Restless Bush Crickets

A pair of restless bush crickets, Hapithus agitator, meet on a milkweed leaf. The female is on the left. Males in northern populations are not known to "sing", and it's unclear how they find females. I was hoping they would mate, but both soon wandered off. During the transfer of the spermatophore during mating, the female will snack on the male's wings, sometimes reducing them to stubs. I was hoping to photo-document their cannibalistic sex, but that's for another day. Warren County, Ohio, yesterday morning.

Marbled Godwit

Two Marbled Godwits Visit Riverview

Marbled Godwits

Two Marbled Godwits have been visiting Riverview marsh for over a week now.  Since they were discovered, they have drawn birders from near and far.  When I visited a few days ago they were feeding heavily fairly close to the dike edge that crosses the marsh from Point Park Drive area.  They were exciting to watch and paid very little attention to the 3 birders present.  There were almost enough godwits to call them a 'prayer of godwits', a name used sometimes for a group of these birds.  

Godwits are classed in the genus, Limosa, with the Marbled Godwit being Limosa fedoa.  Godwits  are large shorebirds with long legs and long upturned bills.  They feed by probing the mud while standing in water or along the shoreline.  There are four species of godwits which occur in North America.  Marbled and Hudsonian Godwits can be found here but Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits are very rare visitors usually to other parts of North America.  Black-tailed Godwits are seen occasionally in Newfoundland.

Marbled Godwit

Godwits are so-named after their vocal rendition of god-wit.  Marbled Godwit vocals are hoarser than other godwits and usually say something like kaaWEK or ker-ret.  They are an easy shorebird to identify.  Because of their large size (46 cm/ 18 in long), they stand out in a flock of smaller shorebirds.  They are often seen wading and feeding in the water, probing deeply in the mud with their long bills sometimes even with their head under water.  They are, in fact, the largest and most widespread godwit.  They are not common here because they are mainly a western species, normally breeding in the prairie provinces and southward into the Dakotas and Minnesota.  They winter on the southern coasts of eastern and western North America into Mexico.  

Specifically, what do they look like?  As you can see in the photo above, they are a tawny colour. Their plumage varies from breeding to non-breeding seasons.  The birds shown above are in non-breeding plumage which is much less barred on the sides and breast than the breeding plumage.  The main feature of a godwit is its long upturned bill.  In the Marbled Godwit it is pink at the base and black at the tip.  The female sometimes has a longer bill than the male, but both have long bills!  The dorsal body areas are mottled dark brown with tan as the dark feather centres are edged with tan.  The long legs are dark in colour and covered in blue-grey hair (seen only with the bird in hand).  The female is larger than the male.  Winter (non-breeding) adults become less barred and grayer.  When Marbled Godwits fly they show their cinnamon-coloured wing linings.  This is an identifying feature which separates them from all the other godwit species.  

The only other godwit you would likely have to distinguish the Marbled Godwit from here in New Brunswick is the Hudsonian Godwit which occurs regularly here in small numbers each fall.  You wouldn't mistake them because the Hudsonian Godwit is smaller, has dark wing-linings and a narrow white wing stripe which is remarkable in flight.  A Long-billed Curlew which is very rare here has a similar colouration to the Marbled Godwit but is larger and has a very long decurved bill (curved downward).

Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwits nest on grassy plains and meadows near ponds and lakes.  Their nest is a slight depression in the ground lined with grass.  They lay 3 to 5 green to olive eggs marked with brown.  Both adults share the task of incubation.  It is reported that this species is not easily flushed from its nest and incubating adults can sometimes be picked up from the nest without startling them.  After breeding season the birds head to the coasts where they often feed in salt marshes, tidal creeks and other muddy coastal areas.  

Birding for shorebirds is a fun and rewarding activity this time of year.  Viewing the large flocks of migating birds gives one a wonderful feeling of how wonderful nature is and how neatly all the migration paths of millions of birds fit together and how the landscape manages to feed and shelter them all.  It is too good a season to miss.

