March 25, 2008

Spring is for the birds!

The weather may still be chilly, but the birds are telling us that spring is here. The Cardinals are belting out their "chew chew chew" calls, the chickadees are singing and the woodpeckers are busy drumming their territory on tree trunks.

Spring also means the commencement of the nest box season. Carolina Chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds and Eurasian Tree Sparrows may begin nesting as early as mid-March (though April is usually the month the eggs begin appearing) and the boxes were already showing signs of activity the first week in March. After checking boxes yesterday it is safe to say that the nest building portion of the breeding season is underway. More than half the boxes contained material and several times I witnessed birds leaving the boxes. I was lucky to capture this photo of a Eurasian Tree Sparrow entering a box with some nesting material.

Many have asked me if any of the nest boxes contained evidence of Eastern Bluebird activity and sadly the answer is no. Though the Bluebirds are not true migrants and stay in the same spot year round, I think they only pass through our prairies for food before flying to a nearby area to breed. There are at least 2 golf courses near LREC and it has been my experience that Bluebirds find this type of habitat favorable for raising their young. Late last summer Malinda Slagle and I discussed possible ways to encourage Bluebirds to use the nestboxes and this past winter she and the Friday volunteers moved the boxes located on the woodland edge into the prairie. Time will tell if this entices the Bluebirds into our nestboxes. I do plan to continue research additional ways to encourage the Bluebirds to nest in our prairie.

However, Litzsinger Road Ecology Center is one of the few places in the United States that have a breeding colony of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Back in 1870, German Immigrants homesick for the birds from their homeland released 20 Eurasian Tree Sparrows in Lafayette Park. Since then these birds have spread through St. Louis and St. Charles Counties and Madison and Calhoun Counties in Illinois. These sparrows are found nowhere else in the United States and birdwatchers from all over will make a special trip to St. Louis just to see them. Being an avid birdwatcher myself, I feel truly fortunate to have been able to check the boxes and handle these unique birds over the last 2 years.

The Eurasian Tree Sparrows were not the only birds active at LREC. One of our resident Red-shouldered hawks was seen flying around between the barn and the classroom.

A pair of Canada Geese were grazing on the pasture prairie.

And there were dozens of Robins foraging on and near the burned prairies.

Spring is a busy time of the year and there will be a great deal of growth and activity in the next few months. Be sure to stay tuned for further updates on the nest boxes and other spring sightings!

Posted by Colleen Crank at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Crayfish!

Duchesne's 3rd grade classes came out to the site recently to investigate Who Eats What. Janice Weil's group found a frozen female crayfish with eggs along the edge of Deer Creek. She was in pristine condition, and the discovery gave the kids the opportunity to learn about the life cycle and physiology of crayfish. The students also had fun using the microscopes to observe insects and other discoveries they made while investigating rotting logs.

Posted by Sean Fears at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2008

Coyote hunting deer?

Yesterday morning as I was driving down the glass house driveway I had to brake for a coyote running across in front of me. After I parked, I saw two deer looking very startled coming out of the area where the coyote had run into the woods. Perhaps the coyote was frightened of my car, perhaps he was after some other animal, or perhaps he was chasing the deer! If so, he wasn't successful, I saw the same two deer today (pictured).

Posted by Malinda Slagle at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2007

Don't forget to feed the birds!

This recent cold snap got me thinking about our feathered friends. Winter is a difficult time of the year for the birds. Not only do they have to deal with cold temperatures, but limited food and water supplies. Many fruits and berries are gone and bugs and insects are hard to find. A lack of rainfall has diminished water resources and cold temperatures have frozen most existing water supplies.

Most bird species will switch from a diet of insects and fruits to a diet of seeds and grains during the cold winter months. Chickadees, Titmice, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches will store insects and nuts for winter consumption and join flocks that contain several bird species to forage for food.

You can help those seed-eating birds by putting birdfeeders up in your yard and there are some seed that are better than others to feed during the winter. Oil sunflower seed has high fat and protein content and most birds can eat this seed due to its thin outer shell. Cardinals, Blue Jays, chickadees and woodpeckers are especially fond of Black oil sunflower seed.

Of course variety is the spice of life and you can include a good seed mix to attract other birds. Many seed mixes include Black Oil Sunflower Seed, Striped Sunflower Seed, Safflower Seed and Millet. It will not be unusual to find Mourning Doves, Carolina Wrens, Chickadees, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Sparrows dining on a good seed mix. Just be sure that any seed mix you purchase does not contain milo, as this is a filler and the birds will simply toss it to the ground. Goldfinches and House Finches enjoy Thistle. Thistle is a tiny seed that needs a special feeder but can easily be found in grocery, feed, department and bird feeding specialty stores.

