Interviewed by Erin Shaw on her TV show "Nature's Corner!"

I was recently interviewed by Erin Shaw, an ODNR park naturalist for Caesar Creek State Park, on the TV show "Nature's Corner." Erin is the host of the show and made the experience fun and exciting. Erin is a naturalist extraordinaire and this August was named the Ohio State Parks' Naturalist of the Year! I was so nervous on the show and worried my spazzzzy tendencies might show through, but Erin reigned me in and kept me in line. We talked about my book "Sketching in the Wild," made a little owl out of clay, visited with a Screech Owl, and talked about tips for photographing birds in winter. We also talked about the Little Miami River and how I draw much of my inspiration for paintings and photos from it.

A little Dark-eyed Junco from my backyard graces the splash screen of the TV show "Nature's Corner." Erin Shaw, the host of the show, interviewed me a few weeks ago about birds, field sketching, photography, and painting.

The show will air on Monday, November 24 on Lebanon's Channel 6. Daily airtimes are 8:00 am, 1:00 pm and 8:30 pm. You can watch the show anytime online by clicking here.  Also on the show is Ken Simmons who carves birds out of wood. He talks about his process for carving the birds, which is interesting. You can watch his segment, or just click on my name to skip ahead.

The first edition of my book, "Sketching in the Wild!" is completely sold out. I'm working on the second edition which will include a chapter on frogs, turtles, and snakes. It will be out by February. I'll post on the blog, when it's ready for purchase. 

Note:
If you want further instructions for the little owl I made in the video, click here for an older post with step-by-step directions.

It's a crossbill winter!

Once a month, I'm a contributor on the "Birding is Fun!" blog. This was my November 25, 2012 post...
Here in Cincinnati (as in other midwestern cities) we're excited because crossbills have moved down from the north for a winter visit. Both Red and White-winged Crossbills are being reported daily at local cemeteries, so since Matty was off school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we headed up to Miami Cemetery near Caesar Creek State Park in Waynesville, OH to see what we could see...

A White-winged Crossbill was waiting for us when we got out of the car! 

We didn't even have to look for the birds. As soon as we stepped out of the Jeep, three White-winged Crossbills flew in the huge Eastern Hemlock tree right next to us. Their chittery flight chatter gave them away, and we quickly focused in on them with binocs. This was a life bird for Matty, so he studied them carefully. "Wow! You really can see their crossed bills!" was the first thing out of his mouth. "I know...amazing" followed out of mine. We watched them in silence as they moved from cone to cone, separating the bracts and extracting the seeds with their tongues. "Wow..."

A White-winged Crossbill holds an eastern hemlock cone in its bill...

While we watched them, we tried to figure out how they were cracking open the cones to get to the seeds. We could see them working the bracts apart, but had no idea how they were using their crossed bills to do it. Later that night, I got a few of my bird books down to see if I could find out. The answer was easy to find and was in the first book I opened. Bernd Heinrich, in his book Winter World, offered an explanation. He wrote that a crossbill's upper bill is two centimeters long and crosses over a one-half centimeter shorter lower bill. To open a cone bract, the bird inserts a partially open bill into a bract, then closes its bill. When closed, the bill tips separate the bract laterally by about 3 millimeters, just enough for the bird to open its bill slightly and use its barbed tongue to dip in and grab the seed (Heinrich, Winter World, page 37).

White-winged Crossbill high in an Eastern Hemlock Tree. You can just make out his crossed bill in this photo. 

Eventually, Matty went off looking at tombstones and did a few rubbings to try to figure out dates and names on the oldest and most weathered stones,  and I did a quick sketchbook entry to record our day. We had been to Caesar Creek earlier for a picnic lunch and had seen lots of birds, but the White-winged Crossbills stole the show. In 2009, White-winged Crossbills showed up for a while in Cincinnati, and it was exciting too, but this year, the irruption is much bigger. I can't wait to see what else winter brings!

...sketchbook entry completed in the field. It was very warm that day...65 degrees F. 

To round out the post, I did a quick watercolor of one of the White-winged Crossbills we saw that day. I can't wait to get back out to see if more of these interesting birds are around. If you haven't done so already, you might want to pop over to the ABA Blog to read Nate Swick's post, "Help Monitor the Red Crossbill Invasion" (click here). You also might like Jim McCormac's post (click here) for a photo of a White-winged Crossbill's long tongue as it nabs a seed.

