There's life in the wasteland behind the beach dunes.
The Daily Bucket is a place where we exchange our observations and thoughts of the natural world. Birds, blooms, bugs & more - each note is a record for the future as we learn the patterns that quietly unwind around us.
June 27, 2013
Last Fall I did a Bucket called "This Ain't a Wasteland; It's a Wetland!"
Fall was dry down in the bottoms behind this old sand dune, the greenery mostly gone.
In June everything is vibrant - soaked with sun and water.
Wasteland - that's what some call this 200x200' leftover piece between the row of cottages on Lake Ontario and the state park. Folks couldn't do anything with it except ignore, neglect and sometimes abuse over the decades of habitual human habitation.
It's wet! fill in... It's overgrown! cut down... Ewww bugs, I ain't going in there. spray... Snakes!!!
I think of this acre, and the dozen acres adjoining, as the north end of Lakeview Pond, the big pond south of the state park. Map & related diary here. The park road dissects the southward flow of backwater along the dunes with a culvert that controls water levels in the upper reaches. Two years ago beavers clogged the outlet and created a small pond that kept our woods saturated. This year, with the beavers run off and the culvert working, that little pond is mostly cattails and weedy plants. Behind us, the lowest of low spots has a few inches of water instead of a foot, even after all the rain in June.
More photos of ferns, herbaceous plants, and other goodies below the fold.
This is our backyard, the old sand dune we sit on fading down 8-10' to the wasteland. Everybody pushes out their bank with tree litter, beach cleanings and sand. Septics tanks and leach fields (or less) use this back strip of sand. Water wells are in the front yard. We're not sure how much filtering there is thru 50-60' of porous sand but at least our well sits higher than the others on Shore Dr.
Ferns
From last fall: Right below the sandbank where it's typically wet, if not standing water, the ferns start. It's a jungle in summer.
Well it's summer and it's a jungle of ferns.
Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) has clumps of fronds 4-5 feet tall and sometimes as wide. The leaflets or pinnae are large and spaced. It has spore stalks like the smaller cinnamon fern (O. cinnamomea) from the same family.
This website has the simplest description of ferns and reproduction. The American Fern Society has more.
There are several factors that adult ferns need to survive:
moisture in the soil;
moisture in the air;
suitable nutrients in the soil;
sufficient light for photosynthesis;
suitable temperatures;
protection from wind;
protection from too much sunlight;
and dependability and continuity of above.
I do believe these wetlands provide all the conditions.
Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides) or something close to that. Each leaflet on each frond is enveloped in spores.
Many of these ferns have spores dotting the underleaf. Those spore patterns (the sporangia holding the spores) are a key to identifying pinnate & bipinnate leaves.
Also look for alternate or opposite structures in fronds and leaflets.
Common ferns are marsh fern, northern beech fern, evergreen woodfern, lady fern.
and here is a different spore stalk, sporangia already spent.
Herbaceous plants are those with non-woody stems. Some are perennials that die back each year. Annuals are also present in the wetland but I have not looked at those as much since they are not yet flowering.
Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum)
Last fall there were only a few mayapple leaves hanging on, now 100s.
Closeup of mayapple with fruit nestled between the twin leaves.
Jack In The Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
In the fall there were no leaves, just the red berries that spread by flood or whatever. Now babies are scattered around knee-high plants. They are plentiful and intersperse well with the mayapples. More berries are developing for next spring.
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) grows in the swampy side by the park. Looks like I get to see them bloom this year.
Trees
Trees are mostly sugar maple, ash and birch. Looking across the lot, the stark white bark of the birch anchors the shade of green leaves. There's a cherry tree half dead and toppled but still hanging on. Some of the understory trees are blooming now. I know there is Ilex to be found, a winterberry... Categorizing the trees is on my to-do list.
American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) - AKA blue beech, musclewood, ironwood.
I have a cousin of this, hop hornbeam, back home in FL. Both have the odd arrangement of leaf and fruit clusters on their stems.
The morning before I stood on the bank and looked out over the woods. It sure is pretty with the sun filtering thru, the layers of leaves, the swaying grasses, the richness of the various greens. Spotted 3 deer getting up and moving off, upwind from me so they were slow and lazy, tails swishing like a cow or horse. There is lots of trimming and nibbling going on.
This is the far corner, about 50' away and not something I'll wade thru until the underbrush abates (almost got to the corner to check the survey flags last fall). But I did push on a little bit when I spotted the remnants of a Blueflag Iris (Iris versicolor.) That is good, and no invasive Yellowflag!
The opposite corner is clearer with bigger, leafier trees. That is where I am thinking of putting up a sleeping platform for the tent.
Closing with a couple of boulders left exposed after the Ice Age 10,000 years ago. Rocks here are igneous or metamorphic, pushed around (or left behind) by a glacier scraping along the Adirondack Mountains,
or sedimentary rocks tumbled and wore down, part of the Tug Hill Plateau a few miles east of here. Mosses are cool...
Ahhh - 5 AM Thursday. Almost as bright as day, waning moon overhead, and I hear crows already. If I published now, KenBee might be the first commenter instead of last. No doubt if I stepped outside there would be a gull winging it up or down the beach. I guess to them the direction means little other than home here, food there. The touristy renters across the way think feeding gulls is fun - I said my piece 'Please don't feed the gulls!" and now ignore their ignorance. This weekend should be fine despite the rain and next weekend the beach will be packed for the Fourth of July. I'll be hiding out back looking over my wasteland.
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