Snow Rollers

   It is always fun to see something that you have never seen before.  Such was the case this past Monday morning in some parts of western Pennsylvania.  Many of us awoke to what appeared to be snow balls or snow "boulders" strewn across lawns, farm fields, even the basketball court and softball field at Lutherlyn.  For most of us, this was our first glimpse of snow rollers.

   Snow rollers were formed by a "perfect storm" of conditions.  We had about five inches of powdery snow fall on Saturday.  On Sunday night the temperature warmed up into the 30s, which made the snow more cohesive.  A strong wind (20-25 mph) then began to blow and it was able to roll the snow particles across open areas.  The particles accumulated in much the same way that a snow ball is rolled to make a snowman.

   If you look closely at the above picture, you can even see the track left by the snow roller as it was blown across the landscape.  Most of the snow rollers at Lutherlyn were no bigger than a soccer ball, but I saw one in a neighbor's yard that was 20" long and 9" in diameter.  The majority of the snow rollers were solid, but there were a few with a hole in the middle.  These have been coined "snownuts" for their resemblance to doughnuts.

To me, it is a good lesson.  There is always something new, something that you have never seen before, if you only take the time to look and explore.  Sometimes you have to look really hard to see something new, but other times it is right there in your front yard, as big as a basketball.

Winter Tracking

     Sure its cold out there, its winter after all, but the snow can give us so much insight into the animal world around us.  Unlike the rest of the year, the snow records the travels of the mammals who are sharing our forests and neighborhoods with us.  Deciphering the tracks is not very difficult, if you know what to look for.
     I found this print the other day.  You can very clearly see the pads of the foot and at least three toenails/claws.  Thankfully, it wasn't the only print, there was a series of prints, which are known as tracks.
    When looking at tracks, you can quickly narrow down what the animal is by looking at the type of track pattern that the animal is exhibiting.  This one is a perfect walker, which means that this animal places its hind feet in the exact spot as its front feet. So, there are only two prints, not four, left behind. There are other animals that aren't so "perfect" and you will find their hind foot print close, but not on top of their front foot print.  They are called imperfect walkers.  Other mammals, like squirrels, mice, and rabbits have large back legs and leap or hop when they move from place to place, so they are known as leapers.  Finally, members of the weasel family have four feet that are about the same size and bound when they move, so they are called bounders.

     Perfect walkers include animals like cats, dogs, and deer.  With pads and toenails present in these prints, it is certainly not a deer.  However, it could be a feline or a canine.  Our next step involves a handy measuring tape.  The two primary measurements that we need to take are the width of the trail that the animal has made (called the straddle) and the distance from the middle of one print to the next (called the stride).  This animal's straddle is about 10 centimeters and its stride is about 30 centimeters.  Those measurements are too large for a house cat and too small for a bobcat or coyote.  What's left?  How about a fox!  Now the question is:  Is it a gray fox or a red fox?
     In order to answer that question, we will need to measure the size of the print itself.  Using the handy measuring tape again, we can see that the print is 5 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide.  That is a little small for a red fox, but perfect for a gray fox!
      These tracks give us about the only proof that we have gray foxes living at Lutherlyn.  They are very surreptitious and have only been seen rarely at camp.  However, we find tracks nearly every time that we go out in the winter.  We don't have to go far from main camp, either.  One gray fox has a habit of travelling by the lower lake nearly every night.
    When we teach students about animal tracking, they learn how to use a measuring tape and key to identify tracks.  We have created "tracking boards" for sixteen different animals.  These boards have realistically sized tracks with appropriate strides and straddles for each animal.  It is a great way for students to practice their measuring skills and learn how to use a key.  With a little practice, this knowledge can unlock all kinds of animal mysteries.

What do foxes really sound like?

