This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re taking a look at another unmistakable bird of Edisto. This week we’re talking about the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris).
The Painted Bunting, just like the Roseate Spoonbill, is an unmistakable sight in the Southeast. A blur of color that streaks along the hedgerow and launches in through your peripheral vision. They were even given the French nickname of Nonpareil, meaning “without equal” or “unrivaled” in reference to their striking plumage. The male is a vibrant patchwork of red, blue, and chartreuse. The female a blend of greens and yellows not seen on any other bird in our region. They are roughly sparrow sized and relatives of the Cardinal and Tanager. Painted Buntings eat seeds and insects. They often visit bird feeders in their territory. Their preferred habitats are maritime forest, agricultural fields, and the shrubby edges of causeways, roads, and forests. Females build their nests in dense scrub a few feet off the ground or in Spanish Moss well out of reach. Males mark their territory with a warbling song they sing from an exposed perch, usually about 30ft above the ground. Painted Buntings are here most of the year but vacation in Mexico for the colder parts of winter.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re looking at grassy wetland plant whose appearance betrays its heritage. This week we’re talking about the White-topped Sedge (Rhynchospora colorata).
The White-topped Sedge is a resident of wet meadows, ditches, and other open shallow wetlands. (It’s even growing in the ditches across the street from the EIOLT office.) It grows in dense strips or clumps that reach about 2 feet tall. In late spring, the Sedges bloom producing a small cluster of white flowers ringed by a pale corona of long, variegated bracts. Bracts are the leaves found just below a flower. In the White-topped Sedges, these bracts are up to 6 inches long, white at the base, and green at the tip. They form a whorl beneath the true flowers where they resemble petals, much like the bracts of Dogwood or Hydrangea flowers.
White-topped Sedges are interesting because they’re a member of the Sedge family, Cyperaceae. Sedges are an incredibly diverse group of plants that are closely related to, and strongly resemble, Grasses. Just like Grasses, Sedges are rather plain and their flowers mostly inconspicuous. The white-topped Sedges are an exception. They’ve developed a showy flower unlike any of the members of their family. These white bracts standout like a beacon to insects and attract pollinators to the plants. As the pollinators move from flower to flower, they distribute pollen between flowers. Almost all the other members of the Sedge family rely on wind pollination, making the White-topped Sedge’s adaptation unique among Sedges.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re discussing the hot-pink ladle-faced wading bird that draws birders from far and wide to the ACE basin. This week we’re taking a gander at the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja).
It’s unquestionable. Roseate Spoonbills are the most striking of all our wading birds. Their hot pink wings, bubblegum legs, bony spoon-shaped bills, large stature, and glowing ruby eyes will give even the most seasoned birder whiplash when one turns up unexpectedly. No other bird, save a very lost Flamingo, commands the same presence in the marsh. Despite their resemblance to Wood Storks, of the species in SC, Roseate Spoonbills are most closely related to Ibis.
Roseate Spoonbills are quite common in coastal TX and LA as well as southern Florida but are a much more special sight on Edisto. They migrate our way come summer, trickling in along the intracoastal waterway. We’re only just on the edge of their breeding range in SC. So most of the birds you will see are immatures coming more north than the breeding grounds to feed. Adult Roseate Spoonbills have a bald head but immature birds still have a full head of feathers. Roseate Spoonbills feed in the saltmarshes and impoundments of our coast, slicing their flattened bills from side to side as they march along in the shallow water. When they bump against something tasty they snap their bill shut, trapping their prey in a spoon-y embrace. Roseate Spoonbills eat a diet of small fish and crustaceans, including mummichogs, blue crabs, and shrimp.
If you want to appreciate the beauty of our utensil-snouted fusia-feathered friend in person, I can recommend two hotspots on Edisto. I often see Roseate Spoonbills below the bridge along the Dawhoo River in early summer and more reliably on the back of Jason’s Lake in Botany Bay WMA in late summer. So grab your binoculars and camera and get out there!
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re looking at a common but unique wetland plant. This week were talking about Lizard’s Tail (Saururus cernuus).
Lizard’s Tail belongs to the family Saururaceae. This family only contains 7 species, of which only two are found in the United States. Of those two, Lizard’s tail is the only one found East of the Mississippi. This leaves Lizard’s Tail quite unique in appearance from anything else in our area.
Lizard’s Tail is a perennial wildflower that thrives in shaded freshwater marshes and open swamps. It’s alternate arrowhead-shaped leaves carpet the mud of many a shallow backwater and bottomland in the Lowcountry. The plants grow in dense stands and can reach about 4ft in height. In the spring the plants produce a slender spike of green-white flower buds. These flower buds open from the base of the inflorescence to the tip, creating a white bottle brush at the bottom with an off-green “lizard’s tail” of buds still hanging from the tip. In the winter the plants die back to their roots to start the cycle anew.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, were taking a look at a pair of raptors who glide into our horizon every summer. This week were talking about the Kites.
