Orchids aren’t just tropical flowers, they also grow in Idaho and Alaska

Wandering through the woods looking for spring flowers a few years ago, I stumbled across a small pinkish-purple flower on a stem no more than eight inches high. I crouched down and inspected it so I could identify it at home. To my surprise, that small flower was an eastern fairy slipper--an orchid.

Eastern Fairy Slipper

At the time I had no idea that orchids grew outside the tropics, especially north Idaho. And to my surprise this summer I found an orchid growing in Bettles, Alaska--above the Arctic Circle. There are over 30,000 species of orchids worldwide and over 200 of those species grow wild in North America. Amazingly, twenty-five species even grow in Alaska. 

Northern Lady Slipper (also known as Sparrow's Egg Lady's  Slipper) growing in Bettles, Alaska

Not all the orchids found in Idaho are as big and showy as the ones in the tropics, but they can be equally impressive. The mountain lady’s slipper was the second orchid I found in north Idaho and I was amazed at its beauty. The flower’s shape reminded me of the pink lady slippers in northern Minnesota that I saw as a kid (back then I didn’t know lady slippers were orchids). 

Mountain Lady's Slipper

The key to identifying a flower as an orchid is the combination of three sepals and three petals. Sepals are modified leaves on the outer ring of a flower, often the green part at the base of the flower. Orchids tend to have modified sepals that can resemble petals because of their coloration and shape. On the eastern fairy slipper, the sepals are pinkish-purple. On the mountain lady’s slipper the sepals (of which two are fused together) and two petals are copper-colored, long and twisted. 

The three petals can be highly modified or even joined together. On the mountain lady’s slipper, the lower petal (also called the lip) forms a pouch that resembles a slipper (hence the name). Of all the orchid’s petals, the lip is generally larger, colored differently, more conspicuously colored, or shaped differently in the form of a lobe, fork, pouch or spur. 

Modified petals on the western fairy slipper form a pouch (or slipper)

One family of orchids characterized by a spurred lip is the rein-orchids. I’ve found an Alaska rein-orchid in north Idaho and didn’t believe it was an orchid at first. The multitude of tiny flowers grew upward along the stem and they seemed too small to be orchids, but they were because of the three sepals and three petals. 

Alaska Rein-Orchid growing near Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Coralroots are another unusual type of orchid because they lack chlorophyll (and the associated green color) and, therefore, are yellow, purple or brownish. Because they lack chlorophyll for food production, coralroots are saprophytic, meaning they derive nutrients from decaying organic matter and the associated soil fungi. This dependency often results in coralroots being abundant in one area of the forest one year and completely absent the next if all the nutrients are gone. 

Spotted coralroot before flowers emerge

Most orchids in Idaho rely on soil fungi for germination and growth because orchid seeds lack the food reserves found in ordinary seeds. The microscopic seeds rely on the fungi for nutrients but the seeds and plants also need certain soil moisture and sunlight/shade conditions. Because of the specific requirements needed for orchids to survive, finding an orchid can be extremely rewarding, whether in Alaska or Idaho. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on June 28, 2012. 

Stealthy predator relies on several tactics to capture prey

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a big bump on a spruce limb three-quarters up a tree that seemed out of place. I stopped biking and realized the bump was an owl roosting on the limb. As I slowly walked closer, I realized the owl was a northern hawk owl because of its hawk-like resemblance. 

Northern Hawk Owl near Bettles, Alaska

Owls rely on their drab appearance to blend in to their surroundings, especially when roosting. An owl’s drab gray, brown and buff coloration along with streaks and striations help camouflage it with tree trunks and the dappled shade of underbrush. 

Most owls need this camouflage because they roost during the day and are active at night. However, owls can be active during the day too--these owls are considered diurnal, such as the northern pygmy-owl. Owls only active at night, such as barred owls, are considered nocturnal. Owls that are active in the early morning and/or late evening hours, such as great horned owls, are considered crepuscular. 

The time of day when an owl is active depends on when its prey is the most active. Owls prey on small mammals, small birds (including smaller owls), amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates. The great horned owl is the only predator that preys on skunks regularly and they also catch fish in shallow water. 

Some rodents are most active under the cover of darkness but owls are equipped to outsmart them. An owl’s night vision is thought to be the best in the animal kingdom. Their large eyes allow them to collect more light--so much that they can see objects in one-tenth to one one-hundredth the amount of light we would need to see the same object. Their eyes are so large that they cannot even move in the sockets. To compensate for this owls can swivel their head within a 270 degree range. 

