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.

Butter Butts...

This female Yellow-rumped Warbler was flitting through the branches at the edge of the woods. She was low in the trees and very busy looking for insects. Suddenly she stopped and stared up at something. She looked backed and forth, eyeing it from different directions, sitting still...and giving me a great shot of her namesake...

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata), aka Butter Butt...
It's easy to see how this warbler got its nickname! 

The yellow feathers on top of her head account for the scientific name of "coronata," which is from the Latin "corona," which means "crown."

Yellow-rumped Warblers have a beautiful broken white eye ring... 

...but it's that lovely little pat of butter that makes it easy to identify this beauty!

Yellow-rumps do not nest in our area, but they are plentiful and common during migration, and you can find them here in the winter. I've seen them every now and then along the Little Miami and at Winton Woods too.

...and their bellies are pretty too! 

These photos are all from the week I spent this May at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding festival.

Click here for another post on the sweet Butter Butt.


Note: Magee Marsh is one of the sites on the Nature Conservancy's Natural Treasures of Ohio.

An Eastern Fox Snake at Magee Marsh...

I was walking along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement to the left in a tree, but when I looked directly at the tree, I saw nothing but dark circles of dappled sunlight. "Hmmm...I know I saw something moving..." went through my mind, until suddenly the "dark circles of dappled sunlight" started sliding into the hollow of the tree. "Wow! Is that a Fox Snake?" I said out loud, and several people looked over...a few scurried away with a shriek when they saw the snake silently sinking into the dead tree, but a few others stayed to watch. "Yes, it is a Fox Snake!" said one older gentleman with a grin on his face. "I've wanted to see one of those for a long time," he continued. "I've wanted to see one for a long time too!" I said. "He looks just like the photos in the books! I've never seen one in the wild--life snake!" :-)

An Eastern Fox Snake (Elaphe gloydi) climbs silently in a dead tree along the boardwalk of Magee Marsh near Cleveland, Ohio. 

Eastern Fox Snakes are not common in Ohio. They are listed as "Species of Concern" by the Ohio Division of Wildlife and can only be found around Lake Erie and Lake Huron in the United States and Canada (Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, click here). I always assumed I'd never see one in the wild because I don't make it up to Lake Erie that often, but in the back of my mind, I was hoping to see one. Just like the Blanding Turtle I saw at Magee (here), I knew there was a chance I'd find an Eastern Fox Snake at Magee too.

The camouflaging colors of an Eastern Fox Snake help it blend into a dead tree. Unfortunately, the same colors sometimes fool people into thinking they are looking at a Copperhead or a Massasauga, both of which are venomous, but the Eastern Fox Snake is nonvenomous and completely harmless to humans. Unfortunately, over the years many have been killed out of fear and mistaken identity! I didn't get to hear it, but the Eastern Fox Snake can vibrate its tail when it's frightened, which often causes people to confuse it with a Timber Rattlesnake. (Source, Ohio DNR, here.)

Eastern Fox Snakes can get pretty big, and this snake was no slouch! I don't know if this snake was over the full-grown height of five feet because a lot of his body was curled in the hollow of the tree. He moved quickly, sinking down into the hole and out of sight much too soon... 

Some Eastern Fox Snakes have a reddish or copper-colored head, and our guy is a prime example. This coppery color is another reason Fox Snakes are often killed after being mistakenly identified as a venomous Copperhead Snake. Copperheads are one of the three venomous snakes found in Ohio, but are mostly found in southeast Ohio...far away from this fellow! 

This snake was beautiful. He had a light brown to yellowish background that matched the dead tree's color perfectly, and the round splotches of dark brown to black color were striking. His reddish head just topped it all off!

I saw this fellow back in May when I was at the Biggest Week in American Birding festival. I spent a lot of time on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh looking for birds, but there's more that just birds living in the Black Swamp. Frogs, turtles, snakes, muscrats, moths, butterflies, the list goes on and on.  So if you have a chance this summer head up to Magee Marsh and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

Natural Treasures of Ohio sweepstakes
Magee Marsh is one of the sites on the Nature Conservancy's Natural Treasures of Ohio sweepstakes (May 22 - August 8). You can enter to win a Honda Insight Hybrid after visiting Magee Marsh! Click here for details on how to win the car.

The Nature Conservancy's 6th Annual Digital Photo Competition -- It's not too late to enter!

The Nature Conservancy is looking for photos...possibly yours! At least 35 photos will be selected as honorable mentions and finalists. The grand prize winner will then be selected from the finalists through a popular vote by the online community. To top things off, the grand prize winner will be featured on the cover of the 2013 Nature Conservancy calendar! If you want to help out the Nature Conservancy, give it a try. There are three ways to enter:

1. Via Flickr -- click here.

2. Via Facebook -- click here.

3. Via an online form and email -- click here.

For rules, terms and conditions, click here. Original digital photos that feature the natural wonders of the lands, waters, plants, animals, and people around the world in nature are all eligible for the competition. The deadline for submitting entries is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on September 12, 2011. Entrants may submit as many photos as they'd like!