Red and the Peanut

A Long-eared Owl in his winter roost...

2012-01-27T00:46:00.005-05:00

Yesterday at 4:00 p.m. I headed up to the Caesar Creek area with my birding and turtling friend, Paul Krusling, to look for a Long-eared Owl that is wintering in our area. Paul had seen the owl with his family the previous weekend and offered to go up and help me find what would become my next life bird...

A Long-eared Owl roosts in a tangle of cedar branches near Caesar Creek State Park.

If you pick up a book and read anything about Long-eared Owls, you'll probably come across the word "secretive." I've seen the word in almost every description of the bird I've ever read, and I often wondered about that. What owl isn't secretive? Well...after seeing the bird in person, I now understand. He was nestled so deep in a tangle of cedar branches if I wasn't looking in a specific place, I would never have seen him. To photograph him I had to shoot through several trees and many branches. I'm surprised he's visible at all. Thank goodness for telephoto lenses and the crop tool!

Warm caramels, rich browns, deep blacks, and pale buffs all come together to create a stunning bird, and even though a Long-eared Owl is a formidable raptor that kills its prey by biting the back of their skulls, "pretty" is the word that kept coming to mind as I watched at him through the camera lens. His colors and patterns are beautiful...and pretty...

When nervous or wary, a Long-eared Owl will pull in and compress his feathers to make his body look taller and thinner. When you combine the thinner cylindrical shape with the cryptic colors of his feathers, he looks like a limb! The very large tufts of feathers on his head add to the illusion by making him look like a broken-off limb.

Not just Long-eared Owls compress their feathers when nervous, but this was the first owl I've ever seen do it. Because he appeared so thin, we immediately left the area by his roost and climbed higher on the hill so we could look down on him from a distance. Through the binocs and the camera lens, we could watch him relax, and it didn't take long for him to puff back out to a plump, little owl!

...he's already getting a little puffier here. Right after I took this photo he regurgitated a pellet. I wish I had been videoing him. It was effortless the way he coughed it up...nothing like a cat hacking up a hairball!

...and finally within minutes he became a puffball with sleepy eyes. We left, going wide so he would not be disturbed.

Even though Long-eared Owls often roost communally in winter, ours was a solo-owl. If others were about, they were really camouflaged! What an incredible experience. This was a life bird for me, and one I probably won't see again any time soon...

Beak Bit

Every now and then I post "Beak Bits," which are tiny bite-sized bits of bird science. I started doing these a couple of years ago when my cousin's little girl started reading my blog. Anna has become quite the birder and recently did a science project on backyard birds! Yeah! We've added another bird-lover to our ranks. Hi Anna! This Beak Bit is for you...

The long "ears" on a Long-eared Owl are not ears at all. They are feather tufts that have nothing to do with hearing. The long tufts help provide camouflage for the owl by breaking up its shape and helping it imitate a broken branch. The Long-eared Owl's "real" ears are hidden under feathers and are located inside its facial disk. Since Long-eared Owls are strictly nocturnal and do their hunting in the dark, they have to hear very well. The owl's facial disk funnels sound to the owls ears, which are located behind the eyes and are asymmetrical. The left ear opening is higher than the right, which helps the owl narrow in on mice running in a field.

Where are the peanuts?

2012-01-23T00:12:00.003-05:00

It was cold. It was dark. It was icing.

I was out of peanuts.

Red was not amused...

...reduced to eating frozen crabapples in an ice storm, Red glares at me with his left eye.

...then he gives me the once over with his right eye.

...until he finally decides the cold shoulder is all I deserve.

...and yes, I did run out and restock immediately!

In reality, Red was on the other side of the great room window eating crabapples, which were frozen and aged to perfection. I think he really liked them because he hung around for a while. Every time I clicked the shutter he would glance up at me until he decided there was no news attached to the clicking sound and went back to plucking off and eating the crabapples.

(p.s. I really was out of peanuts...and I really did go out and restock, which made the Northern Cardinals and Blue Jays very happy!)

Painting a Barn Owl...

2012-01-21T10:18:00.009-05:00

This Barn Owl's name is Storm. She's a rescued owl from RAPTOR, Inc. One day last fall, Matty and I went to a photo shoot of the raptors. I based this painting on one of the photos Matty took. It made him happy that I preferred his photo over all of mine! Storm is a beautiful bird. She is a working educational bird with RAPTOR, Inc. because her wing was damaged and she can no longer fly.

Painting 208. Storm the Barn Owl

(watercolor, 12x16)

Pencil sketch of Storm the Barn Owl.

I sketched this drawing in the car (of course) while waiting to pick Matty up from school. Matty is just a week or so away from receiving his driver's license. It will be nice to gain some time back in my schedule, but when am I going to get all of my sketching in? I love leaving work to go pick him up. It's always great to take a sketching break...

Barns Owls are not that common in Ohio. In all my life I've only heard a Barn Owl call in the night twice—the first time was in 1990 in the pine trees in our backyard where we used to live, and the second time was two years ago in our backyard. I got out Peterjohn's "The Birds of Ohio—with Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas Maps" to see what the Ohio breeding population actually was (pg 264). It's very low. Peterjohn reports that Barn Owls really didn't take hold in Ohio until the mid-1800s after the thick forests of the countryside were cut and converted to farmland. The first specimen was collected from the Cincinnati area around 1861. Most Barn Owls are not permanent residents in Ohio. As spring migrants, Barn Owls arrive between March 15 and April 15. A few Barn Owls do overwinter here, though, most of them in southern and central Ohio. Unlike Great Horned Owls, who are already nesting, Barn Owls begin nesting in mid-April. Nestlings hatch through June and July, and young fledge by mid-August.

About RAPTOR, Inc.

Most of the birds that flow through RAPTOR are treated, rehabbed, and released back into nature, but some can never heal from their injuries and stay on as permanent residents and working birds. RAPTOR, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of birds of prey. RAPTOR stands for the Regional Association for the Protection and Treatment of Raptors. Members of RAPTOR, Inc. rehabilitate and care for injured birds of prey until they can be released back into the wild. Click here for RAPTOR, Inc.'s HackBack newsletter and to learn how to donate to the organization, volunteer, or sponsor a banded raptor.

RAPTOR, Inc.'s 2012 Calendar

I'm in this year's RAPTOR, Inc. calendar! My photo of Pricilla, the Barred Owl, is April's raptor. Click here for Pricilla's story. Click here if you'd like to buy the calendar. All proceeds benefit RAPTOR, Inc., and your contribution is tax deductible. Cost is $17.50.

Click here for Storm's story.
Click here for more of the birds from RAPTOR, Inc.

A Song Sparrow in the late afternoon light...

2012-01-19T22:03:00.002-05:00

Sunday I finally started to feel better after recovering from a cold that had kept me indoors for far too long, so I bundled up and headed over to Voice of American (VOA) Park. It was very cold, but it was also blue-sky sunny, and I wanted to see if the American Kestrel that's usually there was hanging around (he wasn't). After checking the frozen lake for winter visitors (there were none save a lone Canada Goose slipping and sliding on the ice), I went off-trail and climbed over the brushy hills that lead to the meadow. It was nearly 5:00 p.m., and the late afternoon sun was doing its winter magic by coloring the dead and bleached brush with warm tones of gold and rust. Suddenly, what seemed like a deserted patch of earth came to life as five small brown birds skittered around, weaving here and there through leaves and bent grass until eventually bursting up in a panic to the safety of stubby snags and the remains of giant pokeweed bushes where they paused to keep a wary eye on me...

A beautiful little Song Sparrow peeked at me from behind a branch, watching warily with just just one eye. If you think he looks cute here, you should have seen him through the camera lens. It would have melted your heart.

...he then moved behind a branch, peeking out with the other eye, obscured from view in shadow...

I'm surprised he didn't lift his little foot and point two little toes at his eyes and then one back at me in that "I'm watching you..." gesture.

The warm browns of a Song Sparrow in late afternoon sunshine...

Eventually the Song Sparrow decided I was no threat...

...turned his back on me, and rejoined his little winter foraging flock on the ground.

When I read this journal entry from Thoreau (April 2, 1853), I had to smile...sounds just like our little sparrows:

"The song-sparrows, the three-spotted, away by the meadow-sides, are very shy and cunning: instead of flying, will frequently trot along the ground under the bushes, or dodge through a wall like a swallow; and I have observed that they generally bring some object, as a rail or branch, between themselves and the face of the walker,—often with outstretched necks will peep at him for five or ten minutes." (Source: page 302, "Early Spring in Massachusetts: from the journals of Henry David Thoreau," edited by Blake, 1881/1893. Click here for the online version of this book.)

Our new Sharp-shinned Hawk—and the other side of birding...

2012-01-16T23:27:00.007-05:00

Yesterday while brushing my teeth, I was looking out the bathroom window at the peanut feeder hanging from our Ash Tree. About 10 European Starlings were clambering over it, trying to each get a peanut. With such a ruckus, I wondered why I had never seen a hawk take down a starling in our backyard. They are numerous and large, are easy to spot, and would make a good meal. It only seemed logical. As the thought was leaving my head, the Sharp-shinned Hawk that's new to our yard swooped in and grabbed one of the outermost starlings, sinking to the ground with it in one graceful move. Holy Cow! I couldn't believe it. I've never seen anything happen in real life as I conjured the thought in my head! The Sharp-shinned Hawk must have been hiding in the huge pine trees next to the feeder. A few days earlier I had watched the same Sharp-shinned Hawk, who had been hiding in a tangle of branches in the Weeping Willow tree, burst out in pursuit of a Northern Cardinal. The cardinal out maneuvered the hawk and got away. The starling wasn't as lucky...

This winter has brought a new "regular" to our backyard—a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

We've had Sharp-shins visit our yard every now and then, but they have never stuck around. Cooper's Hawks always seemed to prefer our yard, but now that the magnificent "hawk branch" has fallen, a Sharp-shinned has shown up. He doesn't seem to need a perfect lookout. He seems to like hiding in the tangles of the Weeping Willow or the thick branches of the pine trees.

Rick was the first to spot this fellow. He called him out to me saying, "look at that tiny hawk!" I scrambled to the window, and sure enough, a Sharp-shinned Hawk was perched in the Weeping Willow. Compared to the Cooper's Hawks that usually visit our yard, he is much, much smaller, but just as lethal.

When I look at photos, it's really hard for me to tell a Sharp-shinned Hawk from a Cooper's Hawk. I know Sharp-shins are supposed to have squared-off tails, be broader at the shoulders and narrower at the hips, and that a small, male Cooper's hawk can look like a large, female Sharp-shinned Hawk, but out in the yard, it's easier to tell them apart. They perch in different areas and the Sharp-shinned Hawk is noticeably smaller. His legs are so thin and his middle toe seems extra long too. Click here for a detailed description on Cornell's Project FeederWatch site to learn how to tell a Sharp-shinned Hawk from a Cooper's Hawk.

...after taking down the Starling, the hawk sat on the ground with the bird for a moment or two. He then lifted up, carrying the Starling with him to the woods near the back of our neighbor's yard. The Starling was nearly as big as the Sharp-shinned Hawk. I was surprised at how the hawk was able to take off so easily.

Afterwards, I went outside to see if any evidence of the hawk's attack was left behind. At first I saw nothing, but then droplets of blood stood out. Sharp-shinned Hawks' talons are very sharp, so it should not have been a surprise, but I was still a little shocked to see the blood splatters on the leaves. I wasn't going to include this shot, but it seemed important. It's the other part of bird watching.

If you want to see a Cooper's Hawk eating his prey, and compare it to this Sharp-shinned Hawk, click here for an earlier post.

Winter cardinals...

2012-01-14T17:26:00.003-05:00

Against dark grey skies and bright white snow, the red of a winter cardinal is vibrant and impossible to ignore. With our first winter days finally showing up, all I had to do was look out my window to see that incredible color. I painted three cardinals in similar poses in three styles...

Painting 205. Cardinal in Snow

(watercolor; background snow created by scraping white oil pastel over a grey watercolor background)

This painting is a study in contrasts—the saturated red watercolor of the Northern Cardinal, which is very soft and blended, contrasts with the rough strokes of the white oil pastel. The contrast creates a very small black/grey halo around the bird to make the scene feel stylized and a touch painterly. It also emphasizes the red of the cardinal.

Painting 206. Cardinal When the Snow First Flies

(watercolor; snowflakes created by splattering white acrylic paint over finished painting)

...as evening falls, most birds head to their nighttime roosts fairly early, but the cardinals linger at our feeders and in our trees until it is almost dark. The other evening, a male Northern Cardinal sat in a tree outside my window while the snow started to fly. Our first heavy snowfall is always exciting, and I look forward to seeing glimpses of red through the heavy and quickly falling snowflakes of evening.

Painting 207. Winter Cardinal as Night Falls

(oil pastel)

...nothing can tone down the red of a male cardinal as night falls in winter!

A male Golden-crowned Kinglet displays his orange crest!

