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Midsummer Fecundity
by Catherine Smith
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These days ChicoryLane has abundant living areas — open spaces (old farm fields); dense spaces (new forest, remnant old forest, hedgerows, thickets, and edges); wet lowland spaces (soggy meadows and marshes), dry upland spaces (well-drained hillsides and knolls), and hollows between spaces (swales). Two streams flow -- one east to west and one north to south—around or through the areas before merging to depart the place through aspen, speckled alder, and willow thickets.
Looking closer, in all these spaces you find little places where lively wild life goes on. Focus on edges, particularly the edges of wet spaces. In the mix of light and shade on ChicoryLane’s streambanks and in boggy wetlands, nature’s midsummer drama is happening. Flowering plants are fruiting or dropping seeds; insects are hatching/chewing/spinning; earthworms are eating and shitting dirt; fledgling birds are hesitantly moving around.
For this newsletter, focus on red Canada lilies and woodcocks.
| | Red Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) | | |
History. In ChicoryLane News July-August 2025 “Midsummer Reds” I wrote about the “reappearance” of red Canada lilies at ChicoryLane. Now I want to reconsider. From direct observation we know only this much: in 1999, lilies were here in multiple locations (uncounted); in 2012 they were here in 25 locations (estimated); in 2026 lilies are here in 7 locations (estimated). What we don’t know is why wild lilies persist and change over time here.
The map below, left, shows 2012 locations where the lilies existed; the map below, right, shows the land areas in 1971 overlaid with the locations where the lilies later appeared (2012).
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Images, above
Left: Yellow markers indicate 2012 Canada lily locations (Photo credit: Google Earth, 2025)
Right: Yellow markers indicate 2012 Canada lily locations overlaid in 1971 farm fields (Photo credit: Penn Pilot)
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Currently we think the red lilies did not “reappear” here. Now we assume they moved in from off-site. Explanation: Our conservation practices beginning around 2005 mitigated prior centuries of timbering and tilling, as well as animal foraging, that depleted the soil’s seed bank. Likely, no viable lily seeds or corms remained in the ground. When offered the Reserve’s wetter soil, lack of disturbance, and diverse plant community, wild red lilies migrated from elsewhere to grow here. We don’t know when or how.
Their vivid presence here in 2012 is captured in a short slide show, shown next. It’s worth viewing.
| | However, this year (2026) is different. We find lilies in approximately seven of the familiar locations. While young plants might be prolific in an area, most do not develop. Those that develop are shorter (2-3 feet) with fewer (2-4) stalks bearing fewer, smaller blossoms. We don’t know why; probably there are several reasons. | | Photo credit: Bill Rathfon | | |
In “Midsummer Reds” I wrote about how red Canada lilies make me feel. Others — James Lesher, Amish friends, artists — report feeling awed by their beauty, as I am.
The wild red lily also impressed America’s colonial naturalists, botanist John Bartram and gardener Thomas Jefferson, who enthusiastically swapped seeds of “Canada Martagon Lily.” They called it “martagon” (for turban) using the name for the red lily (and for its cousin the “Turk’s Cap Lily”) given by European herbalists in the 1600s. It is said those herbalists thought the lilies’ flowers resembled Turkish men’s headgear. Colonial American botanists added “Canada” and “canadense” to its common and scientific names attributing its origin on this continent to Canada. They observed firsthand its naturalization throughout eastern North America. Living and travelling in Appalachian regions, Bartram in Pennsylvania and Jefferson in Virginia found the red lily growing in the wild and cultivated it in gardens.
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Lily Artistry
Painting by Elody Gyekis
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Ecology. This year I want to know more about red Canada lily ecology. Apart from its attention-getting appearance, this lily is subtle, nuanced. First, its color depends on context. Canada lily flowers can be yellow, orange, pink, or red. Typically, they are yellow. Red occurs primarily in Appalachian regions including central Pennsylvania. It prefers moist soil and shade, but it can also flourish in sun if the ground is wet. No surprise, then, to find red lilies both along shady streambanks and in sunny wet meadows here.
Next, it relates variably to co-inhabitants. References say the red Canada lily hosts four moth species that nest and hatch in its stem before moving on to other plants. Swallowtail and fritillary butterflies as well as hummingbirds beneficially forage it for nectar. The non-native scarlet lily beetle and the native white-tailed deer destructively eat it. I have not been patient enough to witness the insect and bird action. But I can easily observe effects of deer browsing when a plant I admire today is gone tomorrow. To reduce deer browsing, we now selectively protect some plants with tall wire cages. (pictured above)
In the green tangle of vegetation in its habitats at ChicoryLane — grasses, stinging nettle, goldenrod, mayapple, black raspberries — the red Canada lily holds its own. It emerges strongly from the soil and groundwater conditions they all require. Another lily nuance is reproduction. The red Canada lily reproduces both asexually (by cloning) and sexually (by seeds). In cloning, the original or ‘mother’ plant might send out underground stems with little knobs called “corms” (starchy bits of original stem tissue).
