Nature Pick: Buttercups and Bluebirds

With sunshiny days and warm weather, it's difficult not to start thinking about spring. One of the first harbingers of spring in the Lincoln Valley is the sagebrush buttercup, or Ranunculus glaberrimus.

Buttercups are one of the first flowers to bloom in the Rocky Mountain west and the flowers can be found locally by mid-to-late March. They prefer sunny damp slopes and, as the name suggests, are often found in sagebrush and grassland areas, particularly spaces with southern slopes or flat places. They prefer sandy or loamy soils, according to the Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System. 

Regionally, the Ranunculus glaberrimus is found throughout the western United States and Canada and is also known as the shiny-leaved buttercup or the early buttercup.

Near Lincoln, buttercups can be found on the road up to the old Lincoln Cemetery as well as on state land out by the Sucker Creek Road. Residents can watch as spring spreads from lower elevations, like Missoula, where buttercups can be found near the river park a little earlier than in Lincoln, up to the higher elevations, like the east side of the Continental Divide. 

Buttercup species are all herbs, not shrubs, and feature lots of pistils and stamens surrounded by five yellow petals. Although this might confuse them with cinquefoil, which also have five yellow petals, the key distinction is that buttercups are always shiny or reflective. Scientists believe one reason for the shiny petals is to help attract pollinators, which in Montana include four varieties of bumble bees, according to the Montana Field Guide. 

Folklore says that if you hold a buttercup under your chin and it reflects yellow, someone loves you. Because of the unique reflective quality of the petals, this happens in nearly all instances. Another version of this is played by children to find out if their friends like butter.

The buttercup family includes larkspur, delphinium, columbine, anemone or pasque flower, and monk's hood, and these plants are all toxic to humans and many mammals. Despite this, the sagebrush buttercup is included in the diets of numerous fowl and wildlife, including ducks, small mammals, grouse, and mule deer, according to the FEIS. 

Another great harbinger of spring in the Lincoln Valley is the mountain bluebird, or Sialia currocoides. These migratory birds return to Montana and other northwestern states for breeding in the early spring and often return about the same time that the first buttercups of the year bloom.

Mountain bluebirds raise two broods per year, generally of five or six eggs each, which are pale blue in color, according to the National Audubon Society. Bluebirds may begin nesting as early as February or March, and Audubon offers instructions on building a bluebird nest house on their website: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-build-bluebird-nest-box. The website also notes that "offering mealworms near nesting sites, and planting berry-producing grapes, blackberries, dogwood, elderberries, and serviceberries, might induce bluebirds to stay around your property," and suggests offering fresh water supplies for drinking and bathing. 

Mountain bluebirds eat mostly insects and berries. Male bluebirds are blue in color with white bellies, while females tend to be grey-brown with blue-tipped wings. Photos, birdsong, and tips for identifying the mountain bluebird can be found on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. The website notes that mountain bluebirds have two distinct songs: one of loud "chirruping" sounds similar to the robin, and the other a soft "warbling" that may go on for several minutes.