Birds, birds, birds

White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) are amazing birds who are able to exploit a unique foraging niche in the bird world - they can move face first down trees!  They must have an advantage this way in inspecting tree trunks for insect prey and other tasty morsels. 

It's all I think about anymore.  I have said that I've loved birds ever since they evolved from dinosaurs.  Well I guess that doesn't make complete sense, but what I mean is that I loved dinosaurs as a kid and as I got a bit older my obsession evolved from dinosaurs to birds.  I've been a casual bird-watcher since I was about 12, a more serious bird-watcher since 2006, and now I have become a BIRDER!!  I make the clear distinction between bird-watchers and birders based on a number of behaviors.  Bird-watchers are laid-back, opportunistic in their hobby, appreciate birds despite how common or rare they are, and enjoy actually WATCHING them.  Birders are crazed, hasty, they "chase" and "get" birds, and are obsessed with making lists.  I'm sure that there is a gradient between these two descriptions, but it is a slippery slope once you start falling into the "birder" category that I described!  eBird is single-handedly responsible for my transition.

Found this little owl while driving one day.  Immediately turned around and prepared my passengers for the experience haha.  It's a red morph Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio). 

Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) are tough birds.  They can handle standing in the freezing cold Cuyahoga River due to physiological adaptations that limit blood flow to the feet and legs.

Being a birder isn't SO bad, but there are some birding behaviors that bother me.  I guess it all just boils down to ethics and keeping the birds' best interests in mind.  One thing that I still haven't gotten sucked into yet is "chasing" birds.  See, when a rare bird shows up in an area and a someone reports it in today's world, this report instantly hits the communication waves.  Depending on the bird, birders may flock from all over to come see the bird - who in turn becomes a local celebirdy (hahaha).  The reason that most birders flock from all around to see these rare birds is because they need to "get" one for their list.  My best friend even chases them across the country!! I don't have a problem with other people doing this (even though they use a lot of gas).  To each their own.  I personally enjoy the excitement and the challenge of finding my own birds.  That being said, I do believe that there are some benefits to chasing birds.  Since some species can be so infrequently discovered (whether they are rare, secretive, or both), the chances are a lot lower that a single person will find them.  If you want to learn more about a particular species, the best way is to see and watch one.  Once you actually see a bird, you get an idea for what it looks like, how it moves and behaves, and where you might find it.  After you have seen a bird, you are far more likely to detect that species in the future.  So bird on my friends!!!  Let's just do so ethically : )

This pair of Redhead (Aythya americana) drakes were hanging out in a small section of open water in Lake Hodgson (Portage county).  This winter has been cold enough that most bodies of water are frozen over - so there are often many birds to be found in various open water that is available!

Back to eBird.  I just want to make mention how great of a tool that it is.  I said that eBird made me a birder because it made me obsessed with lists.  I've recorded lists and behavioral notes about birds for years (on paper), but I really just started using eBird this past fall.  Your list on eBird just looks so clean, the stats are great, and you can break down your numbers in many different ways.  You can also use eBird to view distribution data for any species in any time scale.  For example:

Here is a snapshot of Sayornis phoebe or Eastern Phoebe sightings in February of this year.  It won't be long until they make their way up to NE Ohio in big numbers!!!

I just think that this is such a cool tool to use.  There are a lot of possibilities, and as I said, I am hooked!!  One other thing about eBird that I must mention is something that I wish my prof at school wouldn't have showed me.  Under "explore data" there is a "top 100" link.  This takes you to look at the top 100 eBirders for any specified region down to county level.  I think that I can safely say that when my prof showed me this and said "You're killin' it in Portage county right now" is when I became a birder.  Since then I have been making efforts to look for birds like I wouldn't have before.  I still won't be chasing any birds, I can promise that - but I am using my knowledge of birds to find as many as I can on my own.  So if you know about any rare species around here I don't want to know about it!  Haha but seriously - if you have any thoughts on any of this birder/bird-watcher business, I'd love to read your comments.

I caught this Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo linneatus) in dragon pose while he was hunting in a lawn.

This young Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) was so cooperative that I had time to "interpret" him for almost a dozen park visitors, ride my bike home to get my camera and come back (30 minutes later) to find him still around and willing to let me capture beautiful photographs of him.

For a closer look at the photos from this blog and to see more like them, please check out my bird gallery at - http://www.naturaleye.org/

Lagging - for Good Reason

So I keep coming up with excuses to defend why my blog posts are so few and far between.  If I had the extra time and energy, and less of an attention disorder, I could produce a new bog post almost every day.  The fact is that I am spending so much time actually DISCOVERING Northeast Ohio that I am pooped by the time that I get home for the evening.  Great blog post ideas have come and expired in my brain, but never materialized.  A lot has to do with the amount of time that I have to spend to keep my photo library updated...

On average, I'd say that I take around 200 photos per day.  If its a beautiful spring day where I'm exploring a new place, I may take up to 600 photos.  The beauty of digital photography is that I can come home and chisel those 600 down to about 30 or so that I really like.  The burden of digital is that I have all of those photos to look through and make minor adjustments, crop, etc.  My MacBook Pro is old and my iPhoto library contains 57,759 photos as of now.  My computer freezes all the time.  Hence, updating my photos becomes a major routine that I try to work on almost every day.

