Birding at Fort Ancient State Memorial in Warren County, Ohio

I think I’ve found a new haunt—Fort Ancient! Located just 15 minutes up I-71 from where we live in Warren County, Fort Ancient is located on a gorgeous wooded plateau perched 245 feet above the Little Miami River. What makes it special? It is the largest prehistoric earthen hilltop enclosure in the United States. Built 2000 years ago by Mound Builders, the earth walls stretch 3.5 miles, enclosing over 100 acres of hilltop. Mound Builders used small baskets to move more than 553,000 cubic yards of soil to form the earthen walls that reach from 4 to 23 feet in height. Amazingly, most of the earthworks are still visible and retain the same form they had over 2000 years ago! Archeologists estimate it took about 400 years (100BC – 290AD) to build the entire complex.

A 2000 year old earthen wall at Fort Ancient State Memorial.

As you drive through the park, you can see earthen walls rimming the plateau. Believed to

be a gathering place and religious ceremonial complex, Fort Ancient has specific ties to the Summer and Winter Solstice.

Click here for a link to the Ohio Archaeology Blog for a post on the Winter Solstice celebration on Dec 20, 2008 and previous Summer Solstice celebrations.

I love these signs....thank goodness some of the mounds and earthworks in our state have been protected and preserved.

While I was there, I visited the bookstore (of course) at the museum and found two really nice books to help me learn about the Hopewell Culture and the Mound Builders of Ohio:

Ohio Archaeology, by Bradley T. Lepper

This book is fabulous. It chronicles all the earthworks in Ohio. It will be my primary reference as I learn more and more about these prehistoric sites scattered throughout our state. It's loaded with survey maps, photos, the most recent analysis of the purpose of the earthworks, and history. I already caught Matty reading it too. It's very interesting.

The Fort Ancient Earthworks, Prehistoric Lifeways of the Hopewell Culture in Southwestern Ohio, Edited by Robert P. Connolly and Bradley T. Lepper.

This book is specific to Fort Ancient and is a bit more technical. I don't think it was written for lay people because it was based on a symposium sponsored by the Ohio Historical Society, but I'm crazy for it!! It's loaded with survey maps and in-depth articles on all aspects of Fort Ancient.

To top it off, I heard and saw lots of birds and will definitely be back for more birding as well as studying the magnificent earthen walls. I'm sure Fort Ancient will be a jackpot during spring migration. Among the highlights of Sunday's birding was a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings hawking insects above the North Overlook of the South Fort. I've seen large flocks of Cedar Waxwings along the Little Miami River near where we live systematically moving from tree to tree and devouring insects on the wing, but this flock was larger than any I'd ever seen. A constant flurry of activity, the birds were thick in the air as they constantly dove out to nab insects, returning to the towering oaks for just a moment before launching back out for another snack! Tiny flakes of tree debris kept falling all around me as the birds disturbed the upper branches en masse. It almost appeared they were using the twigs for springboards to launch themselves back out into the sky...

A box turtle is always a surprise!

...continued from Thursday's walk along the Little Miami River when a fawn was watching me.
Off the trail….about 20 ft into the shadows, a box turtle sat motionless on the hillside beside a steep drop-off to the creek. Surprised I could see something so small from such a distance, especially since he was tucked among green shoots and dark, rotting leaves, my heart jumped! Box turtles are such special creatures. Just looking at them sparks our imaginations and connects us to their prehistoric past, and we can’t help but feel some of their ancient ways seeping from their armored shells, plated legs, and wary eyes...

An eastern box turtle (Terrepenne carolina carolina)

is hidden among leaves and dark detritus.

The box turtle is so named because his plastron

(lower shell) is hinged, and both the front and back

portions can be pulled up tightly against his carapace

(upper shell), encasing him in a protective "box."

The box turtle's slow and gentle nature invites study.

If you are quiet and unobtrusive, boxers will sit

willingly without closing up in their shells, eventually

lumbering away when they are sure you are not a threat.

International Vulture Awareness Day 2009

Last April, Rick, Matty and I went to Clifty Falls State Park in Indiana for spring break where we saw Turkey Vultures galore! Riding on thermals and circling out over the Ohio river, fourteen of them put on quite a show outside our fourth-floor balcony...

Being almost eye-level with the Turkey Vultures in flight

was so much fun! They would float past our balcony over

and over on giant loops as they circled over the Ohio River

and then circled back past our room. In every return flight,

they seemed to be eyeing me and the camera!

For more Turkey Vulture photos and the earlier

posts from our Clifty Falls trip, click here.

"Today, bloggers from all over the world are spreading the love for vultures by participating in the IVAD09 virtual event. All participants of IVAD09 aim to raise awareness about the important role vultures play in our environment and the alarming problems vultures are facing today. Birdlife.org posted: ‘The world needs to learn to love vultures – or lose them.'"

...someone is watching me!

Walking along the Little Miami River the other day, I was surprised when I glanced to my right to find this sweet fawn looking directly at me! Usually I hear white-tailed deer before I see them. Snapping twigs or the rustling of leaves on branches often announce them as they lightly make their way down well-worn hillside trails, never slipping, cautious and gorgeous, but sometimes a rhythmic dull thudding rises up from the lowlands beside the river, and I catch them running, their hooves pounding into the compacted and decaying leaves beneath them as they rush through—which is always the best! Watching a small family race through the green leaves, bounding over rivulets or fallen branches is spellbinding, but this encounter was pretty cool too. I have no idea how long the fawn had been watching me. She wasn’t afraid. Just curious it seemed. Eventually her mom and another fawn came up behind her and then they moved on, but she was last. After the other two past, she slowly turned and went with them.

Climbing the corporate ladder goldfinch-style!

...continued from yesterday's post on the American Goldfinches.

I don’t think I would be very good at climbing a real corporate ladder, but I think I could handle moving up by doing it goldfinch-style! In this series, our little goldfinch spies a nice thistle head several "rungs" above him. No problem. Watch what he does….

Let me just grab this stem and pull it down a bit….

...now I can grab it a little lower…

…that's good! Now I can just step right on that

stem for easy access to the thistle...voila!

It's good to be a goldfinch!

Juvenile American Goldfinches

...continued from Sunday's American Goldfinch post.
The papa goldfinch never did feed the juveniles no matter how much they begged. He showed them how to pluck and eat the seeds from the thistle head over and over. I bet by the evening the juveniles had the hang of it, and the papa was sick of thistle seeds! ;-)

Hopeful...papa will bring me a seed!

Wondering...papa might not bring me a seed...

Realization...papa is not bringing me a seed.

...that could poke an eye out!

When I saw this photo I laughed. I know I'd think twice before diving into that thing for a seed or two!

Study those things long and hard Mr. G.

The spines on that teasel look dangerous

to me, no matter how tasty the seed!