Western Chorus Frog (and other signs Spring is finally here)

Often heard early in the spring – even a small chorus of these tiny frogs can be deafening – but seldom seen, Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris triseriata) can survive being frozen and are out and about seeking potential mates when there is still snow and ice on the marshes and temporary vernal pools that are their breeding sites.

In addition to its song (reminiscent to running your fingernail along the teeth of a comb), the dark stripe through the eye, white upper lip and long spots or blotches distinguish this species from the Spring Peeper.

Calling for a girl friend ... the frog's vocal sac distends to twice the size seen in this photo.

It looks like this male sang loud enough and long enough to capture the attention of a female, and judging by their numbers these pairings no doubt happen many a time.

There's only one way to capture a close-up image of a 3 cm long frog with a point-and-shoot camera. My pants are wet up to the knees and my shoes still aren't completely dry two days later ...

Also seldom seen (and hopefully never heard, if so, see a psychiatrist) – Sarcoscypha coccinea, better known by the fanciful name Scarlet Elf Cup. This eye-catching early spring Ascomycete is not uncommon but it's often overlooked because it's buried under leaf litter.

Never heard, generally not considered to be eye-catching and frequently overlooked, and wish it was much less often encountered – the Black-legged Tick a.k.a. Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis). I think I picked up this unwelcome hitchhiker when I bumped my head against a shrub during the incursion into the marsh – on my own head be it, so to speak.

I was onto the little sucker out not long after she started biting me, and while I'm not certain I got the hypostome out, it alone won't transmit Lyme Disease and the tick needs to be attached for several hours in any event. So it seems I'm off the hook, but just to play it safe I'm going to monitor the bite site for the next couple of weeks ...

There's a good reason a tick's hypostome is difficult to remove once it's firmly inserted. Have a look at the macro of the "business end", as it's so nicely put, of Dermacentor albipictus at Macromite's Blog.

Distant cousins of the Deer Tick – and a lot less bloodthirsty, at least from a mammalian perspective – Habronattus spp. are among the first jumping spiders apt to be encountered in spring. The next two images depict a Habronattus calcaratus maddisoni female and male. The spiders were found only a few centimeters from one another, no doubt there was a mating in the offing.

The male Habronattus viridipes closely resembles its cousin, but note the sinuous white line on the cephalothorax and the irregular borders of the black stripes on the abdomen. The first pair of legs of both species have a bright green inner surface, used by the males to signal to a prospective mate.

As always many thanks to the experts at BugGuide.Net for their help. I was fairly certain as to the genus these small Salticids (5 cm, give or take) but I couldn't have identified them to the species (let alone subspecies) level without some guidance. Another great website for identifying Salticidae is Jumping Spiders of North America.

Both of the Habronattus spp. were encountered on open rock outcrops in high and dry pine/oak/blueberry scrub habitat – the home of the Common Five-lined Skink. The little reptiles are still with us, first sighting for 2014 was Sunday April 27th, and a friend managed to get a photo before it scurried for cover.

The stony blueberry scrub is also a good place to look for the Bumble Flower Beetle (Euphoria inda). About the size of a June Beetle, this hairy scarab not only mimics the appearance of a bumblebee, it even drones like one while in flight. The larvae live in dung and decomposing wood, and there's lots of the latter laying around; they mature and fly in late summer and the beetles seen in the spring have overwintered as adults.

It's been a long cold winter and a late cool spring, I wonder if the "immigrant" species from warmer climes that have been extending their ranges northward made it through?

A Good Year

"People who daily expect to encounter fabulous realities run smack into them again and again. They keep their minds open for their eyes." ~ Ken Macrorie

For the student of nature, amateur and professional alike, by definition every year is a good year. There’s always something different to see and new to learn. From a more personal and local perspective 2013 has been exceptional in terms of encounters with species that are rare, vagrants, or (according to current literature) outside of their known ranges.

Four of the sightings – the Varied Thrush, the Juniper Hairstreak, the Painted Skimmer, and the Mantidfly (Dicromantispa sayi) – were brought to my attention by observant friends who share my interests in nature, science, and the conservation and protection of the flora and fauna around us. The notable highlights of the past twelve months are ...

