Weekday Nature Walk: Wetland Wonders (Amazing Nature April Contest #1 Entry)

in Amazing Nature3 years ago

October, 2020
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January, 2021
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March, 2021
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April, 2021
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Part of what makes nature amazing to me is how much it can change in such a short amount of time. Only a few months ago, this forest was quieted by the chill of winter, but now it is coming back to life. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, toads are chirping, and the fungi are fruiting. Life is returning to the forest at last.

This post is meant to document a walk through one of my favorite forests and mushroom hunting grounds. The diversity of new and old-growth forest, marshy bogs, and sandy slopes provide a wide variety of habitat for a variety of species both native and migratory and has solidified this particular forest as one of my personal favorites.

The undulating slopes of this region were carved out by the tremendous weight exerted by the advance and eventual retreat of glaciers up to 1 mile thick around 10,000 years ago. Only the strongest of stones were capable of surviving, evidenced by the many out-of-place granite boulders that dot the forest floor to this day; the remainder were ground into the fine sands that came to form the surrounding sloped terrain.

This week, I decided to stick the forest wetlands to see what new life was taking root in these first few weeks of Spring. I was not disappointed :)

Attached are my observations from my hike along with my assumed species identifications. As always, feel free to correct me on my identifications if you believe I am mistaken!


Plants

Eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus):

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Spring beauties (Claytonia sp.):

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Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris):

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Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum):

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Mayapple (odophyllum peltatum):

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Amphibians

Green frog (Lithobates clamitans):

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Eastern grey tree frog (Hyla versicolor):

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Fungi

Artist's bracket (Ganoderma applanatum):

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Lumpy bracket (Trametes gibbosa):

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Hairy bracket (Trametes hirsuta):

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False turkeytail fungus (Stereum ostrea):

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Fomitiporia sp. (Fomitiporia tsugina?):

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Birds

Tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor):

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Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens):

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Mute swan (Cygnus olor):

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Canadian goose (Branta canadensis):

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Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris):

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Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus):

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Common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula):

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Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura):

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Animals


WANTED: Seed thief (Sciurus niger)

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Thank you for walking with me.

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 3 years ago  

Great documentation of .. Nearly everything 😁 .. Of the wetland wonders in just one post .. The naming was great 😍 ... Great read, hehe .. Looks like an amazing mushroom hunting territory 🍄

Thank you! It is a good mushroom hunting spot. I keep checking every few days for morels, but I haven't found any quite yet.

Hello @tych021!

Great showing off of the biodiversity of the area ^^
We appreciate your work and your post was manually curated by @adalger from the DNA team!

Reach us on Discord to learn more about the project!

Wonders of nature in wetland along with naming, good fun taking a walk with you seeing so much action in this area, well done @tych021 most enjoyable!

Amazing post full of beauty and info you certainly didn't miss out on anything was really enjoyable scrolling down this post very nicely done 👍