The Amiable American Toad

I started out the mud room door the other morning, and sitting quite where I was ready to step, was an American Toad. So I gently reached down and picked up the large amphibian and relocated it in the grass off the porch. I felt good about having that big old toad around. I like toads and I’m not sure exactly why.

So a few days later, I decided to organize my wood pile on the porch and split a little kindling for those cool evening fires we will occasional raise this summer. As I worked, I looked down and there was that toad just sitting there apparently unconcerned about being exposed or threatened by my presence. It wasn’t going anywhere. It just sat there.

Well, I couldn’t help but admire this fearless amphibian. It’s hard not to like a wild thing so cool, calm, and collected. Then I began to feel a little silly because I really don’t know as much about toads as I should….or at least enough to admire them so. And when one is quilted into stupidity it was time to do a little research. That’s what wild things can do.

Toads and frogs are related but they aren’t the same. There are a whole lot of anatomical differences, but the best description works great for me: frogs leap and toads hop. This is a brilliant and accurate description, requiring no PhD. It is truly fitting that the unconcerned toad would hop away and not “leap to safety” like its more skittish relatives.

It’s hard to imagine that toads are considered by some to be repulsive and, in a less enlightened time, associated with sorcery and who knows what else. I guess it must be the “warts” on their back and the fact that they “pee” on you when you pick them up. These observations evolved into the myth that toads can give people warts. Many a responsible parent has exposed their wisdom, or lack- there-of, when they told their children not to pick them up for the potential to end up with warts. I guess it is better to speak with conviction, than it is to actually know what you are talking about.

The warts on the bumps of toad’s backs and “peeing” when handled are part of the toad’s survival strategy. The bumps are glands that produce a liquid that can burn sensitive mouth tissues of other animals. Most animals will quickly drop the toad because of the irritation and will cause hesitation to make the same mistake of trying to eat the inviting toad the next encounter. The same toxin is usually expelled through the cloaca when the toad is picked up. So while it would irritate the mouth of a person, the toxin is harmless to humans. Wouldn’t it be better to encourage generations of children not to “eat” toads rather than that other thing?

Like frogs, toads gather in shallow pools in the spring, where each female lays about 12,000 eggs that hatch into jet-black tadpoles that become tiny toads in June. Toads like moist areas where they absorb water through their skin because they don’t drink water. They are found in such places almost everywhere, urban and rural. If you mulch your beds, you are inviting toads. And you want toads around because they eat a lot of insects, slugs, earthworms, sow bugs, and larvae. One report estimates that the average toad eats about 10,000 insects during the three months of the summer.

I learned a lot about toads that I should have already known. It does not, however, explain why I never met a toad I didn’t like. Thankfully there are things in nature that one can love and respect without knowing all the facts: like hearing a flying hummingbird and not having to see it to bring a smile on your face or finding a toad in the woodpile. I just like the amiable American Toad and a myriad of life in “nowhere”, large and small.

Something Wonderful This Way Comes

Nature study is about learning about natural communities. Bird watching is an avocation that provides a window into natural communities. If you have followed my blog you should know that the Middle of Nowhere is somewhere where interesting, captivating, enlightening and often fascinating things are revealed.

I travel far from home to surround myself with wildlife that has long departed most of the more developed places in Ohio and the Great Lakes region. I often wonder what Ohio must have been like decades before I arrived on the scene. My travels gives me insight into what once was, and still thrives in wilder North American places.

Yesterday was like almost every day. I started a route I often take through Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area some 10 miles from home. I stopped to listen for birds along the way. Without hearing much, I watched a Meadow Vole scurry across the road in front of me. I thought to myself that it is fortunate to see one of the refuge's smallest mammals.

