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Snowy Owl update
While Snowy Owl reports are slowing, I'm still regularly receiving new ones. Reports come in via the Ohio Birds Listserv, various Facebook groups, and personal messages. To date, we're up to at least...
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Arctic Ohio
A Great Blue Heron hunts in temperatures that hover around 0 F. Note the ice forming on its plumes. Ohio and the Midwest has been in the midst of a cold snap the likes of which we have not seen for...
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The wacky world of mimicry
A showy Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, nectars in a patch of Shale-barren Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium.This morning, in a fevered bid to conjure warmer times, I posted a photo of an...
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Snow Rollers! Snow Rollers!
Just when you think you've seen it all...Yesterday, while heading out to lunch, I passed as usual a small lake near my office. Glancing over at its smooth, snow-covered surface, I did a double-take....
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Mothapalooza - registration is open!
A Rosy Maple Moth, Dryocampa rubicunda, glares menacingly at your narrator. Well, at least as menacingly as a pink and yellow critter can manage.Last year, we launched the inaugural Mothapalooza, and...
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Rete mirabile, or why birds' feet don't freeze
Weather data from NOAA, National Weather Forecast Office, Wilmington, OhioIf you live in Ohio, or anywhere in the Great Lakes States, you likely feel that this has been a long, cold winter. Well, it...
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A brief essay in defense of poison ivy
A Yellow-rumped Warbler amid masses of poison ivy berriesThe Columbus DispatchSunday, February 2, 2014NATUREJim McCormacNot all animals let poison ivy be“Mammals, a day of reckoning is coming. That’s...
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OSU Museum Open House!
This coming Saturday, February 8th, the Ohio State University's Museum of Biological Diversity throws its doors open for its annual open house, and you'll want to stop in. Hours are from 10 am to 4 pm,...
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Snowy Owl update
Photo: Cheryl Erwin (near McGuffey, Hardin County, Ohio, today) While Snowy Owl reports are slowing, I'm still regularly receiving new ones. Reports come in via the Ohio Birds Listserv, various...
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Mothapalooza! Better hurry...
A Large Tolype (To-lip-ee), Tolype velleda, looking somewhat like a cross between a malamute and a bighorn sheep. The wide world of moths is endlessly fascinating, and full of exquisite creatures such...
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Birds eating BIG THINGS!
I made this photo in 2011, at a wetland in Florida. This Great Blue Heron was wrestling with some sort of huge catfish (I think it was a catfish). We were amazed that the heron could even pick the...
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A tsunami of Snow Buntings
At first blush, this rural farmhouse may not appear to harbor what may be the most extraordinary bird feeding operation in Ohio. But indeed it does. If there is anything out there that rivals this in...
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A ghostly goldfinch
Photo: Ian AdamsThese excellent images come courtesy of Ian Adams, celebrated landscape and nature photographer, and I appreciate him allowing me to share them. Shortly after Ian put out feeders at his...
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Caterpillar talk, Worthington, February 20
Everyone likes butterflies such as this beautiful dime-sized Juniper Hairstreak, obligingly posing on your narrator's finger. Far too little thought is given to their caterpillars, however. If you...
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Snowy Owls get major coverage in newspaper
It's nice to see a bird species garnering more ink in the papers than most politicians. Today's Columbus Dispatch featured an article on Snowy Owls, peppered with photos from a number of Ohio...
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Sea duck invasion: Why?
The view from Deer Creek last Sunday morning; air temperature a frosty 14 degrees. That's the Deer Creek dam in the backdrop, which impounds a large reservoir in south-central Ohio. We've had a...
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Great Horned Owl
Photo: Gary MeszarosA big female Great Horned Owl stands sentinel at the entrance to her nest site, a broken snag. Gary Meszaros took this photo the other day near Cleveland, and (obviously) gave me...
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Skunk-cabbage is up, spring is here
I post on this subject nearly every year, and make no apologies for redundancy. Come mid-February, our first true wildflower springs from the mire and goes about blooming in its own inconspicuous way....
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Black Skimmer, skimming
A Black Skimmer slices the water in a Florida wetland. I made this photo in 2011, and always liked it, in part because I really like this species. Black Skimmers have an elongated lower mandible, and...
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New River Birding & Nature Festival!
The world famous New River Gorge bridge, as seen from Long Point on a misty May morning.It's high time to get spring's schedule straight, and high time I plugged the New River Birding & Nature...
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