Varied Thrush – normally a western species, an occasional vagrant in Ontario.
Juniper Hairstreak – considered to be rare, but there are a few hanging out in a copse of Eastern Red Cedars 1½ kilometers west of Tweed.
Slender Bluet – a small colony is breeding in Stoco Lake, well north of its normal range.
Painted Skimmer – photographed by a friend, about 1½ kilometers west of Tweed. This striking dragonfly seems to be extending its range northward.
Dainty Sulphur – a rare vagrant in Ontario, and a "lifer" for me. Big surprises sometimes come in small packages.
Dicromantispa sayi – a friend found this small Mantidfly along Lost Channel Road south of Tweed and its identity has been confirmed at BugGuide.Net. It's wandering far from home, because according this 2006 study published by the Entomological Society of Canada, The Mantispidae of Canada, Dicromantispa sayi is only known from extreme southwestern Ontario.

As always, every year my sightings of UFOs – Unidentified Fungal Objects – grows longer. This bright yellow slime mold plasmodium was found growing under a piece of bark. Physarum polycephalum, perhaps?

Also on the underside of some bark on the forest floor, some translucent jelly-like fungi. Kind of look like Gummy Bears, don't they? I don't know if they taste like Gummy Bears. Curiosity is a commendable character trait but some experiments, for example taste testing unknown fungi, are a really bad idea ...

A missed opportunity to study the association between an interesting pair of fungi? While taking these photos I thought the three clavate fungi were a grouping of Common Earth Tongue. But having had a closer look at the images, the stalks are distinctly paler than the heads, and the overall shapes of the growths are atypical for Common Earth Tongue.

It’s more likely the stalked growths are Adder’s Tongue (Cordyceps ophioglossoides), which is parasitic on the underground fungus called Elaphomyces granulatus – note the growth near the bottom of the photo – but it’s too late now to go back for a second look ...

The next four images depict a common woodland mushroom that grows in large clusters on dead tree trunks and the forest floor, probably on buried dead wood. The cortina or web-like veil covering the gills on younger specimens, as well as the clearly defined ring zones left by the partial veils, indicate a species of Cortrinarius.

A group of more mature mushrooms, the caps are about 75 mm to 100 mm in diameter. Sad to say, but even after having studied dozens of these mushrooms in all stages of their growth, I am none the wiser and their identity remains a mystery to me ...

This large group of mushrooms was encountered growing in a grassy area, but there was a stump nearby so it’s possible the fungi are actually fruiting on buried dead wood. Again, the webbed veils on the undersides of the caps strongly suggest Cortinarius. The purplish flesh and stems should help identify this ‘shroom, but I didn’t make any spore prints ...

Mushroom identification seems to be my nemesis. The color and satiny sheen of these common mushrooms should help narrow down the species, as should the substrate they are anchored in. Although the 'shrooms appear to be fruiting on a lawn, the photos were taken alongside the trans-Canada Trail and the growth medium, hidden just beneath the grassy surface, is coarse sand and gravel.

My list of unknown, unexplained and unidentified species is by no means confined to fungi. For example, what’s this large orange female spider? In the absence of any clear markings and without images of the epigyne and scape, it’s impossible to narrow the ID any further than the genus level – Araneus.

What insect produced these Mottled Oak Galls scattered all over the woodland floor? The fat white grub ensconced within tells us the culprit producing the galls is an insect, not a mite or a fungus, but that still leaves hundreds of possibilities ...

A picturesque patch of moss found near a woodland stream. Despite its distinctive characteristics my knowledge of Bryophytes is limited (actually, it would be more correct to say my expertise in this area of botany is pretty much non-existent) and I haven’t been able to identify it as yet.

A flowering plant growing near the same stream, too bad the flowers are withered, they might have helped narrow the ID ....

Most (but not all) of the spiny-toothed leaves are deeply lobed. At the time I mistakenly deemed this to be sufficient data to identify the wildflower and I didn't bother taking detailed pictures of any other parts of the plant. Months have passed and it's too late to correct my error in judgement, and given the paucity of information in the two images the best I can come up with is Rattlesnakeroot – Prenanthes spp.

Another mystery plant found in a moist wooded area.

