Walker Nature Center
A LOOK INSIDE • Calendar of Events 4 • Kids’ Corner 6 • Spring Festival 8
Nature Notes MARCH By Sharon Gurtz
• Groundhogs emerge and mate. • First bats emerge from hibernation. • Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs are calling. • Spotted Salamanders lay eggs in vernal pools.
APRIL • • • •
Eastern Bluebirds are nesting. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds return. American Toads lay eggs in ponds and streams. Magnolia, Serviceberry and Cherry Trees bloom.
MAY • • •
White-tailed Deer are born. Wood Frogs mature from tadpoles. Mayapple, Wood Poppy and Jack-in-the-Pulpit bloom.
BRANCHING OUT Salamanders: Climate Change Heroes By Ken Rosenthal
Salamanders are amphibians, closely Shredding releases carbon and methane into related to frogs and toads. They the atmosphere. are also outnumbered by frogs and toads, as less than 10% of When salamanders eat shredders, they all amphibian species are reduce the amount of carbon released salamanders. Resembling into the atmosphere. With more leaf litter left lizards, salamanders differ on the forest floor, especially in humid or wet by having smooth, moist conditions, the area under the leaves will become skin instead of scales, anaerobic (lack oxygen) and preserve the carbon lacking claws on their toes until it can be absorbed by the soil. This and having no external ear absorptive process, called humification, opening. North America is sequesters carbon in the soil which one of the best places in the reduces the amount of carbon in world to find salamanders, as the atmosphere. one-third of known species live here. Virginia, with its diverse habitats, About 70% of salamander species is host to more than 50 species. are “lungless salamanders.” Species in this family breathe Vacuum of the Forest Floor through their skin. This type Woodland salamanders, many of respiration requires less less than 6 inches in length, are energy compared to breathing important components of with lungs. As a result, these eastern forest ecosystems. salamanders can be very small Their main prey is small and utilize food sources that would invertebrates, including have insignificant nutritive value to termites, ants, beetles, larger animals. Large amounts of the springtails, and the larvae carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients of flies and beetles. Many obtained from prey are stored in of these invertebrates are shredders, their tissues, or even passed on to organisms that rip leaves into smaller their offspring. pieces before consuming them.
Spring 15 Volume Seventeen