Author Archives: Rosemary

About Rosemary

Who: Naturalist and salamander enthusiast from Canada. Likes: Learning new ferns. Favorite part of the job: Hanging out with other people who like nature!

Can These Animals Fool You?

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Rosemary

Many animals have particular patterns and colors that help them avoid predators. Some blend into the background or mimic an object like a leaf or twig, and some try to direct a predator’s attention to a less vulnerable body part. Test your visual skills with these tricky creatures.

American Woodcock

There’s a bird in this picture—can you see it? The American woodcock spends much of its time on the ground, where it’s well-camouflaged against leaf litter. Related to sandpipers, it uses a long beak to probe the ground for earthworms. Spot this secretive bird on an upcoming woodcock watch program.

TomZack_ZackStock Imaging

Gray Hairstreak

Heads or tails? The gray hairstreak has a false “head” on its hind wings that confuses predators. In this photo, the false head (complete with false antennae) is at the top. In a study on a related butterfly, the red-banded hairstreak, scientists found that jumping spiders were more likely to attack the fake head than the real one, enabling the butterfly to escape with its vital organs unscathed.

Treetop Bush Katydid

Can you see this insect? A nymph (or young) katydid is sitting on the largest milkweed leaf to the left. Many katydids mimic leaves, and though you’ll hear their loud calls during the warm months, they remain well hidden. Katydids look a bit like grasshoppers, but they’re more closely related to crickets.

Wood Frog

This frog spends much of its time on the forest floor, where it blends in with leaf litter. In the spring it lays eggs in temporary (or “vernal”) pools, calling for mates with a characteristic quacking sound. Having trouble spotting this frog? It’s near the bottom of the picture, a little left of center. Discover wood frogs and vernal pools in an upcoming program.

credit_Dave_Huth_davehuthdotcom

Eastern Screech-Owl

This small owl rests in tree cavities during the day. Its feathers blend in with the surrounding bark. Eastern screech-owls also nest in cavities, but they can’t carve into trees themselves, so they rely on woodpeckers and other cavity-creators.

credit_Richard_Johnson

Learn more about identifying these creatures with field guides from the Audubon Shop, and help kids record their sightings with this Nature Log for Kids. Happy searching!

Photo credits: American woodcock copyright Thomas Zack, ZackStock Imaging; gray hairstreak and treetop bush katydid via Rosemary Mosco, Mass Audubon staff; wood frog via Dave Huth, davehuth.com; eastern screech-owl via Richard Johnson.

Meet the Maples

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Rosemary

maple sugaringIt’s maple sugar season: that time of year when we tap trees for their sweet sap, and boil it down to make syrup and other treats.

The star of the show is the famous sugar maple (Acer saccharum), but you can spot many other equally stunning maples in Massachusetts.

Maple Tree Basics

Before you go looking for maples, here are some general tips. First, keep an eye out for opposite branches. All maples have buds, leaves, and branches that appear in pairs opposite each other. Only a few other trees, including ashes and dogwoods, share this pattern. Combining this observation with other clues such as bark texture and habitat can help you identify maples before their leaves appear.

You might also see trees outfitted with sap collection buckets that aren’t sugar maples. Other maple trees can produce tasty sap, though they’re not usually as popular for sugaring as sugar maples (some are less sweet or less abundant, for example).

Some Maples to Meet

Here are a few of the species you may spot:

Silver Maple via flickr/natureandeventsSilver maple (Acer saccharinum) This beautiful tree is named for the silvery underside of its many-pointed leaves. Find it growing on floodplains, often near fiddlehead-bearing ostrich ferns or in urban areas, where it’s a common street tree. Older silver maples, which can be 70 feet tall, have shaggy bark.

Red Maple NPS/Alicia LafeverRed maple (Acer rubrum) This tree lives up to its name: the leaf stalks are red, the leaves turn red in fall, and even the twigs are red. It’s also a true survivor—it grows as far south as Florida and north as Quebec, and in urban settings, upland forests, swamps, and many other habitats.

Mountain Maple via flickr/Per Verdonk

Mountain maple (Acer spicatum) This is a small maple that likes moist forests. Its leaves are smaller and more jagged than the striped maple’s. The bark is brown and the twigs are red. People sometimes say it looks like a rugged mountain man who’s wearing brown pants and a red shirt!

Norway Maple via flickr/F D RichardsNorway maple (Acer platanoides) This species has been introduced from Europe and Asia. It tolerates pollution, drought, and other hazards of urban areas, and its broad leaves shade out other plants, making it a threat to our native trees. Its bark is patterned with small ridges. If you crush its leaves or stems, you’ll find a surprise: a milky white sap. People have bred many color variants—if you see a maple with purplish-red leaves, chances are it’s a Norway maple.

Striped Maple via Art PoskanzerStriped maple (Acer pensylvanicum) This small tree has big, 3-lobed leaves. Its most memorable feature is the bark of younger trees, which has elegant vertical stripes of green, grey, and brown. Look for it in moist woods.

Photo credits: Silver Maple via flickr/natureandevents; Red Maple NPS/Alicia Lafever; Mountain Maple via flickr/Per Verdonk; Norway Maple via flickr/F D Richards; Striped Maple via Art Poskanzer