Marsh-marigold

Marsh-marigold grows in profusion along the banks of Cedar Run. This brook is spring-fed and stays cool year-round. Water cress, Nasturtium officinale, grows in the stream's waters, and occasional clumps of giant-leaved skunk-cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, dot the banks. Cedar Bog, Champaign County, Ohio, yesterday.

Right now is about peak for marsh-marigold at Cedar Bog, but it should look good for the next week or so. It's well worth the trip. For more information about Cedar Bog, CLICK HERE.

Purple Finch

I shot this gorgeous male purple finch yesterday in Adams County, Ohio. These stunning raspberry-colored finches are always a treat to see. Some winters we have plenty, in others it's tough to find one. There are always some purple finches to be had in both spring and fall migration, especially if one is familiar with their soft tok call, often given in flight.

This bird was frequenting feeders at John and Tina Howard's Ohio Star Retreat Center not far from West Union. I had to speak at a conference on Thursday in Clermont County, which isn't too far from the retreat. So, I took the opportunity to go down early and spent all day Wednesday botanizing and photographing in the Ohio River Valley and various Adams and Scioto county hotspots. If time permits, I'll share some of those plant shots later.

John and Tina's retreat is a great place to stay. Nice and neat as a pin, inexpensive, and very convenient to lots of natural history hotspots. As a bonus, John maintains a feeding operation just off the deck which attracts lots of interesting birds. The feathered visitors are quite approachable, and especially towards day's end, the light is great. Two red-headed woodpeckers were also coming in while I was there, along with many other species.

For more info on the Ohio Star Retreat Center, GO HERE.

Song Sparrow

Harbinger of Spring

Song Sparrow

The arrival of the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) is one of the most welcome signs of spring in this area.  And, when it sings for the first time, spring is really here!  Although some individuals spend the winter here sustaining themselves from the food and shelter of feeder areas, the bulk of the population arrives in early April and leaves in late fall when the weather turns.  The summer/breeding range of this species covers all of the southern half of Canada.  It winters in the US mostly in the southern parts.  It has a permanent range in the central US where summer and winter ranges overlap.  

Song Sparrow

The Song Sparrow is very common here.  It is the sparrow of yard, garden, and forest and park edge.  Sparrows are notoriously difficult to distinguish by the beginner birder.  Sometimes they all look like 'little brown birds'.  Let's point out the features of a Song Sparrow.  They are a medium-to-large sized sparrow, very streaked with a long tail.  In this part of North America they are reddish-brown  to medium-brown streaked with a gray face and, most importantly, the streaks appear to converge to a central spot on the breast.  They sport a wide greyish eyebrow and a dark malar stripe (line behind the eye).  The underparts are white under the streaking.  The long tail is rounded at the end and the bird often flips it when landing.  Notice the central breast spot in the photo above, the gray face and eyebrow line and the dark malar stripe.

Song Sparrow

There are 30 + subspecies of Song Sparrows!  This is what happens if you occur all over North America often in isolated areas.  The subspecies vary in size and colouration.  The colours range from grayish, to reddish, to sooty-coloured.  But, they all sing the same song.  The same subspecies return to the same areas each year so if you are visiting the west you will find the Song Sparrows look quite different.  Apparently we have the nominate subspecies here, the 'Eastern' group.  

What other sparrow species are you likely to  confuse with Song Sparrows?  That can be difficult since they are all 'little brown birds' and sometimes hard to identify.  A study of Lincoln's, Swamp, Savannah, Fox and Vesper sparrows will help.  I think the most likely one to confuse it with is the Fox Sparrow.  But the Fox Sparrow is much larger, more reddish and with much bolder stripes.  A field guide is a definite asset in sparrow identification.

Song Sparrow

The song of the Song Sparrow is a must to learn.  Sibley describes it  as 3 or 4 short clear notes followed by a buzzy sound and ending in a trill.  Once you learn it you won't forget it.  It is one of nature's blessings on our landscape.  

Song Sparrows build their nests  close to the ground, in a bush 2 or 3 feet off the ground or directly on the ground near a grassy hummock.  They build a grassy cup in which they incorporate leaves, twigs and bark and often line it with hair.  Incubation is done by the female and she sometimes raises 3 broods per season.  Song sparrows eat seeds, grass, berries and insects; and sometimes crustaceans.  They readily come to feeders and enjoy sunflower seeds.  It is always fun to see them bring their young to the feeder to teach them how to feed.  

April is Dressed in Pastels

These are starlings up high in the tree against the blue of a lovely spring sky!

I love that we have birdsong in the early mornings and evenings again.

Tiny ferns are appearing in walls which are also decorated in lichen and moss.

Wild Plum Blossom

Scattering petal confetti on the paths

So I need to take photographs of this blossom now and not tomorrow!

I love the dark centres and the colourful leaves just opening up.

The four Forsythia bushes along the path leading to my building

are in full bloom.

