Bare Ground

Blue Jay Barrens has several small areas that are so inhospitable that very little plant life is able to survive.  They are mostly the result of massive erosion that took place through many decades of poor land management practices.  This particular site is primarily rock covered by a thin layer of silt and clay.  It is excessively wet in the winter and as dry as a baked brick in summer.

Some plants manage to grow here, but their life is a struggle.  Sometimes odd rarities that can’t compete elsewhere survive in these bare spots.  I enjoy exploring these areas because the plants are spread out and easy to observe.

What appears to be soil from a distance turns out to be small gravel.  It takes a pretty tough seedling to anchor itself in this ground.

Insects and other arthropods are the real draw in these areas.  Native solitary bees find the conditions to be perfect for their underground nests.  Many of these species require bare ground as nest sites. 

I visited this site on a cool, cloudy morning, which may explain why the bees were still in their tunnels.  I saw a bee just inside the entrance to about every tunnel I checked.  I imagine they headed out to forage as soon as the weather warmed.

Little spiders were the most abundant residents this morning.  I think this is the young of one of the larger Wolf Spiders.

This is a female Thin-legged Wolf Spider, one of the Pardosa species.  These are small, fast moving spiders that are very difficult to see.  The blue egg sac carried beneath the abdomen is what gave them away. 

That blue egg sac is really something.  It gave the spider away every time, sort of like Rudolph’s nose.  It seems that a spider predator would have no trouble finding these females.  Judging by their abundance here, it might not be so bad if a few do get eaten.  When I crouched down to get some shots, there were a half dozen spiders within camera range and a lot more not far off.  If all those eggs hatch, that’ll be a lot of baby spiders.

Dry Pond 2011

The pond has been dry for many weeks. It certainly has a look of drought about it. With a week of rain forecast for this area, I thought I should check out the pond bottom before it once again goes under water.

Cautionary Note to grammie g- Spider Ahead.

Each heavy rain brings in a small bit of sediment from the road. Larger soil particles, such as sand and silt, settle out of the moving water as it slows to cross the lawn. By the time the water reaches the pond, the only soil materials left in the water are the fine clays. Over time, a layer of clay has built up on the pond bottom. As it dries, the clay mass shrinks to form individual clay plates separated by jagged cracks.

The pond doesn’t provide much of an aquatic habitat during the late summer. Animals that used to come here to drink have all changed their patterns to take advantage of other water sources. Drought tolerant aquatic life waits beneath the dry crust for water to return.

The rushes stay green as long as there is moisture in the soil below. Their present green state is the result of late spring rains that kept water in the pond for an abnormally long time. The rushes will yellow if the moisture disappears, but they grow back quickly enough when the water returns.

There are a couple pieces of old barn siding that have been floating around the pond for the last 15 years. I once used a piece of siding to support my weight as I walked out across the mud to examine something in the disappearing pool of water. When I went back a couple of days later to put the siding away, I found a salamander hiding beneath the board. I just left the board where it was rather than relocate the salamander. The board has since broken into two pieces and each has been reduced in size, but they are still providing shelter to creatures on the pond bottom.

There’s always something living beneath the boards. This hole suggests that I should find something interesting here.

This Wolf Spider might be doing some swimming when the weather changes. The gold stripe running between the eyes and back onto the carapace indicate it’s a species in the genus Pirata. I enjoy observing the pond bottom as it alternates between aquatic and terrestrial habitat. There’s always something interesting to see.

Wolf Spiders

I was walking through one of the barrens when I spotted this wolf spider wrestling with a Burrowing Wolf Spider at the mouth of a spider burrow. As I approached, the dark colored Burrowing Wolf hurried down into the burrow. Seconds later, the lighter spider followed. I thought this was odd behavior and wondered what kind of activity I had interrupted.

I used my flash to get a shot down the burrow and caught the lighter spider a couple of inches below the surface. No sign of the darker spider.

At the flash, the spider shot back up to the entrance to the burrow. I waited for about five minutes to see if the other spider would come back up. It didn’t, so I wandered off to look around a bit.

When I came back, the spider had fully emerged from the burrow. Now I could see that this was not a burrowing spider. Maybe this spider was just wandering by and got grabbed by the burrow owner.

It’s quite a pretty spider. Wouldn’t these make cuddly pets if they grew to be about twenty pounds?

The light colored soil is what was excavated from this burrow during construction. It doesn’t look like it has experienced much weather. This may be a new burrow.