Friday 6/24/2023 5:00 PM
Outback Road, Fairfax, VT
Rain, 70 °F
Description: My childhood home. About an acre of mowed lawn, cut in half by a brook. In the back, there is a strip of woods. I spent most of my time today in the woods. It was raining and smelled like wet dirt. Water was dripping through the branches but it was nothing close to the downpour that was happening outside of the trees. I watched a few fat raindrops travel down from the crown of an American Beech, slide down leaves and drip off the tip to plop onto another below, before they eventually fell to the ground or onto my head. The ferns touching my legs were also wet and they were nestled in a thick layer of mostly dead leaves and decaying wood. The only things I could hear were the rain, my boots trudging along, and the occasional mosquito but there weren’t any birds singing that I could hear. They must have all been huddled up somewhere. It wasn’t cold, but it was definitely wet. I noticed a couple different species of fungi on trees, both dead and alive.
When I came out of the woods, I heard a few birds singing. I did a loop around the yard and checked out the brook and the bird houses. A female House Wren started chattering at me when I got close to one so I assume she has a nest in there. I almost tripped over a green frog and looked at a few of the plants around the water, and found some buds on my mom’s apple tree we got her a few years ago. Walking back to the house, I checked out the garden and saw a large cottontail rabbit poking around the beds, under the watchful eye of the fake owl my dad put up to scare the rabbits away (obviously, to no avail).
Question Marathon:
- How long will this paper birch log take to break down?
- Do some types of wood decompose much faster or slower than others?
- Do some leaves decompose faster than others?
- How deep does the rain permeate the soil/ground cover?
- What species utilize fallen logs?
- What kind of soil am I standing on?
- Why don’t birds sing much in the rain?
- Do some bird species sing more in the rain?
- Why were the roots shallow enough to let this tree fall over?
- What do mushrooms need to grow?
- Do mushrooms only grow on wood?
- What species eat mushrooms?
- Why are mushrooms mainly on one side of a tree?
- Do birds choose specific trees to nest in based on species?
- Do birds have tree preferences?
- What is the difference between moss, lichen, and fungi?
- Is lichen a type of fungus?
- How do four-leaf clovers form?
- Are there ways to encourage four-leaf clover growth?
- Where do butterflies go when it rains?
- How long do bird mothers leave eggs alone in the nest?
- Do birds fight over bird houses?
- What bird species leaves the nest the fastest?
- What bird species takes the most time to fledge?
- Why is there white foam on trees when it rains?
- What birds can have multiple broods in the summer?
- How many species of insect are supported by the native plants in the meadow?
- Do dragonflies eat mosquitos?
- What does a hummingbird’s diet consist of mainly?
- How many insects can bats consumer in one night?
- What’s the top speed a cottontail rabbit can reach?
- How big do the fish fry grow in the brook?
- How many different animals feed on the fish in the brook?
- Will the fish in the brook stay for the entirety of their life span or will they move downstream to deeper waters?
- Are the crayfish found here the same as those down south?
- What makes the piles of mud in my lawn?
- How much milkweed do I need to be beneficial to pollinators?
- How many kinds of ticks are in Vermont?
- Does the owl decoy in my parents’ garden actually deter small mammals?
- Does companion planting actually work?
I chose to research the question “Why is there white foam on trees when it rains?”
I learned that this is a representation of a process called stemflow, which is the downward flow of water along the stems or trunks of plants or trees during rainfall. It occurs when rainwater collects on the branches and foliage and then flows down the stems, eventually reaching the ground. Sometimes, when this happens, the stemflow creates a foam. An assortment of particulates, plant chemicals, and air pollutants mix together on the trunk and accumulate at the base of a tree. This is actually a crude soap, a combination of an alkali metal (usually potassium or sodium) and a mixture of carboxylic acids. This soap flows down and bubbles due to furrows in the trunk. I saw this a few times while out tonight, but apparently it’s not super common. You need the right combinations of a dry span of time for buildup to take place, a furrowed bark, and to catch it when it’s raining or right after.
Mautz, C. (2022) Soapy Trees? Sometimes Trees Need a Shower, Soapy Trees? Sometimes Trees Need a Shower | Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art. Available at: https://www.brandywine.org/conservancy/blog/soapy-trees-sometimes-trees-need-shower#:~:text=When%20rain%20collects%20on%20a,turbulence%20on%20tree%20bark%20furrows.
Paradis, J. (2022) Outside/Inbox: What is that white foam that forms on trees when it rains?, New Hampshire Public Radio. Available at: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2022-05-13/outside-inbox-what-is-that-white-foam-that-forms-on-the-trees-when-it-rains
I had never heard about crude soap being found at the base of tree trunks before, and when I initially started researching it, I did not expect it to be soap! I enjoyed taking a nice walk around my childhood house and while I expected to not have a great time due to the weather, I ended up finding stuff that I never would have if it was sunny and dry! I’m excited to see if there will be some eggs/chicks in the bird houses and I’m looking forward to checking out the water when it’s lower and clearer, as it was quite muddy and high today.