Their petals are so luscious

I could bury myself in their glorious haze of yellow!

A bright splash of colour from a Camellia bloom seen along a lakeside walk.

Tulips in a vase at home give me an excuse to create a collage.

I've always loved feathers and have had this little green and grey one for 

a very long time. 

The silver pendant is also a feather.

The details are better seen through a macro lens.

I've just finished a Magnolia Mandala as a gift

from a beautiful pattern here:

Crochet Millan

I chose the colours for a lady who is about to take her retirement

and go and live in the mountains.

The colours represent mountain lakes and greenery

and beautiful sunsets.

Nature: Wildflowers rouse from their winter slumber

Spring-beauty, Claytonia virginica, one of Ohio's most common wildflowers/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

April 7, 2019

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Spring steamrolls north at the rate of about 17 miles a day, leaving a wake awash in green growing things. The floral eruption commences in late February, when the odd flowers of the skunk cabbage thrust from the mire. However, the dam really bursts in April and floods Ohio’s landscape with flowers.

As I write this, the northern plains of Cleveland and Toledo remain unfruited, barren and snowy. Not so along the Ohio River Valley in our southernmost reaches. I was in Adams and Scioto counties on April 1, and wildflowers were busting out everywhere. Take heart, ye people of the northern lands — spring is headed your way and it’s unstoppable.

My visits to various botanical hot spots produced many hardy wildflowers in spite of the morning’s 25-degree frostiness. Dwarf larkspur, Harbinger-of-spring, hepatica, spring-beauty, Virginia bluebells and many others. Two rarities were on my hit list and both were in good floral spirits: goldenstar lily and snow trillium.

Lengthening days and warming soils stir wildflowers from their earthen beds. In the brief window between winter’s end and tree leafout, wildflowers run riot in sun-soaked woodlands. By mid-May or so, emergent leaves have tremendously reduced sunlight penetration to the forest floor, and the wildflower parade peters out.

“Wildflower” is a generic term, but is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “The flower of a wild or uncultivated plant or the plant bearing it.” Most of Ohio’s roughly 1,800 species of native plants would not be thought of as “wildflowers”, but of those that are, the spring wildflowers are the most eagerly sought.

Although the pure aesthetics of vernal flowers bring a joy in itself, these delicate plants do heavy ecological lifting. Legions of tiny bees, beetles, wasps and other insects sync their emergence with that of the flowers. Our native pollinators are often quite finicky about where they take nectar or pollen.

Oligolectic pollinating insects are those that are entirely wedded to one family, genus, or even a single species of plant. Many of our spring wildflowers support such insects. Golden ragwort, Jacob’s ladder, violets, waterleaf, wild geranium, and more all have their dependent specialists. No insect, no plant. No plant, no insect.

The caterpillars of various moths and butterflies, such as Leconte’s haploa moth and fritillary butterflies, feast on wildflower foliage. Only about one percent of these larvae will make it to the reproductive stage. The rest become food for birds and other animals. Nature’s hotdogs, you might say.

Ants play an enormous role in fostering spring flora. Many wildflowers’ seeds are appended with fleshy nutritious growths known as elaisomes. These vegetative steaks lure ants, which cart them off and, ultimately, leave the seed far from its source, thus spreading the plants about.


The above-ground parts of wildflowers ultimately wither and die, and their biomass contributes to building the rich soils of forests. Incomprehensively vast webs of fungi spread throughout this rich humus, forming the loamy framework from which other plants spring.

Spring wildflowers possess an intrinsic value to people that is not quantifiable. Imagine a natural landscape without them. Such a place would be soulless indeed.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife produces a wonderful primer titled Spring Wildflowers of Ohio. This 80-page booklet is free, and available by calling 1-800-WILDLIFE or emailing wildinfo@dnr.state.oh.us.

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.

Fighting Eagles

Fighting or Locked Together?

Bald Eagles [Internet Photo]

Two weeks ago we had a very unusual scenario on the river by our house.  It was a very rainy, cold Friday and around supper time the rain was coming down in big droplets. We noticed a disturbance on the river bank and saw 5 eagles there in the trees and on the shore.  It looked like 4 adults and 1 immature.  They were screeching and chittering loudly and flying in short bursts from the area only to return.  

Watching from the window we could see a dark blob on the ground and possibly in the water.  The river was still iced over but there was about a half metre of water laying on the ice along the shoreline.  Although it was getting dark with the heavy rain and nearing the end of the day we could see the commotion seemed to be about a moving large dark object in the water.  Getting binoculars on it we could see it was two eagles in the water.  They were either locked together or fighting.  The others continued making a loud raucous from the shoreline or the trees overhead.  I couldn't tell if the bystanders were upset or cheering the eagles on.  

