Species of the Month: Douglas Fir

Christmas is next week, and to celebrate we are profiling one of the most popular Christmas trees as the December Species of the Month. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of species made available for holiday décor, such as the noble, grand, and Fraser firs and Norway spruce. When I was a kid, the old standby, and still my favorite, was the Douglas fir. I see them on a daily basis, and when they reach 40-200 feet tall they lose their Christmas tree shape but the wonderful smell is still there. Besides, a 200 footer is way too big for the front room window.

Scientific name: Pseudotsuga menziesii

Kingdom: Plantae (plants)

Class: Pinopsida (conifers)

Order: Pinales (pines)

Range: British Columbia south to northern California west of the Cascades and Sierras and along the Rockies south to Yellowstone, then scattered distribution south to Mexico. The coastal variety is subspecies menziesii and the Rocky Mountain subspecies is glauca.

Habitat: Well-aerated soils from sea level to 7500 feet for menziesii and 10,700 feet for glauca. Southern populations reach higher elevations than northern populations. Pseudotsuga menziesii forms communities with western red cedar, western hemlock, redwood, Sitka spruce, and other conifers.

Lifespan: Commonly, 500 years. Some individuals exceed 1000 years.

Diet: Sunlight, water, soil minerals

Predators: Small mammals such as squirrels and tree voles (seeds), humans (timber)

Conservation Status: No special protection

Other Information: In addition to serving as a popular Christmas tree, Douglas fir is a valuable commercial forestry product. Due to rapid growth time (relatively speaking) from sapling to harvest, logging companies frequently reforest clearcuts with exclusive Douglas fir stands. Trees can be harvested in as little as 80 years. 

Douglas fir in its natural habitat

Needles grow all around the branch

Needles grow along the length of the branch

Rough bark

Unopened seed cone

The finished product

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

We all know there are a lot of animals out there. You see them all the time. When I’m roaming the woods, I don’t always see critters. But with a little bit of training, you can tell who was there before your arrival. Here in Washington, it rains a lot. That means mud, which fortunately reveals what critters came and left tracks. Animals even help themselves to our trails, making it easier to follow their travels. On one expedition to the Ohop Valley, I found an animal superhighway. The highlight was a coyote track inside an elk track on top of a mole hill.

Deer track in sand near Mashel River

Scats are another obvious animal sign. When nature calls, animals answer right on the trail as they walk. Scat can tell us who walked before us and what they ate. Owl pellets are the indigestible remains that come up the other way and are just as revealing.

Coyote scat showing the remains of a bird

Otter scat

Great horned owl pellet

Other signs are more subtle. Trees might contain fur that got snagged as animal walked by and brushed against it. Or the bark could be scraped off by a deer, elk, or bear. Lower branches might display gnaw marks from a busy beaver. Easily overlooked is a squirrel midden, the pile of husks left over from a sciurid feast.

An elk rubbed its antlers on this tree

A bear scraped the bark off this tree

A beaver almost chopped down this tree

Squirrel midden, husks from a demolished fir cone

Carcasses are the next best thing to seeing a live animal, even though I rarely encounter them. The good work done by the decomposers happens quickly, except in cases of roadkill where it is too dangerous to be rapidly effective. Also, animals typically run off to seclusion to die and are not likely to be found close to a trail. In my years of wandering the wilds, I’ve come across a rabbit, an opossum, bits of a deer (likely killed by a coyote), a mole, a pile of feathers belonging to an owl or hawk (possibly done in by a bobcat) and a seal. So when someone suggests the lack of a body as evidence against the existence of Bigfoot, ask when the last time they found a dead anything in the woods. 

Deer fur left over from a kill by a coyote

Harbor seal carcass at Kalaloch Beach, Olympic National Park

Feathers from a hawk or owl, I suspect killed by a bobcat

What signs have you seen lately?

