Closeups of a male Tree Swallow...

Matty and I just got back from our week of volunteering at Shawnee State Park. In addition to working with the snakes and helping in the nature center, we cleared brush, poison ivy, honeysuckle, and multiflora roses to help create a new trail that will lead from the boat ramp all the way around Turkey Lake to the lodge road. Before I post any of those photos (I got a few cool shots of interesting insects...and a Timber Rattlesnake), I thought I'd better finish off part three of the tree swallow series. In the end, the tree swallows moved on, and the house wrens went back to domestic bliss, but before the dispute ended, the male flew over close to me. I could see he was holding a wispy strand of soft nesting material in his right foot...

A male Tree Swallow carries nesting material in his right foot. 

...the striking metallic blue feathers on his back contrast beautifully with the white feathers on his neck, chest and belly.

These photos were all taken on May 7, 2012 at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio. I was at the Biggest Week in American Birding festival. This is part three of the series:

Click here for part 1 (focuses on a yearling female at the nesting cavity).
Click here for part 2 (focuses on a territory dispute between two House Wrens and two Tree Swallows).

The Great Bird Confab...

...this post continues the house-hunting adventures of the Tree Swallow couple from the previous post (click here for the first installment). With the endless discussing, twittering and scolding going back and forth between these two swallows and the two angry little House Wrens, this "episode" is called The Great Bird Confab. It truly looked like a mighty discussion was taking place...pros and cons were being discussed by the swallows, and threats and barbs were being thrown all over the place between the swallows and the wrens...

A male and a female yearling Tree Swallow twitter back and forth at the entrance of a very popular nesting cavity! Female yearling Tree Swallows retain the brown color of their youth. As yearlings they have only a hint of the sparkling metallic blue and green feathers they will sport next season.  

House Wrens can sound a bit raucous even when they are happy, but when their ire has been raised, they are little hellions. This angry wren was vigorously defending her nesting cavity...

House Wrens often steal nesting cavities from other birds (and will even kill nestlings and larger birds to evict them), but this time, I think they were there first. Just below the hole the swallows were interested in was a downstairs entrance that was bursting with twigs--evidence that a House Wren had been working there and had already set up camp. House Wren nests are twiggy and look uncomfortable, but within the twigs they create a soft cup often filled with feathers from other birds. 

...meanwhile, these two continue to discuss the possibilities...

...weighing the pros and the cons...

...and who knows what else.

I think I'm being told to kindly butt out, take my camera elsewhere, move on, ride out on the horse I rode in on, or maybe I'm just being asked..."Do you mind?" It's an unnerving glare to say the least... 

Angry bird...
The wrens would come in close and scold, then fly back a bit and sit. Then come back in, scolding and chiding. I saw no physical contact, but things were heating up.

Seething bird...

...the swallows look like they are sniping at each other, but really, their singing back and forth was beautiful, musical and sweet--a quick jumble of fluid notes that was wonderful to listen to.

The female enters the nest again, and the story continues... 

There were a lot of photos to wade through here...sorry! I was going to choose just the best and post them in one entry, but since it's sometimes difficult to see Tree Swallows up close, I decided to post several of the photos to show the varied expressions, head tilts, and postures of the tree swallows. Artists can feel free to use the photos in this trilogy (another episode is coming) as references to study postures, plumage, etc.


These photos were all taken on May 7, 2012 at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio. I was at the Biggest Week in American Birding festival. This is part two of a three-part series:

Click here for part 1 (focuses on a yearling female at the nesting cavity).
Click here for part 3 (closeups of a male Tree Swallow)

Female Tree Swallow inspects a nesting cavity...

This yearling female Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) was giving a possible nesting cavity the once over. She studied it from every angle. Finally the male flew up to see if she liked it...

A female Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) checks out a possible nesting cavity....

You can tell this is a female yearling Tree Swallow because of her coloring. Adult male and female Tree Swallows look alike with metallic greenish-blue feathers on the upper parts and white feathers on the lower parts, but one-year old females retain the brownish feathers of youth with just a sprinkle of the metallic blue and green feathers on the back.