I continued to another location a few hundred yards down the road to a place I know Prothonotary Warblers nest. I got out of my truck and strolled casually along the road. There was a lot of activity. A Baltimore Oriole was calling and a Warbling Vireo competing. The Prothonotary Warblers sang too. A Pileated Woodpecker flew along the side of the road and wood ducks announced their flight with a familiar drawn out "wheep". Three Wild Turkeys crossed the road ahead and I thought I should move further along to try for a singing Cerulean Warbler.

I was thinking about how the sky, the habitats, the sounds and sights reminded me of many other wild places I have visited. As I walked casually toward my truck I looked down the road flanked by wet, I looked toward the wooded forest to where I would next stop. I was astonished to see an American Black Bear walking slowly and casually across the road about 300 yards away. I was so shocked I forgot to use my binoculars.

As if in slow motion the Bear traversed the span of the road and disappeared into the forest. I said to myself.........and to the whole forest....."I can't believe I just saw a bear in Mosquito Creek!"

After gathering my emotions I realized maybe I could get down to the spot where the bear might be. I jumped in my truck and went to a place close to where the bear entered the forest. I quietly exited the truck and began walking and listening with hopes of just one more glimpse.

I saw nothing. But out from the forest came a nearby, and distinct "crack!". It was a branch breaking that could only resonate from the weight or strength of something formidable. It was the bear I could not see but moving away from my intrusion. Although disappointed, the breaking branch was a fitting conclusion to the encounter. The bear wanted nothing to do with me and was perfectly content to continue on his way through his forest.

Bears are no strangers to Ohio and the Ohio Division of Wildlife keeps "credible bear sighting" records hoping to keep tabs on their movement in the state. Bears come to Ohio's eastern counties from West Virginia and this case Pennsylvania. I am pretty certain this bear was a male as he was perhaps trimmer than a female. This particular bear is of interest because most sightings are in May. A June 5th sighting isn't too far from normal but there is a possibility this may be more than a wandering visitor so the Ohio Division of Wildlife experts will hope to get more reports so they can piece the situation together.
This was an awesome sighting and punctuates the purpose of getting "out there" and exploring the natural world. After spending a lifetime exploring Ohio I was rewarded with a rare and beautiful sighting of an American Black Bear.

Reflecting on the whole incident gives me hope. I have always felt starved for the adventure of co-existing among those creatures that are often feared but grossly misunderstood. Bears rightfully deserve our utmost respect and, in my opinion, our greatest admiration. I strongly believe that the Middle of Nowhere belongs to wild things. That bears are rare here, is probably good for them and us. Where bears frequent the human community, it often results unfavorably, usually for the bears.

Once that bear walked into the woods and no matter how rare that may be, my belief that the Middle of Nowhere is often in our own back yards is confirmed. The Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area is a diverse community of wild things as small as a Meadow Vole and as large as a Black Bear. That it revealed its secrets through the bear is simply awesome!!

The Middle of Nowhwere, Somewhere in Trumbull County, Ohio

This is a story about a monumental movement to save special and precious places that most everyone would not even consider. I was invited (or maybe I invited myself????) to join Dave Hochadel on a visit to a place that is now conserved by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH). This place is is very close to where I live.

Dave Hochadel is someone I met birding in Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area last year. I already knew of him but he had no idea who I was. Dave has been on the Ohio Bird Record Committee and was most recently the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator for Trumbull County. I am beginning to appreciate this man that practices citizen Science.

Dave is a very intelligent man with a wide range of interests including playing good old Rock and Roll. I haven't yet heard his music but if it is anything like his field studies it will be darned good music. Dave has studied some science but worked a long career with the U.S. Postal Service. He has built a great natural history knowledge base from field experience and studying breeding birds.

This piece of property of about 290 acres has long been privately owned and was a piece of land that fit into a matrix of habitats in Northern Trumbull County that are unique to the County and scarce in all of Ohio. It's natural value is in the unique boggy wetlands that inhabit this property. These boggy areas harbor unique flora and fauna that often contain plants and animals that are rare and often endangered. It is a remnant of Ohio's glaciated past but it is a small parcel that if presreved would reduce Ohio's declining natural heritage and over-all natural diversity.

