Broderick "Brody" Thomas Arbour

Born 7:36 a.m. February 25, 2011,  7 lbs, 9 oz, 20 inches, mom went totally unmedicated, Babe and Mom are healthy and doing great!

Tom

More Lizards from Puerto Rico

Juvenile, Rincon

Where I grew up in Northeastern Ohio, there weren't many lizards.  The county to our east had a few populations of five-lined skinks, but I never saw a wild lizard in Ohio until a visit to a State Nature Preserve in Southwestern Ohio.  But in Puerto Rico, lizards abound.  The familiar green "chameleon" of my youth, actually the green anole native to the southeast United States, has several relatives that live in Puerto Rico.  In fact, no fewer than 13 Anolis species have been described from this unincorporated territory of the United States.  Here are a few Anolis species that I encountered during out trip one year ago.

Adult female? -  Guanica State Forest

Rincon

Adult Male?  Guanica State Forest

Puerto Rico was fabulous- We'd be there again if we weren't expecting another baby- March 6th is the due date, and Megan's TOTALLY ready!

Tom

Fast Action on the Tennis Court

Last year at this time, Megan, Weston, and I were in warm and sunny Puerto Rico, and I was apparently watching (and photographing) the endemic Puerto Rican Ground Lizards (Ameiva exsul)

The End!

-Tom

White-tailed Doe

August 22, 2010, Kenney Park, Columbus

 

 

So why not battle the winter blahs by returning to summer?  Here's another image that I captured this past summer that never made it to the blog.

Tom

Milkweed Bug Nymphs

August 15th 2010, Worthington Ohio

This evening I was browsing through my summer images, looking for things that stood out to me, and these milkweed bugs fit the bill.  I thought you might like this splash of super saturated color during this persistent winter.

Tom

Winter at Deer Haven

A big thank you to yesterday's participants at the winter photography program at Deer Haven Preserve.  Here are a few of my shots from our little foray.  We had eleven participants, not bad for a snowy winter day!

Carolina Wren

Deer Haven Preserve, Delaware, Ohio

Winter Photography

 Since I'm going to be heading up a free winter photography workshop on February 5th for the Delaware Preservation Parks, I thought I would ask here what winter photography problems, issues, or questions that you might have that might help guide my upcoming workshop.  I've thought a ton of things already, but I can't think of everything.  Please feel free to share any winter photography tips or questions with a comment.  Thanks!

Tom

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Sphyrapicus varius

Deer Haven Preserve, Delaware County January 22, 2010

Bird Help!

 What is this little brown bird?  It was sitting on the ground, eating seed, at the Deer Haven Preserve in Delaware county.  It looks like a song sparrow, but it is smaller, has a much smaller bill, and a noticeably shorter tail.

The mystery bird is in the foreground- a typical song sparrow, for comparison, is in the background.

My guess, based on a quick perusal of Sibley's Guide, is a Lincoln's sparrow, but it's not quite a perfect match.    What do you think?

Tom

Winter Photography Workshop, February 5!

Otisfield, Maine 2010

Happy New Year!

Time, time, time....If only I had more of it.  As Weston grows, and as our family grows (we're expecting our second baby in early March), my life has grown increasingly complicated.  Megan and I are incredibly blessed.  But something has to give, and, I have come to the realization that I just can no longer keep this blog running as I have in the past at a several posts a week clip.  Don't worry- I'm not going anywhere, but things will just be considerably slower here as our family grows.

Worthington, Ohio, 2010

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming winter photography workshop that I'll be heading up.  It will be a 2 hour hands-on photography workshop for the Delaware Preservation Parks and the Deer Haven Preserve Lodge, Saturday February 5th from 2-4 p.m.  The topic will be winter photography- I'll show a few pictures, we'll go out and shoot the beautiful Deer Haven Preserve, and then we'll come back in and if people bring their laptops, we can go over postprocessing images.  This is a work in progress, but I hope it works and is successful, and perhaps it could be a recurring program.


My goal is to get you excited about photography in the winter- to get outside and take pictures! Let me know if you have any questions- the program is totally free- I hope to see you there.

Here's a schedule of all the Delaware Preservation Parks January-April programming.

Tom

Columbus, Ohio, 2009

A Wiggly New Year Earthworm

With yesterday's warm temperatures, I wanted to see if I could find any creepy crawlies around the Old Bur Oak, and this earthworm made the perfect photographic subject.  It felt great to get out my macro photography gear in the middle of the winter.

Tom

Sorghastrum nutans

Indian Grass!

It's not quite from today, but close- from Friday, again, taken on the Delaware Wildlife Area.

21 Months and Counting

Weston at 21+ Months plus little creative Photoshop work.

