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Red Mulberry – An Excellent Food for Wildlife

Posted by Gary on June 18, 2015 in Trees and Shrubs

Walking out on my daughter’s balcony in her Maryland townhouse, I am careful not to step on the dozens of berries that fell onto the deck from the branches of a Mulberry tree that tower over the veranda.

The tree is laden with ripe black-purple berries that dangle from the tree’s branches. Tufted Titmice, gray birds with large black eyes and thick crests, fly into the tree and harvest the blackish fruit. Each bird eats one or two berries and flies away. A chipmunk climbs up the stairs leading to the deck and picks up one of the fallen berries and devours the fruit. Later a eastern gray squirrel descends from the tree onto the railing of the porch, picks up a mulberry and eats it.

The fruit is edible by people too, but be sure you identify the plant correctly. People die from eating poisonous berries and other parts of some plants. Additionally, be sure your plant hasn’t been sprayed by pesticides. Red mulberry is a great plant for your wildlife garden.

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Elderberry – A Shrub With Many Uses

Posted by Gary on June 11, 2015 in Trees and Shrubs
Blue-Black Drupes

WARNING – do not .eat berries from trees, bushes, or plants unless you absolutely have a positive ID on the plant. People die from eating poisonous fruits and berries! For example, to the amateur botanist, poison hemlock is  plant that grows in similar habitats as elderberry and has flowers that look similar to elderberry, but is highly poisonous. Additionally, be sure that the plants have not been sprayed by pesticides.

Often growing as dense thickets in rich, moist soils, elderberry is common in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Florida. It is easily recognized by its clusters of white flowers and drupes of blue-black berries.

Although tasty treats for birds, berries are distasteful to us and contain poisonous alkaloids that can cause stomach upset. However, cooking destroys the alkaloids so the berries can be made into jellies, pies and elderberry wine. Elderberries are a good source of vitamin C.

Elderberry has a rich history in folk medicine when it was used to treat: fever, headaches, indigestion, rheumatism, bladder and kidney infections, colds, inflammation and a variety of other ailments.

In addition to medicine and food, native Americans elderberry’s pithy stalks to make arrows, blow guns and whistles and to dye baskets with the inky berries.

Elderberry is abundant and secure in its range, but there may be other plants that hold medical treatments still undiscovered. This is one of the reasons it is important to preserve our natural areas so that plants, that may hold the key to future cures, will be protected from development and extinction.

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Water Turkeys in Florida

Posted by Gary on June 2, 2015 in Uncategorized
Climbing a branch above its nest.
Flying over Lake Tsala Apopka in Florida.
Checking its eggs.
Nest made of large sticks and branches.
Distinctive hanging of the wings to dry and regulate their temperature.
Anhigas are easy to recognize in the sky. with their distinctive shape.
Anhingas frequently soar high above the ground.
Snake-like head and turkey tail.

A large, strange inky black bird with a snake-like head and webbed feet swims under water hunting fish in Lake Tsala Apopka. It is an underwater fishing expert and is skilled at spearing fish with its long, thin, pointed beak. It emerges from the water, swims to a limb, climbs up and hangs its soaked wings to dry in the hot Florida sun.

Called the water turkey for its ability to swim underwater and for its broad fan shaped tail, the anhinga is a large bird, standing three feet tall with a wingspan of nearly four feet. Anhingas live in sub-tropical and tropical environments from southern U.S. to South America.

Anhingas are birds of freshwater swamps and lakes. These birds nest in colonies, often alongside herons and egrets. Males collects and places large sticks in the forks of trees to attract females. An elaborate courtship display leads to nesting and the raising of young.

Anhingas are iconic birds of sub-tropical landscapes to me and I enjoy seeing these birds in our lakes and springs here in Florida.

 

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Leaves of Three… Leave Them Be

Posted by Gary on May 28, 2015 in Trees and Shrubs

The sun’s rays penetrates the morning mist in the red maple- black gum wetlands along a river on Long Island one spring day. Yellowthroat warblers sing from high-bush blueberries and catbirds “meow” from the forest canopy. A white-tailed deer, its fur a rich brown, browses on plants on the forest floor. It raises its head to grasp maple leaves on a low branch with its teeth, tears off a cluster of leaves, turns its head and watches me as it chews the tasty morsel. Then to my chagrin, the deer takes a few steps, lowers its head to nibble poison ivy leaves. If you or I ate these leaves, we would become quite ill. Poison Ivy is food for wildlife. Even its white berries is a source of food for birds.

“Never trust it (poison ivy). The more you come into contact with it, the more likely, you’ll get it,” an old farmer from the east end of Long Island once told me. I can testify to that. I accidently came into contact with it working in the field as a biologist and did not get the rash initially. When you work in the field, you cannot avoid it. Despite all the precautions – recognizing and avoiding it, wearing gloves, pre-contact creams, it eventually got me. An all out war broke out on my wrist. Then it spread – to my legs, to my hands, to my eyes.

This poisonous plant grows in different forms. It climbs trees with rope-like vines and also grows on the ground. On Long Island’s barrier beaches, it takes on a shrub-like form standing 5 feet tall in ephemeral pools behind the primary dunes. The key identifier is that is has leaves that grow in groups of three. The group is actually a leaf with three leaflets. The leaflets will be shiny red when it sprouts in the spring, but mature into crayon green in the summer with a bit of a sheen.

Here in Florida poison ivy grows in the cypress swamps and when I see it, I think about the deer nibbling on poisonous leaves on Long Island. I miss that, but I do not miss the irritating, itchy, spreading, raw and blistering rash that poison ivy caused when I came into contact with it! So even if you have pulled it from your garden and did not get the rash, do not trust the leaves of three! It will get you!

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Giant Snakes Create Havoc in Florida

Posted by Gary on March 27, 2015 in Reptiles and Amphibians, Wildlife

Snakes are popular house pets, especially with children. Burmese pythons are one of the many species of exotic snakes sold in pet shops. When purchased these snakes are small and manageable, but are capable of growing rapidly up to 8 feet in one year with proper care. This results in some people releasing their pets into the wild when they can no longer handle them. These non-native species compete with indigenous snakes and impact native wildlife populations.

Burmese pythons and other exotic species readily adapt to the southern Florida climate and thrive in a variety of habitats including the urban environment. Giant pythons are difficult to trap because they often lurk and wait for prey to come to them. When young, they are tree dwelling snakes that pose threats to birds and arboreal wildlife. Pythons eat everything from mice to deer to gators. Their impact to vulnerable species can be devastating.

Research to estimate the numbers of exotic snakes in the wild, identify the species of non-native snakes in the various habitats and the impact these invasive species have on natural fauna is being conducted. Although the U.S. federal government bans the import of several species of exotic snakes, there are thousands of invasive snakes in the Florida landscape now creating challenges to wildlife officials charged with protecting native birds and animals. Government officials, pet owners and the pet trade must work together to minimize the impact of exotic species in our environment.

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