Dave is a volunteer for the CMNH and is continuing the process of documenting and organizing the parcel's natural characteristics that will be archived by the Museum. Cataloging and documenting nature in any area using scientific parameters is no simple task. It requires hard work, discipline, and structure as well as a broad knowledge of plants and animals and topographic and geographic influences. In short volunteers just have to endure, heat, cold, wind, rain, mosquitoes, ticks, mud, swamps, and sometimes rookies like me.....for ths sake of science.

So I documented a few things of interest in our couple of hours in the field. There were many Wood Frogs. This is an amphibian that is a signature of northerly habitats. Common Whitetail Dragonflies often inhabit swampy areas within woodlands. We were looking generally at the areas birds and looking specifically for reported nesting Northern Waterthrushes which we did not find on this trip.

The serendipitous discovery of the day was a Veery nest. This is a nest that is built on the ground, usually at the base of a small bush. They are nearly impossible to spot (no surprise there!). But because the survey of the property is devoid of trails, the process is a bit like bush whacking. As we made our way to the major bog, Dave flushed a Veery from the ground very near his feet. And sure enough there was a little, well constructed nest with 3 blue eggs inside. Dave went back the next day hoping that the nest would have a fourth egg and it surely did. So we didn't disturb the egg laying process with our disturbance. His comment was "fortunately none of the eggs were Cowbirds". Cowbirds are a common parasite of songbird nests that lay one big egg in a cluster of the hosts. As the babies hatch the bigger cowbird baby gets all the food and the host babies perish.

Dave later showed me territory surveys he had documented of Prothonotary Warblers nesting over several years at Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area. Tromping through the muck several times a year for several consecutive years is no picnic. He is a better man than I! But the information gleaned from field studies like Dave's is our baseline information on the present state of a habitat or natural area. Continued scientific assessments document change and eventually insight into the health of a given area.

One has to stop and reflect on the effort of conservancies like the CMNH, to land owners that want save their property for posterity, for committed volunteers like Dave Hochadel, and processes that allow all of us to win in the end.

As Director of the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center I was always quick to point out that natural history education is only as sound as the science behind it. Now that I've walked with Dave in a swampy woods in my neighborhood I have even a better appreciation of conservation. I tip my hat to CMNH, to citizen science, and to conservationists for preserving  a little Middle of Nowhere right in our own back yards.

THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING is a unique phenomenon. It may be the largest congregation of birders and migrant North American birds on the planet. An estimated 75,000 birders come to northwest Ohio from May 3^rd through May 10^th to marvel at the extraordinary passing of migrant bird species navigating along the Lake Erie south shore. The birds are coming from the Southern U.S., Central, and South America, destined for breeding areas across the North American Continent.

The bird watchers come from all over America and in fact from all over the world. America’s passion for seeing birds, especially our American wood warblers, is as compelling as the bird’s need to get on with the business of breeding and propagating their species. This fact alone allows the two congregations to co-exist for a few hours for a few days. Yet the pressure is the greatest in a 4 ½ acre board-walk trail that is strategically, right smack in the middle of the greatest concentration of birds.

This explosion of humanity upon such a place is certainly a point of concern. It seems to be, in my opinion, a greater concern for the people than it is for the birds. For the most part the birds are unanimously focused on survival, not the crowds. Thankfully most of the masses of people are gratefully respectful of the birds and their needs, and there for, the bottom line is that the Biggest Week In American Birding seems to be a balance between the desire to view and the desire to survive.

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO), Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Maumee Bay State Park, and Ottawa National Wildlife Area are the primary birding areas and partners.  BSBO has also partnered with private land owners, area Conservancies, State Wildlife Areas other local agencies for access to additional birding locations that maximize the opportunities for participants of The Biggest Week programs and to provide field trips that takes pressure off the Magee March Bird Trail.

