Natural World

Two nestling nighthawks in "nest." Our common nighthawks are back, but a little over two weeks late. Birds arriving "back home" late, in lesser numbers-or not at all-is worrisome these days. With the mounting evidence of peculiarities in the natural world around us attributable to global warming it's a little scary when birds like nighthawks are late coming back "home" to nest.

Nighthawks devour tons and tons of insects for a living, and they're not confined to any one continent while doing it. They raise babies in North America in summer, but as soon as the kids are on the wing, they head out for Brazil and other points south.
Nighthawks are a mysterious and often misunderstood bird that is referred to by a variety of misleading names such as "goatsucker," "bull bat," "night jar," and "mosquito hawk." They have a 12-inch wingspan, are shaped like boomerangs and very agile in flight. The fact that they appear at night likely accounts for the name "bull bat." If you can smoke that one out, you're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

One of thousands of Mule Deer fawns lying about Central Oregon these days. Please, leave them alone!Editor's note: Some folks didn't recognize Jim Anderson's column last week as a bit of naturalist humor because editors at the Source swapped the photo that served as his punch line. So if the piece on mushrooms left you scratching your head, you weren't alone. Sorry for the confusion.

This is the time of year when well-meaning – but way off base – people pick up fawns because, in their minds, the baby has been "abandoned." In almost all cases, the fawn has not been abandoned, but has been left by its mother because it's safer where it is than out wandering around while she is feeding. PLEASE! Leave fawns alone; avoid them; go away and forget them; everyone and everything in the world of nature, and our world will go a lot smoother if you do.
Tom Worcester, who lives near Sisters, can tell you how it works when a fawn is left alone. He called one morning around 8 a.m. to tell me he had a brand new fawn in his yard, and was worried that it had been "abandoned." At 10:30 a.m. he called back to say, "I had a good wildlife education this morning, this is a story with a happy ending. Momma deer came back for her baby, and the last I saw of them, the fawn was following along on wobbly legs, but keeping up." That's the way it works in Nature.

Habitat of (what could be) a new species of "mushroom" and close up of "fruiting bodies."With all this unseasonable rain we have been experiencing throughout Central Oregon, I thought it would be advantageous to go out in search of mushrooms. I understand it is during damp periods like these that mushroom fruiting bodies come to the surface, and being a person who enjoys a fresh mushroom from time to time, well, I thought, you can never tell…

I was driving slowly on the road from Sisters High School to town watching intently for mushrooms along the way, when suddenly I was excited, (and almost shocked) to see what I thought were a small group of inky caps, but what they really turned out to be is a new species, perhaps one of the most electrifying experiences I've ever had in my years of searching for new edible forms of mushrooms.
Now, I know the deadly Amanitas; some of the amanitas are so colorful you can't miss them, while others are quite common looking, but can still kill you dead, or give you a terrible stomachache. For that reason, I'm very jumpy about what mushrooms I consider "safe," or "unsafe" for consumption. Unless I see someone still walking around an hour or so after eating a wild mushroom, I stick to the ones I find in the grocery store, but sometimes I even look at them a little sideways…

Western tent caterpillars (Malacosoma sp.)This may be a banner year for tent caterpillar infestations on Antelope
Bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata (Pursh), fruit trees and ornamental
shrubs. But, please, don't grab up the chemicals to attack them. Think
before you spray!

This is a pest that can be looked at in several
ways. For one, they have been here long before us, and no matter how
many colonies you kill, they will still be here after we've gone out
among the stars-they may be pests, and not much fun to look at, but
they are survivors. On top of that, they are one of the favored targets
of tachinid flies, helpful insect parasites that are always looking for
a delicious host. Most often, if you spray tent caterpillars, you will
also kill the "Good Guys." Another point is, as adults, tent
caterpillars take to the wing as moths that are the favored prey for a
number of bats, nighthawks, Flammulated Owls and other night-time
insect feeders.
In the short-term view, tent caterpillars may
seem repulsive and cause damage to plants, but in the long run-which is
how Nature looks at things-they ain't so bad.

Perfect swarm technique!Over the past five years or so I have had the pleasure of coming to Bend every spring (from my home near Sisters) to capture swarms of bees.

This spring I received several calls from various people wanting to be rid of a swarm of bees within their trees, and house. The first came in from a person living in the West Hills with a swarm, then came a call from a women with bees in her rental home, and then about a swarm on Minnesota in downtown Bend.
I found the calls interesting, as last year I received a nasty letter from the Bend Police Department telling me I had to remove a box of bees I had in the West Hills, as it is (allegedly) illegal to keep bees in Bend. Someone better get busy and tell the bees that, as there are probably 20 or more wild bee colonies thriving within city limits. I know that to be fact, as I found another huge colony with at least 50,000 bees in a brick building not more than a half-block from the swarm on Minnesota.

