Wilderness Wanderings

Turtle Day

2008-07-15T11:42:00.003-04:00

photo by Pam Feagler

This snapping turtle was captured last week as part of our monitoring program. To learn more about his capture, see www.twcturtles.blogspot.com/.

The Reading Bug

2008-07-11T10:33:00.006-04:00

This year, the summer reading program theme for the libraries is "Catch the Reading Bug". We love it when the reading program theme has something to do with nature - it's a lot easier for us to do programs on bugs and birds than on fairies and goblins! This year, our library program is called "Bring-a-Bug" - we talk to the kids about insects, then use our projector and microscope to look at insects the kids bring in. This Stag beetle was brought to the Killbuck Branch Library yesterday.

Stag Beetles (family Lucanidae), despite their fierce appearance, are generally thought to feed on sap, leaves, and honeydew aphids.(1). Males, like the one in the photos below, have very large mandibles which they use to fight for mates.

1) www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/beetles/stag/stag.htm

Two-Lined Salamander

2008-06-26T10:00:00.003-04:00

This Northern Two-Lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata) was photographed by Certified Volunteer Naturalist Scott Crawford while on a hike at Wooster Memorial Park. This salamader is common along Ohio streams and brooks.

Phidippus audax

2008-06-12T16:12:00.001-04:00

That’s what the book calls the jumping spider in my office window.

Spiders are hard to love. There are spiders I love despite the fact that at some level all spiders give me a touch of the creeps.

Jumping spiders are in one of the groups I love…sort of.
Often, jumping spiders are colorful. They have eight eyes like most spiders, but, unlike most spiders, two of their eyes are large and forward-facing. This gives them more of a “face” than other spiders. In addition, the eyes provide excellent vision and depth perception.

Jumping spiders need the depth perception. They do not build webs. Instead, they hunt insects by creeping close enough and then jumping.

Years ago, I recall sitting in my office talking with someone on the telephone. As we spoke, I was idly watching a small red-eyed jumping spider on my windowsill. About six inches away from the spider, I noticed a common red-eyed fruit fly. Then, in the middle of my phone conversation, BOING! The spider leapt six inches along the windowsill and nailed that fruit fly!

I lost it. I began sputtering on the phone. When I recovered, I told the person on the phone what I had seen. To this day, I’m sure he thought he was speaking with a mad man.

The little red-eyed jumping spider is a species I never identified.

My new “friend,” Phidippus audax, is huge for a jumping spider—about half an inch long. She looks fierce—big, black, and hairy. However, I’ve never known of anyone being harmed by a jumping spider.

Jumping spiders are helpful. You probably have some at home. In your home, jumping spiders doubtlessly help to control insects. The jumping spiders in my office do.

Gordon T. Maupin

Yellow-breasted Chat

2008-06-12T16:09:00.000-04:00

It’s a warbler, but that’s only the beginning of the story. It’s a BIG warbler — roughly the size of a Bluebird.

What prompted me to post this blog entry was encountering two Chats the other day up on Foxfield Preserve. Vicki Capps, Jen Quinn, and I were showing the site to Lisa Reicosky of The Canton Repository. As we walked toward the crest of the hill, the distinctive call of a Yellow-breasted Chat greeted us. As we moved closer, another Chat could be heard farther away.

We never quite saw the birds. Chats are highly vocal but often stay in the thick of tree leaves making them difficult to spot. These two birds were making a lot of noise. It reminded me of hearing one years ago with a man who called it a Mockingbird. That took me back. Indeed a Yellow-breasted Chat makes a lot of noise and many different sounds that clearly remind people of Mockingbirds. So I asked the fellow, “If that’s a Mockingbird, what’s the gray bird with strips on the wings?” He replies, “Oh, that’s a Texas Mockingbird.”

He knew his wildlife, but he hadn’t read the books.

As we walked across Foxfield Preserve, Gray Catbirds were also calling. Earlier in the spring, I visited the site and saw a true Mockingbird. Many times while driving past Foxfield Preserve, I have seen Brown Thrashers.