Diurnal owls rely mostly on their eyesight to find prey but nocturnal owls rely mostly on their hearing. Great gray owls can detect a vole 60 feet away under 18 inches of snow by hearing alone. Owls are believed to have the most accurate hearing in the animal kingdom. The ear tufts on owls have nothing to do with hearing, they help communicate mood and help break up the outline of the owl’s head for camouflage purposes. 

The characteristic facial disc is one of the reasons owls can hear extremely well. The facial disc acts like a satellite dish and guides sounds towards the ear openings on the outer rim of the disc. On some owls these ear openings are not symmetrical like on humans but asymmetrical with the right ear opening higher than the left ear opening. This allows the owl to better pinpoint a sound by rotating its head until the sound reaches both ear openings at the same time. 

A great horned owl next to its skeleton in the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge Education Barn

Another reason owls are stealthy predators is their capability of silent flight. Some birds, like ravens, can be heard above the tree tops, but not owls. Their flight feathers have tiny serrations on the leading edge that muffles the sound of air flowing over the wing. 

Once an owl silently stalks and then captures its prey with its sharp talons, the owl will fly to a perch and swallow its meal--often whole. The non-digestible parts (fur, feathers, bones) are regurgitated six to twelve hours later in the form of a compact, oval owl pellet. Finding multiple owl pellets under a tree may be evidence of an owl’s favorite perch and may reveal a well-camouflaged owl roosting next to the tree trunk. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on June 21, 2012. 

First day of summer may be the longest but not the hottest

The stars haven’t made their nightly appearance in Bettles, Alaska since mid-April when twilight overtook the darkness of night. Since then, the amount of daylight has been increasing at such a rapid pace that all I ever see is daylight--even at two in the morning. 

In the Land of the Midnight Sun (as much of Alaska is called during the summer), one can lose track of time easily when the sun doesn’t set. In Bettles, the sun doesn’t set between June 2 and July 9. That is one advantage of living above the Arctic Circle--endless daylight around the summer solstice. Actually it seems like endless daylight from the beginning of May until mid-August because even twenty hours of daylight seems endless. 

For the rest of the northern hemisphere, summer solstice (June 20 this year) marks the day with the greatest amount of daylight. Bonners Ferry will peak at 16 hours and 9 minutes of daylight, but will bask in that maximum day-length (when rounded to the nearest minute) from June 17 to June 24. 

On the summer solstice, the sun will be at its highest point in the sky and setting and rising at its most northerly points on the horizon. Additionally, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset will occur simultaneously on the summer solstice. In Bonners Ferry, the sun will rise at 4:42 a.m. and will set at 8:52 p.m. The earliest sunrise actually occurs for several days--from June 11 to June 20. Likewise, the latest sunset begins on June 20 and continues until June 29. 

While the first day of summer may be the longest day of the year, it definitely won’t be the hottest. Both April 12 and August 31 are the same number of days away from the summer solstice but a significant amount of snow can be on the ground on April 12 while a 90 degree heat wave can persist on August 31. 

Snow lingers in some basins of the Selkirk Mountains well after the summer solstice

The difference in temperatures is that the northern hemisphere is still warming up in April and releasing heat in August. The Earth’s oceans and atmosphere act as heat sinks and absorb the sun’s warm rays. During the longest days of the year, they absorb the most heat and then retain that heat. This retention makes July and August the hottest months of the year. 

After a certain point, more heat is lost at night than is gained during the day, causing the northern hemisphere to cool. This cooling trend continues until after the winter solstice when the days become longer and more heat enters the atmosphere. Similarly, the shortest day of the year isn’t the coldest, January and February are usually the coldest months. 

The Earth takes longer to warm up than it does to cool down--on a yearly scale and a daily scale. After sunset, the coolness of night quickly rushes in while the warmth of the morning sun slowly warms the land. The icy grip of winter takes a long time to break in the Arctic, but once the Midnight Sun prevails the snow and ice melt fast.

With the longest day of the year occurring on June 20, the hottest days of summer aren’t far behind. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on June 14, 2012. 

Arctic Tern Egg

Arctic tern eggs are camouflaged extremely well. I spent nearly twenty minutes searching for this egg that I knew was in this area and was extra careful not to accidentally step on it. The nest did contain two eggs a few days before but was now abandoned.

