It's About to Get Loud in KC......

The Kansas City area is about to experience one of the great events in the insect world- the 17 year cicada emergence. You may have already noticed the exit tunnels in the ground. Perhaps you woke and went outside one morning to find them perched, by the hundreds, on your plants. Or you might have started seeing the exoskeletons everywhere. No matter how much you have or have not been aware of the emergence, you are about to hear it.

The adults emerge at night when the soil temperature exceeds 64 degrees Fahrenheit. They will climb on nearby vegetation and complete the final molt into adult form. Right after molting they will appear white and then shortly darken as their exoskeleton begins to harden. The process of a fully hardened exoskeleton can take 4-6 days in warm weather and longer if it's turns cooler. After the process is complete they begin adult behavior, including singing.

The adults live on woody vegetation. Mated females will slice into branches and lay a series of Y eggnests containing approximately 20 eggs per nest. She can lay up to 600 eggs. In 6-10 weeks the eggs will hatch and the nymphs will drop to the ground. They then burrow underground and find a root for feeding. They will continue to grow underground for the next 17 years. Sometimes damage from feeding and nesting adults can cause foliage to turn brown. This is called "flagging". It is caused by damage to the peripheral branches of a tree. Most trees , while unsightly, will survive this with no long term issues. Orchard trees and saplings planted in the year or two before a periodic emergence may be the exception to this rule if they sustain extensive damage.

Periodic cicadas differ from annual cicadas in both appearance and song. Songs also differ between species. The populations of periodic cicadas exceed those of annual species. They will number between tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per acre. In some cases densities can reach 1.5 million per acre.

The hotter the temperature gets, the more the cicadas sing. Unlike their annual counterparts, periodic cicadas will sing during the heat of the day with levels that can reach 88 decibels. This only lasts a few weeks. The annual cicadas emerge in the second half of summer. The periodic cicada offspring from this year will emerge in 2032, during the next 17 year cicada event.

For more information or to report your cicada emergence go to www.magicicada.org

Life in the Leaf Litter

One of hardest things for me as a homeowner was learning to leave the leaf litter in my yard. I don't mean in the front yard, at least mostly not in the front yard, but in the back where the woods occupy half of my 1/3 of an acre lot. After all, leaf litter signals that owner is lazy and doesn't take care of their yard, right? But the more I learned about what life leaf litter brings to the ecosystem I realized that all those fallen leaves really signal a thriving natural community.

The transition from buying plants that were 'pretty' to buying plants that were aesthetically pleasing but also supported wildlife was a pretty quick change. It's taken a while but I've eliminated most plants that are introduced Eurasian species and offer little, if anything, to nature. I now primarily add native plants to my yard. They are beautiful and who can resist turning the leaves over to see who lives there? Not my 4 year old. He checks every plant to see what 'friends' he can find. It took me 40 years to get there, he was doing it at 2.

What took longer was to stop using wood mulch. Natives can be beautiful in a formal garden setting, but I still thought I needed to mulch. I knew not to use cypress mulch because of the great loss of cypress groves due to the demand for this mulch. But I still thought some mulch was needed. I'm over that now.

However, the last remaining pillar of what I thought I needed to do in my yard was to clean up the leaf litter. Then I had the epiphany- I needed to look at all aspects of my yard the same way I looked at the plants- evaluate what I do by what impact it will have on nature. Within reason, if it's good for nature I try to accommodate it. (Don't worry, I still get rid of poison ivy for obvious reasons despite its exceptional wildlife benefits.) At that point, I could no longer deprive my yard of its leaf litter.

It started with the Five-lined skinks that Dylan and I love so much. We look forward to their return every spring and miss them when they stop coming out in the fall. The female lays her eggs midsummer in leaf litter or loose soil, created by the great decomposition process of forest debris. We especially like the young ones because of their neon blue tail. Five-lined skinks are listed as threatened in Connecticut, a species of conservation concern in Vermont, Minnesota and New York and has been extirpated from Massachusetts. Visit my yard any warm, sunny day between March and October and you can find them basking in the sun down by the garage, up by the front door and several places in between.

Many singular bees also nest below the leaf litter. They will also overwinter below thick layers of debris. Native bees are important for pollinating woodland plants. Recent literature also highlights their role in pollinating crops and other important plants. I always think I have succeeded when I see bees buzzing around on my plants.

One critter I hope to soon attract to my yard with a new pond going in soon is tree frogs! We use to have so many in the neighborhood they would hang out in my mailbox. The mail lady would leave me notes asking me not to put frogs in my mailbox. Then one year I didn't have any more. I was perplexed at what happened to them. A short while later I realized the new neighbors took out the small pond in the backyard next door. It was localized extinction for the tree frogs. Grey tree frogs overwinter under leaf litter and if I have any hope of enticing a population back to the neighborhood, they will need leaf litter. By the way, if you live north or east of me and have wood frogs in your area, they also overwinter in leaf litter.

One thing I was surprised to learn is most people don't see lightening bugs anymore. I still have them in fair numbers but so many other people have said they haven't seen them since their childhood. What' s the reason we are losing lightening bugs? There are really 3 reasons for their dramatic decline. First is our love of chemicals. Obviously fertilizers, pesticides and other toxic chemicals we put on our yards are not good for insects.

Second comes light pollution. During mating season, which runs from May to August, the male will fly around flashing their lights. The female will be down on the ground or on a plant waiting for a male to come by with the right flashing pattern. When he does, she responds by giving a glow back to him. If there is too much light between him and a dark sky, she may not be able to see him. Likewise, if the ground is lit up like a ball stadium, he will not be able to see her signal back.

