Oven Bird Nest

Over the weekend, I participated in the Ohio Heritage Naturalist hike at Cave Lake in Pike County near Latham, Ohio. While there, Marjie Becus found an Oven Bird nest.

Oven Bird photo from Wikipedia.

Oven Birds, Seiurus aurocapillus, are small migratory songbirds in the warbler family. They are colored olive-brown with a white breast streaked with dark brown markings. The crown of its head is adorned with an orange streak that is bordered with dark brown. This latin name aurocapillus alludes to the orange crown and means "golden hair".

The Oven Bird is a warbler that nests on the ground. The common name of the bird comes from its unique nest that resembles a old-fashioned brick oven.The bird constructs the nest with leaves and grasses and makes a roof to protect the eggs and conceal it from predators. The female bird will quietly sit on the nest, motionless. Marjie almost stepped on the nest before the female flushed. The male is quite the opposite. His persistent calls of "TEA-cher, TEA-cher, TEA-cher will loudly ring throughout the forest.

Here is a closer view of the speckled eggs inside the nest. The Oven Bird will lay 3-6 cream colored eggs speckled with brown spots. This was the first Oven Bird nest I had encountered, so I was quite fascinated with its artful construction and perfect camouflage. Amazing!

Environmental Adventure Day

On Thursday, April 28th, we hosted Environmental Adventure Day at Southeastway Park. We had a great turnout of over 330 children and about 80 adults, all outside enjoying and learning about nature. There were 18 presenters teaching topics such as plants, signs of wildlife, raptors, reptiles and amphibians, fire, frogs, fossils, insects, pond life and many more. Below are a few highlights...

Here is a shot of some of the students travelling from station
to station. Four schools from Franklin Township visited the park.

Smokey the Bear came for a visit. Bev Stout from IDNR

Division of Forestry donned the costume to greet the children.

Liz Habley led the Insect Safari session. The kids enjoyed sweeping

with nets in our small prairie. Lots of leafhoppers, beetles and spiders were found.

Kevin Carlsen from Eagle Creek Ornithology Center is teaching

the students about the large eyes of the Great Horned Owl.

Overall, it was a great day with lots of folks out enjoying the great outdoors! 

Luna Moth

On Friday,  May 6th, I led a station on migration for the Eagle Creek Homeschool Bird Jam. A great event, with many students spending the day enjoying the great outdoors and learning all about birds. The entire day, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and a first year male Summer Tanager visited the feeders at Eagle Creek. Many of the students were able to see these beautiful birds.

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, is a member of the Cardinal family.

One of the students showed me a moth that they had found in the bird feeding area. Do you see it?

How about now? If you scroll back, you can find it on the left side of the plant. This is a gorgeous male Luna Moth, Actias luna. These moths are masters of camouflage, blending right in with the surrounding vegetation.

Here is a better shot of the moth, showing its wings spread out. Notice the cool patten on the top of the wings that looks just like a tree branch with buds. Such a great find for our special day. So glad so many kids and parents were able to enjoy this amazing creature. 

Lilliputian Lovelies

Over the weekend, I attended a hike in Adams County, Ohio with the Midwest Native Plant Society. We were on a quest for some of the rare early blooming flowers of spring.

The flowers we were seeking always put me in a state of complete awe. Each year I have to remind myself just how small they are. These members of the mustard family are extremely tiny. Most reach a towering height of one to two inches tall! To view these flowers, one must be willing to get down on their hands and knees. But once there, the viewer is definitely rewarded for the effort. Each one is a delicate, miniature work of art. (All photos courtesy of John Howard).

Beautiful snow white blossoms that are smaller than my pinky nail. This flower is Michaux's Leavenworthia,  Leavenworthia uniflora. The diminutive flower with the huge, unusual title is named after two botanists, Andre' Michaux and Melines Conkling Leavenworth.

Another tiny masterpiece, Carolina Whitlow-grass, Draba reptans. The group of basal leaves, at the bottom of the plant, are smaller in diameter than a dime and densely hairy, reminding me of a teeny cactus. For more photos, check out the Ohio Flora blog.

Similar to the Draba reptans, this tiny wonder is just starting to bloom. We were a bit too early. This is Draba cuneifolia, Wedge-leaved Whitlow-grass. The leaves have tiny notches that Draba reptans lacks.

And finally, a very rare mustard called Little Whitlow-grass, Draba brachycarpa. We were crawling around on the ground in a cemetery looking for this one. A passerby would have wondered what in the world we were doing. :) I love the clump of flowers at the top of the stem, gathered like a miniature bouquet. Since the sandy deposits that it prefers are disappearing, this may be one of the only viable populations in the state of Ohio. There are only a few areas where it is found in Indiana, as well.

 

Such an enjoyable day in the field, enjoying nature on a microscopic level. It show that there are so many wonderful things out there if one just takes the time to look. If you enjoy looking at photos of these and other spring wonders, check out the blogs of others who were on the trip.

 

Ohio Birds and Biodiversity

Heather of the Hills

Weedpicker's Journal

Nature Remains

Red and the Peanut

 

All photos on this post courtesy of John Howard.

Northern Goshawk at Eagle Creek-Blue Jays Show Me the Money!

