Photo copyright Eric in SF, from Wikipedia

At the very moment we are supporting our schools and churches by picking up red, pink or white geraniums at their Mother’s Day plant sales, a more quiet celebration is happening along the wooded paths in Angle Fly Preserve. There the native Wild Geraniums (Geranium maculatum) are quietly turning their bright purple-pink blossoms to the sun.

These two species – though both commonly called geraniums – are only distantly related as is reflected in their scientific names. The Mother’s Day geranium is in the genus Pelargonium, while the Wild Geranium is in the eponymous genus Geranium. We can blame this confusion on Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, who first placed these two plants in the same genus in the mid-1700’s. By 1789, naturalists had learned more about the plants and separated them into two genera. But the name confusion stuck.

Wild Geranium is also called Cranesbill for the shape of its long, pointy seed capsule that develops after it has been pollinated by bees or flies. The seeds are at the base of the “bill”, held in place by spring tension. When ripe, slight pressure by a passing animal or breeze can catapult the seeds into the air and away from the parent plant.

After you bring your Mom big pots of Pelargonium, take her for a stroll through Angle Fly to see the “real” geraniums. If it is too late by the time you read this, put it on the calendar for 2013.

Photo copyright Lauretta Jones

Visitors to Angle Fly Preserve are welcomed by the remains of an historic farmstead. The Reynolds farmhouse can be traced back to 1803 while two small outbuildings are probably from the early 20th century. The house was occupied through the 1970’s when the property was slated for a huge development.

For much of its history, this property supported its owners through agriculture. Grain was grown in the lower lands while the hills were used for cattle grazing, fattening them for the market. Later the property boasted orchards and the old farmhouse became home to a series of caretakers for the new gentlemen farmers/gardeners on the hill.

At the heart of the Reynolds farmstead is a man made pond. Most times of the year, the farm pond is covered by swirls of single-celled green plants – algae. While algae are an essential part of the pond food chain, they can proliferate beyond an optimal balance point. This creates unhealthy conditions including low oxygen levels, reducing the pond’s ability to support beneficial plants or wildlife.

There are two types of algae in the pond. One flourishes in warm temperatures while the other prefers it cooler. They take turns floating up from the bottom of the pond, dying, descending, and decomposing. Over the years the pond depth has been reduced to less than half its original six to eight feet due to silt erosion and decomposition of the algae.

For the last several years, the Somers Land Trust and hundreds of local volunteers have been engrossed in clearing ten miles of trails that are now reaching completion. As that milestone is reached, the energies of this group will turn to the habitat around Reynolds Pond and the farmstead. One of the first challenges will be to restore the health of the pond and its surrounding ecosystem.

A wildlife management program is in progress in Angle Fly Preserve.  Bow (turkey) hunting is taking place daily May 1-31, dawn-noon.  All areas of the park remain open to the public.

For information, call 232-8441.

This message is brought to you by the Town of Somers and Westchester County Parks.

Photo copyright David R. Lance, USDA APHIS PPQ

A recent invader is both malodorous and voracious.  That is, smelly and hungry.

You may first hear it lightly clattering as it clumsily bounces off a light shade, then the wall and perhaps a book case before it finally alights on a table. When you locate this ishield-shaped nsect, slightly less than an inch long, take care not to squash it. For this is the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys), and its name is fair warning.

Let’s unwrap the name a little. “Marmorated” is a word one doesn’t often hear. It refers to the marble-like pattern on the bug’s back. “Stink” needs no definition, but an article in the Wall Street Journal likens it to, “cilantro mixed with burned rubber and dirty socks.” Since I take great care to handle these insects carefully, I thankfully cannot attest to the accuracy of that description. Finally, “bug.” After years of having been told that creatures with six legs were “insects” and not “bugs”, imagine my surprise when I found there was indeed a subset of insects known as “true bugs.” Stink bugs are in that category. One way to tell when an insect is really a bug is the X shape of their wings when folded on their back.

This Asian native was first discovered in Pennsylvania eight years ago. Like the Asian ladybugs, the marmorated stink bug likes to come inside for the winter. It won’t harm or your house, but it is a serious threat to a very long list of crops and ornamentals including corn, soybeans, apples, tomatoes, butterfly bush, redbud, and sunflower.

If you find them in your home, please don’t panic. Pesticide will probably do more harm to your health than it is worth, and although you can vacuum them up, your vacuum may stink for quite a while. They are easy to catch (gently, within a facial tissue) and then release outside or flush down the toilet. In the meantime, scientists are experimenting with pheromone traps and other control methods.

