Nashville Dark Skies

 

Nashville Dark Skies

Early April 2021

Shared by Councilwoman Burkley Allen & Heather Gallagher, Naturalist

burkley.allen@nashville.gov & heather.gallagher@nashville.gov

Photos by Kim Bailey, Theo Wellington and Nature Center Archives

 

Nighttime is the right time for wildlife and humans alike. And spring is the right time to get out and enjoy the many nocturnal animals that come alive. Here are just a few!

The often-seen Barred Owl has a familiar "who cooks for you" call. 

American Toads are trilling in the Nature Center pond right now! 

Pickerel frogs were recently discovered in Warner Parks. Their call sounds more like a groan! Photo credit Kim Bailey. 

Throughout the year, the Nature Center offers programming to encourage nocturnal exploration of the Park. Our seasonal star parties, in partnership with Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society, allow for an astronomer’s view of the night sky.

Star Party at the Edwin Warner Model Airplane Field by Theo Wellington

Though during the pandemic, a star party has looked more like this:

The Tennessee Virtual Star Party took place on YouTube last July and again in February, sharing the night sky across the state with thousands of viewers. 

And we truly miss our evening programs that partner with urban community centers, bringing youth aged 8-12 to Warner Park for a camp experience. On a warm, summer night, naturalists point out such features as the summer triangle and Jupiter and Saturn and recite stories of pirates and early settlers in the Bellevue area.

What do all of these activities have in common? Dark, night skies. Darkness is key to the life cycle of so many of our beloved insects, amphibians and birds. Darkness is key to observing planets and other celestial objects. And darkness is key to a campfire with your friends.  

The Audubon Society is partnering with the International Dark Sky Association to protect the night sky for birds and people. Read more about this effort and how you can get involved here. 

Photo credit https://www.aquinascollege.edu/nashville-skyline-at-night/

Live in Nashville? Metro Council is considering legislation that will help make architects and lighting designers more aware of how exterior building lighting, parking lot lighting, and road lighting can obscure the night sky if they are not carefully designed and controlled.  The legislation would provide standards for lighting levels, lighting direction, and lighting controls for new construction.  This will begin to reduce light pollution and help make the constellations visible again.  Bringing back the night school is better for our environment, our health, and our psyche.  

Please write your council member at  https://www.nashville.gov/Metro-Council/Contact-Council-Members.aspx  and ask them to support BL2020-535.

A March Tradition

 A March Tradition

March 2021

Shared by Sandy Bivens, BIRD Program

sandy.bivens@nashville.gov

Photos by Ed Schneider, Graham Gerdeman, Elizabeth Cook & Nature Center Archives

Mid-March is here. While some are excited about March Madness, I am excitedly watching, listening, and waiting for the arrival of a special bird – the Louisiana Waterthrush. They have been gone since August and should return any minute. I want to see and hear the first one, a March tradition for me (and maybe a friendly competition too). 

Photo shared by Ed Schneider

The Louisiana Waterthrush (aka Parkesia motacilla or LOWA) is an early migrant and heralds the arrival of many more birds heading north to their breeding grounds. Like the blooming spring beauties, it is one of the first signs of spring. This bird is not a thrush but gets the name from its thrush-like plumage and melodious song. The LOWA is a warbler: a songbird in the Wood-Warbler Family (Parulidae) of small to medium sized insectivorous birds with slender, pointed beaks.   

Photo shared by Graham Gerdeman

Look for these characteristics of a LOWA:  broad white eye-stripe, longish pointed beak, brown plumage, bold streaking, buffy sides, mostly white throat, and long legs. But you may identify it first by its song, behavior, and habitat.   

Photo shared by Ed Schneider

The Louisiana Waterthrush is most famous for its loud, ringing, beautiful song.  I always hear one before I see it. Sometimes I do not see it all (they are well camouflaged), but I can identify it by the song. I think it sounds like “tree tree tree-ta-whit” and some say “seeup seeup seeup …” but all say it is lovely. As you listen to them more, you can even learn to identify them by their sharp, metallic chip call. And I will admit, I do try to get to the park early this time year, so I might be the first one to hear it – the song so loud I hear it in my car with the windows up in the parking lot as I arrive!  

Photo shared by Elizabeth Cook

Another way to identify a LOWA is by its behavior – it is known for “wagging” its tail. The species name means “tail-wagger”.  It looks like it bobs its tail, but it moves the back half of its body and tail back and forth regularly - while walking and hopping along a creek and perching on rocks and sticks.  Look for this “teetering” behavior when you see one! 

Photo shared by Vera Roberts

Photo shared by Elizabeth Cook

To find a LOWA you will have to search in the right habitat. They like forested creeks and moving water. They are streamside birds. They search for food, build their nests, raise their young all along the stream.  Protecting forested stream habitats is critical to the survival of Louisiana Waterthrush and many other species. 

Photo shared by Ed Schneider

Photo shared by Graham Gerdeman

LOWA eat insects. I counted over 10 insects in this bird’s bill! How many can you count? Can you identify any of them? Maybe it just arrived and has flown all night (they are nocturnal migrants) and was hungry? Or maybe it is feeding 5 hungry nestlings? They eat a wide variety of insects, adults and larvae or nymphs, found in streams – mayflies, caddisflies, midges, craneflies, dragonflies, and beetles to name a few. But they might also eat worms, spiders, crayfish, scorpions, minnows, and even a salamander or frog.