2012-01-12T00:44:00.011-05:00

While walking along the Little Miami River, I heard the high-pitched see-see-seeing of a Golden-crowned Kinglet. It didn't take me long to find a little female flitting from branch to branch looking for something to eat. She was fairly high in the tree, so I did a little pishing to see if she would come in a little closer. She was very curious of the sound and dropped right down! While I had my camera lens trained on her, a male popped into the frame. "Whoa!" raced through my mind as I watched him raising his "tangerine beret" for all he was worth. His orange crest was brilliant, and I paused to watch. Mistake. He was out of focus in flash and flitting here, there and everywhere...

(If you're not familiar with "pishing" in a bird, check out Mike's post on 10,000 Birds, "The Fine Art of Pishing," for a description! :-)

A female Golden-crowned Kinglet on the left was more interested in my pishing sounds than the male's incredible territorial display of his orange crest, which normally stays hidden among yellow feathers.

The male quickly got used to my pishing sounds and decided nothing was amiss. His tangerine feathers instantly settled back down among the yellow...all but hidden from sight.

...the little female Golden-crowned Kinglet was very curious about the pishing sounds and hung around a little longer.

Luckily she turned around to give us a perfect view of her golden crown.

...but mostly she stayed safely tucked behind a tangle of branches—a special talent kinglets have!

...yes, I see you!

The Little Miami River at the abandoned Peter's Cartridge Factory is an ideal place to find Golden-crowned Kinglets. In the winter, bike traffic is low, so the trail is quiet, and the Golden-crowned's high-pitched calls carry through the trees effortlessly, making it easy to spot the little balls of fluff. I see them almost every time I walk the trail in winter.

Beak Bit

Golden-crowned Kinglets are tiny birds. The only bird in our eastern woods smaller is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird...and to top that off, Golden-crowned Kinglets can be found here all year! It's amazing these birds stay through the winter because they are insect eaters. Kinglets will eat a few grass seeds and elderberries, and they sip from sap wells created by sapsuckers, but they prefer insects. During the winter, they survive by devouring the insect larva and eggs hidden in crevices in bark, branch tips, and dried leaves. This provides a valuable service to us, because by eliminating the eggs and larva in the winter, kinglets help control plant-eating insect populations in the summer. In "Birds of Forest, Yard, & Thicket," by John Eastman (a book I've had for a long time and always enjoy reading, plus it's the source of this information), Eastman writes:

"They consume an abundance of tiny springtails (Collembola) and many bark hibernators—pine and spruce aphids, psyllids, fly larvae, and scale insects—plus eggs of aphids and other insects. Such a diet, researchers believe, provides the major winter sustenance of north-wintering golden crowns..."

Blue skies in January...

2012-01-10T17:13:00.002-05:00

...yeah!

...a happy little Carolina Chickadee singing and foraging along the Little Miami River.

...the blue backdrop is welcome. So often it's gray this time of year!

Tree Swallows in the early spring...

2012-01-08T11:34:00.002-05:00

Friday it was 62 degrees F in Cincy...and sunny! It's often below zero this time of the year, and thick grey clouds so low in the sky you can almost reach up and touch them can lock us in for months on end, so sunny and blue and warm is a gift I'm glad Mama Nature is handing out. The daffodils have pushed through the earth in our front yard, and it feels like spring, which made me think of one of our earliest spring migrants, the Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Every March I anticipate their return, watching and waiting for them to swoop down and into the nest boxes at VOA Park and Pine Hills Lakes. With the spring-like weather and blue, sunny skies, I couldn't help but have these sweet birds on my mind, so I went through old photos for inspiration for this painting...

Painting 204. Tree Swallow in Early Spring on Rusted Steel Post

(watercolor)

...another painting for Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge. If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up!

Song Sparrow under the pines...

2012-01-07T00:48:00.003-05:00

Painting 203. Song Sparrow Under the Pines

(watercolor)

I painted this Song Sparrow from a photo I took last January after a snow storm. The little guy was under a pine tree rooting through the dropped pine needles. He was looking for left-over bread crumbs. Birds had been scraping through the snow and pine needles all day, and dirt had been kicked up too. Eventually he found a bread crumb, ate it, and starting looking for more!

Learn to bird by ear...by playing a game!

2012-01-04T20:54:00.004-05:00

Back in October, I started playing around with Larkwire, an online birdsong app that makes learning bird songs and bird calls almost easy...

The Larkwire app homepage...

You can learn to bird by ear playing this game!

Larkwire is an interactive Web game. Since October, I've played it on my computer, my iPhone, and my iPad (I love it on my iPad). As long as you have an Internet connection you can play...and when you play, you really will learn bird songs and calls!

I don't learn as quickly as I used to (boo!), but Larkwire seems to have overriden that tendency (yeah!) because I am learning songs I used to have trouble remembering. Maybe it's because Larkwire's founder, Phil Mitchell, has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has developed a learning engine that uses "spaced repetition" to help us learn faster and retain more. I don't know how many times I've driven around with a bird song CD playing in the car (Matty and Rick just love that...) trying to learn bird songs (but not having much luck), but with Larkwire, I seem to learn the songs in a different way. It's more like being out in the field...

Click here to try it for free. No signup is required, so try it out!

Larkwire is affordable, and at least 10% of every purchase is donated to a conservation organization. There are several levels of songpacks you can buy. The "Birder Core" songpack includes the essential land birds and is only $8.95. I bought the the next level up, the "Birder Pro" song pack for the Eastern/Central region, and it was only $16.95 (it covers 233 species; the Western region covers 299 species). Click here for complete pricing and all the available songpacks.

...so get ready for spring migration by learning those warbler songs now...in the dead of winter...by playing a game!

Cooper's Hawk in the snow...

2012-01-03T16:52:00.006-05:00

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me,

he complains of my gab and my loitering.

Walt Whitman

Song of Myself, LII

I’ve always liked this line from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself (click here for an online version of the poem). It makes me laugh. I definitely have been scolded by hawks for loitering...

I don't think a Cooper's Hawk was the "spotted hawk" Whitman wrote about in his poem, but this Cooper's Hawk sure seems to be accusing me of something and complaining about it too!

...and he has every right. Our hawks have lost their perfect backyard perch—the dead limb on the half-dead weeping willow tree that extended out into the yard for prime viewing. "Where's my limb?" he complains. "What have you done with it?" he accuses. For years the hawks always perched on that limb—the hawk branch. It was so hawky it even had its own name. Cooper's Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, and once or twice, even a Red-tailed Hawk, have claimed it, watching the comings and going of everything in our yard, including us. From the perch, the hawks could see directly into our kitchen. We miss the limb as much as the hawks do. It was always a treat to walk into the kitchen and find a hawk sighting us. The hawks are making do with the other branches in the willow, the ash, and the mulberry trees, but it's just not the same...

...the snow was pretty, but it didn't last long!

First Bird of 2012--Tufted Titmouse!

2012-01-01T23:31:00.012-05:00

This morning when I looked out the kitchen window to see what my first bird of the year would be, I saw nothing! Not a bird in sight, but within a second or two, a Tufted Titmouse flew up, nabbed a peanut from the mesh peanut holder, and looked up at me almost with a wink! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect bird to start the New Year...

My first bird of 2012—a Tufted Titmouse, is also my first painting of the year. Only 99 to go!

Painting 1. Baeolophus bicolor Grabs a Peanut

(watercolor - just a few pencil lines and broad brush strokes, a quick sketch)

Painting 2. Tufted Titmouse on New Year's Day

(watercolor heightened with colored pencil, another quick sketch)

...a pencil sketch of a Tufted Titmouse from my sketchbook.

I've decided to join Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge again. Since I'm working on 500 paintings in five years, the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge is a great way to keep me on target! If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up!

...a Tufted Tiddlywink (which is what my cousin, Curg, calls them) eating a peanut on New Year's Day.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Did you catch the rainbow yesterday?

2011-12-31T05:01:00.002-05:00

...it was one of the brightest, largest, and most defined rainbows Rick and I have ever seen. Rain was falling gently, the sun was shining, and dramatically dark clouds were behind us. To top it off, it was late in the afternoon and the sun was low on the horizon. Perfect rainbow conditions...

...must be a huge pot 'o gold at the end of this rainbow!

...nothing like a dramatic sky to add to a rainbow's beauty.

(...and what a perfect way to ring out 2011 and welcome 2012--Happy New Year!)

532. The Rainbow
William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Where is our snow?

2011-12-28T08:44:00.004-05:00

I miss it. Last year at this time we had well over a foot of snow on the ground, and when I looked out our living room window, I had cute little birds like this staring back at me...

...an American Goldfinch in the snow.

...he's killing me with the head tilt! That little move ratchets up the cute-o-meter like nothing else...

Male American Goldfinches are always pretty, especially in the summer when their breeding plumage glows gold in the sun, but in the winter, when they return to their basic plumage, they fade to an olive brown with only a hint of their former glory around their eyes and neck. Suddenly, they blend with the browns and greys of dead winter and barely raise a second glance, but when snowflakes fall and they sit with a backdrop of bright white snow, they once again glow gold and demand attention!

"I'm a ball of fluff, and I can melt any heart..."

Yesterday we had three flakes of snow. It was supposed to be an inch, but it fizzled into rain. I have snow gear galore—boots, gloves, down pants and a down coat, and a panda bear hat to top it all off—but unfortunately, no where to wear it! Hurry up and get here snow...

(I took these photos 12-12-10. We had snow, snow, snow then.)

About our rain...

We've had our wettest year on record. It has rained almost every other day this year...about 72 inches of rain, which scored us another record—the wettest city in the nation's top 100 largest cities. My hubby, Rick, filled me in on the stats last week. We normally get 137 days of rain. This year, we've had 187 days. If only all the rain this month had been snow... :-)

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

Classic Carolina Wren

2011-12-26T07:52:00.005-05:00

A Carolina Wren makes everybody smile!

I recently restocked my mealworm feeder (a tiny birdhouse), and within three days this Carolina Wren found the stash. Two days later, he brought a little friend with him. Now I have two Carolinas singing out to the world their hearty praises of mealworms. I love to hear that song (loud and demanding) in the dead of winter!

Leave a peppermint stick for old St. Nick...

2011-12-25T00:03:00.004-05:00

Wishing everyone a very Chiggy Christmas

filled with love, peace and joy.

The Carol of the Birds

(a traditional Catalonian Carol)

When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far,
in that full night of glory.
With one melodious voice they sweetly did rejoice
and sang the wonderous story,
sang, praising God on high, enthroned above the sky,
and his fair mother Mary.

The eagle left his lair, came winging through the air,
his message loud arising.
And to his joyous cry the sparrow made reply,
his answer sweetly voicing.
"Overcome are death and strife, this night is born new life",
the robin sang rejoicing.
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far.

(addendum...I forgot to mention this was painting 100 in the 100 Painting Challenge! I've completed two years of the challenge and now have 200 paintings to show for it. Time to start year three...no rest for the wicked!)

A Great Egret on its nest...

2011-12-22T21:52:00.003-05:00

A Great Egret stands atop what appears to be a scattered lump of twigs. Of course, it's nothing of the kind. It's a platform nest, and although it may look flimsy and non-enduring, the weight of the twigs added over time locks everything together and makes the nest secure:

"The simplicity of the architectural blueprint for the piled-up platform nest is deceptive, as it creates some of the most monumental and enduring structures in the avian world. Birds of prey including eagles, kites, and ospreys build platforms, as do herons, egrets, storks, and spoonbills." (Source: "Avian Architecture; How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build," by Peter Goodfellow, pg 36.)

A Great Egret on its nest at the Ibis Pond rookery on Pinckney Island (from June of this year).

...giving the nest the once over? Our egret appears to be studying something!

I saw more Great Egret nests on Pinckney Island this summer than past years. The Great Egret nests were much further away from the the moat and harder to see than the Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons, and Snowy Egrets, but this one, although pretty far away, was easily seen.

...a Great Egret takes flight through the reeds at the water's edge.

Egrets

by Mary Oliver

Where the path closed
down and over,
through the scumbled leaves,
fallen branches,
through the knotted catbrier,
I kept going. Finally
I could not
save my arms
from thorns; soon
the mosquitoes
smelled me, hot
and wounded, and came
wheeling and whining.
And that's how I came
to the edge of the pond:
black and empty
except for a spindle
of bleached reeds
at the far shore
which, as I looked,
wrinkled suddenly
into three egrets - - -
a shower
of white fire!
Even half-asleep they had
such faith in the world
that had made them - - -
tilting through the water,
unruffled, sure,
by the laws
of their faith not logic,
they opened their wings
softly and stepped
over every dark thing.

I've always loved this poem by Mary Oliver. It's in one of my favorite bird anthology books, "The Little Big Book of Birds," edited by Lena Tabori and Natasha Tabori Fried, pg. 258. I tried twice to format this poem as it appears in my book, but both times, Blogger stripped out the formatting when I posted. I tried...

Christmas Bird Count—Cincinnati, Western Hamilton County

2011-12-18T23:36:00.003-05:00

I went on the Cincinnati Western Hamilton County Christmas Bird count today. Although it was the first time for me, the Western Hamilton County CBC is in its 46th year. I'm so glad I went. I had a lot of fun and met several new birding friends! I was also introduced to west-side cuisine at the Sunshine Cafe during our lunch break--yum, I loved it! Highlights for me were Rusty Blackbirds, a Northern Harrier, and right at the end, in the glowing light of the fading sun, an immature American Bald Eagle...yeah!

