Aidan's Nature Blog
By Aidan Garrity
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October 25, 2020 Sudbury, MA
Today i was hiking at Assabet River Wildlife Refuge, and i found many things there underneath logs. I found a beautiful Bald-Faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata), some Turkey-Tail Polypore (Trametes versicolor) and the Red-Backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus). I also found a cute little wolf spider protecting her egg sack. The red backed salamander is by far the most common salamander that i find in the woods. I will find one under 1 out of 3 logs. I believe this is due to there extreme tolerance to lack of humidity, starvation, and temperature. They are also fully terrestrial, meaning they do not need to breed in water, and their offspring never have to live in the water. This makes them classified as "Woodland Salamanders"
Above is the Red Back morph, which advertises it's poison, and below is the lead morph, which does not.
Their diet includes: younger salamanders, spider-lings, land planarians, soil mites, springtails, small slugs, earthworms, meal worms, ground beetle larva, and white worms. They have also adapted a range of defense mechanisms, such as poison secretion, the ability to drop their tails, and incredible skill in quick burrowing and slithering.
-Aidan Garrity
Oct 24, 2020 Framingham, MA
Today, i was playing paintball with my brother, my dad, and a bunch of my dad's friends. While i was ducking for cover, i noticed a patch of lichen on a tree. This reminded me that a great topic to do today's blog on is lichen. Lichen is actually two organisms working together. Algea, and fungi. The algae gives a small percentage of it's energy to the fungi, while the fungi provides a great growing surface, and grows facing sunlight, and reaching for it like plants would.
British Soldier Lichen (Caledonia cristatella) .
This means that lichen should not be classified as a type of organism, in the same sense that a coral reef is not an organism. Lichen is the name of the symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. Lichen actually does not take anything from a tree that you find it on, but only uses the tree to get better lighting for it's algae. This is why algae can grow on inorganic materials like rock, concrete and fabric.
-Aidan Garrity
October 23rd, 2020 Framingham, MA
Today I had my first encounter with one of the coolest birds of prey in New England, The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). Me, my mom and my brother were in a small coniferous forest that people enjoy trail-biking in. Including me. Then i heard something that creeped me out, but it was magical. it was the hoots of the Great Horned Owl. And it was amazing. When owls hoot, they are securing their territory against other owls. This meant i could prompt it hooting my mimicking it's hoot. Every time i heard it hoot, I biked down the trail that it seemed to be coming from. Here is my carefully shot photo of the owl, surrounded by the beauty of the forest at night.
Im not kidding though, the forest after dark is pitch black, (if you've ever been hiking). The real photo is in more of the evening, and while you can make out the owl, the photo is of terrible quality. I took the photo from about 100 feet away and used a not-very up to date iPhone's camera, so that explains the awful resolution. He/She is slightly to the right of the middle of the photo.
(Disclaimer: the below recording was actually inserted here while working on posts several months in the future. It was recorded today, though I had not figured out how to insert videos Today, so I went back, adding it in, justifying it because I intended on doing this the day of, but had technical difficulties.)
IMG_0954.MOVThank you for understanding.
-Aidan Garrity
October 23rd, 2020 Framingham, MA
The role of fungi in the New England woodland ecosystem is massive. Forests would be lichen-free, mushroom free, and would be overflowing with plant matter. Literally, our houses would be buried under logs, dead leaves, needles- UP! WAIT... we wouldn't have houses- UP! we wouldn't exist. We would be buried under plant matter! yes, while fungi may seem rare and unimportant, i do not think we would exist without them. we should not take our clean, modern forests for granted.
...And the other lovable thing about fungus is how they add really beautiful accents to the wilderness.
Here are a couple of examples...
a cluster of Reishi Mushrooms (Ganoderma lingzhi) on a fallen white pine tree
Honey mushroom (Armillaria) growing from the roots of a dead white oak tree.
In my "Blog Post Ideas" google doc, this document is titled "the beauty and the benefits of fungi"
so the next time you go on a hike just keep your eyes out.