About a day after posting this the "mystery plant" is no longer a mystery! As I'm sitting in front of the computer at the library studying my photos a voice says: "That's Aralia racemosa, it's somewhat uncommon in Hastings County." The voice of insight and illumination spake not from within the deepest recesses of my mind, but rather from behind my right shoulder. It belonged to a friend from south of town who I only run into on occasion, and he also informed me – I had no idea all the time I have known him – that he was a botanist.

A quick Internet search verified that my acquaintance was right on the money and the plant is indeed Spikenard (Aralia racemosa). I also checked the library's copy of The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario and sure enough, Spikenard was right there on Page #141 and I had been overlooking it all along.

Small flowering plants about 20 cm tall, they look like they belong to the Mint family, countless numbers were growing along a marsh near Sulphide.

In addition to catching up on the "unidentified" files, there are already things on my to-do list of field activities for next year:

– What species are these Spiketail naiads? I’m going to capture a couple of larvae before they are expected to emerge in early June and raise them.
– How widely distributed is our local population of Slender Bluets?
– How extensive is the range and population of the Common Five-lined Skink in my corner of the world? The southern shield population of Ontario's only lizard is of special concern.
– Chimney Swifts are considered to be threatened in Ontario. These small crepuscular "flying cigars" can be seen cruising overhead – in groups composed of as many as eight individuals – on summer evenings in Tweed. But where are they nesting?

I also plan to carry on with my study of ferns and their non-flowering relatives. And on my wish list for species to encounter and photograph next year ... American Rubyspot, Tawny Emperor, Early Hairstreak, Olympia Marble, Chryxus Arctic ... one can always hope ...

Ontario's One and Only Lizard

These are images that I never dreamed I would capture, for two reasons. One is that the Common Five-lined Skink is wary and moves like greased lightning. Sneaking up close to this small lizard with a Canon PowerShot A530 is virtually impossible, imagine trying to approach within one foot of a bird! The few photos below are the result of over twenty hours of patiently waiting in the hot sun, hoping the skink would become accustomed to my prescence and come out to bask.

The other reason I never thought I would acquire photographs of the Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) is that I had no idea they were living within walking distance of home. I have seen them on the rocks along the Skootamatta River shoreline near Storring's Bridge, and they are reputed to inhabit the Sheffield Conservation Area ... where I have hiked for hours and seen not a one. This lizard's abode borders the trans-Canada Trail about one kilometer east of town; here's the view from the trail, looking to the south.

One of the rock outcroppings where the skinks were observed; I believe there are at least three distinct lizards in the area. This is prime Common Five-lined Skink real estate, plenty of fissures, crevices and overhangs creating perfect places for basking, nesting, hibernating and hiding from predators. It's also a great place for a careless person to fall or break a leg.

The bluish tail indicates that this individual is a juvenile. The first Common Five-lined Skink observed in this area (spotted by a friend, about thirty feet to the south of where the pictures were taken) was less boldly striped and its tail was more gray than blue; I think it was a mature female.

The little reptile – about 12 or 13 cm in length – seldom emerged fully into the sunlight, leaving at least his (or her?) tail in the shade. I don't know if this was for the purpose of maintaining an optimal body temperature, or because it felt more comfortable knowing it could make a hasty retreat if necessary.

When my friend sighted the first Common Five-lined Skink she saw only its head poking out from among dead leaves in a crevice and mistook it for a Garter Snake, so – a quick primer on the differences between snakes and lizards.

Legs can sometimes be a distinguishing characteristic, definitely in this case as the Common Five-lined Skink is our sole lizard species. But in general this isn't a reliable way to tell snakes and lizards apart since there are many species of legless lizards. Another difference is that lizards have external ear openings, whereas in snakes they are lacking. As a substitute for hearing snakes rely on sensing vibrations transmitted through the ground. And finally, lizards have moveable eyelids and snakes do not – while he was sunning himself this little guy would blink now and again.

The external ears and moveable eyelids weren't visible from a distance, making it easy to mistake the Common Five-lined Skink for a snake. However, the legs were quite obvious when it came out of hiding and trundled across the rock right in front of us. And my camera? It was sitting ten feet away – of course. All in all, though I didn't get a picture of the first encounter I'm happy that she espied the lizard and pointed it out to me, because I was looking the other way at that moment and would never have noticed it. And would still be unaware that Ontario's one and only lizard is hanging out practically in my back yard ...