Signs of a Beaver

I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm earlier this week for some training and we walked down to the Davis Branch. There are two areas along the stream that we use for the 7th grade program.

After learning what would be done at each of those we hiked a little further along on the part of the stream that was restored last year – to see the area that the beaver has started to explore. The indication is some trees that have been downed in typical beaver fashion. The one with the bark stripped looks like a beech tree (beavers eat the inner bark of trees and beeches are one that they like!).

There was a mound of debris across part of the trickling stream and I wondered if it was from our recent wind storms or the beginning of a beaver dam. This will be a place I’ll walk down to see when I come to Mt Pleasant this spring!

Noticing a Squirrel

On morning I was walking fast in the damp cold between the nature center at Howard County Conservancy’s Nature Center and my car. I snapped a picture of the drive – complete with puddles.

There was something moving in the mulch beside the road. I noticed the movement first and then realized that it was lighter than I expected a squirrel to be…but the zoom of the camera confirmed – it was a squirrel.

I wondered if it’s lighter color would make it harder for it to survive. It did seem to stand out in the winter scene – not good if a predator notices.

Icy Crystals on Grass

Last week when I took my walk at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm, there were ice crystals all over the grass on the paths. It was early enough in the day that the sun had not been out long enough for the ice to melt completely. The ice was in feathery crystals along the stems.

When I got to the bridge over the little stream near Hodge Podge Lodge, the moving water looked on the verge of freezing; the places that were shallow and slow over rocks has crystallized overnight.

The largest crystals were on some straw near the skunk cabbage. They make the straw ‘fuzzy’ although there are some that look like nodules too.

In one place the ice had melted but there were lots of tracks – deer and human! It must have been wetter when they came through since I did not leave any tracks at all!

Skunk Cabbage – Take 2

Yesterday I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm and hiked down to take another look at the skunk cabbage. It had progressed a little since I saw it three weeks ago (post with pictures here) but it wasn’t a far along as it was on February 11th last year (post here). There were spathes (hood structure, wine with vertical lighter speckles) but I didn’t see any with visible spadix (looks like a golf ball inside the spathe).

When I first got to the location where I always see the skunk cabbage, I had a hard time spotting it at first. They like to grow near the water and this time a year, they can be some of the more colorful things around although one ‘color’ I spotted turned out to be a wet rock and oak leaf with the sun shining through – glowing. Then I started seeing them everywhere!

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Sunk cabbage is one of the earliest ‘wild flowers’ and in some cases will pull itself deeper in the muck if the weather becomes really cold. With the amount of muck around some of them – I think our weather recently might have been slowing down their development – they had to deal with cold rather than bloom!

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Earlier this week, it rained a lot and there were plenty of deer tracks on part of trail where it had been very muddy. Unfortunately, there were some deep ruts made by a vehicle that closed one of the trails…very sad that someone was so thoughtless, and it is not the first time it has happened. Hope the person is caught and prevented from doing it again.

Skunk Cabbage

Last week I hiked down to the marshy area where the skunk cabbage usually grows at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm – and it was already coming up out of the muck. There were no blooms yet; those will be left for February. I used the zoom to get pictures since the area was muddy both from rain the previous day and the usual water from the small spring. It was warm enough that there was no ice in the area where the skunk cabbage was sprouting.

In other areas there was more ice – further from the spring (the water that emerges from the ground must be a little warmer) or where ice got thicker when the temperature was very low and it takes longer to thaw. It wasn’t freezing on the day I was hiking so part of the stream that has accumulated more water and the flowing more rapidly was entirely melted.

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Other highlights from the leisurely hike: the stump for the elementary school hiking groups to climb and count tree rings is surviving the winter…will still be good for the spring field trips,

Shelf fungus group just about everywhere – even on stumps of invasive trees (these were probably Callery pear).

The bird feeders in the Honors Garden were active: nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, and goldfinches beginning to get their spring plumage were the ones I managed to photograph.

