The Nature of Delaware

By Derek Stoner, Conservation Project Coordinator

The sun is setting on the month of November, and this is bringing the Blog Blitz for Membership month to a close as well.  Thank you to all who tuned in this month and enjoyed the variety of new posts that we shared with you, our loyal readers.

There is plenty to look forward to in coming months, as we bring you more interesting stories, images, and highlights from Delaware Nature Society happenings.   There is lots of excitement about new programs and initiatives within the organization, and we look forward to sharing with you as we explore the Nature of Delaware.

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By Jim White, Associate Director, Land and Biodiversity Management

The Loggerhead Shrike on Bennett's Pier Road, sporting colored leg bands from its banding location in Ontario. Image by Jim White, November 11, 2011.

I have always been fascinated by the Loggerhead Shrike.  It’s hard not to like a bird that is often referred to as the Butcherbird. In fact, the scientific name for the genus to which it belongs is Lanius, Latin for butcher.  The name refers to the bird’s habit of impaling its prey on a thorn or barb wired fence to secure it for eating.  The Loggerhead and its relative the Northern Shrike are the only passerine (song bird) in North America that kills its prey by severing the spinal column with its hooked bill.  Only the size of an American Robin, the Loggerhead Shrike is a ferocious predator taking large insects, lizards, and even small mammals.      

Lately Loggerhead Shrike sightings in Delaware are few and far between. However, in 2010 and again this year a single bird has been observed in the Milford Neck area along the Delaware coast.  This year, long time Delaware birder Andy Ednie found the shrike on Bennett’s Pier Road. Andy and others noticed that the bird was sporting color bands on its legs which led fellow birder Chuck Fullmer to try to find out where the bird was banded. He was able to determine that the bird was banded on June 1, 2011 near Napanee, Ontario, Canada and is one of 21 breeding pairs being studied along the north shore of Lake Ontario.  The study is part of the Canadian Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Recovery project.

The range of the Loggerhead Shrike has shifted dramatically over the last 300 years. In the 1700’s and earlier, the bird was restricted to the southern areas of the Northern Hemisphere where open habitat existed. As European settlers cut down the extensive forest of the Northern US and Southern Canada to make way for agriculture the shrike expanded its breeding range northward. These Loggerhead Shrikes were able to take advantage of the open habitats such as old fields, meadows, and range land created by humans. The northern nesting Loggerhead Shrikes were migratory, spending the winter in southern areas of the U.S. The shrikes east of the Great Plains wintered in the southeastern U.S. , including in Delaware.  These birds are considered by many as a separate subspecies: the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus migrans). 

However, the change in farming practices from small diverse farms to large monoculture operations and the loss of open space to development and reforestation over the last 50 + years has greatly reduced favorable nesting shrike habitat in northern areas–  especially in the northeast where they are endangered in eastern Canada and becoming very rare in the Northeastern U.S.  Hopefully, recovery projects like Ontario’s will help ensure the survival of the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike.

Prize Alert:

What state-owned wildlife area and birding hotspot is located in the area around Bennett’s Pier Road?

The first person to submit the correct answer in the “Comments” section will receive a copy of their choice of one of Jim White’s books (about Reptiles and Amphibians, or Dragonflies and Damselflies).   Good luck!

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By Derek Stoner, Conservation Project Coordinator

A Great Blue Heron holds a large fish in its beak at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, in May 2009. Image by Derek Stoner.

After bellying up to the Thanksgiving table yesterday and filling up on too much food, many of us probably feel like we’ve eaten more than humanly possible.

For a bird, though, our consumption rate relative to our body size may not seem like much.  Many birds routinely eat 10 to 20 percent or more of their body weight each day.  Imagine an average-size human eating 20 pounds of food at a sitting!  That’s extreme!

Today’s photo shows a Great Blue Heron that may have grabbed more than it can swallow.  A large fish shows evidence of the heron’s stabbed with its beak, but with no teeth to cut the fish into pieces, the heron is struggling to swallow the fish whole.  I did not witness the conclusion of this heroic eating attempt, but we can only guess that the heron tried its best to devour the fish!

Prize Alert!

Can you identify the species of fish to its proper family?

