Species of the Month

To celebrate Easter, let's take a look at one of the non-native wildflowers popping up in front yards everywhere. The Species of the Month, grape hyacinth, is not a true hyacinth like those Easter flowers with a strong scent. Until a few years ago, I never knew the name of this little flower, but always called it grape flower because it looks like a bunch of grapes on end.

Scientific name: Muscari armeniacum

Kingdom: Plantae (plants)

Order: Asparagales 

Range: Native to eastern Mediterranean to Caucasus but now distributed in other areas

Habitat: Forest, meadows, yards and fields

Diet: sunlight and water

Conservation Status: No special protection

Other information: This little flower is a popular decorative plant. It can be found blooming in your yard from March or April to May or June, for about two weeks. Plants are dormant summer through winter before reemerging with the spring. This plant bears fruits, small green ones that turn brown by May. A small plant, grape hyacinth reaches about ten inches tall at most. It likes full sun, well-drained soil, and to be surrounded by friends- it does best when planted in bunches.
This week's information comes from The Ohio State University.

Summer Vacation Guide

Spring just started, but it's not too early to start thinking about summer vacation. National parks have figured into vacation plans ever since the invention of national parks. They are great places to see amazing scenery- and crowds, or have a chance encounter with wildlife- and crowds. Here are a few lesser-known parks with fewer visitors. Just be careful getting there- some are very remote with little or no road access, which always makes for a better adventure.
By taking these roads less travelled, you'll get to experience more than the stereotypical majestic mountains and sweeping desert vistas. Our national parks have so much to offer!
Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska

Great Kobuk Sand Dunes

Surrounded by mountains, this park is home to a vast caribou herd and extensive sand dunes. Yes, sand dunes North of the Arctic Circle! The sand is the result of glaciers grinding the mountains down. Also found in the park is the boreal treeline, where forest yields to tundra. Be prepared to fly in; there are no roads leading to Kobuk Valley and no services, either.

Tundra fire

National Park of American Samoa, American Samoa

Tutuila Rainforest

This is America's only national park south of the Equator. Full of white sandy beaches and coral reefs, it's a rare ecosystem in the park service holdings. The mountains and rainforests host fruit bats and several species of virds, including a beautiful blue kingfisher. Aside from natural splendor, you can also learn about traditional Samoan culture. Travelling there can be expensive, as American Samoa can only be reached by a long flight or a long ship voyage.

Pola Islands

Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota

North Woods winter

This northern Minnesota park is a kayaker's dream. About 40% of the park is water. This system of interconnected lakes, streams, and wetlands was named after the voyageurs, or four traders, who used this area to transport their wares from the interior to civilization on the Great Lakes. Today, the park preserves water quality, ancient rock formations, boreal and hardwood forests, and endangered species like wolves. While not as remote as Alaska and American Samoa, it's a long drive from the Twin Cities and getting around without a boat of some sort is limited.

Loons on a lake

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Sand dunes with Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Off the beaten path in the Rockies, but not too far off, this park features alpine tundra, subalpine meadows, wetlands, forests, mountain streams, lakes, and of course sand. Such a diverse landscape attracts an equally diverse array of flora and fauna. Thousand year old trees share the park with prairie grasses, wildflowers, and scrub sage. Animal life ranges from dung beetles to horned toads to pronghorn, elk, and bear. There is only one road in, but it's an easy drive from Pueblo.

Elk with snowy sand

Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

Cave boxwork

If you're looking for a good time above or below ground, Wind Cave is the place for you. Upstairs is a convergence of short and tall grass prairies and forest, right on the edge of the Black Hills. Downstairs is one of the world's longest cave systems. Sacred as the birthplace of the Sioux Indians in their origin stories, the cave gets its name from the wind blowing in or out of the small natural opening. Wind direction changes based on barometric pressure and is a good indicator of weather. While rare formations like boxwork can be found in the cave, rare animals like bison and black-footed ferrets are found above. This park is also easy to reach, about an hour south of Rapid City.

