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.

Spring's Arrival I

     Most people see the change from winter to spring in the warming temperature and the blooming daffodils.  Out in the forest, and here at Lutherlyn, the change is amazing!
     With cold temperatures lasting two weeks longer than last year, we had two additional weeks to make maple syrup.  That was a blessing as we only had a few gallons of syrup made by March 15.  The cold temperatures had made syrup production pretty slow.  (For maple sap to flow, temperatures inside the tree have to rise above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and fall back below freezing each day.)  Although we had many days above freezing, it didn't get much above freezing.

     By the end of the season, we had about 100 buckets that students had hung on the maple trees.  The warm temperatures on March 10 and March 30 produced about 2 gallons of sap per tree - giving us about 200 gallons of sap to boil down after each one of those runs.  With that much sap, the challenge is to boil down the sap fast enough to keep it from fermenting with the warmer temperatures.  We were blessed with cooler temperatures after those good runs which "refrigerated" the sap and our sugar maker, Gordie, did a great job boiling the sap very quickly.

     The last boiling halted on Thursday, April 4, with the grand total reaching 10.5 gallons of Lutherlyn's pure maple syrup being produced.  All that is left  is the clean-up:  putting away buckets, lids, & spiles, and cleaning tubing and tanks.  The biggest job is scrubbing the evaporator.  The minerals in the sap are cooked out as the sap boils and they become stuck to the stainless steel pans.  removing these deposits requires hot water, a weak food -grade acid, and hours and hours of elbow grease.  It is the toughest part of maple sugaring, by far.  Thankfully, we have 10.5 gallons of syrup to make all of the work worthwhile.

     If you want to help us enjoy the syrup, join us on May 5th for Camp BLAST!  We will be serving free pancakes and maple syrup from noon until 3:30 pm.  The day will also include plenty of other free activities including nature hikes, hay rides, pony rides, games, rocket launches, climbing, zip-lining, canoeing, crafts, archery, and archaeology.  Mark your calendars, you won't want to miss this!

http://www.lutherlyn.com/what_we_do/campblast.html



Ashes to Ashes

     With the leaves down, trees like the one at the left, stand out in the forest.  You can pick them out, even while driving down the road.  Have you seen them?  These are trees that have a very light brown bark.  Actually they are loosing their bark - woodpeckers are rapidly chiseling it off.  These trees are dead, or nearly so. Don't blame the woodpeckers; the tree was already 'mostly dead' and they are just looking for food.  This tree's demise is the result of yet another invasive species from Asia - the emerald ash borer.

    


     Emerald ash borers are small metallic green beetles that appeared near Detroit in 2002.  In the last twelve years, they have infested 18 states and are voraciously devouring our native ash trees.  Emerald ash borers are about 1/2" long and can fit on a penny.

Emerald ash borer exit hole

     A female emerald ash borer lays about 100 eggs on the bark of ash trees.  The larvae hatch and eat through the outer bark.  It is the larvae of the borers that do the real damage.  They eat the inner bark and new sap wood of the ash tree.  The adult beetles emerge from 'D-shaped' exit holes about a year later. Within four years of the initial egg laying, the tree is dead.  So far these insects have killed 100 million trees and there isn't much to slow them down.

     Currently scientist are experimenting with several pesticides that are injected into ash trees or applied to the soil around the trees.  There has been some limited success, but they must be applied every 1 to 2 years and consistent treatment will probably harm the tree.

     Some scientists have experimented with releasing parasitic wasps that control the borers in Asia.  The obvious problem here is introducing another alien insect to deal with the one that we already have. Hopefully, these methods, plus the possibility that some individual ash trees my be naturally resistant to the borer, will enable at least a few trees to survive.
     Ash trees have some of the toughest wood of any North American tree.  For centuries this wood has been used for snowshoes, canoe paddles, sleds, wagons, skis, tool handles, hockey sticks, and (of course) baseball bats.  In fact, the famous Louisville Sluggers, used my most major league baseball players, come from white ash trees in northern Pennsylvania and southern New York. 

     Unfortunately, the future of these trees is very much in doubt.  Many believe that we are witnessing the same devastation that past generations saw with the American Chestnut blight (see my previous post: http://lutherlynnature.blogspot.com/2012/12/100-american-chestnuts.html).  The future of the North American ash species will probably lie in programs many years down the road.  We will have to rely on future generations to bring back our ash trees.

      There is something you can do, though, to at least slow the spread of the infestation:  Don't transport firewood.  The adult borers often hide in firewood and transporting it can cause the devastation to spread.  For more information, please see the USDA website:  http://stopthebeetle.info/

      Also, please don't take out your frustration on another emerald colored beetle.  The six-spotted tiger beetle is one of my personal favorites.  It is a great predator and eats lots of small insects and spiders.



Six-spotted Tiger Beetle



Winter De-Fence

     This time of year many of us are receiving garden seed catalogs in the mail.  It can be fun to page through them and imagine what great vegetables we could grow this coming summer.  Personally, I find greater enjoyment paging through the tree catalogs that also arrive this time of year.  I like to imagine the mature trees that could one day shade large areas or produce large quantities of fruit.  I have planted my share of fruit and shade trees; however, the most successful trees that I have planted have been windbreaks.

     Windbreaks are plants (or structures) that protect homes, driveways, and planted areas from the wind.  They are common around many old homesteads.  The use of windbreaks was once common knowledge, but now, it seems to be, well, uncommon. 
      It is suggested in some publications that well-placed windbreaks can save a homeowner nearly 50 percent on heating and cooling bills.  Even a savings of 20 percent, makes a windbreak a major component of an energy conservation strategy.  Most of us can relate to wind chill.  As the wind speed increases, the air feels colder - and so do we.  Reducing the wind velocity around a home reduces the chill factor and lowers home heating costs.
     In the late 1990s, I planted a variety of evergreen trees behind the house at Terra Dei Homestead, here at Lutherlyn.  Some were small pine and spruce seedlings that I transplanted from the forest nearby.  A few were trees that were given away by the Butler Garden Club for Arbor Day.  None were taller than 18 inches.  However, fifteen years later these trees are taller than the house at Terra Dei and they are doing a great job of blocking the northern winds.

Terra Dei's 15-year old windbreak

     Windbreaks also provide cover for wildlife.  Many birds select evergreen trees as shelter in the winter.  It is difficult keeping those little bodies fueled all winter long, so any way of reducing the chill of the wind increases their ability to survive.

      In 2006, my wife and I (along with our church's youth group) planted 200 white and red pine trees along our driveway.  The trees were two years old when we planted them and about twelve inches tall.  Coming up on seven years, most of the trees are over 10 feet tall and have formed a substantial barrier to the wind.  Six years ago, we could count on our driveway drifting shut when there was snow on the ground.  Now, we have very little drifting and a beautiful row of evergreens.

    As you are looking at those seed and tree catalogs that are arriving in the mail, stop to consider energy conservation, as well as food production.  For a very small investment of time and energy, you can end up with substantial energy savings down the road.  There is nothing like a strong "de-fence" against the winter winds.
    For more information about Terra Dei Homestead, please visit LEEP's website:  www.lutherlyn.com/EE and follow the link to Terra Dei Homestead.