Frogs and fairy shrimp and salamanders, oh my!

Did you hear the sound of a thumb raking over the teeth of a comb while on a recent hike? That's the Western Chorus Frog. The first frog to emerge when the ground thaws.

They are very loud near some wetlands in our area, particularly in the Alden region where small, fishless ponds (vernal pools) abound this time of the year. A diversity of tiny creatures, such as the fairy shrimp (photo to the right), are found in abundance, providing a valuable food source for the recently emerged amphibians, as well as the hatchling salamanders, frogs, toads and turtles.

In larger ponds - those with fish - these small creatures do not survive, as they become food for the fish. But, in the small temporary pools of spring, the young amphibians are able to mature, feed on mosquito larvae, and breed so there will be future generations!

If you live near one of these spring pools, be on the lookout for spotted salamanders! They have a tendency to end up in window wells - the three on the left were rescued from one during a spring hike to look at vernal pools and the critters found there!

Slow Down! Take a Cue from Nature

As I look around this time of year - leaves off the trees, flowers now brown, insects and other small creatures hidden away - I can't help but think of the wisdom of Nature.

Months ago, ss the amount of daylight was shrinking and temperatures started to decline, plants and animals were heeding these signals and starting to store energy for the coming winter.

Deciduous trees and bushes like oaks and maples literally shut down for the season. Sap no long flows, and without leaves, photosynthesis - that energy producing machine - ceases. Perennial plants like coneflowers and hostas die back to the ground after storing as much energy in their roots as they can. Frogs find a mucky spot where they nestle in for the winter, their vital signs dropping to near zero as they enter a state of suspended animation.

When the snow and ice and freezing temperatures arrive, they are ready. And rather than fight back against the weather with shovels and salt and four-wheel drive, they wait. They wait patiently while the amount of daylight grows longer and the temperatures climb ever so slowly.

The plants and animals are ready for winter. Are you?

The amount of daylight will continue to shrink for another two weeks, only to reverse the pattern December 22nd. So, there is still time to ready oneself for winter. Perhaps take a lesson from Nature, and relax for a time rather than fighting against the inevitable?

Embrace the next snow by choosign to stay home that day rather than cursing the inconvenience of the weather and tackling the roads. Build a snow-person, or take a walk with a camera and see the patterns and shapes that the blanket of snow creates.

Don't fight the first ice storm. Make a cup of hot cocoa and do the crossword puzzle in the paper, or pull out that book that sits on the shelf still unread!

And when the temperature drops, find a loved one to snuggle with, rather than turning up the thermostat. Enjoy those quiet moments that winter brings. Celebrate them!

Nature understands that this is a time to slow down and conserve one's energy - to recharge for the times ahead. Winter is Nature's gift, and for that I am truly grateful.

Are the bats trying to tell us something?

I read an article about bats in the most recent University of Vermont alumnae magazine today. It made me want to cry.

Bats are dying due to a little-understood disorder called "White nose syndrome." The disorder causes the bats to wake frequently throughout their winter hibernation, and since they are hungry when they wake, they fly off in search of insects - their primary source of food. The problem is that in the winter, there are no insects, so the bats expend valuable energy in futile searches before returning to their winter slumbers. By the time they wake in the spring, the bats are so emaciated, that they are susceptible to other illnesses that healthy bats can easily fight off. So, the bats die from a variety of things, so it has been hard to pin-point the exact cause of the syndrome.

Researchers at the University of Vermont have been studying the bats in Vermont, trying to determine what is causing this disorder to decimate the bat populations across the country in a very short time period. Consider: the disorder was first identified in eastern New York state in 2006, and since that time has killed millions of bats in the Northeast US, rapidly spreading down the east coast, and towards the Midwest.

There have been articles in the local paper recently about the discovery of rabid bats in McHenry County, warning people to avoid coming into contact with bats in the event the bats are rabid. So, there may be those who think that bats are dangerous to people, so who cares if bats die?

Well, maybe we should care if all the bats die.

As one of the researchers comments in the article: the bats could be the canaries in the coal mine, perhaps giving us a warning about the general degredation of the environment that we all depend upon for life. Consider that frogs and toads are dying off at an alarming rate across the globe due to a fungus. And Colony Collapse Disorder is affecting bee populations across the US. With no known cause, the loss of bee populations has the potential to destroy the country's agriculture system, as bees are the primary pollinators for many crops!

Do we really want to take the chance that these dramatic die-offs of three unrelated groups of organisims are just a weird coincidence? Or are we prepared to heed the warnings and start making changes to clean up and improve the environment that we all depend upon for survival?

After all, the coal miners couldn't see or smell the invisible gas that killed the canary, but they knew enough to heed the warning that the dead bird gave them. Unlike the coal miners, we can't just move out of the mine into the clean air. We are living in the mine. Will we take the steps necessary to clean the air, water and soil around us before it's too late?

Spring Ephemerals are Up!

Dutchman's Britches (Dicentra cucullaria) is one of my favorite spring flowers! The blooms look like tiny pantaloons (thus the name - which is also spelled Breeches).