Species of the Month: Wild Turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and like most Americans you are probably looking forward to gobbling that big meal. Although we most commonly associate turkey with the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the Indian friends ate so much more than that. Deer and eels were also on the menu. Your turkey was likely farm-raised, but its ancestors, before domestication, were wild. November’s species of the month is the wild turkey.

Scientific name: Meleagris gallopavo

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Aves (birds)

Order: Galliformes (chicken-like birds)

Range: Eastern US, parts of western US, northern Mexico; introduced in other areas of US, Germany, and New Zealand

Habitat: Hardwood or mixed forest with openings

Lifespan: 1-2 years (estimated)

Diet: Omnivorous- insects, small amphibians, nuts, seeds, grains, roots, leaves

Predators: Raccoons, opossums, skunks, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, rat snakes, bull snakes, mountain lions, eagles, great horned owls, humans

Conservation Status: No special protection

Other Information: Popular game bird. Turkey habitat conservation benefits other species. Males (toms) use their impressive tail feathers and gobbling to attract a mate. Mating season is early spring; females lay 4-15 eggs in a single annual clutch. Active during the day, turkeys roost in trees at night. Yes, they can fly! The turkey was proposed as America’s national symbol by Ben Franklin.

Female turkey with chicks (what I call turklets)

Male turkey in display

This week's facts and pictures come once again from University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web

Porcupine Love

I was driving past Northwest Trek, a wildlife park which also does extensive conservation work, and I suddenly wondered how on Earth porcupines mate. Their quills are barbed so as to injure any critter that tries to attack it, but doesn’t that seem like it would hinder mating?

So I did a little digging, and in addition to quills being a roadblock to mating, females are frigid for 364.5 days a year (365.5 in a leap year). However, when she is ready to go for 8-12 hours each year, she will signal the males with secretions, which is how it typically works in the animal world.

When it is time, the successful male may have to ward off challengers. To set the mood, the female curls her tail over her back and relaxes her skin, which flattens the quills and reduces risk of impalement. 

They will do this several times until the female tires of her mate, who will go in search of more females having that time of the year. The female will have a seven month gestation period, followed by four months of lactation. Then after a month, it’s time to start over again. In case you’re wondering, when baby porcupines are born their hair is soft and hasn’t hardened into quills yet. Childbirth is painful enough already.

Here's a Youtube video of how it happens.

This week’s facts courtesy of Live Science

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug

I was driving home from work last week and noticed what appeared to be a moth, judging by the face, stuck on my windshield wiper. The wings were flapping wildly in the breeze. When I got to a red light, they didn’t look like moth wings and I could see the legs were moving. This bug was still alive and trying to escape. I pulled over at the next chance I could so I could free this mystery critter. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at (or how it was still alive; half its body was smashed) until I happed upon it in a book I was flipping through. It was a caddisfly.

What is a caddisfly? They are an order of insect (Trichoptera) that is similar to moths and butterflies (order Lepidoptera) with hairy heads and larval cocoons. However, the caddisfly larva lives underwater and makes its case from material in the stream, such as small pebbles, held together by silk that it secretes from glands. And unlike moths, the wings of a caddisfly are not covered in fine scales (the “powder” that gets on your fingers if touch a moth or butterfly’s wings).₁

Caddisfly larva, with and without case
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks

Adult caddisfly
Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission

Caddisfly larvae are a favorite meal for aquatic critters like salmon. An entire cohort of caddisflies emerges from their cases at once and moves toward the surface to begin a brief (two weeks) adulthood. It becomes a veritable smorgasbord for fish. Caddisflies are also an important indicator species. An indicator species is one that’s absence or presence is an indicator of the general health of an ecosystem. Caddisflies are sensitive to water pollution, so an abundant population of caddisflies is a sign of a healthy stream.2

Caddisfly larvae, Mashel River

1 From Insects_, Their Natural History and Diversity by Stephen A Marshall

2 From The Northwest Coastal Explorer by Robert Steelquist