Back From Maine

July 13, 2020. Otisfield, Maine.

It was night, it was warm, and I wondered if anything would be visiting the common milkweed planted in the flower garden?  Turns out I was right- it was covered with these moths.

Isn't nature amazing?  I'm going to get back to exploring and sharing.

-Tom

Last View from Maine

One last shot of Maine.  Weston is my guy who likes physical adventures- boating, swimming in the pond, riding big wheels, and new this year, playing basketball.  We had a great trip in Maine.  I hope you enjoyed it!  Back to Ohio tomorrow...

-Tom

....and Salamander Catcher

Northern Dusky Salamander

My Frog Catcher

My Frog Catcher

Brody is a budding herpetologist; in particular, he loves frogs.  During our trip to Maine, Grandma Kate I believe flushed this pickerel frog out of her flower beds as she watered them one evening. Needless to say, we had to catch this beautiful little frog!

Unlike the leopard frogs, pickerel frogs have squarish shaped, rather than round spots, but even more diagnostic is a wash of yolk-yellow on their bellows, in particular where their limbs meet their bodies.  You can just see a little bit of that yellow on the frog's belly and where the its front arm meets the body. While we love catching frogs and a bunch of animals at Little Pond, we do have one rule- all animals caught must be released before the day is over.  This one little guidline has worked quite well over the years, I recommend it for all parents that have frog and bug catching little ones.

-Tom

The Azure Bluet

I have just about tapped all my Maine images and I will be returning Ohio material soon; even so, many of these species I have been sharing can also be observed in the buckeye state and other locales around the Midwest and Great Lakes.  Let me know if you're enjoying my daily posting schedule.  I'll just keep sharing until I run out cool things to find; and you know that will never happen! (*or, realistically, until Megan and I usher a new human being into this world come mid-October.)

The azure bluet is an absolutely stunning damselfly.  I must admit that I've photographed hundreds of bluets over the past 10 years, but I have not put in the work needed to sort them out and truly learn them all.  That's a project for the winter as I'm currently sorting through all my images of wild creatures with the eventual goal of hosting them in galleries at my Smugmug website.  For now, the bird gallery (Aves) is complete; every species of wild bird I have ever photographed is represented there. I'd appreciate it if you took some time to explore what I've posted there- it's been fun to build, but a ton of work!

-Tom

Female Elfin Skimmer

The elfin skimmer is an extremely rare dragonfly for Ohio, known from only a few sites, including Cedar Bog.  Maine is one of its strongholds in the U.S., but I had never seen one at Little Pond, until this trip. I only saw this one female, a wasp mimic, leading me to believe they are not frequent there, and on this day, I just got lucky.

-Tom

Green Darner Mega Closeup

Dragonflies are amazing creatures!  They can see in nearly every direction.  Just look at those compound eyes.  I don't usually net dragonflies, but at Little Pond, I did just that this year.  Catching this male green darner was no easy feet.  After a few shots, he was returned to the friendly skies around the pond.  Green darners are just one of the dozens of dragons and damsels that live within close proximity of Little Pond.

-Tom

Frosted Whiteface Mating Pair, Take 2

When writing this morning's post, I tried to composing it on my iPad.  Needless to say, the results were less than stellar.  This photo should be much better!

-Tom

Frosted Whiteface

The frosted whiteface is a small dragonfly that is sometimes mistaken for the chalk-fronted corporal.  It's about half the size of a corporal, however.  I always spot these dragons resting in the sedges along the edge of the pond, especially Carex lasiocarpa. But until this year's trip, I had never encountered a mating pair.  It's always nice to know there will be more dragonflies!

-Tom

The Eye of a Naturalist

Perhaps the most influential book I've ever read (I'm not exaggerating!) was the memoir published by E.O. Wilson.  I have to credit Mr. Parker, a high school biology teacher, for suggesting it to me as a senior at Stow-Munroe Falls High School.  A few years later, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Wilson at Oberlin College at the invitation of Dr. Prudy Hall.  In his memoir, Wilson explained what it really means to have the "eye of a naturalist".  Scrutinize everything.  Be absolutely curious.  Scan nature and ask questions about everything you see.