All this makes me think we should have called it Mimic Hill instead of Foxfield Preserve. The Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, and Gray Catbird are in the mimic family—Mimidae. They are famous for their calls borrowed from other birds. While the Chat is not a true mimic, its crazy calling easily fits the mimic pattern.

Gordon T. Maupin

Milk Snake Mimicry

2008-05-09T15:24:00.006-04:00

This milk snake, Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum, visited our back door last week. Milk snakes received their name from the myth that they drink milk from cows (milks snakes can often me found in barns, but they’re looking for mice, not milk). This is one of our most beneficial snakes, eating lots of rodents. They also eat other snakes, including venomous species.
Unfortunately, this snake is often killed for its superficial resemblance to the copperhead. The coloration of the two snakes is somewhat similar, although the pattern is different. Some biologists think this is a case of Batesian mimicry – where one species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a venomous species. Besides similar coloration, milk snakes also employ jerky head bobs – a typical copperhead movement. Where milk snakes subspecies coexist with venomous coral snakes, the milk snakes have coloration similar to the coral snake’s rings of red, yellow, and black.

Kicking Climate Change Out of the Bushes

2008-04-12T13:49:00.000-04:00

April 6, 2008

On a visit with family in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, my brother, Mike, and I took a walk to a piece of undeveloped land surrounded by suburban sprawl. The area was a mix of abandoned pasture and young Post Oak woods. It belonged to the retirement village where my parents live. The maintenance crew kept the abandoned pasture mowed and had created a few garden spots for village residents.

Since it was early April and the start of the spring neotropical bird migration, I grabbed the cheap binoculars I keep in my car just to see what I could see. We meandered through the field without seeing any particularly special birds (Eastern Wood Peewee, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Cardinal, Hermit Thrush, and Brown Thrasher).

Things changed as we turned for home. Walking past a copse of mixed Post Oaks and Osage Orange, we flushed an Armadillo! Technically, named a Nine-banded Armadillo.

I have seen Armadillos before, but never this far north. As a student in Springfield, Missouri in the 1970s, I’d heard rumors of Armadillos in the Ozarks, but had never seen on there. By the 1990s, some of my Missouri friends were reporting Armadillos in an off-hand, noncommittal manner a little north of Springfield. But seeing on in a suburban green spot surrounded by suburban Kansas City was a true surprise to me.

A quick web search on the Armadillo revealed a source that notes that Armadillos can’t survive if the average January temperature is below 28° F.

Upon returning to my father’s apartment we mentioned the Armadillo and my surprise. My Dad doubled the surprise by telling of sighting a Roadrunner in the area a few years back. Birding purists will want me to note that is was a Greater Roadrunner.

Again, I was surprised. Once in the 1970s, I observed a Roadrunner in the extreme southern Ozarks along the Arkansas Border.

Biologists have been observing numerous species shifting their distributions as a result of climate change. Often it’s difficult to attribute all of a species distribution shift to one simple cause. However, Armadillos and Roadrunners were considered southern species and not generally known as far north as Missouri until recently. To me it was something of a shock and surprise to be confronted with apparent affects of climate change in such a personal way.

My typical scientific caution requires me to state that it is my speculation about climate change causing these distributions shifts. Things are always more complicated.

Some biologists feel that habitat change, fire suppression, and a evolutionary change in Armadillos are significant factors. For Roadrunnners, sources note that the birds are expanding out of the southwest, but they don’t speculate as to the cause.

Gordon T. Maupin

Postscript to a Hope

2008-04-02T14:50:00.004-04:00

March 13, 2008

Spring fever hit The Wilderness Center today. It was 50° F. Last week we started speculating about the first wildflower.

There are several species that might be first, but Draba (pronounced DrAba, the first “a” is long as botanists like to say things) is always among the first few to appear. Draba is the genus name. The books call it Whitlow Grass. It’s not a grass, it’s a mustard. There are a handful of similar species that might show up on a chemical free lawn. Beside The Wilderness Center flagpole is Draba verna.