Third, it's the leaf litter. The worms that emerge from the eggs she lays after a successful mating are called glow worms. They love damp leaf litter. If you don't have some areas that support this habitat, you won't have glow worms and hence, you won't have lightening bugs.

There are many other fabulous species that live in leaf litter- among them are snails, slugs, spiders, beetles and millipedes. Did you know millipedes can live for up to 10 years! That's quite a feat for so many feet! Mourning Cloak and Question mark butterflies overwinter as adults in leaf litter. Clearwing sphinx moths and to some extent luna moths over winter in cocoons in leaf litter.

All this brings me to my favorite species that depends on leaf litter- birds. Because of the rich, diverse community leaf litter supports many species of birds prefer foraging in leaf litter over the tree canopy. The Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Ovenbirds are some that depend on leaf litter. One of the first signs a Brown Thrasher has come to my yard is from a fury of leaves popping up from the ground.

Knowing all this, it was much easier to leave the leaves where they fell. I would rather spend an afternoon watching the Eastern Towhee picking through my leaves than raking up butterflies and 10 year old millipedes to take to the leaf and brush drop off area to meet their demise. So if you come to my yard in the spring, after most people have tidied up their lawns, expect to see lots of fallen leaves.... and birds, spiders, lightening bugs, millipedes, skinks and maybe sometime in the near future-grey tree frogs!!

Let there be Gulls..................

In case you haven't heard- there's an Ivory Gull on the Mississippi River in Quincy, IL. This bird, from the very top of the world, has created quite a stir among birders and prompted a pilgrimage to a small town nestled on the banks of a mighty river.

There wasn't a decision about should I go. It was only how am I going to go. The bird was discovered on January 2 and the plan was to be there on Sunday the 4th. It didn't work out. But on Tuesday, January 6, six birders from KC found themselves headed east with Quincy, IL programmed in their iphones.

When we arrived around noon, the bird had not been seen all morning. Well, maybe there was a sighting or two of an all white bird, but observers were too reluctant to call it. We scoped from near The Pier restaurant. Other birders joined us. Someone was headed north to look. Phone numbers were exchanged and it was cold. Windy and in the teens. Every moment we wondered if the bird had moved on, the cold seemed colder. Then the phone call came- they had it bathing on the Missouri side of the river off Quississippi Island. We headed north, but really didn't know where we were going.

There is an All American Park and if you go through it you end up on a little one lane bridge across the east side of the river. If you go past that you end up on the island. Park by the bathrooms and take the trail down to the river. Within a few minutes there were over 30 birders looking through binoculars and scopes and there on the ice was a pure white gull. Just sitting there like a frozen chunk from the river.

Of the 30 plus birders there, at least 15 were from the KC/St. Joseph/Chillicothe area. We saw old friends, new faces of the names we've known for a long time and met people from all over. Larry Lade was there. We shared a Least Tern several years back. Jo Ann came too. We celebrated her 80th birthday not too long ago and her 600th life bird! I wondered how far past 600 the gull fell into her life list?

If you were looking to compare scopes, this was the place to do. I think they were all represented. Greg Neise let me peak through the Kowa 88 that I've been dying to glance into. I also stood next to him as he talked to an editor at the Chicago Tribune about the stir over a gull. The article came out later that day- witness to the promotion of birding. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/pets/ct-rare-ivory-gull-sighting-met-20150106-story.html

This was Micky's first, big chase and one of the few birds Mark would chase. Nancy liked it so much she's going back to see it again this weekend- if it stays put.

After about 40 minutes, although the cold seemed to subside once the bird was found, we were headed back off the banks of the river and in search of a hot meal. I wasn't allowed to carry my scope due to a flying lesson I failed on the way down but managed the short trek back without incident. We decided on The Pier restaurant- easy to find and a good way to support a local business.

Once inside, I'll admit I was slightly intimidated by the white table cloths and our less than formal, outdoor, stay warm no matter what, clothing. It only last a few seconds. We were immediately greeted by an energetic host who hurried to make a table for 6... no wait. Now there's 8.... umm 10.... maybe a couple more? He didn't bat an eye. Just made it work. We learned how a dinner guest first spotted the gull while inside the restaurant and how much they enjoyed the birders that had thus far patronized the restaurant.

Part way through lunch a Peregrine Falcon landed in a tree across the river from the restaurant. No one minded the commotion of us roaming about it our winter boots and binoculars to take a closer look. They even offered the upstairs windows if that would suite us better.

It was good meal and great comradery and we were shortly back on the road headed west. Couple hours later we noticed the sky start to light up. Not just light but become alive with color and luminance and brilliance. I've seen a lot of sunsets but I have never seen one like this. For an hour, an entire hour! it changed and grew and was just intoxicating. Brilliant, deep reds. Fire pinks. Oranges that burned and blues that soothed. And just when you thought it was winding down it would once again compose it's self into a mosaic of colors that would turn any artists palette green with envy. Until the very last glow it was the most spectacular sunset. We talked about it almost continuously for the hour it performed. Just in awe of how nature can cap off the most wonderful of days with a light show that could not be rivaled anywhere else..

People ask why I bird. The answer can depend on the day, but in general it's the way it connects us. It connects us to the world, to nature, to the birds we share with other states and other countries. Most of all it connects us to each other- to those of us that revel in a pure white bird and a brilliant sunset.