— Photo by Grace Barber
Branching feathers around the eye of a tufted titmouse are loose and airy.
Fall migration bird banding at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve wrapped up at the end of October. On one of the final mornings of the survey, I went out with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission science staff and volunteers to take some photographs.
It is always interesting to see birds up-close and observe experienced banders extract information like species identity, age, sex, and health through careful examination of the birds. Later, while sorting through my photographs, I paused on a close-up of branching feathers around the eye of a tufted titmouse.
These lacy, dendritic feathers were loose and airy, but not in a way that looked particularly warm or aerodynamic, so I puzzled for a moment over their specific forms. I started to wonder about the structure and function of feathers in general, and a little online research quickly provided me with an abundance of fascinating features hidden in the drabbest of plumage.
I want to share some of the things that surprised me most, and what better place to start than at the root? While the roots of most feathers on the bodies of birds go only as deep as the skin, some feathers are attached to the bird’s skeleton. Yes, those long wing feathers that are critical to a bird’s flight anchor directly to birds’ wing bones with ligaments.
I have generally thought of feathers as being akin to hair. They grow out of specific follicles in the skin, they fall out and are replaced, and they are even made of keratin. But imagine having thick, rigid hairs attached to your bones!
Of course, it makes a lot of sense for these particular feathers to be attached to bone rather than just to skin or muscle, because birds use them to push themselves through air. If these feathers were not held rigidly in place, flying would require much more energy.
Imagine, for instance, trying to row a boat with an oar attached to your shirt rather than one you could hold firmly in your hand. This is roughly analogous to the difference between flying with feathers attached to skin and those attached to bone.
Now, on to color. Look around you. In most environments, the colors we see are the result of pigments absorbing certain wavelengths of light. The light that doesn’t get absorbed by a pigment reflects off of it — this reflected light is what we see as color.
The particular color of the reflected light depends on which wavelengths are present and which are missing. Your blue shirt only looks blue because the dye used to color the shirt is absorbing all the wavelengths of visible light except those that appear blue to us.
A different kind of coloration is at work in many bird feathers. When we see blue, green, or iridescent coloration on a bird, it is usually a result of structural color, sometimes working in conjunction with pigments.
Structural color happens when a material’s microscopic structure sorts white light into light of different wavelengths (colors) and only reflects some of those wavelengths back, allowing the other wavelengths to pass through, scatter, or cancel out due to destructive interference (it’s physics!).
If you’ve ever seen small rainbows of light cast around a room by a glass prism in a window, you’ve observed light being sorted into its different wavelengths by a colorless material (the prism). For another example of structural color, think of the colorful swirls on the surface of soap bubbles. The colors do not come from a pigment in the soap, but from the way the material reflects light.
Structural color can be destroyed by crushing the material, scratching it, or sometimes merely by making it wet. Blue, green, and iridescent bird feathers are fascinating examples of materials that exhibit structural color. Although we cannot see the microscopic structures that create these colors, we can certainly enjoy their effects.
Feather coloration gets even more mysterious, because some of the wavelengths of light that birds see are invisible to us. Most daytime-flying birds can see ultraviolet light, which our eyes cannot detect.
In extreme cases, this means some of those drab birds that seem to all look the same, “little brown jobs” as I’ve heard them described, actually have display coloration visible to each other but not to us. Some of the dyes and detergents used in manufactured objects are also UV reflective, which means we have very little idea of how the manmade environment looks to a bird.
Finally, one last hidden feature of feathers is that the color of a feather often corresponds to the feather’s strength. Melanins are pigments that result in black, red, brown, and pale yellow colors. However, melanins also tend to make feathers stronger.
This is why flight feathers, those same feathers that attach to bones, are often full of melanins and therefore dark in color. White feathers, or white details on dark feathers, do not have much melanin in them and tend to degrade and disintegrate faster.
There is much more to learn and share about feathers, from their growth and evolution to their structure and function. I encourage you to do a little investigating of your own. I found most of the information presented in this article on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website and through conversations with my knowledgeable colleagues.
Feathers can be extremely interesting objects to encounter on a hike, but please be aware that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 makes collecting them illegal in most cases, so best to pack a camera, gloves, and a magnifying lens, and leave feathers where you find them to be enjoyed by others or used by wildlife.