When Draba blooms, it sends a slender stalk up from a rosette of basal leaves. The tiny flowers have four tiny white petals. Each petal has two lobes so at first you think there may be eight petals. The early rosettes are so small you can almost cover them with a dime. You won’t notice Draba unless you search “for spring with [your] knees in the mud.”

Aldo Leopold dedicates a short essay to Draba in “A Sand County Almanac.” It’s hard to “out essay” the master, so I’ll offer a couple of quotes. “…it is no spring flower, but only a postscript to a hope.” “All together it is of no importance—just a small creature that does a small job quickly and well.”

There the naturalists around the office might disagree with Aldo Leopold. It is not a postscript to a hope; it’s a harbinger of spring, warmth, and sunshine. But then, Leopold knew this because he dedicated a small essay to a plant that almost no one notices.

If you don’t know Leopold’s book, you should. His nature essays are poetry in the form of prose. They combine the beauty of the language with the beauty of nature.

Gordon Maupin
Photo by Joann Ballbach

Hooded Merganser

2008-03-25T10:48:00.001-04:00

March 23, 2008, Easter Sunday

We are host family for a Pakistani student at the College of Wooster, Maaz Khan. Maaz joined our family for Easter Dinner. He had to return to his job at the college so my son, Isaac and I left Orrville at about 2:30 p.m. to drive Maaz back to Wooster.

Just as we rounded the bend in the road where Crown Hill joins Back Orrville Road we passed a small, shallow pond. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Hooded Merganser. Actually it was a male-female pair. The male was in full breeding color and obviously displaying to the female. The bright white “hood” caught my eye.

No one was behind me, so I stopped the car and backed up to let the Maaz and Isaac get a look at the birds. I know I shouted “Hooded Merganser” the instant I saw the bird and both of the boys were startled. When I backed up, they were both wondering what this crazy guy was doing.

Then they saw the birds. The male was alternately lifting and lowering his hood as he kept trying to impress the female. After a few seconds, another car came up behind me, honked and I had to move on.

Neither of the boys are what you could call birders. In fact, neither are interested in birds at all. However, my obvious enthusiasm for the Hooded Mergansers was contagious. We were all smiles all the way back to Wooster. Maaz made it to work on time. As Isaac and I returned to Orrville, the birds were still on the pond. We paused to admire them through the cheap binoculars I keep in the car just for misadventures like this.

Wow! In my opinion, a male Hooded Merganser in breeding plumage is one of the most beautiful birds you’ll ever see.

Last February, on our winter Yellowstone ecotour, our group saw a male Hooded Merganser on the Yellowstone River. It was a high point of our drive that afternoon.

Another memorable encounter with a Hooded Merganser happened when I was a college student myself. I recall sitting in a cattail marsh at sunrise in hope of getting some good duck photos. It was cold. The sun rose and transformed fog on the water into a beautiful bright rose-colored backdrop. A beautiful Hooded Merganser was silhouetted against this glowing mist. I must have shot half a roll of film on that one bird.

Hooded Mergansers are small fish-eating ducks. The birds dive for their prey and apparently find fishes by sight. They have a transparent third eyelid called a nictating membrane. It covers the eye when the bird is under water to protect it.

Gordon Maupin

Leap(frog) Year

2008-02-29T09:59:00.008-05:00

It seems that leap day is the perfect time to announce The Year of the Frog. That's right - 2008 has been designated "The Year of the Frog" in order to spread awareness of global amphibian declines and promote conservation efforts. Over 3,000 amphibian species are threatened with extinction- that's 50% of amphibian species! Causes of amphibian declines include habitat destruction, climate change, UV-B radiation, pesticide/herbicide use, disease (Chytrid fungus), and multiple factors working together (synergism).

The Chytrid fungus, which is affecting amphibians across the globe was probably introduced from the transport of Xenopus frogs(1) - those flat, funny-looking creatures sold in pet shops and laboratory supply catalogs. The Xenopus frog was first shipped around the globe for use in human pregnancy tests. Urine from a suspected pregnant woman was injected into the frog; hormones in the urine of a pregnant woman would stimulate the frog to lay eggs within 48 hours. Obviously, today, more advanced pregnancy tests are available, but Xenopus frogs are still used in many laboratory studies. There is still much work that need to be done to understand the chytrid fungus and its implications for amphibian survival.

