SPRING IS HERE!
Today along the Little Patuxent River Trail spotted the first Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica L.) of the year blooming. By comparison last year, the spring beauty was spotted on 16 March. By the looks of one of the plants, it has been blooming for at least two or three days.
Other plants blooming for the first time today include:
American Elm (Ulmus americana
Ivy-leaf Speedwell (Veronica hederifolia)
Callery Pear (Pyrus calleryana)
Today, I spotted some American Hazelnut (Corylus americana Walter) along Bald Eagle Drive just north of the Contact Station. It was in full bloom with both male (staminate) flowers and female (pistillate) flowers. The staminate flowers were on 3 to 4 inch long pendulate catkins and the red pistillate flowers were on the tips of buds. I am going track these plants this year to see if they will produce nuts.
Today, Ranger Jeff Bolden and I visited our Giant Sycamore on the North Tract. Although, the tree is not a state champion, it is still a large tree. According to someone who recently measured it, the diameter at 4.5 feet off the ground is 73 inches, and it is 119 feet tall. In comparison, this tree is almost as tall as the Maryland state champion, which is 121 feet tall. However, the state champion is 103 inches in diameter. The current species champion is over 130 inches in diameter. Even so, our tree is still a giant.
Our big tree is located about 500 feet east of the Old Forge Bridge in the bottomland woods on the north shore of the Little Patuxent River. This area is subject to periodic flooding.
Today, Joe DiGiovanni and I went out to the Duvall Cemetery just to look around. While there I realized that I had not collected a specimen from the Thuja occidentalis or Eastern Arborvitae/Northern Whitecedar tree on the Duvall Cemetery. It is the only known example of this species on the North Tract; although I would not be surprised if it were to occur elsewhere. Obviously, it was planted as an ornamental in the cemetery because it is not not native to this part of Maryland.
Now that is the off-season for collecting plants, I am spending my time identifying and processing the specimens collected last year. According to my logbook, I collected 928 specimens and after accounting for duplicate specimens, there are about 700 to 750 different species.
We will now send a specimen sheet of each specimen to the National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institute and keep one specimen sheet for the refuge’s herbarium for mounting and preservation. (Each specimen has two or three specimen sheets.)
I will also take an inventory of the plant species collected and compare the list against what was historically collected on the South and Central Tracts of the Refuge. That way I can determine what plants to look for next season.
Let the fun continue for at least one more year.
Bill
Today I had the pleasure of taking my daughter Jen on a whirlwind tour of Refuge. She is from Washington State and was in Maryland with her husband and two of our grandchildren to visit my wife and me for the holidays. We drove the entire Wildlife Loop, including the part by the firing ranges where the general public normally does not see. Some of the highlights included driving by Tipton Airfield, seeing Lake Allen, looking at the Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) near the Lake, and driving through some of the western part of the North Tract. It was fun showing her the refuge and I think it was fun for her connecting the locations she had heard about with actually seeing them. It was a good chance to spend some quality father-daughter time.
Today, 27 December 2011, I went out to the end of Millrace Road to Emmy’s Pond. Took some pictures along the way.
Emmy’s Pond is located at the end of Millrace Pond and is named after Emmy Holdridge, a volunteer on the refuge who brought it to the attention of people on the refuge.
Millrace Road is follows a major part of the southern boundary of the North Tract. To access it, you must turn right off of Duvall Bridge Road just before you get to Duvall Bridge. The road is roughly two miles long. For the first part of the road, you can see the Millrace itself. It is a channel which was dug many years ago, and still has running water fed mostly from Thomas Branch. Just past Millrace, you can see Millrace Swamp on your right. (NOTE: Millrace Swamp is the body of water pictured in this blog’s banner above.)
Continuing past Millrace Swamp the road passes over Old Thomas Branch and Cinnamon Fern Branch before arriving at Emmy’s Pond.
The road is impassable to vehicles at Emmy’s Pond due to fallen trees and roadbed erosion. It is possible to hike the road to the end at Patuxent River. Along much of Millrace at the far end there is a bluff to the north that will be worth exploring this next season.
I found some Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) at one station on the bluff last year.
Today, I went out to Blue Heron Pond and saw something I had never seen before – bluegill spawning beds. Male bluegills build these beds by scooping out the sand and gravel from the bottom of the ponds or lakes. After they are done, they start the business of attracting a female. He does this by circling around the bed and making grunting noises. Once a female is attracted to the male, the two of them conduct an intricate spawning dance.
After a while, she lays her eggs and then he fertilizes them. He then chases the female out and guards the eggs.
When I first saw these, I had no idea what I was looking at. Upon closer examination, I saw fish circling around in the middle of them, so I figured it must have been something to do with spawning….
The fun part about observing nature is that you can learn something fascinating at anytime.