This week in the woods, we have our eyes and binoculars out for warblers – those remarkable little creatures that have migrated hundreds or thousands of miles over the course of several nights, navigating by star, magnetic field, mountain range, and memory of sunrise and sunset. These neotropical migrants are numerous, often showy, diverse, and highly specialized for their habitats. The yellow-rumped warbler (the one in the photo is a male of the eastern “Myrtle” subspecies) arrives in the Upper Valley a bit earlier than other species, like the American redstart, which is also a warbler, despite its name. Forest reclamation of farms and other formerly cleared land has benefitted redstarts, which prefer young, second-growth forests and edge habitat. Look for them flitting about lower branches, shrubs, and other mid-level growth, fanning their tails, and gleaning insects. (We know many readers use the Merlin ID application, with its Song ID feature, and the community science and data collection platform eBird, but if you intend to see more birds or a specific bird during this brief window of opportunity, consider these technological tricks: Use the “Explore” feature on eBird to find the spots where users report the most birds or, better yet, use it on the smartphone application and select “Targets” to see where users have recently reported birds you haven’t seen yet. If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss days of elevated migration activity, keep an eye on BirdCast, also by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and see when to expect the most migrants in your area.)
Wild oats (also called spreading bellwort, sessile-leaved bellwort, or straw lily) flowers in the woods and meadows until late May, its creamy bell-like flowers nodding beneath lancelike leaves. Because of the difficulty of seeing the blossoms without getting on the ground and looking up, wild oats belong to the informal category of “belly flowers.” Formally, it belongs to the genus Uvularia, a name related to the uvula, which also hangs hidden, and the Latin ūvula, meaning “little grape.”
Veratrum viride (false hellebore or Indian poke) has shot its leaves up in swamps, floodplains, and stream corridors these past two weeks, and its yellowish-green flowers will soon follow.
Marsh marigolds (also known as American cowslip) have spread out in swamps, roadside ditches, and other shallow wetlands, clumped in little rounds that make them resemble reception table centerpieces.
Water striders use surface tension to stay atop slow streams and calm ponds and also to orient themselves toward their prey. Tiny hairs on their long legs repel water, capture air, and distribute their body weight over a large surface area, and sensory organs on the same limbs help them detect ripples from other invertebrates falling into the water. You can see evidence of their predatory effectiveness by dropping the next mosquito you swat into the water near a water strider; the water strider will dart across the water, pierce the insect with its proboscis, inject digestive enzymes to turn the prey’s insides into fluid, suck out the resulting juices, and leave the husk.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.