The Nature of Delaware

By Derek Stoner, Conservation Project Coordinator

The first Spring Beauty bloom of the year at Ashland, on Sunday, April 3. Image by Derek Stoner.

We are just past the half-way point of the Signs of Spring Contest, and already 14 of the 20 “Official Signs” are accounted for and recorded.  Sneaking in at the very end of Week 6 (March 28 – April 3), a Spring Beauty was spotted by Amy White on Sunday, April 3.  The location of this bloom was just downstream of the Ashland Covered Bridge, on the banks of the Red Clay Creek.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is a beautiful wildflower that blooms in early spring, and sports a fancy pink and white-striped pattern on the petals. Around Ashland, we see it growing primarily on the floodplain in the rich, loamy soil characteristic of riparian habitats. But, this wildflower is also known for “naturalizing” well in lawns and backyard landscapes. So look around your yard at this time of year– maybe you will discover a Spring Beauty!

A pair of American Toads mating in the Ashland Marsh, circa 2004. Visit Ashland this week to see the toad show! Image by Derek Stoner.

Now for the “Signs of Spring” forecast: with temperatures expected to be well into the 60′s (and even 70′s) this week, and rain likely to fall multiple times, this week should be called “Toad Time.”   Dozens of American Toads will make their way to the marsh, particularly on rainy nights.   The trilling calls of males will lure the females to the pools and puddles where they mate, with the female then laying long strings of hundreds of tiny black eggs.  It’s quite a show, and a true rite of Spring at Ashland.

As for what’s remaining on the Signs of Spring list, we are still waiting for that first Water Snake sighting, the first Barn Swallows to arrive at the lodge, the first House Wren to sing its bubbly song, the first American Robin building a nest, and the first blooms of Trout Lily and Violet.  Stay tuned for the Final Four weeks of the Signs of Spring!

Contest Update:  Two participants are sharing the lead, with a total of 5 out of 14 correct weeks so far.  So, the challenge of guessing the right week is tough, but that’s what makes this a contest!  The best guesser may win!

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By Joe Sebastiani, Seasonal Programs Team Leader

Late March in Nebraska is very much like it is here in Delaware…warm, cold, warm, cold, windy, windy, rain, snow.  That is how our trip went last week in the Cornhusker State.  We experienced a wild variety of weather, including temperatures in the 70′s when we arrived.  That didn’t last.  By the end of the week it was a high of 34 degrees and snow all day.

The wildlife isn’t as variable as the weather luckily, and that was the reason 8 of us from the Delaware Nature Society made our way to the center of the continent last week.  The main reason, and original draw for the trip is still the Sandhill Crane migration and staging of half-a-million birds on the Platte River.  This year, as in the last 100,000 years, the Cranes descended on this shallow prairie river, and fed in it’s floodplain of corn fields.  They captivated us, and brought us into their world of the wild for a few days, while they paused, rested, and fattened on their journey to the northernmost reaches of North America and even Siberia.

Sandhill Cranes descend on the Platte River for the night after fattening in corn fields during the day.

Away from the Platte River and the Cranes, corn, and for the most part, other people, is my favorite part of Nebraska…the Sandhills region.  It is mostly an area that is unknown to Americans, but it should be.  It is America’s Sahara and our last great, intact and functioning prairie ecosystem.  When the wind blows here, it does not rustle corn stalks.  Here you hear the swoosh of prairie grasses and the dried stalks of wildflowers.  Rolling sand dunes, some as high as 400 feet overlook abundant wetlands at their bases, springing up from the Ogallala Aquifer lying just under the sandy soil.  20,000 square miles of sand dunes, prairie grass, wetlands and lakes, few people, and abundant wildlife define the Sandhills region, Nebraska’s greatest natural treasure.

The Nebraska Sandhills are a 20,000 square-mile area of prairie-covered sand dunes with abundant wetlands. Few people and lots of wildlife characterize this special region...America's Sahara, and one of our last remaining intact prairie ecosystems.

We stage our Sandhills experience at Calamus Outfitters on the Switzer Family Ranch.  Here we watched Greater Prairie-chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse perform their spring mating dances.  An open-air jeep safari tour deep into the beautiful Sandhills landscape was cold, but exhilarating and educational at the same time.  The nearby Calamus Reservoir and surrounding wetlands provided huge numbers of ducks, Bald Eagle, American White Pelican, gulls, and many other species to appreciate and watch.  Join us if you can on a future trip, and enjoy the short video of highlights from our trip to Nebraska, March 2011.

Here is the list of birds we saw on the trip this year:

Oops!  I forgot to add Wilson’s Snipe, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Blue Jay.  Also, the mammals we saw were: White-tailed Deer, Mule Deer, Coyote, Mink, Groundhog, Eastern Fox Squirrel, Muskrat, and Eastern Cottontail.  For the first time ever on this trip, we saw a lizard…the Northern Prairie Lizard.

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