A flock of about 20 Rusty Blackbirds was in the woods along the Great Miami River off 128 near the soccer fields.

I dig those rusty heads and bright eyes! I've never seen Rusties on the Little Miami river close to where I live. I'm going to have to look a little harder. They are really cool birds...

I was on the team with Paul, Joe and Judy. Paul just emailed me that the final tally was 87 species, 1 short of the record of 88. I had to leave before the tally to watch Rick and Matty play in a hockey tourney. Next year I'm staying for the tally. It sounds fun!

Two American Black Ducks flying past, their blue wing patches flashing brightly. (If you think the quality of this photo is bad, wait until you see what's coming...)

...a most excellent shot of a Northern Harrier. You can SORT-OF see his owlish face...and just a hint of his white rump feathers.

...and an even better shot of an immature American Bald Eagle (in the golden light of evening no less)! If you squint and think happy eagle thoughts, he will come to life right before your eyes.

...finally, a quick pencil sketch I did at home of the Brown Creeper we saw and heard by the river.

Thanks Paul, Joe and Judy for taking me along with you! I had a wonderful time! Next year I'm going to learn how to digiscope for these long-distance shots...

"Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, Spink, spank, spink..."

2011-12-15T01:12:00.004-05:00

Do you remember that line from the poem "Robert of Lincoln," by William Cullen Bryant? I learned it when I was in the fourth grade, and it always stuck with me. When I saw these shots of the Bobolinks from the "rejected June" photos, that line kept running through my head...

"...Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,

Spink, spank, spink..."

A male Bobolink in the High Meadow at Voice of America (VOA) Park

Since I was going back to my childhood with this post, I pulled out my first field guide—"Teach-Me about Birds, Flash Cards in full color" to see how they described the Bobolink's unique and beautiful song. Their description is spot on: "A bubbling series of musical notes given in flight or from a perch." It's simple and perfect...."a bubbling series of musical notes..."

A female Bobolink is pretty. Just like a cardinal, she has that "understated elegance."

I like this photo because it clearly shows his pointy tail feathers!

...you can see those pointy tail feathers just a bit here, but this shot really emphasizes his strong feet and legs. For his size, they really are beefy!

"When you can pipe that merry old strain,

Robert of Lincoln, come back again."

I wanted to find the poem, so I looked it up and found a free eBook that has it. Click here for the online version of the book "Poems That Every Child Should Know—A Selection of the Best Poems of all Time for Young People," edited by Mary E. Burt (1906)

Robert of Lincoln
by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers,
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln is gayly drest,
Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;
White are his shoulders and white his crest
Hear him call in his merry note:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Look, what a nice coat is mine.
Sure there was never a bird so fine.
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife,
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
Passing at home a patient life,
Broods in the grass while her husband sings,
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Brood, kind creature; you need not fear
Thieves and robbers while I am here.
Chee, chee, chee.

Modest and shy as a nun is she;
One weak chirp is her only note.
Braggart and prince of braggarts is he,
Pouring boasts from his little throat:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Never was I afraid of man;
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can!
Chee, chee, chee.

Six white eggs on a bed of hay,
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight!
There as the mother sits all day,
Robert is singing with all his might:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Nice good wife, that never goes out,
Keeping house while I frolic about.
Chee, chee, chee.

Soon as the little ones chip the shell,
Six wide mouths are open for food;
Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well,
Gathering seeds for the hungry brood.
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
This new life is likely to be
Hard for a gay young fellow like me.
Chee, chee, chee.

Robert of Lincoln at length is made
Sober with work, and silent with care;
Off is his holiday garment laid,
Half forgotten that merry air:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Nobody knows but my mate and I
Where our nest and out nestlings lie.
Chee, chee, chee.

Summer wanes; the children are grown;
Fun and frolic no more he knows;
Robert of Lincoln's a humdrum crone;
Off he flies, and we sing as he goes:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
When you can pipe that merry old strain,
Robert of Lincoln, come back again.
Chee, chee, chee.

Black-eyed Susans, Deptford Pinks, and Ox-eye Daisies in a summer meadow...

2011-12-11T09:44:00.008-05:00

This winter when all the color has been drained from the Cincinnati landscapes and only cold greys, bleached beiges, and spotty browns can be seen, I'll come back to this post to remember what a the warm yellows, bright greens, and hot pinks of a summer meadow look like...

Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) and Deptford Pinks (Dianthus armeria) danced among tall grasses in a warm summer breeze in the High Meadow at Voice of America (VOA) Park.

Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) in June. VOA Park is one of the few remaining prairie settings in our area. It is fast succumbing to succession because the park officials have not mowed or burned the High Meadow in years. Let's hope they do something this winter so the Boblinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrows, and Henslow's Sparrows have a habitat to return to, and so we can sit in the middle of a summer meadow and watch the wildflowers and grasses sway in the heat and breezes of a summer afternoon...

...another grouping of Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) scattered throughout the fields, their characteristic summer yellow drawing the eye in. American Goldfinches flew overhead in up and down arcs, chattering the day's news while waiting for some of their favorite seeds to ripen...

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are native flowers. Originally they could be found only on the prairies, but now can be found scattered in any field.

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) is not a native wildflower. It was introduced from England but has naturalized throughout Ohio. The flower petals have shaggy edges and are covered in white spots.

The Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) is also a European import. I remember I was surprised when I read that years ago. I always had thought it a native because it's such a part of summer...

...a video of a field of Black-eyed Susans, Deptford Pink Dianthus, and Ox-eye Daisies swaying in a warm summer breeze in June. Not a lot of action, but the day was so perfect I videoed the scene so I could come back to it in winter for a reminder of what's waiting on the other side of the grey and cold days...

For more of that summery meadow feeling:

Click here for a post on a Savannah Sparrow from the same day.

Click here for a post on Red-winged Blackbirds from the same day.

Click here for a post on Eastern Meadowlarks from the same day.

An Eastern Meadowlark in a summer meadow...

2011-12-07T19:33:00.004-05:00

I found an online version of "The Complete Prose Works of Walt Whitman" today and read a few passages out of "Specimen Days" (click here for a link to the online version of this book). If you jump to page 196, you'll find the following entry for March 16, "A Meadow Lark:"

March 16.—Fine, clear, dazzling morning, the sun an hour high, the air just tart enough. What a stamp in advance my whole day receives from the song of that meadow lark perch’d on a fence-stake twenty rods distant! Two or three liquid-simple notes, repeated at intervals, full of careless happiness and hope. With its peculiar shimmering slow progress and rapid-noiseless action of the wings, it flies on a way, lights on another stake, and so on to another, shimmering and singing many minutes.

It was such a beautiful entry and reminded me of an encounter with an Eastern Meadowlark I had this summer at Voice of America (VOA) Park. I went back to look at the photos I took, and decided this time around they were good enough to post. Back in June, when the living was easy, and the birds were lit by warm sunlight, I was a lot pickier. These photos didn't make the cut back then, but now......after weeks of gray clouds and rain, those happy, summery, blurry yellow chest feathers look just fine to me...

...an Eastern Meadowlark sings sweetly at VOA Park in West Chester, Ohio.

It was beautiful day when this Eastern Meadowlark sang out his song. I remember wanting to lock the feelings in...it was warm, sunny, and breezy, and lots of Bobolinks, Red-winged Blackbirds and Meadowlarks sang from every corner of the meadow. All the birds were busy sitting on nests or feeding babies, and insects buzzed nonstop. A breeze whipped the June energy through the grasses...and the daisies, Black-eyed Suzans, and hot pink Dianthus nodded approval with each gust. Summer was at full tilt, and it was a perfect day.

Eastern Meadowlarks are short-distance migrants and can be found year-round at VOA, but the birds you see perched amid falling snowflakes in the winter may not be the same birds braving the heat in the summer. Many of our wintering meadowlarks will migrate further north for the breeding season and will be replaced by more southern birds completing their short-distance migration, so this bird and the birds that are at the park now, are probably not the same.

Santa Kitty, hurry down my chimney tonight...

2011-12-06T19:33:00.003-05:00

Santa Gargoyle...

I know, I know...Bip, our Cornish Rex cat, looks evil and scary and not at all happy, but he's actually really sweet and didn't mind parading around as Santa Kitty at all. This is the first time I ever fell prey to a pet costume. Target's point-of-purchase marketing display worked on me. Grrrrr...

...or is it Santa Claws?

"...how prosaic," said the cat.

Amanita mushrooms under the pines...

2011-12-04T23:18:00.020-05:00

One afternoon back in October, I was walking through a stand of pines at Fort Ancient listening for birds. Up ahead I saw several little golf balls on the ground, and headed over for a closer look. As I got closer, I could see they weren't golf balls, but early developmental stages of amanita mushrooms, maybe the yellow and white varieties of Amanita muscaria...the famous Fly Agaric, but maybe not. I don't know enough to positively ID the species. Poisonous? Probably. Hallucinogenic? Maybe. Cool looking? Definitely...

From a distance, this amanita mushroom looked like a golf ball teed up and ready to go! The volva of the mushroom (the cup at its base) was so perfect I had to stop for a closer look.

I don't know a lot about mushrooms. I'm good with Shaggy Manes and puffballs because they are are so distinctive and I've seen a lot of them, but since I'm not a mushroom hunter and don't eat wild mushrooms, I never took the time to learn details about the poisonous varieties. When I saw this one, however, I knew something was up, because I saw the "cup" at its base. The only thing I remembered about poisonous amanita mushrooms from past reading was to watch out for the "cup of poison," which is what I called it as a memory jog. I wanted to know more, so to help me learn about poisonous amanita mushrooms, I bought the following two books:

"Mushrooms Demystified," by David Arora. This book is 958 pages long and contains extensive scientific descriptions and photographs of mushrooms. Pretty much everything you need. I learned a ton...
"Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares--the Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms," by Greg Marley. This book contains detailed historical, literary and scientific references, ancient lore, recipes, and even poetry--really interesting, and I learned another ton...

How to identify poisonous amanita mushrooms

Amanita mushrooms are not the only poisonous mushrooms out there, but they account for 90% of all fatalities, and since they were the mushrooms I saw and photographed, that's what I'll cover here. There are three easy ways to spot an amanita mushroom:

1. Look for remnants of a "universal veil" by the presence of a volva (cup) at the base and warts or scales on the cap. Amanita mushrooms have a universal veil that encapsulates the mushroom when it forms. At this stage, it's called a mushroom button and resembles an egg (at this stage it can also resemble a puffball mushroom, but if you slice the amanita open, you'll be able to see the form of the amanita's cap and gills inside--a puffball would be solid). As the mushroom button grows, the stem lengthens pushing the cap up, and the veil separates. The volva forms at the base (which is often underground, so you may need to dig down to find it). As the mushroom gets taller the volva may become less distinct. On the cap, the universal veil shows as warts or scales.

...the volva looks less like a cup as the mushroom grows, but is still clearly bulbous.

...bits of the universal veil cling to the cap of an Amanita mushroom and look like warts.

2. Look for remnants of a "partial veil" by the presence of an annulus (or ring) on the stem. To complicate things, another veil is sometimes present, called a "partial veil." It only covers the mushroom's gills and stays intact until the mushroom is old enough to form spores. As the gills mature, the partial veil pulls away and leaves behind a ring called the annulus. The annulus ring can come in many forms. In the following photo, it is easy to see. It can also be skirt like, collar like, or barely visible.

...the annulus forms a ring on the stem as the partial veil pulls away during growth. This annulus is distinct, but often they are not this obvious.

3. Look for white gills and a white spore print. Gills are the rib-like structures under the cap where spores are dispersed. Amanitas have white or pallid gills. To take a spore print, lop off the stem and press the gills (the underside of the mushroom cap) against a piece of white paper. Spore color can be black, gray, yellow, etc. Amanitas, however, will always leave behind a white spore print.

...papery white gills of an amanita mushroom.

...even as the amanita mushroom ages, the gills stay light or white.

...powdery looking white spores line the edges of the gills. When you press the gills against paper, they leave a white spore print behind.

What kind of amanita mushroom is it?

There are lots of types of amanita mushrooms. Deadly poisonous are the "death cap" and "destroying angel" amanitas, but not all are poisonous and some are hallucinogenic. I don't know the amanita species of the mushrooms I found at Fort Ancient. They may have been the muscaria magic mushrooms--the sorta-kinda deadly if you eat large quantities of them, but mostly you'll just experience intestinal distress, vomiting...or hallucinations and inebriation, but I don't know enough to be sure.

Are the whitish mushrooms I found Amanita muscaria var. alba? Alba has a white to grayish-buff cap, which seems to match this amanita, but alba is also supposed to be rare...

...there were two other varieties of Amanita scattered under the pines along with this white-colored mushroom...a red-capped mushroom and a yellow-capped variety:

I think, because the gills are yellow and there was no real ring on the stem this is Amanita parcivolvata and not muscaria.

...the bright yellow of this cap caught my eye. It was so much more intense than the white version. My guess is Amanita muscaria var. formosa. If there are experts out there, please let me know which varieties I have here.