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If they break away through animal action or groundwater fluctuation, corms can grow new plants genetically identical to the original plant. That’s asexual self-procreation. The lily has other options, too. If a large swallowtail butterfly or a ruby-throated hummingbird hovering under the flower to drink nectar is brushed by pollen, another kind of reproduction might happen. Flying to another lily plant, the forager transfers pollen to ovules in its flower. This casual cross-pollination might produce seeds that, fallen from the flower into the dirt, might grow independent, genetically different plants. That’s sexual procreation.
| | Finally, the future for lilies. As bird and insect populations decline, uncontrolled deer populations increase, residential and commercial developments expand, and wild native plant collecting intensifies, red Canada lilies might be in trouble. Pro-active human effort such as propagation might be needed. James Lesher is learning how to propagate and grow lilies from corms at ChicoryLane (pictured above). | | |
Woodcock (Scolopax minor)
‘Subtle’ can’t begin to express the American woodcock’s reality from the human perspective. I read or hear (and sometimes think, myself) perceptions of the bird including “secretive,” “odd,” and “looks like a bird made from spare parts.” To people, its form and behavior seem haphazard, almost comic. But maybe not, from the woodcock perspective. (For a chuckle, check out this Tommy Siegel cartoon.)
As a shore bird that prefers to live in woods, maybe it all makes sense to a woodcock. Maybe everything aligns ecologically. To illustrate: its mottled colors match leaf litter, camouflaging the bird. Its small round head with big eyes set far back on each side can see 360 degrees horizontally and 180 degrees vertically, eliminating need to swivel its short neck to watch for predators. Poking its specialized long beak into leaf litter and dirt for food, this low-to-the-ground bird bops along on stubby legs in what some call a 'foot-stomping' walk. Maybe this stimulates worms in the dirt to move around for easier catching.
Woodcocks are active and feeding mostly at night, roosting mostly out of human sight in daytime. They fly acrobatically, abruptly for short distances when disturbed, steadily forward for long distances when migrating. Males fly ritually up and down to attract watching females; it is reported that a nesting female, when disturbed, can fly carrying chicks tucked between her legs, in her claws, or on her back.
| Image, above: "Woodcock Afternoon" - click to watch this 2-minute video; it is worth your time! | Kestrels in the grasslands nestbox have fledged. John watched young kestrels learn to fly to nearby spruce trees, huddle together in low branches, then perch alone in tree tops, maybe learning to see prey in the field below. Now we don’t see the young kestrels; they must have moved on. But we see fledgling woodcocks. During a recent evening Gator ride on the streamside trail below the vernal pools, we met a young one, probably a week or two old. Steering its outsize beak (equal in length to its as yet tail-less body) along the trail, occasionally turning profile to look back at us, the little bird bopped along ahead of us. At some impulse it disappeared into the nearby vegetation. | | |
Red Canada Lily
Woodcock
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Audubon Field Guide, “American Woodcock”
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Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (1881).
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David George Haskell, “Worms” (pp. 231-235) in The Forest Unseen (2012)
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James B. Nardi, Life in the Soil (2007)
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Marsha Bonta, “Woodcock Spring”
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Ruffed Grouse Society/American Woodcock Society, “Woodcock Facts”
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Theo de la Ruelle, “Master in Camouflage,” Blog
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Save the Date
Fall Bird Walk
and Open Day
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Visitors are invited to design their own day; come for part or stay for all.
8:00 – 10:00 AM: Start the day off with the Fall Bird Walk led by Joe Gyekis. Here is the list of the 41 species spotted last September. This is a great opportunity to see the fall migrating species.
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM: The Reserve is open for exploring on your own. Trail maps available. Field experiences on plant food for Fall migratory birds are in the works. Details forthcoming.
| | Image: At Fall Bird Walk 2025, visitors trained eyes, binoculars and cameras on the raptor that guide Joe Gyekis had identified. Photo credit: Deb Rittelmann | | | | |
ChicoryLane is a reserve near Spring Mills protected by a conservation easement. Its 68 acres are actively managed for ecological enhancement.
The landscape is natural and scenic. It includes wetlands and meadows, streams, remnant and successional forests, and a grassland. This diversity of habitats is especially inviting to birds and insects. Mowed trails, boardwalks, and benches make most of the property accessible to walkers and sitters.
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