White Crowned Sparrow

Last night about 8:00, as Megan and I were sitting on our front porch, we saw a White Crowned Sparrow. It was eating the bird seed thrown in our street by our neighbors who love feeding birds. I wouldn't have noticed this bird if I hadn't been watching a gray squirrel building its nest through my binoculars. Although White Crowned sparrows are not rare migrants, most sparrows that feed in our street our the non-native house sparrow. I let Megan have a look at the sparrow, and she said something like, "It looks like it has a skunk haircut." Sure enough, the white crowned has three white stripes on top of its head, separated by two black stripes. This is a very cool bird that I would speculate that many backyard bird feeders just pass off as a house sparrow if they are not observing closely. I know I would have done the same had I not been watching the gray squirrel. Another species to add to our list of birds seen around our home.

Tom

Ohio Prairie Article by the Akron Beacon Journal

For those of you who regularly visit the "blog", you know that most of my posts detail some animal or plant I have observed in the field. The local media does cover natural history from time to time, and I thought that I could start highlighting various stories about nature that appear in Ohio's newspapers. The Akron Beacon Journal recently published such an article about Ohio's prairie past. It is a good read. The article can be accessed here: High praise for prairies

Ohio had several grassland areas called prairies when the first settlers reached this state. A very few of these areas still exist today. In addition, Ohio also is the home to prairie-like habitats called wet meadows dominated by sedges rather than grasses, which make up prairies. For more about a wet meadow that I have studied, check out The Ohio Department of Natural Resources prairie education website here:Ohio Prairie Interviews. There are several informative interviews that detail the people behind the management of a state nature preserve.

Tom

Sweet Cicely, Osmorhiza longistlis

Here is a common woodland wildflower I photographed in Kenney Park. It is at peak bloom right now, and the flowers are very striking. However, it is the root of this plant that can really catch your attention. I love licorice, and this plant smells like the purple and white Good and Plenty candy. One of its common names is actually aniseroot, and if you find some on your property, break a stem or even dig up the root and take a wiff. The crushed stems and broken roots have a very strong scent of black licorice. Although this plant is not used to flavor licorice, Native Americans did readily use it to treat a wide variety of ailments. Licorice itself is named after the licorice plants in the genus Glycyrrhiza. If you haven't yet this year, try taking a walk in your local park and enjoy the wildflowers. Here in central Ohio, summer is rapidly approaching and spring will be a distant memory! I must say, what a spring we have had here. The blog has kept me focusing in on the natural world, and I have enjoyed bringing you the photos and experiences I have posted here.

Tom

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Building a Nest!

When I was a small boy growing up in suburban Munroe Falls, Ohio, a pair of Robins built nests and raised young under my parent's deck for several years. I remember peering down through the cracks between the boards in our deck into the nest, only six inches below. I literally had a birds eye view of the nest building, incubation, hatching, and growth of the young chicks. I had not really thought of bird nests much since then, but yesterday, those memories came back to me as I watched a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher building a nest in Kenney Park.

I looked up and saw a gnatcather preening above me. It started to make a "peent" sound repetitively, and I wondered what was going on. I captured about 30 images of the bird, and finally, noticed a little more action higher up in the tree. Another gnatcather was building in its nest in the crotch of the box-elder about 15 feet off the ground. The cup shaped nest appeared to be constructed of lichens of all things. Wouldn't be great if I only had a deck from which to peer into this nest? Alas, I do not, but here is a photo I managed to capture of this very cool little bird bringing some material to finish off its nest.

 

Tom

Smooth Solomon's Seal

This afternoon I thought I would post a picture Smooth Solomon's seal, a common plant throughout northeast Ohio woodlands. This particular one caught my attention in Kenney Park (Notice the name change here. Today I realized that I have been misspelling the name of this park. I had been omitting the second "e".) Notice the dangling flowers in pairs or threes that are not quite open...I'll watch it and see what happens!

 

Palm Warbler

This evening, I believe I spotted a life bird for me, the Palm Warbler, Dendroica palmarum. This bird, a male, was flicking around in some honeysuckle and box-elder undergrowth in Kenny Park. What a find. He was active only about 5-6 feet off the ground, and I got a great view of him with my binoculars. Here are some pictures that I managed to capture with Megan's Kodak P850 ultrazoom camera! What a neat bird, if I do say so myself. I have been looking at birds all winter, and seeing the same species each day. Now, with the migration wave coming through, the woods are just popping with all kinds of colorful new birds. Am I starting to catch the birding bug? Only time will tell!

 

 

 

Tom

Nature in Mainstream Media

The mainstream media, including The Columbus Dispatch, does cover nature quite well. Jim Fry writes a column every other Sunday, covering some aspect of Ohio's natural history. Often, his subject is birds. Check out this week's column about Rose-breasted grosbeaks. This bird, which reminds me of a red, black and white cardinal, is supposedly expanding its range southward here in Ohio. The only place that I have seen them is at Jackson Bog State Nature Preserve, located in northern Stark County in Northeast Ohio.

