Phragmites - an invasive species of reed introduced to North America from England

The above photograph of the marsh across from the North East town park shows how much the invasive Phragmites have taken over the native cattail - the below article discusses this in some detail

The Jekyll and Hyde of the Marsh

09/27/2012

Phragmites, an invasive species of reed introduced to North America from England, is often seen as a monster because the grass stalks grow up to 18 feet tall and drive out native plants and wildlife.
But some scientists suggest the plant is more of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, because while it is bad for plant and wildlife diversity it may be good at protecting shorelines from erosion caused by rising sea levels and climate change.
Patrick Megonigal, Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, is studying the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on marshland plants, including phragmites.
“On the one hand, phragmites is very poor habitat for a lot of animals –- birds, and even fish.  But on the other hand, it is a champion soil builder,” Megonigal said among the reeds and measuring equipment at his wetlands research site, outside Edgewater, Maryland.  “And so we find places where the plant is dominant that the soil elevation rises very rapidly, and that could be a good thing from the point of view of preventing these marshes from drowning due to sea level rise.”

This is not to say that Megonigal or anyone else is advocating the intentional spreading of phragmites for erosion control purposes –- first, because the rapidly-growing grasses don’t need any help spreading; and second, because their roots emit a toxin (trihydroxybenzoic acid) that kills other plants nearby, according to research by the Delaware Technology Institute. Phragmites also crowds out wild rice, cattails, goldenrod, and other native plants that wildfowl, muskrats, and other marsh dwellers need to survive.
The reeds, thought to have been brought to the Americas in the ballast of ships by English colonists, have proliferated across the Chesapeake Bay region and elsewhere in recent decades, because they thrive in disturbed soil caused by development.
Over the last three decades, the invasive plant has multiplied perhaps 10 fold to cover roughly 100,000 acres or about 10 percent of Maryland marshes, according to an estimate by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. It has also spread widely across Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states.
Jonathan McKnight,  a biologist at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said that phragmites roots form thick masses that hold soil together.  But he said that it would be wrong to plant phragmites to protect shorelines, because the plant  does not play well with other forms of life.
“It would be great to find a silver lining in our phragmites infestation,” McKnight said. “But it would be a lot better for us to find a way to preserve marshes or maintain marshes with the native material.  Because even if you are protecting a phragmites marsh, a phragmites marsh is not as good as the real native Maryland marsh.”
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, with help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spends about $30,000 a year spraying an herbicide (glyphosate, the active ingredient in Round Up) from helicopters onto selected stands of phragmites that are monopolizing the landscape in important wildlife areas.  Other states also conduct similar spraying.
Webster said glyphosate, which is used widely on farms and elsewhere, dissipates quickly and does not pose a threat to fish or wildlife.
On a recent morning, Webster directed a helicopter with a tank full of glyphosate as it launched from the top of a truck beside the Nanticoke River.  The helicopter swooped over green and gold marshlands, then released the herbicides when over a stand of phragmites, which are very tall reeds with fluffy seed heads.
“A lot of homeowners on the Bay simply do not like phragmites just because they do not have a view of the water” when the reeds are in the way, Webster said. “But typically that’s not what we are out here to achieve.  We are doing this (spraying) to help  wildlife.”
Webster said the state’s spraying of the weed from helicopters is limited and not intended to totally eradicate the invasive species, which he said would be impossible. Webster said Maryland is simply trying to keep the phragmites in check in a few selected feeding grounds for migrating waterfowl.
Dr. J. Court Stevenson, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science who studies marshes, said in an email that he is not opposed to spraying phragmites with Round-Up, as long as it is done carefully, so the herbicide does not drift into other areas and kill endangered plants.
Dr. Stevenson added, however, that over-use of Round-Up is creating herbicide-resistant weeds that make farming more difficult.  And he also noted that spraying phragmites in some waterfront areas can increase erosion, because of the reeds’ ability to hold shorelines together with their dense roots.
“An example of where helicopter use appears to have been a problem is at the Cove Point (Liquid Natural Gas) plant property on the Western Shore, where the Phragmites rhizomes were holding the beach and protecting it from excessive erosion,” Dr. Stevenson wrote. “After extensive spraying over several years, the beach was breached causing many the freshwater marsh plant populations behind the beach strand to suffer.”
Officials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources say they try to be careful about where they spray phragmites, to avoid erosion problems like this.
But the big picture is that sometimes it may be bad to kill the monstrous Mr. Hyde of the marshes, because you will also lose the good Dr. Jekyll. 
By Tom Pelton
Chesapeake Bay Foundation

What Bird Is This - II

It pays to have access to more than one or two bird books when trying to identify a bird that may not conform to the books description, especially when looking at a bird like the Dark-eyed Junco. 

