SNOWFLEAS IN DECEMBER

Donald A. Windsor

Snowfleas are enthusiastically welcomed as harbingers of spring.  They appear on snow toward the end of winter.  Here is a photo taken by John Carhart on 23 December 2012 along the Finger Lakes Trail north of Bowman Lake in McDonough.

Snowfleas live in the forest leaf litter.  They emerge through openings in the snow cover.  In late winter rain funneling down tree trunks melts holes in the snow surrounding the trees.

Snowfleas are tiny, wingless insects, about 1/16 inch long.  They belong to the springtail family Poduridae in the order Collembola (1).  They are called "springtails" because they spring into the air by flicking a rear appendage that resembles a tail.  Their leaping resembles fleas, but they are not true fleas (order Siphonaptera), which jump using their legs (2).

Carhart's photo was taken when we Bullthistle Hikers saw unusually large numbers of snowfleas on the surface of about 8 inches of newly fallen snow.  They were in many separate flocks for at least a furlong of the trail.  They were even on the snow adhering to to trees, up higher than I could see or reach.  I have never before seen so many.

Snowfleas can be easily overlooked, even on pure white snow.  I will certainly be paying more attention in the future.

The amazing aspect of snowfleas is that they are here.  A century ago almost all of Chenango County was deforested.  There was no leaf litter for these little critters to live in.  Nice recovery!

1.  Borror, D.J. ; White, R.E.  A Field Guide to the Insects ...  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  1970. Page 64.

2.  Milne, L. ; Milne, M. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders.  NY, NY: A.A. Knopf.  1980. Page 629.

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MASKED SHREW IN SMITHVILLE

Donald A. Windsor

A dead Masked Shrew (Sorex cinereus) was found in the Town of Smithville, on Whitling Road between Collier and Stone Quarry Hill roads, on Sunday 21 October 2012, by Bruce Webster.

Its body was 2 inches long and its bicoloured tail was 1.5 inches. 

My identification was based on the diagnostics in the source cited below.  The Masked Shrew has no mask, for reasons that remain elusive. 

We have 7 species of shrews in New York State. Six are reported as being in Chenango County (www.nyfalls.com/wildlife).  I intend to write on the other five as the opportunity presents.


Reid, Fiona A.  Mammals of North America.  4th Ed.  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  2006.  Pages 368-370.

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CLOSED GENTIAN

Donald A. Windsor

Closed (=Bottle) Gentian (Gentiana clausa) is a flower that, as the name implies, remains closed.  When in full bloom, it still looks like a bud.  It is pollinated by bumblebees that are strong enough to open the flowers (Cox, page 217).

Two similar species of Closed Gentian exist.  They must be differentiated by opening the flower and seeing if the membranes between the petals are longer than the petals (G. andrewsii) or even (G. clausa).  Newcomb & Morrison have a good illustration on page 253.  Peterson & McKenny, page 321, do not.  Niering & Olmstead have a good photo on Plate 650 showing the longer white-tipped membrane protruding from the top of the closed G. andrewsii flower.  Cox has it backwards.  I will go with Newcomb & Morrison, who call G. andrewsii Fringed-tip Closed Gentian.

On Sunday 2 September 2012, Carol Smith found a few plants blooming in the drainage ditch along Mud Lane in the Town of Otselic.  I took the photo shown here on 12 September 2012 along the Truck Trail in the Whaupaunaucau State Forest in the Town of North Norwich.  I had seen some near Clement's lean-to back in the early 1990s, but then they disappeared, apparently from the increasing shade.  This clump was discovered by John Carhart last year (2011).  The plants look as if they had been growing here for several years.

References cited:

Cox, Donald D. et alia. Common flowering plants of the Northeast. Their Natural History and Uses.  Albany, NY: State University Press.  1985.  420 pages. 

Newcomb, Lawrence ; Morrison, Gordon.  Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown. 1977.  490 pages.

Niering, William A. ; Olmstead, Nancy C. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.  1979.  888 pages.

Peterson, Roger Tory ; McKenny, Margaret.  A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and Northcentral North America.  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  1968.  420 pages.

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SLAG FROM THE MAYDOLE HAMMER FACTORY SITE

 Donald A. Windsor

Around mid July 2012, NYSEG put in a new gas line under the lawn on the north side of the Golden Age Apartments on Mechanic Street in the City of Norwich. 

On 25 July, I noticed a shiny black stone atop the back-filled ditch.  Here are 2 photos of it.  The upper photo is a top view and the lower is a side view.

The stone weighs 5 ounces.  It looks like obsidian, but I suspect that it is slag, because this is the site of the former Maydole Hammer factory (1845-1970) and is about 80 feet from the railroad tracks.

I showed this to David Moyer and he identified it as slag before I told him where I found it.  Gail Merian gave me a piece of real obsidian for comparison.

