Horicon

Horicon Marsh is a 33.000-acre freshwater marsh, which makes it the largest one in the US. 23.000 of this is federal land, with the rest in state property, managed by the Wisconsin DNR. This is relevant because the management techniques are slightly different in the two halves, the latter allowing hunting, for example, while the former prohibits it entirely. Much of the land is closed during nesting season, and available to visitos only during the winter.

Dead trees are bird heaven

Although this is a world famous birding establishment with its abundant wildlife, the marsh is not natural at all, it was subject to continued human manipulation over the years. In the mid 1800's a dam was built to harvest the energy for milss and such, which created a lake here, later they drained the lake and attempted farming in the area. When that failed miserably, the land was converted back to marshland. Vegetation is largely manipulated too, for example, many species which waterfowl like were planted in large amounts. Managers frequently manipulate water levels to try to control invasives in the area, of which we saw many examples: purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), which was originally brought in as a garden ornament from Europe, but it escaped and now threatens wetland ecosystems, reed canary grass (Phalarys arundinacea) and burdock (Arctium spp.)- and probably many others. But not only plant invasives are damaging the wetland, the invasive carp (Cyprinus carpio)) is doing damage to the aquatic communities by stirring up the mud and altering light conditions and other variables.

green frog

northern leopard frog

Moving on to animals, we saw a green frog (Rana clamitans), which has a large tympanum to help him hear, and a leopard frog (Rana pipiens).

Canada goose

Now onto the birds. Thanks to Laurie and Nick's skills we saw many species of birds in the marsh. Horicon is famous for Canada geese (Branta canadensis). The geese that stop here in migration are part of the Mississippi Valley Population (MVP) of Canada geese. In North America, there are several million Canada geese, consisting of 12 distinct subspecies. There are more than 1 million Canada geese in the MVP, with about 100,000 to 200,000 stopping at Horicon Marsh each fall. Another race, or subspecies, nests on the marsh and throughout Wisconsin, called the giant Canada goose. The Canada goose has always been a part of Horicon, although the MVP geese did not stop here historically. The tremendous numbers which the fall migration brings is a more recent event. After the restoration of Horicon Marsh, the first flocks arrived in the late 1940's. Through management and the establishment of food plots, they were attracted to the area. Since then, their numbers have increased dramatically. By the mid-1970's, the success of the program was beyond expectation, and the goose population at the marsh had become a matter of concern. It became apparent that a potential disease epidemic would do tremendous damage to a large proportion of the entire MVP. Canada geese are susceptible to botulism, avian cholera, duck viral enteritis as well as other waterfowl diseases. Therefore, other marshes in east-central Wisconsin have been developed to accommodate Canada geese in fall, thereby spreading out the flock.A census of their numbers is regularly made by counting resting flocks from an airplane. Regulations and quotas are set each year to permit hunters to take about 25% of the population.

belted kingfisher

eastern kingbird

yellow-headed blackbird

Those of us who were lucky and quick saw the yellow-headed blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) with its hilarious hairdo, and the eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus).

barn swallow

tree swallow

We learned that the way to tell barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and tree swallows (Tachicyneta bicolor) apart is to examine thair tails - the barn dude has forked tail while the tree dude has a more straight one. Tree swallows also have iridescent blue-green feathers on their backs as adults. The barn swallow builds mud nests, typically under rooftops, while the tree swallow nest consists of multiple layers of grasses and thin twigs, and is lined with large feathers from other species. They both and forage for insects in open areas, and are often found in large flocks.


