Introducing Arbour Adventures

The boys watch quite a bit of YouTube. And they really want to have their own channel. After a little brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a channel called "Arbour Adventures". This is our first installment. I hope you enjoy a little look into the weekend of a life in the Arbour family! -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

Ohio's Hellbenders Make the New York Times

As I get back into this blogging game, I think I'm going to offer quick posts on current topics that I think lovers of all Ohio nature stuff might like to read. I happened to catch this article on social media that details the plight of our largest salamander, the eastern hellbender, featuring herpetologist Greg Lipps.  If you'd like to see a hellbender, the Columbus Zoo has had at least  one on display in the past (although I'm not sure if they are there right now) and the Wilds near Zanesville has a entire building dedicated to this species, which includes windows into several of their breeding tanks.

-Tom

A Wider View - Wood Frog

June 7, 2013

While visiting Tummonds State Nature Preserve in Portage County last June, I didn't have my ultrawide angle lens with me, but that didn't prevent me from using the wide-angle closeup technique.  The so-called "kit lenses" that come bundled with digital SLR's can focus quite closely.  With my lens dialed in to its widest setting, I moved in on this frog as close as I could.  The end result is an image that shows the wood frog and its habitat.  To me, this picture provides much more information than a tight shot of the frog only.

-Tom

Flora-quest Isn't Only Flowers

Ringneck Snake, Diadophis punctatus

Although Flora-Quest is a celebration of the late spring Flora of Shawnee State Park and Forest, Cheryl allows us to look at other things too.  Shawnee State Forest has quite possibly the state's most interesting reptile and amphibian populations, and during the weekend I was able to photograph these charasmatic herptiles.

Mole salamander larva, possibly a spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculata.

Northern Slimy Salamander, Plethodon glutinosus

-Tom

I Like it, I Love it, I Want Some More of It....

March 16, 2011, Delaware Wildlife Area

What could I be talking about?  Spring, of course!

I'm sorry if I've put the lyrics for an annoying country song into your head- but I just couldn't help myself.  Today while I was inching down a gravel road, trying to avoid massive potholes, I spotted a few hopping leopard frogs taking advantage of the warm afternoon.  Peepers and chorus frogs were also calling- all in the middle of the day.  I love spring.

Tom

Bullfrog

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.

Bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana

Tom

The Wood Frog

At the recent Ohio Reptile Research Conference, several of my friends were sharing their early spring amphibian adventures.  Their stories of calling frogs and migrating salamanders made me long for life in rural Ohio.  And then I got to thinking-  although there aren't many breeding amphibian populations in my native Franklin County, perhaps I could find could places to see and here spring breeding amphibians in Alum Creek State Park, just five miles or so north of our home.  Alum Creek surrounds a large reservoir, and there are plenty of low lying flat woods around it.  Last Saturday, I started on my quest, and sure enough, it wasn't long before I found several large and publicly accessible pools capable of supporting breeding amphibian populations.

Since I was doing this in the day, I didn't see all that many things, but I heard several calling spring peepers and chorus frogs, and even one wood frog.  After a great deal of searching, I managed to spot this male frog calling from a perch on a dead branch.  After I came too close, the frog jumped into the water but resurfaced quickly, allowing for a quick photographic opportunity.

For more about the amphibians of Ohio, visit www.ohioamphibians.com, a resource coordinated by Greg Lipps and Jeff Davis.

Tom

A Red-Tailed Larva

Have you ever tried to identify what species of tadpole you have just captured? Ryan Schroeder caught this gray treefrog tadpole at Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve last Friday and I snapped a quick picture. The diagnostic feature? Its rich red tail.

Tom

Early Salamander Run?

I'm just looking at the forcast for the next few days, and I'm guessing that the warm temperatures and rain might trigger some of the early breeding salamanders, especially Jefferson Salamanders, to make their march to vernal pools. The countdown to spring has begun. I'd also be interested to know if anyone further south has started seeing the ambystomatids emerge.

Sunday
Partly Cloudy
43° F | 25° F

Monday
Partly Cloudy
52° F | 43° F

Tuesday
Chance of Rain
58° F | 47° F

Wednesday
Rain Showers
54° F | 38° F

Thursday
Chance of Snow
40° F | 23° F

Fowler Woods Sate Nature Preserve

A kingnut aka shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa)

A few shots from my trip today to Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve. The purpose of the trip was to help my colleague from the Forest Service collect Ash seeds. These other things caught my eye as well.

A western chorus frog.

A pumpkin ash (Fraxinus profunda) samara that had pierced a spicebush (Lindera benzoin) leaf.

Slug and eggs.

To learn more about Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve, go here.

And to see more pictures of animals, check out Camera Critters.

The Power of Collective Naturalizing

Ok, I think I just made up a new phrase. What the heck do I mean by "the power of collective naturalizing"? One of the coolest things that I do as an ecologist is get together with other top notch ecologists and naturalists around the state, and we do what we love- we naturalize. Or botanize. Or bird. To most of us, we love it all. Just being in a natural area, interpreting the plants, the animals, the ecological systems, it is fantastic. And when you're with a bunch of people, it is amazing how many new things you can learn in just a few days in the field.

I was in the field three days this past week, in two parts of the state, and all three times with fantastic naturalists. Here are just some of the things we saw. Some of these things I know to species, other to genus, and others, I don't really have a clue. I want to know what you know. Know what something is? Comment, give the number, and tell us something about that plant or animal-maybe your experience with it, whether you see it often, or maybe it is rare in your area. Let's collective naturalize through the blog. This is an experiment and something new that I've never done here, but I think it could be quite fun.


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24 Hours in South Carolina

Megan and I had a great time in South Carolina, getting to spend plenty of time with my Mom and Brother. My dad was back in Ohio-he's been having chronic abdominal pain and didn't make the trip. No fun.

One of the things that I try to do when I first arrive at a new place is to take note of the first bird species I see. On Saturday morning, the first bird was a Eurasian collared dove. While we were waiting for 50 ridiculous minutes for our shuttle van to pick us up, I watched this bird make several trips from its oak tree nest to a flower bed. It would carefully look for the right type of material, and then it would fly down the airport pickup road and fly up into the tree. We had flown into Columbia, S.C. as it was much cheaper than leaving Columbus. And we flew from Dayton, probably right over Abe Lincoln's house!


After a two hour drive to Seabrook, we picked up our condo keys and headed to the place. The neighbor had parked his car in our driveway, which caused somewhat of a ruckus- we couldn't park in the driveway. We called security, etc. etc., the guy moved his car. All the while I noticed this green treefrog sleeping on the railing o f the entrance stairs to the condo. What an awesome creature. More on these later. So we arrived about two, and I had a few minutes to photograph whatever was around the condo.



Can you see the ant lion?



Then, it was off to the wedding, held at 6:15 on Friday evening.


Best of luck to the bride and groom, Amy and Jason!

The sun goes down in the west......


....and after a rousing good party, I woke the next morning to see the sun coming up behind the palm trees, golf course, and salt marsh, looking to the east.



Some type of resurrection fern?


The tree frogs were basking in the early morning sunshine.


And the male anoles were flapping their dewlaps to woo female anoles.


And this bee caught my eye.


And a great-crested flycatcher was nesting next door- in a cavity built right into the side of the condo.

And to end on a sad note, this cedar waxwing crashed into the condo next door, and I saw it flutter down, land in the soft pine straw and live oak leaf litter, and breathe its last breaths! How sad. What a beautiful bird.

And that was our Friday and Saturday morning on Seabrook Island!