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— Photo from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission
“Reliably exquisite” is how Grace Barber, environmental educator for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, describes ice crystals.
The Albany Pine Bush is one of the best remaining inland pitch pine-scrub oak barrens in the world. It is a truly unique place right here in the Capital District. Through this column, I hope to transport you for at least a short time to the Pine Bush to experience some of the seasonal happenings, active projects, and musings of this environmental educator.
I have thought of winter as a visual palate cleanser. It rinses the color from the landscape, priming my eyes to acutely perceive even the most modest greens, reds, and purples of spring. I suspect this attitude is more a reflection of the bias in my attention, however, than a truth about winter.
Most of us spend much less time outside during the colder months. This is certainly true of me, and it limits my ability to observe winter’s intricacies and its variety. Imagine only ever viewing the summer from behind a window or in hurried travels between indoor locations. How much would you miss?
As a child, I paid more attention to the shapes of snowflakes, made a game of walking on the surface of crusted snow without breaking through, and knew that beneath the snow were last year’s plants — lying in a state of decay — and that disturbing them could release a startling scent into the otherwise cold, clean-smelling air. These memories inform me that my experience of winter in more recent years has been cursory at best. I’m determined to slow down and look a little closer this year, and I hope you will join me.
I can’t think of a winter wonder more appealing and pervasive than ice crystals. They are ephemeral, found in the forms of snowflakes and frost, and are reliably exquisite. Just as there are names for different species of wildflowers, there are names for the different forms of frozen and crystallized water that blanket the landscape and our windows in late fall, winter, and early spring.
It was on a nighttime hike through the Pine Bush last fall, while standing in a frost pocket at the base of a large dune, when I first learned there were names given to different forms of frost. A University at Albany student in our hiking group asked me whether I’d ever seen hoarfrost in the frost pockets.
That was the first time I’d heard the term hoarfrost, but I’ve since learned it forms when water vapor from the air crystallizes on surfaces of plants, snow, and other objects when those surfaces are below freezing and colder than the air itself. This can result in gorgeous, large, hexagonal crystals of ice attached to all surfaces of the cold objects. Hoarfrost generally forms on clear nights, and it helps if the air is humid and still, which is where frost pockets come in.
If you’ve ever hiked around the blue trail from the Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center, you’ve walked through at least one frost pocket. Frost pockets are low-lying areas where cold air settles in the evening and can linger late into the morning hours. The chilling effect in frost pockets is so significant, that plants and insects grow more slowly there. Frost pockets also tend to be protected from the wind, making them a good place to look for impressive hoarfrost.
My curiosity about hoarfrost led me back to that same frost pocket, early on a cold November morning, looking for something I wasn’t sure I could identify. There was plenty of frost, both on top of the dunes and down in the swales, and I spent the better part of an hour looking and photographing it.
I found “frost flowers,” which look like sheets of curling white filaments projecting from the stems of plants where liquid water was pushed out to freeze in the cold air. I saw sticks covered in ice bristles and round white balls coating the surfaces of leaves like pilled sweaters.
And on a piece of monitoring equipment used for recording the temperature and humidity in the frost pocket, I found a blooming cluster of flat, translucent crystals. Was this hoarfrost? I took photographs of the crystal clusters using a macro lens to better appreciate their complexity and headed back to the Discovery Center, satisfied with having stopped to (figuratively) smell the winter roses.
If you are interested in joining me on this investigation of winter in the Pine Bush, I encourage you to follow the Albany Pine Bush Preserve on Facebook, follow our blog on (www.AlbanyPineBush.org), or, best of all, head out onto the trails to experience it yourself. The preserve offers miles of official hiking trails to explore, free of charge, right here in the Capital Region. Please visit our website for information on temporary trail closures or call the Discovery Center Front Desk at (518) 456-0655 ahead of your visit.
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— Photo from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve commission
Thirteen kinds of goldenrod grow in the Pine Bush. Heralding the end of summer, they spread by seed and by root.
