On a bright spring day the sun shines onto the forest floor and warms the water in the nearby swamp. The warm weather and the moist soil cause plants to sprout.
On a bright spring day the sun shines onto the forest floor and warms the water in the nearby swamp. The warm weather and the moist soil cause plants to sprout.
Up through the dead and decomposing leaves (humus) of the forest come spring beauties, larkspur, and wild phlox. In the woods, the old oak trees unfold their new leaves, and within a matter of days the leaves begin to produce food by photosynthesis. Mushrooms pop up around rotting logs, and beetle larvae feast on the fungus and decayed wood. Along the edge of the swamp, wild irises begin to emerge from the still water. The surface of the dark, swamp water is soon coated with a green layer of tiny duckweed plants.
Soon the spring warmth triggers the emergence of linden looper caterpillar eggs, and these young caterpillars crawl onto the tender oak leaves and begin feeding. In the swamp, the cypress and water tupelo have begun to produce new leaves, all the better to hide the nest of bright yellow prothonotary warblers. The hungry babies are fed a constant diet of looper caterpillars and any other insects the parents can find. The new tree and understory growth allow a female deer to eat well; in turn, she provides food to her fawn in the form of mile. The doe brushes against a bush and soon has several small ticks feeding on her blood. A flea also bites her, causing itching, and she rubs against a rough tree.
Earthworms tunnel through the moist earth, leaving behind little piles of soil in which wildflower seeds will sprout. Aphids find the young oak leaves juicy and nourishing (they stick their needle-like mouthparts into the leaves and suck the sap) and lady beetles find the aphids equally yummy. A bright green tiger beetle walks along sunny forest paths in search of its dinner - a green-clouded swallowtail caterpillar that has fallen off its food plant (spicebush). A tiger beetles strays too near the waterís edge, and becomes dinner for a large bullfrog. Spiders spin silken webs in the branches of the cypresses to catch unsuspecting midges that have just emerged from the swamp, where they grew fat as larvae while eating algae. A lazy raccoon searches for beetle larvae, animal carcasses, or even ripening blackberries. As the season progresses, the young warblers must be wary of owls and hawks, the deer and fawn wary of the hunter, and the bullfrog wary of a passing great blue heron. All casualties of the woods and swamp ultimately end up as dinner for a large turkey vulture, or for the myriads of bacteria and fungi that blanket the forest and swamp.
