Arctic Invaders Approaching Oakland County

 

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Two-foot-tall winged ghosts of the tundra are coming to town.  Bird watchers, nature lovers, naturalists, and Oakland County Harry Potter fans are wishing for the rare opportunity to see  the snowy owls of the Far North that have traveled thousands of miles south of their native Arctic home. These beautiful birds, adapted for life in the extreme cold, are the heaviest owl of North America and one of the largest owls on Planet Earth.  Reports of snowy owls across the State of Michigan are rapidly trickling into the  Michigan Department of Natural Resources and last week, acting on a tip from an avid birder friend in Lapeer, I set out for Tuscola County in the lower part of Michigan’s “thumb”  to search for snowy owls.  In less than 90 minutes we located three – – two sleepy ones on rural roadside utility poles and one in a plowed farm field with prey in its talons.  These are the owls that I photographed to feature in this special report.

Outwitting Fall Foliage Poison Ivy

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

As the days shorten and the nights cool, the woodlands of Oakland County are transforming into kaleidoscopes of color. Golden hues of sugar maple, the deep crimsons of sassafras and the scarlet-red shades of red maple are the dominant colors on nature’s autumn palette. However, there is one troublesome plant that hides in the showy mix, a plant dressed in alluring shades of red: Poison Ivy.

A Head Start Program for Turtles

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

The Detroit Zoo (located in Royal Oak) is 90 miles south of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Saginaw County.  But for 27 young Blanding’s turtles that slid from warm human hands into the cool duckweed-coated backwaters of the Shiawassee at the end of August, that journey to freedom took two years. These turtles were saved from near certain consumption by raccoons when they were still yummy munchies in their eggs. Multiple agencies worked on the project, a reminder to all who appreciate the wilder side of nature that all things are connected.

Poison Sumac: Our Wetland Beauty with a Dark Secret

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Erika Cole Pratt of Ann Arbor Parks admires a beautiful poison sumac tree in a Rose Township wetland.

Swamp walkers and wetland trail hikers need to keep a sharp lookout for one of the most beautiful plants of our wetlands: Toxicodendron vernix, better known as poison sumac. This scraggly, shrub-like small tree thrives in the swamps, bogs, marshes and other wetlands of Oakland County. It is one of the first plants to dress in spectacular autumn colors that can best be described as flaming orange with a dark red hue. Poison sumac, as alluring and beautiful as it may be, presents a far more prevalent hazard to hikers than an encounter with Michigan’s only venomous snake, the massasauga rattlesnake. In these early days of September, poison sumac stands out drastically among the trailside – let the color and leaf pattern be a warning of its clear and present danger.

The Red Fox: Master of Adaptation

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

A red fox watches closely after he detects a human ( Jonathan) watching him in the Brandon Township woods they both share.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes fluva) is found in every county in Michigan, and is very much at home on the wilder (and not so wild) sides of Oakland County. These rusty-red colored predators with bushy white-tipped tails and black legs are not restricted to large woodlands, parklands and fields. Sometimes, red foxes will den near suburban homes or even in industrial areas that offer good hunting and a hiding habitat.  Fox commonly hunt near golf courses, where rabbits are easy to find and have no place to hide. It’s all a matter of adapting to opportunity and adjusting to the ways of humans that dominate their landscape.

Duckweeds: Not Just for Ducks!

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Carpets of duckweed cover many small ponds and wooded wetlands.

August is the season of the duckweed, a wetland plant that thrives on the Wilder Side of Oakland County in sheltered bays, roadside ditches, wetlands and ponds. This small plant (the tiniest of our flowering plants) floats on the surface of still waters in great green mats, sometimes stretching from one side of the water source to the other.  Botanists boast that the surface area covered by duckweed can double in two days – which can be good news for waterfowl.

COYOTES: Sensational Newspaper Articles Provoke Public Paranoia

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Coyote stalking meadow voles in a Brandon Township meadow. (Photo courtesy of Ron Lapp)

It happens every summer: sensational news reports vilify coyotes in Oakland County. The media transforms Canis latrans into something as foreign as an alien spacecraft landing. That style of reporting (in print and on television) creates bias by being short on facts and using such words as predatory and lurking.

Coyotes are predatory but the word predatory when placed before the word coyote creates fear.  Frogs, salamanders, hawks, robins and the beautiful eastern bluebird are also predatory. A phrase such as “The coyote was seen lurking in the woods” is often included in news reports. Lurking equates with sinister intent; you will never read, “A predatory bluebird was lurking at the edge of the woods,” in the newspaper.

Chicory: More Than a Roadside Weed

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Chicory thrives along the side of many rural county roads.

For the chicory plant, any part of Oakland County that does not come under the mower’s blade or is not bathed in herbicides becomes the “Wilder Side of Oakland County”. Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of our most common, easily recognizable and delicately beautiful roadside weeds of mid-summer. But for me, and perhaps thousands of of others across the county, chicory is more than an abundant roadside weed. Chicory is a nutritious and highly versatile wild plant that holds a history of domestic use going back to a time before the American Revolution.

OSPREY: Oakland County’s Amazing Fish Hawk!

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) are experiencing resurgence in Oakland County.  The comeback story of these amazing raptors – they dive into shallow water to catch fish – is perhaps nature’s finest salute to the Wilder Side of Oakland County, and the habitat protection efforts of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR).

The story begins back in 1972, when the Environmental Protection Agency banned the deadly insecticide DDT; before this ban, the osprey population was dire. Twenty-six years after the ban, the MDNR decided to re-introduce osprey to the lower half of Michigan. And now, the osprey’s population is growing at a healthy rate.

Northern Water Snake & Baby Painted Turtle – Best Friends Forever?

THE WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Northern water snake watches me at Seven Lakes State Park.

Wetlands, swamps, marshes and lakeshores of Oakland County are the perfect habitat for the northern water snake, a darkly colored semi-aquatic carnivore that forages along the water’s edge for prey.

The northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) is often mistakenly called a “water moccasin,” a venomous snake of southern swamps named after the shoe it resembles.  Frogs, fish, tadpoles, crayfish, baby muskrats, small birds and even turtles comprise much of the diet of this seemingly always hungry hunter of the Wilder Side of Oakland County.  There is nothing shy about the behavior of this thick-bodied, non-venomous snake that can be three feet long and eats its prey alive. And sometimes, their behavior is unpredictable.