The Albany Pine Bush is one of the best remaining inland pitch-pine, scrub-oak barrens ecosystems in the world. It is a truly unique place right here in the Capital District. Through this column, I hope to transport you for at least a short time to the Pine Bush to experience some of the seasonal happenings, active projects, and musings of this environmental educator.
It is officially late summer. Rasping katydids and chirping crickets are audible reminders that the end of the summer season is drawing near. Although fall does not officially begin until the autumn equinox on Sept. 22, much of nature has already started preparing for the coming winter.
Woodchucks have been feasting on fruits and leaves, adding to their fat reserves. Birds are gathering in groups in preparation for migration; some have already begun their southward journey. Acorns are ripening and seeds are abundant as plants complete another cycle of life.
While the approaching fall can make some of us wistful for a return to early summer, there is much to enjoy about late summer.
One of the most enjoyable displays this season has to offer is that of late summer wildflowers. These late bloomers wait until the final weeks of the summer season to display their brilliant blossoms. Many bloom through early autumn, even after the first frost.
Goldenrods are an easily recognizable group of plants that are in bloom right now. Frequently seen along roadsides and in field and forest alike, these tall sturdy wildflowers are a common inhabitant of the Pine Bush.
Goldenrods are named for the golden yellow hue of their tiny brilliant blossoms, arranged in clusters of varying shapes and sizes. If you look closely you may notice some of the differences among the species: leaf shape, texture, and arrangement of blossoms are great places to start.
Goldenrods belong to the genus Solidago; 32 different kinds of goldenrod have been identified in New York State, 13 of which grow in the Albany Pine Bush. Canada goldenrod, rough goldenrod, and white goldenrod (as its name suggests, this goldenrod has white blossoms) are just a few of the goldenrod species that are found here. Goldenrods spread by seed and by root and can quickly colonize fields and gardens, revealing their identity in late summer with their sunny golden flowers.
Asters are another familiar group of late-blooming wildflowers that come in an even more impressive diversity. The name “aster” originates from the Greek word for star, which describes the star-like flower head of asters.
Asters are actually related to goldenrods and are grouped together in the same family, Asteraceae. In the Albany Pine Bush, 22 species of aster have been identified including stiff-leaf aster and New England aster. Their blossoms range from a deep vibrant purple to brilliant white with yellow to orange centers.
Taking a closer look (with the aid of a magnifying lens), you can see what may have first appeared to be one singular flower is actually an arrangement of many tiny flowers called disc flowers (clustered in the center) and ray flowers (distributed around the edges, each possessing one petal).
Asters are a popular fall landscaping plant for their beautiful shape and color. Keep your eyes open for them at many of the local nurseries and grocery stores this fall. Or, come visit the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and explore the trails or grounds of the Discovery Center to experience asters in bloom.
Perhaps the best show of all is the diversity of animal life that comes to visit fall blooms. Butterflies, bees, wasps, beetles, flies, spiders, and more visit fall wildflowers in search of a meal or shelter.
Nectar attracts pollinators that return the gift of food with the service of pollination, critical for seed development. The heavy pollen of goldenrod is distributed in this way, unlike the allergy-inducing ragweed flower whose pollen is spread by the wind.
Late summer flowers provide vital sources of nectar and pollen to insects as the growing season comes to a close. The seeds that grow following pollination feed both resident and migrating birds as well as small mammals. Seeds also ensure the start of the next generation of fall wildflowers in the coming spring.
Before the chilly winds of autumn blow, take a moment to savor the last hurrah of summer and the brilliant display of life this season brings.
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If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the Discovery Center go to our website AlbanyPineBush.org, call (518) 456-0655, or visit the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
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The Pine Bush Preserve is inhabited by creatures great and small — like this grasshopper.
The Albany Pine Bush is one of the best remaining inland pitch-pine scrub oak barrens in the world. It is a truly unique place right here in the Capital District. Through this column, I hope to transport you for at least a short time to the Pine Bush to experience some of the seasonal happenings, active projects, and musings of this environmental educator.
Many people wonder what kinds of animals live in the Pine Bush. This is also a common topic that we discuss with visitors on our programs.
A few weeks back, I was out on a hike with a group of first-graders. I asked them what animals they thought lived in the Pine Bush.
