A Trail of Three Wetlands

I had quite a weekend attending the first two of 13 events scheduled for this year's 13th Annual “Explore the Nature of Knox County" program. 

On Saturday, I went to the "Trail of Three Wetlands" at the Brown Family Environmental Center and learned more about the vernal pool I had been monitoring for salamander and other amphibian breeding migrations.  Tour leader Siobhan Fennessy, co-director of the Brown Center and a Kenyon biology professor, showed us the eggs of spotted salamanders laid on rocks underwater, proof there had been a spotted salamander migration that I missed.  She said there is concern that vernal pools are on the decline because of tree cutting and other land management changes, which could be very harmful to amphibians, especially salamanders.

She also said concerned landowners can create vernal pools by excavating in the right locations.

The other two wetlands were a skunk cabbage seep fed by the downhill flow of groundwater and a wet meadow that was restored by fencing out cattle.

Sunday's event was at the Ramser Arboretum, a nature preserve about 10 miles from Apple Valley and open to the public.  I'll write about that later this week, along with a related preserve on Proper Road, even closer to Apple Valley.

For a complete schedule of events and directions, go to the Owl Creek Conservancy's website (http://owlcreekconservancy.org) and click on "Upcoming Events".

Siobhan Fennessy (center, in green jacket) at the "Skunk Cabbage Seep", the first stop on the "Trail of Three Wetlands".  (Photo by Don Comis)

Skunk Cabbage Seep Wetland.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Siobhan Fennessy shows a Mayapple plant after group leaves the first stop.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Second Wetland:  Vernal Pool.  (Photo by Don Comis)

The white dots on the two rocks are eggs laid by spotted salamanders in the vernal pool at the Brown Center.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Last stop:  Wet Meadow Wetland. (Photo by Don Comis)

Kenyon biology professor Siobhan Fennessy explains that the restored wet meadow looked like the green pasture on the other side of the fence, 10 years ago.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Weather is Right, But No Salamanders Yet

Northern dusky salamander along Little Jelloway Creek in Howard, Ohio, on August 1, 2013.  (Photo by Don Comis)

It's 54 degrees Fahrenheit here in Howard, Ohio, at 3:35 a.m., with rain on and off, but no salamanders.  At least not up to 1:30 this morning.

I went out to the vernal pool at Kenyon College with a lantern flashlight with a red film screwed in and sat in a camp chair from midnight to 1:30 a.m.  Nothing and no eggs in the pool, so the mass migration of salamanders hadn't taken place yet.

It could still happen until the temperature drops to the predicted 32 degrees, but I doubt it. 

Maybe the salamanders know it could snow today.

The only animals I saw were a rabbit and deer.  I heard a few scary dog barks and a scary animal scream, plus smelled a musky animal fear smell, and saw a small creature run away.

Well, I'll consider this a practice run that's getting me familiar again with Nature at dark.

Why Are Robins Pecking at "Frozen" Ground Now?

I wondered why robins would be pecking at frozen ground.  Surely, there aren't any bugs or worms in the ground with these freezing nights?  That's what I and a friend thought.

But when I dug a hole today to plant a pine tree, the shovel went in easily and I saw two worms and a grub.  I also saw a beetle but he may have come out of a bag of mulch I emptied in the tree hole.  I had stored that bag since last summer at least in the garage.  It was intermixed with whole peanuts stored there by my garage dwelling mouse, who cached them from my bags of whole peanuts for the birds, or those I spilled.

Speaking of mice, I saw one, maybe the culprit, this evening when I straightened out a door mat on the deck, after the wind had upturned it.  To my shock and his or hers, I had exposed a field mouse that was hiding in the folded mat.  The mouse froze by the doorway for a second or two and then fled the deck for the bushes.  It had a long tail and looked like a field mouse.  I suspect he was after the bird seed spilled on the deck.

I plan to check the screech owl box tonight and the vernal pool tomorrow.  Conditions could be right for the salamander march to occur between midnight and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, March 19, if the 45 percent chance of rain pans out.

Fourteen Deer but No Salamanders Yet

On my way to the vernal pool at sunrise today, I saw this herd of seven deer trying to figure me out.  (Photo by Don Comis) on

 
With light snow overnight, conditions aren't exactly right for the vernal pool show.  But it's always fun going there.  I made the trip again early this morning.  Again I was greeted by wild turkeys gobbling.  And I had a staring contest with a herd of 7 deers that were grazing in a cornfield on leftovers from last year's harvest.

And a mockingbird showed me the way out of there.  This time he had a buddy, a female I'll bet.  What I like about mockingbirds is that rather than hide from you, they show themselves to let you know you're not welcome in their territory.  So you can't miss them.

It was very cold at first, but by the time I got to the vernal pool the sun had risen over the horizon and lit up the Kokosing River and the vernal pool,  just 5 to 20 feet from the river.

I was back at my car at 8:50 a.m. Daylight Savings Time and had plenty of time to shop for groceries.  By around 11 a.m., I was back on Apple Valley Drive when I saw another herd of 7 deer grazing in the spillway area of the Apple Valley Lake dam.  At the same moment, two bluebirds flew, reminding me of the wildlife closer to home.

Spring Salamander Migration Any Day Now!

The Kokosing River at sunrise today, a very short distance from the vernal pool the amphibians will soon migrate en masse to.  (Photo by Don Comis)

This morning's view of the vernal pool that reduces snowmelt flow to the Kokosing while providing a safe spring nursery for amphibian eggs.  (Photo by Don Comis)

The great annual migration of spotted and other salamanders is close, I can just smell it in the air, literally.

I took a second trip to the vernal pool at Kenyon College early this morning.  Rain was in the air and the temperature was 37 degrees Fahrenheit.  A night or early morning rain at 40 degrees are two of three main conditions to stir the salamanders and other amphibians out of their muddy hibernation places.

But there was still snow and ice in and around the vernal pool.  Until that melts, it's not going to happen, but when it melts, it won't be long.

Besides the benefits of getting up at 5:30 a.m., I got to see a skunk, hear a bunch of wild turkeys gobbling, see 8 to 13 deer, and get confronted by the local neighborhood watch mockingbird again--in that order.

Anticipating Spring

It would be hard to recognize this vernal pool, especially in winter,without knowing it's by this bench which has an apt quotation from my favorite Nature writer, Aldo Leopold:  "Rest cries the sawyer, and we pause for breath."  (Photo by Don Comis)

My first two black vultures of the season, resting by a deer carcass (not in photo).  (Photo by Don Comis)

I just had to write this early today since I am so exhilarated from an outing this morning at Kenyon College.  It's March 7 and I finally started toward my goal of visiting a vernal pool daily in March at the Brown Family Environmental Center.

Boy did it pay off--although it's too early yet to see spotted salamanders and other amphibians marching to the pool.  Even as I drove on Rt. 308 toward Gambier, I saw a huge flock of large birds I thought were wild turkeys grazing in corn stubble, near New Gambier Road.  This is probably the same field where someone saw a snowy owl on February 1.

I should have stopped but didn't.  When I got to the parking area by the Miller Observatory, I was confronted by a territorial mockingbird.

On the way to the pool, I have the privilege of passing a corridor of bluebird and tree swallow birdhouses.  I saw five bluebirds, with one couple checking out a home.  A mockingbird, possibly the one who warned me or just another bossy mockingbird, chased a bluebird.

I heard and saw many birds and tracks, including possible coyote tracks.

On my way home, I even saw my first song sparrow singing from the top of a crabapple tree on a lawn in my neighborhood.