Tom

Beetle Update

Thanks to BugGuide.net, someone has identified the beetle from North Bass Island as a Odontotaenius disjunctus, also known as the horned bess beetle. From what I found "The Internet," these insects actually show some social interactions with adults taking care of their larvae somewhat. They live in dead decaying wood, and I found this specimen crawling and basking on top of a nice dead and decaying log.

Tom

Strikingly Huge Beetle from North Bass Island

More photos on this rainy day from my trip to North Bass Island. A giant beetle, which was crawling on a dead log. It almost appeared that it was basking in the sunshine, but I can't be sure. I took a few shots and moved on. Being a naturalist is awesome. I get to take really cool pictures of bugs and get paid for it!

 

Paw Paw, Asimina triloba

Have you ever eaten a paw paw? This native tree and fruit is also called "poor man's banana" because of its yellowish fruit. Paw Paws are actually the fruits of the paw paw tree. Right now, the paw paw is blooming here in central Ohio. After Megan and I were done jumping, we spotted a clump of this tree along a stream terrace right next to the Olentangy river. What a cool flower this plant has! Three petals, brown, and downward pointing. I'm guessing the flowers attract things like flies, although that is entirely speculation. I wanted to get a picture of an individual flower. Most of the flowers were at least ten feet of the ground, but this specimen was right at eye level and made for the perfect picture.

 

Jumping in Kenny Park

Megan had the really good idea to capture us running and jumping today in Kenny Park. Ok, I know this is about the 18th blog post of the day, but it is raining and blogging is just so much fun. Here we are. I encourage everyone to get out there, jump, and have someone photograph you.

Tom

 

 

P.S. Megan and I just watched Kristin Stanford's segment from Dirty Jobs, where Mike Rowe travels to South Bass Island to help Kristin study the federally threatened Northern Water Snake. This show was off the hook! Mike Rowe, the host, just continually got bitten by the snakes as they gathered them along the shore of the island. They were "pooing" "peeing" and "crapping" all over him! If you haven't seen the dirty jobs show, it is one of the funniest programs on cable.

Black and White Warbler

Another species to add to this Spring's list!

Megan and I are quite fortunate to live where we live. Most people would probably look at our street and consider it, well, not that desirable. Our house itself has everything that we could ask for in a rental property. Our street is a little rough...one side is basically a parking lot for a shopping center, and many of the houses on the other side are rental properties that have seen better days.

BUT, we do live very close to the Olentangy River, known mostly as the river that flows through THE Ohio State University. But upstream from Ohio State, the river is really quite nice and even further north, the Olentangy has been designated a State Scenic River. What does this mean? We can walk to to this lush green corridor and really observe nature at its best. Yes, we are in the city of Columbus. Yes, the area is full of invasive species. And yes, there are unleashed dogs scampering throughout the park near our house. However, there are plenty of native plants, birds, mammals, fish, freshwater mussels, and an unlimited number of other cool natural things to look at. I have found that this blog is a great outlet for my pictures. I know that I have a few regular readers....I hope you are enjoying what Megan and I find.

Today, Megan spotted a black and white warbler for the first time. It was great. She was holding my binocs, saw a little bird scampering through the honeysuckle, and said something like, "wow, that is a cool bird but it isn't yellow." I had told her that most of the spring warblers migrating through Columbus and all of Ohio usually have some yellow feathers. If you haven't seen one, the black and white warbler could be called the zebra bird. They are more black than white, but have plenty of white striping. The word "referee" also comes to mind when I picture this small bird.

Other birds we saw on our mid-day walk.

Wood Duck
Mallard
Canada Goose
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American robin
Northern Cardinal (including one female on the nest)
Gray Catbird
White breasted nuthatch
Grackle
Red-eyed vireo
Goldfinch

Tom

Ohio Snake Video

The Ohio Division of Wildlife has produced a very informative video of Ohio's snakes. I believe that this is from the Division's "Wild Ohio" program. The background music is a little bit over the top, but the cinematography is actually quite good. They have posted the segment on their website. It is about eight minutes long, so just make sure you have a high speed internet connection. Want to learn more about snakes? Don't miss it!

Ohio Snake Video

Eastern Garter Snake on North Bass Island

Here is an Eastern garter snake from my trip to North Bass Island. This particular specimen was not happy that I was around. It really flattened out its body and cocked its head, ready to strike at me if I got too close. Usually, garter snakes "simmer down" after a little bit of handling, but photographing this one today was what I was after, and I didn't even attempt to pick it up. These snakes are completely harmless and are common throughout Ohio.

 

Tom

North Bass Island

Yesterday, I traveled to North Bass Island in Lake Erie, only miles from Canadian border. I was there to scope the island out for an upcoming vegetation survey that I'll be heading up for the state of Ohio. I'm off today because of my marathon work session yesterday (I left Columbus at 5:35 a.m. and got back at 8:15 p.m.!), so I thought I would share a few pictures from yesterday's trip.