   By now, many of you may have been exposed to a YouTube music video asking "What does the fox say?"  Although the video may be mildly entertaining, the answer to the question "What does the fox say?" is much more interesting.  I started to research this question several years ago because of personal experience.
   It was spring-time and, on several evenings when I returned home from campfire programs, I heard a loud and very strange sound in the forest around my house.  It seemed owl-like, but it didn't have the tone of an owl.  With a little Internet searching, I found my answer - and I was amazed at the plethora of sounds that foxes make.  Here is a recording of a call similar to the one that I heard:   http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/fox_mating_call.wav  It sounds a little like an owl, but it is actually a red fox mating call.
   Evidently, the mating call worked, since we heard more red fox calls throughout that spring and summer.  Rarely did these sounds seem like something a fox would sound like.  The cry of a young kit sounded like a squirrel:  http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/cry.wav.  The territorial calls reminded me of a crow:  http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/fox_territory_call.wav.  The most amazing (and frightening) call was one that I heard late one night:  http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/foxsquall.wav.
   I expected foxes to sound like dogs, but they often don't.  In fact, they are different from dogs in other ways, too.  When hunting they jump and pounce more like a cat than a dog.  Much of their late summer and autumn diet is actually berries and other fruit, like apples, grapes, and wild cherries - they are not strict carnivores, as many suspect.

Gray Fox photo by Prestonmayhew
 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

   The red foxes I'm speaking of, may not even be native to North America.  With genetic studies, scientists have found that the red foxes of Europe are the same species as ours.  In fact, this has led some biologists to believe that red foxes may have been brought to North America by early European settlers in order to continue the tradition of English fox hunting.
   Red foxes are not the only foxes that live in western PA, however.  We have healthy populations of gray foxes, too.  Gray foxes are more wary of people and tend to live in deciduous forests.  In fact, they can climb trees and often spend the daylight hours resting on a tree limb!  They also sound different than red foxes as evidenced by this recording of gray foxes fighting:  http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/greyfox_fight.wav
   Both species of foxes are corpuscular (active at dusk and dawn) and nocturnal, which is why we hear them at night.  Unfortunately, we usually can't see them to identify the source of the sound and, therefore, very few of us know what "the fox says."  Maybe if we all spent a little more time outside we would be more familiar with these sounds.  Perhaps the next time we are tempted to watch a viral YouTube video, we could go outside instead.

Wild Resource Symposium

        The Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program is part of several different organizations.  Along with the other nature centers in western Pennsylvania, we are part of the Western Pennsylvania Nature Center Roundtable.  Through this organization we address issues that are common to all of the nature centers and environmental education programs.  We also sponsor a Wild Resource Symposium every two years.  This symposium helps us, as professionals, to keep up with recent research in the natural science fields.  However, we always open the symposium up to other educators and the public.

       This year, the symposium is being hosted by the Audubon Society of Western PA at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve on Saturday, November 9th from 8:30-3:30.  The day will include presentations on avian bio-acoustics, bobcats, urban pollinators, and PA mussels.  The Animal Rescue League will also be bringing some live animals to cap-off the afternoon.

       Educators can receive continuing education hours for the event, but it is open to anyone interested in the wild resources of Pennsylvania.

      These events have been spectacular in the past and well worth the small registration fee.  However, the registration deadline is quickly approaching and we only have space for 75 participants.  Please check out the information below and register soon.

 

Pennsylvania's Wild Resources Symposium November 9, 2013 from 8:30am - 3:30 pm Get an update on the current status of select Pennsylvania flora and fauna. This symposium is geared toward teachers, informal educators, and those interested in flora and fauna. The symposium is presented by Western Pennsylvania Nature Center Roundtable (WPNCR) and is held at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. Register online today! $45 before October 21 $55 after October 21 Pre-registration includes lunch Pre-registration closes November 7 Registration at the door available as space allows and is not guaranteed; $55, lunch not included. The symposium is limited to 75 participants * Educational materials included in registration * Drawings for resource baskets provided by the WPNCR members * Six (6) Act 48 continuing education hours available Scheduled Presenters: Avian Bio Acoustic Research, Amy Tagaler, Powdermill Nature Reserve Urban Pollinators, Joseph Zgurzynski, Country Barn Farm Pennsylvania Mussels, Charles Bier, Western Pennsylvania Nature Conservancy Bobcats, Matt Lavallo, Pennsylvania Game Commission Special wildlife guests from the Animal Rescue League Wildlife Center, Verona Western Pennsylvania Nature Center Roundtable Members Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania Beaver County Conservation District Creek Connections Environmental Learning Center at Crooked Creek Fern Hollow Nature Center Frick Environmental Center Harrison Hills Park Jennings Environmental Education Center Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program McKeever Environmental Learning Center Mount Washington CDC National Aviary Outdoor Classroom Phipps Conservatory Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Powdermill Nature Reserve South Park Nature Center Tree Pittsburgh Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve at Saint Vincent College