Prairie and forest

This week's information and all pictures comes from the National Park Service. Great Sand Dunes pictures come from their Flickr page.

A Star Is Born

Stars are the most common object in the night sky. They come in different colors and brightness. Grab a pair of binoculars and the number you can see goes from too many to count to more than you thought possible. It seems as though they've always been there, but where did they come from?

Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery (NASA)

Gas and dust in space pulled together by gravity attract more material. More mass has more gravity, so it continues to attract more material, while also collapsing into itself. As it collapses and becomes more dense, it begins to hear up. At some point, what is now considered a core begins to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium. The pressure of the energy radiating from the new star is enough to keep it from collapsing into itself further.
Not all of the gas and dust gets sucked into the star. It will swirl around the star and conceal into planets and asteroids, like what happened here in our solar system. In other systems, multiple stars may form rather than just one like we got stuck with.

Life cycle of a star (NASA)

If a star is massive enough, it will blow itself apart in a supernova. Gas and dust from the exploding star will fly out into space and the process will begin again. This week's information comes from NASA.

Species of the Month

Spring has officially arrived, and with it, the birds and the bees. March's Species of the Month is a bee, the American bumblebee. This and other bees are just beginning to make appearances in my neck of the woods. Cute and fuzzy, they fly despite the laws of aerodynamics stating otherwise. Lucky for them, they don't use aerodynamics to fly.
  

Scientific name: Bombus Pensylvanicus

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Insecta (insects)

Order: Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, sawflies)

Range: Eastern North America from Quebec south to Florida, west to the Rockies

Habitat: open fields

Lifespan: Up to a year

Diet: pollen (favors sunflower, clover, vetch)

Predators: Birds, spiders, other bees, small mammals

Conservation Status: Threatened

Other Information: Bumblebees live in a family colony. A queen emerges from hibernation first and begins searching for a suitable nesting site to lay her eggs. She feeds the larva, which grow into workers that feed the next batch of larva to hatch. In summer, males and queens hatch, then leave the nest to mate. The queens go into hibernation for the winter while the males and workers die. American bumblebees are a later emerging species. They are able to regulate their body temperatures like mammals do. American bumblebees, like other bumbles and bees in general, are declining in number. Several factors are thought to contribute, including habitat loss and pesticides.
This week's information comes from Iowa State University's Bug Guide and the US Forest Service. The pictures are from the State of Montana's Montana Field Guide.

Animal 911

In spite of humanity’s destruction of the environment over the last few centuries, most people believe in helping out in ways that don’t require a drastic lifestyle change. One way that people can feel good about the world is wildlife rescue. Every year thousands of good Samaritans encounter orphaned, sick, or injured animals that they deliver to or are picked up by professional wildlife rehabilitators. The goal of wildlife rehab is to provide medical care to the animal and release it back to the wild.

Orphaned raccoons

Many times, an injury is so severe the animal would be unable to return to the wild. In those instances, the animal usually moves to a wild animal park or some other educational organization where it works as an animal ambassador. Animal ambassadors are a way to connect the public to critters they wouldn’t normally get to encounter, especially up close. They work to raise awareness about the wild world around us and offer a glimpse of how these critters live. Many times they can shed some light on the daily challenges they face, in addition to having to deal with people.

Eastern screech owl working as an animal ambassador

I recently visited a wildlife rehab center. Animals are separated by species, although there may be several, such as raccoons, sharing living quarters. The raccoons are quarantined on arrival to check for rabies. All enclosures are covered to keep birds from escaping, or getting in and eating the patients. On the day of my visit, there were raccoons, a beaver, owls, hawks, vultures, squirrels, crows, baby opossums, and songbirds in treatment. In the past, they have rehabbed deer. There is no animal too great or too small for these people to help.

Great horned owl

Orphaned opossums

Blue jay on the mend