Two showy plants

I spent a long weekend down in Shawnee State Forest and vicinity, getting quite photo-intensive. Debbie DiCarlo and I were there to conduct one of our photo workshops, this one HERE. We had nine great attendees from far and wide (max number was ten and that one had some unfortunate last minute issues), and saw scads of stuff. Butterflies, caterpillars (LOTS!!), other insects, flora, snakes, rare Mississippi kites, and more. Hopefully I'll get to sharing some of our finds here, later.

The Shawnee workshop was our second to last of the year. The last one will be a doozy, though. We'll visit the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to shoot landscapes at the peak of fall color (October 6-10). Full details, and photos from last year's scouting trip, ARE HERE.

For now, here are two exceptionally showy plants...

A particularly robust specimen of the slender blazing-star, Liatris cylindracea. Many plants have but one flower head. This elfin species is much shorter than the rest of our five Ohio blazing-star species, and is probably the rarest. It's listed as threatened. This population blankets a tiny roadside prairie near West Union, and I first saw the place at least 20 years ago. Good to know all is still well here. Adams County, last Thursday.

A showy flowering spike of downy lobelia, Lobelia puberula. A southerner, downy lobelia occurs on dry, mostly open slopes, road banks and open woods in about the southern one-fifth of Ohio. Shawnee State Forest, Scioto County, last Friday.

London 2019 - Covent Garden

Something colourful to start with this last blog entry on London this year.

Our hotel is so nicely placed out of the centre, yet so close to get to

our favourite haunts, like Covent Garden.

I like to visit Neale's Yard and especially this lovely place to stock up on some

natural oils and creams.

There are many decorated pubs with fabulous hanging baskets of flowers.

Looking up!

There's always some kind of animation going on in Covent Garden

the fascinated crowds are drawn in to watch.

This is the covered area with small shops and places to eat and drink and free concerts.

Hanging baskets adorn the streets

One building is cleverly decorated in climbing plants

A classical building in a street called

King Street.

One of our favourite stops: Paul's boulangerie and patisserie.

They serve good coffee and different kinds of French bread

and some of the cakes and tarts are very tempting.

Our favourite is apple tart topped with a sprinkling of almond flakes.

We took quite a long walk on foot to visit the Museum of London

and I did enjoy the lovely reflections in the modern buildings on the way.

We passed these two men practicing their climbing skills on a high building.

Rather an unexpected scene to see!

One evening we went to the theatre to see the musical "The Phantom of the Opera"

with wonderful music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

When you visit London, going to the theatre is a must!

I love walking through the small gardens dotted around London

and seeing the colourful seasonal flowers in bloom.

Two girls chatting in the grass behind some flowers which served to protect

their privacy.

The window in my hotel room. I always appreciate being on the garden side of the building

This was taken early morning after the sun started to filter between the leaves

of the trees and the morning breeze blew the sheer curtains back and forth, 

creating a feeling of peace.

This is the end of my time in England this year.

Next time, I'll talk about the month of August in which I participated in

30 Days of Composition.

Such fun to do!

Snippets from London 2019

A stay in London is always very special.

There are favourite haunts to visit and new ones to discover.

We always stay in the Bloomsbury area near Russell Square.

It's quiet and yet not far at all from the centre.

This lovely red door with polished chrome is in the street of  our hotel.

Nearby is the British Museum

full of interesting things to see.

like this marvellous ship which is actually an animated clock

which was put on banquet tables as a decoration.

This is the style of the Bed and Breakfast Hotels in the area.

I've stayed in this one too.

I do love the colourful window boxes of flowers.

Sicilian Avenue is where we often have our main meal of the day

in an Italian restaurant with a good choice of the sort of food we like to eat.

On the other side of Russell Square Park

is the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel

Very grand inside with lots of marble and beautiful mosaic work in the entrance.

To give you a better idea of the mosaic design.

We had delicious sherries here with my son when he joined us in London

for a couple of days.

Here is an image of Queen Victoria hanging in front of a shop selling collector's coins.

It's just opposite the British Museum.

I couldn't put up an image of Victoria without adding a statue of her husband,

Prince Albert.

A red, sight-seeing double-decker bus.

Another bus and a taxi near the restaurant we go to.

The taxis are no longer only black now.

Many of them are coloured, either plain or with designs and even advertisements.