Selfish Environmentalism?

GUEST BLOGGER: Kirstin Waldkoenig, summer intern for LEEP


Ensconced in the first few days of summer proper, I have been meditating on this question: How can we persuade others to care about the environment? Since I began teaching for the environmental education program here the beginning of May this year, my purpose has seemed clear to me in helping kids experience the outdoors. But I realized a few days ago when walking Lutherlyn's Venango Trail that I have also a larger motive: to somehow encourage and convince people to care about the nature that I care about.

At first, asking this question seems obvious to me. Why shouldn't we care about the myriad of wonders around us? But upon second thought, I am struck by the real possibility that this question never even crosses the minds of thousands of people. I am concerned with environment and the living ecosystems around me because I take joy in these things. I love long hiking in sun or rain, basking in the sun, and napping underneath tall trees. I have to remind myself that not everyone finds such pleasure in nature.

As many of us who love the outdoors want, I want to encourage others to love the environment like I do, at least get a taste of the fantastic world around us. But do I want others to care about nature simply because I care about nature? I ask myself if my purpose is selfish, self-centered. Of course I want to justify my own experiences in nature and share the details about the world around us that I find so poignant, but I cannot help asking myself if I am selfish because I want everyone to love the nature that I love. Why, exactly, should anyone care at all?

The Venango Trail was striking last Thursday morning when I followed it. A red-tailed hawk cried overhead "keeeeerr!" and the songbirds resumed their chatter when the raptor passed. I have been on hundreds of walks similar to this one, just listening and watching and enjoying the tickle of leaves across my ankles. And yet, this small walk reached me as if I were experiencing nature for the first time. I breathed deeply and at peace among the birdsong and the fresh scent of spice bush.

I could hear human voices, too, which are a regular part of camp life. These also are part of nature - the part we so often forget. Humanity is inextricably intertwined with the nature around us. In fact, we are the nature. I sat watching campers canoe on Upper Lake, and the sounds of an airplane high above us and the splashes of the paddles in the water added to the symphony of nature. This is one playlist, I realized, that I can never get stuck in my head. It's too diverse, too intricate, a melody I cannot follow because it is so wide in scope and variety that my human ear cannot memorize it. Never do I have songbirds stuck in my head.

When I have kids sit and listen to nature, the youngest ones will always report that they heard human sounds. I remind them that those are sounds that we are used to hearing, and I challenge them to hear past the sneezes and voices of other students to hear the creek gurgling or the squeak of a chipmunk. The fact that humans are animals seems to really be the foreign concept for these kids. Paddle splashes and airplane motors may not be nature per se, but humanity certainly is not apart from the ecosystems around us, the vast web of life which is more interconnected and playing to a more elaborate melody than we humans could ever create for ourselves.

It takes practice to notice nature, to remember the names of plants, and to look for (and find!) signs of animals. It takes more than a few attempts for kids to sit and actually be quiet enough to listen to the sounds around them when I take them for hikes in the forest. It takes practice to notice ourselves as part of everything around us.

So perhaps caring for Earth is always "selfish" in that we care about it because we are inseparably a part of it. If for no other reason, we should care for the nature around us because we, too, are nature. We are interconnected in more ways than we realize, more integral to the water, the wind, the rocks, the trees around us, than we care to be truly conscious of. This is why it takes practice for us to really look at what is around us.

