Visit | Join | Programs & Events | Support

Photo by Kellen McCluskey

Thursday, March 16

Thank You!

Last weekend was a banner weekend for the arts at the Arboretum, with great turnouts for Saturday's Juried Art Show reception and Sunday's reception for the Yarnstorming exhibit. Both are on view into April. Special thanks to the participating artists, to everyone who attended the receptions, and to Academy Art Museum Director Sarah Jesse for evaluating the juried show. Click here to learn more about these wonderful exhibits.

CCPS is for the Birds

Students in Caroline County Public Schools' Advanced Manufacturing Program (AMP) recently presented ideas for their initial project, a nesting structure for a cavity-dwelling bird species native to the Delmarva Peninsula.


The students began the product by researching birds at the Arboretum and then visiting the Caroline County Bird Club. Each chose a bird and designed a nesting box specific to that species, then pitched their designs to business partners, school officials, government representatives, and their classmates. The students will manufacture nesting structures based on the winning design, which was chosen by the audience.


The winning design, created by Christian Charbonneau, was based on his grandfather's barn. The students will also manufacture a bat box nursery designed by Bailey Kalinowski.


The process will now move to production. When this phase is complete, the students will once again make presentations to an audience and offer their products for sale. Visit carolinetech.org for more information about AMP, and click here to view more photos from the event.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Birds of Canada sponsored the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) February 17–20. The GBBC is a worldwide citizen science effort to identify and count the birds. I submitted eight checklists from Adkins, my yard, and my neighborhood. The effort was an amazing success, with more than 500,000 people participating. This is a summary of the results:


  • 7,538 species of birds identified, out of 11,000
  • 202 participating countries
  • 390,652 eBird checklists
  • 372,905 Merlin Bird IDs
  • 151,479 photos, videos, and sounds added to Macaulay Library

Left: Lesson's Motmot in Costa Rica. Photo by Sean Sparrow/Macaulay Library.

Right: Blue Pitta in Thailand. Photo by Sam Hambly/Macaulay Library.

This data provides a significant addition to Cornell's eBird database, which anyone is free to spend 42,000 hours exploring. Click here to read more about this year's GBBC.


If you are a bird lover, I encourage you to start identifying and counting the birds that you see and enter them into the eBird database. Anything you enter adds to the study of birds and makes you a citizen-scientist! This website provides the information you'll need to get started.


Please contact me at wlsngang@verizon.net with any questions.


Jeobirdy Answer: This bird gets its name because it is the color of leaves.


Jeobirdy Question: What is the Golden-fronted Leafbird in India? Photo: Arun Prabhu/Macaulay Library.


Jeobirdy Answer: This bird is the western counterpart to our Eastern Bluebird.


Jeobirdy Question: What is the Western Bluebird? Photo: Keith Kennedy/All About Birds.


Jim Wilson

Birder/Arboretum volunteer

Join Jim Wednesday, April 5 for Everything You Wanted to Know About Hummingbirds But Were Afraid to Ask and for a series of Spring Songbird Migration Walks offered weekly beginning Saturday, April 8.

Nature Sketchers

As you walk the Arboretum grounds in March, you will find an abundance of flora and fauna that are inspiring subjects for sketching. Meteorological spring has arrived early, the buds on many native plants and trees are opening, and some hibernating creatures have reemerged. The overall feeling is that of an awakening.


From the bridge to the Visitor's Center, observe the red maples (Acer rubrum) in full bloom in a variety of reds and burgundies. Eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta picta) have been sunning on logs, and, in the distance, spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), the tiny tree frogs whose piercing calls sound like jingling sleighbells, sing a hopeful song.


My focus this month is the early ephemerals and trees already in bloom, and those getting ready. Standing at the back door of the Visitor's Center, face the South Meadow and turn right on the South Meadow Loop. Veer right at the Native Bee House. On your right at the edge of the woods, look for the American dogwood tree (Cornus florida). Note the plump buds at the tips of its graceful branches that will unfurl into April blossoms.


Walk to the first bridge over Blockston Branch. Look down at the floodplain to check in on the eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). There is barely a blossom (a green and purple mottled hood) in sight, as they finished blooming early this year. Instead, the floodplain is dotted with clusters of fresh, bright green skunk cabbage leaves growing up through the leaf litter, some almost a foot high! The single green heart-shaped leaves of golden groundsel (Packera aurea) have been joined by more leaves to form ground-hugging rosettes. Soon they will grow stems about a foot and a half tall, topped with clusters of small yellow daisy-like flowers that bloom in April and May, with the stunning effect of rivulets of gold flowing across the floodplain.


Walk across the bridge to the intersection of Blockston Branch Walk and Upland Walk to look at the American paw paws (Asimina triloba), a grouping of small trees in the understory with smooth gray bark. The "mother tree" in this patch sends out underground runners from which all the surrounding younger trees grow. As March progresses, watch for rounded purplish flower buds growing on the mother tree's branches, directly out of the bark. They will open in late April to early May, forming striking deep purple bell-shaped flowers that measure about 1 ½ inches across and are said to smell faintly like rotted meat, which attracts pollinators like blowflies and carrion beetles. Paw paw is the only host plant for the elegant zebra swallowtail butterfly (Protographium marcellus). Females lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves, which the larvae begin eating as soon as they hatch. Wherever you see this striking black-and-white-striped butterfly with long tails on its rear wings, a paw paw tree is certainly nearby.


Turn left on Blockston Branch Walk, and watch on your left for a patch of Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). These lovely spring ephemerals are up and in bud! Look for groupings of elongated green-gray oval leaves with smooth edges, 8 to 10 inches high, shielding clusters of blue-violet buds. When in bloom, the flower stems will have grown to almost 2 feet, topped by nodding sky-blue bell-shaped flowers up to an inch long. They are pollinated by bumblebees and other long-tongued bees, several types of butterflies and skippers, hummingbird moths, syrphid flies, and bee flies. The bloom period is about three weeks. In early summer, fertilized flowers will produce wrinkled nuts, each with four seeds. Soon after, the plant goes dormant, dies back to the ground, and practically disappears.

  

Observe the trail edges and throughout the forest where mosses (division Bryophyta) bring bright green cheer. There are at least 12,000 known species of mosses. They serve as nature's seed starter, providing the moisture and cover that many native perennials need to germinate. As a habitat for insects and arachnids, including lightning bugs, earthworms, ants, spiders, and mites, mosses host these food sources for songbirds and are also used as nesting material. And, if near streams or pools of water, mosses may be chosen as nesting sites by salamanders. One of my favorite mosses found at the Arboretum is the common fern moss (Pleurocarpous Thuidium delicatulum), which forms a lush evergreen spreading carpet resembling delicate miniature ferns.


As you walk, keep looking and observing. What else can you find to sketch?


Words and sketch of Virginia bluebell by Diane DuBois Mullaly

Maryland Master Naturalist/fine artist

Join Diane for one of her upcoming programs at the Arboretum:



Upcoming Programs & Events












CHECK OUT THE FULL PROGRAM & EVENT CALENDAR

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

View this email as a webpage

Facebook  Instagram