Wayne National Forest Internship

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Wayne National Forest, Ohio's only national forest. This internship was focused on wildlife biology, and was part of a larger joint venture between Ohio University and the United States Forest Service out of Wayne National Forest. The main project that I worked on was an environmental impact assessment for a proposed mountain bike trail system.

Beginning in early May, I and another wildlife intern from Ohio University were tasked with surveying the wildlife along an approximate 30 mile section of the proposed trail route. We found many interesting animals and plants over the course of the summer, including discovering two new populations of a state-endangered dragonfly and documenting the first-ever Brown Creeper breeding attempt in the southeastern portion of Ohio.

In addition to assisting with the wildlife portion of the environmental impact assessment, I was given the opportunity to do some guest blogging about my internship experience on the Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences Forum. I wanted to share the four posts that I wrote for the Arts and Sciences Forum on my personal blog for anyone that was interested in reading them. Simply click on the links on the titles of the posts below.

First Post: Working on the Wayne | ‘I Wanted to Get My Boots Dirty’

This first post gives an introduction to the project I worked on, and goes over a few of the initial findings of note.

Second Post: Working on the Wayne | Awesome Arthropods Abound

Arthropods are cool, and I saw many an awesome arthropod this summer. This post explores a few of the stand-out species, including the Camouflaged Looper, Luna Moth, and the rare Northern Metalmark (pictured above).

Third Post: Working on the Wayne | Snazzy Snakes

What's cooler than arthropods? Snakes. This post goes over a few of the common snakes of southeastern Ohio, and attempts to dispel some of the common misconceptions about them.

Fourth Post: Working on the Wayne | An Ending Note

In my final post, I summarize the findings of the wildlife surveys, talk about the potential impacts of the trail, and offer a few musings on the importance of hands-on experiences in the field in addition to a classroom education.

Your blogger in his surveying gear. Yes, I had to wear a hard hat.

This internship was an amazing experience. Not only did I see amazing wildlife and plants, but I also learned a lot (which is really the main goal for any internship). The biggest takeaway for me, however, was that there is always something new to discover if you just take a walk in the woods and keep your eyes open. You never know what you might come across.

As for now, I am in the midst of searching for another job. Wish me luck, and thanks for reading!

Ornithology Lab, September 30

This is the fourth installment in a series of weekly posts for my ornithology class at Ohio University. We go out in the field every Wednesday (weather permitting) to do some birding and/or bird banding. One of our assignments is to write a blog post about each of these field trips, which is what this series will be about.

First Post: September 2
Second Post: September 9
Third Post: September 16

~ ~ ~

Fall has arrived, both in date and finally weather. Cool temperatures in the upper 50's met us as we traveled once again to The Ridges on the outskirt of Athens, Ohio. It truly felt, and looked, like Fall; leaves were changing, leaves were falling all around us, it was cool with a breeze, and the sky was overcast. The birds were also pretty active, as I'll get into in a second.

Photo courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The entire Midwest had some pretty impressive migration flights this week. The photo above is a snapshot of a weather radar at midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Weather radars, when calibrated with certain parameters, actually show bird migration movements. This phenomenon has been used for years to help gauge and study migration patterns. When looking at the photo above, notice the multiple blue circles (some of which have green centers). These circles are masses of migrating birds. The darker the circles, the more numerous the birds. Let's look at Ohio specifically. Notice there's a cold front that's moving out of the state early in the night. There's not much movement before the front, but there's many large movements behind the front. As the front moved through Ohio, it brought northerly winds originating in Canada. On these northerly winds were thousands of migrating songbirds, and you can see the multiple dark blue/light green circles that represent them. As the front moved out of Ohio before sunrise, these songbirds settled out into the southeastern portions of Ohio, right where we were.

A Magnolia Warbler among the branches from Magee Marsh in May.

This time around, we did some bird banding on top of the normal birding. We set up nets in three areas (instead of the normal 6). We had one set of nets in a powerline cut with scruffy bushes and tall grasses that had deciduous forest on either side. We had another set of nets along a path that bordered deciduous forest on one side and thick grape-vine covered shrubbery on the other. The final net was set up in some young forest next to an open area. 

Photo courtesy of Dr. Kelly Williams.

Bird banding the past two times weren't that productive; however, this day was very productive. The most commonly caught species was the Carolina Chickadee, with 5 individuals banded for the day. The second most commonly banded species of the day was a relative of the Carolina Chickadee, the Tufted Titmouse, of which we banded 4. Going along with the more common, permanent residents theme, we also banded a Northern Cardinal and the Swamp Sparrow pictured above.