After volunteering for the 4^th year I have gone from skeptical to pleasantly appreciative of the concept and with the execution of The Biggest Week In American Birding. Like it or not, the masses were bound to come and the BSBO plan was a great proactive step toward what could have become utter chaos. I tip my hat to BSBO, all the partners, and Kenn and  Kim Kaufman for making this huge project a success…..for participants and for these wild birds we all want to protect in their incredible journey.

I have done little but birding for the last four weeks. I spent a week in Shawnee State Forest in Southern Ohio birding the newly arriving southern warblers and songbirds. Tim Colborn and I took a side trip to Boone National Forest and the Red River Gorge to see Swainson’s Warbler in the most northern part of this bird’s breeding range. From there I spent time as a volunteer Guide for The Biggest Week In American Birding.  And in my spare time I birded on my own. I have 209 species of birds for the month of May.

I love guiding because I like people, and I like groups of birders. I love the chemistry between really interested people and really beautiful birds. There is no other experience that evokes an uncontrollable and genuine “wow” than those from people looking at birds from behind binoculars or a spotting scope.

I have been teaching birders for a long time. I have been preaching conservation for my whole career, and I love connecting people who like to look at birds with the opportunity bird watching provides for discovering natural history.  Understanding natural history enriches the experience, and nurtures a conservation ethic and commitment.

I led 10 birding trips and one Woodcock walk in 12 days. I guided about 140 participants over all. It was invigorating and fun. The birding was great and the participants were all up to the challenges of finding, seeing and identifying lots of birds. They asked great questions, they pushed their personal limits for the birding experience and they made me proud and humble.

You see, guiding makes me a better birder and birding participants make me a better guide. Thanks to everyone who traveled with me and made our trips fun and productive.

I especially want to thank Laura and Jim Wantz from Laguna Beach, California and David Marshall & Christine Booth from Oxford, United Kingdom for including me in their quest to enjoy the North American bird migration this year. It’s people like you that make all the long hours and hard work of guiding worthwhile. Birding with you was all smiles that still keep coming. I think we may have created the ultimate international dream birding team!

I also have to thank all the participants of the last “BIG DAY BUS TRIP” of The Biggest Week In American Birding. I challenged the 14 participants to see if we could get 100 species of birds for the day. They took the challenge…..every one of them. We got a slow start. But after we got going, the birding picked up. We finally got to 98 species and the group was excited. We cheered when we got to 100 species. Then we were at 108 and the cry went out for 110. When we got to 112 the crazed group demanded 120! We finished the day with 124 species!!!

I never saw 14 strangers, a leader and a bus driver get unified in such a wonderful way. We worked hard, we worked together, and we learned together. We had lots of educational moments, lots of fun (often at the guide’s expense!), lots of laughs, and at the end of the day, it exemplifies what a great idea THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING really is.

Birders are great people…just give them a good reason to prove it.  Conservation of birds and all wild things and places should be and MUST BE our priority and our legacy. The Middle of Nowhere Is Somewhere worth saving.

TIMBER DOODLE: Ghost in the Forest

The American Woodcock is an interesting but odd character as birds go. It is well known for its elaborate nuptial flights at dusk and dawn; perhaps the most well known courtship in ornithology.

To start off with, the “Timber Doodle” as it is commonly known is a weird name for a bird or anything else for that matter. I can’t track the origin of this name but I suppose it addresses the probing of the humus forest floor with its long beak. The “timber” part makes sense since it lives in the forest. But “doodle” sounds a bit lazy and less flattering than it is descriptive.

It is a softball-sized, rotund bird with a beak nearly as long as its body. The tip of the bill can be flexed open to capture worms and other creatures living in the forest debris. It appears to not have a neck or a tail and very short legs. It has been described as looking like "a meatloaf on a stick". That description is not just "wrong" but "politically incorrect".

