Bluebird Trail

Eastern Bluebirds love living at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve. They are cavity nesters and build in boxes which the Louisville Audubon Society gave us. People donated money as a Valentine's fundraiser that year, so some of the have people's names or initials painted with a heart. Bluebirds eat insects when available, but I've seen them chowing down on mistletoe berries in the winter, and they like open grassy areas.

The CornellLab of Ornithology at Cornell University is the online authority about birds in this country, and they promote Citizen Science. That is, regular birders collect data on birds through the Christmas Bird Count, Backyard Feeder Watch, and NestWatch programs. Very clever of them to enlist thousands of field researchers at no pay! I explored the NestWatch site, and decided that the Creasey Mahan Bluebird Trail would be a terrific addition. You study a guide to learn how to monitor nests, and take a short online exam (very easy but very informative). Then you set up your nest sites online to record the data. They recommend checking the boxes every 3-4 days - is there a nest? Does it have any eggs? Are the parents around? When do the young hatch and how many? Predation losses? Are there House Sparrows or Cowbirds? One cool trick I learned is to use a mirror to see down into the nest, instead of reaching in with your hand. The eggs are quite fragile and can break with a touch sometimes.

The females will lay one egg per day when they start, and usually lay 4-5 in a clutch. This ambitious female has SIX to take care of! Sialia is the genus of Bluebirds, and Sialis is a website dedicated to them where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about Bluebirds and other birds you might find while watching them. Bob and Judy Peak monitor Bluebird boxes around Land Between the Lakes, and they have 70-90% occupancy this year. If there isn't a hard freeze yet to come, they think we will have a record number of Bluebirds hatching! I'm not monitoring all our boxes, but of the 15 I am watching, we have Bluebird 5 of them, and Chickadees eggs in one.

For example, a pair of Tree Swallows have nested for several years in the box just outside the Nature Center. She will line her nest with fluffy feathers and pull them over the hatchlings to keep them warm. We also have a Chickadee in one of our boxes. She uses a base of moss and lines the cup with what looks like dog fur. In any event, it's very soft and warm.

Tree Swallows and Chickadees are nice birds just looking for a place to raise a family. But other species will use our boxes and not be nice about it. House Sparrows, for example, will not only nest in a Bluebird box, but will go into a Bluebird nest and kill both the young and adults there. House Wrens will put sticks and twigs in boxes they don't intend to use before actually starting a nest. They have been known to destroy Bluebird and other cavity nester's eggs by piercing them (holes of 3 mm or less, or a large ragged hole in the middle), and then often removing them from the nest. They can remove an entire chickadee nest in a matter of hours. One theory is that they are removing competition for food since they eat insects too. Cowbirds will lay eggs in the nests of other birds, so you have to keep an eye out for an egg that doesn't match the others.

The spotted House Sparrow eggs are laid in a messy nest with pieces of paper and trash mixed with other birds feathers. The recommendation is to remove the nest. Bluebirds have been know to lay 3 clutches through the summer, so monitoring will continue for months to come, and I'll share any exciting discoveries. But I ask you to please not disturb the nests and parents unless you are experienced with nest monitoring.

Trees! Wonderful Trees!

Dogwood Blossoms

Robert Green of Greenhaven Tree Service joined us for our Trees Open House Saturday, and everyone had a wonderful time learning about the individual trees at the Nature Preserve. The trees we visited were familiar, but we learned new things about many of them.

Hackberry Bark

 For example, the knobby hackberry tree shows growth in the layers of its bark. You don't have to cut down this tree and count the rings to know how old it is. The layers look like sedimentary rock to me. The hackberry emperor butterfly depends on this tree as well.

Norwegian spruce

People often ask why we don't trim or remove this large Norwegian spruce next to the Field House. Tavia immediately says that the birds all enjoy perching on the bare branches at the top, and we enjoy being able to see them there! The rest of the tree is perfectly healthy, so let's not do anything to it.

Robert Green and sweet gum tree

Next time you walk down the Arboretum, notice the variety of trees there. The large one on the left has enormous compound leaves in the summer and huge seed pods in the fall. It's the famed Kentucky Coffee tree, the official historical tree of the state. It isn't the state tree, because that honor goes to the tulip poplar (also referred to as yellow poplar, tuliptree, tulip-poplar, white-poplar, or whitewood), which isn't a poplar tree at all!

Star Magnolia

Weeping Cherry

Red Maple

All deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves in the fall) are flowering trees. Sometimes the flowers are large and fragrant, such as the magnolia and weeping cherry blossoms above. Other trees have small easily unnoticed blossoms, like this red maple (unnoticed except for those who are allergic to their pollen). All are essential for the tree to have fruit, whether fruit we can eat, or just whirlybird seeds to start little trees in all our flowerbeds.

Picnic Maple - 100 years old

The Creasey Mahan property was a farm, with cattle and horses grazing on open mowed fields, until the Nature Preserve was created in 1968. Most of the trees we now see were not planted until after that time, but we do have a few large trees which we asked Robert to date for us. How old are these big trees? He estimates that the red maple I call the Picnic Tree is about 100 years old.

Ash tree - 200 years old

We walked down the Mahan Lane Trail to its second crossing with the Cross-country Trail, and found the largest ash tree on the property. Robert says this one is about 200 years old.