Since most people use mobile phones these days, 

the well-known red telephone booths are being recycled.

This one offers on the spot smart phone repairs!

There's even an Insect Hotel in the nearby park.

I love that!

I'll stop here for today with some of the photos I took in London, but I shall continue with a few more very soon!

Crayfish species known as mudbugs excel at tunneling

Roger Thoma with a little brown mudbug, Lacunicambarus thomai, a species named for him/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

August 18, 2019

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Ohio has plenty of wild “micro-lobsters”, although they’re largely out of sight and mind. And off the dinner plate. They are crayfish, and many a young Huck Finn wannabe grubbed for these pincered crustaceans in the local creek.

Stream-dwelling crayfish are the most conspicuous of the approximately 22 species known from Ohio. Far less known are the “mudbugs,” a suite of crayfish species that spend most of their time in the subterranean. Their presence is often revealed by impressive mud chimneys that ring the burrows.

Although mudbug chimneys often stimulate comments, few people probably know the architect’s identity, let alone meet one. The relatively few burrowing crayfish that I’ve encountered have been during rainy nights, when they’ll sometimes roam overland.

Thus, a recent invitation from Anthony Sasson, who works with the Midwest Biodiversity Institute, was of great interest. He had organized an outing with two of the country’s premier crayfish researchers, Mael Glon of Ohio State University and Roger Thoma of the biodiversity institute.

Thoma has the rare distinction of having a crayfish named in his honor, and it was this crayfish that was our primary quarry. In the 67-year-old Ohioan’s decades of crayfish research, he has described at least a dozen new species. Thoma is regarded as one of North America’s foremost experts. Glon, at only age 29, is hot on his heels, having already described three new species, with more to come.

Soon enough, the four of us were bushwhacking along a small western Franklin County stream. In no time, Glon and Thoma had located crayfish burrows and set about the laborious task of extricating the occupants. Crayfish “noodling” involves stretching a gloved arm deep into the burrow and feeling for the crayfish.

Before long, a little brown mudbug was unearthed: Lacunicambarus thomai, Roger’s honorific crayfish. Thoma’s colleague Raymond Jezerinac described it in 1993, and now the secretive crustacean is known to occur in much of the state and in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The burrows created by little brown mudbugs and similar species are marvels of excavation. Although most tunnels are only a few feet in depth, exceptional burrows might go 10 feet deep if that’s what it takes to reach the water table and permanent moisture.

Mudbugs spend most of their time in the cool, dank depths, luxuriating in an enlarged chamber at the tunnel’s terminus. Come nightfall, the crayfish ventures to the tunnel’s above-ground portal. It lies in wait for potential prey such as insects, worms and other small invertebrates. Vegetation also forms part of the diet.

So, “what good are mudbugs?” some might ask. Burrowing crayfish are keystone species — their work positively influences numerous other species. Snakes, including the rare Massassauga rattlesnake, use the burrows for shelter. Larvae of the federally endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly mature in the tunnels.

Numerous other small critters — mole crickets, spiders, salamanders — routinely occupy crayfish burrows. The crayfish themselves are an important part of the food web. They’re eaten by bass and other fish, herons, mink, raccoons and turtles. A declining reptile, the queen snake, feeds almost exclusively on soft, freshly molted crayfish.

Many thanks to astacologists Glon and Thoma for shedding light on a poorly known but fascinating part of the animal kingdom.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

A crayfish chimney at the entrance to a burrow/Jim McCormac

Calopogon - Small Pink Orchid

Calopogon - Our Third Small Pink Orchid 

Calopogon (Grass Pink)

Calopogon tuberosus (Grass Pink) is another of our three small pink orchids that can be found relatively easily in summer in New Brunswick.  The other two are Arethusa and Rose Pogonia.  See previous blog posts for information on those two.

Calopogon is listed as uncommon by Hinds but is locally common in many bogs in late June to early July.  It prefers to grow in sphagnous bogs and fens and can be found from Manitoba to Newfoundland south to Texas and Florida.  The flower is magenta-pink, 2.5 cm wide with an erect yellow-bearded lip at the top.  Its single basal leaf is grasslike, less than 2.5 cm broad.  There can be 2 to 10 flowers on a single raceme.    The plant is 20 to 30 cm tall (8 to 12 in).  