The Woodcock is the only forest dwelling shorebird. In fact it is never seen on a shore. It is a nocturnal bird that is almost impossible to see on the forest floor. When approached it freezes and looks more like leaf litter than an animal but that doesn’t matter because you can’t see it anyway.

Honestly, the best way to find a Woodcock any time is by flushing one. To flush one you almost have to literally step on it. And when you do flush one you are so startled that you don’t really see anything but a softball knuckle ball fluttering just far enough away that it resumes its place as part of the forest leaf litter….where you search endlessly for where it looked like it landed without seeing anything but leaves.

The woodcock is a loner. It associates with no other birds. It won’t fly until the Whip-or-will calls in the evening. It never flocks. It is silent even when flushed and the only conversation worth having is for a female during courtship. It is a poor flier that doesn’t even fly far when flushed. It has short wings that launch the over sized bird into flight that has been described as drunken. IT lands on nothing but the ground. When the woodcock walks he does so with a shuffle and he bounces ever so much like a Spotted Sandpiper. He must be a shorebird after all!

With that said. The Woodcock has a spectacular twilight nuptial flight and vocalizations to go with it that would impress any avian admirer. Perhaps the woodcock is all about stealth, worms, and women with a little romance worked in.  Incidentally, little is written about the woodcock hen. That’s a little odd too.

The American Woodcock is an awesome bird. It is a poster child for compelling us to getting outdoors and to learn and know more about our wonderful and diverse avifauna and all our natural history. The Woodcock is a special bird for me, not because it is weird, but because it is different. Without the woodcocks in nature, the world would suffer from sameness.

During the some 20 years I was involved in wildlife rehabilitation I saw hundreds of them brought in from downtown Cleveland where they were unable to negotiate migrating among tall buildings with confusing lights abound. A few survived but most died tragically and unnecessarily.

I write about spending more time in nature. The lessons are rewarding beyond description. One morning I was driving along Lake Erie and a woodcock flew directly at my windshield and lifted harmlessly over my vehicle. I may be one of the few persons that has ever seen a woodcock flying directly toward a human.

The bird in the picture for this blog was bobbing across Hoffman Norton Road and he or she was oblivious to me or my truck as I scrambled to take pictures. The woodcock is focused on what woodcocks do to survive and to proliferate. They are an important piece of the wonderful tapestry I call the Middle of Nowhere. This chance encounter is simply a gift to me and all those that appreciate our natural world. Many hours in the field make these serendipitous discoveries ever more special.

Wings in the Sky: a Middle of Nowhere Signature

Aldo Leopold was the "Father of Conservation" in America. He  wrote A Sand County Almanac. He died in 1948, the year I was born. His Son Luna published his book along with essays in 1949. It is a publication that resonates with conservationists even today and probably will for many generations.

Aldo Leopold was inspired by the flight of Canada Geese wheeling around rural Wisconsin especially in the spring when the combination of their trumpeting call and their squadron-like, v-formation  flight were a welcomed sight at the end of long, harsh winters.

 His work is a must read. It is easy reading that reflects the beauty, simplicity of nature, and concern for a society going one way and wild places going another and perhaps away all together. He writes about his observations and experiences in the field. What he says resonates with me the more time I spend in the Middle of Nowhere.

While birding in Mosquito Creek Wildlife Area I had a couple of encounters that illustrate why I am addicted to the nature experience. I stopped at my regular Beaver Lake in hopes of seeing a Red-headed Woodpecker and maybe the resident River Otters.

There were 2 Red-headed Woodpeckers foraging about the many standing dead trees that died from the lake formed by the beavers. In the dead branches of a fallen tree was a Bald Eagle. This was a 4 year old sub adult that will be an adult next year. You can tell by the extensive white plumage on the head and upper body.

The eagle was intensely looking down into the water below. Much to my surprise there were 2 River Otters 10 feet below the eagle defiantly swimming and interacting with each other and exploring the perches of the dead limbs. The Otters were either oblivious to their stalker or they didn't care.