This picture was taken April 9, 2010 at Wonder Lake Sedge Meadow - a TLC easement in, you guessed it, Wonder Lake! In addition to the sedge meadow on the 28 acre site, there is also an oak savanna in the upland buffer - that's where the Britches were growing!

This plant is one of the first native flowers to bloom each spring. Typically, we might expect to see them around April 24th, but this year everything is early! VERY early!

Bloodroot, another early Spring flower, has already come and gone in some local woodlands. Normally, it is still around in early May! The bluebells - which can almost always be counted on to brighten Mother's Day - are coming up already, and will probably have already passed by the time Mom's Day comes along a month from today (May 9th!).

Chorus frogs have been calling since late March, and the Spring Peepers (another species of frog) are already busy.

Bluebirds are nesting - I had one report of someone seeing a bluebird egg laid in one of their bluebird boxes on March 31st -- that's early! Very early!!

Even the bad guys like buckthorn and honeysuckle are going strong. In previous years, the earliest I noticed buckthorn in our local woods was April 12th. This year it was clearly greening up on April 1st (a really cruel April Fool's Joke!).

I'm having a hard time not thinking that this is another sign of Global Warming/Climate Change at work. The experts say that we will see more extremes in weather as the Global Warming process accelerates.

It's kind of a big deal when things start sprouting and blooming out of sync from their usual time of year. Insects pollinate flowers, but if the flower blooms before the insects emerge -- or if the insects come and go before their flowers bloom -- the flowers don't get pollinated. No pollination, no flowers in the future.

One oddball year here or there is okay, but if it becomes a trend, it could spell trouble!

Update from Yonder Prairie

Thanks to site steward Scott Kuykendall for sending along a couple of photos from Sunday's Work Party at Yonder Prairie.

To the left is a Sandhill crane that he noticed at the site while he was taking photos as a baseline to help document the changes that we are going to see over the coming years. He noticed something move, looked up from the camera, and there he was - a male sandhill, probably looking for a mate!

Scott also saw a lot of marsh marigold blooming. These plants are such a happy member of our local wet natural areas. They come and go before most other wetland plants reveal their identities. They are a sure sign that there are more intersting species to be found at the site!

In addition to the singing of chorus frogs, Scott also heard the "descending whinny" of the Sora - a bird also known as the Sora Crake or the Sora Rail. This is a hard bird to spot, but I found a picture on the Net to give folks an idea of what they look like. These birds are found in wet areas, and research indicates that they prefer natural wetlands to restored (recreated) habitat. We'll be sure to keep an eye (and ear) out for them at Yonder to see if they are breeding there!

Vernal Pools are Teeming with Life!

That's a crayfish, and last Friday, we saw several tiny, immature crayfish in vernal pools up in Alden Township. They were so tiny that the claws were about the width of a strand of hair! The entire critter was perhaps a quarter of an inch long, looking like some random bug larva, but under a magnifying glass, it became clear that these little guys were teeny-tiny crayfish!

A project to gather information about our local vernal pools has been organized by George Johnson, formerly of Alden Township but now living in Madison Wisconsin. One of the things that George had always hoped to accomplish when he lived in McHenry County, was to raise awareness of the presence and importance of these local temporary, spring ponds.

These seasonally wet areas are uncommon in the Chicago region, in large part because they are places that are filled in by homeowners and developers who do not see the benefits of having a wet, mucky spot in the yard each spring and perhaps into the summer.

The spring ponds are fairly common in Alden Township for a couple of reasons: 1. the area is still sparsely developed, and 2. historically, much of the area was used for livestock grazing instead of row crop farming. This meant that the seasonally wet spots survived, along with a lot of critters that are not often seen in the "suburbs."

Friday April 3rd was the inaugural day of McHenry County vernal pool monitoring. During their pool sampling, volunteers saw a large number of fairy shrimp (ranging in color from pink to red to blue to yellow, and everything in between), a wide variety of midges, scuds, and other tiny aquatic life that plays an important role in the overall food chain.

It was a cold day -- 43 degrees in the sun. The water was cold too -- 45 degrees. Yet, when we gazed into our dipping nets as we pulled them from the pools, tiny little eyes looked back at us! I had no idea there was so much activity on a cold day in cold water!

Unfortunately, there were also lots of mosquito larvae. These are another link in the web of life, providing a food source for dragonflies, frogs, fish, birds and other species that feed on water organisms, but I still don't like them. The skeeter larvae spend most of their time at the surface of the water breathing through a tube in their abdomen, as shown in the picture.

The eggs from which the larvae hatched were probably laid in the damp ground last summer or fall, and remained in an embryonic form until conditions were right for them to develop into larvae. The larval stage lasts a week or two, then turns into a pupa for a couple of days -- just long enough for it to become a fully-formed adult mosquito, ready to start feeding...

Now, don't blame the vernal pool for the mosquito larvae. These guys will develop in any little wet spot, regardless of the habitat. Lawns, bird baths, potholes in the road, etc. If it holds water for even a few days, it can be a source of skeeters!

