Wait, March 31st is Spring I thought...

The adventures keep adding up, and the story to tell keeps getting longer and longer. It seems like I get out and explore every day so if I don't write something it piles up. I think that this blog is either going to end up going 1 of 2 routes. Either I just continue summarizing highlights of my outings with some of my prettiest photos, or I decide to talk about one or two aspects of nature at a time, and focus more on passing on what I have learned about a particular part of an ecosystem...hmm we'll see. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I feel like this transition from Winter to Spring has been the most drawn out tease ever. Everytime I think that we are taking a step into warmer Spring days, Winter grabs me by the ankle again and pulls me back. I think that it's time to get away for good! At least the Spring Peepers are calling outside my window now again...they got silenced for a few days there when the ponds froze over again and again. Tough year for amphibians!

Hmm well since I want to keep this as short as possible I think I will illustrate some of my Spring highlights from the past few days. Since I have been away, the sky has been painted on day after day with some of the most beautiful clouds. We have also had rain, sleet, and snow, but it has all been pretty. A few adventures to Mogadore Reservoir with my right hand man Brad Schultz produced some nice bird sightings and beautiful scenery. Highlights include a pair of eagles during an epic sunset as well as 250+ Ring-necked Ducks, along with other waterfowl. I "heard" an Osprey while in the woods almost a week ago at Mogadore, but haven't seen or heard since so I'm beginning to wonder if it was imaginary...I'm dreaming to hard for one of my favorite birds : )

Snowing again...(photos courtesy of Brad)

April 1st sunset

March 29th sunset

Oh yeah, one day I was at the wildlife property at KSU and Rob and I were watching the tree swallows hawking insects in the sun. Such a beautiful sight. Tree swallows definitely rank up there with some of my favorite birds. Well out of about 200 photos that were out of focus, I had about 4 that came out decent. Here's one...

Not only is it hard to follow these aerial acrobats through a 300mm lens, my lens also doesn't ever like to focus on the bird, just the water behind it...pretty annoying for $1500...I guess I will have to figure out a new strategy. I'm glad that I ended up with this photo at least though, and I am always happy just watching them up close : )

Jumping around in the week, I made it back out to the farm on Saturday, and hunting for the first wildflowers was on my agenda. An early morning hike produced a rowdy mixed flock of Grackles, Red-winged, and Rusty Blackbirds. Other usual birds were to be seen, but the wildflowers that I scoped out stillll weren't open...ALMOST though. I was with a group of friends, and after our morning walk, we made our way back to the cabin to cook the usual late breakfast feast. I won't tease you by explaining it in detail. Since it was a beautiful warm(er) day, I wanted to go back out and check the progress on some of the flowers, I imagined that the sun would have perked them up. I also wanted to look for possible emerging snakes and butterflies.

Guess what?! We found a couple open flowers!! Sharp-lobed Hepatica and Spring Beauty. Sprouting Bloodroot, Trout Lily, Blue Cohosh, and others aren't too far behind either! Here are a coulple photos.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)

Not only did we get a couple flowers, Brad managed to spot an Eastern Comma butterfly that he must have stirred up as he walked by!! I was expecting a Mourning Cloak if anything, but I was no less excited for the first butterfly of 2011!! Eastern Commas overwinter as an adult form by "hibernating" under logs, brush piles, or really anywhere they can. It's pretty amazing to me that these fragile creatures can endure Winter like that. Eastern Commas have a defense strategy to escape predation of blending into the forest. When landed, they close their wings and look like tree bark. They can easily go undetected. The open wings are beautifully patterned with oranges and black! Here are the two views...

We never managed to find a snake and it was time to go, but if we would have explored all day I bet we would have made our Mourning Cloak discovery!! Soon! Since Brad and I got back around Kent with time in the day, I said let's take the canoe out!! We went out on Mogadore. It was rough! The sun that had been with us all day gave way to sleet and strong winds blowing us backwards. We pushed through though and got a nice upper body workout in the process : )  The views of Bufflehead flying past from the closer proximity against the forest backdrop is always beautiful. It was a great ride and at the end of it all, we were rewarded with an epic sunset that decided to come out after all!

I think that this blog entry is a bit more scattered and jumbled than I would like, so I will refine it for future entries...I'm trying to figure out how to catch up. I can't wait to see what this coming week of Springtime fun has to offer (besides all the crap I have to do in school...)

New Places Make Me Happy : )

Wow, I've really been living it up for the past week.  I've been on Spring Break at KSU and I also am currently in a transitional phase between my last job and my new job at Cuyahoga Valley NP, so I haven't worked this past week either.  Just been enjoying beautiful Ohio every minute of every day.  Bird-watching every day!

For my internship at CVNP, I will be collecting data from many different wells in some of the wetlands in the park.  Basically what that means is that I will be spending 20 hours a week hiking in the park and GETTING PAID!!!  Lucky me : )  I went out Wednesday for a training run on the routes and the methods of data collection.  It was a wonderful day, while I was "working" I kept a tally of the birds that we came by and I had a solid list by the end of it!  We saw a big garter snake, lots of painted turtles, an eagle, a pair of Cooper's Hawks, a Phoebe, a Mockingbird, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker among many others.  I can't even imagine how distracted I'm going to be when May comes around and warblers and other birds are EVERYWHERE...hopefully I don't get fired for forgetting to do my job haha.