So, what can you do to help your local amphibians? Don't use herbicides or pesticides around wet areas - RoundUp is highly toxic to all life stages of amphibians(2). Protect permanent and temporary ponds. Don't release captive animals to the wild - they may carry disease that can devastate a local population. If you are a teacher, use giant toads (Bufo marinus) in your classroom for dissection instead of native frogs. Most importantly - learn about the amphibians in your area - there's still hope!

~Carrie Elvey

To learn more about The Year of the Frog, stop by Amphibian Ark's website:

www.amphibianark.org/yearofthefrog

1. Weldon C, du Preez LH, Hyatt AD, Muller R, Speare R. Origin of the amphibian chytrid fungus. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2004 Dec [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no12/03-0804.htm
2.Relyea, R.A. (2005) The lethal impact of Roundup® on aquatic and terrestrial amphibians. Ecol. Appl. 15:1118-1124

The First Robin of Spring?

2008-02-23T15:52:00.004-05:00

An American Robin has been hanging out near the front feeder here at The Wilderness Center the last couple of days.

Some robins stick around all winter long, if they can find food. It's tougher looking for fruit to eat in the winter, so most leave their home territories and move south. How far they go is based on where they can find food. The robin at the feeder may be a Cleveland robin looking for food or an Ontario robin heading home. Seeing a robin isn't really a sign of spring, just a sign of hungry robins.

Robins sing when they return from their winter travels, when they arrive in their nesting territory. The real sign of spring robins bring is their song. A robin seen is passing through; a robin heard is back home.

I haven't heard a robin sing yet this year, not even the robin at the feeder. But just about now, in late February when I'm starting to look for spring, even seeing a robin tells my heart spring is almost here!

Winter storm brings birds to TWC feeder

2008-02-15T14:52:00.003-05:00

I woke to a tremendous wind and snow storm on Tuesday, February 12 and began the drive to work. What normally took me 20-30 minutes to drive was a trip well over an hour.

It was my week at work and I was responsible for opening the building. Part of the opening process is filling the bird feeders outside the Observation Room.

When I stepped out to fill the feeders, it was still snowing hard. The feeders had been empty since Sunday.

I pulled up my hood, put on my gloves and tucked my jeans into my boots. I filled the bucket with birdseed and proceeded to the platforms. With the platforms complete, I headed to the feeder in the middle and felt this tremedous flurry of activity.

The birds didn't even seem to notice I was right in the middle of their feeding station and they completely surrounded me. There must have been close to 50 birds all together that had just been waiting for their morning snack.

I started to move when I spied the platform feeded off to my left and spotted three of my favorite birds (and unusual to see) all sitting together feeding. There was a male Eastern Towhee, a Hairy Woodpecker and a Purple Finch!

I left my arm up in the air and didn't move for a few minutes. I thought, "where is a camera when you need one."

When I came back into the building, the drive and the storm didn't seem so bad.

Nature has a way of soothing and a sense of wonder that can take you at any given moment!

Mistaken Identity

2008-01-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

The other evening, I had to go to a meeting right at dusk. My wife and I left home and headed north. The sun was already down, but the sky was still light enough to see.

As we approached a stop sign at a T-junction, I spotted something flying over a grassy field. Could it be?

Yes, it could!

There, flying low over the field was a large bird. It would flap, glide, flap, slip right, slip left in a distinct hunting style.

Could it be a Short-eared Owl?

I reached for the cheap binoculars I keep in the car.

I focused on the bird…

It wasn’t.

My Short-eared Owl was, in reality, a Northern Harrier, formerly known as a Marsh Hawk.

While a Short-eared Owl sighting would have been fantastic, it was still great to see the Harrier.

This is a mistake easily made. The two species are about the same size. In the dusky sky the bird appeared only in silhouette. Through the binoculars, I could see the shape of the head and that told the tale.

