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Trail Talk with Jeanne

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Trail Talk with Jeanne Trail Talk with Jeanne Vol. 1, No. 7 (May 8, 2006) Announcements The Belltower Goslings have hatched! On the morning of May 4, John Martin noticed on the bird cam that the mother goose had left the nest atop the Bellowtower leaving some egg shells and some unhatched eggs (it looks like 2 or 3 eggs did not hatch). Both goslings that hatched successfully navigated the skydive to the tarp below, after which the parents led them through the grass along the vineyard and eventually to the quarry pond. I was able to snap the photo, above, during their first foray into the grass while the parents looked for a way through the vineyard fence. They’re soooooo cute! By the way, the other nest on top of the archway in David Bouverie’s courtyard that I reported in the last issue of The Nutshell was abandoned shortly after eggs were laid. Four out of five of the eggs were eaten by predators, but I salvaged the fifth egg, which is now in a basket in Gillman Hall near the Bird Cam to show to school groups. Please don’t handle the egg; there is liquid inside and breakage might lead to sudden evacuation of Gilman Hall! So far, the only scheduled rain day is Tuesday, May 23rd. Nancy will notify those docents scheduled for May 24th or May 25th if for some reason their days are filled and they need to hike. Hiking days next fall do include Wednesdays, which was inadvertently left off of the docent preference sheet that you recently received. If you have already turned in your form, and are NOT available on Wednesdays next fall, please let Nancy know immediately so she can update your preference sheet ([email protected] or 938-4554). If you are interested in learning more about human’s place in the global food chain, check out Michael Pollan’s new book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak last week and having my mind blown (you may be familiar with some of his earlier work, especially The Botany of Desire). Lots of food for thought, literally, about the relationships (or lack thereof) between ecology and the choices we make about what we eat and where our food comes from. Don’t forget the Bouverie Preserve Annual Meeting is scheduled for June 6, starting at 5 pm. If you are planning on attending, please signup in Gilman Hall or RSVP to Nancy. Also, I am looking for docents who would be interesting in assisting with the Night Hike, scheduled to begin after the party is over (around 8:30 give or take). Please give me a call or drop me an email if you’d like to help ([email protected] or 938-9885). Trail Talk by Jeanne Wirka, Vol. 1, No. 7 (May 8, 2006) 1 On the Trails I. Oak woodlands (Yellow Brick Road, Rocky Road and Woodland Trails): With the warm weather (finally!), the Oak Woodlands at Bouverie are carpeted in waist-high GRASS, swathed in colorful FLOWERS, and teeming with BUTTERFLIES. First the GRASSES: While it is tempting to think of grass as something you walk through to get somewhere else, take a moment to stop and observe the massive amounts of green biomass surrounding the trails here. Okay, yes, most of what you see are introduced annual grasses from other parts of the world, and many are problem weeds that are out-competing our native grasses and wildflowers. But grasses are an excellent teaching opportunity. Ask the students in your hiking group: “Who had grass for breakfast this morning?” If you get blank stares, try “who had cereal (or toast or oatmeal or tortillas) for breakfast?” and take the grass lesson from there. We are used to thinking of animals eating the leaves, stems, and seeds of grasses. But the seeds of certain grasses are the most important food source for humans as well. Rice is a grass—it is the main food source for over half the world’s population. Rice together with corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, and millet (aka “cereal grains”) provide three-fourths of the calories consumed by humans and over half of the protein. From here, it is easy to work in a food web lesson as well. What other organisms eat grass and what do we get from them (meat, eggs, clothing, etc.). And for dessert? Sugar cane. Another grass that supplies 2/3 of all the sugar we consume. Another grass lesson: the most common native perennial grass you will see in the oak woodlands right now is the beautiful and stately purple needlegrass (Nassella pulchra). It is a large bunch grass, characterized by bright purple seeds with long needle-like awns (it is also the official grass of the State of California). At first glance, you might confuse it with the ubiquitous ripgut brome (Bromus diandrus), that troublesome weed that sticks in your socks. But, look