[ValleyNature] Blomidon Park walk for fairy shrimps etc. (long)

[James W. Wolford]

I apologize for the length of my field trip report, but note the  
extensive note on the oodles of tadpoles found.

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
-----------------------
MAY 23, 2009 - PARKS ARE FOR PEOPLE WALK (annual) at BLOMIDON  
PROVINCIAL PARK, offered by the Blomidon Naturalists Society and led  
by Jim Wolford (with help from Bernard Forsythe and Murray Colbo).   
Beautiful Sunny day, nearly calm in the woods, temperature warm at up  
to 17 C.  Fifteen participants, mostly from the eastern Valley area.

FLOWERS seen: toothwort, Clintonia, red or purple trillium,  
hobblebush, fly-honeysuckle, red-berried baneberry, red-berried  
elderberry, starflower, blue violets and wild strawberry in the open  
field where we parked.  False Solomon's-seal with flower buds.  [Also  
we stopped briefly at Doug and Joanne Linzey's property a km. west of  
The Lookoff to see their many trout lilies in bloom.]

OTHER PLANTS of interest: WILD LEEKS (onions) in abundance and in  
leaf at the beginning of the trail, ostrich ferns along the road in  
the corner of the campground, Christmas ferns, cinnamon ferns, we  
tried for all four native maples but only found three for sure  
(sugar, striped, mountain -- and I'm sure we just missed red maple).

FUNGI: I pointed out a "witch's broom" of deformed branches of a  
young balsam fir, and also the bumpy or cankered bark of a small  
beech tree.

BIRDS seen: many blue jays in the open picnic area by the  
registration building, raven, red-eyed vireo, blue-headed vireo,  
American redstart, black-throated green warbler, ovenbird,  
blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler, northern parula  
warbler, one dark-eyed junco heard?

POND LIFE found by dip-netting in the vernal or temporary pond (no  
inlet nor outlet) along the Jodrey Trail, about 2 km. or less from  
the ne. corner of the campground: water level in pond very high,  
flatworms (planarians), snails, FAIRY SHRIMPS (both sexes present,  
and some females had egg-sacs), lots of small red water mites, one  
small damselfly larva, no dragonfly larvae seen (but probably present  
in the bottom), one large adult backswimmer, some small water  
boatmen, 2 kinds or sizes of whirligig beetles, a mid-sized  
predaceous diving beetle (and one small larva of the same family),  
large larva of a phantom midge, small pupae of midges, larvae and  
pupae of mosquitoes, thousands of BLACKISH TADPOLES (many of them  
tightly clustered in very shallow water at the shoreline)(tadpoles of  
wood frogs? or possibly toads?).

Bernard Forsythe told us an interesting historical anecdote about  
this particular woodland vernal pond: many years ago he happened to  
be there when a strong chorus of trilling AMERICAN TOADS was  
occurring; he noted that the colour of these calling males was very  
dark blackish, quite unlike their typical colours when encountered on  
land; he captured one and put it in something opaque with a lid, and  
checked on it occasionally as he walked back to his vehicle; the toad  
gradually changed and faded its colour back to the light or olive  
brown that is normal for them.  I then told them there is an  
interesting parallel with the colour of calling male WOOD FROGS: in  
my experience these males in the water are coloured very differently  
from the wood frogs found on land (and females); the males are  
coloured quite darkly in a very rich reddish-brown or brownish-red,  
so dark that the eye mask cannot be seen.  Likewise territorial  
calling male SPRING PEEPERS are often dark brown on their backs,  
masking their normal pattern of tan or light brown with darker brown  
markings.

In light of the above finding of lots of BLACKISH TADPOLES and their  
aggregation in very shallow water suggests the possibility that these  
tadpoles are of AMERICAN TOADS?, whose tadpoles are black and form  
dense schools as a warning that they tasted bad!  Now what we need is  
someone to follow their development and then be at the pond when the  
metamorphing froglets or toadlets are emerging in their hundreds?   
Such young amphibians are quite identifiable when in this tiny stage,  
even the spring peepers which then have suckers on their toe-tips.  I  
wonder if anyone on NatureNS or the BNS list was at the pond earlier  
in Spring when the fathers of these tadpoles were calling there?

OTHER ANIMALS encountered: oodles of biting adult BLACK FLIES; a  
smallish MARITIME GARTER SNAKE crossing path at the pond (no  
coincidence, since garter snakes love water and hunt frogs and  
toads); one red squirrel.

A bit past the pond, we had good visibility at the look-off spot  
along  the cliff trail, at Five Islands Provincial Park across the  
water from us.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://blomidonnaturalists.ca/pipermail/nature_blomidonnaturalists.ca/attachments/20090525/4ee5b96e/attachment.html>