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Nature: Dad's encouragement helped us become birds of a feather
John McCormac, shown here on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, helped foster his son's appreciation for nature/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchFebruary 17, 2019NATUREJim McCormacMy interest in nature is...
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Red-shouldered hawk, fore and aft
A gorgeous adult red-shouldered hawk scans for prey from a prominent perch. I photographed this animal last Thursday in a very suburbanized area of Columbus, Ohio.Upon arrival at a postage-stamp...
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A wacky experiment in mega-magnification
A friend (I don't want to say who so as to avoid giving any hint about this location, but I am very grateful!) recently tipped me to a great horned owl nest, and as it was near a site that I was going...
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Salamanders begin to run
A bizarre "unisexual" salamander scrambles over some old elm bark in its single-minded drive to reach its ancestral breeding pool. This salamander is a blend of any of a few of several species, or...
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Guide packed with info to hook Ohio fish enthusiasts
"A Naturalist's Guide to the Fishes of Ohio" (Ohio Biological Survey) 391 pages, $29.95 by Daniel Rice and Brian Zimmerman. For more information, visit: www.ohiobiologicalsurvey.org/pub_highlight or...
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In the Footsteps of Conant: Herping Ohio’s Hill Country/Guest blog by Ryan...
NOTE: The following piece is a guest blog written by Ryan Wagner, a student at Ohio University studying Wildlife Biology and Conservation. He is an exceedingly good naturalist, with a special...
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Short-eared Owls
A short-eared owl courses low over grasslands in a reclaimed stripmine in eastern Ohio. It and three comrades were mousing, or perhaps more accurately, "vole'ing".The short-eared owl is one of my...
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Devil's Courthouse sunrise
Sunrise in the Blue Ridge Mountains, as seen from the summit of the Devil's Courthouse near Asheville, North Carolina a few mornings ago. Debbie DiCarlo and I had a great time scouting the region for a...
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Wood frogs erupt
Dozens of male wood frogs sing in the waters of a small woodland pool. These frogs are explosive in their vernal breeding habits. Over a period of a few days they enter the pool, sing and mate, leave...
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Bill Thompson III (1962 - 2019)
A pensive Bill Thompson III gazes over the waters of Lake Erie, on the ferry from the Marblehead Peninsula to Kelleys Island. This was on September 8, 2009, and we were on a field trip for a fall...
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Nature: Nest boxes helped bring back wood ducks
A wood duck, Aix sponsa, in Killbuck Marsh, Wayne County/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchMarch 31, 2019NATUREJim McCormacA male wood duck is a startling sight, resplendent in a rainbow palette artfully...
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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...
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Nature: Wildflowers rouse from their winter slumber
Spring-beauty, Claytonia virginica, one of Ohio's most common wildflowers/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchApril 7, 2019NATUREJim McCormacSpring steamrolls north at the rate of about 17 miles a day,...
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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...
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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...
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West Virginia photo workshop! May 6 - 9!
The iconic mill at Babcock State Park in southern West Virginia.Debbie DiCarlo and I are leading what promises to be a fantastic photo foray in one of eastern North America's most scenic regions, the...
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Rosyside Dace, in nuptial colors
From L to R, Phil Melillo, Kelly Capuzzi, John Howard, and your narrator inspect a mess of fish hauled from a small stream in southern Ohio's Scioto County.Last Tuesday was an epic ichthyological day,...
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New River Birding & Nature Festival
Cathedral Falls, Glen Ferris, West Virginia. The waters of Cane Branch tumble 60 feet over a series of cascades, and soon merge with the New River.As for the past 14 or 15 years, I'm down here in...
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Rosy Maple Moth, in hiding
Just returned from a fabulous photography workshop led by Debbie DiCarlo and yours truly, in the New River Gorge area of West Virginia. Our group was wonderful, and we were confronted with numerous...
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Cedar Bog macro/rare flora and fauna photo workshop!
Debbie DiCarlo and I will be repeating last year's one-day Cedar Bog photo workshop on June 3. This is a Monday, but we chose that day as the center is closed to the public and we'll pretty much have...
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