Ultra Moonbow!!

Biggg Moonbow, originally uploaded by DMarcumPhotography.

I had a great weekend, I can already see how it's going to be extremely hard to keep up with this blog. As soon as it gets a bit nicer outside and Spring time starts dealing me all kinds of wonderful things to see, I don't think that I'll have time to sit down and write about it all!! I sure am going to try though : )

Anyway, since my last entry, I spent a morning wandering through the snowdrifts on the beach at Mentor Lagoons, watched birds and admired huge trees at North Chagrin Reservation, and finally got back out to "the farm" for an overdue outing!

While exploring the lagoons, I decided that I am going to start a collection of profile shots of different tree species! This will help me (and others) become more familiar with trees, and help identify them based on bark (even though some experts wouldn't recommend going on just bark, I think it is very possible with many tree species.)

Here's an example: Fagus grandifolia (American Beech)

These trees are easy to identify with their smooth bark and their characteristic shapes and texture. Beeches have a knack for forming cavities which provide many homes and hideaways for wildlife! Beech nuts are also great mast that provide food for many woodland residents such as squirrels and some birds. The saplings are characteristic too, they hold their orange/brown leaves through Winter and often sprout off of root of a larger tree as these ones did.

Besides photographing trees, I made my way out to the beach for a few minutes and it sure was harsh weather out there. Everything was white, the snow was more than knee deep, and the wind was strong and relentless. See this photo for yourself, this isn't quite the Lake Erie that I'm used to...

 Later that day, I headed out to the farm with Chia, Dana, and Sheila. "The farm" is a nice piece of property that has been in my family for many generations out in amish country. It is my special sanctuary. Except for when the Amish cause trouble. I won't get into that... Anyway, I told Chia and Dana that we would probably spot a Bald Eagle on the way there, and sure enough, we did. Just had to say. It was my 11th Eagle in under 2 weeks. We also spotted #12 on the way home.

We took a nice little walk through the woods once we got there. back at the cabin, we got a fire started, got din din started, and kicked back. I also kicked back a bottle of MD 20/20 - "Orange Jubilee" for old times sake hahahaha. It's not all that bad. On a trip outside to go get more wood, I looked up to a MONSTER moonbow! It was the biggest one I've seen! It engulfed Orion. Chia came stumbling outside, dropped to his knees and cried out " WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!" Hahaha, sorry Chia, I'm not sure exactly, but I know that the 4 stars inside the circle have something to do with it...

Marc and Brit met us out there and we went on another hike in the morning. We walked though some of the wet lowland areas back in the woods. These soggy areas are filled with Yellow Birch, Musclewood (Carpinus), and Ironwood (Ostrya). I can just see the skunk cabbage popping up as soon as the snow melts. We saw evidence of plenty of fox activity. I'm glad considering the amish try to hunt and trap every last one of them out there, even the kits : ( We also saw plenty of turkey tracks along the creek in Cerulean Gorge.

Yellow Birch

                                            
 Overall it was a great weekend. I'm sick of typing, so I will let the photos do the rest of the talking to explain what we saw!!

Mentor Lagoons

Cerulean Gorge in Mesopotamia, OH

...and Still More Eagles

Eagle Eyes, originally uploaded by DMarcumPhotography.

Wow. What an amazing day. Thursdays are my favorite because I don't have class until 3:20pm and I get to go out hiking all day : ) So my buddy Rob and I ventured out to Cuyahoga Valley N.P. this morning. I had a goal to get some quality bird photos, even though operating a camera in single digit temperatures isn't always fun.

We were on the Kennedy Ledges trail by 9:30 (a bit later then I usually like to arrive but it's ok). It was a quiet day as far as birds go, but the sunny Winter day was so beautiful, I had other things to keep me completely entertained. Rob and I are also refining our tree ID skills, so we were able to concentrate more on that. Most of the trees over by the ledges include; Beech, White Oak, Red Oak, Tulip/Poplar, Cherry, Yellow Birch, and plenty of Hemlock, with some Black Oak, Red Maple, Bitternut Hickory, Ash (not sure which), Black Locust, and Sycamores.

 Another thing keeping us busy on the hike were a bunch of great tracks everywhere in the crunchy snow. We saw deer, squirrel, white-footed mouse, fox, and coyote! We also found a dead white-footed mouse and later a dead mole - probably froze to death or starved : ( The mole was very cool to see it was pretty big, about the size of my hand! I will have to check my mammal guide for the exact species, I'm not to keen on breaking down small mammals yet...

 After a nice long venture through and along beautiful rock formations, glistening hemlocks, and magically colored snow, we were making our way back to the trailhead. I was already satisfied even though we literally saw two birds but we did listen to a Titmouse singing for a while who decided to come right up and sing to us : )

This photo does not do the colorful glistening snow any justice...

Coyote Tracks

 The ledges area had one last parting gift for us though as we were almost back. I spotted a Pileated Woodpecker sitting dead still and quiet on a big Tuliptree...it was just shining in the sun, I seriously thought it was fake for a second. As I motioned for Rob to come check it out, I attached my monster camera lens and eventually got a few pretty nice photos! I always love showing someone a Pileated Woodpecker for there first time because they are such a magnificent species!