Otherwise the Harrier and the Short-eared Owl are remarkably similar. They are like day-shift/night shift workers.

The Harrier hunts by day, the Owl by night. They use the same technique. They alternately glide and flap over fields at low level. The seem to float up and down, left and right in a pattern that reminds you of a large butterfly. This flight technique is manifest in longer, narrower wings as compared to other raptors.

Both species hunt by sound. They listen for mice, voles and other small animals moving in the grass. When they hear one, they stoop. If they are lucky and the mouse isn’t; they eat.

This hunt-by-sound technique is revealed on their face. All owls have a disk around their eyes. This disk is used to focus sound into their ears so that the bird can precisely locate prey. The Harrier also has the facial disks though not quite as pronounced as those of an owl.

People tend to borrow names from nature. The British named their vertical take-off fighter jet the Harrier for its ability to “float like a butterfly.”

~Gordon Maupin

An Owl for the New Year

2008-01-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

It was January 2, my first day at work in the new year. I stayed a little late, trying to catch up on work that piled up while I was off last week. It was twilight as I left, the last one out of the building. I set the alarm, pulled the door locked behind me, and started to my car.

Just at the edge of my hearing, a sound. Low, slow. I stopped so the sound of my feet on the sidewalk wouldn't interfer. Was that what I think it was?

I waited for the deep sound again. I think it came from Sigrist Woods, so I cocked my head in that direction.

Finally, the call came. Yes! An owl. The deep, low, slow, edge-of-my-hearing sound of a Barred Owl. They're sometimes called "hoot owls," but I get my owl calls confused—I checked this one the next day to be sure I had the right one.

Owls have been found in folklore in many cultures. My thoughts jumped to ancient Greece, where the owl was the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom. Even now (although they aren't actually particularly smart), we think of the "wise old owl." A good sign, I thought, the hope of wisdom in 2008.

I have no picture of my New Year's owl. It was far away but, even if it had been nearer, I wouldn't have gotten that shot in the dark. You'll have to picture it in your mind's eye, as it is in mine.

Birdfeeder Deer

2007-12-22T14:52:00.001-05:00

They're back!

Every winter, White-tailed Deer put TWC's birdfeeders on their grazing agenda. They come in the morning just after we've put birdseed on the feeders. They came again in the evening just as it's starting to get dark before we close. They often stop by during the day. We sometimes see them at the feeders in other seasons, but not as often or as regularly as we do in the winter.

Deer are crepuscular—active at dawn and dusk. They browse many types of plants, but a regular, dependable source of food, like our birdseed, in the harsh winter is just too good to pass up. The morning and evening birdseed feeding times fit right into their schedule!

I especially enjoy the times I catch the deer just coming to the feeders. They're wary and cautious as they slowly move in. I haven't done a study, but it seems to me that there more deer when the snow is deeper. One snowy afternoon just before closing, I saw a herd of 13, including the buck. A car door slamming startled them and I got to see 13 white tails bouncing away through the trees.

As the deer have learned to come to our birdfeeders to eat, so the people have learned to come to our birdfeeders to watch the deer. Just last Sunday, a couple stayed for almost 3 hours, just sitting quietly, watching the deer and birds at the feeders.

You can, too! Stop by any time the Interpretive Building is open this winter. We can't guarantee you'll see deer (they are wild, after all), but we can give good odds.

An Early Christmas Present

2007-12-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

The Wilderness Center got an early Christmas present over the weekend. A Common Redpoll, Carduelis flammea, has been hanging out at our feeding station for the last few days. This tiny finch nests in birch and willow in the Arctic tundra. Flocks move south during the winter, but it is somewhat rare to find one this far south. If you happen to be visiting TWC in the next week, look for a small, brownish, finch-like bird with a red forehead and red-blushed chest. He's tiny and hard to spot - but worth the effort!

Bald Eagle Visits TWC

2007-12-01T10:24:00.000-05:00

When I rolled into The Wilderness Center the morning of Friday, November 30, I was greeted by a Bald Eagle perched between Alabama Avenue and Sugar Creek. What a delight!

