Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)

A pair of Wood Frogs mating on my lawn.

I heard the first croaking calls of the Wood Frog this evening.  An unusually warm spring day with a maximum temperature of 65.  Taylor Pond ice out occured unusually early this year on March 15.  The swamp around my home has been mostly ice free for weeks.  Just four days ago we had a nor'easter that dropped a foot of snow and wind gusts of 25 mph. Most of the snow has melted and apparently the frogs have also thawed.  The male, on top, tends to be smaller and darker than the female. They average 2-3 inches when full grown.  They typically inhabit woodlands, for which their coloring provides great camouflage, and only migrate to vernal pools for breeding.  They overwinter by burrowing into the soil and will partially freeze. They accumulate large amounts of urea and glucose in their blood stream which act as antifreeze to protect them from the damage that freezing can cause. Their duck-like calls are the first of the frogs to call in this area of Maine. 

 Bohemian Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus)

Named for its wandering, "Bohemian", character, this bird breeds in northern Canada and Alaska as well as Siberia.  They tend to occur in flocks, thus the term "garrulus", searching for winter fruits.  A flock of 13 appeared in my yard today and proceeded to consume what remains of the fruit on my crabapples.  In the summer time they prefer higher protein foods, primarily insects. They typically show up in late winter and early spring in Maine.  They are replaced by the smaller Cedar Waxwings in the summer.  A pair of Cedar Waxwings nested in my yard last year and they fed on mulberries from trees that I planted 25 years ago as well as the abundant insects that thrive in the swamps around my home. The yellow wax-like wing strip and the red beneath the tail and on the face from pigments in their diet.  Both the yellow on the wing and tip of the tail increase with maturity and more mature birds tend to be more successful in raising young.  

Bohemian Waxwing feeding on a crabapple.

  

They usually appear in large flocks of 15-60 birds and will strip a tree of its fruit.

Cedar Waxwing in the same crabapple tree in June.  They tend to be less plump, lack red on the face and under the tail is yellow instead of red.  

 Ring-necked Ducks    (Aythya collaris)

Taylor Pond hosts a variety of waterfowl migrating north in the spring and south in the summer.  Mallards live year-round due to people feeding them and they gather in groups of up to 200 even when the lake is frozen over.  In the summer many small Mallard ducklings appear. Other summer residents include the Wood Duck, Common and Hooded Mergansers. The most variety appears during migration and includes Green-wing Teal, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Pied-billed Grebes and Ringneck Ducks. The ring on Ringneck Ducks is obscure but can be seen on the male in the bottom photo.  The white rings on the bill are easier to observe. They breed in shallow ponds in northern Maine and up to the arctic in Canada and Alaska.  In the winter they stay in the southern United States, Central America and the Caribbean. While on Taylor Pond they can be seen diving in shallow water for plant parts and invertebrates.  They typically pair up during migration prior to arriving in their northern breeding grounds.  Shy birds, they will usually take off as soon as you approach.

A pair of Ring-necked Ducks.

In this pair you can just make out the brown ring on the neck of the male. 

 Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

For several weeks now speckled maroon and green shoots have been poking up through the ice-covered swampy woods around my house.  Heat generated by the growing flower melts the overlying snow and ice.  Green leaves will soon appear.  All parts of the plant emit an acrid skunky smell.  These first green shoots can be eaten but as it contains high amounts of oxalic acid it must be prepared carefully first.  It has smooth leaves, unlike the more toxic False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) which has creased leaves.  The latter is highly toxic and will cause nausea, vomiting and serious cardiac effects.  I have yet to try skunk cabbage, the smell alone extinguishes my appetite. But I always welcome it as one of the first plants to flower in the spring.

 Springtime Musings

The American Robin has been obvious these days as I drive the roads around the pond. With the recent heavy snowfall covering up many of their feeding areas, they have had difficulty scrounging for food. They have been taking advantage of the areas along the roads where the plows have cleared soil free and worms can be found. Often thought as a harbinger of spring, Robins live year-round in Maine. More reliable a predictor of warm weather is the arrival of the Wood Duck. They nest in hollows of trees near the pond. The hollows in the trees are often carved out by Pileated Woodpeckers. A pair has been calling lately in the swamp around my home and I expect will be nesting soon.

A Robin searching for food below a crabapple. Crabapple trees provide a great source of food in the late winter and early spring.  

A Pileated Woodpecker feeding on a lichen-encrusted Red Maple in a swamp.

A Wood Duck feeding in the shallows sends out concentric ripples. 

Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina)

The Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina) appeared at my feeder this week.  Attracted to the grape jelly I provide for orioles, a pair visited regularly last year for a week. After resting in my yard for a week they headed to northern Maine and Canada where these warblers are known to breed.  Named after the locale where they were first found, they only occur in New Jersey in transit from their winter home on the Caribbean Islands.  They nest high in spruce trees in the northern boreal forests and can rapidly increase their population in response to spruce budworm outbreaks. 

The warblers diversity and colors delight me every year.  They mostly winter in the Neotropics and then briefly appear in the northern hemisphere at the height of the insect population.  Twelve species nest in my yard regularly:  Yellow, Yellowthroat, Black-Throated Green, Black-Throated Blue, Northern and Louisiana Waterthrush, Redstart, Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white, Canada, Pine and Ovenbird. Another twelve species only travel through including the Cape May, Blackpoll, Blackburnian, Nashville, Canada, Wilson's, Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Orange-crowned, Palm, Prairie and Tennessee.

Shad (Amelanchier)

The flowers of this tree appear before the leaves fully appear in spring.  The flowering coincides with the migration of shad ((Alosa sapidissima) and alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) upstream from the ocean.  This tree is planted next to Taylor Pond where in the summer thousands of juvenile alewife pass by in sinuous schools along the shoreline.  Often called Juneberries, the genus Amelanchier all have small fruits in June that reportedly taste great raw or cooked in pies and jams.  The five white petals and the miniature apple-like fruit all provide the clue that this genus belongs to the Rose family.  People have observed over 40 species of birds and many mammals that seek out the fruit.  All summer birds will perch in my tree and consume the fruits long before I can enjoy them.  Often a flock of Cedar Waxwings will take up residence until the nearby mulberry starts to produce fruit.  Seeing the shad flower reminds me to head down to the coast to watch the alewife migrate in huge schools up coastal rivers.  Unfortunately, because of dams on the Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin Rivers, to reach Taylor Pond the alewifes have to be shipped up in trucks.