Katie Says: Meet my favorite denizen of the detritus!

One of my favorite activities here at Briar Bush Nature Center has got to be log rolling. No, that doesn’t mean that you’ll find me standing on a spinning log in the middle of our pond; I mean rolling over logs on the ground to look for what hides beneath! Rotting logs act as a mulch motel for all kinds of creatures including centipedes, pill bugs (better known as roly polys), earthworms, termites and my personal favorite, the redback salamander.

The redback salamander is the most common salamander here in the northeast and can be found in just about any healthy forested area. Scientists consider the redback salamander an indicator species, meaning that high numbers of the salamanders indicate a healthy forest ecosystem. In a forest that has been clearcut of all of its trees, the salamanders disappear and won’t return for at least another 50 years. Chances are you’ve seen the redback salamander before: the two to four inch peppered amphibian with a reddish-orange stripe down his back. Others, known as “leadbacks,” lack the colorful stripe, betraying their redback name. Like all amphibians, their skin needs to stay wet in order to breathe, which gives the salamander a shiny or “slimy” look, but make no mistake; these guys are soaked in cuteness, not slime! What I find especially amazing about the redback and other woodland salamanders is that unlike other amphibians, they do not depend on water for any part of their life cycle. Instead, eggs are laid in tiny, grape-like clusters beneath logs or in other damp places. There, the young develop completely within the egg and emerge as miniature versions of the adults instead of the familiar tadpole that we associate with frogs and toads. In the winter, salamanders both young and old hibernate through the winter by digging down as much as 15 inches into the soil and leaf litter. Once they emerge in the spring, these tiny hunters will spend their nights, especially rainy ones, prowling the forest floor in search of tasty insects.

The next time you’re out at Briar Bush, try out some log rolling of your very own! Just remember to put the logs back where you found them…that’s a salamander’s home under there! Have a question or a story of your own to share? Leave a comment below! Blogger accounts are not required to leave a comment.

Environmental Justice Information

Briar Bush educators Mark Fallon and Anne-Marie D'Onofrio participated in Gwynedd-Mercy College's Justice Fair on March 29. Below is a list of documentaries, TV shows and books to gain further insight into the many environmental justice topics:

Movies/TV Series

• No Impact Man: The Documentary (2009)
• Go Further (2004)
• Food, Inc. (2008)
• King Corn (2007)
• The Beautiful Truth (2008)
• Eco Trip Series – Sundance Channel (2009)
• The Garden (2008)
• The Lazy Environmentalist Series – Sundance Channel (2009)
• The Future of Food (2004)
• Fast Food Nation (2006)
• Super Size Me (2004)
• An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)

Non-fiction Books

• Cradle to Cradle – William McDonough and Michael Braungart
• Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of our Environmental Future – Mark Hertsgaard
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies – Jared Diamond
• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed – Jared Diamond
• Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment – James Gustav Speth
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals – Michael Pollan
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto – Michael Pollan
• Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
• Food Politics – Marion Nestle
• Poisons on our Plates: The Real Food Safety Problem in the United States – Michele Morrone
• Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics and the Global Water Crisis – Dr. Gary L. Chamberlain
• Boiling Point: How How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis--And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Ross Gelbspan
• Diet for a New America – John Robbins
• Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating – Jane Goodall
• The Ten Trusts: What we must do to Care for the Animals we Love – Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff
• The Environmental Predicament: Four Issues for Critical Analysis – Carol F. Verburg
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
  

Classic Non-fiction Books

• Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold
• Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
• The Yosemite – John Muir

Katie Says: Give your yard a spring cleaning!

This past weekend, I watched many of my neighbors taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Children rode bikes, the smell of barbecue grills was in the air and my next door neighbor spent the morning preparing his garden for planting by pulling out remnants of last year’s flowers and unsightly weeds. Many of us tend to our gardens in this way, yet leave one of the biggest threats to our yard untouched: English ivy.

English ivy is considered an exotic invasive plant. Plants like these are not from Pennsylvania and have a negative impact on native plant and/or animal species. In English ivy’s case, it was brought to the United States from its native Europe, western Asia and northern Africa because it was considered an attractive ornamental plant. However, as English ivy climbs a tree or other plant, it covers the tree’s leaves and prevents it from obtaining the sunlight that it needs for photosynthesis. As a result, any branches covered in ivy eventually die and in the case of smaller trees or shrubs, the entire plant may die. When I removed ivy from the hedges in my yard this fall, I was amazed to find large sections of the hedge had completely rotted beneath its ivy blanket. English ivy also serves as a reservoir for Bacterial Leaf Scorch, a plant disease that is harmful to elms, oaks, maples and other native plants.

What can you do if you want to reclaim your yard from English ivy? To remove ivy from trees, cut the vines near the ground and again at shoulder height. Eventually the vines growing up the tree will die. The base of the vines will continue to re-sprout, so be sure to either pull up the remainder of the vine or keep it trimmed back. If the ivy in your yard has only just begun to spread, try using a deep layer of mulch. This will cover the ivy’s leaves and kill it in the same way it kills other plants! For other ways to control ivy in your yard, visit the Plant Conservation Alliance’s website. Good luck in your battle against the evil English ivy! Your yard will thank you by springing back to life!

Have a question or a story of your own to share? Email me at kfisk[at symbol]briarbush.org!

