Spring Awakens
As spring emerges, so do the plants and animals that have been sleeping all winter.
Here we highlight a few of our favorites!
Here we highlight a few of our favorites!
Bloodroot
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Bloodroot (Sanquinaria canadensis) is among some of the first to sprout in the early spring. It is known by its white flower, which emerges before its single lobed leaf. The bloom only lasts a short while before the petals wilt back into the earth. The seeds are dispersed by ants who carry the seeds away from the plant to provide food for their nests. The ants eat the fleshy part of the seed, leaving the rest to germinate. Bloodroot gets its name from the rhizome, which “bleeds” a deep red-orange sap if cut open. Another common name for the plant, a member of the Poppy family, is bloody knuckles. The root was used as a traditional Appalachian remedy to treat respiratory problem and as a topical treatment to eliminate cancerous growths. However, take caution with this plant - the sap actually contains toxic chemicals and can necrotize the skin if touched!
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Spotted Salamander
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The Spotted Salamander is typically only found within a short window during the late winter or early spring. During most of the year, adults live in underground burrows and rarely come out, even when they eat! The trigger to leave their burrows comes with the arrival of a warm rainy night after a cold period. This typically occurs in late February or early March, but can happen as early as January. The salamanders navigate their way to a nearby pond or wetland and plunge in, intent on finding a mate. Gravid females lay masses of jelly-like eggs and secure them to sticks or debris in the water. Several weeks later, on another warm rainy evening, the salamanders leave the pond and make their way back to their burrows. The eggs mature, and in a few months they are ready to hatch. Larval salamanders retain gills and fin-like tails and remain in the pond for part of their juvenile lives, feeding on pond insects and copepods. As they grow, their bodies change. They lose their gills and grow lungs. Their tails become more round. At this time, they too leave the pond and search for a place to settle down and burrow until spring.
Interesting Fact: Spotted salamanders are unique in that they actually have algae DNA in them! Some egg masses have a symbiotic relationship with an algae that grows in the jelly layer. The algae helps provide oxygen to the eggs, which helps them develop. Over time, the egg masses turn green due to the algae. Egg masses can also be white, which helps obscure the eggs from predators. |
Photos by Kyle Pursel
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Eastern Towhee
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The eastern towhee is a large sparrow with striking rufous sides, white belly, and a black (males) or brown (females) head. Towhees live in the mountains year-round, but are not often seen or heard in the winter. As the weather warms, many birds begin to sing as they establish territories and find mates. The towhee’s song is bright and cheerful and is a sure sign that spring has come. The song has a recognizable sound, as if the bird was saying “drink your teeeea!” Towhees are most often spotted near the ground - hiding under shrubs and scratching through the leaf litter searching for insects and seeds.
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Photos by Greg Clarkson
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Lampshade Spider
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Lampshade spiders (Hypochilus spp.) are specialized species that live only in well-shaded rocky habitats in the Southern Appalachian and other mountain ranges in North America. In the spring and summer, these spiders decorate rock outcrops nears streams and waterfalls with webs that look like flimsy upside-down lampshades protruding from the rock’s surface. The resident of each web rests at the base, with its long legs extended out reaching the lampshade walls, waiting patiently for an unsuspecting crane fly, cricket, or other type of prey to become entangled within its sticky net. The spider is grayish or brownish in color, with flecks of white and sometimes green, blending it artfully to the color of its moss and lichen covered rocky substrate.
Lampshade spiders live for two years. Spiderlings overwinter in an egg sac camouflaged with moss and lichen, and hatch out in the spring to make tiny lampshade webs smaller than the size of a dime. As they grow, they build new larger webs, reaching as large as 3-4 inches when the spiders are mature. In the fall of their first year, these spiders are thought to find rock crevices or leaf litter to overwinter, and then emerge again in the spring. At the end of the second summer, the fully mature spiders mate and build egg sacs before they recycle back into the earth. Researchers of the spider have referred to them as “living fossils” because they belong to one of the oldest living groups of spiders and have retained several ancestral traits. |
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Common Garter Snake
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Garter snakes are often one of the first snakes of the season spotted basking in the warm spring sun. Garters spend the winter hibernating communally with other garter snakes in dead logs or underground. They have a high tolerance for cold temperatures, which is why they are often one of the first snakes to emerge in the spring. Garter snakes vary greatly in color, but most have a greenish-gray to black background color, a white belly, and light colored longitudinal stripes. Some garters have alternating light and dark blotches between stripes that give them a checkered appearance. They have keeled scales, which give them a rough look. These hardy snakes are very common throughout North Carolina. They thrive in a variety of different habitats including woodland, open fields, urban areas, and semi-aquatic habitats. They eat just about anything that will fit in their mouth including amphibians, fish, insects, worms, and slugs. They give birth to live young, a trait called ovoviviparity. Garter snakes are considered harmless, but when disturbed, they do emit a foul smelling musk as a defense.
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Photos by Todd Pierson
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Stay tuned for more highlights on spring wildlife!