This past week was really hot and humid. All of us grad students were dragging and it seemed like some of the wildlife was quiter than normal. On Tuesday when we were bird banding and birding, things seemed slow but we did walk around the Kesling wetland and were treated by a great view of an American bittern. We banded a couple of each of the following: titmouses (-mice?), common yellowthroats, song and field sparrows.
Almost every evening, I sat watching "my" ecosystem (from now on known as Kesling Kove) while I ate dinner on the back patio. Still the most common residents are the redwing blackbirds, green and bull frogs, and mosquitoes. For an assignment for Dave, we had to observe a natural setting for seven minutes and take notes. So, I crept down to the edge of the water at about sunset one night, sat quietly and had the opportunity to watch a pair of blackbirds chatting with each other. The male started out on some reeds in the water about two feet from the shore, while the female was in the cattails across the path. Both were boisterous and chatty. Then, the male flew over her and landed on some other cattails and the female flew to exactly where he had been on the reeds. It was amazing. There she sat for about five of the seven minutes while he kept responding to her but flew over me in a circle a couple of times. When the mosquitoes quit hovering and buzzing around me, I could hear frogs from the water and other birds flying high over the water. was inspired to write a haiku this weekend that reminded me of the observation time earlier in the week. I must say that the the seven minute social observation that took place in a restaurant in Columbia City has yet to influence any writing.
shiny, black bully
slides down reed's slippery stalk
flexing red tattos
Since the weather dominated the week, when it rained some Friday night and cut a bit of the humidity, on Saturday morning while having breakfast on the patio, I wrote this.
The morning after the rain looks different.
The humidity that felt so heavy is no longer "seen".
The duckweed that had crept far from the shore towards the center of the pond
has been lassoed back to land.
The breezes that we thought were refreshing aren't at all like these that cool and comfort.
There is even more activity below the surface of the pond detected by
the myriad bull's eyes appearing and disappearing on top.
Do the birds look happier, too?
Or is it because I see differently after the rain?
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HARDSTEM BULRUSH
Scirpus acutus
Description
This species of sedge thrives
in wet places, sometimes in standing lake or pond water. Remember that sedges
have edges! Its stiff, dark green stems are adorned with side clusters of tiny,
brown flowers near the top of the stem. It grows from 3-6’ high.
Uses
Ethnobotanical: The seeds, pollen, young shoots, stem base, inner
part of the stem, and roots (rhizomes) of bulrushes are all edible. They can be
used to make flour, syrup, or sugar and prepared in a raw salad or as a cooked
vegetable. Flour can be made from the pollen, ground seeds, and dried rhizomes.
Some Native Americans boiled bulrush roots in water to make syrup, then dried it
out to produce sugar. The pollen can also be used to make cakes, just like
cattail pollen. In addition, it was used to stop bleeding and as a remedy to
snake bites. Bulrush stems were used to make many utilitarian items including baskets, mats,
hats, rafts, canoes, and brooms.
Wildlife: Ducks and geese eat the bulrush. Fish and frogs find
shelter around their submerged stems.
Mihesuah, D., American Indian Health and Diet Project. Retrieved on July 21,2013 from http://www.aihd.ku.edu/index.html
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GREEN FROG
Lithobates clanitans
Description
This popular small frog,
whose call is like nasal, banjo-like twangs, has one of the most characteristic
wetland sounds of all creatures. When flushed from the edge of the water, it also
lets off a squeak. It is 2½ - 3½ “ long. Green frogs live in swamps, lakes and
ponds all over the Eastern United States. Their color ranges from green to
brown to bronze, but usually have green on the upper lip and white on the
belly. They have large tympanum, and prominent ridges that run down their sides
but do not reach their groin. Males have a yellow throat and swollen thumbs. It’s
often hard to identify them since in the water, they are covered in duckweed
with only their bulging eyes sticking out.
Behler, J. and King, F.W., National Audubon
Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. 1979. Alfred A.
Knopf
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LESSER DUCKWEED
Lemna minor
Description
This
is one of the smallest flowering plants in the world at only ⅛- ¼” across! As a
group, they float on the surface of still waters as bright green mats. Duckweed
has no true leaves or stems. Each plant consists of an oval-rounded, flattened
green frond (to 1/8” long) with a single downward-trailing root called a
rootlet. Foliage is bright green. Tiny flowers are white, but rarely produced.
Uses
Duckweed
is beneficial to humans in that it processes high levels of nitrogen and
phosphates that often pollute our waters. It grows quickly, removes those
chemicals and then is consumed by ducks (hence the name!) and other waterfowl
including Canada geese. Fish, turtles, beaver, birds (e.g., rails, herons) and
frogs also consume the plants. More importantly, frogs, the northern water
snake, and various insects use duckweed for shelter.
Missouri Botanical Garden missouribotanicalgarden.org
Hoagman, W. J. 1998.
Great Lakes Wetlands, A Field Guide. University of Michigan Board of Trustees.
P.42
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MARSH HEDGE NETTLE
Stachys palustris
Description
Flowers are whorled around the stem, usually in groups of 6, in a spike-like cluster at the top of the stem and at the end of branches arising from leaf axils in the upper plant. Individual flowers are ½ to ¾ inch long; the upper lip is covered in short hairs, and the lower lip is lobed in 3 parts. Color is pink to lavender with white and darker purplish spots on the inside of the lower lip. There are 4 dark purple stamens under the upper lip.
Leaves are up to 4 inches long and 1½ inches wide, with serrated edges, a pointed tip and a rounded or somewhat heart-shaped base. The leaf stalk is up to 1/8 inch long, or more typically absent altogether, and the leaf surfaces are covered in short, fine hairs. Leaves are opposite, with a pair of leaves at a right angle to the pair below it. The main stem is square and hairy along the angles and on the stem sides. This is in the mint family.
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