Busy Bee

Field Observations

     7/8/2020

    On my first visit to the Thomas Woods, I decided to walk over to visit my habitat around 6 pm. It had rained hard that afternoon but now the sun was out again and I decided to venture out and explore. There were no set intentions in my mind, only a relaxed curiosity. As I approached the woods I heard a lot of bird song although I couldn't see any birds. I stopped along the path to gaze into the forest, drinking in all the green and sense of depth. There were plenty of trees and the ground was covered with underbrush, brambles and tiny ground plants. I noticed that the majority of trees were more younger although there were some thick, taller trees as well. I wondered if this forest has undergone any succession as I know forests change over time with shade tolerant species overshadowing shade intolerant species, such as oaks. I noticed the shagbark hickory and maple trees but that was all, in the future I will spend a lot of time identifying the many trees in my ecosystem. Around this time I began to feel the sting of mosquito proboscises entering my body (I'd forgotten to apply bug spray) so I continued my walk around the woods, not ready to venture inside it just yet what with all the bloodsuckers hanging around. I slapped one mosquito and was able to inspect it in my hand. Most likely from the genus Aedes, I know because I spent two years in undergrad identifying mosquitoes, although without a microscope I won't know for sure. It was on this walk that I encountered on the forest edge a bumblebee loudly buzzing around some red clover. I knelt down to snap a picture, the busy bee paying no mind to my presence. It was buzzing very loudly as bumblebees do, which makes them scary to some people but they are the tamest of the bees in my mind. If you respect them then they respect you. Before I left my first foray into Thomas Woods, I saw a small grey perching bird in the trees. Some birds seem to like being on the forest edge. They are ready for change, be it flying deeper into the woods, to a new branch, or flying across the field. Just as I was ready to find a huge dragonfly perching on a tall blade of grass which allowed to me to snap a photo of it as well. If I had been a hurry, then I never would have had these close insect encounters. 

    7/11/2020

    My second forray into Thomas Woods went much more smoothly, visiting the habitat at 3 pm meant much less mosquito activity. Today I noticed some snags (dead trees) with holes in them, possibly remnants of woodpeckers who lived there. I also heard a strange, eerie noise and did some investigating, walking closer to figure out what direction it was coming from. The mystery was solved when I found a dead tree fallen against its still living neighbor, and the wind was causing them to grind more against each other, producing quite the keening sound, like a creaky wooden backdoor. I walked maybe 15 feet or so into the woods to see what it looked like not from the edge. This enabled me to get a clearer picture of the canopy, which had varying levels, with saplings, understory and second story trees, and then the tallest trees towering over everybody else. This made me think back about topographical heterogeneity, and how having all these complex moving levels is what makes diversity work. I think about our modern world and the desire for everything to be homogeneous, which results in disasters from fatigue at working in offices to people's dying relationships to the land they live on. I tried my hand at using the Tree Identification guide and thought I had successfully identified a White Ash tree but I wasn't sure. I noticed one young tree only had branches on the left side of its trunk, as it was being shaded out on the right by older trees. Looking up at the canopy, most trees had rounded canopies and their branches were aimed mostly upwards, and not horizontally. Most likely due to competition for light. Looking at all this plant life reminded me of how little I really know about these landscapes, and how much I have forgotten from my other studies here at Merry Lea. 

Species Identification

Brown Belted Bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis) 

    Bumblebees seem large compared to other bees, but they are still only 1.5-1.9 cm long if male and 2.1-2.3 cm long if female. As you can see in the photo below, this bee has a yellow thorax, yellow and black banded abdomen, and a black face which you can't see from this angle, as well as black legs. The name Brown Belted Bumblebee comes from the fact some worker females also have a brown band on their abdomen as well. 

    These bees are common to wetlands, meadows, agricultural fields, and even urban areas, wherever there are flowers to pollinate. Some plants that attract them include: milkweeds, clovers, coneflowers, bergamont, goldenrods, etc. Brown Belted Bees live underground in nests with around 50 bees as they are eusocial bees, which work together to raise young with reproductive and non-reproductive castes or jobs. This behavior helps the bees be able to keep up with all the work involved in colony survival: rearing young, constructing the underground nest, guarding the nest, foraging, feeding, and the Queen is the only female to lay eggs. Even the males help with these tasks, which is uncommon in eusocial bee species. 

iNaturalist. (n.d.). Brown-belted bumble bee. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/120215-Bombus-griseocollis 

Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa)

    The Widow Skimmers are a very large dragonfly species that does well in various habitats as long as there are ponds or lakes nearby, as they live near these water sources. Both males and females have the black basal spots on their wings, but the males also have white spots next to the black which the females lack. As they age, the males' tails also turn white.

    One survival strategy of this species is their high territorialness, especially with the males who will chase away other male dragonflies in their territory. Males patrol their territories, looking for females and chasing away males who would compete with them. Even after mating with a female, they may guard her as she is laying their eggs to keep any other males from bothering her, but once the eggs are laid the male deserts the female, hence the name Widow Skimmer. Males can often be found hanging around on vegetation near the water, while perched they are busy scanning for the presence of any males encroaching on their part of the pond.