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This article was inspired by a question sent in by David in Katonah to the Somers Land Trust website. Send your nature questions to LaurettaJones@SomersLandTrust.org. Lauretta is a board member of the Somers Land Trust, an artist and teacher. Learn more about Angle Fly Preserve by visiting SomersLandTrust.org or finding us in Facebook. You can see Lauretta’s paintings at LaurettaJones.com

Photo copyright Lauretta Jones

Trillium. The word rolls pleasantly off the tongue. Trilliums, not surprisingly, are named for their three petals and three leaves (“tri” = three). But a trillium has another trio: three structures that are not what they seem. This is where the non-botanist’s eyes widen. A trillium’s leaves are not really leaves. Part of its root is not a root and its stem is not quite a stem.

Those triangular green things that look like leaves are called “bracts”. They perform the same function for a trillium as do leaves for other plants: using the sun’s energy to turn carbon dioxide into food. Trillium’s actual leaves have evolved into coverings that surround its underground stem or “rhizome” (which one could be forgiven for mistaking for a root). Many plants reproduce from rhizomes, but my sources disagree on whether trilliums do so. Finally, the stem is called a “scape.” A scape is a type of stem that grows out of the ground and has no true leaves.

Many species of trillium grace North American woods. In our area are the Large White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) and the red Wake-robin (Trillium erectum) are native. The flowers of the white trillium turn pink with age.

I know I sound like a broken record, but please never pick a trillium. The blossom will not last long at all, yet it will take many years for the plant to recover (if it does). To protect this spectacular native, New York and other states have made it illegal to pick trilliums on public land.

Trilliums have another characteristic that may strike you as unusual. They rely on ants to spread their seeds. The seeds have a nutritious fleshy structure (an elaiosome) that attracts the ants. They take the seeds to their nests, eat the elaiosome, and throw the seed onto their garbage piles. There, the trillium seeds sprout and soon… more trilliums for us to enjoy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5th is “I Love My Park Day” at Angle Fly Preserve

(Somers, NY) – The Somers Land Trust (SLT) is pleased to announce that Angle Fly Preserve will be participating in the 2012 “I Love My Park Day” event organized by Parks & Trails New York.  The goal of the event is to improve and enhance New York’s parks and historic sites, as well as to bring visibility to the park system’s needs.

Named after the last natural brook-trout spawning stream in Westchester, Angle Fly Preserve is a vital sanctuary for area wildlife.  Its 654 acres are critical to the environmental health of the surrounding area and provide opportunities for hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, bird watching, and more.

During the “I Love My Park Day” event, volunteers will help with a number of projects as we clean up the Preserve following the winter season.  Work will include restoring damaged fencing and repairing signage.

Please join us at 10am on Saturday May 5th at the main entrance to Angle Fly Preserve.  Both new and veteran volunteers are encouraged to participate, and projects will be available for people of all ages and skill levels.  Please bring work gloves and water.  Project leaders will be at the event to help organize volunteers and match people to appropriate projects.

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About the Somers Land Trust
The Somers Land Trust (SLT) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving open space in the town of Somers. Together with the Westchester Land Trust, the SLT holds a number of conservations easements throughout Somers. In addition, we promote environmentally sensitive planning and helped devise the town survey soliciting public input for the Somers Master Plan. Perhaps the most visible achievement of the SLT is the Angle Fly Preserve. The SLT helped bring the 2000 open space funding referendum to voters whose approval enabled the purchase of Angle Fly Preserve. The SLT also assisted with the purchase of this 654 acre property in 2006 and founded the Friends of Angle Fly Preserve, a group of volunteers dedicated to protecting the natural beauty of the land for public enjoyment. For more information about the Somers Land Trust please visit www.somerslandtrust.org.

Photo copyright Lauretta Jones

The warming weather and fresh breezes lift my heart but it is the appearance of fresh green hues one after another that truly thrills me in the spring. In early March the greening begins on the forest floor, dances its way through the understory in April, and continues up through the tree canopies by May. Small wildflowers bloom early to catch sunlight that will soon be blocked by hungry tree leaves. These blossoms are essential to the survival of early awakening pollinators. And so the intimate tapestry of nature weaves itself into summer.

