missouri – Page 55 – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

Floating the Upper Current

astrophotography, birds, insects, landscape, wildlife, wildlife photography

I’m finally ready to share a few more images from a float down the upper third or so of the Current River that Steve and I had the great fortune to experience this past October. We started at navigable mile 8.0 at Cedar Grove Access and pulled out three days later at mile 51, the confluence of the Current and that other, oh-so desirable, Ozark stream – the Jacks Fork. If one floats slow and quiet, the opportunity to see wildlife is very high in this National Park (Ozark National Scenic Riverways N.P.). I’v shared a couple of images of these guys previously. I believe we found 8-9 Mink during the first day of this float. It was enjoyable watching them busily hunt along the stream banks, mostly oblivious to our presence. As usual, Steve did a great job in keeping us quiet and pointed in the optimal direction for capturing some images.

It was quite a challenge to keep up with these guys as they fished. This one below had caught a nice-sized crayfish and barely slowed to stop and enjoy his snack.

Here is a photo of one investigating the water prior to dipping back in.

Not only does a float down the Current allow for great observations of wildlife, but many geological features are most easily seen by being on the river as well. Cave Spring can now be accessed via a nice newer trail, but it is much nicer accessing it by boat. The endpoint of a vast and interesting karst drainage system, Cave Spring rises from the back of a short cave. At the rear of this cave one can guide a boat over the vertical conduit of the spring, which is ~155 feet deep! What an eerie sensation it is to shine your light down and still see no more than a fraction of the length of the conduit shaft. In the image below, I am on a dry exposed shelf adjacent to the spring’s outlet and Steve is guiding the canoe towards the river.

Pultite is a spring found on this upper stretch of the Current River that is surrounded on all sides except the river by private property. This means that one must boat or wade/swim to visit it. At only ~ 1/10 the output of Big Spring, Pultite is still quite a good-sized spring with and average daily output of ~ 25 million gallons. The effluent channel on this one is quite attractive and I hope to visit more often.

If day one was for the Mink, day two was our River Otter day. We had no Mink, but 5 or 6 of these large weasels were spotted.

Not to forget the birds! These days, a trip to nearly any permanent Missouri water source will likely bring an encounter with a Bald Eagle. Observing these guys in the Ozarks will never get old to me.

Another constant companion on these floats are the Fish Crows, here pictured finishing up a little Ozark lobster.

We were fortunate in having mostly clear and dry skies on this trip, which allowed us to throw our bags directly on whatever gravel bar that struck our fancy and sleep directly underneath the stars. A morning fire was necessary – not only to burn the dew off of our sleeping bags, but of course, for the river-water French-press coffee. Dark skies on these streams afford great opportunities for astrophotography. My only wish for this trip is that I was a little more tolerant of the cold, tiredness and laziness that limited my patience for getting better nightscape images… 😉

I will be posting more images of this trip on my Flickr account in the near future. Thanks for visiting and I hope to post again in the near future.

-OZB

The Hovering Kestrel

birds, wildlife

I was able to catch this male Kestrel hovering along a patch of grass at RMBS, hunting for insects and small rodents. Kestrels don’t always hover-hunt, but will do so when they have a good source of wind to work with, as is often the case at Riverlands.

-OZB

Plant Parasites

native plants, Plant galls

Most of us are familiar with many of the parasites that infect animals, since we, as animals, are susceptible to many. Tonight I am sharing a few easily spotted and recognizable forms of parasitism in the plant kingdom. The photograph above was taken, as were all in this post, at Shaw Nature Reserve and shows a relentless parasite that can infect a number of prairie plant species. Dodder (Cuscuta sp.) is an obligate parasite, meaning it must find a specific living host plant to infect in order to survive and reproduce. One can see by the orange coloration, this plant does not contain chlorophyll and must pull the necessary nutrients from its host plant.

The next parasite is of a form that I am just beginning to study and am finding quite interesting. Plant galls are simply growths of plant tissue, formed not by the host plant, but by other organisms. The variety of gall former as well as gall formation is astounding, to put it mildly. Insects are the primary organisms that cause gall formations, but other arthropods, fungi, bacteria and viruses form galls as well. Researchers are just beginning to learn the basics behind how these parasites cause the formation of such specific, and often beautiful galls.

The particular gall that is found on this poor Rosinweed plant pictured above is caused by a Silphium Gall Wasp (Antistrophus sp.). One of the gloriously interesting facts about galls, much like other forms of parasitism, is the specificity most commonly found between host and gall former. Most often a gall former can infect only one species of plant, or sometimes a group of closely related plant taxa. Such is the evolutionary arms race between host and its necessarily specific parasite. In the case of so many prairie host and gall former relationships, the outcome is sad for both. The near elimination of this habitat has caused dramatic reductions in the variety and abundance of prairie plant species, and accordingly, has had similar effects on the insects that form galls on these plants.

