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  • Dec2020walk

Rime frost's magic in the Preserve

1/8/2021

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Rime frost covering every branch and tree in the Preserve. Photo Steve Sentoff.
​​Rime frost and its cousin hoar frost have dazzled observers with their beauty since ancient times. In his book Μετεωρολογικά, Meteorologia, Aristotle noted
"Both dew and hoar-frost are found when the sky is clear and there is no wind. For the vapour could not be raised unless the sky were clear, and if a wind were blowing it could not condense." (347a26-28)
 
The term hoar frost derives from hoary which means gray or white in medieval English of the 14th century, and was used as adjective for a person with a white beard and hair. Hoar frost forms when water vapor in moist air comes in contact with objects that are well below freezing, like trees and grass during freezing night in winter, often with starry skies above. Here the water vapor, a gas, changes its state directly into a solid, the ice on the trees and surface objects, and we have frost.
 
The term rime frost derives from the 12th century, old Norse term hrīm or rimfrost. Conditions for rime frost are less likely in Greece or in England than for hoar frost, but occur regularly in snow covered northern landscapes like ours. Rime frost can form when layers of fog or mist develop in moist air over snowfields during cold nights with temperatures below freezing. The fog consists of tiny water droplets, cooled below freezing and suspended in the cold air.
When these supercooled water droplets come into contact with a freezing surface, such as a branch or grass, then the droplets of  water, a liquid, change state from liquid to solid state and form ice on these objects. Since the droplets are so tiny, the result is beautiful feathery ice crystals of almost magical appearance.
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Close up of feathery rime frost. Photo Steve Sentoff.
Being both a meteorologist and historian of science by training, I take pleasure in tracing how people have always been fascinated with special weather phenomena and have tried to describe and explain them. We are grateful to Steve Sentoff for providing the photos. 
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Rime frost on Second Oak in Frautschi Woods. Photo Steve Sentoff.
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Tundra swans wintering on the water

1/4/2021

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Photo Arlene Koziol
After Madison’s Lake freeze, the tundra swans on University Bay will continue their migration to open waters in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere. During the migration period they gather in huge flocks. It is believed that the tundra swans mate for life. But after they mate and have reached their breeding grounds in the northern tundra, they fiercely defend their large territories and live as solitary pairs. ​
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Forward call - low intensity threat. Photo Arlene Koziol
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Tundra swan biting and driving off another. Photo Arlene Koziol
Perhaps this attitude when defending their territory carries over at times to when the tundra swans migrate in their large flocks, and would explain the at times aggressive social behavior that we observe on University Bay. In her photos during the last week of December, Arlene Koziol has captured the tundra swans' peaceful gathering along the ice edge and well as their downright nastiness toward one another. The juveniles, still colored gray, wisely stay out of disputes among adults and bend their necks and even crouch down to the water surface to show their submission. Please see all of Arlene's photos and short movies of the tundra swans here. ​Learn more at Birds of the World.
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Tundra swan biting another. Photo Arlene Koziol
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Juvenile, still gray tundra swans showing submissive behavior. Their necks are coiled back in an S–shape with the bill pointing downward. Sometimes they even "crouch" to the water surface. Photo Arlene Koziol.
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Tundra Swans here to stay until the lake freezes

12/15/2020

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Tundra Swans foraging on the Bay. Photo Will Vuyk
PicturePhoto Kutzbach
Will Vuyk, student Board member of the Friends, regularly visits the Preserve to observe changes of the seasons and lets himself be surprised by the beauty of nature. The heavy snowfall over the weekend drew the tundra swans from further north to the Madison Lakes. If you venture to the boat landing at University Bay, you will hear them chatter and carry on their disputes, displaying their beautiful wings and standing up tall in the water. Otherwise, they are intent on foraging, their heads under water and reaching almost a yard down with their long necks to find the choicest morsels of water plants in the University Bay.

Will writes: "The tundra swans have arrived with the snow! Lit from the west by the mid-afternoon sun, the postures and pursuits of these sociable birds are enchanting. If you are able to peel your eyes away from the swans, the Preserve itself, (while picturesque in all seasons) has been stunningly highlighted by the snow. Walk your favorite trail, enjoy your favorite spot, take in your favorite view, all accentuated in white." Enjoy Will's photos below. With the temperatures staying below freezing and no strong winds, the winter wonderland is till very much intact. 

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Snow on the path. Will Vuyk
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The curve of the Picnic Point entrance wall. Will Vuyk
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December snow

12/15/2020

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On December 13, a wondrous snowfall brought brilliant beauty of the purest white to the Preserve. Every tree, every path, every grass blade had changed. Soft tufts of snow were clinging to every twig and branch. At the Picnic Point Marsh, tree trunks have snow packed on their north sides, which were exposed to driving northerly winds all night. Arlene Koziol is sharing her photos of freshly fallen snow on her Flicker site. 
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Tree trunks packed with snow at Picnic Point marsh. Photo Arlene Koziol
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Tundra Swans are back in the bay!