We also got to know something new about ducks in general: there are divers and dabblers among them. Diving ducks, or "divers," are ducks that propel themselves underwater with large feet attached to short legs situated far back on the body (like loons) . "Dabblers," in contrast, have smaller feet and their legs are situated farther forward (like mallards). While a few dabblers may occasionally dive to feed or to escape predators, typically they skim food from the surface or feed in the shallows by tipping forward to submerge their heads and necks. 

solitary sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)

greater yellowlegs

Among the birds we saw running around were sandpipers (of which Horicon has about 8 species), yellowlegs, which has two subspecies, greater and lesser yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca and Tringa flavipes), and they are relatives to killdeers (the bird who fakes injuries to draw away predators, a technique of which apparently some ducks are also capable). The call of the greater one is harsher than that of the lesser yellowlegs. The greater yellowleg is larger than the lesser and has a longer bill. Yellowlegs forage for food in tidal areas. They wade into the water to fish, darting around the shallows and stabbing at the water. Lesser yellowlegs eat aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, especially flies and beetles. They occasionally feed on small fish and seeds. Unlike other shorebirds with long bills, greater yellowlegs do not probe the sand for invertebrates; rather they use a swaying motion to strain the water with their bill. While feeding, wading birds like great egrets and glossy ibis stir up food in the shallows, and the greater yellowlegs take advantage by excitedly darting around snatching up small fish. They are often described as "frantic feeders." Small invertebrates and berries are also included in their diet.

wood duck pair

green heron

We also saw some green herons (Butorides virescens), wood ducks (Aix sponsa), a great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos )  on our way home. American white pelicans like to come together in groups of a dozen or more birds to feed, as they can thus cooperate and corral fish to one another. When this is not easily possible – for example in deep water, where fish can escape by diving out of reach –, they prefer to forage alone. But the birds also steal food on occasion from other birds, a practice known as kleptoparasitism. 

great blue heron

American white pelican

Their bill is huge and flat on the top, with a large throat sac below, and, in the breeding season, is vivid orange in color as is the iris, the bare skin around the eye and the feet. In the breeding season, there is a laterally flattened "horn" on the upper bill, located about one-third the bill's length behind the tip. This is the only one of the eight species of pelican to have a bill "horn". The horn is shed after the birds have mated and laid their eggs. 


And this is also our goodbye for this semester's blogging. I hope you found this newly invented teaching method fun and useful, or were at least grateful that I took notes for you :). Here are two random pics for goodbye.

Sad umbrella in the marsh

Do we look professional or what :) ??

Beulah Bog

garlic mustard

There are only a few bogs in Wisconsin, which should not come as a surprise, since the soil and temperature conditions are not ideal here. The bogs are small here, but this is a very high quality one. Around the bog the dominant vegetation is an overgrown oak savanna, which is still recognizable from the occasional bur oaks and shooting stars. The reason why there's a bog here afterall is that cold air drains down the hill, providing the cool circumstances bogs feel good in.
Going in we were warned to clean off shoes of possible garlic mustard seeds. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial, and it's one of the number one herbaceous invasive problems in Wisconsin. First year plants consist of a cluster of 3 or 4 round, scallop edged leaves rising 2 to 4 inches in a rosette. Second-year plants generally produce one or two flowering stems with numerous white flowers that have four separate petals. Garlic mustard is the only plant of this height in our woods with white flowers in May. Garlic mustard is an exotic species introduced from Europe presumably by early settlers for its supposed medicinal properties and for use in cooking. It is widely distributed throughout the northeastern and Midwestern U.S. from Canada to South Carolina and west to Kansas, North Dakota, and as far as Colorado and Utah. Garlic mustard grows in upland and floodplain forests, savannas, yards, and along roadsides, occasionally in full sun. It is shade-tolerant, and generally requires some shade; it is not commonly found in sunny habitats. It cannot tolerate acidic soils. The invasion of forests usually begins along the wood's edge, and progresses via streams, campgrounds, and trails.

smooth sumac

poison sumac

Teri pointed out honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) and buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica and Rhamnus frangula) as some other nasty invasives threatening our native ecosystems. We learned the difference between smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). The poison is similar in effect to that of the closely related poison ivy, but is even more virulent. With both, infection is usually due to contact. The sap becomes gummy on drying and is often carried to other parts of the body by the hands. For first aid, wash the exposed parts with hot water and strong soap to remove as much of the poison as possible. The regular sumac is found on dry sites and has reddish berries in upright clusters.