When I wrote about Poison Hemlock and Queen Ann's Lace a few months ago, Matty wrote a little poem to help remember how to tell the two plants apart (here), so following in his footsteps, I put a rhyme together to help remember how to identify a poisonous amanita mushroom...

A tiny cup of poison,
with gills of lily white,
when accompanied with warts on top,
could give you quite a fright!

American Lotus Field (Nelumbo lutea) at Cowan Lake

2011-12-02T01:14:00.007-05:00

Until a couple of years ago when I started learning about native plants, I didn't know we had an American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) plant. I assumed any flower emerging from the water was a water lily, and exotic lotus blossoms could only be found in India and the Far East. It took stumbling across the American Lotus field at Caesar Creek in the autumn and seeing the incredible seed pods standing dead and brown in the water before I researched the plant and learned what it was. So last Friday, when Matty and I read that Cowan Lake also had an American Lotus field accessible from the Lotus Cove Nature Trail, it was easy to decided where we would start our hike...

Brown and brittle stalks and seed pods were all that was left of the American Lotus field at Cowan Lake.

An old, dried-out American Lotus leaf left over from this summer. It was easily 2 feet in diameter.

Telling American Lotus plants and water lilies apart

American Lotus plants are often confused with water lilies. It's easy to tell them apart, though, just by looking at the leaf. An American Lotus leaf is completely round and the stem attaches in the middle of the leaf in an umbrella-like fashion. Water lily leaves are split, and the stem attaches at the bottom of the slit, which is about 1/3 of the way into the center. American Lotus leaves can float flat on the water or extend above the water as high as 3 1/2 feet. When lotus leaves are emergent they form cones that hold water (if you look at the photo above, you can see the cone shape and the water pooling in the center). Water lily leaves usually float flat on the water's surface, and since the leaves are split, they are never conical.

...thousands of spent American Lotus plants lined the edge of Cowan Lake and filled in the cove.

Seeds once grew in these holes. As the plant matured and the seed head drooped, the seeds were released into the water. American Lotus plants reproduce via seeds and rhizomes.

...one seed remains locked in this seed pod.

American Lotus seeds are sometimes called "Duck Acorns" because the seeds resemble acorns without their caps, and ducks often eat them! "Alligator buttons" and "alligator corn" are also common nicknames relating to the seeds. Since the American Lotus was originally a plant of the southeastern parts of the United States, "alligator" nicknames make sense. The Native American Indians relied on the American Lotus plant as a food source and brought the plant north with them. Almost all of the parts of the American Lotus are edible, including the root, stalks, flowers, and seeds, but the Native Americans mostly relied on the roots to help get them through the winter.

Click here for an interesting video by Green Dean (EatTheWeeds: Episode 25: American Lotus). In the video he mentions American Lotus seeds can remain viable for over 400 years and Chinese lotus seeds for over 1200 years! I decided to look that up and found several articles about a study performed by plant physiologist Jane Shen-Miller at UCLA on germinating a dormant lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) seed carbon-dated to 1,200 years ago. Click here for her article, "Sacred lotus, the long-living fruits of China Antique."

...a dried seed pod is partially submerged in the water. Soon it will sink to the bottom, decompose into detritus, and the cycle will start again.

I can't wait until early summer when the plants emerge new and green, and beautiful, big yellow blossoms sway gently in the breeze. By then I should have a kayak or poke boat and might be able to get a little closer to the blooms...

A new kind of birding book! "The Birding Life—A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield"

2011-11-29T13:28:00.007-05:00

I was very excited when Carly from Clarkson Potter Publishers asked me if I'd like to review "The Birding Life—A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield," by Laurence Sheehan. The book sounded unique. It was about birding, but focused on birds as artistic muses and home decor inspiration! Could a description be any better? I couldn't wait for the book to arrive...

The cover alone is mesmerizing. I love vintage bird art...

When I cracked the spine, I knew I was sold. The first page I opened to was "Birds by Design: The Genius of Charley Harper," and a beautiful photo of his flying Northern Cardinal was staring back at me. Charley Harper is known worldwide, but he produced his art in Cincinnati, and to birders and nature lovers here he's something of a folk hero. He was involved in the local nature scene and helped support the Hamilton County parks, the Oxbow, the Cincinnati Zoo, and the Cincinnati Nature Center with his art. So, if Charley was in the book, it had to be good...

We grew up with Charley Harper's art. I was happy to see a chapter devoted to his unique vision.

...if that wasn't enough, I did a quick page flip and landed on "Field Trip, Magee Marsh, Ohio—Warbler Capital of the World." I've been to Magee Marsh and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) and love it there, so I was happy to see a story about Kenn and Kim Kaufman who tirelessly work to bring the phenomenon of spring migration along Lake Erie to the world. Kenn is the author of "Kingbird Highway," one of my favorite birding books, and myriad well-known field guides (I think I have them all), and Kim is the executive director of BSBO. This book just kept getting better and better...

Spring migration at Magee Marsh and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory

...but don't worry. The entire book is not about Ohio birders and their art, although you do get a glimpse of Julie Zickafoose's art studio and Bill Thompson's library—it's about bird lovers all over the United States and how birds enhance their lives and inspire their art and home decor. You'll find a bit of history too, with entries on Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, and Roger Tory Peterson.

...however, it's not all good. I might have been better off NOT knowing what James Prosek's studio looks like, because now I'm green with envy...

With over 200 photographs and interesting text, "The Birding Life, A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield," by Laurence Sheehan, is sure to be a favorite of birders and avian art lovers...

Bonaparte's Gulls at Cowan Lake

2011-11-26T13:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Matty and I drove up to Cowan Lake. It was warm and gorgeous, and we wanted to enjoy the last of Indian Summer before the expected cold front sweeps in bringing rain and possibly snow...

Painting 199. Bonaparte's Gull at Cowan Lake, Field Sketch 2

(watercolor)

A small flock of Ring-billed Gulls and Bonaparte's Gulls were flying and fishing across the lake when we pulled into the parking lot by the dam. A Common Loon and Pied-billed Grebe were swimming and diving too. We hoped they would come in closer, but they had other ideas. Bonaparte's Gulls are so polite and refined...and cute! I loved watching them fish. This was the first time Matty and I had ever driven up to Cowan Lake, and we're definitely going back...

Painting 198. Bonaparte's Gull at Cowan Lake, Field Sketch 1

(watercolor)

November is a good time to see Bonaparte's Gulls in our area. They are migrating through and will spend some time at the larger lakes. Since they are not scavengers like other gulls, you usually get to see them doing a lot of fishing.

Yikes! What kind of photo is this? It's bad, but you can still pick out the identifying field marks for a Bonaparte's Gull in non-breeding plumage—the black spot behind its eye and the cute, cute, red-orange legs!

...same for this photo....bad, but the bird is so cute, and I wanted to show how easily it is to see the spot behind the eye. We were at the dam and the birds were fishing far across on the other side of the Cowan Lake. Good thing I had my paints to capture the moment, because the camera wasn't up to it!

In addition to the gulls, we saw lots of other birds, including a very sweet mixed flock of Brown Creepers, White-breatsed Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, and Carolina Chickadees. We were sitting on a ridge on the Lotus Cove nature trail looking out on the large American Lotus colony (now withered and brown) when the flock descended. The Brown Creepers were first, their tiny peeps and musical chatter caught our attention, and we watched as they went from tree to tree, starting low and spiraling up through the branches.

Go Green on Cyber Monday—it's Green Gift Monday now!

2011-11-25T08:54:00.006-05:00

This Cyber Monday, November 28, 2011, join the Nature Conservancy and pledge to give a gift that is good for the planet!

Click here to sign the pledge and "gift responsibly!"

The Nature Conservancy is sponsoring Green Gift Monday this Monday, November 28, 2011. It's the second year of the program, and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Join conservationists and bring awareness to family and friends of how you can impact the health of our planet by donating to a charity or cause (click here for ideas) or by buying eco-friendly products as gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T00:27:00.004-05:00

Painting 197. A Tufted Titmouse Outside my Kitchen Window on the Eve of Thanksgiving

(watercolor)

...and a poem for autumn:

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Emily Dickinson
"The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson," pg 124

Have your Dark-eyed Juncos arrived yet?

2011-11-22T00:25:00.001-05:00

Our first contingent of Dark-eyed Juncos made an appearance two weeks ago on November 8. The little gray beauties with the sweet pink bills blew in on a cold north wind, bringing excitement with them as they announced the change of the season. These are our winter birds. We only get to see them when the snow flies and the skies turn gray. Having them back in the yard is always a happy day. Their chatter and twittering is almost fairylike, and their dark gray feathers are pretty. If it has to be cold and gray outside, thank goodness we have our little gray birds out there to brighten things up! Every year Rick and I have a little contest to see who will spot the first Dark-eyed Junco of the season. I won this year...

Painting 196. The First Dark-eyed Junco of the Season

(Watercolor)

Painting 195. Here Comes Winter--a Dark-eyed Junco is in the Backyard!

(watercolor)

More Cedar Waxwing studies...

2011-11-21T00:05:00.004-05:00

You might recognize a couple of these Cedar Waxwing paintings from a post I did for Birding is Fun, but I kept adding to them through the week, so I thought I'd post the rest of them here. Most of these paintings were inspired from a few sketches I did on November 5 at Fort Ancient (the largest prehistoric earthen hilltop enclosure in the United States). Crunching through drifts of yellow and red leaves by the Mound Trail, I was making so much noise I had to stop every now and then just to hear! Eventually a familiar sound filled the woodlands, and I heard the tinkling, metallic high-pitched “srees” of a small flock of Cedar Waxwings...

Painting 194. Cedar Waxwing on the Mound Trail

(Red and Black Conte crayon painted over with a waterbrush)

I've just recently started using conte crayon again. I love it....it's so quick; no pencil sketches or under drawings are required.

Painting 193. Cedar Waxwing on the Mound Trail...No Berries

(Red and Black Conte crayon painted over with a waterbrush)

Painting 192. Cedar Waxwing in Autumn Color

(Oil Pastel)

Painting 191. Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

(Watercolor heightened with charcoal)

Pencil Sketch of Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

Painting 190. Cedar Waxwing Looking for Berries

(Watercolor)

Painting 189. Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

(Watercolor)

...this is how I usually see Cedar Waxwings--eating berries from the mulberry trees as I look on below. This is the finished painting. On the Birding is Fun post, I had just started this painting.

Painting 188. Cedar Waxwing with Bittersweet Berries

(Watercolor heightened with colored pencil)

...from a winter memory when I found a small flock of Cedar Waxwings eating bittersweet berries.

Painting 187. Two Cedar Waxwings--Plain for Rick

(Watercolor)

Pencil Sketch for Two Cedar Waxwings--Plain for Rick

(Watercolor)

These paintings are all quick studies for the 100 Painting challenge. Only a handful to go! I might finish early this year. Last year, I finished Painting #100 on New Year's Eve...

Baby Midland Smooth Softshell Turtles bury themselves in the sand, finishing with a shimmy...

2011-11-15T06:41:00.005-05:00

…along the banks of the Great Miami River herpetologist Paul Krusling found several baby Midland Smooth Softshell turtles (Apalone mutica mutica). I videoed them burying themselves in the sand, capturing the little "shimmy" they perform when they are finished digging. When they decide it's time to go underground, they move fast...

Baby Midland Smooth Softshell turtles bury themselves in the sand. You can identify these as Midland Smooth Softshells (Apalone mutica mutica) by the dot and dash pattern that shows in the carapace.

For photos of Apalone mutica click here.

An Anhinga sitting on a nest...

2011-11-13T12:06:00.008-05:00

I almost missed this male Anhinga sitting on a nest. With his dark head held skyward, he bordered on invisible. You would think a big black and white bird would stand out in a sea of green leaves, but he didn't. His upward tilting head must have tricked my brain into thinking it was a branch and his dark feathers were shadows, but I was lucky because it was a hot day, and the fluttering of his gular pouch gave him away. The movement, made to help regulate his body temperature, was just enough to bring my eye back to his location....and there he was. Wow! My first nesting Anhinga at Pinckney Island...

An incredibly beautiful bird, this male Anhinga sat patiently on the nest incubating eggs. Males have mostly black body plumage. During the breeding season they develop a shaggy crest and mane, which are not apparent in this photo, but you can see the "filoplumes" on the sides of the face and neck. These feathers are silky and almost hairlike.

Anhingas are aquatic birds that do their hunting under the water. With their necks coiled back, they hold their bills open a little, so when they do strike with those sharp and pointed bills, they leave two puncture marks. After Anhingas eat, they climb up on a branch and open their water-logged wings to dry.

The ability of an Anhinga to strike out with lighting speed to impale its prey on its sharp bill while underwater is because of a hinge-like mechanism between the eight and ninth cervical vertebrae, and a keel on the underside between the fifth and seventh cervical vertebrae that muscles attach to. When this hinge-like mechanism is sprung, the muscles propel the bill forward like a spear being thrown (similar to herons and egrets). I wanted to see what this looked like and found a very cool drawing of a skeleton of an Anhinga's neck showing the muscles and hinge from 1913--click here for the drawing (sources: "National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America," Mel Baughman, pg. 64--one of my favorite reference books, and a Wikipedia article on Darters, here.)