12/1/2020

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Tundra swans with Buffleheads and gulls on the bay. Photo Gisela Kutzbach
On my weekly Tuesday morning stop at the bay, I was hoping to see some new arrivals on this crisp and sunny  1 December morning. And yes. The Tundra Swans have returned to the bay, showing off their brilliant white plumage. You can observe them from the boat landing at University Bay and close to shore along the path toward Picnic Point. Buffleheads, Common Goldeneyes, and masses of American Coots are close by. The first ice has formed along the shore rocks. Notice the strong mirage, the vertically elongated buildings on the opposite shore, resulting from cold air lying on top of still warm lake water.  Gisela Kutzbach
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Ice forming along the shore. Photo Kutzbach
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Red-tailed hawk hunting from PUMA house perch

11/30/2020

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Red-tailed hawk on top of the Purple Martin House, Biocore Prairie. Photo Jeff Koziol
The Purple Martin House monitored by the Friends is located on the highest spot of the Biocore Prairie, offering a 360-view of over a large open area and a convenient high perch. Throughout the year it is visited by many birds other than Purple martins. Our monitors have observed Red-winged blackbirds, an American robin, two Baltimore orioles, Tree swallows, a Song sparrow and even a Ruby-throated hummingbird. House sparrows try to invade the nesting cavities, and once in a while the Community Garden's resident Red-tailed Hawk will perch on the very tip of the house. 
In the sequence of photos taken by Arlene Koziol on Nov 21, 2020, the hawk is watching the ground from up high, clinging to the tiny house top with its strong talons, then spotting some prey, possibly a vole or rabbit, and – with his eyes firmly tethered to the object on the ground – elegantly swooping down to capture the creature. ​See all of Arlene's photos at her Fllckr site.
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Autumn progressing in the Preserve

11/1/2020

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Nature's first green to gold...... Maple forest glory at Raymer's Cove. Gisela Kutzbach
Nothing Gold Can Stay    –    Robert Frost
 Nature's first green to gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
​Nothing gold can stay.

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The hardest hue to hold.... Maple forest glory viewed from the lake. Arlene Koziol
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...then leaf subsides to leaf. Gisela Kutzbach
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Rusty-patched bumble bees sighted – August 23, 2020

8/24/2020

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Rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affines) on Monarda. Photo Glenda Denniston
Glenda Denniston spotted the rare Rusty-patched bumble bee in the Preserve, and not just one but two individuals. She reported today: "Yesterday I photographed this Rusty-patched Bumble bee (B. affinis) on a Monarda near Second Oak, Frautschi. I sent the photos to Susan Carpenter, our local bee expert, and she confirmed the ID. Susan said it was a worker and that she was engaging in “nectar-robbing” behavior (bypassing pollination of the plant to access nectar by a shortcut). This is the first Rusty-patched I’ve seen in the Preserve in quite a while, though I haven’t been looking as carefully as I once did." One big reason Glenda spends much time in the area of the Second Oak at Frautschi Point is that she has been instrumental in developing the current flowering plant communities in this area, which attract many different pollinators.

See also an interview with Susan Carpenter, Friends member and leader of our popular pollinator field trips in the Preserve, about her research on Bombus affinis in the Arboretum, as well as her Guest Blog in the Scientific American on "How to protect our disappearing bumble bees."

The Rusty-patched bumble bee's tongue is not long enough to reach the nectary at the base of a tubular flower such as Monarda or wild bergamot. Thus it did some nectar thievery by perforating the flower petals at the base and gaining quick access through the hole to the food. Wild bergamot is a marvelous forage plant for bumble bees, especially those with long tongues. It keeps its flowers open all day, replenishes nectar continuously, and replaces spent flowers with new ones over much of the summer. The gallery below features two different individuals. Notice the darker brown spot on the B. affinis shown in the two lower photos. 
That same day, Glenda also spotted another bumble bee that is currently in the decline and of Special state concern in Wisconsin: the Yellow or Golden northern bumble bee (B. fervidus). see the photos below. 
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Fungi flourishing in the Preserve

6/30/2020

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Scaly Ink Cap Photo 81614854, (c) Stephen Sentoff
​Fungi in the Preserve grow every months of the year, but they tend to flourish in warm temperatures and in the moist conditions we currently have in the woods. From the plethora of fungi photos submitted this month to iNaturalist, a selection is shown here, many of them photographed by Friends members. The Kingdom of fungi has its own classifications of families and species, but here is a grouping by color, mainly white. It includes many common gilled mushrooms, as well as shelf fungi, bracket fungi, rust fungi, and even jelly fungi. One reason there are so many white fungi is that they have no chlorophylls. They recycle important nutrients in the forest, and they extract the energy they need from organic compounds, such as sugars or protein, in living or dead organism. These processes take place mostly beneath the surface or in the soil, and the function of the visible part of the fungi is to ensure reproduction by producing and releasing spores. 
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Sandhill cranes– like the parents, so the colt

6/8/2020

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Sandhill crane family on the the way to fantastic food resources—EHC garden. Photo David Liebl
June 7 was a beautiful day to go on a hike. David Liebl, on his own hike through Bill's Woods that day surveying nesting birds, watched the resident Sandhill crane family doing the same—striding from the old apple orchard, along the Biocore Prairie, to the Eagle Heights Community gardens where plenty of food is in easy reach on about 300 garden plots. 
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Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve
 P.O. Box 5534
 Madison, WI 53705 

UW-Madison Lakeshore Nature Preserve website

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Related websites:
UW Nelson Institute
UW Arboretum
Clean Lakes Alliance
Groundswell Conservancy
Pleasant Valley Conservancy
Pheasant Branch Conservancy