White-winged Crossbill in the Hemlock Tree
(watercolor sketch)

This part wasn't in my original "Birding is Fun!" post, but after reading Matty's field journal entry from that day, I thought I'd include it here...

Nov 21, 2012, Miami Cemetery (near Caesar Creek)
I had been thinking as I walked through the cemetery that everybody buried here had a story, but for most, the stories had been lost to time. I knew none of them, but I wanted to, so I set out to identify one of the most weathered and dilapidated gravestones I could find--the gravestone of someone who had been forgotten. I took a rubbing, and slowly a name started to show through, "Wife of Prof. J. W. Stewart." The gravestone next to the little weathered and unreadable gravestone was large and not nearly as weathered, "Prof. J. W. Stewart" stood out clearly. At least I knew a little bit more about the forgotten grave, but not a lot. I wondered what Prof. Stewart taught, so I did a quick search on my phone to see if there were any records out there, and amazingly a reprint of a newspaper article from July 25, 1907 from The Western Star of Lebanon, OH popped up. In the article, I was able to find out Prof. John W. Stewart was the first African American mayor of Harveysburg, and his wife was Virginia Singleton of Harveysburg! So the little weathered and forgotten gravestone belonged to Virginia. 

There are always connections, there is always significance to be found in the insignificant.                                   Matthew Riccetti.   

Click here for a link to the reprint of the newspaper article from The Western Star of Lebanon, OH from July 25, 1907 about Professor John W. Stewart, the first African American mayor of Harveysburg, OH.

Angel statue at Miami Cemetery in Waynesville, Ohio.

Common Goldeneyes in January...

I've been remiss at posting paintings for the 100 Painting Challenge! These paintings go all the way back to January when I saw the gorgeous Long-eared Owl near Caesar Creek State Park (click here for that post). After we saw the owl, we headed up to the Caesar Creek Lake boat launch to look for a few winter ducks. Nothing was close, but through the scopes, a few beautiful black and white ducks with large white spots on their faces (cheek patches) and bright yellow eyes were easy to see...

Painting 219. Common Goldeneye Before the Storm (oil pastel)
A storm was moving in as we watched a few Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) on the lake. To top that, night was falling which all but squelched the iridescent greens that show in the feathers on their heads when in the sun. 

Painting 218. Common Goldeneye in the Ice and Rain (oil pastel)
We wanted to stay longer to watch these beautiful ducks, but along with night, ice pellets and slushy rain were starting to fall. To avoid diminished driving conditions, we hit the road. The Goldeneyes bobbed on the water as we packed up our spotting scopes, diving now and then, not at all worried about the deteriorating weather conditions...

Painting 217. Common Goldeneye at Caesar Creek (watercolor sketchbook page)
This is a page out of my sketchbook -- even though I wrote 2011 in the description...it was 2012 (I'm usually pretty slow on the uptake of the new year in January!). When I got home, I did this quick entry in my sketchbook to remember these beautiful ducks. I did the oil pastels over the next few days.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up at the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge hosted by Laure Ferlita.

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

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.

An American Bald Eagle Study

…remember back on November 7 when I saw two beautiful American Bald Eagles flying over Caesar Creek Lake? I was so happy to see those two birds flying high in the sky so close to my house. Actually, I was beyond happy. I was ecstatic, awestruck…infatuated even, because it was the first time I had ever seen an American Bald Eagle flying in my town. My infatuation goes all the way back to 1967 when I was in the first grade and the bird was put on the endangered species list. At that time, conservation was huge, and we talked about the American Bald Eagle in school all the time. As a first grader, I knew the American Bald Eagle was threatened, even close to extinction--and we would probably NEVER, EVER see one in the wild—EVER! That was my reality, and that desperation was burned into my brain, and an intense love of the bird grew out of how fragile his stay on the planet was. We all knew about the DDT pesticide poisoning and how it had filtered into the lakes and streams, accumulating in the tissues of the fish the eagles ate, and causing the eagles to produce eggshells so thin they would break under the bird’s weight during incubation. It really was a hopeless and scary time, but…that is not the case anymore!! They are back, doing well, and can be regularly found in several places around Cincinnati!

…the Bald Eagle…is there a more intense looking bird? I love the oversized supraorbital ridge (the boney ridge above the eye) that puts a permanent snarl on his face. It’s really there to block the sun and help eliminate sun glare so he has an easier time hunting, but boy, oh boy, does it ever make him (and all hawks) look tough!

...the American Bald Eagle is my mom's favorite bird...this post is for you, mom!