 Back to the car, I wanted to go drive by where the Peregrines nest (where I've been seeing them for the past few months) to see if I could spot one of them. Neither was to be found, so we turned around and headed South on Riverview road to make our way through the park. Next is when we were deivered a big time gift...

While driving along the river, I spotted an eagle soaring over and frantically pointed it out to Rob (I always get real excited, plus people usually don't believe me when I tell them that that's an eagle). I pulled off to the side of the road to watch. Just then a Red-tailed Hawk swooped at the Eagle! They both parted directions..the eagle was flying right toward me! Luckily my camera was still setup from taking the shots of the Pileated, so I grabbed it and got ready for my chance!! Amazingly, the eagle flew right at us, then landed on a Sycamore tree RIGHT NEXT TO THE ROAD!!!!! Check out these pictures that I got!!! I have been getting some lucky breaks lately!!! Such a surreal experience, that doesn't usually happen!!

I drew a small crowd of two other cars by this time. To make things even more exciting, the mate to the first bird (which I am calling the female) came by with a young juvenile! As Rob and I watched them both circle for a moment nearby, we were in awe. The female decided to come in and land 20ft. from her mate and let out some of those gull-sounding eagle screams that are hard to describe! I got some pictures of her screaming, but unfortunately there was a power line right through her that I couldn't see until I took my face away from the camera : ( Whatever, all in all I still came out with some great shots so I can't be too upset ; )

 Some guy decided to pull up next to me and talk about it and then the eagles flew off...thanks guy. Haha, it's ok I'm glad he got to see and appreciate it.

Like I said, Thursdays are always amazing. We decided to celebrate with a couple fatty tacos from Moe's afterwords and made it to Forestry class. My awesome professor Dan Ross sure enjoyed the photos! I can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow, I'm heading to Mogadore Reservoir at sunrise : )

Lots of Baldies lately!!

Lots of Baldies lately!!, originally uploaded by DMarcumPhotography.

After Forestry class cut out at 4:10 this afternoon, my buddy Rob and I decided to walk over to the wildlife area on KSU's campus to check out the scene. This place is one of my local retreats here in Kent. I love it because it is a 2 minute bike ride from the middle of campus and I can go there whenever I have free time to look for birds and escape into a bit of woods.

While in mid-sentance explaining to Rob how Bald Eagles are one of the highest flying raptors that I know of, I look up and whaddya know...THERE'S ONE NOW!! It was a crazy coincidence. I love seeing Bald Eagles because they are such huge and powerful birds. Watching them fly overhead is always memorable. They are a great success story of wildlife conservation. I love seeing them even more with people who don't watch birds as much as I do (which is a lot of people haha) because they really get a kick out of it!

I have been seeing many Baldies lately, this is my third sighting in Kent since Wednesday and I haven't really been looking. I also saw at least three different individuals in Cuyahoga Valley N.P. last week.

These magnificent birds really are making a great comeback in this region, and it's great to have them as a flagship species to get people interested in conservation. I hope to get some better photos of eagles at some point down the road, it's only a matter of time.

There are many raptors to be seen out on this 100-acre patch of land as well. I have been watching a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that nest in the vicinity, as well as a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks (which I've yet to locate their nest but I have some ideas). The female likes to hunt near the boardwalk. The Red-tails like to hunt closer to the woods. I also used to see a Great-horned Owl in a pine stand on the site, but I haven't found any signs of him in the last few months, so I'm not sure if he's still around.

Besides raptors, I watched and listened a male House Finch singing his beautiful song today and then chase away another male intruder who showed up. Goldfinches were busy feeding on the plentiful Crabapple trees along with many Robins.

I will have many more stories to share about my KSU sanctuary, I hope to bird tallies in the future too!

First post on my new blog : D

Finally!!!!, originally uploaded by DMarcumPhotography.

Ok, so I posted this photo as a test to see how it worked. For some reason the photo uploading tool is a black window for me on my Macbook, so I am adding photos to this blog through Flickr.

This is a good story anyway! Last Thursday, I went out to Cuyahoga Valley N.P. with my friend Brit. We were hoping to see some birds, and just take in the beautiful Winter scenery along the Cuyahoga River. While hiking on the towpath just North of Peninsula, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk near the river through the trees. I grabbed Brit and told her what I saw and that we needed to act casual and try not to scare him off. As I hooked up my monster lens on my Nikon, I was thinking that this guy would fly off at any second.

My general technique to approaching wildlife (especially birds) is to try to act like a carefree herbivore who is browsing the vegetation. Sometimes it seems to work, other times not so effective. Anyway, I took a few crappy shots of this bird from far away through twigs and we started towards the river to get a bit of a closer view that was unobstructed by trees. Surprisingly, this particular hawk was very tolerant of us being there...we ended up watching him from about 100ft. for a good 20 minutes while he just minded his own business and scanned the area for prey.

Before we moved on I got the photo posted above from just 50ft. away! What a cooperative subject!! Any wildlife photographer knows that this kind of thing is a rare and fortunate experience! I told Brit not to expect this kind of thing to ever happen while watching raptors in the wild, it must have been beginners luck for one of her first birding excursions : )

We hiked about 4 miles total through the crunchy snow on the towpath that day. A couple other noteable sitings included 2 adult Bald Eagles, a couple Great Blue Herons, and a small flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I can't wait until the snow clears off and I'll be back on my bike exploring the towpath : )