Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung my friends.

-Tom

Butter Butts

When we bought our new house last July, I looked up at our massive backyard bur oak and longed for spring. I hoped that the tree would drip with warblers one day. The gnarly old landmark of our street has that presence about it that I speculated would pull in migrating birds from miles around. At least, that is what I hoped and dreamed, on a hot, decidedly unbirdy Saturday in mid-summer.

We're on the backside of spring now, and the old bur oak did not disappoint. This past weekend, it was full of yellow-rumped warblers, affectionately known as "butter butts"- perhaps half a dozen at a time, foraging for insects amongst the young leaves and the long, stringy catkins of oak flowers.





Don't see the yellow patch on the bottom? Well, that's because it is actually on the back of the bird, which you can't see when your craning your neck straight up.



Here's a shot of a yellow rumped warbler from Sanibel Island that I captured in March, 2008, where you can barely see the yellow patch just below the tip of this bird's right wing.

Yellow-rumped warblers, along with a slew of other interesting species, are passing through Ohio right now. In fact, the major wave of colorful birds has probably already subsided. I was glad that I was able to give a few individuals respite in our backyard.

Tom

Highbanks Metropark

Megan, Weston and I went on a hike Thursday to Highbanks Metropark, and it was a glorious spring day, warm, sunny, and perfect for the first splash of color throughout the maple-oak-beech forests there. Perhaps "the flower" of the day was bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, which we seemed to catch at the peak of bloom. A few more days, and the white petals will be a pile on the ground at the base of the plant. Named for the orangish red sap in this plant's underground tubers, bloodroot is perhaps my favorite spring wildflower. This wasn't the only thing blooming, and I'll have the rest of our hike soon.

Tom

Finding Signs of Spring

Part of what makes blogging interesting is reading other blogs and looking to see what are people are finding. I try to come up with unique, interesting things that jump out or make you stop here for a second to view my images. There are a ton of good nature blogs out there, almost so many, it sometimes gets overwhelming.

So here is my attempt to catch your interest-my foray to my backyard this afternoon, routing through about 2 square feet of leaf litter, and discovering a bounty of life beneath the old bur oak.





In this next shot, I found two millepedes in a tight clutch. I'm not quite sure what they are up to. I also noticed some other interesting things. Look closely at the photo, then check out the next two photos, which are tight crops of the image below.



There seemed to be plenty of these little creatures- very small, approximately 1 millimeter long.
The last creature of the afternoon, an ever so tiny, probably not more than 2mm long, leafhopper.

The soil is warming, these creatures are stirring, Spring, here we come.

This is my contribution to Misty Dawn's Camera Critters Meme.

Early Salamander Run?

I'm just looking at the forcast for the next few days, and I'm guessing that the warm temperatures and rain might trigger some of the early breeding salamanders, especially Jefferson Salamanders, to make their march to vernal pools. The countdown to spring has begun. I'd also be interested to know if anyone further south has started seeing the ambystomatids emerge.

Sunday
Partly Cloudy
43° F | 25° F

Monday
Partly Cloudy
52° F | 43° F

Tuesday
Chance of Rain
58° F | 47° F

Wednesday
Rain Showers
54° F | 38° F

Thursday
Chance of Snow
40° F | 23° F

Night of the Peepers

Before playing this video, be sure to crank up the volume on your computer. If you ears are hurting, that is how loud it really is when you're standing at the edge of a vernal pool, only feet away from hundreds of these little male frogs.

I love peepers. Spring peepers, that is. What I find amazing is that they congregate in huge numbers, but then are fairly well obscure the rest of the year, even though there are just as many of them out and about, they just don't all get together and scream for females like they were doing this night. Wow...that was a long sentence.

I'm getting super excited about spring. The salamander and peeper thing does it for me every year, and I'm so glad that we were able to get out. It is too bad that amphibians no longer congregate on the floodplain of the Olentangy at our house- We had to drive about twenty minutes to the outskirts of suburban Columbus to see these creatures.

Today, the ramps are up, and so are the trout lily leaves down by the river. An amazing site. And I checked on the lesser celandine flowers, they are ready to pop open, and probably will tomorrow with more sun. I'll have plenty of pictures of this invasive species, and all the native wildlflowers that grow in Kenney Park, in the next week to two weeks, so stay tuned. I always view this season as a race. Things change so quickly, at least in the botanical world, until about early July, when there is a slight reprieve. So lets all get on this roller coaster that is spring, I hope you enjoy the ride!