Seeing a Bald Eagle conjures up all kinds of thoughts, memories, and emotions. The first Bald Eagle I remember seeing was in the 1960s in Canada. By the late 1960s, Bald Eagles were on the road to extinction. Very few remained in the lower 48 states. We Americans were exterminating our national symbol.

While some Bald Eagles were shot by ignorant jerks, the real problem was the persistent insecticide DDT.

The DDT story is complicated but the essence is that the chemical doesn’t readily break down in the environment. It was sprayed in very low concentrations on control insects, but once it entered the environment it underwent what is called “biological amplification.” In this process, the insecticide became more and more concentrated as it moved through the food chain. Concentrations became quite high in top predators. In birds, this messed up their metabolism and caused eggshells to be very thin. Eagles and many other species at the top of the food chain were crushing their own eggs.

The Bald Eagle certainly was not the only bird affected. Pelicans, herons, falcons, and many other species were in severe decline. DDT has been linked to developmental problems in human fetuses and infants. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. It is still used abroad because it is a cheap, effective insecticide.

Since the banning of DDT, populations of Bald Eagles and many other species of wildlife have greatly recovered. In the late 1970s, I was involved with a program in Missouri called “Eagle Days” where we took people to see Bald Eagles on wildlife refuges. These birds summered in Canada and moved into the U.S. during the winter. They would concentrate on waterfowl refuges for predictable periods of time each year. I recall many people becoming highly emotional at their first sighting of a Bald Eagle. I particularly remember a dapper African American gentleman saying with tears in his eyes, “I never thought I’d get to see an American Eagle!”

When you see a Bald Eagle, you should not only enjoy this magnificent symbol of America, but also thank the bird for being the proverbial “canary in the mine” with respect to DDT and other persistent pesticides.

A frightening trend I have recently noticed is the extremist “think tanks” (which are mostly propaganda mills) are starting to advocate the return of DDT using clever, misleading, half-truth spin tactics. When you see such propaganda, know it for what it is.

Gordon Maupin

They're Back!

2007-11-10T11:49:00.000-05:00

The Juncos are back!

I love Juncos. They nest in Canada in the summer, then come here to "warm" Ohio for the winter. They're our snowbirds. Although there are other birds that come to Ohio for the winter, there's something about the Junco, an unassuming survivor, that touches me

I watch for Juncos every year about this time. They seemed a little late this year--usually I see the first one in mid-to late October. I thought I saw one on Nov. 2, but just caught a glimpse of tail feathers, so wasn't sure.

Then, on Nov. 3, I was walking down to the Astronomy Education Building and saw 5! And not just a glimpse and a maybe, but a for sure sighting!

Juncos are also my "marker" birds. I put up my birdfeeders when the Juncos arrive and take them down when they leave.

I've noticed them a few times since, but haven't seen any at the feeders, either at home or here at the Center, yet. I'm sure it won't be long, now...

(I took this photo last February. Haven't gotten one of this year's Juncos yet.)

A Halloween Spider

2007-10-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

Some Wilderness Center members, the Grohs, stopped in the other day with the coolest spider! Laurie, our Bookkeeper, was here to talk with them about it. She didn't know what it was, but told them she'd find out and get back to them. (Great job, Laurie!) So she came to me the next day with the spider in an old pill bottle. I'm far from a spider expert, but had seen that type before. When I couldn't think of the name, Laurie came through again, with a photo I had taken about this time last year. It was marked on the back as a Marbled Orb Weaver.

I take lots of photos, but this one stood out in my mind. Not because it's especially good, but because the spider was so unusual. It has showed up here at TWC 2 years in a row, now, at the end of October. It's got a big, round abdomen with a yellowish-orangish cast. Because of the timing, its shape, and its color, I'm coming to think of it as the Halloween spider—at least more "Halloweeny" than the boring black ones they sell in Halloween novelties. What do you think? A Halloween spider?