Grandfather Sycamore - 300 years old

Then we walked back through the Sycamore Crest Trail, on the west side of the preserve. Mike and his crew are digging up the autumn olive and it's amazing how large this area is when you can actually see it. I call my favorite tree in the Preserve Grandfather sycamore. It really is one tree, but has four large trunks. I should have asked several people to stand at its base and hold hands to show how large it actually is. Robert dated this great ancestor at 300 years of age! Unfortunately, Mike says the tree isn't in good shape, and much of it is dead. But trees are tenacious. As long as nutrients and water can get up to even one branch, it's still alive. I still have hope for it!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if these trees could talk to us and tell us all the history they've seen during their lives - the wildlife, Native Americans, the struggle of settlers in the new territories. Now they are endangered by invasive insects and diseases from other parts of the world. History happened right here in Oldham County, and these trees know all about it This tree alone must have a fascinating story about how it came to eat a piece of metal fencing!

Naturally yours,

~denapple

The Original Twitterer!

The Tree Swallows are back in Kentucky, and this pair likes to sun and preen on the power lines just outside the Nature Center at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve. Adults have dark blue iridescent feathers on their back, with a snow white throat and breast. Males and females look alike, although females may be a little more greenish. Some adults are drab gray. They look like they are wearing a tuxedo! Their long wingtips reach the tip of their tail; they do not have a long, scissor/forked tail like Barn swallows. Two more Swallows approached the line, and the male chased the other one away, so perhaps they will look for another nesting spot.

Like bluebirds, Tree Swallows are secondary cavity nesters, meaning they depend on pre-existing nest sites like nestboxes. Although they're very social, they're also territorial with their own species. Later in the nesting season, they defend a smaller area. They have been seen removing eggs from a chickadee nest. However, they can also be quite territorial, and may not like it when humans approach the nestbox, and may swoop, dive bomb, click their beaks and make a racket, especially if eggs are in the process of hatching. It's best to leave them alone then! Tree Swallows spend a lot of time checking out and peering into a box. It seems like they put one piece of grass a day into the box! The nest is made of grass or pine needles and can be sort of sloppy. The cup, which is flatter than that of a bluebird, is lined with feathers most of which are added after egg laying begins. Downy feathers are often used in the cup, encircled by larger feathers that curl up over the eggs for insulation. Occasionally trash or bits of white birch bark, paper, tissue or cloth are used. Once the nest is feathered, it is rarely abandoned. Our Bluebird boxes at the Nature Preserve are used by Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Chickadees, Wrens and House Sparrows.

They eat flying insects like beetles, horseflies, dragonflies, ants, moths, and mayflies. Because they rely on bugs, extended periods of cold rainy weather can be deadly. Adult Tree Swallows consume 2000 insects and feed 6000 insects to their young over a 45 day nesting period. That means that each nestbox family consumes more than 300,000 insects. Since 90% of  their hunting takes place below 39 feet, they are making a real dent in human pestering insect populations.



I think Twitter must have gotten their name listening to Tree Swallows. This bird was more interested in cleaning his wings, but listen closely and you will hear him twitter to his mate. When you come to the Nature Preserve, watch these beautiful birds and listen for yourself!

Naturally yours,

~denapple

Early Birds and Blooms

Spring Beauty

2012 will be remembered as the year with no winter. The warm temperatures are ushering in Spring and all its blossoms and bird migrations at least 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. I spent my regular Tuesday at the Nature Preserve and couldn't bear staying inside working on the computer, so I took off in search of Spring.

Garlic Mustard

As expected, the most abundant plants are the invasives, including garlic mustard, multiflora rose, and poison hemlock. Invasives always sprout early and grow quickly to overshadow the native plants. In a few more weeks, this garlic mustard will be waist high and beginning to flower. That's when we need to have a garlic mustard pulling party and see how much we can remove. It's a never ending task, but you have to try at least.



We've had enough rain that I wanted to look at some of the many springs on the Preserve, and they were in full spate. I like to think how much our ancestors and Native Americans depended on such springs as their source of drinking water. It's exciting that they still exist today, just bursting out of the limestone hillsides. And the sounds of the water and birds all around were intoxicating! I think I'll rename this stream Chuckleberry Creek, instead of Little Huckleberry Creek, since it chuckles, and laughs and bubbles all day. You have to love a stream that is so happy all the time!



But then I heard the LOUDEST tapping.  Tap, tap, TAP in a tree just above my head. After twisting around, I finally followed the sound into a tree where a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker vigorously dug into the trunk, tossing wood chips aside, as he dug a nest hole. Watch how he props himself against the tree trunk with a stiff long tail.

False Rue Anemone

As I followed Chuckleberry Creek down the valley, where the habitat was sheltered and moist, I began to see LOTS of wildflowers blooming. For years, I confused the true rue anemone, and the false rue anemone, but both were blooming enthusiastically. But I think I have it straight now - the False rue has Five petals, right Tavia?

True Rue Anemone

Sessile Trillium

The sessile trillium sprouted along the limestone bluffs in the Hidden Spring valley, and will be in full bloom any time now. Toothwort grows right along side it.

Frog Pond

Before long I returned to Frog Pond, reflecting the bare branches and blue sky as the turtles took one glance at me and plopped into the water. All except for one brave little hard shell who glared at me from atop a log just off the bank.

Bullfrog Tadpoles

The giant tadpoles were shy too. You wouldn't think they could see something outside the water, but most of them wiggled into the mud and deeper water as soon as I approached. I think these little guys will grow into big bullfrogs.

Towhee

To-whee! To-whee! Drink your teeee! The Towhees love all the low bushes and brambles, making it a real challenge to get a clear photo of them, but there's no mistaking that loud call inviting me to tea.

Tavia will be leading wildflower walks at the Preserve for our Wildflower Open House Saturday on April 21, from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m. Then she will be the keynote speaker for Kentucky Native Plant Society weekend at Natural Bridge State Park, April 27 - 29. Check out the Creasey Mahan website for more details. You never want to miss a chance to hear our Tavia speak!