SPRING/SUMMER SPECIES LIST

LISTS! I love them. In 2007, I started a species list of the flora I stumble across at Prairie Pond Woods while wandering on The Refresher Course. The Fauna LIST is still a work in progress, so that's the focus for next year!

And not to brag (since I had nothing to do with it), but after several visits to Lynx Prairie, a National Natural Landmark, there are really only a few prairie species growing there (albeit more abundantly) that we don't have...but I'm working on it! Because it is only about a mile away (as the crow flies), both parcels of land, and maybe some in between, were probably once a large alkaline prairie, before agriculture replaced the wildflowers and grasses with crops. Non-native species are indicated with an asterisk*.

Someday I hope you will pick a favorite month of flowers
and come see them in bloom at Prairie Pond Woods!

March/April Blooming

Cut-leaf toothwort, Rue Anemone, False Anemone, Golden Ragwort, Yellow Violet, White Violet, Common Blue Violet, White Trout Lily, Purple Cress, Wild Phlox, Bluets, Virginia Bluebells, Pennywort, Wild Ginger, Wild Columbine, Wild Strawberry, Winter Cress, Pussytoes, Jacob's Ladder, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Pink Lady's Slippers, Star of Bethlehem*, Daisy Fleabane*, Common Cinquefoil, Wild Petunia, Dogwoods, Redbud, Apple.



May/June Blooming

Two-flowered Cynthia, White Milkweed, Large-Flowering Trillium, Lyre-leaved Sage, Indian Hemp, Tall Meadow Rue, Downy Wood Mint, Ox-eye Daisy, Foxglove Beardtongue, Trumpet Vine, Mayapples, Prairie Rose, Honeysuckle Vine*, Deptford Pinks*, Yarrow*, Narrow-leaved Mtn. Mint, Flowering Spurge, American Columbo (not blooming), Buckeye, Ninebark, Black Locust, Wild Black Cherry, Honey Locust, Dark Green Bulrush, Spike Rush, Hawkweed*, Deerberry, Wild Hydrangea,


July/August Blooming (taken from this & last year)

Butterfly Weed, Black-eyed Susan, Blackberry, Multi-flora Rose*, Common Milkweed, Thimbleweed, Slender Ladies Tresses, Elderberry, Sourwood trees, Hickory nuts letting go, Rattlesnake Plaintain, Wild Bergamot, Gray Headed Coneflower, Tall Larkspur, Horse-Nettle, White-Top Daisy, Trumpet Honeysuckle, , Rose Pink Arrow leaf, Pickerel Weed, Wild Senna, Wild Petunia Peak, Sweet or Pearly Everlasting, Boneset, Iron Wood, Virgin’s Bower, Canada Goldenrod, Flat-topped Goldenrod, Stiff Goldenrod, Gray Goldenrod, Mistflower, Teasel*, Downy False Foxglove, Spiked Lobelia, Wild Sensitive Plant, Pokeweed, Joe-Pye Weed, Primrose,Thin-leaved Coneflower, Whorled Rosin Weed, Heal-All,* Wingstem, Queen Anne’s Lace,* Common Mullien,* Narrow-leaved Mountain Mint, Lance-leaved Loosestrife, Flowering Spurge, St. John's Wort, Leather Flower, Agrimony.

EARTH DAY CHALLENGE...

Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day. Established in 1975 to draw attention to the environmental degradation happening in the United States in the form of water pollution, litter (remember the crying Indian), toxic chemical use, and threatened species extinction. It was also a day set aside in the spring to celebrate the earth and all the gifts it gives us for our survival and joy. Today, it is all but relegated to the back burner of our consciousness, as most of the celebratory energies around this time are given to green beer, colored eggs and bunnies. But the degradation continues and we now have new battles to fight on the horizon.