Beyond these excuses, I think that I may look into getting a desktop PC and a new photo library software; something that won't be such a time-leeching hassle.  If that ever happens then maybe I will have more time to write blogs and share my discoveries with all of you who are interested : )

To make up for lost times, I figured that I would post some photos and brief summaries of the best experiences/finds that I have had so far this season at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  I came back as a seasonal biological science technician this year; I started at the end of March.

This male held on for dear life as the jealous non-fertilizers tried to dislodge him from the female.  You can see her laying the eggs in this giant communal egg mass.

The male has left and soon these fresh eggs will absorb water and become enlarged like the rest.

I spent a ton of time visiting amphibian breeding sites this year, and this year was sure an amazing one!  It got so warm in late March that later breeding frogs came out way too early!  The Spring Peepers have been calling since Winter and they are still going right now.  Other species such as the Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) pictured above have a much more brief breeding season.  They were out for less than a week and it was action-packed!  I explored pools around CVNP and Kent area to see this amazing seasonal spectacle.  I even found some behavior that I have never seen or heard of before.  Male Wood Frogs were ganging up on female Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and attaching to them as if they were trying to breed.  I found this occurring in three separate instances in the same pool in CVNP.  If anyone knows more about this behavior or has witnessed it themselves, please let me know.  I am guessing that there is some kind of chemical pheromone attraction going on that must be similar between these amphibian species...but I would love to know if anyone actually knew what was going on.

This male held the best position on this poor Spotted Salamander.  I still don't think that its going to work.  There were five males attached when I first came up.

Breeding for frogs is still going on for many species, this year the breeding season has been prolonged.  The same trend seems apparent for plants as well.  Many species have been in bloom all around for a much longer window than usual.  It is wonderful in my opinion to have this slow-moving Spring due to the weather.  It allows for plenty of time to observe usually brief seasonal wonders : )

Recently at work I heard about a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) who lives in the park.  Leucism means that the animal has very little skin pigments and usually appears white.  This is different than albinism because albinos are only lacking melanin.  Anyway, I was able to see this Spirit Hawk, and man was she gorgeous.  Nothing short of what I would have imagined though.  Apparently Lucy (as she has been named) has been around the Everett area in CVNP for a few years now, and she has a nest in some woods nearby.  It is truly a magical sight to see this bird, and interesting to think how this condition affects her life and behavior.

I've had numerous other encounters in the forests of "the valley" with wildlife, but one stands out above all.  Getting late after work one day I was out exploring in the Haskell Run area.  I was moving very slowly through the lowland riparian areas just observing plants and listening to Winter Wrens sing when I heard an angry noise behind me.  I was startled and my sights shot up to the top of the slope where I was standing at the bottom.  An angry Coyote (Canis latrans) was growling and snarling at me from above no more than 50 feet away.  My heart started pounding and my adrenaline flowing!!  It was a scary encounter being in the quiet darkening woods by myself!  I knew how to handle the situation and I stood there and yelled back at the Coyote as he started barking at me and howling non-stop.  He was angrily pacing the ridge side while I started to climb out of the ravine on the opposite side.  Every few paces that I took I would turn around and let the Coyote know that I wasn't afraid.  In my head though I was desperately looking for a nice stick in case he did try to attack me.  I was imagining a couple other Coyotes running up beside him and any more than one would have been actually scary.  It took me about 15 minutes to get back towards where I had entered the woods from and back to my car.  The coyote was in the distance barking and howling the whole time!

The reason why I had such an aggressive encounter with this Coyote was because he was a territorial male guarding his den with young pups inside.  These animals can be fierce!  If one ever comes across a Coyote, the best thing to do is just casually make your way out of that location.  In my case I acted "big" back towards the Coyote so that he knew that I wasn't something that he wanted to mess with.  You don't want to show weakness to any larger predatory animal.  

I'm glad that I got to end my blogless streak and post something up, but its my bedtime now so I have to cut off there for now.  There are so many amazing things to see in the park right now!  The neotropical migrants are starting to show up in big numbers around NE Ohio.  I have been hearing and seeing tons of Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia).  I saw my first Great Crested Flycatchers, Scarlet Tanager and Baltimore Oriole of the year today.  Hooded Warblers, Blue-winged Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Black-throated Green Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos, Warbling Vireos, and Wood Thrushes have all made their presence known to me this year so far as well.  I am very excited that I will be leading a birding hike for Blackbrook Audubon this Saturday at Indigo Lake in CVNP.  The hike starts at 8am if anyone is interested!  You can read more about it on page 2 here:

http://www.blackbrookaudubon.org/PDF/April2012HW.pdf

I will leave off with a few more happy photos of this Spring : D

Mallard momma was upset with a male following her...not sure if it was a different male or what was going on but she suddenly freaked and fled the scene.  The fresh ducklings were scootin along!!

 Three years in the making I was finally able to photograph a White-eyed Vireo : )

A large population of Wild Geraniums in Mesopotamia, OH 

This crazy Red Squirrel was tweaking out while listening to the loud Hairy Woodpecker nestlings inside the Cherry Tree here.  The momma woodpecker didn't seem to mind the squirrel.  I checked back today and the babies are still alive and making noise!

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 : )