An American Bald Eagle soaring over the water at at Caesar Creek State Park, Nov 7, 2009.

Beak Bit

A timeline of the American Bald Eagle's recovery in Ohio
To check on these dates, I went to my copy of Bruce G. Peterjohn’s, The Birds of Ohio. With such an amazing come-back story, it’s so cool knowing that a bird put on the endangered species list over 40 years ago is now living and breeding in our town!

Because the American Bald Eagle can live up to 30 years in the wild, their numbers remained stable even though the birth rate had dropped to almost zero due to the DDT which had poisoned their food supply in the 40s and 50s; however, as the older birds started to die, they were not replaced, and the American Bald Eagle’s population crashed. By 1979 Ohio was down to 4 or 5 pairs, and they weren’t producing many young. At this point, the Ohio Division of Wildlife stepped in and began managing the few pairs left by monitoring nests, trying to eliminate disturbances around breeding pairs, and transplanting young eagles into the nests of successful parents. These actions and the elimination of DDT in 1972 boosted Ohio’s Bald Eagle population to 12 pairs by 1989. In 1992 Ohio’s breeding population increased to 20 nests, 33 in 1996, and 57 in 1999. By the late 1990s, wintering eagle numbers soard to 100 -150 birds, and in a blog article from Cleveland.com from January 24, 2008, volunteers spotted an amazing 649 eagles during the Ohio Department of Natural Resources mid-winter survey. Of course, since the eagle is a water-loving bird and its diet consists primarily of fish, the largest concentration of eagles in Ohio is around Lake Erie, but as we well know, we have a few down in Cincy too...now!

...here are a few of my photographs of the bird from November 7, 2009...not nearly as commanding as the images made with a paintbrush, but you can at least make out his field marks!

Yes, oh yes...just 30 minutes north of our digs, this beautiful eagle was flying high.

...the Little Miami River is calling your name, bird...right at the bend near the Kings Powder Factory (or maybe that was me...).

...seeing the contrast between the white and black in the sky is beautiful.

...knowing this bird has fought its way back from near extinction is even more beautiful.

A Common Loon

...continued from the Large Milkweed Bugs post.
Let’s hop back a week to Saturday, Nov 7, when I went to Caesar Creek State Park with the Cincinnati Birding Club and saw 10+ Common Loons. My photos of the loons were horrible. We were so far away that they just looked like little silhouettes, so to get a decent view I had to paint one. The Common Loons we saw that day were not in breeding plumage, they were much duller in their basic plumage of gray and white, but if you’re going to paint a loon, he might as well be wearing his finery…

Common Loon in Breeding Plumage

In Cincinnati, we only get to see loons during migration, and even then, if you’re not in the right place at the right time, it’s hard, so I’ve never heard the incredible mating calls you hear so much about. I want to head up north one of these summers during breeding season so I can experience that. I would love to see a nest as well…

Since I’m not that familiar with the Common Loon, I got out my “Birds of Ohio” book by Jim McCormic to see if he had any interesting tid-bits about the bird. Part of the reason I like McCormic's book is because he throws in interesting facts you don’t find in standard field guides. The Common Loon is a diver, and if you’ve ever watched one, you know he can swim great distances under water. You probably also noticed he sits noticeably low in the water. Mr. M explains why,

“These divers are well adapted to their aquatic lifestyle: most birds have hollow bones, but loons have nearly solid bones that make them less buoyant. As a result, loons float low on the water, resembling partially submerged submarines.”

I would assume the extra weight helps them stay under the water as they dive for food, and probably has something to do with the fact they have to run across the water for so long (like an airplane on a runway) before they can become airborne. I remember reading somewhere that loons never glide when they are flying...I guess they have to flap those wings non-stop to keep their considerable heft aloft! Their wings are also fairly small for their bodies--all to help them dive and swim under water.

Flap oh hefty one, flap!

Another one of my favorite Ohio bird books is “The Birds of Ohio,” by Bruce G. Peterjohn. This is a must-have book. He lists records of sightings going all the way back to the 1800s, but what’s really helpful is the array of breeding bird atlas maps. If you have a question about a breeding bird in Ohio, it’s a great place to start. I always read this book to find out non-field guide information. It’s huge, too…coming in at 637 pages.

...like this photo is any better!

(Do you see why I had to paint this dude?)

