatory phase with nervousness, tremors, and salivation. Major toxicity and death occur when the depression phase starts. Your heart and diaphragm muscles begin to slow down and eventually stop to cause death. It can be treated at the hospital if caught in the initial stages. This plant is LETHAL to cattle and other livestock.

If you want to remove this plant, please contact your local extension office for recommendations. If you are trying to remove it yourself, PLEASE wear gloves and long sleeves. Just touching this plant can elicit reactions, especially before the plant flowers. The best time to remove this plant is prior to flowering. This plant spreads readily through the 1000 seeds it produces per season, which are stable in the soil from 3-6 years.

Another one of the battles I have to wage every day. ————————————————

Hello everyone. It’s that time of year when baby rabbits are often found in yards. Not to worry. Usually, you found the baby in the middle of the mother moving it from one nest site to another. She will often stagger her young across the yard as she incrementally moves them. Unless you see blood, evidence of obvious injury, or know for a fact that the mother is dead, please don’t move the babies.

It's that time of year!

Many people underestimate the importance of planting native species in their gardens and around their property. Our native plants are power houses for nutritious seeds, providing nectar and pollen for pollinators, and attracting insects for organisms like birds to feed on. Consider replacing some of your nonnative species with showy native species like Smooth Beardtongue, Butterfly Milkweed, or Purple Coneflower.

New Smithsonian Study Links Declines in Suburban Backyard Birds to Presence of Nonnative Plants Insect-eating birds that depend on high-calorie, high-protein cuisine (namely caterpillars and spiders) to feed their young are finding the menu severely lacking in backyards landscaped with even a small proportion of nonnative plants, according to a new study from SCBI.

Megan's Nature Notes updated their business hours.

Megan's Nature Notes updated their website address.

Hey everyone,

I've been getting a lot of questions about nature, identification of organisms, recommendations on plants, and birding. So I thought I would create my own page where I share cool observations I make in the field, facts, and great resources to learn more about nature. If you follow my Instagram page, it will be similar to that.

Thanks for following!