Turkey Trot Through the Lesser Celandine
I went uptown on Wednesday looking to photograph the Louisiana Waterthrush I had originally seen first on St. Patrick's Day. As I was setting-up my equipment a woman with a baby stroller came up to me and asked if I was photographing the turkey. I told her as far as I knew the turkey was further downtown. She said she saw it yesterday on the hillside behind me (north side of the pool.) I figured it had probably kept moving north and by now was wandered at the Great Hill or in the North Woods.I met Ardith Bondi at the Pool around 10:00 am and after standing around by the waterfall for more than a half hour waiting for the waterthrush to show we went down into the Loch and ended up at my favorite spot for photographing birds in the Ravine.
As I was getting set-up I glanced across the stream into the large field of Lesser Celandine and there was my old friend the Wild Turkey. He seemed to enjoy foraging in the celandine and stopped several times to rest and preen in the deep shade. He eventually crossed the stream and the path and wandered up towards the Wildflower Meadow. I took about 20-30 more shots of him before I left him resting in a patch of celandine on the south side of the path.
Lesser Celandine is considered an invasive species because it pushes out non-native plants. The floor of the Ravine is pretty much carpeted with it and efforts by park staff to eradicate it have been largely unsuccessful. It does make a photo backdrop (as does oriental bittersweet which Eastern Bluebirds truly love) but it prevents later blooming species like bloodroot and Dutchman's breeches from taking hold. There are a lot of native ground covers that "play nice" and are just as photogenic.
From the National Park Service Web site:
"Lesser celandine is an exotic spring ephemeral and a vigorous growing groundcover that forms large, dense patches on the forest floor, displacing and preventing native plants from co-occurring. The ecological impact of lesser celandine is primarily on the native spring-flowering plant community and the various wildlife species associated with them. Spring ephemerals complete the reproductive part of their life cycle and most of their above-ground development before woody plants leaf out and shade the forest floor. Native spring ephemerals include bloodroot, common and cut-leaved toothwort, Dutchman's breeches, harbinger-of-spring, squirrel-corn, trout lily, Virginia bluebells, and many others. Because lesser celandine emerges well in advance of the native species, it can establish and overtake areas rapidly."