arrowhead

wild calla

cottongrass (sedge)

leatherleaf

huckleberry

Moving into the bog we saw arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.), wild calla (Calla palustris) and sedges, like cottongrass (Carex spp.). 

tamarack

We learned that to tell apart leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) and huckleberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides) we need to take a look at the leaves: leatherleaf has leaves brown on one side, green the other, where huckleberry is all green; and leatherleaf leaves are also getting smaller towards the tip, where the huckleberry's ones do not. The main tree element in the bog was tamarack (Larix laricina) with its scary-looking but actually very smooth clusters.

Arriving into the middle of the bog we found the three carnivorous plants, pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), with its smooth-in-rough-out hairs, bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) (review how it gets its food!) and sundews (Drosera ratundifolia and Drosera intermedia).

sundew

pitcher plant

bladderwort

Martin's Woods

Martin's Woods is a state-protected natural area with very high-quality forest. It's a mix of mesic, wet-mesic and wet hardwood patches. According a highly reliable source that starts with S and ends with -teve, this is the single richest site for tree diversity in Wisconsin, with about 80 species in total.

basswood

yellow-bud hickory

black walnut

blue ash

emerald ash borer

emerald ash borer damage

Among the tree species we saw here were basswood (Tilia americana), yellow-bud hickory (Carya cordiformis), black walnut (Juglans nigra), and of course, the already familiar sugar maple (Acer saccharum).






We saw blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata) with its square twigs. When you dip its leaves into water, it turns the water light blue - hence the name. 
These ash trees are greatly threatened by the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), an innocent-looking but deadly beetle from Asia. The insect lays its eggs into the bark of the tree, and the larvae burrow through under the bark, destroying the tree. In a typical small town /city situation, the 4-year period, from year 8 through year 11 after infestation, will see 60 - 70% of their trees die in that region. They are calling this the curve of death because on a graph that charts time and tree death after beetle introduction, the plotted line angles almost straight up during those 4 years, ending in all the local ash trees being dead. As insects migrate, new epicenters of ash tree mortality pop up more and more frequently. These then begin to coalesce. This pattern will continue until eventually, all the ash are dead. There's no good chemical control method out there, partially because the invasion happened so quickly that there was simply no time to adequately test anything against these awful bugs. What's further devastating is that it threatens the entire Fraxinus genus, not only one species, as it would be usual. Researchers are now considering the import of some parasitoid wasps that are natural enemies to the emerald ash borer - but of course, we know the risks of bringing here yet another exotic species.

Kentucky coffeetree

We also mentioned Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica), a legume tree, which is often said to grow around late Native American villages, but this is not entirely true. It prefers riversides, because there it can sprout easily, and the Native Americans also frequented rivers - so they didn't move there because of the coffeetree... what a surprise. It's seeds can be used as a substitute for coffee, but in large quantitities they are toxic. This plant also offers an interesting evolutionary story: almost every part of the plant is poisonous, and other than humans, no other animal eats its fruit or seeds. The seeds are too large to be wind-dispersed, so how does is reproduce? Apparently, this plant used to rely on large mammals like mastodons for its dispersal. These swallow the seeds in whole, so the poisonous juice does not harm them, and by passing through the animal's digestive tract the seed degraded anough to germinate quickly upon exit. But mastodons and other American elephants disappeared, and the Kentucky coffeetree hasn't figured out a way to adapt yet. Fortunately, its backup system keeps is alive, the seeds can travel down in rivers, and disperse, so there's another good reason why these trees like to be near rivers. But, despite being geologically widespread, it still counts as a rare tree in Wisconsin.

jack-in-the-pulpit

wild ginger

Moving onto herbaceous plants, Martin's Woods is a wonderful place to visit in the spring to see spring ephemerals. We saw the emerging fruit of jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), the flowers of wild leek (Allium tricoccum), which has tasty underground bulbs, but the leaves are gone this time of year already. We also saw wild ginger (Asarum canadense), which has rhizomes (not roots!) that are edible, and make excellent ginger candies. And for last, a little forest-art.