We decided to wait a few minutes and watch what happened.  However, if the eagles were indeed locked together then something had to be done to help.  I was picturing possibly a tangle in nylon rope or netting.  Getting to the eagles was a difficult task.  The snow was very deep and the steep hill covered in wet snow and ice would have to manoeuvred.  After watching them for 20 minutes we donned the heavy raincoats, high boots, sou'westers and leather gloves.  We took along garden rakes to use to bring the eagles into shore so we could check them for tangles.  

As we set out towards the cacophony we slowly picked our way through the heavy rain and deep snowbanks.  As I approached over the last hill, 2 eagles took flight from the trees above the two in the water.  The two immersed eagles were just that - 2 adult eagles completely immersed in the water on their backs at the edge of the river.  They were mostly still but at times would flounder as if trying to free themselves or kill one another, we weren't sure which.  What I saw as I got closer was a large black mass of feathers totally submerged with two white heads sticking up above the water, like a 2-headed monster.  As I drew close a third eagle took off from underneath the bushes on the shore, obviously a ringside seat. Both eagles looked exhausted and hypothermic.  They would just lie there in the cold water with their eyes closed.  I still could not tell for sure whether they were locked together or one was holding the other down. One certainly was not on top of the other although one eagle seemed to have its head put underwater periodically. 

Bald Eagles [Internet Photo]

As I drew close now, they were aware of my presence.  They did not change position but started struggling again.  Within 10 metres of them, they let go of one another and one eagle tried to escape.  After two bounces it extricated itself from the water and attempted to fly across the river ice which had pools of water lying on it.  The eagle bounced in and out of the pools of water as it tried to get air-borne.  It eventually made it to the other side of the river and out of sight.

The remaining eagle was still on its back and totally submerged except for its head.  As I prepared to rake it in for examination with great difficulty it flipped itself over and tried to get out of the water.  I could tell as it exited that it was not tangled so we backed off and let it slowly regain its strength.  It was one bedraggled bird!  It was totally exhausted and obviously very cold.   It shook itself many times and walked slowly down the shoreline to eventually perch on a stump.  After a few minutes it started to preen.  I knew then it would be OK.   We left the area, cold and wet ourselves but very glad we did not have to handle the eagles which we were prepared to do if necessary.  The eagle sat on the stump in the darkness for an hour and a half before flying off.  

We wondered what that eagle had done to warrant that kind of treatment.  One eagle was obviously aggressing on the other, even though that was not immediately apparent.  I felt our intervening saved the life of at least one eagle and perhaps two.  They had ahold of each other by the feet or possibly further up the legs.  They must have been punctured by those talons although we saw no evidence of it.  In all the photos I could find of fighting eagles on the internet the aggressor has the victim by the feet or legs.  That must be their way of fighting.  It certainly would assert dominance.  Doing this in the water and trying to drown the victim is what we had observed.  I had not heard of this before.  It seems a severe way to work out squabbles over territory, mates or food.  But, these are eagles after all.  I am sorry we have no photos of this encounter.  The circumstances were too extreme to carry along a camera.

Two landscapes

A beautiful sunset forms a colorful palette behind three massive oaks at Glacier Ridge Metro Park in central Ohio. The oaks - all three, I believe - are hybrids between swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor, and bur oak, Q. macrocarpa. Hybridization between various oak species is common, so much so that regularly occurring crosses have been given their own combination name. In this case, it is Quercus x schuettei, Schuette's oak. The hybrid is named in honor of Joachim Henrich Schuette (1821-1908), a German botanist who emigrated to the United States in 1874. His last name is pronounced shoo-tee, so the trees above are "Shoo-tee's oak".

I made this image last night, and was pleased to bear witness to a pair of displaying Wilson's snipe. While snipe court during migration, and these birds may be still headed north, the local wetlands offer good habitat for breeding. Snipe are very rare nesters in Ohio, especially so in the central part of the state, and it would be very noteworthy if these birds remained to nest at Glacier Ridge.

As always, click the photo to enlarge

Following the sunset experience above, I headed north to Daughmer Savanna, a relict prairie savanna (not "Savannah"; that's a city in Georgia) in Crawford County. Newly minted Crawford County Parks director Josh Dyer - congrats on the richly deserved post, Josh! - kindly gave me permission to enter the site after dark. I had long wanted to make star photos at this site. The weather prognosticators were calling for clear skies, but as is often the case, they were (somewhat) wrong. By the time I arrived at Daughmer, clouds had rolled in and obscured most stars. I headed out on the path anyway, to enjoy the aural ambience of calling spring peepers, western chorus frogs, wood frogs, and coyotes.

After returning to the car and answering some correspondence, I stepped out for one last look at the heavens. Miraculously, the skies had cleared! I grabbed my gear and went out for photos, including the one above. Click the image to enlarge and see more of the stars. While I love shooting astrophotography, Ohio is just not a great place for it. Light pollution is too pervasive, and even in a somewhat remote place like this lights from distant towns and cities wash the horizon yellow and dim the brilliance of the stars. Nonetheless, I love the setting of the savanna for such shots and saw some perspectives that I would like to shoot during future nocturnal excursions.