Tom

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Spring Proceeds Despite the Cold Weather

My outdoor thermometer read 52 at 5:00 p.m. this evening when I arrived home from work. Not exactly bone chilling, but we've only had two spring days break 60 degrees this spring. Last year at this time, I was photographing the open blooms of wildlflowers in Kenney Park. This year, nothing is blooming, yet. We'll have one warm day, and up will come a floral bonanza. Still, it is difficult to wait. The two most notable green plants popping up along the Olentangy this spring are Allium canadense (as pictured above), wild onion, and the non-native invasive Ranunculus ficaria, or lesser celandine.

This plant is up in its full glory, and it will be only a matter of days before its yellow blossoms carpet the floodplain. Plants that make it to invasive status usually exclude all other plants from growing and become ridiculously dense. Lesser celandine is no exception-look how it carpets the floodplain along the river. It really prefers this habitat, as it has not made its way up onto the stream terrace adjacent to the river.



At work I'm increasingly becoming involved with the management of non-native invasive species. Its a challenge, but knowing the invasive non-natives in your area, and avoiding planting these species is extremely important. You can get more information about Ohio's Invasive Plants at the Division of Natural Areas & Preserves invasive species information page.

Tom

Spring- Only a Few Weeks Away- Soon the Frogs and Sallys will Play

Click to play

So you're probably thinking, "Tom, are you crazy?" Even with more snow forecast tomorrow? Well, I went back through my photos of last year's activity, and let me just tell you that spring will be here soon. Soon we'll have a chorus of spring peepers across Ohio and the midwest. Megan and I shot this video of a single male spring peeper (Pseudacris cruicer) on March 18, 2007. The chorus of thousands of spring peepers can be deafening. Make sure you have your sound turned up when you watch the video- If it is hurting your ears, you are reliving the spring peeper chorus if full reality.

Yesterday I posted images of fine art, and today, I'm turning to my some of my favorite animals in Ohio, spring peepers and spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculata). With the first warm spring rain, these tiny creatures emerge from their winter hiding places and head to temporary pools to breed. The spotted salamanders will return to the ground while the peepers stick around in wetlands, catching bugs and avoiding predators.

Spotted salamander from Portage County, Ohio, March 2007.

Last year, Megan and I searched for spotted salamanders in Columbus, but only found the spring peepers heard in the viedo. Our second outing of the year turned up a few spotted salamanders, but me missed the mass migration.

I have, however, witnessed this magical event one time in my life, when I was a graduate student at Miami University. My herpetology professor scheduled a field trip to a known salamander breeding pond. We were accompanied by another graduate student who had been visiting the pond for weeks, but had found no salamanders. We left the campus about 8:00 at night, arriving at the woodland pool soon after. Sure enough, when we got there, there was nothing but peepers. We searched, and searched, and searched the pond, but found no spotted salamanders. Finally, a drip here, a drip there- it began to rain. Would anything happen? Someone shouted out, "I found one!" I thought to myself, "really?" I thought they were full of B.S. And the shout came not from the pond, but from up on the hill. The class raced to the spot, and sure enough, in the leaves, was a magnificent 6 inch long spotted salamander.

How cool! It continued to rain, and as we were gathered, another classmate "spotted" a spotted. Then another one. Then another one! After 10 minutes, we could barely walk in the woods without stepping one them. We collected 50 for the grad students project (he had a permit from the Ohio Division of Wildlife) but we could have collected hundreds. The most amazing thing about the whole night is how a quick change in environmental conditions caused these sallys to come out from underneath their hiding areas in the leaf little and logs. It was awesome.

Spotted salamanders from Butler County, March, 2003

When I first saw these creatures in person, several things come to mind. First is their size- they are massive compared to the woodland plenthodonitid salamanders that I was more familiar with. Second- their color is spectacular. Incredibly spectacular for a creature that spends most of its time underground, and when it is above ground, it is during the night time. Third- If a poacher ever found a mass migration, look out. Hundreds if not thousands can be gathered at one time, and during one night, an entire population could be eliminated.

I hope everyone gets to see an ambystomatid salamander (like the spotted) this spring!

Tom

Spring Will Be Here Soon

In April 2003 I experienced one of the great wonders of nature. During the first warm spring rain, spotted salamanders leave their subterranean homes, move overland, and congregate in masses in temporary woodland pools. Here, the males leave sperm packets on submerged leaves and other detritus, and the females follow, absorb the sperm packets through their cloaca, and use them to fertilize their eggs. We saw hundreds of spotted salamanders that evening. When we arrived at the woodland pond, near Indian Creek in Butler County, it wasn't raining, and there were no salamanders. After about an hour, a gentle rain began falling, and we started seeing salamanders amongst the leaves on the forest floor. At first one or two, then 10 then 100...and then it seemed like we saw at least 1000 of these guys that night. They are extremely cool.

From Herps