That Bald eagle was sure interested in those moving life forms below. I imagine he had lunch on his mind. But he is an eagle and a lousy predator. He is , for all his glory, a meager scavenger. I suspect that the River Otters somehow know that they need not fear the intensity of the eagle's stare. Perhaps the young eagle was having a lesson in his limitations that will come into play as a wholesome, productive mature Adult.

It is spring and waterfowl migration abounds in Northeast Ohio. As I came to another pond in the refuge hundreds of Tundra Swans began to take flight. Canada Geese flights are oh so common but to see masses of swans is still a heart stopping experience.

The Swans are moving north to tundra lakes and ponds primarily in Arctic coastal wetlands and river deltas. They are impressive birds both individually and collectively. It isn't just the birds in flight but the calling that associates it. These Swans were once called whistling swans, because of their call. Pete Dunne in his book Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion describes the call as "One of the greatest sounds in nature. An erie, haunting, winsome call that is part whoop, part sigh."

Aldo Leopold didn't just appreciate the Canada Goose flight and call. It represents a life history that is connected to all living things. His appreciation was for the Canada Goose, The places that it breeds, the places they visit in migration and the places where they winter.

The perplexed Bald Eagle, the indifferent River Otters, and the flight of Tundra Swans are the salient experiences in a simple daily activity.......in the Middle of Nowhere.

Read Aldo Leopold and add John Dunne's companion guide to your library to complement your many hours in the field.

Notes From Afield on the First Day of Spring

It's the first day of spring and the weather is anything but springlike....or is it. I am pretty sure my best memory of spring was last year when the day time temperatures were in the 70's and even 80's. But when I think back over the many years I realize that this spring is pretty typical for NE Ohio.

Spring is really more about chronological progression toward summer than it is about comfortable t-shirt weather. In fact, spring is usually that challenging time of transition from the cold grip of winter and the warmth of the summer season.

Our 2013 first day of spring is cold with a biting wind and lake effect snow showers. The sun comes out and the clouds role through. Yet this spring day is right about what it should be as you travel around the Northeast Ohio middle of nowhere.

I traveled about 35 miles today and there was plenty to see. There were 19 species of waterfowl around Mosquito Lake and ponds and creeks in mosquito Creek Wildlife Area. There are plenty of migrating ducks and some looking for nesting sites in the area. A lot of ducks are paired up and, if not, courting for that privilege.

Canada Geese are paired up, cruising together on ponds or foraging in fields and corn stubble. Bald Eagles are paired, not just for breeding, but for life and eagles are sitting in their nest or hanging close by. Juvenile and sub adult eagles are numerous and congregate where ever food might be available. They will sit on the sidelines for a few years until they are ready to find a soul mate for life and raise annual families.

Northern Pike are spawning in shallow waters that will soon disappear as spring progresses. They are now laying and fertilizing eggs in flooded waters. It will be a primeval race between drying wetlands and hatching eggs to see if 2013 will be a productive hatch.

Blackbirds, absent a few weeks ago, seem to be on every fence line and moving in large foraging flocks with Brown-headed Cowbirds, Rusty Blackbirds, Common Grackles and occasionally with a few European Starlings. Red-winged Blackbird males are here now and a little later in the spring the females will arrive. Now that the boys are on territory and struttin' their stuff, the females will come and pick and choose the males with the best song and brightest red shoulders. And those female looking Red-wings you see in flocks now are most likely young males that still hold on to their juvenile, female, appearing plumage.

Yes its cold and the weather is frightful. But it isn't January and February. The birds are singing. All the creatures, while probably as tired of the weather as we are, are proceeding in spite of it all. I suspect if we are looking for good advice as we suffer with our "tardy" spring, all we need to do is look around us and we will see it is truly spring. It won't be long until a modest tilt in the jet stream will bring us all the relief we are so looking for. And when it does get warm spring showers will bring May flowers and then we'll have something else to complain about.