Above all, this has been my driving mantra throughout my professional career as biological diversity professional. I think the eye that Wilson discusses comes to me somewhat naturally, but I absolutely have those dumbfounding moments when I tell myself "why did I miss that?"  It actually happens frequently- for example, when another botanist in the state recognizes a new and different species that all the other botanists just were lumping into something else.

That brings me back to the photo above.  Yes, I've seen the little grayish brown leps flitting about the bog mat for years at Little Pond, Maine.  I've been going there for a decade.  But did I ever give them a second thought?  Never.  WHY NOT!?!  Probably because I thought they moths?  I don't know. Finally, on this July trip, after a cloudy interlude, the butterflies of the bog mat took flight en masse one late afternoon after hunkering down for a while.  I had pretty much exhausted photographing the dragons and damsels in the area, and thought, let's give that ugly gray lep a shot?

And the results?  When I finally really saw them, in person, and on the camera screen, it hit me hard that I have been missing this incredibly beautiful animal.  I believe this is the bog copper, Lycaena epixanthe.  And it turns out that the host plant for this species is the native cranberries, which are plentiful in the acidic sphagnum bog at Little Pond. These butterflies were at the pond every summer I have visited; they just hadn't caught the my naturalists's eye.

Finally, I leave you with the following: Do you have the eye of a naturalist?  Did it come easily? Was it hard? What have you done to hone your vision?

-Tom

River Jewelwing, Crooked River Maine

While this may look like the much more common ebony jewelwing, look carefully at the wings.  The river jewelwing is an extremely rare damselfly in Ohio, but I find it regularly on the Crooked River in Maine.  Ohio's population persists only on a small stretch of the upper Cuyahoga River in Geauga County.  You may have seen the quite similar ebony jewelwing, which has entirely dark wings, rather than the coloration being confined to the tip as seen above.  The ebony jewelwing is perhaps our most conspicuous damselfly- it can be found along almost every wooded stream in Ohio.  The river jewelwing is a Maine treat for this Ohioan.

-Tom

There's No Fourth of July Parade Like a Maine Fourth of July Parade...

I hope you are having a great summer!  And yes, we are adding a new Arbour to our household come mid-October.  The boys will be getting a baby sister...

-Tom

The Red Squirrel in a Tamarack

Red squirrels are serious pests- they can be quite destructive to human property, and have a penchant for eating electrical lines.  The are pretty cute though!  This one struck me as a young animal- amazing color and no signs of age.  It had climbed one of the water-stressed tamaracks on the edge of the bog mat at Little Pond, a place where I have never seen one.  

-Tom

A Quiet Walk through Witt Swamp Preserve, Norway Maine

-Tom

Prince's Pine, aka Pipsissewa

Before I left Ohio for our trip to Maine, I was speaking with one of our preserve managers about the Prince's Pine or Pipsissewa, Chimaphila umbellata. This tiny little shrub in the heath family grows less than a foot tall, and has seemingly become quite rare in Ohio (not that it ever was common).  I've never seen it here, and after my conversation with our manager at Conkles Hollow, I learned it no longer occurs there either.  I happened to wonder upon on my exit from the Witt Swamp Preserve in Norway Maine, owned by the Western Foothills Land Trust. What's funny, is that in my excitement headed into the swamp, I completely missed the giant patch right at the entrance.  I spotted it on the way out, and thought how lucky I was to see a plant that has become quite rare in Ohio.  Have you seen this denizen of acidic habitats?  If so, where?

-Tom

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Family in Maine

While I never found the nest cavity where the brood was hatched, a pair of yellow-bellied woodpeckers had raised their young, and, had found a wonderful place, apparently, to eat, right in the yard of my in-laws in Maine. Quite honestly, I have no idea how the tree is still alive, but it showed no signs of distress.  Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are given this name because they actively make small holes in trees to eat the sap and to eat insects attracted to the sap; I've read that the round holes are deeper, while the square holes are shallow. It's a bit tough to tell the difference between them above- most are somewhat intermediate to my eye.

