Vernal pools, egg clusters and trillium

This afternoon I spent 2+ hours on a nature trek. At Town Meeting, a Brookfield resident who works for The Nature Conservancy in Montpelier announced that he was interested in hosting several "field trips" within Brookfield, and asked people to sign up, so I did.

I missed the first walk because the email had a strange subject line and was from someone I didn't know, so I deleted it. This hike came with the subject line "Brookfield Adventure Group", and it was a trip way up on the Chelsea side of Brookfield (very close to the middle of nowhere). Two members of the group live up there on 50 acres, a good deal of which is very unusual forest wetlands, and 8 people gathered there to go exploring, guided by the owners.

A vernal pool is a wet spot (and it can be very wet indeed) that dries out in the summer. We went to what the hosts believed was a vernal pool, but it had lots of plants growing in it, and tadpoles swimming. "Not a vernal pool", said Jon from the Nature Conservancy. "A marsh".  Vernal pools do not have vegetation growing in them. However, not much further, there was a Classic Vernal Pool, with wood frog egg clusters and (I believe) salamander egg clusters. There were mosquito larvae swimming merrily (looks like a bad skeeter season), and water striders, and a tiny frog.

These egg clusters are surrounded by a very thin permeable membrane which fills with water when the eggs are laid. On the right is a cluster of (I think) spotted salamander eggs, which are always hitched to a twig. In fact, salamanders look for twiggy pools. On the left is a cluster of wood frog eggs, about 5" wide. PLEASE click on the picture, to enlarge it.  Take in those incredible colors. People who know their insects, for instance, Kate, will see Caddis fly larvae. (Sorry about the branch.) 

Spring flowers were starting here - it's several hundred feet higher and therefore colder. We saw Spring Beauty (too hard to get a picture), Dog-Toothed violets (not in bloom yet), blue, white and yellow violets, and Red Trillium. Most of the trillium in my neighborhood got washed away with West Street. But on the way home I noticed some by the roadside. The trillium (left) in my yard are just up, too, along with a tiny little struggling Spring Beauty. My Bloodroot are flourishing.

The highlight of the afternoon was the sighting of a woodcock, a bird which I had never seen.  It's a medium-sized, squat, brown bird that blends in perfectly with dried and dead leaves. 

If it hadn't moved, we wouldn't have seen him.  It walks strangely, bobbing back and forth with every step.  According to our hosts, they are all over these woods.

Our group was a real bunch of experienced nature-lovers, all out of my league. The organizer is Director of Land Protection for the Nature Conservancy. Our landowners are very active in local conservation movements. One man captures local moths and butterflies, breeds them, and lets them go. One woman works for the Vermont Land Trust, and another is a board member for the North Branch Nature Center. The last member of the group is an "outdoor educator" at a local private school.  I was afraid I was out of my element. But no! I knew the dog-tooth violet by its leaf, and was the first to identify the Spring Beauty.  Everyone else seems to know trees and birds. Of course, the Nature Conservancy guy know everything,  and is really delightful.

Jon and Jen are planning one outing each month. I'm really looking forward to the next one.