-Aidan Garrity
October 22nd, 2020 Framingham, MA
I have been amazed recently at a Common Bladder Snail's (physella acuta) willingness and ease in reproduction. I have had 3 aquariums before, And each time i had an aquarium, I accidentally introduced some Bladder snails and started a huge colony of them. they are also crowding every body of water in our town. if i put a wild plant or rock in my aquarium, i have ordered a small team of snails on the side. Over the years, i have learned to like them though. They eat algae, and they do a cute little dance where they twerk using their shell.
literally, though, after a week of having pond snails in your aquarium, you should notice little, clear egg sacks with tiny white dots inside. I can not overstate how easy it is to breed these guys.
-Aidan Garrity
October 22nd, 2020 Framingham, MA
Today i had trouble working.
Every 30 seconds, I would here a storm of rustling and chirps coming from outside. European Starlings. (Sturnus vulgaris)
A battle was underway. Every branch of our dogwood tree outside had a clump of red berries. Each berry was clearly high in sugar, fiber, and fat and every bird knew that.
European Starling fleeing the dogwood tree because of a loud, aggressive blue jay
A pair of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) trying to sleep despite the storm of loud bird noises
What would happen is, one would hungrily fly in, then the rest would feel a sense of competition and raid the tree as if they were conducting a hit-and-run mission. They would then begin pecking, grabbing, and gulping down berries. and then they would all fly off.
Starlings were not the only bird competing for the berries. That day i spotted House Sparrows, American Robins, Blue Jays, Mourning Doves, and several Gray Squirrels feasting on the sugary treats. By the end of the day, however, the tree was silent. Not a single animal was rustling. No berries remained. This gave a massive clue as to why there behavior was so aggressive, fast, and loud. That was there HUGE dogwood feeding day that only occurred once per year. at the beginning of the day, one starling must have discovered the massive feast, attracting other birds and mammals until the tree was bare at the end of the day.
This may sound like it harmed or put the tree at a disadvantage but it did not. EVERY SINGLE animal that feasted on berries that day would eventually have to poop it out. dropping each seed onto there ground with a chunk of natural fertilizer. the birds and the tree have a symbiotic relationship. the birds get a massive feast, and the tree gets some big help reproducing.
-Aidan Garrity
October 21st, 2020 Framingham, MA
In his article, i am going to tell you the story of my Eastern Newts and explain my Winter Goal.
My winter goal is to breed the eastern newt. I will need to put them through a winter cooling period of two months. this is to simulate the winter that they are being protected by in captivity. this way, when i bring them out of the garage and into a warm, plant-stocked aquarium, they should begin to lay eggs. the day before yesterday I caught a male gripping a female in amplexus. my setup is working. they are courting, and growing breeding features like cloaca pads and impressive, thick, black tipped, tails. here is the setup.
Every 5 days, I float i cube of frozen blood worms into the setup. Because the setup's water is so cold, it takes about ten minutes for the cube to defrost. I have eight newts to simulate a large breeding population. I actually begun with four, But kept finding more until i had eight.
-Aidan Garrity
October 21st, 2020 Framingham, MA
Winter is coming. Halloween is in 10 days and it is becoming more and more difficult to find life. mushrooms are decaying, Maple leaves are turning red, Insects are curled up and out of sight and vernal pools are now empty. I wear a hoodie most days, but occasionally i have to wear a jacket. I have not seen a bullfrog in months.
However, temperatures have not yet dipped below freezing. that will probably begin happening in late November. Today's high is 71 degrees and a low of 59 degrees (Fahrenheit). It would appear that nature is "going way" or "dying". But it isn't. Keep in mind that NO organism goes extinct over the winter. If they did, that organism would not exist. Yes, populations do dip over the winter due to starvation, and freezing, but they make up for that by exploding again in the spring. It's a natural cycle.
Our property has a large population of chipmunks that have burrows in and around our house and garden. they feed on the masses of falling acorns from the 2 huge dark oak trees across the street. They run like they are in a relay race, running to the oak trees, racing back into the garden with filled cheeks. they are competing. they know that they can't ALL survive the next few months so, they each want to be in the surviving group. below is an illustration i made of a Chipmunk eating Acorns.
I can relate a little bit to the chipmunks. My interest requires that i constantly discover new species and try new things. During the winter, It becomes almost impossible to find cool creatures and plants because everything is hibernating. I feel a NEED to collect as much stuff as i can store, as unnecessary as it may seem.
My Bedroom literally has piles of zip-lock bags labeled "Dark Oak Leaves" or "Pine Cones" or "Acorns"
This way I never have to say goodbye to Autumn.
-Aidan Garrity
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