Dark-eyed juncos are unique sparrows that nest on or near the ground in forests. In winter, they typically form flocks and often associate with other species, including chipping sparrows, pine and palm warblers (in the southeastern United States.), and bluebirds. When disturbed the entire flock suddenly flies up to a tree, usually perching in the open and calling in aggravation at the intrusion. Polytypic. Length 6.3" (16 cm).
Identification A fairly lean sparrow with a long notched tail and a small pinkish or horn-colored bill (bicolored in dorsalis). Two prominent white outer tail feathers in most subspecies; 3 outer­most in the “white-winged.” Most subspecies have a gray or brown head and breast sharply set off from a white belly. Otherwise highly variable. Male: typically darker with sharper markings. Female: typically browner with more indistinct markings. Juvenile: heavily streaked, often with a trace of  adult pattern.
Geographic Variation The 12 subspecies show marked variation and fall into 5 major groups: “white-winged” (1 ssp.), “Slate-colored” (2 subtle ssp., plus cismontanus), “Oregon” (5 subtle ssp.), “pink-sided” (1 ssp.), and “gray-headed” (2 distinctive ssp.). The groups have at times been considered separate species. The “white-winged” junco is the most local, breeding exclusively in the Black Hills region and wintering along the eastern edge of the Rockies; it is casual to accidental in western Texas, Arizona, and southern California. The “slate-colored” is the most widespread and the only form found regularly in the East. It breeds throughout the species’ range east of the Rockies and in the northern region; it winters mainly in the East and is uncommon to rare in the West. The “Oregon” junco breeds in the West Coast states north to southern Alaska and east to central Nevada and western Montana; it winters throughout the West and Great Plains and is casual to the East. The “pink-sided” breeds in the northern Rockies, centered on Yellowstone and ranging from northern Utah to southernmost Alberta and Saskat­chewan; it winters in the southern Rockies, Southwest, and western Great Plains, rarely to the West Coast, and is accidental to the East. The “gray-headed” is the subspecies of the southern Rockies, breeding through much of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado south to central Arizona and western Texas; it winters in the southwest and southern Rockies states and is rare to the West Coast and accidental to the East.
The distinctive “white-winged junco,” aikeni, is mostly pale gray above, usually with 2 thin white wing bars; it is also larger, with more white on its tail. It is most similar to the “Slate-colored” (which can rarely have narrow wingbars) but is larger and paler, with contrasting blackish lores and more extensive white in the tail. The male “slate-colored junco” has a white belly contrasting sharply with a dark gray hood and upperparts, usually with very little contrast between the hood and back; immatures can have some brown wash on the back and crown. In the female, the amount of brown on the head and at the center of the back varies; it’s more extensive in immatures. The “slate-colored junco” comprises 2 subspecies: the widespread nominate and the larger, bluer-billed carolinensis, which is resident in the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to northern Georgia. An additional subspecies, cismontanus, is often grouped with the “slate-colored.” It breeds from the Yukon to central British Columbia and Alberta and may winter throughout the West; it is casual to the East. Cismontanus is intermediate between the “slate-colored” and the “Oregon,” with males showing a blackish hood that contrasts with a usually grayish back (occasionally with some brown). Females and immatures are very similar to the “Oregon” juncos, but are less distinctly hooded. The male “Oregon” junco has a slaty to blackish hood, contrasting sharply with its rufous-brown to buffy-brown back and sides; the female has duller hood color. Of the 5 “Oregon” subspecies, the more southerly subspecies are paler. The “pink-sided” junco, mearnsi, has broad, bright pinkish cinnamon sides, a blue-gray hood, a poorly defined reddish brown back and wings that do not contrast markedly with the flanks, and blackish lores. Females duller, but retain basic pattern; they can resemble “Oregon” females closely. In the “gray-headed” junco, the pale gray head and dark lores resemble the head pattern of the “pink-sided,” but the flanks are gray rather than pinkish, and the back is marked by a very well-defined patch of reddish hue that does not extend to the wings and that contrasts sharply with the rest of the body. A distinctive subspecies, dorsalis, is sometimes known as the “red-backed” junco and is resident from northwestern Arizona through New Mexico to the Guadalupe Mountains of western Texas. It differs from the more widespread, migratory, northerly breeding caniceps in having an even paler throat and a larger, bicolored bill that is black above and bluish below. Intergrades between some subspecies are frequent. Common intergrades are: “pink-sided” x “oregon” and “pink-sided” x “gray-headed.” Cis­mon­tanus may be a broad intergrade population of “Ore­gon” x “slate-colored” juncos. Identification to subspecies group thus requires caution to eliminate the possibility of an intergrade; for intergrades, look for intermediate characteristics: For example, a darker, more contrasting hood on a “pink-sided” indicates the influence of “Oregon” genes; reduced pink sides and a well-defined reddish back on a “pink-sided” indicate “gray-headed” parentage.
Similar Species Yellow-eyed junco.
Voice Songs and calls among the subspecies are generally simi­lar, but songs and calls of the “gray-headed” dorsalis are more suggestive of the yellow-eyed junco. Call: sharp dit. Flight note: a rapid twittering. Song: a musical trill on 1 pitch; often heard in winter.
Status and Distribution Common. Breeds south to northern Baja California; winters south to northern Mexico. Breeding: breeds in coniferous or mixed woodlands. Winter: found in a wide variety of habitats, the dark-eyed junco tends to avoid areas of denser brush; it especially favors feeders, parks, and open forest without an understory. Migration: withdraws from wintering areas during April, typically early–mid-April. Fall arrivals first appear in late September, peaking in late October. Vagrant: southern Florida and Europe.
Population Stable.
—From the National Geographic book Complete Birds of North America, 2006

whooping cranes are there? Not enough. See photos of these birds in action.

file:///C:/Users/Stephen/Downloads/Downloads/Dark-Eyed%20Juncos,%20Dark-Eyed%20Junco%20Pictures,%20Dark-Eyed%20Junco%20Facts%20-%20National%20Geographic.htm

Leaves Are Starting to Fall

Awhirl

What Bird is This - I thought I knew, but I have searched the pages through and found naught to verify my errant thought