FIELD GUIDE TO SIX HABITATS: Swamp, field, forest, stream, pond, and transitional
Swamp: Wet feet, stinky knees! Plants must withstand soggy roots for extended periods of time. Dominant trees include red maple, pin oaks and speckled alders. Skunk cabbage is the earlist plant to bloom. Is relative of the tropical Arum family which includes dumbcane. Both skunk cabbage and dumbcane contain calcium oxalate- a caustic chemical that burns the mouth and renders you speech-less. Polleniated by bees and flies at temperatures of only 2 degrees above zero. Flowers are kept warm at 72 degrees inside a young sprout that can melt through snow! News article Dominant ferns include sensitive fern, lady fern and interrepted fern. If your quiet you'll hear red winged blackbirds or catch a glimpse of a painted turtle before it slips into the mud. At night you would hear the haunting cries of the barred owl. Field: Temporary hair cuts and a sun tan! Grass and full sun are predominant. Will succeed to forest. Look for deer and rabbit footprints -they are the dominant browsers. A common bird is the field sparrow, robin gray catbird but red tail hawks wait in the trees to catch them for dinner. If your lucky you might see a blue bird or an American goldfinch. Characteristic herbs are goldenrod, bluegrass, orchard grass, cinquefoil, New England aster, Queen Anne's Lace, and hawkweed. Shrubs are gray and silky dogwood, quaking aspen and staghorn sumac. Complex wild flower-insect interrelationships exist. If you look closely on the flowers you should see host of spiders, bugs and even butterflies. Evergreens such as red cedar are the first tree to succeed in a maturing field. Soil made from dense, fibrous sod and is in symbiotic relationship with bacteria. Only poison welding goldenrod, aster and hawkweed can break through the matty layer. The poisonous compounds in the herbs are called phenols and are released when rain hits its decaying leaves. Fields are often the breeding ground for Eastern box turtles. Forest: Shedding trees and disappearing "ephemeral" wildflowers! Squirrels bury acorns all fall. Forgotten acorns begin new oak saplings in the spring! Typical animals are blue jays, pine warblers, deer, squirrels and chipmunks. Dominant trees are maple, oak, eastern white pine, red maple, American beech, Eastern hemlock and shrub oak. Wild grape entwines tree trunks. Canopy limits light. Only in gaps (tree blow downs and open sunlight) can sugar maple and yellow birch sprout. False solomon's seal, partidgeberry, winterberry, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy cover the ground. Many ground plants like trillum flower in early spring and then die back completely. Nutrients are stored in their roots for the next season. Soil contains lots of fungus which acts as a root hair extension for the trees to soak up water and nutrients. Stream: Common streamside plants are Eastern hemlock, yellow birch, sugar maple, American beech, hornbeam (ironwood), witch-hazel, and speckled alder. Herbs include wood-sorrel, foamflower, cardinal flower, meadow rue, jewelweed and sensitive ferns. A beautiful evergreen ground cover is Princess Pine, Lycopodium. Spores can be ignited as fireworks! Where streams ripple the water is more oxygenated. Cold aerated streams will have catfish and unique macroinvertibrates. Water in shallower exposed sections will be warmer. Warm shallow streams (would/should/could) have trout. Other typical species include stream salmanders, green frog, snapping turtle, eastern painted turtle, wood turtle and northern water snakes. Great blue herons, belted kingfishers, mallards and green herons will soar overhead. Pond: Butt breathing turtles and frozen wood frogs! Succession towards land. Turtles and frogs hibernate beneath the mud. They breathe through their skin or though mucous membranes lining their mouth. Turtles can also use blood-filled tissues in their anus to filter oxygen out of the muddy water. A pond has green plants called algae. They provide food for fish and marine invertebrates- tadpoles scrape the algae off of submerged plant stems. When the animals and plants die they fall to the pond floor. There they lie until torn apart by burrowing and grazing organisms that feed on them. Mudpuppies, hellbenders, and sirens creep along the bottom. Massive carpets of floating duckweed spread across the pond surface throughout the spring until it is fully covered in the soil. Duckweed holds the record as the smallest flowering plant. During the fall the plant makes extra starches and sinks to the pond bottom only to rise up again in the spring. Transitional: Typical plants are gray dogwood, gray birch, sassafras, red raspberries, hawthorne, serviceberries, choke-cherry, sumac, nanny-berry arrowwood, and multiflora rose. Herbs are similar to the field but also contain bracken fern, thistle and mugswort. Birds are brown thrasher (yikes sounds dangerous), warbler, eastern towhee, and if your lucky an American goldfinch or indigo bunting. Common animals are shunk, white tailed deer, squirrels and chipmunks. Other habitats we'll study in this class include: Disturbed: Old apple orchards and mowed roadsides. Pesticides abound. Animals seen include deer, mice and coyotes. Robins, Eastern kingbird, mourning doves and hawks. In the grass you'll also find sedges, rushes and vines. FIELD TRIPS1. Ice Caves. Sam's Point. Ice Caves: Rare dwarf pine barrens on top of the Shawangunk conglomerate rock. The ridgetop barrens are oten less fertile areas with a sparse canopy of stunted trees and a shrubby understory. Pitch pine is the dominant tree. Blueberry, huckleberry, sheep laurel and mountain laurel comprise most of the shrub layer. Other species such as wintergreen, wild lily of the valley and a diversity of moss species serve as ground cover. Animals spotted here include spotted salamander, migratory birdes, black bear, bobcat, fox, fisher and over 200 species of nesting birds. Rare and endangered species include clustered sedge, broom crowberry, timber reattlesnoake, hyssop skullcap, Carolina cranesbill, mountain spleenwort. Peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs showing their status as the come-back kid. Ice caves are actually conglomerate slabs that operate a cold sink, trapping cold air and snow that gets in through the openings above. 2. Esopus Point, Hudson River. 3. Four Winds, Brook Farm SCA tour 4. New York Botanic Gardens 5. Institute for Ecoystem studies 6. Minnewaska State Park- Amphibian count! 7. TBA- macroinvertebrate stream sampling
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