Note: The drawing of the Anhinga's spine is from "Die Vogel: Handbuch der Systematischen Ornithologie, Volume 1," by Anton Reichenow. Click here for a link to the book. If you speak German and like old pen and ink drawings, you'll like looking through the book.

A female Anhinga perches on a limb. Females and juveniles have buff-colored heads, necks and chests.

Look at those feet! I would never have guessed that Anhingas could climb trees, but they can. Their webbed feet are equipped with powerful claws that let them climb from the ground up to their nests. Anhingas build their nests over water, but not high in a tree. They like to keep them low enough so they can climb up into them. This nest was located about 15 feet off the ground. We don't have Anhingas here in Cincinnati. They are a strictly a southeastern bird, so I don't get to spend a lot of time watching them and had never seen one climb up a tree. Within two weeks of hatching, baby Anhingas can fall out of the nest into the water below them. To get back to their nest, they climb up the trunk using their claws (source: Baughman, pg. 65).

Water Turkey!

Because an Anhinga's tail feathers resemble a turkey's with a striped pattern and a pale tip, they've been given the nickname of Water Turkey (very fitting for this time of year...).

Hanging the feathers out to dry...

Anhingas, like Cormorants, do not apply waterproofing oils to their feathers to make them waterproof. Instead, the unprotected feathers absorb water, which allows them to stay submerged and swim easily under water.

Feathers that absorb water lose their insulating properties, which causes Anhingas and Cormorants to lose body heat, so when we see them hanging their feathers out to dry, they are also using the sun's heat to stabilize their body temperature. Most of us already knew this, but what I didn't know was Anhingas have a very low metabolic rate and become chilled easily. They are dependent on the sun's heat to ward of hypothermia. As a result, they can spend up to a third of their daylight hours sunning (much more than a cormorant). It also explains why we often see Double-crested Cormorants in Ohio, but almost never see Anhingas (I've never seen an Anhinga in Ohio). An Anhinga's normal territory is the subtropical southeast (source: Baughman, pg. 65).

Snakebird!

Since the Anhinga's feathers are not waterproof, when they get wet, they look shiny and very smooth. When you couple that with a submerged body, a long skinny neck, and a slim head, instead of looking like a bird in the water, it looks like a black snake swimming along, which leads to its second nickname, Snakebird!

I took these photos on June 8, 2011 at the Ibis Pond rookery on Pinckney Island NWR in Hilton Head, SC, except for the last photo, which I took on March 22, 2011 at the Ding Darling NWR.

Video of a male Anhinga sitting on a nest showing gular fluttering in the heat.

Spotted Cucumber Beetle eating a Common Pokeweed berry...

2011-11-09T23:09:00.004-05:00

"Green bug with black spots on its wings" is all it took to find this little bug in a Google search. It's a Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata), and it's really common. I've seen it a lot in the past, but never knew its name. I found out it's a native species but can be quite a pest. Wikipedia says,

"...it looks very much like a green ladybug. However, unlike the ladybug, cucumber beetles are not considered beneficial insects. They are sucking invaders which harm crops and ornamental plants."

"Sucking invaders?" Did I read that right? It's not the usual language you see on Wikipedia, and it made me laugh, but after reading more about them, I found out they are no laughing matter and can cause extensive crop damage on anything from cucumbers, melons, and squash (all members of the cucurbits family) to corn and beans. Adults favor stems, leaves and buds of all members of the cucurbits family. They attack and overwinter in corn and bean fields, and the larva, known as the "corn rootworm," eats the roots of corn, peanuts, small grains, and wild grasses (source: The Center for Integrated Pest Management, North Carolina State University, here).

...all that...and the only reason I started photograph him was because I thought his yellowish-green and chartreuse wings looked cool against the dark purple of the Common Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) berry...

Hey, Spotted Cucumber Beetle, what are you doing on a Pokeweed berry? You should be on a cucumber...or a pumpkin, a gourd maybe, or a watermelon...or any other type of squash!

I watched this guy for quite a while, and he was definitely eating this berry. Every now and then he would wander away to another part of the plant, but he would always return to this berry. It was the only berry with a hole in it. I don't know if he created the hole, or if our resident Catbird poked a hole in the berry and the Spotted Cucumber Beetle was taking advantage of a good thing...

You can't really tell, but after he lifted his head out of the hole, he was covered in purple Pokeweed berry juice and had to take time out to clean his antenna and face.

I tried to find out if the Spotted Cucumber Beetle had a predisposition for Pokeweed berries, but I found nothing. I did however, learn how just how poisonous a Pokeweed berry is to a humans. According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (click here), eating just 10 berries can cause headache, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhea...so don't eat Pokeweed berries any time soon! The roots are the most poisonous part of the plant, followed by the leaves and stems. The berries are the least toxic. Eating large quantities of the plant can result in death from respiratory failure (source: Ohio Perennial & Biennial Weed Guide, here).

...yum! Going in for more!

The Spotted Cucumber Beetle isn't the only creature that likes Pokeweed berries, Gray Catbirds love them. Pokeweed started popping up around our yard about 3 or 4 years ago...and the Gray Catbirds soon followed. Last year and this year a pair visited our yard daily, sitting in the tall pokeweed plants singing and plucking off the berries one at a time. Maybe the catbird punctured the berry and the cucumber beetle benefited, or maybe this little bug really digs the fruit and created his own hole. I'll watch next year and see if any more show up and chomp away at the pokeweed berries...

Paintings of Sanderlings

2011-11-08T10:52:00.007-05:00

Shortly after I did the post a few weeks ago on the Sanderling who "forgot to run," I remembered I had a drawing in my sketchbook of two Sanderlings I did back in March when we were in Captiva for spring break. Since Sanderlings are one of my favorite shore birds, I decided to do a series of practice paintings from that sketch. I concentrated on the two poses I had captured in the drawing...with lots of variations!

Painting 186. Sanderlings Foraging

Watercolor (12x16)

Painting 185. Captiva Sanderlings

Watercolor (9x12)

Pencil drawing of Sanderlings from my sketchbook (Captiva Island, March 2011). Florida birds are so amazing. Just sit and watch, and they will come right up to you!

Painting 184. Sanderling in Black and Blue

Watercolor (9x12)

Painting 183. Sanderling Pose 1...Again

Watercolor (9x12)

Painting 182. Sanderling Pose 2

Watercolor (7x10)

Painting 181. Sanderling in Orange (my favorite)

Oil Pastel (7x10)

Painting 180. Sanderling Pose 1

Watercolor (7x10)

...these are all quick studies and practices to help me get familiar with the bird. I only get to study them when I go on vacation to the ocean (which is never enough...). Eventually I'm going to work up to a complete painting where I concentrate on value and light. Until then, it's sweet and simple. My favorites are 181, 182, 184 and 186. I continue to plug away on the 100 Painting Challenge. I'm right on schedule. I should reach 100 by Dec 31. (This is my second year of a five-year 500 painting challenge.) If you want to see other Sanderling posts, click here.

Close-up photos of an American Bald Eagle...great references for artists

2011-11-06T13:41:00.004-05:00

If you're a bird artist, you're probably always looking for ways to study birds up close, but it's hard to sneak up on an American Bald Eagle in the wild, so if you're an artist looking for close-up reference images of an American Bald Eagle, feel free to use these.

This American Bald Eagle was part of an education program from Back to the Wild, a volunteer, non-profit wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center located in northwest Ohio. I was at the Midwest Birding Symposium in Lakeside, Ohio when I saw their tent set up in the vendor area. Just like RAPTOR, Inc. (from my previous posts), Back to the Wild's primary mission is to rehabilitate and release injured, orphaned and displaced wildlife back to the wild...

...a closeup of an American Bald Eagle. Nothing beats that profile...

I had just come out of a lecture and didn't have my big camera with me, so I took these photos with my little Panasonic LUMIX DMC-257. For being such a small camera, it has a nice little zoom. I always regret not taking my Nikon with me wherever I go, but I had no idea these gorgeous birds would be working that day.

...another closeup. It's almost the same shot, but the there is a subtle shift in his head tilt. The down-tilted angle changes the mood captured in the image, creating a more aggressive feel. It all centers around the line of his brow. This photo can help artists see how a tiny shift in the angle of the eye creates a not-so subtle shift in the mood...

A quick bit about the boney ridge above the eagle's eye...

The fierce glare of an eagle is all because of the oversized supraorbital ridge that makes up the eagle's brow. This boney ridge makes the bird look tough, formidable, and no-nonsense, but really the supraorbital ridge is only there to block the sun and eliminate its glare so the bird has an easier time hunting. As humans, we interpret the look as a scowl that denotes power and strength, because in our faces, emotions can be deciphered from a shifting brow—a downward slanted brow indicates concentration, anger, or attack. The eagle can not change the position of the supraorbital ridge, and he doesn't have an eyebrow to move around freely, but as artists, we can shift the position of the head to make the slant of the supraorbital ridge a bit deeper, which then creates mood and emotion for the viewer. (Click here for previous posts on the supraorbital ridge.)

...this angle is more contemplative. We equate this gaze as far reaching and noble. The supraorbital ridge is exactly the same, but we perceive the angle of the brow and chin as a mood shift. It's strange how we can pin human characteristics to a bird to create a mood in art, but it's not surprising...

...it also explains why so many sports teams choose hawks and eagles as their namesakes instead of owls and ospreys. How many times have you heard someone shout, "Go Owls!" The owl is every bit as powerful a hunter and can inflict just as much damage as an eagle or hawk, but because it lacks the oversized supraorbital ridge, it carries a different "expression" on its face. Without the scowl, aggression does not register in the viewer and no fight-or-flight adrenalin is produced either. Owls are considered "wise" and hawks "tough," and the poor ospreys, even though they can rip flesh apart with the best of them, they seem to have a perpetually "surprised" look on their faces. "Go Ospreys!" Intellectually, we know what's what, but artistically, emotion can be produced in a glance, and there's nothing we can do about it...

...a full-bodied shot of an American Bald Eagle. This photo is certainly not going to win any awards. Yuck, it's out of focus and people and cars are in the background, but an artist can use it to spark an idea or refer to it for proportion. When I look at this photo, I see an eagle perched on the edge of a nest looking towards its mate approaching with prey...

...artists can get lost in the beautiful and intricate patterns that show in an eagle's wings. Since the wing feathers are so large and pronounced, the patter is striking.

I always feel sad when I see birds that have been injured so badly they can't heal well enough to live in the wild, but it's nice to know that most of the birds recovered by Back to the Wild are rehabilitated and released and go on to live out their lives in the wild. I also feel like I'm cheating when I photograph these birds. They are tethered and can't fly away, but I know these close-up photos are a great way for artists to study raptors. (Click here for close-up photos of RAPTOR, Inc.'s birds of prey. Artists can also use these photos as references.)

Large Milkweed Bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) at Fort Ancient

2011-11-04T00:52:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago I spent a little time hiking through the meadow by the Mound Trail at Fort Ancient. The grasses were brown and dry, and what was left of summer's bounty crackled and rattled with each breeze that worked itself through the tumble of spent flower heads and stalks. Autumn had drained the green from the landscape, and even the yellows had faded from the fields, but oranges and reds were still around to be found on the dry and cracked Common Milkweed plants...

An adult Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) is surrounded by all five of its instars. The adult is at the top. It is the largest and has usable wings. Instars are nymphs, or immature versions of the bug. Instars differ in size, color and pattern. They also lack usable wings.

Large Milkweed bugs molt five times (nymphal instars) before they become adults. During these stages the nymphs look similar to the adults; however, if you look closely you can see each instar has its own color (from deep red to orange) and pattern. During the middle instars black wing pads start to form, but the wings are not usable until the fifth instar molts into an adult.

...also unique to the adult is the flame-red pattern on its face between its eyes...

...the adult Large Milkweed bug has a striking pattern of orange and black on its wings. Here you can see the veins that carry the hemolymph through the wings. On the final molt, the adult Milkweed bug pumps hemolymph through these veins to unfurl the wings. To see an adult who failed to open his wings, click here.

...a fifth instar almost looks like an adult, but lacks the defined face pattern, usable wings, and the eyes are much less "buggy!" Look to the right for a glimpse at an adult's eye.

One adult and several fifth instars mass together to form a color warning on an old Common Milkweed pod.

Since Large Milkweed bugs eat Common Milkweed sap, which contains toxic alkaloids, they do not taste good. A young bird only has to taste this bug once or twice to learn to avoid orange and black bugs! Large groupings of this color combination warn birds away. You may already know of another orange and black insect that has the same type of protection--the Monarch butterfly. Just like the Large Milkweed bug, Monarch butterfly caterpillars feed on Common Milkweed plants and concentrate the alkaloids in their tissue. When the caterpillars metamorphose into Monarch butterflies, they are toxic and also taste bad.

Another tidbit...I read on this site (click here) of an easy way to distinguish between a male and female milkweed bug--the female Milkweed bug has one black strip and two back dots on her abdomen, while a male has two thick black strips. I didn't know that before and never flipped one over to look. Next time I see one I'll take a peak.

...close-up of two later instars.