From Birds of the World

To find a LOWA you will have to search at the right time of year and in the right hemisphere! They migrate to our area in March and find a small stream to nest and start the cycle of their life and then the whole family heads south to Central or South America in August.

Photo shared by Graham Gerdeman

During spring and fall migration another species of Waterthrush passes through our area.  The Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis or NOWA), like the LOWA, is a nocturnal migrant and may arrive at Warner Park one morning and immediately start searching for insects in the creek.  It might stay several days, singing and eating, and storing fat to fuel the journey further north. You can identify the remarkably similar NOWA by the buffy eye stripe, more yellowish and heavily streaked plumage, streaked throat, and darker undertail coverts. The NOWA also wags its tail but it prefers ponds, swamps, bogs, wetlands, and non-moving water habitats.  They are common during migration in our area. 

From Birds of the World

The Northern Waterthrush, like the LOWA, is a neotropical migrant, spending the breeding season in North America and the non-breeding season in the tropics.

The Nature Center staff and volunteers regularly monitor the Little Harpeth River for water quality – seining to look for benthic macroinvertebrate organisms (stoneflies, mayflies, etc.)  that are sensitive to water pollution. These are the same organisms that are important in the diet of LOWA.  The presence of Louisiana Waterthrush in a stream can be an important indicator of water quality. 

Banded LOWA

Banded NOWA

The Warner Park Banding Station operates a banding station, and BIRD (Bird Information, Research and Data) is a year-round program for bird conservation, habitat protection and education made possible by dedicated staff, volunteers and many partners including Metro Parks, the Warner Park Nature Center and Friends of Warner Parks. With our federal and state permits we regularly catch, band and release birds after we identify, weigh, measure, age, sex, and record this information. We are always thrilled to catch a waterthrush - LOWA and NOWA.  And we are always hopeful to recapture them when they return from their southern journey.  We have several records of catching the same Louisiana Waterthrush coming back to the same creek to nest the next year. And it takes our breath away each time. 

Over 40 years ago I met Dr. Katherine Goodpasture and she quickly became my mentor and friend.  “Mrs. G”, as we called her, helped me obtain my bird banding permit and helped us start the Warner Park Banding Station.  She had a special relationship with Louisiana Waterthrush, and she shared it with me and others.  Early every March she went to her Williamson County farm to try and hear the first LOWA song. It was her tradition. I started trying to hear the first one at Warner Park – a friendly competition with her that I never won, but had great fun trying. This became a tradition with the Warner Park staff and others across the state. Of course, I like to “win” and hear the first one. But mostly I just like to communicate with other LOWA lovers (you know who you are) and learn when the first arrives.  Do you have a spring tradition?  We hope you come to Warner Park and make one or add another!  And enjoy spring!

For More Information about LOWAs:

• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

On Your Mark!

On Your Mark

Shared by Melissa Donahue, Naturalist

melissa.donahue@nashville.gov

Photos courtesy Warner Park Nature Center archives and the authoress

Spring Beauties along the Mossy Ridge Trail

I saw my first spring beauty this year on Thursday, February 25, at 12:36 p.m.  The spotting of the year’s first spring beauty is the beginning of a spring ritual.  It’s time to pull out the nature journal, dust off the wildflower book and plan a few excursions to my favorite trails.  My goal is to see as many spring wildflowers as I can.  These spring ephemerals are also in a race.  They are trying to complete their lifecycle before the leaves bud out on the trees.  The race is on and I’m ready.

Harbinger of Spring

Harbinger-of-Spring or salt and pepper is the first of the spring ephemerals.  Blooming in early February, the tiny blossoms are found peeping out among the fallen leaves.     

Spring Beauty

These small flowers range in color from white to pink.  One of the earliest bloomers, they are pollinated by more than 71 different species of insect pollinators.  When in full bloom this flower covers a hillside, giving the illusion of snow.

Cut-leaf Toothwort

Although there are 3 species of Toothwort (Dentaria) found in the Park, this is the most common.  Look for these blossoms, white to light violet, standing above the spring beauty.

Rue Anemone

 

False Rue Anemone

These two wildflowers are often found growing close together.  Although they resemble each other, there are some differences.  For example, the Rue Anemone has 5-10 showy white to pinkish petal-like sepals. False Rue Anemone has only five white petal-like sepals.  (Easily remembered because five and false both start with a F.)

Early Saxifrage

Often seen growing on rock ledges, Early Saxifrage rises out of the center of a basal rosette of leaves.  Upon close observation you’ll notice that Early Saxifrage's flower stalk has many hairs – they are sticky, and this is thought to deter ants from taking nectar from the flowers.  Because of this the flower will attract more efficient pollinators.

Bloodroot

A stunning spring ephemeral, Bloodroot blooms for a short period in mid-March.  The flower, with eight to sixteen white petals and sunny yellow center, appears on a stem from a single-lobed leaf.  The flower gets it’s name from the rhizome which has an orangish-red fluid or sap.   

So put your hiking shoes out and see how many of these lovely spring flowers you can find!  If you want to know more about these spring ephemerals, visit our webpage and sign up for a naturalist-led wildflower hike.