It's hard not to say that Weston looks like me- we both share a dark complexion and brown eyes, while Megan's eyes are hazel and her skin quite fair.  But when I look at this picture of Weston that I took last weekend- I can't stopped being reminded of Megan. Weston's mouth, his nose, it's all hers.  It's hard to believe that in about two and a half months, we'll be welcoming another human being into the world.

Tom

Mallard, Belted Kingfisher

I have been remiss to capture any photographs of Delaware County the past two workdays, so this evening, I'm posting two images that I captured on Sunday afternoon, just before I photographed the great blue heron.  This drake mallard was doing its best to swim upstream through a riffle on the opposite bank, while this female belted kingfisher was perched high above the river, ready to dive for a fish.

Ohio and the rest of the east is experiencing frigid temperatures.  A few years ago at this time, I was still able to photograph autumn meadowhawks, but now everything is absolutely frigid- we're headed for a low of 14 tonight. Stay warm!

Tom

Great Blue Heron

Yesterday afternoon I returned to my old stomping grounds- Kenney Park. I went there looking for deer, but didn't find any. This great blue heron made the short trip down High Street worth my time.

Tom

It's a Mast Year

Red Oak Acorns, November 2010,  Munroe Falls, Ohio

Not long after the start of this year's deer bow season in Ohio, which opened September 25, I started reading reports that Ohio was experiencing a "mast year".   For some reason(s) that are not entirely understood, some years, most every oak tree in a forest will produce a bumper crop of acorns, far more than normal. During a mast year event, the woods can just be littered with acorns.

But why is this event called a "mast year"?  A little searching through online dictionaries and I found the answer- this usage of the word "mast" most likely derives from an old English word that meant food.  So a mast year is when the woods is full of food, and in the case of this year's deer season, full of food for deer.  And that brings me back to the deer season.  The number of deer harvested during the early archery season was down- a fact attributed by many to the deer staying put in the woods and feasting on the bumper crop of acorns, instead  running out into fields and farmland to search for leftover corn and soybeans.  I'm not sure if I buy this argument, but I recently visited my parents house and experienced this "mast" event first hand.

"Mast"

 They're lucky enough to have a nice red oak in their backyard.  When I was growing up, I remember finding a few acorns underneath this tree- maybe five or six per year.  The gray squirrels got all the other ones. So I was absolutely shocked to see the pile that had formed at the base of this tree.  Granted- my dad had raked the acorns off the lawn and moved them all closer together, but what a bonanza of acorns.

Why does this happen?  The prevailing theory seems to go like this: In one year, if you flood the woods with many more acorns than the squirrels, deer, and other wildlife can eat, than there is an actual chance of getting some of those extra acorns to germinate and eventually become trees.  By in large though, from my brief research this morning, there is much that needs to be learned about this phenomenon.

My hand with "mast"

This morning I asked this question-  Is it just Ohio's oaks that are experiencing a mast year?  After a quick search for "mast year" at the newspaper article search topix.net, I found stories from Florida to Connecticut and New York to Chicago.  I can't make the argument that the phenomenon is happening across the eastern U.S.  Perhaps every year there are places that experience local mast events. Still, I was surprised to see so many articles.  Maybe something unusual is going on, or quite possibly, it could just be a coincidence.  Needless to say, my interest is definitely piqued- I'm starting to see a whole PhD dissertation developing in my brain.....

My question to you is- are you having a "mast year" in your neck of the woods?

Tom

Morning Sky

A simple image of this morning's sky with the sun trying to clear the low clouds in the east.  Have a great weekend.

-Tom

Welcome Winter

Do you know why I know it is winter?  Upon arriving at work this morning all our door locks were frozen!  We eventually got in- but not before I was seriously regretting leaving my gloves at home.  There's something about the first subzero temperatures that surprises me each winter, and this morning was no different.  I thought I didn't need gloves- and I was wrong.

Although my morning and evening commutes were draped with clouds, central Ohio was treated to a quite nice mid-day sunshine event.  As winter drags on, sunny scenes like this one will decrease as we plunge into the gray abyss that is winter here in Ohio.  It's hard to believe that this field will be warm and full of soybeans in only six months or so.

Tom

Nature in Manhattan

It isn't too difficult to capture a traditional nature photograph in Manhattan.  When I need a little dose of nature, I head to the northern section of Central Park.  There are quite a few forested areas, with giant native trees- These areas are mostly fenced and signs are posted letting park visitors know that these are natural areas.  While walking along "The Ravine" which eventually leads to this waterfall, I saw a Cooper's hawk, tufted titmice and chickadees, and a flock of about 20 white-throated sparrows.  Not bad for an island where most people live in tiny brick, concrete, and steel boxes stacked on top of each other.

Tom