Going Down for Nettles

Going Down for Nettles

July 8, 2019

Through the heat and humidity, the density, the buggy-ness of summer, I ventured down to the Cottonwood Pond area, in the bottom of the woods, to gather some nettles.

In a garden in town (a new community project), which is extremely lush, bean plants were looking overall pale. Another member of the project, who teaches Horticulture at the local college, said it looked like iron deficiency. I got to thinking of how many dark greens are high in iron (one reason they are so good for us, too). And, I remembered that nettles are especially good sources. One often hears of Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica), but our woods is full of Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis) – which, fortunately, has the same qualities as Stinging Nettles (including the stingers!).

I would collect fresh nettles, soak them in a bucket of water for a couple of days or so to make a "tea", strain that into another bucket, toss the solids into the compost pile, and funnel some of the "tea" into a spray bottle. Then I would spray the leaves of the bean plants and see if it would help them.

So, I took a five gallon bucket, a pair of pruners, and a pair of thick-enough gloves, and went on down.

You can see that the woodland slope is pretty bare at this time of year. That's because the full tree canopy blocks most of the sunlight, so the bulk of the flowering plants do not flourish this time of year. Their season was early spring, when this slope was covered in them.

The slope is practically bare, but for a few clumps of Fragile Fern and grasses, some spent Trillium here and there, etc.

Woodland slope to the southeast

A little further down the slope, heading into the bottom land

Further into the bottoms

Here you can see the sparse slope compared to the woods bottom. The bottom land has few trees and is very sunny. For plants that inhabit this area (which is also always wet to some degree) – this is their time! The bottom is as full now as the woodland was in early spring – but with different plants.

Looking up the creek from the Cottonwood Pond area

Looking down the Creek from the Cottonwood Pond area

The Swampy Spot area near Cottonwood Pond

The Root Ball of the fallen Cottonwood, as well as Cottonwood Pond and it immediate area, were also lush with plant life. The Root Ball had been shrinking over the years, having been subjected to rains, freezes, thaws, gravity, and the action of animals burrowing into it. Chunks of Cottonwood roots gradually rotted and fell off. The whole Root Ball became a haven for tree saplings, vines, and many other kinds of plants.

The north/northwest edge of the Cottonwood Root Ball, with the Mud Pile below on the bottom side

The bottom side of the Cottonwood Root Ball

The bottom side of the Root Ball, above "little pond"

Before turning left into the expanse of nettles to do my task, I took time to look around.

Mireille at the Creek, with Raccoon tracks

Looking over the Inlet/Barkless Log at Cottonwood Pond (or, Puddle)

Raccoon tracks in the mud of Cottonwood Pond - front and back feet

A bottle just outside the Inlet, pushed there by various episodes of rushing water - who knows how old the bottle is and how long it took to get here, but it may have started way, way back where the Creek enters our woods from under the road.

Canopy over Cottonwood Pond - the fallen Cottonwood tree was once part of this

Elderberry in bloom next to Cottonwood Pond. The plants here are very tall, stretching up from the bottom land toward the light. Elderberry plants in the higher parts of the woods are much smaller.

The airy flower clusters of Honewort, next to Cottonwood Pond

Then, it was into the nettles (long pants are a must, too) with my bucket.

The start of Temporary Creek #2, through the Wood Nettles

(in the last post, Tracking Deer, this was full of animal tracks!)

The bottom/wetland area northwest of Cottonwood Pond

Wood Nettles

And, then, back up the slope to the well house pump, where I ran water into the bucket, enough to cover the nettles.

Out popped a small being! It landed on my glove.

What was this odd little creature that had just escaped drowning? This tiny, pale thing with the incredibly long antennae?

I found out that it is a Carolina Leaf-Roller Cricket (Camptonotus carolinensis). It had probably been sheltering in the nettle patch, where I had so rudely disturbed it. I let it onto a nearby plant and hoped it would do fine.

Here are some things I found out about it:

• It belongs to: Order Orthoptera (those insects with the big, strong, jumping back legs, like grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, etc.); Suborder Ensifera (Long-Horned Orthopterans); Infraorder Tettigoniidea (Katydids, Camel Crickets, and their relatives) Family Gryllacrididae (Raspy Crickets).
• It runs rapidly (I didn't get to see this)
• It hunts at night – and it hunts (gardeners, you'll love this) – aphids!
• Nymphs are about in July and August, adults in September and October (though, I really don't know how one would tell the difference, since it's so pale and wingless as an adult)
• The antennae are about five times the length of the body
• The one I found is a female. How do I know this? Look at the photo – see that thing at the rear end, held over its back? That's the ovipositor, which is sometimes held straight out, and sometimes over the back.
• It shelters during the day in a rolled up leaf (except when people like me disturb it), and here's how it does this: bites through the leaf to form a flap, folds over the flap, pulling down the edge with its legs, glues the edges together with “silk” from glands on its mouth. Voila!
• Sometimes is uses pods of the Bladdernut shrub (Staphylea trifolia) as shelter (we don't have Bladdernut in our woods, but there are many in some other woods in this county).
• The major predator threatening the Caroline Leaf-Roller Cricket is the Katydid Wasp (Sphex nudus), which paralyzes it and takes it to its nest to feed its young. This wasp also hunts other Raspy Crickets and Katydids.

Kinda cute, isn't it?

Sometimes we don't see the things living around us. In fact, there are tons of things going on in the woods that we never see. If I hadn't harvested nettles, I may have never met the Caroline Leaf-Roller Cricket.

Now, if I can only get past the intensely busy period I have been in so I can spend more time just hanging out at Cottonwood Pond, and in the woods in general, watching, listening, maybe finding some more unusual beings.