As the level of green approaches our shoulders, a curiously corrugated native is appearing in the wet areas of Angle Fly Preserve. False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) can grow nearly tall as a person as its spiral of leaves unfurl. Soon, clusters of little bright green blossoms will dangle above the plant. A member of the lily family, false hellebore is highly toxic if ingested. So the usual advice holds: look, photograph, enjoy, and leave it in peace.

But not all is green. Look up: among the colorful haze of tree buds are limbs broken in the Halloween storm which sport clusters of dry brown leaves. These reveal a little-known detail about how leaves turn color and fall off their trees in the autumn. Like the twist in a detective story, the truth is the leaves do not fall – they are pushed!

To prepare for the freezing winter, deciduous trees produce a layer of abscission cells between each twig and leaf. These cells form a barrier that stops the circulation between leaf and branch and snips them from the tree. This initiates both the color changes and the leaves’ descent to earth where they are broken down by other organisms into nutrients for the tree’s renewal in the spring. Since these branches were broken before the trees had a chance to develop abscission cells, the leaves never turned color nor received that final shove.

Photo copyright Mike Lubchenko

When we moved into Somers, we were welcomed by a robin that built a nest in our hanging fuchsia. Despite our comings and goings, she successfully fledged her family. The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is to many the classic bird: the one we know if we know only one.

Robins are not quiet birds. If you walk in your neighborhood or past a meadow in Angle Fly Preserve and hear a horse whinnying – but no horses are around – look for a robin calling. The robin’s song, a melodious, “Cheeri-up, cheerily, cheeri-up, cheerily,” is often repeated at length from high in a tree, the light making their breasts glow. On a recent neighborhood stroll, I saw a large flock of robins hopping across a lawn, pulling earthworms and other prey from the damp earth. As I approached, they took off in long, low glides, the white corners of their black tails suddenly flashing.

Although they are named after a European bird that also has a red-orange breast, the two are not related. The American Robin, as suggested by its sweet whistling song, is related to the thrushes that you often hear but rarely see in the woods: the Wood and Hermit Thrushes and the Vireo. Young robins have strongly spotted breasts, more closely resembling their thrush cousins.

Years ago when visiting friends in Ohio, a baby robin landed on a lily pad in a koi pond. It was scrabbling desperately to keep its footing on the slippery surface. My husband heard its terrified squeeks and not knowing what else to do, extended his hand to the tiny bird. Instantly, the bird jumped onto his hand and let itself be ferried to earth. The bird stayed long enough for me to draw a little sketch of him until his plaintive calls were answered by his mother and off they went together.

Drawing copyright Lauretta Jones

Click on the map to download a version suitable for printing.

Thanks to years of hard work by countless volunteers, the trail network at Angle Fly Preserve is now nearly complete!  Hikers from throughout the area have already been enjoying peaceful outings into the woods thanks to temporary trail maps and the comprehensives signage throughout the Preserve.

Today we are happy to release the official Angle Fly Preserve trail map.  It provides detailed information about the full 10 mile trail network including junctions, topology, parking, and restrooms.

Large versions of the map will also be posted at major trailheads in Angle Fly Preserve.  Please note that personal copies of the trail map will not be distributed at the Preserve.  Hikers that wish to have their own personal map should download the map for printing prior to their visit.

Photo copyright Peter Van Wart

My little friend, Grace, likes to explore the Angle Fly Preserve with her parents. She has found many things on the trails but she has never seen an owl. Are there any, she asked?

I am happy to report that yes, owls live in Angle Fly. They usually remain out of sight during the day, gliding from the trees on silent wings to hunt small mammals and birds after sunset. However, there is one species of owl that sometimes comes out during the day. The dark brown eyes peering intently from behind this tree trunk identify it as a Barred Owl (Strix varia); other owls in our area have yellow eyes. Rosey Van Wart, a Somers Land Trust board member and her husband, Peter, were fortunate to see – and even more fortunate to photograph – this owl at Angle Fly. Peter’s photograph demonstrates that keen observation skills and even better luck are required to see owls. Most, like this one, are cryptically colored, blending in well with twigs, branches, light and shadow of the forest.

Barred owls are one species whose territory is expanding; you may even find one in your back yard. They nest in tree cavities, sometimes using sites made by woodpeckers or squirrels. Barred owls stay around all year long, sharing the long, gray winters with us.

The barred owl has a very distinctive, loud and echoing hoot. If you hear a rhythmic, “Who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-all,” you can be sure a barred owl is somewhere near.