Once I realized the sapsuckers were around, it didn't take me long to figure out that they were frequently this tree nearly all day, but especially in the morning and evening.  There were at least two, maybe three, young-of-year hanging closely to their parents, perhaps learning what it takes to be a sapsucker.

The yellow on the belly is subtle- Through binoculars or a long telephoto lens, it's visible, and in the hand, I'm sure it would be quite striking . Remember, when most of our North American birds were named, high quality optics didn't exist, so the tool of the earliest ornithologists were shotguns!  The yellow tinge is just visible flanking the female's dark patch below the throat.

In males, the white throat patch is replaced with red, which is stunningly spectacular in person.  This was the first opportunity I've had to photograph a male.

What an incredible bird!  As you can see here, there is in fact yellow on the male's belly, but it is subtle, easily overlooked if you are not looking through binoculars.

This was just another of family of baby birds that was frequently Little Pond.  Without having to leave the yard, we were treated to wonderful looks at multiple species of baby birds. Ahh, to be in Maine again!

-Tom

This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Has Got Game!

The first thing that alerted me to the presence of YBSA at Little Pond was the crab-apple tree that was riddled with holes in its bark.  The second was the piercing tapping sound that I heard from around the other side of the house while I was photographing near the feeders.  Ah, a yellow-bellied sapsucker!  Hey, if you're a male YBSA, I couldn't think of anything much louder to drum on and announce your territory than this old basketball backboard.  I imagined the metal roof pictured in the background was just a little too slippery for him to get a hold of.  For us in Ohio, these are rare breeding birds, but they do show up with regularity in the winter.  I've even had them in our backyard bur oak and I've photographed a female at Delaware Preservation Parks' Deer Haven Preserve.

-Tom

The Baby Birds Would Not Quit!

So, this isn't a dinosaur or some strange quail- it's a song sparrow that has lost its tail feathers, probably due to a natural molt, but I'm not an expert in this area. We just kept remarking on how many baby birds were seeing around Little Pond.  I just kept getting great shots.  The song sparrow is one of our most common here in Ohio (at least of the native sparrows), and I regularly see and hear them in our suburban yard in Worthington.  They also call Little Pond home.

-Tom

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Another bird known to Ohioans as a somewhat uncommon winter visitor, the red-breasted nuthatch is quite common around Little Pond, Maine. I could sit in a lawn chair with my legs outstretched and pressed against this big white pine, and the nuthatches, red-breasted and white-breasted, had no fear of me.  I had some come so close that I could have reached out and touched them had they been inanimate.  This one may have not been the prettiest individual (perhaps it was a young-of-year?), but they were sure fun to watch.

-Tom

Drought in Maine; Male Purple Finch

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd never seen the area around Little Pond so dry.  A quick look at the U.S. drought monitor revealed the following graphic:

U.S. National Drought Monitor Map for Maine, July 12, 2016

Little Pond is in Oxford County, the large county forming the western border of the state.  Nearly the entire county is listed as yellow, which according to the drought monitor is considered abnormally dry.  Little Pond is on the little southeast nub of the county, and very near the tan color, which is one step drier on the scale and is considered to be an area of moderate drought.  It definitely showed on the landscape, primarily in the form of the white pines looking quite thin and even brown in places, reaching high up into the trees. The brown needles littered the forest floor, which was crunchy with drought compared to its usually soft touch underfoot.  It took a while to get used to!

The local newspapers were recounting stories of wildlife in search of food from people, especially bears, because of the poor fruit crop (think Maine blueberries- yum!) due to drought.  I noticed that there were more birds than ever at the feeders this year, perhaps responding to the low fruit production as well.

One bird that I saw more than ever, and that that I enjoyed watching was the purple finch.  I've never seen one in Ohio, but they are around, especially at feeders in the winter.  Many Ohioans mistake the house finch for the purple finch, but the latter is a much more colorful bird.  This year in Maine, several pairs readily came to the feeders.  I happen to catch this male displaying with wings open and moving rapidly up and down and crest straight up.  Was it for a female?  I believe so, but I was focusing on the bird and not what he was trying to attract!