One of my good friends was back in town, and Boxing Day (December 26), being in the 50s Fahrenheit, I figured it was worthwhile to look for salamanders. I told my friend that we probably wouldn't find any, but I figured it would be a good excuse to test out my field hook. The very first log flipped turned up a Smallmouth Salamander (Ambystoma texanum):
Many strange and different fungi also grew on the logs.
We also found hibernating invertebrates under the logs, including all these snails:
Overhead, a few hundred ducks and geese had flown, and then I heard a few odd-sounding geese, my first Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) of the season:
After the two hundred-odd Snow Geese flew over, my friend Dan and I wandered into the marsh, while more and more ducks and geese flew overhead.
In the center of the marsh was a pond, and we walked out into it in our rubber boots. Under the first six inches of water, silt, and duckweed was a slick layer of ice, which we occasionally cracked. When the ice cracked, we sank almost to our knees! It was the strangest sensation, walking on the ice on the bottom of a pond! The ice rose in the center, as you can see below, to the right:
This marsh is quite beautiful, and little-visited because, well, not enough people know about it. However, I somewhat appreciate the fact that Lick Creek is so little-known. The fishing area usually has several people, but once on a trail (or even better, off one) there's little else but nature.
Overhead, surprising me, were three Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura), some of the eight or so we saw that day. Turkey Vultures have stayed further and further north in the winter. Some say it's clearly global climate change. Others say it's that with the abundance of roadkill, Turkey Vultures no longer need to migrate. Either way, they're still far rarer in the winter than in the summer.
So too are Smallmouth Salamanders. There's one spot for them, near the edge of the marsh, that's almost certain to turn them up. Even with the frost under the logs, we found five, and this is the last of those five. I also think it shows how I need to improve my salamander photographing. The moist skin and constant movement tends to make the salamander a blurry, oddly lit photography subject.
Looking out into the marsh, four small birds appeared to stand out a bit. I had forgotten that Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) don't migrate far! They are much brighter in person than in the photo below:
We then crossed a creek, difficult to do in rubber boots on ice and slippery logs. The adjacent marsh, behind Piper Glen neighborhood, had a wonderful view of the creek. As we had arrived here earlier, several hundred Canada Geese had departed from the ice on this section of the creek, in a thunder of flying wings. While we wandered around, we also found our first owl, a Great Horned Owl that vanished into some nearby trees before I could get a photo.
Walking into the woods on the other side of the marsh, we came to a clear, beautiful stream draining Piper Glen neighborhood, and hopping about its banks was a Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans). Considering it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside in late December, this seemed a bit odd.
Further investigations in the area nearby turned up some Witches' Butter fungi (Tremella mesenterica), which grows on branches high up and can be found on the ground when said branches break. While supposedly not very flavorful, Witches' Butter is edible, too!
Looking north about this time, I spotted a juvenile-plumaged Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), the first one I've ever seen anywhere near this part of the lake.
Walking further along the shoreline, we found even more, including these ants feeding on the sap from a freshly beaver-gnawed log! Might I remind you, the date of this is December 26!
Then, we found the geese and ducks that had been flying overhead. There were so many that it was impossible to get a photo of the complete group. Furthermore, I somewhat... forgot to, in my excitement. I did get a few Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) landing:
Out on the water, in the middle of the groups, I was looking for non-Mallard ducks, and I was not disappointed! Three Northern Pintails (Anas acuta) are present below in the foreground.
Below, I spotted the Black Ducks, and then the Cackling Geese, among a flock of many mixed subspecies of Canada Geese and Mallards. I'll let you guess where they are, before telling you:
Give up? The Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) are in the front row of ducks about a third of the way in the center at left, and the Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii) (the most obvious one) is a quarter of the way in center right, facing away, right behind the tail of one of the larger geese.
Above are my very first pictures of two American Wigeon (Anas americana), swimming in the center and right of the photo, as well as one Gadwall (Anas strepera), the duck with the "black butt" standing on the ice in the back left.
After watching the ducks for a bit, I returned to the trees, here beautiful with their bent branches against the sky. We walked over to a marsh near the bike trail. Another owl, this time a Barred Owl, took off, again before I could get a photo. We then stumbled across a creek, with ice too thin to cross, too wide to jump, and no visible logs to cross. As a result, we were detoured an hour or so trying to cross the creek.
We did find an area with a small pool, where the ice had begun to split, and we spent some time cracking the ice, moving it about like tectonic plates, and generally having a good time. After finally crossing the creek, we found a mysterious purple log, below:
Once we had crossed the creek, we found ourselves under the power lines, and we walked to the bike trail through the prairie- like clearing underneath the power lines.
Some colorful orange fungus grew on a nearby tree, right next to a few boards.
Under the boards, we found a log. Under the log, we found a Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata), with which I took a quick, blurry photo and then replaced its cover.
Along the edges of the trail, we found several birds, including this
Back in the woods on the other side of the trail, we found this handlike fungus:
We also found this small, smooth orange one, likely the same as before. During this time, we spooked a third owl, a second Great Horned Owl, though as usual I failed to get any pictures. At this point, we were a bit tired, absentmindedly flipping logs on our way back.
One of those random flips eventually proved good, when we turned up this Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), the very last herp of the entire year.
After making it back to the road, my friend had a few burrs to clean off. I took the time to look for the last few salamanders (there were none) and scare a mouse from among the rocks. On my way back, I spotted this lovely last flower of the year, a Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), in full bloom alongside the edge of the road. It might not be rare, it might not be native, but it's a flower on December 26, and it was the best Fifth Orchid I could ask for on such an amazing day.
Ebird Checklist:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33219347
No comments:
Post a Comment