Delaware's Yellow River - Pollen Alert

Our second day of vacation has brought us to the Atlantic Coast at Bethany Beach, Delaware. We drove over yesterday late-morning ahead of the violent weather in the Washington, D.C. area, and settled into the condo we have rented. When visiting a new region, I keep remembering

Liquidambar styraciflua trees leafing

after I have left on trips like this that I should have brought my copy of Rexford Daubenmire's book Plant Geography so I can review what the natural vegetation should be in the area. A quick Web-search last night, and reference Ecoregions of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia turned up (click here), but the richness of descriptions of the different kinds of plant assemblages are missing, as written in the Daubenmire - it was one of my favorites in graduate school among the books when studying plant ecology.

The Delaware Department of Forestry reports there are 115 species of trees that are native to the state - one of those is sweet gum. I was first aware that this is a native tree in the east when on a work detail in the spring of 1999 and I living in College Park for two months. I would run a few miles after work each day - following a trail near my apartment

Pollen count report for Delaware

that wound its way to the University of Maryland and eventually on to Artemesia Lake the other side of the Metro Orange Line track. As the trees began to leaf out, I was surprised that sweet gum was one of the hardwoods - the few fruit that remained on the trees over the winter were another sign. My folks had three ornamental sweet gum trees in our front yard - I had no idea then that they were a native tree. Through in the rest of tree species assembled, and it is impressive how thick the woods seem to be in spring as everything begins to leaf, particularly compared to the bareness of winter (see earlier post). Also, the woods are alive with bird songs and calls. Already I have spotted Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Tufted Titmouse, House Wren, Barn Swallow, and a pair of some sort of yellow-colored Tanager or Warbler flying by - along with great numbers of American Robin, Common Grackle, and a few Mallard Ducks and Mute Swans on a pond. (1)

Streams of pollen in rain runoff

Another tell-tale sign of sweet gum (along with other flowering trees) are the copious amounts of pollen that are shed in spring. I have been coughing and sneezing for weeks, and there has been no let-up since we arrived - I needed to keep popping the throat lozenges. Cars that have been left out in the parking areas here are covered with pollen. A slide at a children's play area yesterday evening was covered with pollen. As we ran for cover as rain began to pour while taking a walk, pollen ran thick in the run-off and in puddles. As it turns out, sweet gum pollen is reported to be one of the greatest contributors to the total pollen load as of a few days ago.

This morning the temperatures are much cooler and the humidity seems to be gone - compared to yesterday. With the thunder storms that passed through yesterday, perhaps the pollen has been washed out of the air and the reports will be lower. It is seems to be a fine morning for spotting more birds among the hardwood trees.
_______________________________
(1) Later today, more birds noted: Canada Goose (Atlantic race), Great Blue Heron, Laughing Gull, Black Vulture, Brown Pelican, Double-Crested Cormorant, Willet, Gray Catbird, Mourning Dove, and Brown Thrasher. As an added bonus, while at Bethany Beach and looking just beyond the breakers, there was a pod of what were likely five or more Bottlenose Dolphins swam by heading north. Also, a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter painted drab green and without markings flew south along the breaker line, and then returned north as short while later - a soldier sat on the back ramp of the aircraft, his or her legs dangling over the end.