...close-up of an adult Milkweed bug--love the face tattoo.

This guy is not going to be hanging around much longer. These bugs migrate! Just like the Monarchs, they head south for the winter. Shorter days in autumn trigger diapause in the adults, which shuts down the reproductive system (source: "Migration: the biology of life on the move," by Hugh Dingle, page 139, click here to read more.). Shutting down the reproductive system saves energy and allows the Large Milkweed bugs and Monarch butterflies to migrate south for the winter. The same adult Milkweed bugs that overwintered in the south then migrate back north in the spring to lay the eggs of the next generation.

If you want to learn more about the Common Milkweed plant and all the insects that feed on it, check out this post by Marcia Bonta. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago and thought it would fit in here. For more photos of Large Milkweed Bugs, click here for an earlier post.

Listening for our Great Horned Owls this winter...

2011-10-31T01:35:00.009-04:00

On cold winter nights in December and January, I often listen for our local Great Horned Owl couple as they hoot back and forth from the treetops, calling out to each other in amorous devotion. All is quiet outside when they come through our neighborhood, and their sleepy and soothing calls flow easily in on the cold air. As I kneel beside the open window, looking out into the night, I always hope to see one fly by the window or see a silhouette of one perched against the moon, but I never do. These night creatures are for hearing only it seems, but in the cold and quiet of a winter's deep night, hearing is enough, and it might even be best because I see them through the sparkly eyes of moonlit imagination. Tonight the temperature will dip into the 30s again, and when I wake a hard frost will cover the plants and rocks and any other objects that got in its way, reminding me that I'll soon hear our two owls outside my window as they travel through the cold night...

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

This owl's name is Sylvester, and he is another of RAPTOR, Inc.'s education birds. He's been around for a while, having been rescued in 1997. He was found with wing and leg fractures at the Lawrenceburg exit of I-275...hit by a car. Adult Great Horned Owls really have no natural enemies. Even a Bald Eagle will think twice before nesting in a Great Horned Owl's territory, so it was no surprise to see this bird was injured by humans. With its huge talons, it is one of our most powerful birds of prey. Sylvester is 22 inches long with a wingspan of 4 feet...needless to say, he was impressive sitting on the perch in front of us.

Great Horned Owls live in North America year round, but in our yard we usually only hear them hooting back and forth in late November, December, and January. This is when their courtship, which can start as early as September, really picks up. By January they have set up their territory and have selected their nest site. The female can lay eggs as early as mid or late January. Once the eggs are laid, the vocalizations calm down, and their calls become sporadic. We think the couple that visits our yard is a young pair. The first time we heard them hooting back and forth was January 12, 2009. In 2010 they became regulars. I hope they return to the same territory, and we get to hear them again this winter.

I had never heard the Great Horned Owl's nickname of "Cat Owl," but it was pretty easy to figure out where the name came from. The tufts of feathers that form the "horns" on their heads look like cat ears. Of course the ear tufts are not ears at all. The owl's ears are on its face, hidden beneath feathers and located below and behind the eyes.

Huge eyes...

A Great Horned Owl's eyes are about the size and weight of a human's eyes, but proportionately they take up a larger part of their face. If we compare our eyes proportionately to a Great Horned Owl's, they would be the size of tennis balls! (Source: "Intriguing Owls, Exceptional Images and Insigt" by Stan Tekiela, pg. 22.) Another difference, an owl's eyes are tubular shaped, not round like ours. The added length in the eye from front to back increases the focal length, which means the image appearing on the retina is larger than on a round eye. This is like walking around with a built-in telephoto lens (Tekiela, 23).

40% of all owls have ear tufts. The tufts work to help conceal the bird by fragmenting the outline of its body...or by simulating the top of a broken tree branch. Researcher Denver Holt (founder of the Owl Research Institute) studied owls with ear tufts when they were in the presence of a dangerous predator such as a cat. The owls immediately raised their ear tufts and even constricted their body feathers to appear thinner and taller, mimicking a branch (Tekiela, 62---if you're looking for an interesting book on owls, Tekiela's book, "Intriguing Owls, Exceptional Images and Insight" is a fantastic book. It's packed with interesting facts like this, plus phenomenal photos. It's one of my favorite owl books.)

"Tiger Owl"--another nickname I had never heard of! It's easy to see where it comes from, though. The colors and stripes of the feathers on the owl's belly resemble a Bengal Tiger...or maybe it's called a Tiger Owl because it's so ferocious when it's hunting!

My son read "Walden," by Henry David Thoreau this summer, so when he was finished with it I picked it up to re-read it. When I came across the following passage (Chapter XV: Winter Animals), I knew the quote would eventually end up on the blog. With November and winter fast approaching, it fits our Great Horned Owl couple perfectly...

"For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it. I seldom opened my door in a winter evening without hearing it; Hoo hoo hoo, hoorer, hoo, sounded sonorously, and the first three syllables accented somewhat like how der do; or sometimes hoo, hoo only."

Many versions of Walden are available online. If you don't have a copy of the book at hand but want to read this chapter, click here for a link to Wikisource.

Note: RAPTOR, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of birds of prey. RAPTOR stand for the Regional Association for the Protection and Treatment of Raptors. Members of RAPTOR, Inc. rehabilitate and care for injured birds of prey until they can be released back into the wild. Click here for RAPTOR, Inc.'s HackBack newsletter and to learn how to donate to the organization, volunteer, or sponsor a banded raptor.

The beauty of a Barn Owl...

2011-10-24T23:24:00.004-04:00

...continued from the previous post of Priscilla, the Barred Owl.
Storm, the Barn Owl, made her appearance with a raucous flourish any Barn Owl would be proud of--unrelenting screams! The first time I heard a Barn Owl scream was in 1990. Rick and I lived in Maineville back then, and barns still dotted the countryside. Our second-floor bedroom hung beside a grove of towering pines that bordered a farmer's field. It was cold out that night, but for some reason we had opened the windows so we could listen to the wind in the pines. The screaming started at about 4:00 a.m. "OMG...is someone being murdered? That sound can't be human...are Banshees real?" The eerie night sounds started to fade, and it finally dawned on us that we were listening to two Barn Owls calling to each other in the pines outside our window. The calls were amazing and terrifying, and I loved hearing them...

Storm, the Barn Owl, making her (or maybe "his") appearance...punctuated with an exclamation mark!

Storm is gorgeous. I've always thought Barn Owls were beautiful, but seeing one up close blew me away. The colors in her feathers are carmelly warm and rich, and her heart-shaped face is extraordinary.

...I couldn't get enough of the patterns and colors in her wings and feathers.

...this is Storm's good wing, her other wing is partially amputated. She got it caught in a barn door, and it couldn't be saved.

...she backs up her beauty with terrifyingly sharp and strong talons.

...snowy white feathers tipped in carmel.

...beautiful.

RAPTOR, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of birds of prey. RAPTOR stand for the Regional Association for the Protection and Treatment of Raptors. Members of RAPTOR, Inc. rehabilitate and care for injured birds of prey until they can be released back into the wild. Click here for RAPTOR, Inc.'s HackBack newsletter and to learn how to donate to the organization, volunteer, or sponsor a banded raptor.

The soulful eyes of a Barred Owl...

2011-10-23T11:05:00.005-04:00

...this morning Matty and I had the rare opportunity of photographing a few of the world's most beautiful and interesting birds of prey. Being able to stand within arm's reach of these amazing predators and see the detail in their ever-vigilant eyes, or the pattern and flow of their camouflaging plumage, or the curve and strength in their efficient talons stirs emotion—especially when you know the only reason you can stand so close to them is because they have been injured (usually do to human interaction) and can no longer fly free. My friend, Rick Hartigan of Nature Trek Photo Safaris, who is also the organizer of the Ohio Valley Camera Club, invited us to a special meetup he put together with Raptor, Inc. to photograph and study these gorgeous raptors...

With large and dark eyes, a Barred Owl's soulful gaze catches our hearts...

...and even though many say anthropomorphizing is egotistic and fantastical (a product of a human's attempt to see the world through his own thoughts and feelings), would any other word work here?

...because even if this Barred Owl is not "soulful" (we have no idea what her thoughts are), we react with a soulful intensity when we look into her eyes, so what does it matter?

She has the ability to produce great, deep and wise emotions within us, and for that I am thankful...

Priscilla, the Barred Owl...

Priscilla was admitted to RAPTOR, Inc. back in 2007. She was a victim of a car strike, sustaining a left wing fracture at the elbow. Most of the birds that flow through RAPTOR are treated, rehabbed, and released back into nature, but some can never heal from their injuries and stay on as permanent residents and working birds. RAPTOR, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of birds of prey. RAPTOR stand for the Regional Association for the Protection and Treatment of Raptors. Members of RAPTOR, Inc. rehabilitate and care for injured birds of prey until they can be released back into the wild. If you're a Cincinnati birder, you probably already know that Susan Williams of Susan Gets Native is the Education Program Director at RAPTOR, Inc. Click here to see all of her posts and inside scoops on the permanent residents and working birds at RAPTOR. Click here for RAPTOR, Inc.'s HackBack newsletter and to learn how to donate to the organization, volunteer, or sponsor a banded raptor.

Thanks to Rick for inviting Matty and me to the shoot--we had so much fun, and thanks to Mark and Cindy Alverson for showing us the birds. I LOVED every minute--even when Earl the Vulture yacked up his rat! I'll have lots more posts this week of the amazing birds at RAPTOR...

...he forgot to run!

2011-10-21T07:13:00.004-04:00

..this little sanderling dared to be different. Instead of running from the wave, he stood his ground. I think he thought the water a little cold...

A Sanderling waits for a wave to sweep past it on Captiva Island, March 22, 2011.

"Whoa!"

The following excerpt by Peter Matthiessen from "The Wind Birds" captures the heart of a Sanderling so well (taken from "The Bedside Book of Birds--an Avian Miscellany," by Graeme Gibson. This book is a collection of bird stories, art, and poetry that I love.)

"The sanderling is the white sandpiper or "peep" of the summer beaches, the tireless toy bird that runs before the surf. Because of the bold role it plays in its immense surroundings, it is the one sandpiper that most people have noticed. Yet how few notice it at all, and few of the fewer still who recognize it will ever ask themselves why it is there or where it might be going. We stand there heedless of an extraordinary accomplishment: the diminutive creature making way for us along the beaches of July may be returning from an annual spring voyage which took it from central chile to nesting grounds in northeast Greenland, a distance of 8,000 miles. One has only to consider the life force packed tight into that puff of feathers to lay the mind wide open to the mysteries--the order of things, the why and the beginning."

A Pied-billed Grebe Couple at Ding Darling...

2011-10-20T20:33:00.007-04:00

...when Matty and I saw these two Pied-billed Grebes swimming side by side, we thought it was a mama and a baby, but then we did a second take. It was only March 22, which seemed a little early for a baby to have matured to this size. When we looked through the binocs we were really stumped. The "baby" had the breeding plumage of an adult. I know males can be a little bigger than females, but this strange couple must have been made up of the biggest of big males and the smallest of small females...

...when we watched this couple from the bank, the size difference seemed much larger than what was captured in the photo, but even here, you can see how much bigger the male was. The female really did look like a juvenile. I don't get to see breeding pairs very often. I usually only see single birds when they are migrating through and floating solo, so maybe this is a normal size difference.

...we saw this Pied-billed Grebe couple at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve earlier this year in March.

...pencil sketch of the mismatched Pied-billed Grebe couple (the size difference is slightly exaggerated in the sketch, but in real life, the male looked much larger as appears in this sketch--compared to how he appears in the photos).

Painting 179. Pied-billed Grebe Bright

(oil pastel)

Painting 178. Pied-billed Grebe Blue

(watercolor)

After I painted the painting, I took a spray bottle and sprayed the whole thing, letting the colors mix and drip down the page. It was painted quickly and sprayed before the paint had totally dried.

Painting 177. Pied-billed Grebe Light

(watercolor)

Chestnut-sided Warbler paintings...

2011-10-18T22:31:00.007-04:00

Chestnut-sided Warblers are always a fun warbler to watch. Their bright yellow heads and rusty-chestnut sides always look so nice through the binocs! I continue to plug away on the 100 Painting Challenge (2nd year). I finished these paintings a few weeks ago and posted them to the challenge site and the Birding is Fun site, but forgot about old Red. So here they are...

Painting 176. Tough Chestnut-sided Warbler on the Lookout

(watercolor, charcoal, and an electronic PhotoShop Filter)

...pencil sketch of the Chestnut-sided Warbler

Painting 175. Chestnut-sided Warbler Migrating Through...

(watercolor, charcoal, salt for the mottled background, and an electronic PhotoShop Filter)

...pencil sketch for painting 175

Painting 174. Chestnut-sided Warbler in the Forest

(oil pastel over a quick watercolor)

(...this is my favorite!)

Painting 173. Chestnut-sided Warbler on Branch

(...a quick practice painting to plan painting 174. It is colored pencil over a two-minute watercolor.)

Baby Downy Woodpeckers visited us this summer...