One student raised her hand and very calmly said “unicorns,” as if she had seen five unicorns on her way to the Pine Bush that morning and expected to see more on her way home. I explained that unicorns do not live in the Pine Bush and so we would not see them on our hike that day.
If we polled elementary school students in the Capital Region, we would also have dinosaurs, lions, and monkeys roaming around in the Pine Bush. Perhaps it’s the element of excitement and mystery but for whatever reason these are the animals that come to mind when we are huddled on a sandy trail looking out into the sea of scrub oak, New Jersey tea, and pitch pine.
While we do have some big mammals in the Pine Bush — coyote, fox, deer, and fisher — it is highly unlikely that we would see them on a group hike. We more commonly see birds, big ones like hawks and vultures, and small ones like black-capped chickadees.
We also often see chipmunks and insects galore. These may not seem exciting but, if you can quiet the part of your brain that says, “I have seen a million chipmunks in my lifetime” and just watch the chipmunk scurry across the path into a scrub oak bush and quietly make its way to the top to grab an acorn, you might find yourself thinking, “Wow, that is amazing!”
Stop and just stare at the beautiful orange butterfly milkweed flowers and watch the insects that come to visit. Don’t think about them creeping into your house or onto your skin but just watch them as they crawl across one flower and fly on to the next without reacting to your presence.
A habitat for wildlife in the midst of the Capital Region, the Pine Bush Preserve is full of these small wildlife discoveries.
Wildlife, from the common to the rare and everything in between, is difficult to predict. Recently, another educator and I led a nighttime bat program in the preserve.
As soon as we got out of our cars, we noticed bats diving over our heads. We had timed this walk right!
We hadn’t even left the parking area and we had already seen bats. We turned on our bat-detecting devices and heard even more. We enjoyed watching these roadside bats for a bit before we headed down the trail.
Along the first field, we heard a few more bats and saw them too. They were big brown bats zooming over our heads, feasting on insects. Bat numbers in New York have decreased dramatically in recent years but on this night we enjoyed watching these flying mammals dart back and forth over our heads.
Whether you are seeing your one-millionth chipmunk or your first endangered Karner blue butterfly, reflect on the fact that you are catching a glimpse of a wild animal in its habitat. In a world of schedules, appointments, and lists, just enjoy that you are catching this animal in the middle of its daily routine.
The next time you are out for a walk, keep your eyes open for all types of wildlife. You might be surprised at what you find.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the Discovery Center, go to our website AlbanyPineBush.org, call 456-0655, or visit the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
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— Photo by Sara Poggi
What story do these snow tunnels tell?
The Albany Pine Bush is one of the best remaining inland pitch-pine scrub oak barrens in the world. It is a truly unique place right here in the Capital District. Through this column, I hope to transport you for at least a short time to the Pine Bush to experience some of the seasonal happenings, active projects, and musings of this environmental educator.
Recently, I have been reminded that so much goes on in nature that we never see. If we don’t look closely enough, we miss so much of what is going on around us.
In January, a coworker showed me a spot just in front of the Discovery Center building where a small creature, perhaps a meadow vole, had created a tangled web of tracks and tunnels in the snow. To look at this path, you might think that this had to be the work of a lost or impaired animal.
If you let your mind wander, you might start to consider other animals and then the possibility emerges that this is a path of pursuit. What if there were two voles, not one or a vole being stalked by another animal?
These creatures have, of course, moved on or tunneled down out of sight so we will never know their real story but, if you stand, observe, listen and wonder, you might start to unravel the story.
Take a dead tree in the Pine Bush. On first approach, it seems lifeless and unimportant. Look closer and imagine what animals might visit this tree.
Dead trees are very important as shelter for small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. Think even smaller. Insects! Underneath the bark, dead trees are crawling with insects.
Many of these insects will aid in the eventual decomposition of the tree. Trees like all living things die but the process of decomposition returns those nutrients to the soil, encouraging the growth of new trees and other plants. In the meantime, these insects are a very important food source for many other Pine Bush animals.
Stare at the sand that you are walking on. By this time, you are aware that sand is not just sand. There are plants growing out of this sand and you are actually seeing only a portion of the plants.