Having observed these galls for so many years, I decided to cut one open to see the developments within. A single gall can host many developing was larvae. In this small section I was able to count no fewer than five wasp galleries, each harboring a developing wasp. The two examples of parasites presented above are just a small example of the number of parasitic species that the Silphium support. A number of other insects/arthropods use Silphium for food and shelter. Birds love the seed and use the plants’ long strong stems for perches. In many ways the Silphium are keystone species and can be considered as important to the prairies as trees are to the forests.

Grape Phylloxera is caused by an aphid-like insect and is a parasite to native grapes. In the mid-1800s this species was accidentally released in Europe and nearly destroyed the French wine industry. The life cycle of this insect and its relationship to its host is mind-boggling. As many as 18 different life stages have been identified – from sexual to asexual, winged, foliage feeding to root feeding. This complexity, as with so many other multi-stage, specific host-parasite relationships creates major problems in man’s attempt at developing commercial controls. To date, this parasite cannot be controlled with any pesticide solution; the only remedy is still resistant stock that nature has developed in this host-parasite arms race.

-OZB

Strawberry Bush

macro

The Strawberry Bush is a rather new one for me. Steve and I found these plants, with freshly opened fruit capsules along the St. Francis River within Millstream Gardens CA this autumn. Rare due to loss of preferred habitat, this plant prefers moist, sandy soils along stream banks. Along with the St. Francois Mountain region, this plant also grows in extreme south-eastern Missouri.

Long-horned Bee – Male

macro, wildlife

Tonight I thought I’d share a male Long-horned Bee. These guys are very tricksy in getting a photograph as they never seem to stop moving. I haven’t been able to find them resting early in the day yet.

-OZB

Long-horned & Long-tongued

macro, wildlife

This female Long-horned Bee is showing off her long tongue in this GIF I created.

Macro Monday – Grey Treefrog

macro, wildlife

While hunting for interesting arthropods to shoot this summer at the wetlands of SNR, I cam across a large number of younger Grey Treefrogs.

Some folks might get confused by the green coloration of the young Grey Treefrog, however this is likely due to the younger frogs being fond of denser vegetation.

-OZB

Binder Lake Scoters

birds, wildlife

As has been my luck with the rarities lately, if I can find them at all, it will be under poor light. This is the pair of Surf Scoters that have been spending time lately at Binder Lake, just outside Jefferson City. This was my first trip to the lake and it held a number of interesting waterfowl species.

Surf Scoters typically winter on almost any coastal waters of North America. My best guess is that these guys were on their way to gulf waters and decided to have an extended stay in a midwestern lake during this quite autumn we have had so far.

In my opinion, this is a couple of hens, but I am no expert.

White Out at Squaw Creek NWR

birds, wildlife, wildlife photography

Steve and I took advantage of a long holiday break by making a pilgrimage to Squaw Creek NWR. Even though the temps were in the 50s and 60s, you can see we still had white out conditions… 😉

Take a look at the video below…

Missouri’s Night Wanderers – The Striped Bark Scorpion

macro, wildlife

For today’s post I am presenting a few photos taken of a very common arachnid found in glades and drier forests of southern Missouri – the Striped Bark Scorpion. No, there is no reason to fear these secretive scorpions; they are only dangerous if you happen to be an arthropod smaller than they are. They are, however, much more common than I ever would have expected. Steve and I had much success finding them in the glades of Hughes Mountain Natural Area this past summer. Wait until the sun has well set, turn on your blacklight and walk around for a while. We were finding them easily every few steps.

The photo above shows what they look like to the naked eye (illuminated by flash). These guys are extremely fast as well as stealthy. The use of blacklight is almost mandatory to efficiently find them. These lights as well as a typical flashlight/torch brings all sorts of other arthropod visitors to the glade top as well.

So, why do they glow under ultraviolet light? This is an interesting question that has not yet been satisfactory answered by those who study these creatures. Hypothesis range from helping to attract prey, to aiding in their ability to see and sense light. I took the photo above soon after we watched this guy sprint approximately a meter towards us in the blink of an eye. At the time, Steve and I assumed it was a defensive run (or lunge) in reaction to us being near it. It was not until days later that I discovered what the real purpose of that dash had been…

Can you see what that reason was? Here’s a closer look…

Yes, I believe its dash was in capturing a prey – this small wolf spider – probably the only other predator that might be as common or more common than the scorpions themselves in this nocturnal food web.

Thanks for visiting…
OZB