Web Weaver Season!

Wind it up! ‘Tis the season for the web weavers. In late summer, we like to look for orb weaving spiders in the Habitat Gardens. These spiders are fun to watch in the garden and not scary at all! The big and beautiful female Argiope aurantia (also known as the writing spider, zigzag spider, zipper spider, or black and yellow garden spider) weaves a large web with dry spokes and a sticky spiral in an open area between the plants. In the middle of the web, she weaves a bold zigzag, the stabilimentum. Resting head down, she waits for a meal. Sensing vibrations in the silken strands, the spider will prey on anything caught in the web. She’ll throw strands of silk from her abdomen and will wind and wrap up the prey while intermittently biting and injecting venom to paralyze and kill. The spider's venom begins to predigest the prey’s insides, eventually liquefying it completely for consumption.

East Lake Family Art & Nature Day—July 29th

Calling all East Lake families!

Join us, Red Dirt Residency, and Blank Space Bham on SATURDAY, JULY 29TH from 10 am-Noon for a FREE, kid-focused, family art and nature event at Ruffner Mountain to inspire a future mural in the East Lake neighborhood.

Click the link below for more info and to reserve your spot!

Grasses Bloom, Too!

Do grasses bloom? Yes they do! Grass blooms might not be as showy as some of our favorite flowers (grasses don’t need showy flowers to attract pollinators since they’re wind pollinated), but the flowers are beautiful all the same. Hear a few of the native grasses showing out in Habitat Gardens now. Look close, instead of a petal, the flowering unit is called a spikelet. Spikelets are held in arrangements called inflorescences.

1. switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) makes a lovely backdrop with rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) and compass plant (Silphium integrifolium).

2. switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)

3. sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)

4. big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi)

5. wild rye (Elymus sp.)

6. longleaf woodoats (Chasmanthium sessiliflorum)

New Litter Gitter at Turkey Creek Watershed

From Turkey Creek Nature Preserve Manager, Charles Yeager:

This morning, the Osprey Initiative and the Freshwater Land Trust installed a new Litter Gitter in the Turkey Creek watershed and we cannot wait to see the reduction in trash on our banks!

Thank you Commissioner Joe Knight for funding this project and your commitment to supporting Turkey Creek! This would not have been possible without the amazing determination of the local litter removal hero, Charline Whyte, who has been organizing efforts to clean up the banks of the creek and our roadsides for years. As a citizen volunteer, she saw a problem and took the personal initiative to do the work to fix it!

Go check it out for yourself, in action, at Pinson's Bicentennial Park!

Cicadas!

The annual cicadas are emerging!

It’s fun to look for empty shells (exuvia) left behind on plants and tree trunks. As some of the most common species of cicadas here around Birmingham (morning, lyric, dog day, scissor grinder, and dusk-singing) emerge, the buzzing sounds and variety of songs become the loudest and most rhythmic tones in the Alabama summer soundtrack (look for our reel from August 2021 in stories).

Our annual cicadas (these are the species we see every year, not the 13 and 17-year periodicals) emerge after spending two to five years living underground in their nymph forms. Once they burrow out of their tunnels, they climb up vegetation or other structures, shed their exoskeletons, pump hemolymph (insect blood) into their shriveled wings, and morph into flying adults. Male cicadas sing using their tymbals (sound-producing structures on either side of the abdomen under the wings). They sing, and buzz to call a mate. After mating, females will cut slits into twigs with her ovipositor and lay clusters of eggs. Eggs hatch, the small nymphs drop to the ground, burrow into the soil, begin to feed on the roots of trees, and the life cycle repeats. Adult cicadas die in about three to four weeks after emergence.

Hiking in the Heat

Excessive heat warning— Be careful out there!

If you’re not used to hiking (especially in this heat), don’t start now. Wait until more favorable conditions. Hiking in excessive heat can be dangerous. But if you must hike, we offer a few tips for dealing with the heat:

- Start early when it’s cooler

- Choose a flat trail that is open and offers airflow and shade

- Wear loose-fitting, breathable clothing

- Wear a hat, and take along a wet bandanna to help keep you cool

- Drink plenty of water throughout your hike

- Slow your stroll

For flat and open trails, we recommend starting at the Eastern Trailhead and taking an easy stroll rather than a power walk. From the parking lot on Ruffner Road, the wide path connects with the Pipeline Trail and to Lizard Loop Trail. Taking the Pipeline Trail to the Wetlands Trail will offer shade and seating at the Wetlands destination. You can find the Preserve Map on our website here.

Photos by Van Coffey, Land Steward

Notes from the Field: Turkey Creek Nature Preserve

Notes From The Field from Wildlife Care Naturalist, Emily Hutto:

My findings at Turkey Creek from this spring/summer—

1. Wolf's Milk!!!! Also called "Toothpaste Slime" — not actually a fungus but an amoeba! This pink blob is a fruiting body called an "aethalia" and is an aggregate of many single-celled amoeba individuals that come together to reproduce. They live on rotting logs. I was SO excited to find this!!!

2. A dead shrew that we found; genus Blarina. I'm pretty sure it's a Southern Short-Tailed Shrew. Moderate conservation concern in Alabama; a poorly-known species.

3. American Giant Millipede; genus Narceus. Millipedes are adorable and I love them and their tiny little coordinated feet.

4. I love the time of year when my favorite plant, Sassafras, emerges! The first Sassafras of the season that I saw. The original source of root beer (Sassafras albidum).

5. A Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) that we found while dip-netting for macro invertebrates. You're not a macro, silly little snapping turtle!

6. Cope's Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) snooping on us at the Turkey Creek Pavilion.

7 & 8. A collection of macros that we found at Turkey Creek in April — crayfish, hellgrammites (dobsonfly nymph), and dragonfly nymph. Stella gets credit for finding the hellgrammites but I was super excited about them! They're definitely my favorite macro.