Many Pine Bush plants have very deep root systems. Big blue stem, a tall native grass in the Pine Bush, can grow to grow four to eight feet tall. The roots of this plant can grow to be that same length underground! You might be seeing only half of the grass.
An eastern hognose snake could be buried under a layer of sand. Startled, it would perhaps rear its head, like a cobra and then eventually it might change course, mimicking the opossum and play dead.
Deeper down beyond sight could be a spadefoot toad. As the name suggests, these toads have spade-shaped hind feet ideal for digging. They spend most of their time underground not emerging for weeks or even months at a time in dry periods.
On the side of the trail you may notice small pits in the sand. At the bottom of this pit ,just under the sand, the antlion is waiting, jaws ready for a small insect to fall in and become its next meal.
Tracks, too, may cover the sand, telling stories of fox, coyote, deer, and people all walking through the Pine Bush. We aren’t able to observe them all in action but, if we walk, stand still and observe, taking it all in, we just might start to see the things we previously never noticed.
As we enter spring and things thaw and awaken, I encourage you to get out in the Pine Bush and look for tunnels, holes, tracks, dead trees full of life, and all the hidden stories happening around you.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the Discovery Center go to our website at www.AlbanyPineBush.org, call (518) 456-0655, or visit the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
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— Photo by Krishna Hill
Vista rooted in sand: The Albany Pine Bush Preserve is an ocean of scrub oak, New Jersey tea, blueberry, grasses, wildflowers, and pitch pine trees covering rolling sand dunes.
Have you ever heard of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve? Better yet, have you ever visited it? Walked on the trails? Attended an educational program?
If you have never heard of the Pine Bush, I hope to help you come to know a bit more about it through this column. If you have visited before, I hope to point out something new to you, as I share what’s currently happening in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
“At the beach”: That is the first response that almost everyone gives when I ask people “Where do you usually find sand?”
Of course, I am often asking this as I stand on top of a 75-foot tall sand dune in Albany. We are not at the beach but at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
The next question I usually ask is, “How did this sand get here?”
Answers to this question range from, “You brought it here” to, “The wind blew it here.”
I have written in this column before about how the glacier that covered most of New York State retreated, leaving behind Glacial Lake Albany, which drained, exposing the sand. The wind blew the sand, creating rolling sand dunes and then plants started to grow.
This sand is the foundation of the Albany Pine Bush and in many ways dictates what types of animals and plants live here. The Albany Pine Bush is not on the coast so having a natural community based in sand is very rare.
If you have ever walked on one of our trails, you probably noticed the sand right away. Recently, the sand at the Albany Pine Bush was recognized not only by our visitors but also by the National Park Service.
The Albany Pine Bush Preserve was designated as a National Natural Landmark. “What is that?” you might be asking yourself. I had a vague recollection of hearing this term when I lived on the West Coast but wasn’t sure what it meant exactly.
The National Natural Landmark program is managed by the National Park Service and the designation is issued by the Secretary of the Interior to recognize sites that contain outstanding biological and geological features. This does not make the Pine Bush a National Park or change who owns or manages the land.
It does highlight the rarity and significance of this place on the national stage. The Albany Pine Bush Preserve was designated a National Natural Landmark because it is the best example of wind-derived inland sand dune landforms and the inland pine barrens ecosystem within the Appalachian Plateau and Appalachian Ranges.
As you walk up one of the sand dunes you might catch yourself imagining a beach just over the edge. Of course, the beach won’t be there.
Instead, you will see an ocean of scrub oak, New Jersey tea, blueberry, grasses, wildflowers, and pitch pine trees covering rolling sand dunes. You will be standing on very old, very unique sand — sand that is the foundation for the Albany Pine Bush.
So, whether you come to walk our trails to check out the new National Natural Landmark or because this has been one of your favorite places to walk for many years, come and look at the sand and all that it supports.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the Discovery Center, feel free to visit our website at www.AlbanyPineBush.org/, give the commission a call at 456-0655, or stop into the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
— From the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission
An open ecosystem is an important part of the traditional Pine Bush. The Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, as part of its wildlife restoration work, has begun a project this winter thinning forested areas that block light from reaching lower-growing plants and do not support many of the plants and animals native to the Pine Bush.
