Nature Watch: Little Flowers on the Prairie

About the author: Steve Ellis is a naturalist and Land Trust member who enjoys sharing his love of the natural world. His blog series, “Nature Watch,” will appear each month in “Habitchat,” chronicling native plants and wildlife you can expect to see during that particular time of year. We thank Steve for sharing his passion, illustrating the importance of island conservation.

Overview

If April showers bring May flowers, then each year the prairies of Central Whidbey are well-watered.

These mosaics of grasslands with wildflowers were created by retreating glaciers and given the name glacial outwash prairies. The melting ice left gravelly soils that drain quickly after precipitation falls.  Indigenous peoples maintained them by burning off encroaching shrubs and trees in order to keep the space open for the plants they used for food and medicines.

A constant parade of blooms starts in late March and continues all the way to October.

Among the first to flower is the low-growing Lomatium species spring gold, providing a burst of bright yellow. These are followed shortly by the whites of meadow chickweed and the blues of camas. Early to mid-summer is the time for the prolific woolly sunflowers. Then lupines and asters eventually round out the blooming season. Late April through mid-May is the peak blooming period. Mixed in among the camas are shooting stars, western buttercup, chocolate lilies, and a dozen more species we don’t have space to mention.

Our prairies host large numbers of insects, including hoverflies, mason bees, bumblebees and butterflies. One butterfly species to watch for on a sunny late spring day is the anise swallowtail. This yellow and black butterfly is smaller than our western tiger swallowtail which emerges in June and July. Anise swallowtails use lomatiums as host plants.

The prairies are not just a pollinator’s dream. Voles scurry about, feeding on the vegetation, and deer browse the choicest flora. Northern alligator lizards prowl through the vegetation, preying on invertebrates. At least one garter snake species threads its way through the low-growing plants.

Bird life on and over the prairies is highly varied. Hummingbirds take nectar from paintbrush and other flowers. Swallows course over the ground, chasing down flying insects. White-crowned and Savannah Sparrows find prairies to their liking, as do House Wrens. Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers and American Kestrels feed on voles, large grasshoppers and other creatures.

The prairies are noted for attracting unusual birds rarely seen elsewhere on our islands. In spring, Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Vesper Sparrows, and Calliope Hummingbirds have dropped in for visits.

There are other prairie-like areas that support dryland wildflowers. Rocky outcrops have too little soil available for trees and shrubs to gain a foothold. These areas are known as balds. The best local example is Goose Rock at Deception Pass State Park.

We are fortunate to have organizations such as Whidbey Camano Land Trust, the State Parks, and Pacific Rim Institute (PRI), working to save and restore our prairies. A large percentage of these now-flowery places had been displaced long ago by intensive agriculture.

Admiralty Inlet Preserve is a fine example of wildflower restoration. The Land Trust has worked hard to reestablish populations of golden paintbrush, and successful efforts with this plant have resulted in its removal from the Endangered Species list. Pacific Rim Institute is actively restoring sections of its property for the benefit of dryland wildflowers. It’s located on Smith Prairie, near the intersection of Morris Road and Highway 20. Visitors are welcome on both these properties – please stay on the trails and don’t pick the wildflowers. A picked flower deprives a pollinator of a meal, robs the plant of a chance to reseed, and denies other people the opportunity to witness its beauty.

Check out some of our local state parks as well. Fort Casey has an area between the cannons and the bluff where you can see prairie wildflowers, and Keystone Spit is inhabited by lomatiums, wild onions and more.

The prairies are simply the best native wildflower show in our area. You’d have to travel upslope into the subalpine region of the North Cascades to find more color and flower diversity.

Common camas by Martha Ellis.

Flora: Common Camas (Camassia quamash)

The bright blue color of a stand of camas illuminated by sunshine is unforgettable.

Camas grows from a bulb that sends up an erect spike of 6 to 8 inches in height. In other regions it can reach 2 feet tall. The slender grass-like leaves grow from the bulb and are not attached to the flower spike.

There may be five or more flowers on each spike. Each of the star-shaped flowers has six blue petals which open widely. The bright yellow pollen adds to the plant’s attractiveness. The blue of the petals is so intense that many pioneers mistook distant swaths of camas for ponds or lakes.

Egg-shaped capsules form after pollination. Tiny black seeds are distributed by the wind or through accidental encounters with passing animals. Camas also reproduces by bulblets that separate from the main bulb.

Camas attracts hoverflies and bumblebees. Voles eat the bulbs and some insects eat the leaves.

Indigenous people harvested the bulbs for food. Great care had to be taken, as the bulbs resemble death camas, an unrelated wildflower that often grows alongside.

The habitat preferred by camas is a sunny spot that dries by late spring, and glacial outwash prairies are perfect. You can grow the plant in your yard if you have a sunny location with well-drained soils.

The prairie remnant at PRI is the best place to see camas. Tours of the prairie happen with the peak of the bloom, generally around the second weekend of May. Camas can also be found blooming on the Land Trust’s Admiralty Inlet Preserve, and there are plans to add this remarkable flower during the restoration of the Keystone Farm and Forest Preserve.

Townsend’s vole by Steve Ellis.

Fauna: Townsend’s Vole (Microtus townsendii)

With a head-to-tail body length that can reach over 9 inches, this is one of the largest voles in North America. They are blackish-brown above, with a grayish belly and dark tail. The ears are relatively broad and the eyes protrude a little.

Voles differ from mice in having shorter tails and rounder, stockier bodies. The heads and faces of mice are usually more pointed than those of voles.

Townsend’s voles eat grasses, seeds, tubers and bulbs. In fall and winter they rely on food items they’ve cached underground.

Breeding can begin as early as February, with young born about 3 weeks later in a grass nest placed in a burrow. The two to nine young remain in the nest until weaning. Young females can breed the same year they are born.

Townsend’s voles chew runways through the prairie plants and dig burrows that appear as holes from above. The burrows may be connected to each other in a network and are sometimes used by other small creatures to travel undetected by predators on or above the surface. Beetles, lizards and toads have all been observed taking advantage of these underground passageways.

The digging of burrows helps aerate the soil, which allows air and moisture to penetrate the thatch of dead grasses. Voles also scatter seeds and cache tubers and bulbs, which – if left uneaten – will sprout into new plants.

Large numbers of Townsend’s voles feed a variety of predators. Owls, hawks, eagles and falcons pray on them, as do coyotes and raccoons. They are the main source of food for local Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers. Indeed, your best bet to see a vole is to watch the raptors and carefully note the victim in their talons.

All the small mammal studies I’ve seen suggest Townsend’s is the only vole inhabiting Whidbey Island. It’s possible that Camano Island may have creeping voles (M. oregoni).

In addition to prairies, Townsend’s voles inhabit fields, hedgerows and thickets near open spaces. Their predilection for living in ditches leads to many collisions between vehicles and birds of prey.

The vole pictured along with this blog lives under a brush pile in our yard. We’ve also noted burrow holes a time or two. The holes are important for one more benefit to ecosystems: they can serve as spaces for bumblebee colonies.

Small when compared to coyotes or deer, Townsend’s voles have impacts that are just as varied and significant.

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