Male Pacific Tree Frog singing his Song of Spring.The frogs we hear singing their hearts out every evening are our tiny
Pacific Tree Frog, Pseudacris regilla, a common species throughout the
Northwest. They range from Northern California, all through Oregon and
Washington, British Columbia, and eastward to Idaho, Montana and
Nevada. These little guys come in shades of greens or browns, and can
be found from sea level up to over 11,000 feet, as well as our dry,
cold High Desert.
Male tree frogs begin the mating business in
early spring (and there are many of us who have heard them practicing
in our basements on warm winter nights); they migrate to ponds, where
they all start singing at once, and very loudly. The guy with the
loudest voice gets to mate first with the females laying their eggs on
and under vegetation and leaf litter in shallow, calm, clean water. And
they are a hardy bunch; they have to be to survive "spring" in Central
Oregon.
If the eggs are not eaten by salamanders or snakes,
embryos will become tadpoles within one to three weeks. If the tadpoles
are not eaten by salamanders, snakes and herons, the tadpoles will feed
on periphyton, filamentous algae, diatoms and pollen in and on the
surface of the water. If they are not eaten by bigger salamanders,
snakes, fish, bullfrogs, kingfishers or herons, about two and a half
months later, the tadpole’s metamorphosis is complete and they leave
the water as frogs and become terrestrial predators on arthropods.

Last meal for an electrocuted Great Horned Owl found on a CEC power pole near Plainview Road.The owl pictured above electrocuted on the top of a power pole, still
clutching its last meal, made a fatal error recently when it perched on
a Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) power pole (#126867) near
Plainview Road, between Bend and Sisters. The pole is located in a
Wildlife Easement under the stewardship of Ron and Jolynn Lambert.

A
pole to perch on and eat his freshly caught gray squirrel is all mister
owl was interested in; whether it was in a wildlife easement, or
carrying 7,200 volts of electrical energy didn't matter. Little did
mister owl know that he was flirting with disaster. It wasn't until he
was careless, and touched two of the wires, that in a flash the awesome
electrical energy in the line ended his life.
"I see a lot of
that sort of thing happening to Great Horned Owls, especially in
spring," Jon Paxton, a CEC serviceman said, as he pried the owl off the
fuse block on the top of the pole.
Unfortunately that is an all
too common tragedy, but it is not the fault of CEC or other power
distribution companies. They spend a lot of time and money trying to
make poles safe for raptors. The bottom line is that the growing area
requires a great deal of electricity to pump water, keep homes warm,
allow families to cook meals and also power electronic devices and
lighting. Distribution of all that energy requires transmission lines
and poles to support them and it is unfortunate that occasionally an
owl, hawk or eagle runs afoul of the needs of Man. It is impossible to
check all the poles, but with your help reporting raptor
electrocutions, CEC and other power companies will eventually cure the
problem.

This is the second installment in a two-part piece about the decision to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species list in Montana and Idaho.
After the War, there was a lot of 1080 (known to the chemical industry as sodium fluoroacetate) stored in military installations around the US; it was too costly to destroy, so someone came up with the bright idea to give it to the rat-chokers to kill wildlife – and boy, did it ever! From mice to coyotes to eagles, 1080 did the job.
What no one knew at the time was that coyotes are not wolves, even though in some places in the U.S., like Texas, they're called, "wolves." Coyotes do not act, think, or behave like wolves.
If a male coyote (known as the "dog") pairs up with a female coyote, (known as a "bitch") produces 3 to 5 pups, and protects a territory, that's just fine and dandy, that's normal behavior. But if some menace, greater than family or territorial conflict, threatens the coyote, good old Darwin's ideas kick in. The dogs then run with up to three or four bitches, and instead of producing three or so pups, each bitch gives birth to up to eight young. Instead of one pair protecting a given territory, it's "every dog for itself and let's get what we can."

Editors note: This is the first in a two-part essay about the proposal
to remove wolves from the federal Endangered Species List.

Preparing for life on the De-List?Well,
it sounds like those ranchers in Wyoming who shot and killed the
("misbehaving") wolves that (allegedly) killed their livestock (and
immediately posted photos to prove what mighty hunters they are), and
others of their ilk are going to get their way. There is a move afoot
with the feds to remove wolves from the Endangered Species List before
they even get the opportunity to enjoy roaming free in Oregon.
Even
with President Obama's call for "good science," it may just be that he
picked the wrong guy to run the Dept. of Interior. Secretary Ken
Salazar, a rancher turned politician from Colorado, wants to follow the
flawed Bush Bunch and keep the "Big Bad Wolf" syndrome alive.

Monday, March 23rd was a big day for the Land Trust's Camp Polk
Preserve; tour leaders and docents met at the preserve to learn the
details of the restoration of Whychus Creek, a project that will be
kicking into high gear this spring and summer. Crews are slated to
begin breaking ground to restore the historical meandering creek
channel, after which the meadow will be hopping with activity
throughout the summer and fall.

Back in 1964, over Christmas time,
Whychus, then known as Squaw Creek, went on a rampage when lots of warm
rain fell on a wet snow-pack resulting in the creek going over its
banks, flooding Sisters, killing 7 people and costing around $157
million to repair the damages.
Needless to say, that got a lot of
people upset and as the saying goes; the "stuff" hit the fan. The
"government had to do something!" In those dark ages, fish habitat,
stream health and riparian zones were terms very few people understood,
or cared about. Like old growth forests that would be around "fo-ever,"
"fish would be forever as well, so the Powers-That-Be said, 'Lets fix
that creek so it won't flood no more!'"