The Frog in the Door

2007-10-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

We had a visitor earlier this month! (Not usually a big deal. We get lots of visitors every month.) But this one was not your usual human.

A frog dropped by the office. A Gray Tree Frog! It just hung out on the window of the side door most of the day. We’ve been hearing Gray Tree Frogs calling this fall, as we often do on warm days this time of year. I had pointed the sound out to a Brownie troop earlier that day on their “Watching Wildlife” walk.

Then this one showed up. As far as I know, it didn’t call that day. It just sat as we watched it from inside and outside the building. It sat as the next Brownie troop got closer—one girl even got up the nerve to touch it!

Gray Tree Frogs live in, well, trees. They can’t duck under the water to hide if some frog-threat comes along. So, they have some ability to change color to blend with their surroundings. How’s this one doing blending with the door?

Would have been harder to see if it hadn’t been sitting in the window…

Fall Caterpillars

2007-10-11T09:34:00.000-04:00

When you think of fall caterpillars, you probably envision brown woolly bears inching across the pavement or tent caterpillar silk hanging from the trees. However, the diversity of body forms, lifestyles, and behaviors of caterpillars found across Ohio goes far beyond these common sights. The pictures above are two fairly common, but often unnoticed caterpillars. The first is the White Marked Tussock Moth. This caterpillar is named for the tufts of hairs on its back. The second is a Crowned Slug. Slug caterpillars are so called for their slug-like gliding. Most slug caterpillars have multiple stinging hairs for protection. Go out on a quiet clear night and you can often hear the chewing of caterpillars in the trees.

Slimy Salamanders

2007-09-12T12:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, our docents (teacher volunteers) went on a salamander search during their monthly training. Neel Summers found 2 Slimy Salamanders (Plethodon glutinosus). This beautiful salamander is aptly named. When bothered, this salamander secretes a gluey slime that is extremely difficult to remove from your hands (as Neel can testify). While this salamander is very common in Ohio, it is the first one we have found here at TWC in recent years, and is a first for our township. The record of this find, along with voucher photos, will be sent to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Identifying, vouchering, and monitoring amphibians is very important these days, as species are declining all over the world. Scientists are working hard at understanding the causes of amphibian declines. To learn more about amphibian declines, check out www.amphibiaweb.org/declines, a great site from UC - Berkley.

Tiger Swallowtail

2007-08-17T11:07:00.000-04:00

The Wilderness Center prairie is a wonderful place to visit from mid-July through September.
Last week, there was a wedding at the Center. A reception was held in the Prairie Shelter. I walked down check on the preparations and happened to glance along the Wilderness Walk where is passes through the prairie.

WOW!

About 30 yards down the trail was some Joe-Pye Weed approaching 10-feet in height. Sucking nectar from the flowers were about ten Tiger Swallowtails.
Tiger Swallowtails are a beautiful butterfly. The name “tiger” comes from the black and orange striped wings.

When the Center’s prairie comes into full bloom the flowers and butterflies are a sight to behold!

It is no surprise we have a good population of Tiger Swallowtails. The larva feeds on Tulip Poplar and Cherry trees. Both tree species are abundant at the Center.

Adult butterflies feed on nectar. Butterflies and wildflowers are in a symbiotic relationship. Wildflowers feed sweet nectar to the butterflies. The butterflies help the plants reproduce by transferring pollen from plant to plant. Each species benefits.

In nature, there is as much cooperation among species as there is competition.

Tiger Swallowtail

2007-08-17T11:05:00.000-04:00

Saddleback Caterpillar

2007-08-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

This Saddleback Caterpillar, Acharia stimulea, was found by a participant during our Wilderness Walk on Wednesday. These striking caterpillars are generalist feeders on many plants. When they are young, the caterpillars feed together in groups of 30-50. As older caterpillars, they tend to be more solitary, as this one was. The sting from the spines in quite potent - don't hug this caterpillar!

Fall is a fantastic time to look for caterpillars - even a walk around your backyard should yield several species. To identify the caterpillars you find, I recommend Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David Wagner. Happy hunting!