Icy Stream

At mid-week, I hiked down to the stream restoration area at Mt. Pleasant. The day was a little warmer than many of our recent days and there was very little wind. I dressed for the weather and didn’t get chilled. There has been enough rain that the ox bow portion had water/ice in it. The trees that were extracted during the restoration and repositioned in the stream to upside to down as habitat were indicated how high the water has gotten since the restoration reconnected the stream with its flood plain. The stumps have not been completely covered but the water has gotten a few feet higher than it is now.

Further along the stream a smaller stream – frozen – cascades over rocks.

Some ice had broken free with the melting and turned over – showing frost crystals…bubbles…smooth contours. It looked like a chunk of clear glass.

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I liked the leaves held in place my ice on the flowing water; they added color.

The water level had gone down since this ice froze. It was a shelf above the flowing water. Based on the sediment on top of the ice, it is older and may have had sediment laden water flowing over it briefly.

The beach area that used to be mostly small pebbles and sand, has had large rocks since the Ellicott City flood before the restoration project and then additional rocks were added during the restoration. It makes it harder to walk in the middle of the stream…but better habitat.

One area had conditions just right for forming crystals…a favorite photography target for me.

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As we started back up the hill, I noticed a battered lichen on some of the rocks.  After all the clear ice, the bit of color caught my attention!

Mt. Pleasant – December 2017

I took a short walk around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm yesterday morning after delivering the reports of the conservation easement monitoring. This was probably the last trek there until January, so I took the opportunity to look around at the signs of winter. There were still some patches of snow in shady places and I realized this was the first time I’d been at Mt. Pleasant when there was snow on the ground.

Montjoy Barn has its doors closed. The ramp retained some snow.

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The path to the meadow was soggy and icy at the same time.

I walked a little ways down toward the stream until I decided the wind was making it feel very cold. I did a quick zoom series on a round of hay in the field on the other side of the trees that mark where the stream divides the meadow from what’s beyond.

There was a large clump of grass with curly seed heads moving in the wind. I headed back toward the parking lot.

The high point of the walk about was tracks in the little bit of snow. There would have been more and better ones if I’d gotten there earlier.

Just as I turned to leave I noticed a fluffed cardinal in a tangle of branches. He was on his way to the bird feeders in the Honors Garden.

Steps in the Silver Maple Stump

The Silver Maple Stump that I wrote about a few days ago has been made accessible for shorter visitors! There are steps cut into the side that was not sanded to reveal the tree rings!

We looked at dogwood and Paulownia tree cookies to learn how to count tree rings and notice how the rings look different – the spacing, the shape, etc. The kindergarteners were thrilled to climb up onto the stump – three at a time – to gather around the center and count 5 rings from the center. The tree was not very big when it was 5 years old!

They were also surprised that the water on top of the stump was coming up from the roots…and that the stump was not perfectly round. They also noticed some ants that made their home near the outer edge of one of the steps…and a daddy longlegs spider climbing the steps too.

On the down side, when the steps were cut, additional rot was found so the stump may not last very long…I’ll just enjoy it as a field trip stop while it lasts.

Mt Pleasant Meadow

Late Last week, I arrived at Mt. Pleasant early enough to take a short walk in the meadow before a kindergarten field trip. I was surprised that there were so many people already there. It turned out there was a high school filed trip already in progress! I watched them head down the path to the stream. The morning was cooler than the stream field trips I’d helped with in September and earlier this month. Hopefully no one got water inside their boots.

The fields that are mowed for hay around the conservancy have bales now and the parts that are left for meadow are full of goldenrod and plants going to seed – typical fall. The late summer and fall has been drier than usual and the trees may never achieve the bright colors this fall. Some of the trees already look like they’ve lost their leaves – or may those are the ash trees that are succumbing to emerald ash borer (very common in Maryland). The meadow still has a few Callery pear saplings but they are gradually being removed (hard work!). Otherwise – the meadow looks good this fall. There is plenty of goldenrod for any migrating Monarchs that come through.

Silver Maple Stump

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Last month, two silver maples were cut down near the farmhouse at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm because they were dropping large limbs and endangering nearby structures. One of them is conveniently located between the drive that loops around the farm house and the Honors Garden. When I first looked at it, I was thrilled that the stump could be used to talk about tree rings generally…and the history of Mt. Pleasant specifically. The first challenge was that the saw marks were so deep that it was difficult to see the tree rings.