The first correct answer posted in “Comments” will receive a copy of Delaware’s Freshwater and Brackish-Water Fishes. 

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By Derek Stoner, Conservation Project Coordinator

Wild Turkeys brighten up the landscape with their unique pattern of colors for both display and camouflage. Image by Derek Stoner.

Today is the most bird-centric of all our holidays.  Americans have carved out an entire dedicated to the consumption of one key food item:  turkey.  These domestic birds do not bear much resemblance to their wild cousins, but are still descended from the same stock that the original Pilgrims and Native Americans feasted upon together.

Here in Delaware, the Wild Turkey population is estimated at around 5,000 birds.  We do not have many turkeys in northern Delaware, but they may be found in isolated pockets across southern Delaware. 

Beautiful, showy, and cunning, the Wild Turkey is a symbol of the American Wilderness.  Ben Franklin famously pushed for the turkey to be named the official symbol of our nation, but the Bald Eagle won that honor.   So we have Ben to thank for the fact that we are eating delicious turkey today and not eating fishy-tasting eagles!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  We are thankful to all of the members of Delaware Nature Society, and appreciate all your support of The Nature of Delaware blog.   Enjoy the holiday season.

Prize Alert:

What organization is responsible for the restoration of Wild Turkey populations in Delaware during the past two decades?  Please write your answer in the “Comments” section.

The first person to post the correct answer will receive a copy of “Identify Yourself:  The 50 Most Common Identification Challenges”  – a most helpful and insightful book about birds.

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By Kristen Travers, Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator

Hiking along the new birding trail at Middle Run Natural Area it’s hard not to gaze up at the glorious fall foliage.  As the trail meanders along the tributary of
White Clay Creek, leaves from the forest canopy flutter toward the ground.  I watch one leaf as it falls into the creek and begins to float downstream.  The leaf doesn’t float far until it becomes lodged in front of a large rock along with a clump of other leaves.  Looking along the creek other clumps of partly submerged leaves, called leaf packs, are scattered. 

A leaf pack in a small stream.

I reach under the water and grab a leaf pack that looks to have been in the water for a period of time – the tree leaves are covered in a slimy biofilm of fungi and bacteria that are beginning to decompose the leaves.  Slowly pulling the leaves apart reveals a hidden habitat for aquatic insects.    A large crane fly, a common leaf pack inhabitant this time of year, wriggles out from under a leaf.

Crane fly larvae (Family Tipulidae). Photo by: R. Heringslack

These strange looking insects spend most of their life under the water as larvae using the leaf packs as both a habitat as well as a food supply. Often referred to as shredders, crane flies, along with other aquatic insects that feed on tree leaves, provide an important ecosystem function shredding leaves into smaller pieces that then become food for other aquatic invertebrates.  After living about a year under the water, the larvae pupate and change into the terrestrial adults.  Adult crane flies, commonly seen during summer months, are often mistaken for large killer mosquitoes but fortunately are harmless.  They  may feed on nectar, if anything, as adults.

A face only a mother could love? Actually this view is the end of the abdomen – the two dots are spiracles used to obtain oxygen. The head of the crane fly is small and can be pulled back into the body rather like a turtle. Photo by: R. Heringslack

The next time that you’re out hiking near a stream, look for leaf packs – scoop up a handful of leaves, the slimier the better, and see what you can discover!  Help a stream – and a crane fly – by planting native trees or shrubs in your backyard or at a DNS tree planting event.  Native tree leaves provide a better quality food supply for our local aquatic and terrestrial insects.

Prize Alert:

What is the official aquatic macroinvertebrate of Delaware?

The first person to answer correctly will win the book Delaware’s Freshwater and Brackish-Water Fishes by Maynard Raasch.  Use the “Comments” section to submit your answer (press the little number below the date at the top to comment if you don’t see a comment form).

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By Joe Sebastiani, Seasonal Program Team Leader (Second blog in a series about the Delaware Nature Society trip to Costa Rica – 2011)

Think back to when you were a child, at a time when everything you experienced was new.  Each turn in life contained new surprises, new learning experiences, and complete excitement.  Think to Christmas morning or a special birthday as a child, tearing open gifts with enthusiasm, one thrill after the next.  This is a little what a good travel experience is like, and it is probably why so many people do it.  It is certainly what a nature excursion to the tropics is like, especially if you live in the temperate north.  Each bird, flower, insect, and amphibian that crosses your path is probably something you’ve never seen before.  The possible experiences seem endless when you are surrounded by so much life. 

