Will this "early spring" weather last through the season???
Red Maple Buds from Hollis High School, New Hampshire. Photo by Maryanne Rotelli
Schoolyard Ecology teacher, Maryanne Rotelli, commented,
Got the kids out before the nor'easter forecasted for
Monday. Here are a couple of pictures of one of our red maples with flower
buds. The other two red maples in our study are smaller and a little more
sheltered and though they show signs of bud formation they aren't as far along
as this tree.
Harvard Forest Researcher, John O'Keefe is predicting "it should be quite an early spring but we'll see. We might have a 1/4 foot of snow on the ground early next week and we'll see what happens". Overall though he expects that tree buds will "burst" early this year.
Come to the Spring Workshop for Teachers at Harvard Forest on March 31st to learn more about tracking this "early spring". Email Pamela Snow at: psnow@fas.harvard.edu to register.
How do you and your students think this cold weather will impact our trees?
Speaking of Maples, Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow Josh Rapp has been all over the news for his sugar maple research.
Photos of Maple Syrup collection bags (left) and Maple Researcher, Joshua Rapp (right) are from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Up until now this has been a story about a remarkably early Maple Sugaring season. It might be worthwhile to share the following great articles and videos with your students to get them thinking about erratic nature of our climate as evidenced in this crazy early spring we've been having.
While most of us think of March as the beginning of Maple Season in Massachusetts, this year, Joshua Rapp began collecting sap at Harvard Forest on Feb. 1st. This is about a month and a half earlier than last year, which was a relatively late sugaring season.
Recent weather has been warm enough to stop the sap flow. Maple sap flows best when night time temperatures go below freezing and day time temps are above freezing. Researcher Rapp expects temperatures to fall back to more spring-like levels, allowing the flow to start again. Stay tuned to see if he's right!
Access the recent article and video in the Worcester Telegram news clips (Chicago Tribune, NY times, etc.) as well as Dr. Rapp's website and photo gallery in the HF homepage highlight put together by Clarisse Hart. in the link below.
Lots of salamanders, spring peepers and wood frogs have been on the move according to the Vernal Pool Listserv reports flooding my email inbox since early March.
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| So far Salamander migration this year has looked like this.... |
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| Will some late migrants be having travel across this? |
Photos from The Vernal Pool Association
To get a sense of how the amphibian migration is playing out across New England, here are some excerpts I have compiled:
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| Female Wood Frog with Eggs |
Migration begins in Southeastern Massachusetts and Connecticut on February 24th!!
Last night, my open-window olfactory survey was ineffective, as the high winds, heavy rains, and volume of freshly crushed tree limbs disguised the road surface and the masked the smell of the carnage. This morning, after the sun rose while the roads were still wet, some of that carnage remained and it’s apparent that Spotted Salamanders and Wood Frogs moved in large numbers, last night in Moosup, CT.
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February 24: Saw two spotted salamanders and three wood frogs in S. Easton, MA, tonight. We might see a big push if it rains in the next couple of weeks!
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March 9th:
hi folks! Just reporting a cacophony of wood frogs vocalizing in Wheaton's vernal pools this afternoon
From the north shore of Boston:
I checked a vernal pool
in Lynn Woods on 3/11/16 and saw LOTS of spotted salamander spermatophores. I
heard one lonely wood frog calling but no chorus or eggs yet. I imagine it's
happened since all the rain we had this week, but haven't been back up to check
yet.
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There
were some peepers calling in Reading today. Pools were really low here, and I'm
seeing that condition across a lot of NE Mass. Expecting some action tonight
north of Boston.