Friday, I spent the majority of the day conducting bird programs for Eagle Creek's fabulous Home School Jamboree. Great program held in the spring and fall with lots of talented naturalists and professionals teaching various nature topics. If you home school your kids, I highly recommend this.

I was told that morning by Kevin Carlsen, naturalist at the Ornithology Center, that the juvenile Northern Goshawk had been seen again at the skating pond. I was hoping to get to see it.

There is an old skating pond in the park, now filled with cattails. Great place to view ducks, bitterns, and other goodies. I found Jeanette Frazier already there. She had not seen the bird that day, but had photos from another day. She also had photos of other similar birds, like a Cooper's Hawk and juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk for comparison. Very, very helpful to see these at that time. We heard a bunch of Blue Jays screaming like crazy off to the right of the skating pond. Jeanette remarked that they might have a hawk cornered, which is often the case.

Blue Jays and crows will mob large raptors, like owls and hawks. They will scream at them, whack them in the head, chase them in flight and give them no peace. Many raptors will eat other birds, so the jays let everyone in the vicinity know the raptor is around. Basically guard dogs of the bird world, if you will.

Jeanette departed and I decided to drive around a bit. I drove around to different areas in the park to see if I could find the bird, but I had no luck. I decided to swing by the skating pond for one last look. The jays were still squawking, even louder than before. I decided to check it out to see if they had cornered anything.

I wandered down a path near the pond, following the jays noise. Many highly agitated jays were sitting in the shrubs lining the path, close to 20-25 in all.  Right next to the trail was a large tree with a branch reaching over the trail. I stopped, lost my breath for a moment, then grinned like a Cheshire cat. There was the gorgeous juvenile Northern Goshawk, in all its splendor. A few jays were in the branches above the goshawk, screeching at it. It looked up, seemingly surprised, like it had no idea what they were fussing about. "Danger? What? Where?" The jays had "showed me the money! (No, I did not yell this at the top of my lungs, even though I felt like it :) )
"

I watched the goshawk interact with the jays for a bit. One finally got enough courage up and whacked the goshawk in the head. The goshawk had had enough and flew off across the trail to the north. I followed, hoping I would get another look.

This time, it was in tree a little farther away, but I could still see it really well with binoculars. It was perched with its back facing me, which was nice. I had a great look at its tail, which had dark bands that are not straight across, but zigzag a bit. Cooper's Hawks have straight dark bands across the tail. A crazy Fox Squirrel climbed onto the branch with the goshawk.  The squirrel froze, then unexpectedly ran up and touched the goshawk. I am not sure if it had a death wish or if it was making sure it was real. Weird!  The goshawk, startled, jumped up into the air. The squirrel touched it again and the goshawk decided to move to another branch.

Another squirrel came on to its branch and the goshawk decided to move again. This time it perched in a tree, much closer to me. I was able to view it for about 10-15 minutes. I was so happy! To be able to see a life bird, one I had never seen before, AND have such great looks, front, back, in flight, was fantastic!  I left the bird as it was finally getting some peace and quiet without any kamikaze animals bothering it.

I do not have any photos of the Northern Goshawk, but Ryan Sanderson took some great photos about a hour and a half after I left. His flicker page is here


As of this posting, the goshawk was not seen today. This bird is a true rarity with the last one seen at Eagle Creek in 2001, ten years ago! Hopefully, it is still hanging around and others will be able to enjoy it.

Project Wild Workshop, April 8th

If you are not trained in Project WILD, this is your chance! Friday, April 8th at Southeastway Park, 9-3:30pm, I will be doing a training in Project WILD. Project WILD is an international environmental education program dedicated to facilitating an understanding of basic wildlife and ecology concepts. Using standards-based hands-on activities, this workshop will focus on the native Indiana wildlife that spends most of its time on land. Participants will receive the Project WILD Terrestrial guide as part of the workshop. Upon completion, participants should know more about Indiana wildlife, be able to discuss humans’ roles in wildlife conservation, and be comfortable replicating workshop activities in their own education settings.

What will we do? All kinds of super fun games and activities that you can take with you. If the weather is nice, we will be outside most of the day. And, Southeastway boasts a nice array of spring wildflowers, so we will definitely be checking those out.

To register, contact the Natural Resources Education Center at 317-562-1338 or at nrec@dnr.in.gov by  There is a fee of $20 for this workshop. Please make checks payable to the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation.

Southeastway Park is located at 5624 South Carroll Rd, New Palestine, IN 46163. We are part of Indianapolis Parks and Recreation.

Count the Birdies! Great Backyard Bird Count this Weekend!

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday Feb. 18th through Monday Feb. 21st. This is an annual citizen's science program sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon. For more information on the GBBC, go here.

Photo from Wikipedia

There is an Indiana Young Birders' program at the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center from 8:00am to noon on Sat. Feb 19th. You will be counting birds and having a fun time meeting other young people interested in birds and nature.

I have two programs at Southeastway Park, one at 1pm on Sat. and one at 1pm on Sunday. The programs will cover interesting facts about common feeder birds. Then, after the programs, we will take a walk and look for birds in the park.

Photo by Charles Creamer

***Added bonus for attendees***
Heads up people, this is the good stuff! We are making maple syrup here at Southeastway, so you can also check this out, as well. And, if you are extra nice and don't razz me during the bird program, I will let you sample some freshly made syrup. :)


Get outside and count some birds this weekend!