What you don’t know won’t kill you…or will it!  Stepping through the Tirimbina Rainforest Center in the Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica, our guide pointed out something that probably no one had ever heard of before.  Can you find it in the photo below?

Do you see anything interesting in this photograph? Photo by Marilyn Henry

Hiding in the wet leaf litter among the leaves was a Hog-nosed Pit Viper.  This snake is not very deadly, in fact, it is estimated that about 50 people per year are bitten by them in Costa Rica, but no fatalities are known, however deaths have been reported in other tropical countries.  At any rate, I don’t want to step on one, and it is a little uncomfortable to know that there is no way I would have seen this snake if it wasn’t pointed out to me.

Here is another look at the tiny venomous Hog-nosed Pit Viper. It might have only been a foot long. Photo by Joe Sebastiani.

Other exciting surprises met us in the Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica, which is in the northern Caribbean side of the country.  We stayed at the La Quinta Country Inn, which is set along a boulder-strewn creek near the raging Saraqipui River in a part of Costa Rica that produces lots of Pineapples.  At La Quinta, there are about 10 acres of garden and forest to explore, and even here, lots of fun surprises thrilled us. 

At night, we explored La Quinta with a flashlight. This Smooth-skinned Toad was a nice find. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

By day, we were treated to various activities in this region.  We visited a pineapple plantation, went white-water rafting, enjoyed a cacao (chocolate making) program, a bat mist-netting program with a biologist, and looked for birds and wildlife everywhere we went. 

I have to admit that I wasn't too excited to go to the pineapple plantation. However, some of the greatest moments of hilarity ocurred on our tour there, mostly due to our guide, who should be in stand-up comedy. This farm turned out to be Costa Rica's largest organic pineapple farm. Next time you are in the grocery store, if you see organic pineapple from Dole, it is may be from this farm. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

Even at pineapple farms you can see wildlife, and maybe get a little wild.

A fruit (maybe pineapple) feeder at the farm attracted a group of male and female Passerini's Tanagers. Quite a sight! Photo by Marilyn Henry.

Everything starts to look good while sipping a pineapple cocktail!

One of our lucky participants sipping a pineapple cocktail. Never discount farm tours on a nature trip. Farms are nature too! Photo by Joe Sebastiani

We heard that our rafting trip down the Sarapiqui River was going to be a flatwater experience.  We were told to take our cameras, binoculars, etc.  When we arrived at the river, it looked like the Brandywine Creek after a few days of hard rain.  We overheard the rafting leader talking to Jose our trip guide.  Over and over again in Spanish, the rafting leader kept saying “rapido…rapido“.  I didn’t need five years of Spanish to understand what he meant.  The river was not flatwater, there were rapids!

Our group was flexible for sure. Cameras were safely stowed in the van and life-vests and helmets were donned. Into the (class I) rapids we went!!

After the rafting trip, many wet people in the group said that we should have done the class III section of this river.  Maybe next time.  We were flexible for sure, and now…confident!  This group was a lot of fun!  Although birds were the main star of the show, we saw so much more in Costa Rica.  On the rafting trip, we took a break to look for frogs.  Our guides knew just where to find a Green-and-black Poison Dart Frog. 

Handling poison dart frogs isn't something I would recommend, which is why no one in my group held it. We let our Costa Rican whitewater rafting guide pick this one up! Soon after he passed out from the pain and swelling, and we had to float him down the river to the nearest hospital! (Just kidding...he washed his hands and all was well). Photo by Ken Henry.

Finally, before we left La Quinta Country Inn, we were serenaded by Howler Monkeys in the trees.  Howler Monkeys were seen in most places on our trip, but most of the time, you just hear them deep in the forest.  This one came out in the open.  Their sounds are crazy, and if you want to hear one, try this link. 

This Mantled Howler Monkey picked fruit lazily in the tree as we were departing La Quinta. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

Stay tuned for the next part of our amazing trip…Arenal Volcano! 

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