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2012 IS STILL ONE WET DAY FOR EVERY DRY DAY

Donald A. Windsor

As of this posting, Friday 13 July 2012, we are in a very dry period, the driest in several years.  Rainfall is usually announced as how many inches fell.  For those of us who schedule outdoor activities, inches are not as important as frequency.  We want to know how often it rains/snows.  Consequently, I record those days (midnight to midnight) in which some precipitation fell on my property in the City of Norwich.  On 3 January 2012, I posted my data for 2011.  Here are the data for the first half of 2012.

            Dry Days  Wet Days 
January        10        21       
February      12        17       
March          18        13        
April             18        12       
May              16        15       
June              16        14       

For the first half of 2012, we had a total of 90 dry days and 92 wet days, about one wet day for every dry day.  However, we have had less precipitation, so it is drier. 

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JUNCO NEST

Donald A. Windsor

Dark-eyed Juncos breed in every town in Chenango County (1).  They build their nests on the ground and sometimes on woodland roads that support vegetation.  Sometimes we almost step on these nests when we are hiking.  The nests are very hard to see and their presence is revealed only when the mother darts out, surprising us.

The photo below shows a nest along a trail on private property in southwest Preston.  It was snapped on Monday 28 May 2012.  Four bluish eggs with brown splotches are visible.  For more information, consult Harrison (2).

References cited:

1.  Smith, Charles R.  Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis.  In:  McGowan, Kevin J. ; Corwin, Kimberley, Editors.  The Second Atlas ofBreeding Birds in New York State.  Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2008. pages 572-573.

2.  Harrison, Hal H. et al.  Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco.  In:  A Field Guide to the Birds' Nests ...  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. 1975. Page 243.

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EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWERS

Donald A. Windsor

Here is a list of the 21 wildflowers that I saw blooming on Friday afternoon 20 April 2012 in the Town of Oxford.  I was walking in a kettle-kame area east of the Chenango River south of the Village.  The landowner did not want to be identified.  The habitat was mainly upland forest, but also included bushy and grassy areas, ponds, and the river.  

 
Blue Phlox (photo),  Spring Beauty,  Bloodroot,  Crowfoot,  Common Chickweed,  Toothwort,  Blue Cohosh,  Trout Lily,  White Trilium,  Squirel Corn,  Dutchmans Breeches,  Foamflower,  Wood Anemone,  Dwarf Ginseng,  Dandelion,  Gill-Over-The-Ground,  Common Blue Violet,  Round-leaved Yellow Violet,  Sweet White Violet,  Long Spur Violet,  Canada Violet.

The names are the ones used in the Peterson & McKenny Field Guide.

Birds seen included:  Wood Duck,  Common Merganser,  Turkey Vulture,  Red-bellied Woodpecker,  Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,  Downy Woodpecker,  Tree Swallow,  Song Sparrow,  Tufted Titmouse,  Red-winged blackbird,  Common Grackle. 

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CHENANGO CANAL BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Donald A. Windsor

The Chenango Canal extended for 97 miles between Utica and Binghamton.  It operated from 1837 through 1878.  Its summit was at Bouckville, 706 feet higher than Utica and 300 feet higher than Binghamton.  The Canal had 116 locks; its summit was between locks 76 and 77.  Chenango County contains locks 84 through 105.

I made the following three drawings for my presentation to the Bullthistle Hikers on Tuesday 3 January 2012.  Data for them were taken from:

McFee, Michele A.  Limestone Locks and Overgrowth.  The Rise and Descent of the Chenango Canal.  Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press.  1993.  240 pages.

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2011 WAS A WET YEAR

Donald A. Windsor

2011 was a wet year, very wet I thought.  But how wet?  On January 1, 2011, I started logging whether or not any precipitation fell during the 24-hour day.  I continued every day throughout the year and am still faithfully keeping track.

For 2011, we had 190 dry days (52.1%) and 175 wet days (47.9%).  So, in general, we had a wet day for almost every dry day.  Here is a breakdown by month.  Note that 7 months had more dry days and only 4 months had more wet days.

              Dry Days    Wet Days    Most Days
January      13              18             Wet
February    15              13             Dry
March        17              14             Dry
April           12              19            Wet
May            11              20            Wet
June           20               10           Dry
July            21               10           Dry
August       17               14           Dry
September 15               15            -
October      16              15           Dry
November  19              11           Dry
December   14             17            Wet

But, I have no baseline for comparison, so I intend to continue doing this.  My data reflect conditions where I live, in the City of Norwich.

Precipitation is usually reported as inches of rain or snow.  For my purposes, this is inadequate.  I want to know whether the ground or the foliage is wet, or if I leave something outside, will it get wet?  Or more importantly, if I schedule an event, is it liable to be a wet day?  Besides, some plants thrive on being constantly wet; others do not.

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