closely. In purple needlegrass, the seeds themselves look purple and the awns (that needle like structure that sticks out) are purplish and begin to curl when dry. In ripgut brome, only the tips of the awns look purple, not the seed itself. Also, purple needlegrass has a bunched growth form, with the grass blades and flowering stalks (culms) rising from a central tuft that is impossible to pull out of the ground. Ripgut is a Notice the dark purple seeds and purplish awns on the native purple relatively whimpy annual with stems that needlegrass (above left) compared with the pale seeds and purple-tipped awns can be easily yanked up. of the similar-looking, but noxious weed, ripgut brome (right). Second, the FLOWERS. While the white baby blue eyes, mildmaids, meadowfoam, and sunshine have largely faded, they have been replaced by an explosion of later season wildflowers. On the Woodland Trail, look for the blue larkspur (Delphinium variegatum) (my own personal favorite, below left) on both sides of the trail as it rises from the Yellow Brick Road. Look also for the tiny yellow phlox flowers, called Golden Stars (Linanthus acicularis). As you near the top of the hill, before it turns to the east, keep your eyes peeled for the purple owl’s clover (Castilleja exserta, photo second from left). Then, just past the lunch spot, you’ll encounter the delicate white blow wives (Achryachaeana mollis, below, right). When I saw them, Trail Talk by Jeanne Wirka, Vol. 1, No. 7 (May 8, 2006) 2 they were still in their flowering state, but expect to see their explosion of fruit soon. Finally, where the Rocky Road trail meets the Canyon Trail, look to your left for a most delightful stand of Diogenes Lanterns (Calochortus amabilis, second from right) and Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla, middle below ). Finally, the BUTTERFLIES: Look for pipevine swallowtails, mourning cloaks, buckeye butterflies, tiger swallowtails, spring azures, silvery blues, and cabbage whites throughout the preserve, just to name a few. The pipevine swallowtails are especially prevalent in the grassland areas this time of year. Because these beautifully iridescent butterflies are so BIG and PLENTIFUL, they offer a great opportunity to talk about butterfly life cycles, insect-host plant relationships and mimicry!. A Primer on Pipevine Swallowtails: (Note: all of the pictures below are from the website of the Strattford Landing Elementary School in Alexandria Virginia. While there are some differences in swallowtails regionally, this webpage is a great resource if you want information on Swallowtails geared towards elementary school students. Go to: http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/pipevine_swallowtail.htm. Photos used here for educational purposes only). By way of identification, pipevine swallowtails from above have a very dark blue/black forewings and very bright iridescent blue hind wing with the characteristic swallowtail nubs sticking out. Females have a row of white dots at the base of their upperwings and a single row of orange spots on the underside of the wings (see photos, right). The California species of Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) fly from April until early Fall and usually hatch out 2-3 broods per year. The subspecies that most likely occurs at Bouverie is the Hairy Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor hirsutus), which is found in Central California, the Sierra Foothills, and the Coast Ranges. If you catch one for closer viewing, you’ll see that the body is covered in black “hair” (in Latin hirsutus means “hairy”). During breeding season, the male Swallowtail patrols a territory all day long, waiting for a female to arrive. She will lay small clusters of spherical rust-colored eggs on the undersides of the leaves of California pipevine (Aristolochia californica) (photo below left). NOTE: You can see these clusters of eggs on the pipevine growing along the southern fence just outside the front of Gillman Hall! Take a moment to show your hiking group before taking off on your hike!). When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feast exclusively on pipevine. Full grown caterpillars are black with red spines and can be over two inches long (photo Trail Talk by Jeanne Wirka, Vol. 1, No. 7 (May 8, 2006) 3 below). When they are ready to pupate, the caterpillars leave their pipevine patch and form a curvy, horny chrysalis that can be either light green or brown, depending on the surface they attach to (photo below right). If a larva pupates early in summer, it emerges as a butterfly in a few weeks and mates. If it pupates in late summer or fall, it overwinters in the chrysalis and emerges the following spring.
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