Katie Says: Sing a song of spring

Nothing signals the start of spring to me more than the songs of birds filling the morning air. Melodious male birds sing to attract mates and to stake their claim on their territory. A male who can sing well is showing to females that he is healthy and that his offspring will also be healthy singers who can attract mates of their own and continue to pass along his superb genes.

Each bird has a different song to set it apart from other species, from the cheer-cheer-cheer of the northern cardinal, to the peter-peter-peter-peter of the tufted titmouse, and even the simple chirp of a house sparrow. Woodpeckers prefer the use of percussion instruments and will drum loudly on a hollow limb or trunk of a tree as their song. Mockingbirds, catbirds and European starlings show off by copying as many sounds as they can. Males with the biggest repertoire get the girl! These birds never cease to amaze me with their spot-on impressions of blue jays, American robins and red-tailed hawks. One starling in particular who resides in the “Michaels” lettering by the Willow Grove Mall does such a good imitation of a killdeer that I am often left looking around for the long-legged shorebird.

The next time you find yourself marveling at these spring songsters, try a couple of activities to tune your listening ear:

1) Count how many different kinds of songs you can hear. It may be hard to pick them out at first, but with practice you’ll start hearing all kinds of different songs.

2) Pick out one individual bird and listen for all of the other males responding to his song. It’s amazing how many and from how far away they will respond!

3) Just like people from different areas, some birds have different song dialects! See if you can hear slight variations in songs of a single kind of bird as you travel.

I’d love to hear about your findings! Share your story by emailing me at kfisk[at symbol]briarbush.org!

Katie Says: I’ve got a bone to pick!

The winter’s record snows have almost completely melted! As the snow retreats, treasures become revealed: new green shoots of spring flowers, stashed acorns forgotten by squirrels, and sometimes…bones.

After the snow melts and before the spring’s new vegetation grows is a great time to practice what I fondly call “skulling.” Skulling is the process of hiking around an area in search of animal bones. Why look for animal bones? Because it’s incredible what you can learn from them! You can learn about the anatomy of the animal itself, how it died, and what animals live where you are, just for starters. During my skulling journeys in many states, I have come across many fascinating finds: an entire deer skeleton perfectly preserved in a wetland, a raccoon skull deep in a forest, propeller-scarred manatee bones on Florida shores, and fish skeletons below an osprey’s nest. It is very important to note that if you choose to embark on your own skulling mission, any piece of animal remains, even feathers, cannot be kept without a permit from the federal and state governments. Better to leave your finds behind for the next skuller anyway!

Once you find your first skull, you may wonder, “How can I tell what animal this is from?” Well this Sunday you can have the chance to find out! March 14, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. is “Nature Detectives: Taking the Sk-ary out of Skulls” at Briar Bush. The program is part of a new family series of programs, geared towards participants from seven to 107. During this month’s program, led by The Nature Geek (that’s me!), we’ll be examining real animal skulls and will figure out the mystery identities of each by looking at where the skull came from, its size and the kind of teeth it has. We’ll even be solving an animal mystery along the way! If you are interested in registering for the program, contact Briar Bush! And as always, if you have a question or a story of your own to share, email me at kfisk[at symbol]briarbush.org!

Spring is almost here

Have you noticed our sun rising earlier in the morning? March 20 marks the first day of spring. On this day our sun will follow the celestial equinox. According to astronomer Jack Horkheimer, “If you go to work/school around sunrise on a due east/west highway notice just how close the Sun rises to the center of the road each day and then as it gets closer to March 20th watch it rise even closer to the yellow line until on Saturday the 20th it will rise directly over the yellow line.” Go ahead and try it yourself and have a happy spring.

Ehren Gross, Environmental Educator

February ACEd

The Association of Conservation Executives (ACE) is a group made up of employees of PA/NJ nature centers, land preserves, arboretums and other similar organizations. Related, ACEd is a group for all the educators within the ACE group.

The ACEd group met at the Buttinger Nature Center, part of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association on February 5 to discuss summer camp, and then was treated to a walk around the property led by Jeff Hoagland, the education director. During the walk, the group looked for voles and moles, fox and deer scat, praying mantis egg cases and other signs of wildlife on the chilly winter day.

Katie Says: That’s a lot of animals!

This week's blog is all about groups of animals. Animals that like to hang out in groups are called gregarious...they're social butterflies! (or birds, or mammals, or fish, or whatever!) Some animals hang out in groups all the time and some only at certain times of the year, like migration or during the winter months. What has always been one of my favorite bits of animal trivia is the names given to various groups of animals. Check out these fun animal group names:

Murder: a group of crows
Unkindness: a group of ravens
Intrusion: a group of cockroaches (I'll say!)
Band: a group of coyotes
Memory (or herd): a group of elephants
Army: a group of frogs or ants
Charm: a group of goldfinches or hummingbirds
Knot: a group of toads
Mischief: a group of mice
Prickle: a group of porcupines
Parliment: a group of owls
Smack: a group of jellyfish

And some groups are even given different names depending on what they're doing. For example, a group of hawks is called a cast. But when they're flying, they're a kettle and when they're circling on air currents they're called a boil! Whew! That's a lot to keep track of!

So remember, the next time you strike up a converstation about jellyfish you really can say you're talking smack!

Have a question or a story of your own to share? Email me at kfisk[at symbol]briarbush.org!