White-tailed Doe

August 22, 2010, Kenney Park, Columbus

 

 

So why not battle the winter blahs by returning to summer?  Here's another image that I captured this past summer that never made it to the blog.

Tom

It's a Mast Year

Red Oak Acorns, November 2010,  Munroe Falls, Ohio

Not long after the start of this year's deer bow season in Ohio, which opened September 25, I started reading reports that Ohio was experiencing a "mast year".   For some reason(s) that are not entirely understood, some years, most every oak tree in a forest will produce a bumper crop of acorns, far more than normal. During a mast year event, the woods can just be littered with acorns.

But why is this event called a "mast year"?  A little searching through online dictionaries and I found the answer- this usage of the word "mast" most likely derives from an old English word that meant food.  So a mast year is when the woods is full of food, and in the case of this year's deer season, full of food for deer.  And that brings me back to the deer season.  The number of deer harvested during the early archery season was down- a fact attributed by many to the deer staying put in the woods and feasting on the bumper crop of acorns, instead  running out into fields and farmland to search for leftover corn and soybeans.  I'm not sure if I buy this argument, but I recently visited my parents house and experienced this "mast" event first hand.

"Mast"

 They're lucky enough to have a nice red oak in their backyard.  When I was growing up, I remember finding a few acorns underneath this tree- maybe five or six per year.  The gray squirrels got all the other ones. So I was absolutely shocked to see the pile that had formed at the base of this tree.  Granted- my dad had raked the acorns off the lawn and moved them all closer together, but what a bonanza of acorns.

Why does this happen?  The prevailing theory seems to go like this: In one year, if you flood the woods with many more acorns than the squirrels, deer, and other wildlife can eat, than there is an actual chance of getting some of those extra acorns to germinate and eventually become trees.  By in large though, from my brief research this morning, there is much that needs to be learned about this phenomenon.

My hand with "mast"

This morning I asked this question-  Is it just Ohio's oaks that are experiencing a mast year?  After a quick search for "mast year" at the newspaper article search topix.net, I found stories from Florida to Connecticut and New York to Chicago.  I can't make the argument that the phenomenon is happening across the eastern U.S.  Perhaps every year there are places that experience local mast events. Still, I was surprised to see so many articles.  Maybe something unusual is going on, or quite possibly, it could just be a coincidence.  Needless to say, my interest is definitely piqued- I'm starting to see a whole PhD dissertation developing in my brain.....

My question to you is- are you having a "mast year" in your neck of the woods?

Tom

Deer

Olentangy Week- This week I'll be presenting images from my most recent trip to my old stomping grounds, the Olentangy River at Kenney Park while I'm away at Yellowstone National Park.

White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus

Tom

White-Tailed Doe

There were no less than five does looking to eat at the feeder at Blendon Woods. Apparently, they just aren't comfortable coming up to the feeder when there are people in the observation building, because this was as close as any one of them came. We did watch them browse the crusty, dried vegetation for a few minutes before they meandered back into the fields and forests. I'm sure bird seed would have been more to their liking.

A Saturday Morning Walk Along the Olentangy

Every once in a while I have one of those magical moments where light, circumstance, and technology come together to result in a great image. Although there are dozens of deer along the Olentangy River corridor here in Columbus, they are extremely weary of people and tough to photograph. That was until yesterday morning, when I finally got some decent shots of the elusive Odocoileus virginianus.


I am certainly lucky to live so close to a natural area, especially since Megan and I live in the City of Columbus. Yesterday morning I was walking along down the river to the south towards the end of the park. In this area, there are some gigantic 80 year old homes built high up on the bluff overlooking the river. Their grassy yards continue down the bluff to the water. I approached the homes and all of the sudden several creatures came bounding towards me. I'm thinking, damn, I've got some dogs on me, but then they stopped and froze rather un-doglike and perked up there ears. "Ahh...deer" I thought to myself and I breathed a sigh of relief. My blood pressure shot right back up though, because once I realized that I wasn't going to get attacked by dogs, I realized I had a great opportunity to finally get decent deer images. In total, there were four young animals, all fairly healthy looking.