Here in on Edisto we have two species of Kite that regularly grace our skies come summer to feed and breed. They are the Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) and the Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus). Both species are similar, but not identical, in habits, habitat, diet, and behavior. Kites are highly agile and efficient fliers. They spend their days hunting on the wing. Soaring high over fields, marshes, and open wetlands or skimming just a few feet above the treetops. Rarely ever flapping their wings. Kites feed primarily on large insects, like beetles, wasps, and moths, that they catch in mid-air or on small vertebrates, like lizards, frogs, and bats, that they snatch from the treetops. Kites take their meals on the wing, eating it from their talons. Kites are rather social and can often be seen hunting in large swarms of birds over open areas. Mississippi Kites are much more social than their Swallow-tailed cousins but the latter won’t hesitate to join in on a feeding frenzy if the opportunity arises.
Both species are partial to lowland forests with intermittent open habitat, but the Swallow-tailed is definitely the more specialized of the two. Swallow-tailed Kites have a strong preference for swamps, marshes, and floodplain, riparian, and bottomland forests. Mississippi Kites are more generalist in habitat, utilizing some drier forest habitats as well as pastures, farmland, and even urban areas. Predictably, Mississippi Kites thus have a much larger range and are found throughout much of the state. Swallow-tailed Kites are almost exclusively found in the coastal plain. Both species are common here on Edisto in the summer, but the Mississippi Kite is definitely easier to find. There’s usually at least one, if not 20, circling over the fields at King’s Market. Swallow-tailed Kites are harder to pin down but the edges of lowland forests or marshes are always a good bet.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, the subject is a naturalized exotic plant that is, nonetheless, a staple of old Edistonian gardens and the shoulders of Highway 174. This week we’re sneaking a peek at the Dragon’s-Head Lily (Gladiolus dalenii).
Like other members of the Iris family, Gladiolus dalenii loves wet soils. On Edisto it thrives in the shady, disturbed, sandy, and wet soils of the ditches along Hwy-174 and it’s many branches. The species is perennial and spreads clonally through its roots. The large, flat, erect leaf blades give the genus their common name of “Sword Lilies”. The Dragon’s-Head Lily produces a single flower stalk per leaf clump that can reach over 5 feet in height. Each stalk bears about a dozen large flowers along one side. The flowers are a fiery blend of yellow and red-orange. Although the species is exotic, it’s quite innocuous to the native plant communities.
The Dragon’s-Head Lily is a native throughout tropical and eastern Africa with quite an expansion range on the continent. Its history and range in the United States is poorly understood, with only a few isolated reports of it in LA, MS, and AL. However, I can tell you for certain that it’s made quite the home for itself on Edisto Island. Decades in the past it was a popular ornamental planting in both Edisto and Beaufort. Part of a horticultural trend that has long since been forgotten. However, although the history of its planting, origins of the horticultural stock, and even its botanical name was forgotten by the descendants of its propagators, those same plants and the beauty of their flowers still remain. A torch that burns each spring though we know not why it was lit.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re peering in on a critter I’m sure we’re all well acquainted with. This week we’re looking at the Carolina Anole (Anolis carolinensis).
Found from Texas to North Carolina, the Carolina, or Green, Anole is a trademark reptile of the South and found in every county in SC. They’re an arboreal insect-eating predator that hunts everywhere from urban hedges to the treetops of the most isolated oldgrowth blackwater swamps. Anoles hunt by stalking tree branches and rushing or jumping at their prey, jaws agape, and clamping down on whatever they grab. Despite how common these lizards are, they’re interesting in many ways.
Male Anoles are larger with a beefier head and possess a pink “dewlap” on their neck. Females display a white stripe down their spine. Males are very territorial during the breeding season and can often be seen confronting each other. During a standoff, males display dark patches behind their eyes, a short crest on the back of their neck, and flare their dewlap while pumping their upper bodies. These standoffs often result in fights between rivals where the two lock jaws and attempt to bite their opponent into submission. Like all of our lizards, Anoles have the ability to shed their tail to escape a predator. The shed tail will continue to wriggle on its own for over a minute. Carolina Anoles also have the ability to change their color using tiny pigment sacs below the skin called chromatophores, just like Chameleons. However, Anoles can only change from Green to Brown and they do so not for camouflage but to thermoregulate. Like all reptiles, they are ectothermic and depend on the environment for heat. Also like Chameleons, which they are unrelated to, Anoles have the ability to move their eyes independently of one another. This allows them to scan their surrounding for prey and predators much more efficiently and without moving their head. Anoles also have specialized feet, like Geckos, that allow them to scale practically any surface, including paned glass. Their foot pads are studded in lines of specialized hairs. These hairs fray at the tip, creating hundreds of contact points each. This incomprehensible degree of surface area composed of microscopic points allows Anoles to electrically adhere to a surface through even the weakest of the intermolecular forces. Think of it as atomic Velcro.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re taking a glance at a native wildflower that’s endemic to our Saltmarsh. This week the subject is the Salt-Marsh Pink (Sabatia stellaris).