Have you ever heard of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve? Better yet, have you ever visited it? Walked on the trails? Attended an educational program?
If you have never heard of the Pine Bush, I hope to help you come to know a bit more about it through this column. If you have visited before, I hope to point out something new to you, as I share what’s currently planned for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
The air is cold and the pitch pine trees with their green needles seem to stand out this time of year as many other trees and bushes stand bare. The pitch pine tree is a very important tree here in the Albany Pine Bush.
The Albany Pine Bush is a globally rare ecosystem known as an inland pine barrens. Inland pine barrens are characterized by an open landscape of shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, and scattered trees, most of them pitch pine.
The Albany Pine Bush is also home to many animals, including the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly. In the last 25 years, 55 species of greatest conservation need in New York State have also been documented in the preserve.
In more recent years, some regions of the preserve have become much more forested with pitch pine and other trees. These forested areas block light from reaching lower-growing plants and do not support many of the plants and animals native to the Pine Bush. Shrubs, wildflowers, grasses, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals can all be affected when areas become more forested.
Historically, fire maintained this open ecosystem. Fire suppression has drastically changed the landscape in many parts of the preserve.
Past agricultural activities in the area have also impacted the land, allowing a much more dense forest to grow. This not only changes the look of the landscape but it also affects the plants and animals that were historically found here while increasing the chance of tree-top or “crown” wildfires.
As part of The Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission’s wildlife habitat restoration work this winter, the commission has begun a tree-thinning project. In 2013, pitch pine and other trees have been marked with paint. During the winter of 2014 –15, trees will be removed.
The concept that a nature preserve would be removing trees can be difficult to understand. However, by removing about 65 percent of the pitch pine trees in the densely forested Madison Avenue Pinelands region of the preserve, the quantity and quality of the pine barrens in the preserve will increase.
What may seem like destruction will actually allow more sunlight to reach the low-growing plants like wildflowers, shrubs and grasses and improve habitat for wildlife. This all contributes to the health of this globally rare inland pitch pine scrub oak barrens.
Though the dense forest in this area will be gone, pitch pine trees are still a very important component of the pine barrens. You will continue to see them scattered among the shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers as you glance over the dunes.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, its Discovery Center, or the pine barrens restoration in the preserve, feel free to visit our website at albanypinebush.org/conservation/tree-thinning, give the commission a call at 456-0655, or stop in to the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
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— Photo from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission
All hands on deck: Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission science staff and volunteers conduct bird research in the Pine Bush Preserve, one of many summertime monitoring activities.
Have you ever heard of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve? Better yet, have you ever visited it? Walked on the trails? Attended an educational program?
If you have never heard of the Pine Bush, I hope to help you come to know a bit more about it through this column. If you have visited before, I hope to point out something new to you, as I share what’s currently happening in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
Summer is a busy time here in the Pine Bush Preserve. Seed collection; Karner blue butterfly surveys; bird banding; visiting camp groups; and Pine Bush Pups, our series of programs for preschool aged children, are just a few of the many projects going on.
Of course, there is a lot of action in the animal world, too. Karner blue butterflies are flying, buckmoth caterpillars are on the move, baby birds are hatching, and wildflowers are blooming.
If you have read this column before or visited the Pine Bush, you know that it is a unique place. This makes it a great location for a variety of different types of scientific research.
This research by preserve staff and university professors helps us assess the health of this rare ecosystem. It also helps us evaluate the effectiveness of management activities in the preserve, letting us know if a certain technique is working or not. The research also gives us the unique opportunity to include the latest findings in our education programs.
Scientific research is being conducted in the preserve to study animals big and small. Camera traps placed in managed and unmanaged parts of the Pine Bush Preserve help us to see what mammals are active in different areas.
In addition to mammals, there are several different research projects that monitor birds. Prairie warblers are a good indicator of the health of the pitch-pine, scrub-oak barrens, as this is the type of habitat that they breed in.
Two birds, the American woodcock and whip-poor-will, which are active in the evening, are also monitored. The whip-poor-will is of particular interest because, in the past, they were very abundant here but have become much less common in the Pine Bush and throughout much of North America.
