Tryon Creek Naturalist Notes

This year’s annual Wapato Bird Walk on January 14th was attended by an amazing group of bird enthusiasts.  Although the day started out pretty dry, we were drenched by the last half mile of the loop around Virginia Lake.  We didn’t let that stop us though; stopping to admire each and every bird along the way.  Once again, I’m reminded what a jewel this property is!  I can’t wait for the next hike.

While on a nature hike with Ranger Christal recently, we spied this lichen. Christal asked us what we thought the name of this interesting lichen might be. She said things are often named by what they looked like. One child on the hike pipped up with “frog skin!” I looked it up in a plant book (Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and MacKinnon) and the budding naturalist got it right: the name of this lichen is frog pelt Peltigera neopolydactyla.

Frog pelt is a leaf lichen, meaning it is a two sided lichen which a distinct under and upper side. The upper side looks similar to a frog’s skin, it is hairless, olive-green or sometimes bluish. At the edges are red-brownish tooth-like fruiting bodies. These fruiting bodies is one of the ways this lichen reproduces. The underside of the lichen is whitish and cottony with long veins.

We found this lichen growing on a log, it also likes to grow on rock, moss, and soil. You’ll find it around this area in open or shady forests at all forested elevations. I also saw it in the Columbia Gorge recently growing on some rock.

Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungus. The fungus provides the structure of the organism and the algae provides the food through photosyntheses. This unique relationship brings more than a thousand different lichens to the Pacific Northwest. Next time you are at Tryon Creek, take a look around for the frog pelt lichen or any of the other amazing lichens growing here.

By Deb Hill

Date: Animal, Location sighted

5/13: Barred Owl, North Horse Loop
5/17: Barred Owl, North Horse Loop
Red Breasted Nuthatch, Nature Center
5/30: 3 Barred Owls!
6/5: Black-throated Grey Warbler, Western Tanager, and Black-headed Grosbeak, Parking Lot
Cooper’s Hawk, Lewis & Clark Trail
Cooper’s Hawk, West Horse Loop
6/6: Northern Pygmy Owl, Old Main Trail
Barred Owl Family (awww!), Cedar Trail (NW of Hemlock Trail) @ 3:00
6/7: Blooming wild ginger, Middle Creek (near Big Fir Trail)
6/12: Evening Grosbeak and Townsend’s Warbler, Parking Lot
Rufous Hummingbird, Feeder on Back Deck
6/14: Western Wood-Pewee and Hutton’s Vireo, Equestrian Lot
6/18: Coyote, crossing Terwilliger Road
6/19: Hermit Warblers, Wilson’s Warblers, Purple Finches, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Warbling Vireos, and Swanson’s Thrushes, along Cedar Trail and along creek
6/25: Pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, Lewis & Clark Trail
11 Banana Slugs, Opossum footprints
Garter Snake and Hairy Woodpecker, Lewis & Clark Bike Path
7/1: Baby Fox Squirrels, outside Nature Center
7/3: Purple Finch, parking lot
7/7: Spotted Towhee Nest, Hemlock Trail
Brown Creeper
6 Banana Slugs
2 Pileated Woodpeckers
7/20: Indian Pipes, Old Main Trail
7/21: Banana Slugs & snails
7/24: Cooper’s Hawk, Old Main Trail near Red Fox
7/27: 3 Cooper’s Hawks, Old Main Trail near Red Fox
8/3: Squirrel Kitchen (chewed Douglas Fir cone), Big Fir near Middle Creek
8/6: 2 Juvenile Great Horned Owls, Bunk Bridge
8/8: Western Redback Salamander
8/9: Coyote, Old Main Trail @ 3:00
8/21: Cooper’s Hawk, High Bridge
9/3: Black-tailed Deer, Cedar Trail
9/26: 4 Pileated Woodpeckers, West Horse Loop
3 Pileated Woodpeckers, Middle Creek Trail (near High Bridge)
9/27: Deer and 2 fawns, Meadow
10/3: Owl (possibly Great Horned Owl juvenile), Old Main Trail
10/4: Great Horned Owl, Maple Ridge Trail
Northern Pygmy Owl, Big Fir Trail
10/16: Sandhill Crane, overhead
11/6: 7 Ensatina salamanders, 2 Red-back Salamanders, Giant Pacific Salamanders (larvae), slugs, beetles, and millipedes
12/8: Great Horned Owl! Yes!
12/20: Crows chasing Barred Owl on West Horse Loop

Yesterday morning I led a guided nature walk entitled Drummers of the Forest, where we explored the amazing adaptations of the woodpeckers of Tryon Creek.  We walked Old Main and Big Fir Trails stopping along the way to check out old nesting sites and rotten snags with obvious feeding holes.  Although we tried calling both Pileated woodpeckers and Northern Flickers along the way, we concluded that the woodpeckers were waiting for the morning frost to burn off before showing themselves.

We gave one last attempt at calling a Hairy Woodpecker before walking briskly back to the nature center, and got a response (much to our surprise!)   As I was searching for its location, which happened to be the tip top of the tallest Douglas Fir it could find, a fluffy mound of feathers caught my eye…OWL!  Well, needless to say the Great Horned owl was both closer and easier to see so we oohed and awed over it for quite some time.  Once everyone had their turn with the binoculars, I realized that the little Hairy Woodpecker we had called was still at the top of that conifer calling its heart out and we had totally left it hanging.  Poor little guy!  We gave him one last goodbye and thanked him for giving us the incentive to stop and take a closer look around.

I didn’t have my camera during the hike but I ran into Seth and Doug Arnold a few hours later and our owl was still perched in the same tree, when they captured this shot.  Thanks guys!

Taking an afternoon snooze....

Last weekend a visitor by the name of Phil Lavine stopped by the Nature Center and asked the question, “What does pileated mean”?  Well, if I had a nickle for all the of the times I’ve said the name Pileated Woodpecker, I’d be rich.  But, I had no clue what the word pileated meant, so we agreed to go to good ole’ Google.  We found that the name for this gorgeous woodpecker that calls Tryon Creek its home, comes from its flashy pileum.  The Merrium-Webster site told us that the pileum is the the top of the head of a bird from the bill to the nape.  Phil’s photograph of our version of “Woody The Woodpecker” is the perfect example of the Pileated Woodpecker’s red pileum.