2011-10-17T21:17:00.005-04:00

This summer two baby Downy Woodpeckers spent a lot of time in our backyard and outside my kitchen window. It was a special time watching the babies learn how to hunt insects on their own and nab peanuts from the peanut feeders. Hopefully I'll see them through the winter...

...a sleepy-eyed baby Downy Woodpecker rests on a dead willow branch to watch what was going on around her (later during the summer, the entire dead section of the tree, including this branch, came tumbling down. During the winter our Cooper's Hawk and our Red-shouldered Hawk perch in the dead tree, giving us fantastic views of them, but no more. We already miss the dead part of our half-dead Weeping Willow tree).

...she decided to soak up a few rays of sunshine and remained in this splayed-wing posture for a minute or so!

...a juvenile male Downy Woodpecker stakes out his peanut claim!

Female baby Downy Woodpecker

Male baby Downy Woodpecker

More Midland Smooth Softshell turtle photos...

2011-10-16T18:50:00.003-04:00

This is the same Midland Smooth Softshell turtle that appears here, except he's moved in to the sun. Same colorful eye...same water...but now his carapace has color too...

Midland Smooth Softshell turtle (Apalone mutica mutica)

Click here for tips on distinguishing the Midland Smooth Softshell from the Eastern Spiny Softshell.

...the smooth softshell's interesting carapace pattern of dots and dashes (click here for more on their shell pattern).

...as a size reference, you can see how small this hatchling Midland Smooth Softshell turtle is! He's much smaller than my iPhone.

...the umbilicus still shows on this hatchling Midland Smooth Softshell.

For a video I took of baby Smooth Softshell turtles burrowing into the sand, click here.
Click here for additional Midland Smooth Softshell turtle photos.

Finally, a Midland Smooth Softshell Turtle (Apalone mutica mutica) in the Great Miami River!

2011-10-14T23:18:00.005-04:00

I photographed this very young Midland Smooth Softshell turtle (Apalone mutica mutica) last Saturday morning along the sandy banks of the Great Miami River near the Shawnee Lookout boat ramp. The young turtle was submerged in the water with only his eyes and the tip of his snorkel-like nose protruding. It looks like a bit of PhotoShop trickery was used on these photos, but it wasn't. The turtle's eyes show the true color. It was very bright out, but the turtle was hiding in a deep shadow. As a result, everything under the water was drained of color, but the eyes, which were above the waterline, seemed to glow surreal...

...a gorgeous eye and a gorgeous apricot stripe behind the eye help identify this turtle as a Midland Smooth Softshell. Another identifying field mark is the pattern on the carapace (upper shell). It is a series of dots and dashes. This pattern appears on all young and male Smooth Softshell turtles. Click here for an earlier post to compare the Midland Smooth Softshell's carapace pattern with that of the Eastern Spiny Softshell. Females of both species lose the intricate patterns and develop blotchy markings.

...now look at the foot. The Smooth Softshell turtle is much more webbed than the Spiny Softshell. This added webbing accounts for the Smooth Softshell's dexterity and speed in the water, and is the reason he can claim the title of fastest swimmer in our area.

...cool eye rendered by Mother Nature!

...another way to ID smooth softshells is to look at the markings on their feet and legs. Eastern Spiny Softshell turtles are heavily streaked and spotted, but Midland Smooth Softshells are not. Click here for a photo of the markings on a spiny's feet.

For a video I took of baby Smooth Softshell turtles burrowing into the sand, click here.

Click here for more Midland Smooth Softshell turtle photos.

Great Plains Ladies' Tresses orchid (Spiranthes magnicamporum)...and a Great Egret...

2011-10-13T08:00:00.009-04:00

I found this cool-looking orchid growing at East Harbor State Park near Lakeside, Ohio back in September when I was at the Midwest Birding Symposium. The long spikes of bright white flowers stood out and were striking against the surrounding greenery...

...tall spikes of Great Plains Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum) grew along a path by a small pond near Lake Erie. Further down the path, several more plants were scattered through a soggy field along a boardwalk. The bright, bright white of the spiraling flowers popped wherever it stood.

Originally I thought this was Nodding Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes cernua), but Andrew at The Natural Treasures of Ohio blog let me know it's Great Plains. Thanks, Andrew! Click here for a nice article to help you tell them apart. Apparently, Great Plains Ladies' Tresses are more fragrant than Nodding Ladies' Tresses. I don't remember them being fragrant, but we were looking for birds, and I had my long lens with me, so to photograph them, I couldn't get that close!

...adjacent to the tall, lanky and showy white orchid was a pond where an equally tall, lanky and showy white creature stood. The Great Egret, fishing in a sea of green, was the flower's perfect complement...

...spiraling upward in a double column, the flowers of the native Great Plains Ladies' Tresses form what looks like a braid and accounts for its common name.

Like all orchids, Great Plains Ladies' Tresses requires a specific species of fungus for normal growth and forms a symbiotic association between the root tissue and the fungus (click here for more information).

...love that frilly lacy ruffle!

...the egret continued to fish while I admired both him and the beautiful white flowers growing in a tight spiral.

I photographed this flower on September 17, 2011 while at the Midwest Birding Symposium.

A Blanchard's Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi) along the Great Miami River...

2011-10-11T07:55:00.005-04:00

Saturday I spent some time along the banks of the Great Miami River in Hamilton County photographing turtles with Paul Krusling. At one point I looked down and saw a tiny frog hop onto a leaf. He was no more than an inch long and very hard to see because he was crusted in sandy mud and blended in so well with the ground. The warty little frog was a Blanchard's Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi), and he was as cute as can be...

...if you look carefully you can see a dark pattern of stripes behind all that caked-on mud. Cricket Frogs come in a variety of colors, from muddy brown, to grey, tan, or greenish. Our little guy definitely falls in the muddy brown category, although he does have mud and sand on him, parts are mud-free, showing as grey-brown.

A Cricket Frog's call is likened to the sound of a marble dropped on cement, slow at first, sounding once or twice a second and then increasing until it becomes a continuous rattle lasting about 30-40 seconds (source: "Amphibians & Reptiles of Indiana, Sherman A. Minton, Jr., 117). Click here for a recording of their call.

...the interesting pattern of bars on his upper lip reminds me of a skull!

Cricket Frogs have a dark, triangular spot between their eyes on the back of their head (Minton, 115). Our frog's triangle was a bit hard to see, but it was visible. I outlined it to make it easier to spot.

Our little frog is probably getting ready to hibernate. I read here that they seek out crayfish burrows or cracks in ponds or along the bank to hibernate in. They usually are tucked away for the winter by early November (Minton, 117). "Sleep" well little guy!

Turkey Vulture Art...for the Halloween Spirit!

2011-10-10T07:44:00.005-04:00

I love Turkey Vultures. They are amazing birds, and I've posted on them several times, but I've never painted one. So since it's the Halloween season, I thought I'd ride their stereotype and create a little Creepy Halloween Art!

I am the Vulture--Creepy Halloween Art I

(mixed media with electronic filters)

These paintings all started with photos I took while canoeing down the Little Miami River. I wanted to try some collage and mixed-media art...and experiment with a few PhotoShop filters, so I printed out my photos...cut out the birds...plastered them on paper...and painted eerie backgrounds of colors and shapes. I then scanned the paintings and ran them through about 5 filters, adjusting color, etc. I don't know how to use PhotoShop, so everything was a test. I still don't know how to use PhotoShop, but I know a little bit more about it...and it was really fun to combine traditional and electronic painting methods!

I am the Vulture--Creepy Halloween Art II

(mixed media with electronic filters)

I am the Vulture--Creepy Halloween Art III

(mixed media with electronic filters)

I am the Vulture--Creepy Halloween Art IV

(mixed media with electronic filters)

I hope you're enjoying autumn and the Halloween season!

For more bird art, head over to Birding is Fun! Robert has turned his blog into a multi-author blog and invited me to be a contributor. I just posted my first entry with three paintings of Chestnut-sided Warblers.

Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida), a.k.a. Pale Touch-me-not...

2011-10-07T07:50:00.004-04:00

Nodding in the damp edges along the Little Miami River trail, this beautiful yellow jewelweed flower dangled from its stem like a perfectly crafted pendant...

Yellow Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida)

Earlier this summer, the orange version, Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), bloomed at the edges, but now, yellow flecks of gold are sprouting everywhere. I always assumed this flower was named Jewelweed because of the brightly colored yellow and orange jewel tones of the flowers, but it's not. I just read in my "Wildflowers of Ohio Field Guide" by Stan Tekiela that it's named after the leaves. Apparently, when water droplets form on the leaves, they shine like tiny, slivery jewels, and according to "Wildflowers of Ohio" by Robert Henn, when the leaves are placed under water, they shine like silver!

Pale "Touch-me-not" seems like a strange name for such a beautiful, jewel-like flower, but if you touch the seed pods when they're dry, you'll understand! Jewelweed is an annual, so it needs to reseed itself every year. To get the job done, its "touch-me-not" seed pods burst open and spray seeds in every direction at the slightest touch.

...if you find yourself in the middle of a stinging nettle patch, look around for jewelweed (the plants often grow near each other, sharing similar habitat)--crush the jewelweed's stem and spread the liquid on the affected skin. The anti-iflammatoy in the jewelweed is supposed to help relieve the stinging sensation left behind wherever the stinging nettle leaves touched the skin.

I read lots of accounts where jewelweed could be used the same way on poison ivy and mosquito bites, but then I read just as many accounts that disproved the notion. I read no accounts, however, that disputed its affect on stinging nettle burns. Next time I see a patch of stinging nettle with nearby jewelweed plants I'm going to test it out for the good of science. A stinging nettle burn doesn't last more than 15 minutes, so it won't be that bad. I'm not going to touch the poison ivy though!

This summer while looking for turtles with Paul along the Great Miami River I went off trail a lot and went through several patches of stinging nettle. Ouch...those teeny weeny urticating hairs go through anything, including jeans! The stings burn intensely for about 15 minutes, but then fade, so it's not too bad. The hairs on stinging nettle work like the urticating hairs on stinging caterpillars like the American Dagger Moth Caterpillar (click here for a post) and the Buck Moth Caterpillar (click here for a post). Basically, the hairs are like tiny needles that break off in the skin and dump in several chemicals: acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT or serotonin, and formic acid (source: Wikipedia). The result is a burning sensation or sting that lasts about 15 minutes. On some, the sting can last much longer, even a day or so! Next time I see stinging nettle I'll photograph it and do a post on it...

Black and White Warblers at Fort Ancient

2011-10-05T06:36:00.002-04:00

...in addition to the Yellow-rumped Warblers (from this post), two Black and White Warblers were foraging in the pine grove. Poor things, they never seem to be able to decide if they are warblers or nuthatches...

A Black and White Warbler assumes his typical downward-walking nuthatch posture.

I see Black and White Warblers along the Little Miami by the Powder Factory all summer, and I've seen a few at Fort Ancient too, so this fellow may have been a summer resident getting ready to depart or a migrant stopping by to refuel on his trip south.

Click here for an interesting map (Figure 2) showing the travels of a group of migrating Black and White Warblers. Apparently, Black and Whites are slow migrators, taking 50 days to reach their breeding grounds at the rate of about 20 miles per day.

...the Black and White Warblers made pretty peeping sounds as they searched out caterpillars and other bugs. I always enjoy seeing them, and especially now. This might be the last encounter I have with one until next spring when they return or migrate through.

Yellow-rumped Warblers at Fort Ancient

2011-10-03T23:26:00.002-04:00

...what are you?

...ahhh! That's what you are, you little Yellow-rumped Warbler, you!

(I love it when the name really matches the plumage...)

Even though I'll miss the blues of summer, the Yellow-rumped Warbler's subdued autumn colors are just as pretty.

Sunday afternoon I went to Fort Ancient to my favorite little pine stand (the one located off the field by the Mound Trail). I sat down on the forest floor and sketched. While I was drawing, three or four Yellow-rumped Warblers foraged in the branches overhead, flitting and peeping and gleaning insects. It was so nice to listen to them while I scribbled out saplings with my pencil. Then...out of nowhere, splat! One left me a little gift...

Thanks, sweet little Butter-butt...

It didn't really matter. I quickly wiped it up and finished my journal entry. Now it's a funny memory. I laughed out loud when it hit the paper. All these years of field sketching, and I've never had a bird go the bathroom on my paper!

Shaggy Mane Mushrooms starting to drip ink...

2011-10-02T20:11:00.004-04:00

As autumn seeps into the Little Miami River valley, stealing the green from the leaves and tipping them with reds and yellows, Shaggy Mane mushrooms start popping up along the bike trail and the forest's edge. I usually see them in the areas that have been cut back or mowed. It's easy to see how they got their common name because they really do look like a shaggy mane, which also accounts for their other nickname, lawyer's wig...

Shaggy Mane Mushrooms, Coprinus comatus

The shaggy fungi were growing all along the Little Miami bike trail. The cooler temperatures of the past couple of days coaxed them out, and they stood like little sentinels of the autumn season.

Shaggy mane mushrooms are edible, but I don't know how to cook them! I did find a recipe for Shaggy Mane Potato Leek Soup in the book, "Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares--The Love, Lore and Mystique of Mushrooms," by Greg A. Marley. Click here for the recipe in the online preview of this book (go to page 58). I just ordered the book...it looks interesting!

