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RAIN continued from 25
remains still but flicks the air with its tongue, waiting for a sunny spot.
Another day of rain? I check a few weather apps on my phone that don’ t always agree. An animal’ s instinct is far better to learn tomorrow’ s forecast. More advanced at sensing barometric changes than humans, birds anticipate a wet night ahead and feed longer than usual. A preen gland, located at the base of their tail, called a uropygial gland, helps to waterproof feathers. Watch most birds after a rain, poking at their tails. They smooth out and straighten wet feathers. But why is our bird bath an active place during rains? They fly in, dip their entire body in the water, splash about, then perch on the lip of the bath to shake off water. You may have seen this behavior in street puddles. It may be either a shower, or a bath, and I suspect it feels good. They are already wet— why not indulge?
Water levels in streams, ponds, and lakes are replenished after rains. Those water sources are traditional places for wildlife to drink. We mostly think birds and animals rely exclusively on these waterways, but water also collects in tree crevices, knotholes, and
even in dished-out, dry leaves on the ground, giving birds particularly, also spiders, insects, and small mammals, a place to get water. These are breeding places for mosquitoes, so birds can get water and food by visiting there. Rock outcroppings, logs, and ditches also provide places for water to collect.
Some plants, because of where they live in dry, sunny places, have adapted their stems and leaves to collect rain. Cup-plant, an aster with a daisy-like flower head, also called Silphium, and native to the Mid-West, is perhaps more adapted to prairies than woodlands. It collects rain at the stem-leaf junction. We can find it here in Brown County. And a more exotic plant, the pineapple, a Bromeliad, has a unique surface on its leaves to allow it to collect water.
“ Nature will provide” is a mantra expressed by poets, writers, and scientists.“ Nothing is wasted” is another saying we apply to the natural world. Resourceful and adaptable, overcoming difficulties, and versatile, birds and animals respond to our changing weather patterns. Frequent Brown County rains, high water, and even extensive flooding are not exceptions.
Enjoy this lush, green and vibrant Brown County landscape. Oh, yeah— pack the umbrella! •
26 Our Brown County • July / August 2019