Now we'll get into the migratory species!

Photo courtesy of Dr. Kelly Williams.

We caught several warbler species over the course of the morning. The first was this Northern Parula pictured above. I've previously covered this species, and you can read all about it at this link! We then went on to net 3 Magnolia Warblers, all of which were hatch-year birds. The last warbler species we caught and banded was a beautiful hatch-year Black-Throated Green Warbler, my all time favorite warbler species. I was lucky enough to be able to release him!

Photo courtesy of Dr. Kelly Williams.

The star of the day, in my opinion, was this Blue-Headed Vireo, a bird I had never seen before. The Blue-Headed Vireo is a bird of mixed coniferous-and-deciduous forests which are found throughout Eastern Canada down through the Appalachian Mountains. The Blue-Headed Vireo is a common migrant species in Ohio, but is a very rare breeder. They require cooler locales with plenty of Eastern Hemlock trees. A few individuals can be found nesting here in Ohio in places such as Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve, Clear Creek Metropark, and Mohican State Forest. And finally, the last species that we banded was a hatch-year Indigo Bunting.

Here's the complete list of birds for the day:

1. Black Vulture
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Rock Pigeon
4. Chimney Swift
5. Downy Woodpecker
6. Pileated Woodpecker
7. Eastern Wood-Pewee
8. Blue-Headed Vireo
9. American Crow
10. Carolina Chickadee
11. Tufted Titmouse
12. White-Breasted Nuthatch
13. Carolina Wren
14. American Robin
15. Gray Catbird
16. Cedar Waxwing
17. Common Yellowthroat
18. American Redstart
19. Northern Parula
20. Magnolia Warbler
21. Black-Throated Green Warbler
22. Swamp Sparrow
23. Eastern Towhee
24. Northern Cardinal
25. Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
26. Indigo Bunting
27. American Goldfinch

Last weekend my class went down to South Carolina to do some birding. I'll be having a post on that coming up extremely soon, so stay tuned!

Purple Fringeless Orchid

Earlier this week I received a message from Andrew Gibson asking if I was interested in going to see an orchid species that was in bloom in Vinton County. You might recognize that name; Andrew Gibson is a field botanist for ODNR and the blogger of the exceptional Buckeye Botanist blog (which I strongly suggest you check out if you haven't already). Of course, when anyone ever asks you a question like that, the only rational answer is yes.

The target species was the Purple Fringeless Orchid, Platanthera peramoena. This species was a lifer for me, making it the 9th Ohio orchid species I've seen (out of 46 native species). I'm a relatively late-comer to the world of plants and can only say I've really been "into" them for about a year and a half now. Of the 9 orchid species I've seen so far, 8 of them have been during this summer. Orchids, of the family Orchidaceae, are a very diverse and well-known group of plants. Most people I've met are surprised to learn that Ohio does indeed have native orchids, and I can't overly blame them; the majority of the ~26,000 orchid species are found in the tropics, but a few are found in more temperate regions. 

Purple Fringeless Orchid is a large species, with most of the individuals we saw being over 2 feet tall. Their bright, bubblegum-purple flowers were enough to capture anyone's attention. This species is mainly home to Southern Ohio. It likes moist areas, such as open areas in swamps, roadside ditches (which is where we found the ones pictured), open areas in floodplain forests, and so on. 

Small Purple Fringed Orchid (left) and Purple Fringeless Orchid (right).

There's three very similarly-looking "purple something orchids" species in this region of the US. First, there's the Small Purple Fringed Orchid and the Large Purple Fringed Orchid. In Ohio we only have the Small Purple Fringed Orchid, as the Large is extirpated (extirpation is "regional" extinction). As you might guess from the names, there's an easy way to tell the difference between the Small Purple Fringed Orchid and the Purple Fringeless Orchid. The edges of the Small Purple Fringed Orchid flowers are, you guessed it, fringed. The edges of the Purple Fringeless Orchid flowers are not fringed, although there is still a somewhat "rough" looking edge.

While investigating one stand of the orchid, a Hummingbird Clearwing paid us a visit. Zipping from flower to flower, and orchid to orchid, the moth buried its head in the flowers in order to reach the nectar hidden deep inside. To learn more about the Hummingbird Clearwing, check out my previous blog post on this species.

Thanks for reading!