People today have full, busy schedules and we often do things out of our need for convenience. But sometimes convenience causes us to miss a few important steps along the way. It seems that in our culture, a person’s success is measured by how much they take themselves out of their own lives. We pay other people to clean our homes, cut our grass, do our shopping, and take care of our children. Some of the dots we are supposed to connect go missing, and perhaps we are left with the function of a life but not its true form…not our own heart and soul.

So this Earth Day, I ask you to consider a simple change in your lifestyle…one that could have a huge impact on our environment and in the lives of people all across the world…if we can begin a “movement” in that direction. The challenge is to eliminate purchasing and consuming “bottled water” for yourself or providing it at functions, perhaps saving that money to purchase refillable water containers, and/or a home filtration system. This will give you one, quiet moment each day, as you fill up from your very own tap, to consider the wonder of water. To give thanks that you have it so freely. To consider those who struggle to live in areas of drought. And maybe to pray for those who are at war over access to this precious resource.

I know that buying a weekly case of bottled water from the Pepsi Corporation may seem like a harmless, and even healthy, thing to do, but in reality it is more negatively far-reaching than you may realize. Food & Water Watch has an excellent short article on the Health Myths of bottled water and the ways corporations negatively impact water sources in the US, India and other places around the world. It also sheds light on the staggering numbers of plastic water bottles that end up in landfills. You can find the article at http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/bottledUp-tappedOut.

At Prairie Pond Woods, we encourage the use of refillable water containers for our day-retreats, putting it on the list of “things to bring.” We hope you will also consider this change in your everyday lives.

March 2008

All week long, a tiny, non-descript yellow-rumped warbler has stationed himself in the maple tree out back; guarding it against the chickadees, titmice, and sparrows trying to take a crack at the bird feeder. He has proven to be quite the energetic warrior. One minute, diving mid-air for an insect snack, and the next, chasing off an intruder. He doesn’t just fly at them, he flies after them, into the nearby trees, presumably to give them a good avian thrashing.

It’s odd because this species, and warblers in general, don’t frequent bird feeders. In fact, I haven’t once seen him land at either of the feeders. He must just think it’s his restaurant, and therefore permitted to run off any bird not up to his standards. I can’t imagine he’d want to claim this active area as his territory, but I hope he sticks around for awhile (if he doesn’t wear out), so I can truly discover, by any change in plumage color, if he is really a he, or not.

Signs that the breeding season is underway were everywhere. A song sparrow staked out his territory on the phone wires near the barn and sang his heart out. Just a few hundred yards away, a field sparrow did the same near the spring source. They will stay there all day, everyday, with slight changes in location, until a female gives them the green light, which could be a month or more! Ah, chivalry!

Migrations were also evident. On Monday, I identified my very first fox sparrows . A beautiful rust-colored bird that I’m betting I’ve mistaken for a female eastern towhee in the past. This afternoon, to my delight, five of them showed up! Another first, was a few rusty blackbirds that flew in with a flock of red-wings.

On a visit to the pond, I could hardly believe it when my suspicions were confirmed…swimming peacefully in the water was a pair of hooded mergansers AND a pair of wood ducks. Weeks ago, I kept thinking that my identification skills must be pretty rusty because I just couldn’t tell which. Now, I find out both species are ther, and today the count was up to 4 pair of hooded mergansers! I think the wood ducks were just on hiatus. They’ll be back.

That’s the thing I love about nature…if you miss a day…you really do miss a lot. So much is going on; small, seemingly insignificant changes happen and the whole landscape is transformed! One day of sunshine arouses out of dormancy individuals, species and whole ecosystems. On Tuesday, when the temperature reached around 72 degrees, I walked to the barn for firewood and began hearing a slight buzzing sound. Looking around, I thought I might spot the first honeybee of the year. Looking down, it appeared the entire ground beneath my feet was moving. Looking outward, there must have been hundreds or thousands of flies in the grass all around me. They weren’t flying, just hopping about, like bunnies. I’m not sure why they were behaving this way, but in spring, nothing gets the motors running like heat, light and sex!