The Salt-Marsh Pink (also called the Rose-of-Plymouth, Sea Pink, or Marsh Pink) inhabits salt marshes along the east coast from Louisiana to Massachusetts. It’s an annual plant with opposite leaves in the highly diverse Pink family, Caryophyllaceae. They bloom from the middle of spring until the end of summer. Their flower is a five-petaled pastel pink bloom with a vibrant violet and gold star surrounding its pistol and stamens. This central star is where it gets the specific epithet “stellaris”.
Salt-Marsh Pinks are one of only a handful of wildflowers that can be found blooming deep in our saltmarsh. It grows best in the highest marsh where the tidal influence is felt only on the king tides. It can be found in the salt meadows surrounding the saltmarsh growing amongst Carolina Sealavender, Perennial and Annual Saltmarsh Asters, Bristlegrass, and Fimbry.
This week for flora and fauna Friday we’re examining an often heard but scarcely seen marsh bird. This week we’re talking about the Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans).
Clapper Rails are a common bird species in the saltmarshes of Edisto and throughout the East and Gulf coasts. They are one of our largest Rail species. Rails are not shorebirds, as one might guess, but are more closely related to Coots, Cranes, and Gallinules. Their noisy “clapping” song, a series of loud industrial sounding grunts, is heard throughout the year wherever there is marsh. Clapper Rails spend their lives beneath the rushes and grasses of the marsh. Only occasionally venturing out to cross a causeway or stream or clean their feathers. Clapper Rails are omnivorous but prefer eating arthropods, especially Fiddler Crabs.
For every bit as boisterous and cacophonous a Clapper Rail is in voice, it is equally as stealthy and secretive in appearance. Rails are unparalleled masters of stealth in their domain of the marsh. Their plumage is perfectly patterned to dissolve the bird within the marsh. Their body is shaped so that they can live their entire life undetected beneath the grass and rush. The phrase “thin as a Rail” is a nod to one of their many adaptations to marsh stealth. Rails can flatten their bodies laterally. This allows them to squeeze through tight gaps in the grass and not only walk, but run, in between the reeds without even touching them! Staying off the grass is important. Brushing against the reeds makes noise and causes the grass to sway above the marsh. Both of these signatures can be tracked by predators and could give away a Rail’s location. Clapper Rails are built for speed. Not in the air but on soft mud. They have long legs, wide toes, and a shortened tail and wings. They are experts in the Spartina Slalom and will wipe the floor with even the serpentine Mink in a foot race through the marsh. Clapper Rails have traded most of their flight capabilities for agility on land. Because of this, their build is very reminiscent of a scrawny Chicken, which coined them the nickname “Marsh Hens”. It also means they are poor fliers and are most vulnerable in the open. Their main predators are Mink, Great Blue Herons, and Hawks. I’ve found the best place to see Clapper Rails out and about is around marinas, boat landings, and fishing piers. Places where humans are always present and the birds are used to us.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re getting up close and personal with the chartreuse sprite of spring evenings. This week we’re examining the Luna Moth (Actias luna).
Luna Moths are members of the Silk Moth family, Saturnidae. This family holds our largest and most spectacular moths, of which the Luna moth is no exception. Saturnidae includes the stunning Promethea, Polyphemus, Io, and Cecropia Moths as well. Silk Moth caterpillars spin cocoons made of, you guessed it, silk. Although, Saturnidae is not the same family as the Domestic Silkmoth, from whom silk fabric is made.
Luna Moth caterpillars feed on the leaves of a variety of hardwood trees. When they’ve molted four times and reached a hefty size, the caterpillars spin a cocoon and fall from the treetops to hide below the leaf litter. A few weeks later, an adult Luna Moth will emerge or, if pupation occurs in fall, the following spring. Luna Moths are active from spring until fall. However, adult Luna Moths don’t eat and they only live for about a week after emerging. During this week their only motivation is to reproduce and start the cycle anew. Males and Females can be told apart by the size of their feathery antennae. Males use their antennae to sniff out the female’s pheromones. So male antennae are about twice as wide.
Luna Moths, like most Moths, are nocturnal. I’ve seen my fair share of these lime-green, swallow-tailed moths waft in while black-lighting or softly clinging to a tree, freshly emerged, pumping their wings. Nonetheless, stumbling upon a Luna Moth always feels special. An ephemeral emerald emerged from the ether. A glistening jewel loosed from a verdant crown to adorn the bark below. A fleeting bead of beauty that wrenches the eye and splits the mundane.