Our little female Tree Swallow looks happy with the site, and the male seems pleased too, but just a few branches over another bird was fit to be tied. More photos to come...

I saw this pair of Tree Swallows on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio on May 7, 2012. She was very thorough in her inspection. After the male flew up, they both sang to each other over and over. It looked like they had found their perfect springtime home... This is part one of a three-part series:

Click here for part 2 (focuses on a territory dispute between two House Wrens and two Tree Swallows).
Click here for part 3 (closeups of a male tree swallow).

Warbling Vireo catches fly...then removes head, wings, and legs before eating...

I know this post is a little strange, but the behavior is interesting. Watching this Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) catch a fly and then proceed to pluck it like a chicken before eating it, was unexpected. I've seen hawks de-feather birds before eating them, but I've never watched a warbler de-head, de-wing and de-leg a bug before dining...

A Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus) catches a fly in midair from his perch. 

First he secures it with his foot...

...then he rips off the head and gives it a fling.

...then he goes back to rip off a wing...

...and reposition for better handling.

The fly still has a few legs and one wing...

...but not for long.

There goes another leg...

...and then the wing.

The fly has been plucked clean and is ready for consumption.

...but first it has to be positioned just so.

...the first gulp...

...and it's down the hatch!

I photographed this Warbling Vireo at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio. I was there this May during spring migration for the Biggest Week in American Birding festival (click here for all the Magee Marsh posts). The sun was setting, casting the boardwalk in semi-darkness and deep shadow, so the quality of these photos is not best, but the subject was so cool (...and cool always trumps quality!). I'll have to watch carefully to see if other birds take off the head, legs and wings of insects before they eat them. I frequently see cicada wings lying around on the ground, so I assume birds ripped those wings off before eating, but I've never photographed a bird doing it...  

Our big, beautiful ash tree has been bitten by the little emerald green bug...

Ever since I first heard about the Emerald Ash borer invading Warren county several years ago, I've dreaded the day it would come knocking on our door. We have a huge ash tree in our back yard, and as my son, Matty, put it, "It's part of our family." I've had it treated for several years with "preventative" trunk injections, but unfortunately, the treatments didn't work. Early this summer, we saw our first "D" bored into the bark. Last year, I noticed a few limbs had died, but I didn't want to believe the borer had reached us. After all, the tree was supposed to be protected from the metallic green insect through yearly pesticide treatments. I chalked it up to normal aging and squeezed my eyes shut. This spring, however, suckers (epicormic shoots) started sprouting from the lower limbs. I knew epicormic growth was the kiss of death, because those shoots indicated tree stress and were a sure sign the Emerald Ash borers had taken up residence. Then a few weeks ago, Matty saw a metallic emerald green bug walking on some rocks near the tree. We decided to take a closer look. We didn't have to look far...

The little D-shaped Emerald Ash borer holes were easy to spot. I was surprised how perfectly they were bored into the bark. There's no mistaking them.

There were several grouped together on some branches, while others just had one or two. It breaks my heart to see these holes and know that just under the bark, Emerald Ash borer larvae are eating away at the cambium, destroying the xylem and phloem, which would eventually cut off the flow of carbohydrates, nutrients, and water. As a result, our gorgeous tree could be dead in two seasons...

When I saw these suckers growing on the lower branches this spring I knew we were in trouble. Shoots like these, often called "waterspouts," have sprouted from an epicormic bud on the branch and indicate the tree is under stress. Epicormic shoots are a clear sign of Emerald Ash borer infestation.

Emerald Ash borers were first detected in Detroit, Michigan in 2002. It took them until 2006 to make it to our area (they probably hitched a ride in a batch of firewood). When they first arrived in our area they moved about a quarter- to a half-mile a year, but now they are reported to be moving about 20 miles a year. I guess we should be thankful we got as many years as we did out of our huge tree. I wish the trunk injections had worked. While looking up treatment options for this post, I came across a Cincinnati tree service company that offers a 100% guarantee to their trunk injections. I think I'm going to give them a call and see if they can save the tree. They use a special solution of Emamectin Benzoate, called TREE-äge. They use a different style of arbor plugs than the treatments we've received over the past couple of years, and they are supposed to be much less expensive (yeah!). Click here to see their process for protecting ash trees. They also only require treatment every two years. I'll let you know if I use them, and if their process works.