From Metro-West of Boston:
From Lexington, MA on March 11th :
(A) BIG NIGHT at Minuteman Tech in Lexington MA !! 4 or more spotted salamander congresses at at one of Minuteman's upper twin pools, maybe 80-100 total. Already spermatophores, but we did find some active "parties." Saw fairy shrimp in the other upper pool, but only one salamander. Usually there are more. Lower pond near power station had around 20 salamanders that seemed to just gathering for a congress with a few newly deposited spermatophores. Also wood frogs breeding (plus saw some green frogs and bullfrogs and heard peepers). Water level is unusually low. This is one of the 3 earliest "Big Nights" in the 27 years I've been going out (Other years = March 9, 1998, 2001) Happy Spring!! Fran Ludwig
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From our HF Schoolyard Vernal Pool project leader, in Lincoln, Ma., Sally Farrow on March 12, 2016:
At Drumlin Farm in Lincoln MA yellow spotted salamanders were seen in Ice pond and the Old Deer pen vernal pool. Wood Frogs were found in 4 ponds. We have fairy shrimp in 3 vernal pools. No egg masses or migrating salamanders were seen. We will keep checking. Our ponds are lower this year and we continue to follow the hydrology of our 8 ponds as part of the Harvard Forest Schoolyard LTER program.
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From Maynard, Mass.on March 11:
In a little survey this weekend of vernal pools I found 7 in Maynard dry to almost no water. One location that has 5 together within 200 yards two of the pools I have never in 26 years seen dry till this year. In Stow two Vp I checked one was 70 percent smaller and only 4 inches of water. The other had typical amount of water about the same as last year. This pool had spermataphores but both had no calling wood frogs or peepers. In Littleton one pool was mostly a puddle and another had a couple feet of water albeit 4 feet lower than last year.
From Concord Area of New Hampshire:
March 12:
Heard wood frogs chorus today for the first time this year in Jefferson
(01522), at the pool across the road. Some at least must have crossed
Thursday or early Friday, since fresh frog corpses on the road today.
The pool is at least 12"lower than usual, and greatly contracted. Eggs
next week?
From Central Massachusetts:
Montague and Amherst Ma. on March 11:
Light rain in the 50s this evening (3/11). Enormous wood frog numbers and two Jefferson-type salamanders crossing road in Montague, MA around 8:30pm, with peepers and wood frogs chorusing. Around 11, there were 6 more jeffs at that site, one spotted there and a couple spotteds elsewhere in Montague. In Amherst around 9, there was a slow but steady flow of male and female spotted salamanders to the Henry street site, a few peepers and wood frogs and lots more people.
From Western Massachusetts:
Whately, Franklin County on March 17:
Arrived home from work about 9pm through hard rain, and found lots of Spotted Salamanders, Wood Frogs, and peepers on the roads--many more than were evident during 3/10 rains last week. Lots of calling peepers and Wood Frogs in the pools, too, though that has been the case all this past week. We headed over to our Williamsburg site and found one Jefferson salamander in the pool, along with one Painted Turtle suspended in the water column--our first reptile of the year--and many, many Fairy Shrimp, leeches, and Red-spotted Newts. Every Spotted Salamander we picked up, whether at the house, in Williamsburg, or in between, was a male.
I"ve noticed some themes in the entries above:
1. Most folks seeing early migration of amphibians to vernal pools.
2. Many folks noticing lower than normal water levels in pools.
When have you and your students found evidence of amphibian migration near you this season???
To see a brief video produced this Month in Smithfield, RI. as part of a series by Jonathan Twining called, Vernal Pool Chronicles , go to YouTube page (youtube.com/vernalpoolchronicles).
Jonathan suggests, If you are looking for tools to capture good underwater video of amphibians in vernal pools, I highly recommend using GoPro cameras with LumeCube lighting (lumecube.com). The Lume Cubes are waterproof and can be used for both video lights and flashes for photography. They work very well.
In case you want to get MANY more updates on vernal pools throughout the region you can sign up for this free listserv described below, or look for the Vernal Pool Association's website and Facebook page.
The Vernal Pool Listserv provides a forum to discuss topics relating to vernal pools and vernal pool ecology. This group is unmoderated, but is monitored by Vernal Pool Association (www.vernalpool.org). Discussion is encouraged about scientific research, on-going vernal pool education projects at the elementary through graduate school levels, and about the first spotted salamander sightings of spring, among other things.
What does your Spring look like????
Please send us photos of your field site before and/or after the predicted cold spell to help us tell how this story plays out!