North Bass Island is a fascinating place...For over 150 years, it was used primarily to grow grapes to make into wine. Now, the State of Ohio owns about 80 percent of the land there, and it will be slowly developed into a low impact park and wildlife area.

The beach at Manilla Bay, which is entirely made up of bleached out zebra mussel shells. Walking in these windrows of shells is like walking in really thick dry sand. You definitely get quite a workout.

 

Bluebells, Mertensia virginica, were common in the woodlands of the Island. In some places, this spectacular plant dominated the understory and seemed to go on for acres and acres. It was awesome.

 

Finally, I thought I would share a photo of Jack-in-the pulpit. This species is in the Arum family, related to skunk cabbage and the peace lily that is a common house plant. We only found it in one area of the island, but it was locally common in the wet woods within which it was growing. This guy is named after "Jack," which is the rounded, slender pointed up part of the flower. It looks like "Jack" is surrounded by a preacher's pulpit. Notice how the pulpit has a hood that covers the plant. Megan thought this looked like a pitcher plant, but there is no water in this pulpit! Look for these plants in a moist high quality woodland near you.

 

Tom

Columbus Grass Bear!

Megan and I spotted an amazing creature last night, the Columbus grass bear. I have seen this fascinating animal stalking our lawn ever since moving to our current home. It often makes short forays through our grass and dissappears soon after.

Last night, Megan and I tried to approach and study the grass bear further.

Here it is......I'm using Megans' super zoom kodak 12x camera for this shot...I did not want to get too close in fear of an attack..

 

Megan was brave enough to approach the bear in its own habitat. Notice she is avoiding making direct eye contact. This is one of Megan's trademark techniques she uses when approaching potentially dangerous wildlife.

 

Finally, she has tamed the beast. The Columbus grass bear turned out to be quite a pleasant creature!

 

This type of blog post is completely inspired by Jim Mccormac of the Ohio Birding Blog. See link at right.

Bexley Public Radio WCRX

Today I sat in with Amy Maurer who hosts a local garden show on recent startup radio station WCRX 102.1 F-M-L-P (LP stands for "Low Power!"). We chatted about the Division of Natural Areas & Preserves, the invasive species that we manage in our State Nature Preserves, and a little bit about the great wave of migrating birds that is sweeping through Columbus right now. It was great fun! The station is only on the air for two hours each day, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00. Today's show was live, and it is possible that it may be repeated in the future. I'll be sure to let everyone know so that they can listen in. Right now, the operation is pretty simple, but it seems like they are really into making a go at getting this station up and running for the long term. Very cool.

Tom

Common Blue Violet and Pale White Violet In Bloom

A few days ago, I posted a picture of one Ohio's yellow species of violets, Viola hastata or halberdleaf violet. As clearly shown in that picture, Violets are not always violet! Today I thought I would post two other violets. First up, we have one of Ohio's white violet species, Viola striata. This is one of the leafy violets. It actually possesses leaves on its stems and some other cool leaves called stipules that are small and highly toothed, almost like a comb. In the following picture, notice its white petals and purple lines sometimes called nectar guides, which grab the attention of pollinators and guide them to the important reproductive parts of the plant.

 

Here is the common blue violet, Viola sororia. This is the one that probably grows in your yard. It is a native species, but does do quite well in grass and lawns and can be quite a pest. In the wild in can be spectacular when several plants are grouped together. Although common, it is a beautiful wildflower that should not be taken for granted. Both these plants were shot in Kenny Park, right here in the City of Columbus.

 

There you go. Two more violets. There are more than 20 or so more species to find this spring. I don't think I'll see them all!

Tom

Oporornis warber?-Update

Yesterday morning, I spotted a very cool warbler in Kenny Park. He was singing his head off in grapevines and box-elders only 20 feet or so off the ground. This evening, Megan and I saw him again, and I managed to capture some video of his sound. I have no idea if this was the same bird as yesterday, but my hunch is that it is, since he was in the same spot. My field observations were fairly simple: Gray head, white eyering, olive wings, yellow underbelly. No black lines or striping to be seen. Here is the video.

Thanks to Jim McCormac, this bird has now been identified as a Kentucky Warbler.




Tom

Ohio Buckeye

The Ohio Buckeye, the namesake tree of our state, is one of the first species to leaf out and bloom here in central Ohio. This evening, this particular buckeye tree caught my eye. It has completely leafed out! Take a look at this northeast Ohioans. I was up in Ashtabula county last Thursday and trees there were barely in bud. Anyways, I have really taken a liking to this species. It seems to love floodplains and grows right above the Olentangy river along the stream terraces in the City of Columbus. No wonder this great state got its nickname from this tree. They had to have been all over Columbus when there was still some primeval forest around and I bet they really got noticed because they leaf out very early, and they are especially showy with there multiple clusters of white flowers which are entering peak bloom. Go Buckeyes!