Friends of Murphys Point Park

This week we turn our attention to the Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), as our #SpeciesOfTheWeek. Often found in grassy clearings and old fields adjacent to forested areas, Eastern Cottontails have rightfully established a healthy population here at Murphys Point. Cottontails range in colour from red-brown to grey-brown, but all feature the distinctive round, fluffy white tail after which they are named. Cottontails are quite agile and have very strong senses. Their large feet and powerful legs allow them to reach speeds of up to 29 km/h! They also run in a characteristic zig-zag pattern which confuses predators and throws them off their track. If you’ve ever seen a rabbit up close, you’ll notice that their noses twitch non-stop. This is because they’re picking up scents in the air — they have around one hundred million sensing receptors in their nose, making for an exceptional sense of smell! They can also see and hear almost everything in their immediate surroundings. The cupped shape of their ears helps to catch and amplify sound waves, and they can also move their ears back and forth to determine the direction of a sound. Together, all of these features help the Eastern Cottontail to escape predators, as they are prey to a long list of species.

This week’s #SpeciesOfTheWeek is the Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea). Males are unmistakable with their bright blue plumage. Females are more inconspicuous with their plain brown plumage, which helps them blend into the brush. The female needs to be unnoticed by predators, as she does all the work to build the nest, incubate the eggs, and feed the babies. Nests are hidden in low shrubs, no more than one meter above the ground, and are home to two broods of three to four chicks. Buntings mainly eat insects but will supplement their diet with seeds and berries. They prefer edge habitats along open woodlands and old fields. In the park, a breeding pair has been seen around the Lally Homestead for the last several years and on the Silver Queen Mine Trail. Males mark their territory with their song and may frequently be heard singing along country roads in the spring and summer. In the fall, buntings will migrate up to 2,000 kilometres to their wintering grounds in Mexico and the Caribbean. The Indigo Bunting’s populations are abundant and stable, but they are at risk of habitat loss due to increasing urbanization. If you have any photos of these beautiful birds, feel free to share them with the hashtag  #SpeciesOfTheWeek so we can see them!

This week’s #SpeciesOfTheWeek is the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus). The first photo features 2 red-backed salamanders and a sneaky red-spotted newt eft! The second picture is also an Eastern Red-backed Salamander, but it is a lead-back morph. This is a great example of the two different colour variations that this salamander can have. This little amphibian is one of three salamander species in Ontario which does not have any lungs! This means that the salamanders breathe entirely through their skin. To do this, salamanders must keep their skin moist, which means living in certain environments that allow them to stay cool and damp at all times. Have you ever wondered what can live under rotting logs on the forest floor? Salamanders can! Under rocks and logs, salamanders have the perfect cover to keep them out of the heat on warm summer days. They also have an all-you-can-eat buffet with all of the invertebrates and other insects that live there too. Like other salamanders, red-backed salamanders are most likely to come out on rainy nights and hunt for insects and spiders on the forest floor. It’s important to remember that since salamanders breathe through their skin, humans can make them very sick if we pick them up, due to our natural oils which are foreign to them. Sunscreen and bug spray can be especially damaging to salamanders as they contain harsh chemicals. Please admire these awesome amphibians from afar! If you’re curious if you have any Eastern Red-backed Salamanders in your area, check out this cool interactive map of Ontario!  https://www.ontarioinsects.org/herp/index.html?Sort=41&area2=squaresCounties&records=all&myZoom=5&Lat=43.13&Long=-81.22