If I want to get out and see some more of these birds, I had better hurry. According to Peterjohn,

“Common Loons are most numerous in autumn. The largest movements occur during November, when these loons become common to abundant along Lake Erie and fairly common to locally abundant on large inland lakes. During most years, numbers of Common Loons are greatly reduced by the first week of December. Most December sightings are of 1-8 loons, with occasional flocks of 15-40. The last flocks disappear by mid-December, although scattered individuals will remain into the first half of January as long as open water remains available.”

P.S. I just read on the Birding in Cincinnati website that 225+ Loons were on the river at Crooked Run Nature Preserve to the Meldahl Dam. I need to find out where this place is!

Those beautiful little snowbirds...

I love it when the Dark-eyed Juncos arrive. The have such a sweet twittering song, and they look so pretty against the snow. They also help mark the shift in the season. Riding the northern winds down to us, they seem to usher in the cold, reminding us it's time to get out the coats...and letting us know Thanksgiving is on the way!

Surrounded by green, this little snowbird looks out of place...

This little Junky was part of a small flock twittering away in a field bordering the forest near the Caesar Creek State Park nature center the weekend before last. The field was filled with grasses and weed seeds and sunlight, and the juncos seemed very happy to find it.

It was 65 degrees F when I took these photos. Too warm for a Junky (but I'm sure he's not complaining).

It has been a very strange fall here. This morning as I was putting seed in the feeders I heard another of our winter snowbirds, a White-throated Sparrow, singing in the brushy area at the back of our garden. It wasn’t a full song, more of a half song (Oh sweet Canada...), but he sang over and over, and he sang sweetly. It was 50 degrees, so not very cold. In this extended Indian Summer my flowers have re-greened and the petunias are blooming again. Listening to the White-throated Sparrow singing and seeing the fresh blooms made it feel like a spring morning.

...hmm....no snow in the front of me...

...none to the right...

...none to the left...

Rick told me there are more and more record highs being reported. It used to be a 50/50 ratio between record highs and record lows, but now, it seems to be 3 to 1 record highs to record lows. He said in the next 10 years it's reported it might reach 300/1 ratios. At least I think that's what he said. I should look it up, but I don't have time. I have to unpack all my shorts...

(Writing this is probably the kiss of death to our unseasonably warm weather). It has been so warm we have not yet had to turn on our furnace! Our house is well insulated, but even so, this is the longest stretch into fall we've ever had without turning on the heat.

(If you want to see some older posts of Junkys in the snow...click here.)

Large Milkweed Bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus)

Saturday I went on a very exciting field trip with the Cincinnati Birding Club to Caesar Creek State Park in Warren County, Ohio. We saw some fabulous birds and the weather was perfect, but while searching for birds, I saw these Large Milkweed bugs...and they were close and immobile, and photographed infinitely better than the Common Loons, Hooded Mergansers....and American Bald Eagles I saw along the way (more on those pretties later)!

Large Milkweed Bugs on a Common Milkweed pod. One adult is at the top (he has wings), two fifth instars are at the bottom (they are nymphs, or immature versions of the Large Milkweed bugs--notice that they don't have usable wings yet.)

Milkweed bugs molt five times (nymphal instars) before they become adults. During these stages, the nymphs look similar to the adults except their color pattern is a little different and they do not have fully developed wings (during the middle instars black wing pads start to form, but they can not use their wings until they are adults--a great way to keep the kids at home and safe until they grow up).

Close-up of a middle instar. You can see the black wing pads. He's definitely not flying anywhere with those things! Eggs hatch in about a week if the temp is 75 degrees F or above. The bug goes through the five molts to become an adult in about a month! The adult then lives for about a month.

Three adult Large Milkweed Bugs and two instars.

At the tip of the Milkweed pod a group of adults are massing together to form a color warning to birds and other predators.

This behavior is thought to amplify the Milkweed bug's ability to broadcast a color warning. Since Milkweed bugs eat milkweed, which is toxic, they do not taste good. A young bird will think twice before downing another orange and black bug the second time it comes across one...and a great big mass of orange and black is a big warning to stay away! This is the same sort of protection Monarch butterflies receive because as caterpillars they too feed on Common Milkweed. Click here for an older post explaining how Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies and Monarch butterflies receive the same protection (and for a look at how beautiful Common Milkweed is as a flower in the summer).

I love how delicate their legs look against the silk of the milkweed seeds.

What do we have here? At first I thought it was a different bug, but if you look closely, you can see it's an adult with abnormally developed wings. For some reason they have shriveled and dried up. Perhaps on his final molt he was not able to pump hemolymph (bug blood) through the veins in his wings to unfurl them. I don't know...