Calopogon (Grass Pink)

Along with the special lip the flower has 5 similar parts; 3 sepals and 2 side petals.  It has a pleasant sweet smell.  This species is unique in that the flower actually turns upside down as it develops.  Note the lip is uppermost which is the opposite to most orchids.  At some time during its development it slowly turns 180º.  It can easily be recognized by its bearded uppermost lip and its single grass-like leaf.  

Calopogon (Grass Pink)

Calopogon is named from the Greek for 'beautiful beard'.  Its specific name, 'tuberosus', is from the single tuber from which it grows.  Another similar species which grows in North Carolina, Calopogon barbatus, also has pink flowers but they all open at once.  The flowers of our native Calopogon open successively as seen in the photo above.  

Calopogon (Grass Pink)

We don't have any other orchid which turns itself upside down and the deep magenta-pink of this beautiful orchid is a delight to see.  Check one of our bogs early next summer and look for this small gem.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird pollinates Cardinal-flower

I made an epic foray into southern Ohio's Shawnee State Forest back on August 1, and had several photographic goals in addition to shooting whatever I might bumble into. One of these goals was to photograph a ruby-throated hummingbird in the act of pollinating a plant that the little birds are especially smitten with. Some success was had, and the story plays out below.

Cardinal-flower, Lobelia cardinalis, one of our showiest native plants. It seems fitting that such a gorgeous plant would have an interesting pollination ecology that involves one of our most charismatic birds.

The flowers on this spike are young, and mostly staminate (male) at this point. The arcuate grayish projection from the summit of the flower contains the sexual parts, and when the flowers are new they extend a brushlike clump of stamens capped by the anthers which contain pollen.

This is a different cardinal-flower in the same colony, but the flowers are older and have progressed to putting forth largely female organs. The stubby grayish protrusions are now mostly capped with longer extensions that contain the stigma, or female pollen receptacle. The male anthers have done their work regarding pollen dispersal, and been replaced by the opposite sex.

One must exercise some patience when trying for shots such as these. I found a few particularly stately cardinal-flower spikes, rigged up my tripod-mounted Canon 5D IV with 400mm lens, and 600 speedlite, then settled into a three-legged camo chair to await my quarry. As it happened, I did not have to wait long before a female ruby-throated hummingbird appeared. After making these images, I disassembled my big rig and went back with a wide-angle lens for general flower shots. While doing that, this tiny but fearless hummer returned and began working flowers within a few feet of where I knelt.

The hummers routinely visit cardinal-flowers, which apparently are prolific nectar-makers. The nectaries are deep within the corolla, forcing the bird to plunge its bill far into the flower. In the process, the top of its head makes contact with the downward-curving sexual flower parts. If the flower is in the male phase, pollen will be deposited on the hummingbird. If in the female phase, pollen from some other flower - hopefully from another plant - will transfer from the bird's head to the stigma, and thus pollinate the flower and allow production of fruit.

A closer view, showing the flower's stigma scraping the top of the hummingbird's head. It'd be virtually impossible for the bird to access its reward - the nectar - without coming forcefully into contact with the flower's reproductive parts.
 

While hummingbirds certainly must be the primary pollinator of cardinal-flower, as is often said, I believe that swallowtail butterflies, especially spicebush swallowtail, Papilio troilus, must at least occasionally provide pollination services. This is a spicebush swallowtail working the same patch that the hummingbird above frequented. Swallowtails swarm blooming cardinal-flowers and at times there were a dozen or more mobbing these flowers. While the butterfly/flower dynamic is not as well architected as the hummingbird/flower arrangement, I bet pollen still gets transferred between both flower forms.

The coevolution of cardinal-flower and hummingbirds is a particularly showy example of the myriad ways in which plants have forged alliances with animals.

Killer whales, car parks and The Whale Sanctuary.

The entertainment website LAD Bible perpetuating pseudoscience rather than objective journalism

"...there is no evidence to suggest the size of zoo car park should determine the size of their animal exhibits…"

One of the arguments against having large animals in human care such as whales and dolphins is that in the wild these animals range over large areas. This is then presented juxtaposed to the habitats these animals are provided with within human care. 