One of the beautiful things about these vernal pools is that they are literally teeming with life of all shapes and sizes. There are microscopic things being eaten by tiny critters, which in turn are eaten by somewhat larger things, etc, etc. In that chain are tadpoles, young frogs and salamanders that eat mosquito larvae.

My wish is that there will be a large number of frog and salamander babies in all of our local vernal pools to eat those larvae before they become adults!

Low Impact Development

Recently, I listened to a webinar (a seminar on the Internet) about Low Impact Development (LID for short). It was put on by JFNew and the Delta Institute. JFNew is a native landscaping company, and the Delta Institute is a group that works towards creating a sustainable Great Lakes Region.

So, what is LID? It is all about working with the natural features and qualities of the land to manage stormwater in a non-structural way.

The stormwater management paradigm has long been to build systems to collect and transport away all of the rainwater that falls in a given area. Storm sewers, concrete lined swales, even traditional lawns, are essentially ways to keep water moving away from wherever it fell.

LID means capturing and using or infitrating water closer to where it lands through green infrastructure systems that are actually disconnected.

Try to picture this yard:

1. Rain hits the home's roof, and runs into the gutters, then through the downspout. At the end of the downspout is a rain barrel that collects the first 60 gallons of water for later use watering plants in the garden.

2. Once the rain barrel is full, water then flows out into the yard, where it encounters native plants that absorb some of the water, and slow the flow of the water (unlike a turf lawn that tends to move water quickly).

3. Eventually, some of the water reaches a rain garden - an area of native plants whose deep roots help absorb the water into the ground, and whose leaves help transpire water back into the atmosphere.

4. The yard also has several large trees whose leaves and branches intercept hundreds of gallons of water each time it rains, keeping that water from becoming run-off.

In this scenario, no water ever needs to reach the street and the public stormsewer system.

LID means doing this on a larger scale, and even though it saves money (today and in the future), it is still a very misunderstood, and little used method of handling rain water.

Why? A couple of reasons:

1. It isn't what most public works or consulting engineers learned in school. It is new, and perhaps seen as untested. Let's face it, stormsewers have been around for a long, long time. Builders, engineers, even the average person on the street, have a pretty good idea of how they work.

2. LID involves green stuff, not concrete. How can living things perform as well as -- or better than -- the concrete things we build? I think there is a suspicion of natural systems, because they are harder to quantify and predict. Fortunately, that is changing!

3. Our culture likes control. LID means turning over control of the rainwater to natural systems - to trees and rain gardens. LID means trusting living, growing green things to do their jobs. Yep, they will do what they are made to do whether we tell them to or not!

4. Local ordinances make it harder. Since LID is newer, many local governments do not yet have standards in place to facilitate these systems. Developers often have to fight for the right to use less -- or no -- stormwater piping!

It is time to embrace our natural systems, and to help them do what they are meant to do! It is a peculiar hubris that leads people to believe that they can design something that will operate better than the systems that Mother Earth provided! Call me a savage, but that seems very naive!

Amphibians Under Threat

The April 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine has an article about the dramatic, worldwide decline of amphibians (frogs and salamanders) due to a fungus that has been spreading rapidly over the last couple of decades.

The fungus, chytridiomycosis, targets the protein keratin which increases in frogs as they mature. So, a pond with the fungus may be teeming with tadpoles, but have no adult frogs. (And once those frogs mature, they will die too, and then the source of future tadpoles is gone...)

Even areas that are remote from civilization, like lakes high up in the Sierra mountains, have seen devastating die offs of frogs as the fungus has reached those seemingly isolated spots. The following quote seems to sum up the problem:

" 'Today's amphibians have taken not just a one-two punch, but a one-two-three-four punch. It's death by a thousand cuts,' says University of California, Berkeley, biol­ogist David Wake. Habitat destruc­tion, the introduction of exotic species, commercial exploitation, and water pollution are working in concert to decimate the world's amphibians."

Add to these other items the spread of the chytrid fungus, and the population of frogs and salamanders across the planet are in trouble. Hundreds of species have already gone extinct. Many other species are now found only in captivity, where scientists hope they can keep them around through breeding programs, and then reintroduce them to the wild once (if?) the situation with the fungus is resolved.

"Why care about frogs? 'I could give you a thousand reasons,' says herpetologist Luis Coloma. Because their skin acts not only as a protective barrier but also as a lung and a kidney, they can provide an early warning of pollutants. Their insect prey carries human pathogens, so frogs are an ally against disease. They serve as food for snakes, birds, even humans, playing a key role in both freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. 'There are places where the biomass of amphibians was once higher than all other vertebrates combined,' says David Wake. 'How can you take that out of the ecosystem without changing it in a major way? There will be ecological consequences that we haven't yet grasped.' "

It all goes back to Aldo Leopold's rule about intelligent tinkering: be sure you keep all the parts.

For a quick slide show of frogs from around the world, click here!