Today, take some time to slow down, to just sit and listen to the world around you. Listen to the birds, and breathe some fresh air that you share with all the rest of the earth.




Kirstin Waldkoenig is a senior philosophy / creative writing major at Susquehanna University. She has been working with LEEP's programming since the beginning of May and will continue through the start of August this summer. She has an intense interest in environmental ethics and loves stargazing, climbing rock faces, and sleeping outside under the trees in her hammock.

Go Outside!

     I hear my mother's voice echo in my head as I tell my own children to "go outside!"  When I was growing up, I think these words were heard in most households.  Unfortunately, my children are probably in the minority for hearing those words now.

     In general, parents have a greater fear of the outdoors than in the past.  The media has made child abductions seem common place and outdoor accidents often make overblown news stories.  Plus, we are another generation or two removed form agriculturally life and connection to the outdoors.
     The good news is that these dangers are only perceived.  The risk of child abduction is no greater now than it was in the 1970s or 1980s.  What is the greatest cause of childhood fatalities?  Riding in automobiles.  Are people going to stop driving their kids around?  Children probably spend more time in cars now than ever before.  What causes the most accidents at home?  Falling down stairs.  So, obviously it is in our children's best interest to get them outside - AWAY from those dangerous stairs!

     Playing outdoors allows children to be adventurous, to practice the scientific method, to learn hands-on about living things.  In a more philosophical and theological sense, time spent outside, allows children to connect to nature and God's creation.  They can see it as an integral part of who we are as humans.  they have a greater understanding of how we fit as part of creation.  The more we see ourselves as part of this planet, the better we will care for the other parts of the planet - and that can only make this a better and safer place to live.

Spring's Arrival II

      April 7th was the second really warm day of spring.  In some parts of western PA it came with the first rain of spring.  As I drove down the dark back roads heading to Gettysburg, I kept my eyes alert for small amphibians.  Sure enough, I had to make a last minute adjustment to avoid a toad hopping across the mountain road at about 9:30 pm.
 

Red-spotted Newt returning to Lower Lake



     The first warm spring rains bring one of the most amazing animal events that few people know about - the spring amphibian migration.  The warmth and rain convince the amphibians it is time to mate and lay eggs.  Frogs, toads, and salamanders have been hibernating all winter.  Most of them have hibernated below ground, but the tree frogs have stayed above ground.



     This is because treefrogs have a special adaptation for surviving winter.  When the temperatures start to get cold, the frog's body produces glucose that undergoes a complicated process with adrenaline to prepare the cells in the frog for cold storage .  This natural anti-freeze protects the frog's body when temperatures drop below freezing.  Occasionally, people find tree frogs in the winter and they appear to be frozen solid.  If brought indoors, they will start to hop around after they warm up.  (However, this is probably not good for the frog - especially if its going back outside.)

     Once the temperatures warm the tree frogs, and other amphibians, start moving to wet areas to reproduce.  They tend to do this at night during a warm rain.  The rain is needed to keep the amphibian's skin moist as humidity levels this time of year can be very low.

Lower Lake filling

      Amphibians migrate to ponds, lakes, wetlands, and vernal pools.  The latter are small ponds that dry up in the summer - so they don't have the aquatic predators that ponds and lakes have.

     At  Lutherlyn, spring peepers and American toads congregate at the lower lake.  This lake is drained each winter to reduce plant growth and keep it safe from swimming.  As a result, there aren't any fish looking for a frog, toad, or tadpole snack.  Schools that visit on overnight field trips get to experience the frogs and toads congregating at Lower Lake.  By May 15th, the shallows of the lake are usually filled with small tadpoles.

      The tadpoles grow fast and usually are leaving the lake by the first week of summer camp (the third week of June).  The first weeks of summer camp mark the secondary amphibian migration as very tiny frogs and toads leave the water and disperse throughout Lutherlyn.