Yesterday, Rob and I decided to go canoeing down the Cuyahoga.  I've never been on that river before, it was definitely an interesting ride.  We did about 6 miles from the North end of Kent to Munroe Falls.  It was pretty cold yesterday and the wind was blowing directly against us for a good bit of the ride.  The rapids in certain spots near downtown Kent were pretty intense and a bunch of water came into the canoe and soaked Rob!!  I felt so bad, I made him sit up front (I didn't think about getting drenched)!  Needless to say, it was a chilly ride...fun though : )  We saw some herons, Mallards, Turkey Vultures and a Red-tailed Hawk gave us the pose of a lifetime in the perfect sun (you know one of those poses that only happen when you don't have your camera).  We made it out alive and warmed up, so it was a good experience.  I think that we will wait until it's warmer until we go into the river again...

Today was a wonderful day.  It was rather cold, but the sky was my favorite : )  When I'm not pollinating flowers, I am a serious cloud-watcher, and when the sun is faintly covered by a white sky with blue and big fluffy clouds (sorry, not scientific at all cumulus??) I am really happy. Here's a picture explaining what I mean : )

Anyway, this shot was taken in Hampton Hills Metropark, near the Southern end of Cuyahoga Valley.  My new friend Ana took me here, and it is a really gorgeous place.  I have high hopes that there will be some great Spring wildflowers in a few weeks, and migrating/nesting songbirds to follow!!  I shall be back to see.  We had to take a quick peak at the Heron rookery on Bath Rd. before leaving, and I took a photo of a pair sprucing up their nest.

Ana had to work at 5, so that left me more time to go explore some place else.  I went back to Mogadore, and I finally explored an area that I've wanted to for a while.  After making my way through very dense undergrowth for a while, I discovered that the Buckeye Trail runs though where I was trying to get to!! This trail instantly became one of my new favorite spots, I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Ok, so to explain it better, I love Mogadore Reservoir in general because it's close to my house and the birds are great.  I get to watch Osprey and Bald Eagles daily depending on the season. I heard my first Osprey back to Mogadore today!!!  I had previously spotted my first Osprey of 2011 last Sunday at East Branch Reservoir.  So exciting!  Besides big raptors, there are good waterfowl, and migrating songbirds to be seen at Mogadore.  I haven't experienced Spring migration at Mogadore yet, but Fall was great so I can't wait to see what birds turn up now through May!

The section that I finally got into today is along the Northeast area of the reservoir.  The forest bordering the reservoir is mainly Red Pine which I think is very interesting.  Walking through this area, I feel like I am in Florida.  Well I guess minus the fact that it was below freezing today!  The pines are pretty much self-pruning, where the branches and needles are really only at the tops of the trees.  There are many down trees with beautiful bright green moss all over them and ferns are everywhere.  There is also thick shrubby undergrowth and many climbing (vine) species.  It is definitely unlike any other habitat that I've seen in Ohio.  I know that there has to be an Osprey nest somewhere around here and this year I WILL FIND IT.  Here's a photo of an opening in the woods along the path that I discovered!

Hmm, I think I am about done writing for now but I will mention lastly the waterfowl that I saw at the Reservoir...Ring-necked Ducks (many), Lesser Scaups (8-10), Bufflehead (5-6), Canada Geese, Wood Duck (2), and this beautiful Pied-billed Grebe who I like very much : )  He was bathing and preening in the late sun today just before it set...ahhh lovely day

A Friend Said Hello Today...

Well actually he asked me "who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?" Yep, I ran into a pair of Barred Owls today, much to my delight. I LOVE owls!! I don't really know if it's possible not to love them...Anyway, Rob and I went over to Mogadore Reservoir after class to get a hike in.  I wanted to scope the waterfowl scene mostly, but I'm always looking for what comes my way in nature. Barred Owls are very "friendly" seeming owls, who usually allow a pretty close approach, unlike their evil cousins, Great-horned Owls.  This is one reason to love them.  Plus they have those big dark eyes and they just look friendly.  I'm sure smaller vertebrates wouldn't agree with me.

While admiring a beautiful specimen of Tilia americana (American Basswood), I stopped dead in my tracks after hearing the call.  "Barred Owl!" we quickly turned around and headed that direction.  The male (usually the deeper call) called twice, and then the female called back. Rob and I split up a bit to look around, and somehow I managed to spot one of the birds high up in a Red Pine (presumably the female). From this photo you can get an idea of how well she was camouflaged.

It is very likely that this pair of owls have their nest site selected already (hopefully near where I found them!) and that the female will be laying eggs soon.  Barred Owls do not build their own nests, instead, they use natural (or man-made) cavities, or they will take up an old hawk, crow, or squirrel nest.  Since there are many squirrel and crow nests around here, I am assuming that these owls will adopt one. I can only hope, and I will be checking on them periodically to see if I can't locate the nest!

Barred Owls prefer to be near wetlands. Pre-settlement Ohio was perfect territory for this species, since about 97% of the land was forest, and many swamp forests existed, as well as other forest types which contained streams, ponds etc.  Within swamp forests, one of my favorite early Spring blooming plants is Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).  We also saw many of these poking out of the mud today.  These can be seen opening up in February even.  In a few weeks, you won't be able to see the ground here because the leaves of this plant are huge and cover the swampy soil.

Yes, that IS a flower inside that beautiful reddish purple shell-looking thing.

The proper terminology for these parts of the plant are the spadix (inside flowering potion) and the spathe (outer shell).  It is always fascinating to come upon a large population of Skunk Cabbage in mid-bloom, because these hardy plants pop up everywhere in the wet soil.  Soon the leaves start bursting out, then by late Spring, the forest floor containing them is transformed. Here are two photos from my property out in Mesopotamia of what it will look like in early April, then early May.

4/11/2009

5/10/2009

Sorry for the wonderful weather teaser, I just wanted to show these photographs!  We have so many things to look forward to, but this full-bloomed green May scene is the climax in my opinion!

Lastly, to end this story up, I will share a photo of the reservoir.  As we came out of the woods, the sky was looking rather beautiful and glowing blue. Two Canada Geese are also seen silhouetted in the photo.