Increasing Amphibian Cover Boards at White Memorial

Over the past five days two more amphibian cover board grids have been added to White Memorial’s property. This will make a total of ten cover board grids located around the property. We plan on adding even more grids over the next couple of weeks to locations around the Catlin Woods and the Cranberry Swamp area. By adding more cover boards we can expect our amphibian encounter rate to increase, as well as our chances of encountering Connecticut’s endangered Blue-spotted x Jefferson hybrid Salamander.



Red Eft life stage of a Red-spotted Newt in Catlin Woods

We experimented with one of the newly assembled cover board sites by removing leaf litter underneath every other cover board, exposing the bare, damp soil. When a piece of wood or any heavy object is left on the forest ground, the leaf litter that it shields eventually breaks up and decomposes, therefore becoming part of the soil. We wondered whether by accelerating this process, so that only soil meets the cover board, the salamanders would be more likely detected because there isn't any leaf debris that can cover them. This observational experiment will help us see if there is a noticeable pattern and tell us if we should develop an experiment with more replicates. We will check the plot every couple of weeks noting if salamanders were more often discovered under removed leaf debris cover boards. We need to be especially thorough when checking the uncleared cover boards because salamanders are more difficult to spot when there are layers of leaves that they can hide in. By not counting all salamanders present, this may result in a false correlation in our experiment.

James Fischer marking the cleared leaf debris cover boards.

Wildflowers In Bloom

As temperatures warm up and rain showers become more regular; I have noticed beautiful spots of bright colors dotting open, grassy fields and trail edges. It’s that time of the season for wildflowers to emerge and bloom. In my opinion, the occurrence of wildflowers officially marks the start of summer. Not only are wildflowers aesthetically pleasing, but they also provide medicinal uses, food, habitat, erosion control, and ecosystem stability for fish and wildlife. There are approximately 215 species of wildflowers listed in Connecticut, each with a distinctive appearance.

Since not everyone, including myself is a professional botanist; when identifying wildflowers you should try to observe the following characteristics. First, count the number of petals, which is usually three to seven or more. Next, note the flower arrangement. Is it a single flower on a stem or several flowers on a stem? The most obvious flower characteristic is color. Wildflower colors usually range from shades of blue, white, yellow, pink, purple, or green. Also, record the date that the flower blooms; although flowering time can vary based on weather fluctuations. For instance, last week, James Fischer and I spotted Mountain Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) flowering at Apple Hill. When we discovered its correct identification, we learned that it typically flowers during June and into July. Finally, measure or estimate plant height and flower size. Also note the leaf margin (entire, serrated, wavy), and arrangement; meaning whether they are compound (many leaves per stem) or simple (one leaf per stem). If possible, take a photograph, but try not pick or trample the flower.

The Connecticut Botanical Society website (http://www.ct-botanical-society.org) is an excellent source to use when identifying Connecticut’s native wildflowers. Also, the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers is a handy book to own when out in the field. As wildflowers continue to bloom throughout the next several months, identifying them can be a fun way to get outside and learn about Connecticut’s flora.

The following pictures are some of the wildflowers that I found at various locations around White Memorial’s property. I walked through wetlands (Little Pond and Cranberry Swamp), grassland (Apple Hill), old growth forests (Catlin Woods), and even stopped the truck several times along curbs to take a photo or two of a roadside wildflower.

Yellow sedge
Carex flava

Robin-plantain
Erigeron pulchellus

True Forget-me-not
Myosotis scorpioides

Yellow Goat's-beard
Tragopogon dubius

Blueflag
Iris versicolor

Heart-leaved Alexanders
Zizia aptera

Wild Geranium
Geranium maculatum

Small Mammal Inventory -- Cranberry Pond Mesic Forest

Male Southern Red-backed Vole (Myodes gapperi)

Mesic forest dominated by Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, Spicebush,
and loads of mosses, skunk cabbage, and other plants in the herbaceous layer.

Small mammal trapping in the mesic forest south of Cranberry Swamp yielded White-footed Mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and a Southern Red-backed Vole.  The habitat is quite moist even though this spring has been so dry.  Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, and Red Maple dominate the canopy while Spicebush is abundant in the sub-canopy.  The forest floor is blanketed by a variety of moss species.

An Examination of Bear Poop

It's not every day I get to pick apart a piece of poop, but yesterday proved to be an exception. After a reported sighting of a mother bear and two cubs on the property, Jamie, fellow intern Olivia and I, set out to locate possible "nursury trees," which would be a good location for a wildlife camera. Nursury trees or "baby-sitting trees" are so named because a mother bear likes to find such trees to provide a sort of safe jungle-gym for her cubs, so she can leave them in this kind of sheltered grove while she sees to the business of the day. Nursury trees typically have thick bark and lots of low branches, so little bears can practice their climbing. Jamie had already scouted out an area just north of Cranberry Swamp, which has both lowland and upland habitats, which he thought had some ideal nursury trees. Though we didn't find any sign of the bears amongst the trees, on our way back along Cranberry Swamp Trail, we came across a nice spicemen of bear scat.

Bear Scat with Deer Hoof on Ruler

The first thing we noticed about this particular spicemen was how hairy it was. Now, I don't mean hairy in the treacherous sense of the word, but hairy as in, bushy, furry, and full of deer fur. Jamie pulled out his tweezers and other poop-examining tools, and extracted a small triangular object. At first glance, it looked like a tooth, but after Jamie explained it was made out of caratin (which is what our nails and hair is made out of), we came to the conclusion it was a claw. More specifically, Jamie clarified, it was a deer hoof. The hoof was hardened on the bottom, which means that it didn't belong to a stillborn fawn, but to a deer who had been up an walking about.

A black bear doesn't exactly have a strong moral conscious, and so wouldn't hestitate to eat a nice little fawn the had been bedded down by its mother. For the first 4 weeks of its life, a baby deer is pretty uncoordinated. The mother will typically create a nice bed for the fawn to stay in until it is strong enough to really move around on its own. What good luck for the bear who happens upon such an easy target! Who knew you could learn so much by just stopping to look at a piece of poop!