After ther deer grew accustomed to me and went on their way, I turned around and headed upstream to see if I could catch a great blue heron fishing. No luck with the heron, but the river has finally lowered enough for me to get out on the cobble bar that I fish from during the summer. Again, signs of the city can be seen, with several weathered and rounded asphalt chunks mixed in with the Delaware limestone, shale, glacial erratics and chert.


Mallards and Canada geese are the waterfowl to be seen on the river right now. I'm sure that come spring, a few wood ducks will pop up here and there. This female mallard is resting on a bar covered with water willow (Justicia americana), which I was happy to see is starting to green up. Yet another sign of spring.

"Look Ma, no Hands!"

The gravel bar provided plenty of interesting photographic opportunities, including this ice formation which I shot across the river with my telephoto lens. I used a tripod and a very slow shutter speed to blur the motion of the water.


My position at the gravel bar was fairly birdy. Not only did I capture the mallard images, I also had a red tailed hawk cruise above me.



And to the north, a white-breasted nuthatch was twitting about the uppermost branches of a streamside silver maple.


On the opposite bank flicking in and out of washed up tree branches was this tiny wren. This is what I call a "documentary" shot. A crappy picture none the less but maybe someone could get an ID from this? I'm speculating this may have been a winter wren. Any other thoughts?


And finally, several American robins were perched in the leafless Amur honeysuckle shrubs (Lonicera maackii, a really nasty invasive species) that cover the floodplain. Here in Columbus, robins are with us during all but the harshest winters.

I hope you enjoyed this Saturday morning walk.

Tom

Morning on the Olentangy

I woke up this morning, walked through Kenney Park, and headed to the Olentangy River. The moon was still high in the sky.



But a look back over my shoulder and the sun was coming up, and these back lit foxtails were covered with dew.



On to the river, with the tripod along, in hopes of getting some close-ups of great blue herons. None were around, so I took pictures of river, running smooth and clear.



Here's a closeup. I used a long shutter speed to smooth out the water. It makes the rocks and the leaves pressed up against them really pop.



There are constant reminders that I haven't escaped the city. One of those is the presence of long discarded items in the river. I'm not sure what this rusting, circular metal shaped object was, but this sycamore leaf had nestled up against it.



A look downstream, the river headed towards Old Beechwold and Clintonville. State Route 315 runs just to the right of the trees on the right bank.



Up until this point, things were fairly quiet, animal wise. I hadn't seen the great blue herons I had been looking for, but just after this picture, two found me. I heard the loud gawking KRYANKKK! and thought I was about to get attacked, turned around, and saw two herons swooping away from me. It looks like they wanted to do a little fishing where I was, and didn't see me until they were just about to land. I managed to fire a shot when they made the quick decision not to land where I was and head downstream.



After scanning downstream, I noticed another creature had taken notice of me.



This young white tailed deer went on its merry way after I realized that I was just a human. The deer along the river are wicked tame. (Thanks to Mainers for the word "Wicked").



There are about 30-40 resident mallard ducks on the Olentangy right now. Just in the past few weeks, the males have gone from raggedy juveniles to green headed adults. The mallards congregate and feed in the riffles of the stream.



Dragonflies and damselflies have really slowed down with the cool weather. I only saw American rubyspots this morning.



Last night Megan and I walked down to the southern end of the park, which abuts Old Beechwold. There is a large pool with several nice turtle basking spots. I decided this morning to head down to that area to see if I could get some shots of turtles. Sure enough, two common map turtles were basking on a rock in the middle of the river. These turtles are extremely wary. If the see you, they fall off into the water in a second, disappearing in the murky pool. The silver maple hid me from them, allowing me to get a semi-decent shot.



The sun was getting higher in the sky, the light quickly brightening, and my stomach starting to let me have it for not eating breakfast. On the way back, I saw yet another Silver-spotted skipper, this time nectaring on an Aster.



And that was my morning.

Tom

Disturbing the Peace

So Megan and I are shooting pictures in the relatively quiet Kenney Park on Sunday, looking at damselflies, etc. Megan was getting a bit ancy, since I tend to, oh shall we say, dote around the water willow taking hundreds of pictures of damselflies. Anyways, suddenly, over the constant din of state route 315, I hear a crash! splash!, I look up, then see a deer running, leaping, doing anything it can to get across the shallow water. I managed to grab my camera and get a shot of it just before it made it to the opposite bank. To say it startled us would be an understatement!

 

Tom