Not all hope is lost... 

Individual ash trees may be able to be saved in residential areas using bi-annual pesticide applications, but that solution will not work for the thousands of trees in our forests. Are they all doomed? Recently I read on the Ohio Archaeology Blog about an Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) experiment that's being conducted at the Cedar Bog Nature Preserve in Champaign County in central Ohio. Cedar Bog is a fen and is home to many rare plants, including a huge stand of White Cedar trees (glacial relicts). A good portion of Cedar Bog is a hardwood swamp forest made up of Black Ash, Green Ash, White Ash and Pumpkin Ash, so prevention of an Emerald Ash Borer infestation is critical. If the experiment works, salvation will be in the form of a teeny, tiny exotic wasp. Back in 2003 the USDA found three natural predators of the EAB in its native home of Asia. These non-stinging wasps are parasitic on the larvae and eggs of the imported pest, and experiments have found that they parasitize only the EAB. In October of 2011, the first EAB was found in a pheromone trap at Cedar Bog, and on May 25, 2012, the first round of parasitoid wasps was released. Click here to read all about the Cedar Bog experiment on the Ohio Archeology blog. Let's hope it works!!

 

This video by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture shows the lifecycle of the Emerald Ash Borer.

This video by the University of Nebraska shows how to identify the Emerald Ash Borer.

Have you hugged your Ash tree lately? If you haven't you might want to. You never know how long it will be around...

Butterflies and a hummingbird moth at Mt. Airy Forest...

I visited Mt. Airy Forest in Cincinnati last week. It's the first time I've been there since I was a kid. It's a lovely park with a beautiful arboretum. I started my visit at the treehouse and then headed over to the arboretum. Butterflies were everywhere, and a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird moth made an appearance too...

A Cabbage White butterfly (Pieris rapae) sips nectar in the midday sun at the Mt. Airy Forest arboretum.

From a distance, Cabbage Whites may appear a bit dull, but up close they have beautiful wings decorated in subtle shades of yellow on white. Their eyes sparkle in soft tones of turquoise and green. The dark spots on their wings make it easy to identify them. Cabbage Whites are one of our most recognizable and common butterflies. You can find them just about anywhere, and they fly both early and late in the season. Introduced from Europe around 1860, they have spread to most of North America. Because of their long flying season and their preference of cultivated garden plants (i.e., cabbages, mustards, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and radishes) as their host plants, they are often considered garden pests. (Source: "Butterflies of Ohio," by Jaret C. Daniels.)

A Cabbage White Butterfly takes flight. 
Although Cabbage Whites are slower moving than other butterflies, they still take to the wing at the wrong time when being photographed... 

A Cabbage White butterfly uses its proboscis to sip nectar.  

Recent studies at Clemson University in South Carolina show that a butterfly's proboscis is a "marvel of microfluidic design." Students and scientists there are studying the butterfly's feeding tube to learn more about micro-fluidity (the precise management of small amounts of fluid). They hope to create a microfluidic device to improve designs in products ranging from inkjet printers to "lab-on-a-chip" medical technologies. Previously, science assumed the proboscis worked like a drinking straw, but researchers at Clemson have found proboscis functionality is much more complex, and that the proboscis has "structures and properties that combine sponge-like capillary action with straw-like sucking." (Source: the Clemson University web site, here.)

Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffnis) at Mt. Airy Forest.

In our area there are two types of hummingbird moths. This fellow is a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis). The other type is a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe). The two look a lot a like, but Snowberries are smaller and have a yellow face with a black mask. (Click here for an older post with photos of both types of hummingbird moths.)

The Natural Treasures of Ohio!

Mt. Airy Forest is one of the sites in the The Nature Conservancy's Natural Treasures of Ohio sweepstakes. If you go to Mt. Airy Forest, snap a photo of yourself at the super cool Everybody's Treehouse and submit it to enter to win a Honda Insight Hybrid (you have until August 8, 2012). Click here for more information.