tiny mushrooms growing in a black walnut shell

wild leek

Baxter's Hollow

white pine

Because the area has quartzite bedrock, the soil is more acidic and lower in nutrients than usually in Wisconsin, and his in combination with variable topography (northern and southern slopes, cold air drainage) creates an environment that northern species prefer, so we see a mixture of southern and northern species in the area. Since the area is heavily wooded, we see white pine (Pinus strobus), which i the most shade-tolerant pine in Wisconsin, instead of jack or red pine (jack pine is the least shade-tolerant of all).

red maple

sugar maple

We found sugar maple (Acer saccharum s.s.) as well as red maple (Acer rubrum), the two of which can be told apart by the slight differences on their leaves. If you take a close look, you'll notice the U-shaped curve between leaf margins on the sugar maple leaf, while the red maple leaf has more of a sharp V.

Another set of easy-to-confuse plants are grape woodbine or Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus vitacea) and poison ivy, our nasty but faithful friend who pops up pretty much everywhere. Woodbine is one of the most ecologically widespread species (which is not the same as the most common), and often grows together with poison ivy. For a long time botanists thought there were just one of each, but later they found out that there are two species of woodbine and two species of poison ivy as well. Well, whichever species you come across, poison ivy always has three leaves, whereas woodbine usually has five, so you can tell them apart.

woodbine (left) and poison ivy (right)

doll's eyes

Doll's eyes (Actaea pachypoda) or white baneberry is a herbaceous perennial plant. Its most striking feature is its fruit, a 1 cm diameter white berry, whose size, shape, and black stigma scar give the species its other common name, "doll's eyes".The berries are highly poisonous, and the entire plant is considered poisonous to humans. The berries contain cardiogenic toxins which can have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle tissue, and are the most poisonous part of the plant. Ingestion of the berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death. The berries are harmless to birds, the plant's primary seed dispersers. Both Native American and settlers made tea out of the roots for relieving pain of childbirth. Settlers also used the plant to improve circulation and to cure headache or eyestrain.

yellow birch

Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) needs coars woody debris to grow. The bark is smooth, yellow-bronze, flaking in fine horizontal strips, and often with small black marks and scars. The twigs, when scraped, have a slight scent of oil of wintergreen. 

ring of baby shoots around parent basswood

Basswood or linden (Tilia spp.) is not shade-tolerant, so it competes with much better shade-tolerant sugar maple by forming a "fairy ring" or baby shoots around the parent tree, so when the parent dies, the shoots are ready to take its place, and sugar maple does not have any time to catch up. 

jewelweed

lumberjack's toiletpaper

maidenhair fern

A couple of other fun plants we saw: large-leaved aster (Aster macrophyllus) or lumberjack's toiletpaper, maidenhair fern (Adiantum spp.), bellflower (Campanula spp.) witch hazel (Hamamelis spp.), which blooms in the fall, unlike most shrubs, and jewelweed (Impatiens spp.) of touch-me-not, which (based on anecdotal evidence) can be used as a remedy for poison ivy rashes. If crushed and rubbed into the skin soon after the encounter with poison ivy, it is rumored to make things better. Since the two plants often grow together, it's a fairly convenient solution - much like having a candy store and a dentist next to other :).

witch hazel

bellflower

Otter Creek

The creek we explored, Otter Creek, provides home for at least 72 species of caddis flies, plus a couple more that were discovered later. Many ephemeral insects emerge for only 1 day, mate, lay eggs and then die. An interesting little fact for trout fishers is that trouts know their flies very well, so you need to match the flies availabe at the time to the bait you use, otherwise the trout are just going to laugh at you. 

clubmoss

partridge berry

skunk cabbage

Finally, a few plants I found by the creek, which might or might not have caught your eye: clubmoss (Lycopodium spp.), partridge berry (Mitchella repens) and skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).