Throughout this past week I have spent careful attention on the plants in my yard. To be honest I was quite surprised at the variety my yard holds when left untamed for quite some time. Many starflowers and canada mayflowers fill my yard along with lots of goldthread. I found some bunchberry yesterday which was exciting, I have never seen it before in my yard. I noticed that the ants climbing all over the ferns, I was curious to whether they help the ferns open and they seemed to be sipping on some sort of nectar from them however it doesn't seem that ferns have flowers so where does the nectar come from? Paratism is the kind of relationship I have seen the most of recently. Annoying mosquitoes and black flies have been biting me a lot since I have a small wetland near by. I have at least 8 annoying bites by now. I have seen galls on all sorts of plants like maple bladder gall and cherry galls from mites and other insects. I have a birch tree and noticed that some sort of insect has been eating it's leaves and rolling them. I think it could be some kind of leave roller moth or beetle. I believe this would be an example of commenalism because it doesn't cause mortality to the tree. Mutualislm between the insects and Azure bluets have been one of my main focuses. More than five different species of insects rely on bluets for nectar. The ones I see most often are American coppers, bumblebees, Eastern pine elfins, Spring Azures, honeybees and that beautiful Snowberry clearwing. Many flies also visit, big and small. Some of them are so tiny and quick that I am unable to snap their picture however I been able to identify houseflies and Greater bee flies. I do believe that in some way or another I have seen all of these different relationships and it's just fascinating to watch. The birds also in their hiearchy to whom gets the food first and what part of the tree or yard is their territory and what is not is fascinating to observe.
I also have found a few nests by watching the parents carrying nesting material or food to the same area more than once however all of these nests were too high for me to reach so I will not be fully able to use nest watch.
I love watching and listening for new things while the days get warmer such as katydids and crickets now joining the evening chorus of gray treefrogs,spring peepers and american toads with the occasional hooting of a barred owl. Hearing the chimmney swifts twittering high in the sky on warm afternoons, the warblers singing off and on. Becoming more observant is like becoming part of nature, entering a whole new world and having a whole new perspective and respect for the relationships and coming and goings all around you. It's just absolutely wonderful!!
There is this river in my woods, it is very long and goes for many miles. I know this because I tracked it on Google maps. It seems to start from a big body of water in Gardner than makes its way here into Winchendon and it connects to many other little streams and brooks. It then branches off and heads into Baldwinville and Athol and also into Waterville. Anyways me and a friend decided to follow the river a little ways. There were yellow warblers, common yellowthroats, broad winged hawk, chimmney swifts, tree swallow, song sparrows, white throated sparrows, red winged blackbirds,cedar waxwings, warbling vireo, a blue mystery warbler,chickadees, red breasted nuthatch and bluejays, yellow rumped warblers and ovenbirds ( i callled another one out haha) There was also a female black and white warbler with food in it's beak. There were some lady's slippers, (I have heard it is a big year for them) lots of star flowers, canada mayflower and fringed polygalas. There were spring azures and Eastern Tiger swallowtails, other little moths, a couple spring darners,harvest men, a june bug, a dog tick, black flies, mosquitoes and of course many ants. There were baby oaks trees, birch trees, maple trees. There were also many galls and mushrooms all over the trees. Other plants along the trail were sweet fern, cinnamon fern, interrupted fern, lots of blueberries,poison ivy, serviceberry, bunch berry, rhodendrons and many more. There were chipmunks everywhere, scolding us as we went by and gray tree frogs were trilling in the trees and as we were by the river there were a couple green frogs glunking. It was a beautiful day and to make it better when I walked into my driveway I find a snowshoe hare under my porch!! Such beautiful sightings make hot afternoons just a little more