Fortunately, several volunteers stepped forward to sand the smoothest part of the stump so that the rings would be easier to see. It was still a little challenging. The stump includes rotting areas and splits near the center. The stump is still very much alive as well – with sap coming to the surface as the roots continue to collect water and nutrients from the soil. The first time I attempted to count the rings it was a cloudy day and the size of the stump was a bit daunting. I realized I needed a step stool to see the rings toward the center. I came back on a sunny day and climbed up to sit on the stump when I realized that the slope was not going to work with my step stool. I managed to count 124 rings!

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I made a strip of lightweight cardboard with years on it (counting from the outermost ring) and a page that talked about tree cookie parts. For kindergarten and 1st grade students that hike by the stump – we’ll talk about counting rings and then either count 5-6 rings from the outer edge (how much did the tree grow since you were born) or from the center (how big was the tree when it was as old as you). For adults, I have a time line for what was happening at the farmhouse and Mt. Pleasant over the past 124 years and plan to develop some discussion about the weather over the life of the tree. The 1940s and 1950s were the best years for the silver maple!

Training for Fall Field Trips

Early September is training time for Howard County Conservancy’s fall field trips for Howard County Schools. The content of the field trips had not changed this year; that meant I could take pictures rather than focusing totally on learning the material as we took the example hikes.

Montjoy Barn

The barn is one of my favorite places. It dates from the 1700s and was moved to Mt. Pleasant in 2003. It has doors on two sides that make a great frame for pictures…and the pegs used in its construction surprise children and chaperones alike during the elementary school hikes.

Stream Assessment

We used the Davis Branch at Mt. Pleasant for the stream assessment training. We’ll be doing the student science activity with 9th graders in many streams and rivers around the county this fall. There is an abiotic component (testing the water) and then wading into the stream to look for macroinvertebrates.

Meadow

The hikes through the fall meadow are a joy with second graders studying insects or soil….or sometimes taking a tangent from the assigned topic to observe vultures soaring or small flocks of gold finches enjoying the seeds of meadow plants.

The volunteers are trained…primed for the fieldtrips to begin!

Family BioBlitz at The Howard County Conservancy

The Howard County Conservancy hosted the Maryland Diversity Project last Saturday and I volunteered to help with the public part of the program that had families spending the morning photographing and recording the plants and animals at Mt. Pleasant.

Caterpillars seemed to dominate our finds: young milkweed tussock moth caterpillars as well as large Monarch, black swallowtail and orange striped oakworm moth caterpillars. There were also autumn tent worms.

We also saw a millipede, insects mating, a spider guarding a large egg sack…and a carpenter bee (male) that was lazing on a Joe Pye weed.

Near the end, I saw the birds nest fungus growing on mulch near the nature center. I was pleased that our group – which included a young child – all had fun and enjoyed our finds!

The slide show is in hike order….enjoy!

Mt. Pleasant in July 2017 – Part II

Continuing from my Monday post about last week’s walks before and after photography session with summer campers at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm….The areas around the nature center were easy enough to walk around and through several times. There were cone flowers in the Honors Garden that were very attractive to the tiger swallowtails and other butterflies.

There were flowers growing up through the rungs of a bench that survived the campers (they managed to sit on the bench and not the flowers!).

We saw a cicada killer resting on one of the benches too.

I liked the view of Queen Anne’s Lace from below. The campers decided it looked like a tree.

All cone flowers are not pink!

In the quiet one morning – before the campers were anywhere near – I saw a cat bird in the garden (only heard it when the campers were around)

And a butterfly was interested in the pickerel weed at the small pond

Where there was a water strider moving around on the surface of the water.

Somehow some plants look otherworldly to me – as if they are two unrelated things glommed together. This is an example!

There were also early instars of an insect (maybe milkweed bugs) on one of the plants.

In the Garden Club garden with the ‘Flower Pot People’ there were mating milkweed beetles

And bugs

And several different instars of the milkweed bugs all on one plant!