(By the way, I had no idea there was such a thing as an “Infraorder”.)

Tracking Deer (and other things) at Cottonwood Pond

Tracking Deer (and other things) at Cottonwood Pond

June 3, 2019

Looking down the slope to Cottonwood Pond and its environs

Woodland slope to the south/southeast, with the bottom land and creek below

Looking downstream from Cottonwood Pond

Lots of water had been rushing through the bottom of the woods, including the Cottonwood Pond area.

The downstream side of the Barkless Log near Cottonwood Pond - vegetation is flattened where water rushed over a bump of land back to the Creek

That meant lots of mud. And that meant there could be some clear animal tracks.

g

Raccoon tracks gouged onto the Creek bank, near where the Seep (overflow from Cottonwood Pond) pours into the Creek

What are these tracks in the Creek mud?

Worm trails left in Creek mud

In the past, I had found many tracks of Raccoon, Squirrel, birds, and sometimes dog and cat. One time I found a Deer print, after having wondered if deer ever spend time at Cottonwood Pond.

What I didn't expect on this June day were many deer prints!

The first deer track spotted on this day!

Deer and other animals had been coming down to the Creek - maybe for drinks, or to hunt small water animals, or just to jump over and get somewhere else

I then saw where deer had been jumping over the Barkless Log, near Cottonwood Pond.

The approach

Up and …

Over!

Sticking the landing!

And, on into the vegetation.

Onward, Ho!

After jumping the Barkless Log, the tracks had faded into the bottom area to the southeast.

The southeastern bottom land, seen from above

Some had been around the Inlet to the pond area.

Whoops! It's slippery there!

Let's check out the main pond itself.

Raccoons - front feet

I don't know what made this track ...

… but I do know it's very small

Let's look at the Swampy Spot and Temporary Creek #1 that flows into it from the south/southeast.

The Swampy Spot, southeast of Cottonwood Pond - overflow (bottom) runs down to the Inlet

Where Temporary Creek #1 (top) enters the Swampy Spot, there were many animal tracks, but not much deer

What made that long streak in the mud in the lower right?

But, heading back toward Cottonwood Pond I picked up deer tracks again.

A deer trail

Deer had been going through the Isthmus (where water flows between the main and "little pond" on the north side)!

From somewhere, many deer tracks converged onto Temporary Creek #2 (which is overflow from "little pond" that returns to the Creek).

There they go!

A veritable stampede past the Two-Trunk White Ash

Other tracks were mixed up with the deer, though they may have been traveling this route at different times.

Some kind of canine!

Canine track by my shoe … but, what is that little track ahead of the canine?

Temporary Creek #2 had become a wildlife trail!!

Intense and narrow traveling

Backing up, I found that deer had been crossing the “little pond” area (toward Temporary Creek #2), from further southeast. But, since I had not really seen deer tracks in the Swampy Spot to the southeast - maybe they had come down the nearby slope, straight to this spot. There is a regularly used deer trail at the top of the woods (at the edge), beyond the top of that slope. Sometimes I find signs that the deer have veered from the trail into the woods, though I had never seen signs of them coming this far down.

Going back along Temporary Creek #2, I saw tracks going deep into the soft mud. There must have been much slipping, sliding, and pulling-out of feet.

A deep deer track next to the beginnings of a crawdad chimney - the latter gives an idea of how soft the mud is here

Mireille came tracking with me - I wondered what scents she picked up

There continued to be a variety of tracks. Did all the wildlife just find this an easy way to cut through the tall vegetation, on to other places? Had the canine been somewhere in sight of the deer, or raccoons, behind them, tracking them? Or did they happen to come along at a different time? Surely all of these animals picked up the scents of the others, no matter when they traveled through.

But, where did they all go? I got to where the distinctively clear muddy trail, packed with animal tracks, had ended.

It disappeared. I found some tracks along the mud of Temporary Creek #2 where it turns west toward the main creek, but not many. Evidently, most animals had gone forward, instead.  

But, where? Though the tracks became less obvious, I could see some places in the tall nettles and other vegetation of the bottom land ahead where animals (mainly the tall deer) had headed off in different directions.

Through the nettles

After that, I turned back. My attention turned away from the tracks below, I noticed other wildlife, or signs of them.

Freshly-made woodpecker hole in dead Sycamore tree

"Sawdust" created from something burrowing through an old log

Protective foam created by a Spittlebug nymph on a grass stem

I also had seen a Black Swallowtail butterfly flitting through the area, a Daddy-Long-Legs trying to hide on a plant, and little Fishing Spiders skittering across the floor. I very briefly saw the iridescent blue tail of a Skink disappear into a log.

The bottom land of my woods was teeming with activity, but it was not always obvious.

As I looked across the whole area, I imagined the variety of mammals that had been busy roaming through here, when I had not been looking.

Note: Some people might find it unremarkable that there are so many deer tracks in the area. Indeed, many deer wander our woods and move through them on regular trails. But, the signs of them have always been in the upper reaches. In all the years I have been observing Cottonwood Pond in the bottom of the woods, it was a long time before I saw one single deer track there, which was an exciting find. Then there was the time I looked down into the woods and saw a single doe resting next to Cottonwood Pond, also exciting (see "Oh, Look!", posted on June 12, 2018). To suddenly see tracks of a whole herd of deer around Cottonwood Pond - that was unprecedented! 

Bonus photos:

On the slope going down to Cottonwood Pond there is a random brick (must have fallen down from the edge of the woods years ago) that has been growing a really nice crop of moss.

Someone has cleanly chewed half of this fresh Sycamore leaf, found on the Creek mud.

***************************************************************************************