Nature Sightings

Pathfinders Day Camp, day 3 (Susan Czaplicki)

Today the weather was great! The girls started the day canoeing and had a blast! The girls saw 2 turtles on a log, heard the frogs and saw 2 buzzards soaring overhead. Then we were supposed to seek worms and learn about the environment but it wasn't working. So we took a hike on Crescent Trail and saw the crab apples, mint, and the blackberries. We saw a black squirrel running around. After lunch they played water games and slid on a 'slip and slide' outside Amity. Then they planned an opening and closing flag ceremony. It was a very fun day.

Richweed (Lynn Richardson, September 12, 2010)

Richfield was named after a plant.  Richweed (also known as oxbalm, stone root, and other names) grew in the fields that the pioneers first cleared for their cattle.  It appeared to help keep the cows so remarkably healthy that the whole township was then named Richfield in acknowledgement.

 Jumping forward to year 2010:  the Village of Richfield has adopted a stylized picture of the richweed as its logo.  You can see it on village signs and on their website.  But, sadly, there appeared to be no actual richweed left anywhere.  The garden club was investigating bringing some seeds in from a supply company in Oregon.  Linda Flemming at the Richfield Historical Society asked me to keep an eye out for it at camp. I was already watching out for trailing arbutus (endangered) and ginsing (historically significant and potentially valuable), so why not? 

On September 12th, 2010, during one of FoCH's Sunday Funday events, I found it just sitting there next to the path, big as you please, as I was lugging supplies for the program.  Some of the Cadettes came over to look at it, and later reported a whole big patch of it along the roadside.

The Richfield Garden Club and Historical Society were duly notified.  They would like to see the plant in bloom before officially declaring that it has been offiically re-discovered.  So we'll be waiting until July/August 2011 for confirmation!  But meanwhile, it looks like Richfield has its signature weed back, although what they want to do with it I do not know.

What I do know is that this was NOT a coincidence.  It was a result of a naturally bountiful land set aside for kids prior to the explosion of development.  Also - the perimenter fence, while hardly impenetrable, has slowed down the deer getting in and eating up the underbrush.  The richweed, missing from everywhere else, was able to be found at Crowell Hilaka because Crowell HIlaka is a natural and safe resource for discovery of all kinds.

UPDATE:  Well, unfortunately, we were wrong.  We had to wait until July, when the plant bloomed, to find out.  It had white flowers.  Richweed's flowers are yellow.  The plant is actually white verbane.

Common Water Snake (Susan Kabat (aka Snow), September 25th, 2010)

This is a common water snake. Although it is not poisonous, it's still best to leave it alone. Click here for more information.

Gall (we think)

  
Although we don't have a positive identification for this, we think it's some kind of gall. A gall forms when a wasp lays its eggs inside a plant. Along with the eggs, it injects something that makes the tree form a protective ball around the eggs. When the wasps hatch, they eat their way out of the gall. Galls generally don't hurt the host plant. About 80% of gall-forming wasps choose oak trees.

Turtlehead (Susan Czaplicki, September 16th, 2010)

Susan writes:
It was 2-3 feet tall, opposite leaves, narrow and pointy with jaggedy edges, white flowers, like puffy, oval balloons - not open yet - kind of spiraling around the top. I'm flipping thru my Peterson guide and the closest thing is "turtlehead". They were in a patch on the path between Amity back lawn and the boat house, where it dips down into a little ravine with a skinny creek at the bottom. They were on the far side from Amity. They were being overshadowed by a patch of multiflora rose which has now been UTTERLY DESTROYED! ( I hope)

Miscellaneous Birds

Kathleen Bradley reports the following birds seen or heard during the week of June 20-24th:

American robin
American goldfinch
Blue jay
Black-capped chickadee
Baltimore oriole
Eastern wood peewee
Wood thrush
Scarlet tanager
Red-bellied woodpecker
Chipping sparrow
House sparrow

During the FoCH meeting on July 10th, a scarlet tanager and two pileated woodpeckers were seen.

Great Lobelia

Arrowhead

Photograph taken in mid-July 2011