Recently in Bill's Essays Category

Last year (May 2, 2007 email) I wrote about the hike that Deborah and I call the “Up and Over.” This hike begins in the main parking lot of the Roaring Run Watershed Association’s trail just outside of Apollo, and follows an increasingly well used mountain biking trail and several unmarked deer paths up to the top of the northern ridge along the Kiski River and then back some 3 or 4 miles through a set of wooded hollows that eventually lead to the top of Jackson Falls on Rattling Run. The last two miles of the trail, then, follow the flat, well traveled watershed association trail along Roaring Run and then along the Kiski River back to the parking area. 

We went out Sunday to hike this trail for the first time this spring.

Deborah and I were out in our garden (or, more accurately, “weed patch”) this past Saturday taking advantage of the warm, sunny weather to get ready for our spring plantings. In the asparagus patch, as she was clipping off the old, standing stems, Deborah reached down to dislodge a fist-sized stone only to be surprised by its softness and mobility! It was an American toad, Bufo americanus, still a bit torpid, half-buried in its hibernation hole. The toad was caked with soil and slowly hopped about until we covered it up back in its hibernaculum. Given the cool weather of this year’s April, it was probably still a little too early for its emergence. Bufo americanus can be active, though, from April to November depending upon the local climate and weather conditions. During their active seasons, they typically spend the day-light hours in shallow soil burrows, or under logs, or within leaf piles and then emerge at night to feed on a wide variety of insects. Their inactive seasons are spent in the deeper, hibernation burrows that they dig into the soil. We have been fortunate to have American toads in and around our garden for many years now.

Observations from three locations:

Wednesday evening, April 9 out in front of my house just outside of Apollo:

 The first spring peepers of the season!

As I have written out on the Spring Peeper species page on our Virtual Nature Trail ( www.nk.psu.edu/naturetrail):  One of the truly great signs of early spring is the rolling, night time chorus of the Spring Peeper. This tiny frog is found throughout much of North America and is especially abundant in the eastern United States. The Peeper’s scientific name, Pseudoacris crucifer, means “false locust” (for its insect-like call), and “cross” (for its distinctive X-shaped marking on its back). It is found in variety of colors from yellow to olive green and gray to brown, and lives in marshes, ponds, wet meadows, and temporary pools throughout the United States with the exception of southern Georgia and Florida. The Spring Peeper is a tree frog and possesses toe pads that help it to climb the trees, shrubs, and tall grasses that surround its ponds. It is from these perches the male frogs sing their distinctive mating songs.

Hiking out on the Rock Furnace and the Roaring Run Trails this past Sunday, Deborah and I saw several birds and flowers that announce the developing spring. Many of these early spring flowers are quite small. They add a faint haze of color to the sides of the trail, and you have to stop and adjust your eyes in order to really see them. They are worth taking the time to look, though.    

The full moons of the year have long lists of descriptive names that reflect the occurrence of important ecological events that affected early human cultures and societies. Much has been written about the names given to these full moons by the various Native American tribes.  Hal Borland ‘s book “Twelve Moons of the Year,” “The Farmer’s  Almanac,” and many other publications and web sites list these moon names and relate them to both the various tribes’ appreciation of the environmental changes going on around them and also the tasks they faced related to their survival. A web site of some completeness in the subject is Phil Koustantin’s (a fellow ex-Houstonian) page entitled “Indian Moons” ( http://americanindian.net/moons.html).  

Deborah and I went out on the Rock Furnace Trail this afternoon. The sunshine masked a surprisingly cold day. The wind was quite brisk, too. Halfway down into the ravine the predicted evening clouds rolled in which made it feel all the less spring-like.

In the protected place near the McInerney gas well, though, the colt’s foot has started to bloom. The yellow, dandelion-like flowers are often the first colors in the early spring! The eroding hillside opposite the gas well acts as a solar collector. The concave hillside faces toward the southern sky and warms rapidly with the strengthening sun. Almost every year the spring weeds and wildflowers bloom here at least a week or two before anywhere else in the area.

April 22 (Sunday), on the “Up and Over” (Earth Day 2007)

It was a perfect day: warm and sunny with a Colorado-blue sky. Deborah and I (and our dog, Kozmo) headed up the ridge trail from the Roaring Run parking lot just outside of Apollo. We were hoping to shake off the rust of winter and see if all of the treadmill and exercise bike work during the cold, snowy months had done enough to keep our hiking and climbing muscles in shape.

We have had a real roller coaster of a spring this year. Temperatures have jumped between the low twenties and the high seventies, and our April showers have changed into blinding snow storms right before our eyes. We have adjusted to these unpredictable changes by putting on (or taking off) sweaters, coats, hats and, of course, by complaining a lot. But how are the plants and animals of the Nature Trail dealing with this "unexpected" weather?