Hairy Woodpecker -BOG

Hairy Woodpecker / P. villosus

Order:Piciformes Family:Picidae Genus:Picoides

General Characteristics:
-The plumage of Hairy Woodpeckers is a mix of black and white.
Its wings, lower back, and tail are black with white spots; its upper back and outer tail feathers are white. Its underside is white, and its head is marked with wide alternating black and white stripes. Males have a red spot at the backs of their heads which females lack.
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-Hairy Woodpeckers forage primarily on the trunks or main limbs of trees, where they probe into crevices and scale off bark searching for prey. They drum frequently in spring.
-They feed on bark-boring and wood-boring beetle larvae in dead and dying trees are the main food of Hairy Woodpeckers. They also feed on sap from sapsucker holes, berries, nuts, seeds, and suet.

Special Adaptations:
-While Hairy Woodpeckers are still widespread and common throughout their range, their populations in many areas have probably declined from historic levels. Forestry practices that remove snags and large trees have reduced nesting and roosting areas, and the introduced European Starlings and House Sparrows compete for nesting and roosting sites.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers -BOG

Red-bellied Woodpecker /M. carolinus

Order:Piciformes Family:Picidae Genus:Melanerpes



General Characteristics:
-Light cream to pink chest and belly, barred black and white wings and back, reddish markings around its bill and a red crown. The male has red on the crown and on the nape of his neck. The female has red just on the nape of her neck.

-Red-bellied woodpeckers tap their bills together when they are courting.
The nest cavity is built by both the male and the female. The cavity is lined with wood chips and is about a foot deep. It is usually built in a dead or dying tree.
The female lays three to eight eggs and both the male and female incubate the eggs and care for the young. The male incubates at night. The chicks hatch in about three weeks and they fledge in about a month. The chicks usually stay with their parents until the fall.

Special Adaptations:

The red-bellied woodpecker eats beetles, grasshoppers, ants and other insects. It also eats acorns, beechnuts and fruits. It uses its bill to probe for insects in trees and tree stumps. The red-bellied woodpecker sometimes stores food in a tree cavity. In the winter, the red-bellied woodpecker's diet is mostly seeds and it can often be found at birdfeeders.

Evergreen Wood Fern -BOG

Evergreen Wood Fern /D. intermedia

Order:Polypodiales Family:Dryopteridaceae Genus:Dryopteris


General Characteristics:
-A large, lacy, woodland fern; identifiable by its larger size, thrice-cut fronds. Petiole (leaf stalk) 1/3 length of leaf, scaly at least at base; scales scattered, brown with dark brown stripe.
-Blade green, deltate-ovate, thrice-cut and lacy. Pinnae (primary leaflets) more-or-less in plane of blade, lanceolate-oblong; basal pinnae triangular and slightly reduced in size.
-Rootstalk erect or ascending, producing offshoots.
-Sori midway between midvein and margin of segments.

special adaptations:
Each sorus consists of clusters of spore cases called sporangia that are shielded by a flap structure called an indusium. The asexual spores are released according to environmental conditions to enhance survival. Spores that land in favorable growing areas develop into an intermediate sexual structures called prothallia, which subsequently produce male and female organs known respectively as the sperm producing antherium and the egg bearing archegonium (in most cases on the same prothallium). The preference of ferns for boggy areas is due to the need for a film of moisture so that the sperm can swim to the eggs. The motile sperm is believed to be due to the retention of the processes of their aquatic ancestors. The fern frond grows from the resultant zygote.

MARSH FERN -BOG

Marsh Fern T. palustris

Order: Polypodiales Family: Thelypteridaceae Genus: Thelypteris

General Characteristics:

-A common wetland fern; each frond arising individually from a creeping rhizome without forming clumps.Fronds monomorphic or slightly dimorphic, deciduous.
-Fertile leaves more erect, narrower, with leaf edges slightly rolled over spore-bearing sori, 9"-36" tall.
-Petiole (leaf stalk) smooth and pale green above, black at base, sparsely set with smooth, tan, ovate scales, 3½"-18". Petioles of fertile fronds much longer than those of sterile.
-Leaflets deeply cut to within 1mm of rib; lobes oblong, with smooth edge. About a dozen per frond, they are all perpendicular to the stem.

-Sori round, on underside of fronds near the midvein, tan & often hairy

-Distinguished from the closely related Long Beech Fern (Phegopteris connectilis), by its lowest leaflets growing perpendicular to the stem.

Whorled Milkweed -SAVANNA

Whorled Milkweed / A. verticillata

Order: Gentianales Family: Asclepiadaceae Genus: Asclepias


-Greenish-white flowers, 1/4 inch long, in round clusters 1-2 inches across on the upper part of the stem.
-Whorled milkweed is a single-stemmed, unbranched perennial, 1-3 ft. tall.
-narrow, linear leaves are whorled along the stem.

Special Adaptations:

- nectar source for butterflies

Buckeye Butterfly -SAVANNA

Buckeye Butterfly / Junonia coenia

Order: Lepidoptera Family: Nymphalidae Genus: Junonia

-The caterpillar is dark and has yellow stripes and dark spines.

-The hindwing also has 2 eyespots; the upper one is largest and contains a magenta crescent. The underside of the hindwing is brown or tan in the wet season (summer) form and rose-red in the dry season (fall) form.


Special Adaptations:
-The Buckeye Butterfly widespread and easily recognized by its prominent eyespots that probably help protect them against inexperience birds
Adult males patrol a territory and wait for females to fly overhead.

-Because adults can’t over winter in cold climates, large scale southern migrations of Buckeye butterflies can be found along the East coast of America in the Autumn. Adults live for a little over a week. Dark green eggs are laid on figwort and plantain plants.

Lipstick Powderhorn Lichen -SAVANNA

Lipstick Powderhorn /Cladonia macilenta

Order: Lecanorales Family: Cladoniaceae Genus: Cladonia


-Fruticose lichens are characterized by their erect stalks which have no distinguishable upper and lower surfaces. They are typically highly branched and shrubby (these are the types often used for "shrubbery" in model train displays).
-Tall, slender, podetia topped with small, bright red, apothecia. Podetia often thicker at the top.