Shaggy mane mushrooms are part of Clyde Christensen's "Foolproof Four," which are four types of mushrooms that are edible, easy to find, and don't have dangerous look-alikes that can kill you! Apparently Mr. Christensen wrote the book "Common Edible Mushrooms" (1943) to turn "mycophobes" into mycophiles, and it worked. There is an entire section devoted to Christensen's Foolproof Four in Marley's book (click here, page 31). You can also find references to the Foolproof Four here. (If you're curious, the Foolproof Four are morels, puffballs, sulphur mushrooms, and shaggy manes.)

...and here we see where the genus (Coprinus) gets its common name, "inky caps." When the fruit matures, the gills undergo self-digestion and "melt" (deliquescence) from the bottom up forming an inky mess that allows the mushroom to release spores (click here for details on this process). Strangely enough, the inky black liquid really was used as ink for writing!

An Eastern Box Turtle among a flurry of autumn leaves...

2011-10-01T14:20:00.003-04:00

Thursday afternoon found me along the Little Miami Bike Trail. Trees were dripping with water from an earlier shower, and the pavement was wet. Each gust of wind that raced through the branches brought down a flurry of golden-colored leaves, and the crisp energy of Autumn danced everywhere...

Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina

Amid the tumult and excitement of our first "autumn-y" day, this male boxer lumbered across the paved bike trail oblivious to the dangers around him. When I spotted him I said, "Hurry up little guy. A biker isn't going to see you hidden in these leaves!" I barely saw him, and I was walking slowly, limping along with my flat-tire of an ankle. He was partially obscured by one of the recent leaf flurries, and although he seemed to feel secure, he was a disaster in the making--for himself and any biker who ran over him!

When I picked him up and moved him to the woods on the other side of the trail, he pulled back into his shell and partially closed his hinged plastron (lower shell). This defensive move is how he got his name. A simple "Boo!" on my part would probably have been enough to make him completely draw up the hinged parts of his plastron and securely "box" himself in.

...leaves scattered across the Little Miami Bike trail blended with the boxer's shell and hid him from view.

The carapace (upper shell) of an Eastern Box Turtle exhibits classic camouflage patterns...cryptic (invisibility by blending in), disruptive razzle-dazzle (eye-catching colors that confuse size, shape and number of objects in a group), and even countershading (lighter colors that appear in normally darker areas and vice-versa, distorting depth perception). Click here for a Wikipedia entry on the theory of camouflage.

...stay safe boxer man!

I just finished reading "The Big Year..."

2011-09-30T01:36:00.006-04:00

...for the fourth time! Can you tell I like this book? I remember the first time I saw it. I was in Barnes & Noble, and it was sitting on a table in the entryway. Its cover jacket art was gorgeous--a tern sitting on a pair of binoculars! "Whoa...what is this?" went through my mind. The title was "The Big Year: a tale of man, nature and fowl obsession," and it was by Mark Obmascik. I bought it on the spot, brought it home, and couldn't put it down. I loved it! What birder wouldn't? The book is about three passionate birders who take a year of their lives to scramble all over North America looking for birds--all of them--the 675 or so "regular" species that live in North America plus all the "rarities" or accidentals and vagrants that wander in too. It's an intense competition of will and stamina fueled by sacrifice, obsession, and money.

Over the years I bought several copies of the book to give as gifts to friends, and I loaned my book out several times too, including just recently, so when Kristin from Free Press contacted me to review the movie tie-in edition of the book I was happy. I wanted to read the book one more time before I saw the movie, so the timing was perfect. The fourth time around I loved the book just as much as the first three. Maybe more...

The new book cover for the tie-in edition to The Big Year movie!

(Click here for the official movie trailer.)

I had to laugh at myself when I looked at the new cover, and I wondered how many other birders did the same thing I did...check out the binoculars to see what the stars were toting. (If you're curious, it looks like Owen Wilson, who plays Sandy Komito, is carrying Zeiss...Steve Martin, who plays Al Levantin, is holding Swarovski...and Jack Black, who plays OHIO birder, Greg Miller, prefers Kowa.) And I hate to admit it, but I also gave the American Robin hanging off Steve Martin's bins the once over (did you?). He's a bit too small, but I know in the movie the birds are going to be spot on because Greg Miller was a bird adviser for the film and worked very hard to keep the birding real. How do I know? I actually got to meet Greg Miller at the Midwest Birding Festival a few weeks ago. He gave a presentation on his birding adventures during his Big Year and also talked about his experiences with the film. Better than that, though, I stayed in the same hotel as Greg and spent part of the first evening talking with him! Wow! Greg is incredibly nice and kind, and I really enjoyed meeting him...

Greg Miller and I in the lobby of Hotel Lakeside at the Midwest Birding Symposium.

(Click here for Greg Miller's birding blog.)

...before you see the movie--or after, make sure you read the book! The movie is based on the book, but it's a little different. I've heard the names have been changed and from what I've seen in the previews, so have a few of the adventures.

My hummingbirds are not always angelic...

2011-09-27T08:06:00.007-04:00

...sometimes they perch with an undeniably honked-off and irritable look in their eyes defying any other humming-type bird to venture forth and try...just try...to get a sip of the sweet, sweet nectar...

Painting 172. Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird Guarding the Nectar

Watercolor

Pencil sketch of a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

...I drew this sketch in the car while waiting for Matty. My ref was a poor-quality printout of a photo I took a couple of years ago. As a result, I couldn't see any feather detail, so I totally made up the feather configuration, choosing "poetic license" to give the feel of detail. Since this little female had such a fierce look in her eyes...and she was "poetic" in her own way, I thought D. H. Lawrence's poem "Humming-bird," where he depicts a hummingbird at the dawn of creation as a "jabbing, terrifying monster," was the perfect fit. When I watch our hummingbirds fight viciously over their food source in the summer, I totally get his image...

Humming-bird

I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.

I believe there were no flowers, then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.

Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.

by D. H. Lawrence
(excerpted from "The Little Big Book of Birds," by Tabori and Fried -- originally from "Birds, Beasts and Flowers," 1923)

...this is painting 72 in this year's 100 painting challenge...painting 172 in my 5 year, 500 painting challenge.

Buck Moth caterpillar (Hemileuca maia) - another “stinging” hair caterpillar!

2011-09-25T20:54:00.005-04:00

Back in July when Matty and I were at Shawnee State Park, I was sitting under a huge oak tree watching a snake move through the grass. I leaned back, propping myself up on my arms, and glanced back by my hand. About a half inch from my little finger was a caterpillar decorated with what looked like spiky white snowflakes. I quickly moved my hand out of his path. We learned years ago what can happen when you touch fuzzy wuzzy cool looking caterpillars--ouch (click here for a post about the fuzzy yellow American Dagger Moth Caterpillar)! Since then, any unidentified caterpillar is labeled “stranger danger” and is hands off until identified. Jenny had a field guide in the nature center and quickly discovered what he was...a Buck Moth Caterpillar (Hemileuca maia). Good thing I moved my hand. Just like our friend the American Dagger Moth, the Buck Moth is covered in hollow hairs/spines that are attached to poison glands. Simply brushing against one of those hairs is enough to break the hair and have its contents spill directly into your skin. The toxins in the venom can cause painful red welts and even vomiting.

Buck Moth Caterpillar (Hemileuca maia)

You can just look at all these bells and whistles and tell this guy packs a punch--a purpley-black body covered in yellow dots, spiky white and yellow barbs, a maroonish, dark red head...and to top that off, red and black multi-branched spines (that look like really sharp thorns)!

...one of the kids lifted this prickly guy on a stick to take him to the edge of the lawn at the nature center. We didn't want him to get squished...and we didn't want him to unintentionally leave any of those barbs in someone's skin!

...check out those dark spikes...makes me think of tiny locust tree thorns. (I only had my big lens with me. I wish I had had my macro so I could have gotten a close-up of those barbs. You can find a nice close-up here, though.)

...the red abdominal prolegs add to this guy's snappy attire!

When I saw this caterpillar in June, he was probably looking for a place to burrow into the ground to transform into a pupae. The pupal stage lasts through summer and according to the Ohio State University Entomology fact sheet (found here), Buck Moth adults emerge about now and will fly through Indian summer in October. Their name, "Buck" Moth, derives from the fact their flying season is the same time as the rutting season of the whitetail deer.

Buck Moth Caterpillars are very famous in New Orleans...

Buck Moth Caterpillars are relatively rare in our town, but apparently they are well know in the Big Easy, where the mass dropping of Buck Moth Caterpillars from Live Oak trees onto unsuspecting victims below is an annual right of passage! The story is here and here and here!

Duct tape to the rescue!

I read this quick fix on lots of sites: to remove the broken spines from your skin, apply and repeatedly strip duct tape (or Scotch tape) over the affected area. Once the venom is in, though, there's not much you can do. Ice helps and many sites recommend a paste of baking soda and water (here).

21 seconds in a Sanderling's life...

2011-09-24T12:29:00.001-04:00

8:18:07 - 8:18:28 are the time stamps from the first photo in this series to the last--21 seconds. That's what's cool about photography--freezing time, and then going back to study it. When you shoot into a flock of birds, you never know what you'll see. Even though the flock moves and acts as one, the individuals don't. They preen and stare and loaf and sleep, all at different times...and they watch. Different eyes at different times are watching in different directions. All it takes is one false move on the photographer's part, and one bird in the flock to witness it, and they are gone en masse. In the following series, two Cute Sanderlings watch me surreptitiously as they go about their business...until at the end when Cute Sanderling #2 seems a little more direct...

"...for Heaven's sake, haven't you seen enough? Move along camera lady..."

I photographed this small flock of Sanderlings while birding on the shores of Lake Erie at Magee Marsh with Rob Ripma (The Nutty Birder), Rob Mortensen (Birding is Fun!), Cack, Lulu, and Corky. Click here for an earlier post of this outing and close-ups of a Sanderling's feathers.

Great Blue Lobelia

2011-09-22T16:21:00.008-04:00

...right after photographing the Red-legged Grasshopper, I shifted to the right where a surprising splash of blue caught my eye. Several tall stalks of Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) were pushing up through the grasses, and in the fading light the blue petals seemed to hang in the air, ignoring the fact the sun was not there to light them, and producing their own glow instead...

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

This plant has so much to offer--striking blue-purple flowers, interesting striped patterns, and strangely shaped petals!

Great Blue Lobelia flowers are made up of two petals. The upper petal (lip) splits into two lobes (which remind me of rabbit ears), and the lower petal is striped with white, and splits into three lobes...

Leaf of Lobelia siphilitica

The leaves of Great Blue Lobelia are lance-like and pointed and can be 2-6" long, growing alternate along the stem. The plants grow 1-3' high, preferring wet woodland edges, moist thickets, and swamps. "(Newcomb's Wildflower Guide," by Lawrence Newcomb, and "Wildflowers of Ohio" by Stan Tekiela).

...tall spikes of Great Blue Lobelia push through grasses and other plants bordering the Little Miami River.

...a beautiful flower with medicinal uses too!

Great Blue Lobelia as a medicinal herb...

I didn't know much about lobelia and its history, so I thought I'd take a look. I found tons of references in books and on the Internet about its medicinal uses through the years. The most repeated entries referred to its name. Native Americans, especially the Iroquois, used this plant to treat syphilis. Settlers sent it back to Europe for use, but the physicians there had little luck with the plant and abandoned it. However, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus believed the claims of its efficacy and therefore labeled it Lobelia syphilitica (source: this info is repeated on many sites and is in several books, included a few of my wildflower guides, but Rosanna King has a detailed explanation of it here). King goes on to write that the failure in Europe is probably because Native Americans used lobelia with other herbs, such as cherry bark and New Jersey Tea (much of the information in King's article references "A Treasury of American Indian Herbs," by Virginia Scully. It looks like an interesting read. I might want to get it!)

It appears, however, that the plant's real fame came from Samuel Thomson (1769-1843), who at the age of four discovered its primary use, that of an emetic. This little story made me laugh... One day little Samuel stumbled across the beautiful plant and admired it, but his curiosity got the best of him, and he decided to pick it and have a taste. After chewing a few of the pods he promptly threw up. That alone is not funny...but what he did afterwards made me chuckle. From then on, he'd talk his friends into eating a pod or two just to watch them vomit (I can just see a little boy doing that)! Thomson went on to become a gifted healer, pushing aside the accepted methods of blood-letting and the application of mercury and other metals, and replacing them with the benefits of lobelia (source, King, here). Thomson also used the spice cayenne with lobelia, holding that cayenne stimulated the circulation and lobelia mildly sedated and relaxed the body (source, "Lobelia - Native American Wonder Herb," here).

Through the years lobelia was used as a cure-all herb and a catalyst herb working in conjunction with other herbs. It proved effective as an expectorant and an antispasmodic and was used to help people suffering from asthma. It's common names reflected its uses and included emetic weed, emetic herb, puke weed, vomit weed, vomit wort, gag root, eye-bright, asthma weed, wild tobacco (it has a nicotine-like alkaloid, lobeline), and Indian tobacco. It also had the common name of bladder pod, named after the shape of the seed pods (King).