And don’t forget those ground-feeding birds! White-throated Sparrows, House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos (and Cardinals too!) usually forage for seed on the ground beneath the feeders. I usually place a healthy amount of millet under my feeders for these birds, but you can avoid the mess and purchase a ground feeder that has been made for this purpose.

Suet is also an excellent source of fat for our feathered friends, especially since the birds need a high number of calories to keep their bodies warm. Suet is rendered beef fat that is prepackaged and sold in grocery, feed, department and bird feeding specialty stores. Sometimes the suet will contain other ingredients, such as peanuts, peanut butter, seed, insects and fruit. You can also make your own suet and recipes are easily found on the Internet. The base ingredient for most homemade suet is peanut butter, but Crisco or lard is a great substitute for those with peanut allergies.

Woodpeckers are especially fond of suet, but you may also find Carolina Wrens, Chickadees, Titmice and Blue Jays flocking to your suet feeder.

Whole Peanuts are another source of high fat and protein. You can either buy a peanut feeder or string them with yarn on your feeder or in the trees. And the same birds that enjoy suet will snatch those peanuts up to eat.

Water is just as important to these birds as food. Obviously water is prone to freezing this time of year, but hardware stores and bird feeding specialty stores sell immersion heaters and there are birdbaths that have built-in heating units.

Not only do the birds benefit from the seed and water, but you do as well! It’s fun to watch our feathered friends hop and flit about the feeders. You can keep a tally of the different bird species you see at the feeders, watch their eating behavior or see how often the birds go the water for a bath or a drink. You can also participate in Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project Feeder Watch or Great Backyard Bird Count as a citizen scientist.

Whether you decide to keep it simple or get involved with observations, make sure you feed the birds this winter!

Posted by Colleen Crank at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

October 09, 2007

This is NOT a spider!

Based on the pictures and descriptions I've been able to find, I'm pretty sure that it's a harvestman, also known as a daddy long-legs.

While it is in the same class as spiders, it isn't in the same order (that's just a way of saying that they're "cousins")... if you look closely, you can see that its body isn't separated into two parts like spiders' bodies are. Harvestmen don't weave webs, either.

If you're interested in learning more check out http://www.arachnology.be/pages/Opilio_QandA.html.

Thanks to Whiteside 7th grade for finding this arachnid!

Posted by Sean Fears at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2007

New Spin on Site Research

What bees live at LREC? That's exactly what Malinda wants to find out. Malinda has been capturing pollinators by netting them, but this summer she tried something new. She drew on the help of our summer program students to collect bees using a fun, new protocol that was developed by Sam Droege of the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

In the a.m. of the day of the research project, Malinda set up two transects—one in the prairie and one in the woods. (A transect is a straight line used for sampling, such as to count the occurrence of a species in order to estimate its population size.) Along each transect she placed a plastic cup, or "bee bowl," every 5 meters. The cups alternated in color (white, blue, yellow) and were filled with soapy water. The idea is that the bees are attracted to the color and can't help themselves from flying into the soapy water.

Here we are hiking out to retrieve the bee bowls from the prairie.

This is a bee bowl.

Each student had a job. Here a student is pouring the contents of the bee bowl through a filter.

A different student had the job of spooning all the bugs from the filter.

The captured bugs were placed in specimen bags that were carefully labeled with the transect name (PRAIRIE or WOODS). A piece of paper inside the bag recorded other information, such as the date and the color of the cup.

Getting all the bugs off the filter proved challenging.

After transferring all the critters to the specimen bag, we hiked back to the deck to wash the specimens. This photo shows the set-up for the washing station.

The bees were shaken in jars with soapy water then rinsed with water. Next the bees were shaken in the jars with denatured alcohol, which helped to dry the bees. Here a student rinses the specimens.

The next step was to dry the bees. The students did so by spinning the bees in salad spinners. Why? To give lift to the bees' hairs. If the hairs are matted, the bees are even more difficult to identify.

Here the students sort the bugs to separate out the bees.

The next step was to observe the bees (and other arthropods) and make detailed drawings.

Finally, students created permanent labels and pinned the bees to add them to Malinda's collection. Eventually, Malinda will use technical manuals called dichotomous keys to identify the bees.

TA-DAH!!

Posted by Heather Wells-Sweeney at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2007

Medicinal Plants Field Guide!!

Dan Marks, a student at Maryville University, just created this fabulous field guide to medicinal plants at LREC. We will be getting a hard copy version out too, but here's the link to the web version:
http://vitality.ws/

Posted by Malinda Slagle at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)