Apparently after significant cutting back, I still had a monstrously large post, so this is the fourth of four parts about Thursday, March 31, 2011
3/31/11
At this point I needed to be heading back to catch the train so I wouldn’t miss class. I popped a snack in my mouth and took off. For all intents and purposes my day was over and I was treating it as such. I was pleasantly surprised when an odd call beside the road proved to be an Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalamus) in the underbrush, a very striking bird that I get see only infrequently. But then things took a turn. That’s not to say things went from awesome to bad, but more like an unexpected and rare change in class from aves to mammalia. As I was crossing a bridge over a small river not far from the edge of the forest I saw something moving. As the slender, fuzzy brown animal moved along a large dead log straddling the river and twisted onto the bare, light dappled shore, I proceeded to pull out the packed binoculars and camera to discover what I think was a Marten (Martes americana)!
I’m not very good or experienced with mammal identification (yet) so if anyone knows better, please do speak up.
At this point I was really set. I mean, what more could I ask for? The day had been awesome and I was headed home for my favorite classes and some rest. But the park hadn’t quite finished with me yet. I finally exited the forest and found myself on the train tracks but still had to hike some distance to get to the station. All along the tracks is a ditch filled with water and cattails (Typha latifolia). It turns out that even this ditch had been the beneficiary of some park magic. As I walked along I come across an area full of calling frogs. Their chorus put a little extra pep in my step as I hurried now on sore feet to make the station in time. It was also in this area though that I ran across calling Sora’s (Porzana carolina) a type of rail. I was unable to obtain photos but I was they were in beautiful spring plumage and their single high notes added to the “pep-in-your-step” song of the chorusing frogs.
To cap everything off, and yes this is the last thing, I probably had the best example of a “eu-reak-a” moment ever. In one of the shallower and shaded marsh areas I came across a plant…actually hundreds of plants….of a species I had always known about but never seen in real life. EUREKA! I’d found it! But also, dang, you certainly REAK too. The plant? Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).
True to its name, something that doesn’t happen often, skunk cabbage smells foul and the reason is so that flies will be attracted to its flower (the cabbage part) and pollenate them.
This day toppled my expectations big time. As the spring encroaches and becomes more evident things are only bound to get better. With more and more different species of birds singing, reptiles and amphibians coming out of hiding, insects exiting dormancy, and flowers of many colors blooming I’m very excited to be returning and documenting everything.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and hope to see you all in the field!
Edward Warden
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