Fall bird banding is a chance to document what birds are migrating through the area and MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) is a continent-wide coordinated bird banding effort that monitors breeding-season, landbird populations and helps inform conservation and management efforts.
Insects are another important area of research for the conservation staff here. The endangered Karner blue butterfly is monitored and has shown an increase from a few hundred in 1991 to more than 3,000 in 2012.
In addition to the Karner blue, the buckmoth (a New York State species of special concern), and the frosted elfin (which is threatened in New York State) are monitored.
There are also preliminary plans to reintroduce a butterfly, the regal fritillary, and a dragonfly, the banded bog haunter. The bog haunter specializes on the pine-barrens, vernal ponds, another rare habitat in the preserve.
In addition to all the research involving animals, wetlands are regularly visited to collect information about groundwater. Vegetation surveys are conducted to help determine overall ecosystem health and the suitability of restored habitat for some of our most rare animal species.
Another project is investigating how temperature and humidity change in frost pockets. These low valleys between the dunes are cooler at night than the dune ridges, experiencing repeated frosts well into June; their management may be important to buffering certain wildlife from the expected effects of climate change.
Pitch pine is also being monitored to determine if prescribed fire is adequately stimulating new seedlings.
As you can see, there is a lot of science going in Pine Bush Preserve. I have only brushed the surface in this article.
All the research that is done comes back to being able to assess the health of this rare ecosystem as part of our effort to create and manage a preserve that is healthy for many kinds of plant and animals for generations to come.
If you are particularly interested in research in the Pine Bush Preserve, please check out our Science Lecture Series. This is a series of free science talks that occur on the third Thursday of every month.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, the Discovery Center, or scientific research, feel free to check the website: www.AlbanyPineBush.org, give the commission a call at 456-0655, or stop into the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.
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Have you ever heard of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve? Better yet, have you ever visited it? Walked on the trails? Attended an educational program?
If you have never heard of the Pine Bush, I hope to help you come to know a bit more about it through this column. If you have visited before, I hope to point out something new to you, as I share what’s currently happening in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
Spring is here, the days are longer, prairie willow is blooming in the preserve, and the woodcocks are displaying. Though this is the season of new life and new beginnings, I have been thinking a lot about history lately.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission and history is also the theme of this year’s Lupine Fest. History, like many things, is something that is in hiding almost everywhere once you start looking.
When people come to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, one of the first things they usually notice is the sand underneath their feet. The story of how this sand got here starts with a large sheet of ice (a glacier) 20,000 years ago.
The glacier was about a mile high and covered almost the entire state of New York. As the earth warmed, the glacier began to melt, forming what is known as Glacial Lake Albany. This lake was about 160 miles long and stretched from present-day Newburg to Glens Falls. Rivers flowed into the lake, bringing sand and other deposits with them and formed deltas at the edge of the lake.
There are two main theories as to what happened to the lake. One theory is that, eventually, the land rebounded after the pressure of the glacier was gone and the lake drained.
The other is that a natural dam to the south broke and the lake drained out near Long Island Sound. The sand was left behind and the wind blew it into dunes. This sand is the foundation of the Pine Bush and the story of how this sand got here is history.
Today, the Pine Bush Preserve is a chopped-up patchwork of protected land surrounded by roads and development. You can hear the whir of traffic from the New York State Thruway and other roads from almost every trail here.
I often explain to visitors that this was not the first road to go through the Pine Bush. The Pine Bush was historically used as a footpath connecting Fort Orange (once located where Albany is today) to the hunting grounds in present-day Schenectady. This is history in hiding again.
History helps us to tell the story of this place, of how it came to look like it does now. History helps to connect people to this place by exploring human relationships to the natural world in the past and present.
History is definitely a part of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and a part of all of our programs though sometimes it may be in hiding. This year’s Lupine Fest is a great chance for you to come learn about and celebrate the history of the Pine Bush.
This is a free event on Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be hikes, storytelling, presentations on falconry and other historic topics, face-painting, games, crafts, and much more.
If you want more information about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve or the Lupine Fest, feel free to check the website: www.AlbanyPineBush.org, give the commission a call at 456-0655, or stop into the Discovery Center at 195 New Karner Road in Albany.