Can you find the egg? 

Close-up of an arctic tern egg using a telephoto lens

Arctic Tern

The arctic tern migrates nearly 50,000 miles from the Antarctic to the Arctic to lay its well-camouflaged eggs. 

Cracking the code on bird egg coloration

While raking the grass under several swallow nests, I found a small, pointed egg that had fallen out. Varying shades of brown speckles covered the cream-colored egg. Just as most birds can be identified by their coloration, so can their eggs (though it isn’t as easy). From pure white to pale blue to speckled brown, the diversity of colors ranges across the entire spectrum--even emerald green and brick red. 

Cliff swallow egg

The color of the egg is largely dependent on the type of nest and the threat from predators. Cavity nesters, such as woodpeckers and kingfishers, tend to lay white eggs because there is minimal threat from predators. A benefit of bright white eggs in cavities is that parents can locate the eggs easier.  

Birds that lay eggs in open nests, such as waterfowl and some songbirds, produce eggs that are camouflaged with their surrounding. Arctic terns and killdeer eggs blend in so incredibly well with the surrounding soil and gravel that they are difficult to find. Eggs laid in vulnerable open nests are typically brown with speckles. 

Finding a speckled egg doesn’t necessarily mean the egg came from an open nest. Some cavity nesters lay speckled eggs and research suggests that these birds were once open nesters. Likewise, not all white or pale-colored eggs come from cavity nesters. Birds that start incubating after the first egg is laid and don’t leave the nest, such as doves, owls and herons, produce pale eggs because the eggs will not be visible to predators. 

As unlikely as it may seem, blue eggs are considered cryptically colored. The filtered light in hedges and forests help blue eggs blend in to their surroundings. However, not all blue eggs are laid in open nests, such as those by robins and pied flycatchers; cavity nesters such as European starlings and bluebirds also lay blue eggs. Even red-winged blackbirds lay pale blue eggs with purplish-black markings. 

Robins aren't the only ones who lay blue eggs, so do pied flycatchers, European starlings, bluebirds and red-winged blackbirds. 

No matter the type of nest, the coloring process is the same. The colors come from pigments secreted by glands in the female’s oviduct. Timing is of utmost importance. Pigments secreted as the egg enters the oviduct create the base-color while pigments secreted right before the egg is laid create speckles and other markings. 

Markings include blotches, scrawls, streaks and speckles. The type of marking depends on whether the egg is in motion during the process--if the egg stays still, speckles will be made, but if the egg moves, then streaks and scrawls will form. 

Amazingly only three pigments are responsible for the tremendous diversity of color. These pigments are all related to the pigment in hemoglobin that makes blood red. Protoporphyrin creates colors ranging from pink to yellow to reddish buffs and browns while biliverdin and zinc chelate create green and blue colors. When these pigments are mixed together in different proportions they produce colors ranging from violet-blue to olive-green.  

Not only do the pigments create different colors but they also add structural strength to the egg. Since smaller songbirds have a smaller calcium supply to devote to eggshell manufacture, they often lay eggs with a ring of spots on the blunt end of the egg (the thinnest spot) to help strengthen the egg.

Next time you find an egg, take a crack at who it belongs to by looking at the colors and markings--you might be surprised at what you can figure out. 

Cracking the code: light speckling, a downy feather stuck to the inside and located in a wetland suggest this egg came from a waterfowl nest. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on June 7, 2012. 

Transit of Venus

Today I witnessed an incredible event that will not occur again in my lifetime--the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. The next time this rare astronomical event will occur is 2117.

Venus was a small dot barely visible to the naked eye (through a welder's helmet) as it made a transit across the face of the sun. Venus started in the upper left and made a transit to the middle right (as viewed from Bettles, Alaska).

Venus is the small black dot on the very right edge of the sun

The last time this phenomenon occurred was in 2004--eight years ago. The transit of Venus occurs in pairs eight years apart that are separated by either 105.5 years or 121.5 years.

Arctic Grown Salad

Tonight the first salad of the summer completely grown above the Arctic Circle graced the table. The vegetables were planted the beginning of May in my greenhouse.

Arctic grown lettuce, spinach and radishes

With almost 24 hour sunlight and near 80 degree temperatures, my vegetables are growing rapidly. Soon the green beans, peas and tomatoes will be flowering.

Hurray for fresh vegetables!