Another view of our adult Milkweed bug's shriveled wings.

You can see how different the Large Milkweed bug looks without wings to cover his body.

For more information on Large Milkweed bugs, click here.

For photos of all the instars of Large Milkweed bugs, click here.

Winterberry Holly is on my Spring Planting Wishlist

Two weeks ago I posted a small blurb about the beautiful red berry bush just outside the viewing room at the Caesar Creek Lake Visitor’s Center. Last week when I went back, I asked the ranger about it. I didn’t even have to finish my sentence before she blurted out, “Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a Winterberry Holly. We get tons of questions about it.”


That evening I did a little research and found it’s also called “black alder” and “fever bush.” The National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Wildflowers, Eastern Region, says,

This shrub is extremely showy in late fall and early winter, when covered with bright fruits. Birds are readily attracted to them.

Well, that sounds good to me! I garden for the birds all the time and am always looking for new plants. My native red mulberry trees are amazing, especially when dripping with Cedar Waxwings. In the summer, I love it when I’m outside and first hear their twittery call. All I have to do is look up into the mulberry and there they are. But the nice thing about winterberry hollies is even if the birds decide to pass them by, they are stunning in the drab, winter landscape. Some references indicate winterberries are often used by birds only as emergency food sources, and that is good too.

Winterberry holly is native to eastern Canada and the eastern half of the Unite States. It likes a wet foot, so if you have swampy area in your yard (which I do), you’re set. Winterberry holly is dioecious, so you need to buy at least one male plant and one female plant to obtain the beautiful red berries. In the photo, you’ll notice it sheds its leaves in the fall. Being deciduous is part of its charm, because the berries are all the more noticeable.

An interesting tidbit, the common name "fever bush," comes from the fact that native Americans (of eastern North America) used winterberry to reduce fever.

Lunchtime Fieldtrip Thursday: Caesar Creek State Park

At about 11:30 I headed up to Caesar Creek State Park. It was 12 degrees. When I pulled into the visitor’s center 22 mins later, it was 10. It was cold, but because it was sunny it didn't seem that bad. Everything sparkled in the fresh snow, and the bird sounds were clear and amplified in the brisk air. I asked the ranger if the redpoll had made another appearance since last week, but no, he hadn’t come back. The siskins hadn’t been there today either, nor the purple finches, but that was okay. I just wanted to get out and walk in the snow.

To get a little closer to the birds at the feeder, I slipped around back to the trail that overlooks the lake. One other set of footprints on the trail showed another birder had had the same idea. The lake was gorgeous, shimmering in the sun.

Love this tree with the cool woodpecker holes.

...and this hole looks like it's still under construction.

As I walked past the construction hole, a startled junco flew up and shot just to the right of my head, eye level, inches to the right of my ear. I watched his little pink bill fly by. It was so cool I could barely stand it. It was audible too. The wings made a tiny sound as he shot past my ear. He was like a little bullet of grey feathers with a pink beak. Junco bullet! 

Almost immediately I heard that wonderful little nuthatch sound and looked up. There he was, just over my head. 

Even the white-breasted nuthatch was chilled, 

puffing up his feathers to insulate against the cold.

That same fat, beautiful Fox Sparrow from last week was there, as well as three Tree Sparrows, lots of juncos, chickadees, goldfinches, downies, red-bellieds, white-breasted nuthatches, and the other usual suspects. Missing from the bunch, Red! He's probably hanging out with the redpolls and siskins, the little traitor!

Lunchtime Fieldtrip Thursday: No Redpoll, No Siskin, but a Nice Fox Sparrow

I drove up to Caesar Creek Lake Visitor Center today in hopes of spotting the Common Redpoll that’s been hanging around, but he was hiding today. The park ranger told us that a Cooper’s Hawk had been scaring off the birds and the redpoll had not been seen all morning. John, a fellow birder in search of the redpoll, hoped the hawk hadn’t made an early morning snack of him! Let’s hope not!

All in all, it was a good trip though, because a big, beautiful Fox Sparrow hung around for a while. John, if you catch this post, he came back two more times after you left. We also saw a Song Sparrow, a Tree Sparrow, numerous wonderful Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Downies, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Darke-eyed Juncos, Cardinals, Blue Jays, House and Purple finches, Chickadees, Goldfinch..all the usual suspects, but also sorely missing from our tally were the Pine Siskins. The ranger said they skipped out today also. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back out soon.


Beautiful and almost shockingly red berries flank the viewing room at the visitor's center.