    Both males and females will also perch near water's edge to look for food sources, as dragonflies eat mainly other insects, such as mosquitoes, other flies, and midges. Another survival technique is that the young and adults do not compete for the same food resources as young dragonflies spend the first part of their life living as nymphs underwater while adults hunt above the water. 

    Hamilton, Nicole. (2005). Widow skimmer dragonfly. Loudon Wildlife        Conservancy. https://loudounwildlife.org/2005/07/widow-skimmer-dragonfly/

    National Park Service. (2017, December 4). Widow skimmer. https://www.nps.gov/miss/learn/nature/widowskimmer.htm

Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton)

    This butterfly is commonly found in riparian forests, as well as dry woods or suburbs. One of its unique survival tactics is that it is actually commonly found in the same habitats as the more abundant species called Hackberry Emperor. Competition is limited between the two related species mostly due to the fact that the larvae consume older foliage while Hackberry Emperor larvae feast on new growth leaves. The two species can be told apart by the Tawny's two distinct black bars on the top wing as well as the absent black spot present on the Hackberry. These medium sized butterflies have distinct orange-brown simple coloration. The females are also a bit bigger than males. There previously were thought to be several species but it turns out Tawny Emperor's simply have color variants. 

    Tawny Emperors can be found along New England all the way down to Florida as well as surrounding states. The butterflies eat tree sap, decomposing animals, dung, and fruit but almost never flowers. Many survival strategies are used amongst the larvae to help ensure survival to adulthood. Firstly, the eggs are laid by the mother underneath large leaves to hide them, as well as stacked in such a way as to limit parasitization. When the eggs hatch, the larvae stick together and travel from leaf to leaf, often skipping a few leaves so as not to leave a trail for predators to find them. The larvae also have some defenses to attack, they can bite with their mandibles and swing their spiny heads around to look threatening. And of course the host plant that the larvae eat are Hackberry tree leaves, a very specific adaptive strategy. 

Hall, D. W. (n.d.). Featured creatures. University of Florida. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/bfly2/tawny_emperor.htm

Bottlebrush Grass (Elymus hystrix)

    This grass species isn't native to prairies like a host of other grasses, it is found in the woods! Some other common names include Eastern Bottlebrush Grass and Glumless Wild Rye. This perennial grass species grows to about two feet high. This plant flowers in the summer, and like in the picture below, you can see that the flowers take the shape of a "bottlebrush" spike, hence the name Bottlebrush Grass. The tiny green flowers also have long bristles called awns. In the fall, the fruit or grains will grow on the spike that the flowers grew on, and will turn tan and begin to shatter. 

    The reason this species can survive in the woods is it is partially tolerant of shade and only requires access to sunlight for about four to six hours every day. It also prefers moist, well-draining soil types. It is a cool season grass which means it grows mainly during spring and fall months. You can find Bottlebrush Grass all over the Eastern United States. 

    Some other life strategies include that this species relies on wind pollination to carry the grains to new soil. The root systems are also very fibrous and you can find these plants in small colonies. 

    Hilty, John. (2020). Bottlebrush grass. Illinois Wildflowers Info. https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/grasses/plants/bottlebrush.htm

    The Morton Arboretum. (2020). Bottlebrush grass. https://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-plant-descriptions/bottlebrush-grass

Question of the Week

Q: What is the dominant vegetation form in your ecosystem? What major attributes of those organisms AND of the habitat seem to interact such that this is the dominant vegetation form? 

The dominant form of vegetation in Thomas Woods is definitely the trees. The canopy is pretty dense and so the ground cover of the forest floor is shade tolerant shrubs and grasses. There are both lots of young trees in the sub canopy as well as older trees such as oaks in the emergent canopy (top part of canopy). Since Thomas Woods is beside Kesling Pond, I know there most likely is good drainage and trees are able to access water that they need to grow. And since the trees are well established and Merry Lea does not burn the forest, then the trees will remain the dominant vegetation form in this ecosystem. They will continue to shade out any competitive plants. One potential impact to this though would be deer browsing, which can prevent young trees from growing but as I saw many young saplings without a lot of browsing damage, I don't think that is a huge issue here. 

Creative Response

Outsider by Jaime Webb

Standing still in a small grove,

Within a few leaping bounds of the forest edge

I am timid in my exploration.

I haven't braved the thicker underbrush

to move deeper within the forest.

A giant oak towers above me

branches grasping for the limited sky.

I too, am grasping.

Grasping to understand,

to read this forest's story.

Who is speaking in the canopy overhead?

The voices belong to birds,

neighbors who haven't yet introduced themselves,

other than through their foreign song.

Gnats buzz around my face with gossip

as the elder trees groan in the wind.

The sun hides behind passing clouds

causing me to move back onto the beaten path

to tread around the forest's edge.

I feel like an outsider

who may travel on the paths,

but whose destination has never been this land,

this stand of trees,

under this ash tree, 

beside this thicket. 

Until maybe today.