One such animal-rights meme (promoted by the animal rights group the Orca Project) has been an aerial photograph of one of the SeaWorld parks comparing the killer whale habitat with the size of the car park and an ornamental lake. As always this is an appeal to emotion from the animal rights industry. Moreover, as regards animal welfare it is not valid, particularly when comparing the life of animals in the wild with those in human care.

First, there is the obvious observation that there is no scientific correlation between the size of a car park in a zoological collection with the size of the facilities needed for the successful care of the animals they exhibit. Further, such a comparison is erroneous because in the wild many animal species may travel long distances for two primary reasons: one is to forage for food and the other is reproduction. They have to undertake these behaviours as a matter of survival: they are not undertaking this for recreational reasons. 

In fact, research that looked into the provisioning (feeding) of wild animals actually demonstrates that these animals do not move away from the area where they are being fed. This is why many countries like the USA prohibit the feeding of wild animals by the public because it distorts their natural behaviour; makes animals dependent on humans for their food and it can compromise their welfare. A case in point is the wild dolphins living in Australia at Monkey Mai where provisioning of the animals by the public has caused serious problems as regards animals welfare.

Moreover, animals in human care are living in artificial environments and therefore the dynamics are different than the wild. They are dependent on their food from their caretakers which does not involve the animals having to travel long distances. Therefore, giving them environments to live in that reflect travelling distance when foraging for food in the wild serves no useful purpose.

This is not to say that in human care animals can be kept in any form of restricted environment but these considerations need to be objectively assessed. Again, using the travelling distances that animals need to forage in the wild is not an appropriate parameter. It should be noted that a number of countries including the United States, have specific legislation that regulates the parameters of care that animals must be given. 

The Whale Sanctuary Project and their need for animals.

Perhaps it's worth considering why the animal rights industry is taking so much time and trouble with these kinds of campaigns. 

Originally, SeaWorld was going to extend their killer whale facilities in a project called the Blue World Project. However, problems developed in California in October 2015 when the California Coastline Commission (under pressure from animal rights activists) try to dictate SeaWorld's animal husbandry policy. The Commission stated that SeaWorld must undertake a breeding ban of their killer whales before they will give permission for the new facility to be built. SeaWorld then commenced suing the California Coastline Commission. 

However, Joel Manby - who became CEO of SeaWorld in December 2014 - announced in March 2016 that the group would discontinue breeding their killer whales in all their parks. Manby stated that his reason for instigating a group ban was due to the California Coastline Commission's decision. 

However, with a breeding ban in place across all the parks, SeaWorld made a business decision to cancelled its expansion plans for all their killer whale exhibits. As there were no plans to add additional animals to their current killer whale population, expansion plans were considered not viable due to the diminishing number of animals that would occur over the years.

In the meantime various animal rights activists meet in Vancouver, Canada to discussed the possibility of setting up a facility for holding killer whales. 

In April 2016, the Whale Sanctuary Project, as it was to be called, was officially launched; at this current time the Sanctuary only publicly exists as a website and they have yet to find a suitable location for the construction of the project. However, and perhaps more importantly, they have yet to raise the huge amounts of money needed to construct such a facility. In a meeting in Washington State in July 2019, The Whale Sanctuary stated the estimated cost of the project was 15 to 20 million US dollars for initial construction and 2 million dollars a year running costs which would maintain 6 to 8 whales. SeaWorld current display 20 killer whales at their parks.

Nevertheless, if such an animal rights run marine facility is going to be viable it needs to be populated with animals to attract visitors and generate income to secure its future. Therefore, these groups are targeting facilities such as SeaWorld's because they want their animals for there own marine park. With this in mind, it is easy to see why they continue to target SeaWorld despite the park being committed to a breeding ban with the current existing killer whales being the last to be displayed at the parks.

Other related blogs

Sea Pens: Not the Panacea They Are Perceived

Killer Whales, SeaWorld and Media Credibility

Not So Scientific American

No the killer whale did not say "set me free"