MYSTYERY BIRD CONTEST- WHAT IS IT?

E-mail your answers to robertsmorton@hotmail.com Write your name, where you're from and your involvement with birds. Winners will be posted on this post in one (1) week. HINT:Video taken in a park in Santa Monica California, circa 2004.

NATURE NOTE 11/2/03- TRUMPETER SWANS!

Drove to Ottawa National WR and parked on long entrance road to walking trails and marshes. Only 30 feet into the marsh, standing atop a muskrat house was a huge swan...a Trumpet Swan! A yellow neck band labeled 1A2 could be seen, along with a gold/copper colored metal leg band. There were 2 adult Trumpet Swans with 4 immatures close to them. In the distance was eight Tundra Swans. Nice experience to compare the sizes and to see the yellow mark at the bill base of the Tundra Swans. The two groups of swans never intermingled while I was there. Also counted a female Hooded Merganser, 7 Green-winged Teal, 4 American Widgeon, dozens of Mallards, several Pied-billed Grebes, 50 Canada Geese, a pair of Wood Ducks, six Gadwalls, 4 Great Blue Herons, 1 Great Egret, 6 Double-crested Cormorants, 1 mature Bald Eagle, several Red-tailed Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, and several Am. Coots.

The Slide Show with music, below, is dedicated to all the groups of people who brought back the Trumpeter Swan from near extinction, so people like me can continue to enjoy viewing them, here in NW Ohio...in the wild. Thanks!

ABOUT US & HOW TO USE THIS SITE

Welcome to the site! My wife & I are both animal lovers, and she has saved many dogs from the pound. This photo is of me with my 147-lb. King Shepherd, Stormie. We saved him from Katrina after Animal Rescue found him on his own. He had been surviving in the worst section of New Orleans for 7 months before being rescued, weighing in at only 63 lbs! Here's a photo a year later after gaining 84 lbs.


Below is the TABLE OF CONTENTS for the main Posts. Don't forget to scroll down the narrow right margin for Nature Shoppes. If you don't feel like shopping, the right margin has "TODAY'S NEWSPAPER HEADLINES" about birding in Ohio, monarch butterflies, and a host of other nature issues hitting the press...it's updated daily! There's also free videos on a host of nature subjecdts. HAVE FUN!

TABLE OF CONTENT FOR MAIN POSTINGS
ABOUT US & HOW TO USE THIS SITE

A-4 SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2, 2009 FIELD NOTES

A-3 IOWA COUPLE CREATED THE ULTIMATE IN MONARCH WAYSTAIONS

A-2. HAPPENINGS AT WAYSTATION NO. 613 (AN ONGOING DIARY)

A-1. HELP RESEARCHERS STUDY OE PARASITE HARMING MONARCH BUTTERFLIES-letter from Sonia Altizer

B.GOING NATIVE: URBAN LANDSCAPING FOR WILDLIFE WITH NATIVE PLANTS

C. CLOCKS, CRYPTOCHROMES & MONARCH MIGRATIONS

D. WATCH NOVA'S "THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF THE BUTTERFLIES...HERE IT IS!

E. RELAX...AND WATCH THIS SLIDE SHOW WITH MUSIC...RELAX...AND APPRECIATE NATURE

F. PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IS FUN! LOVE THE MUSIC TOO.

G. CREATE A WILDLIFE FRIENDLY YARD & HAPPENINGS AT MONARCH WAYSTATION NO. 613

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2009 FIELD NOTES

Had a relatively uneventful birding day, except: Drove behind Fremont, Ohio's Water Filtration Plant. The large pond was shallow and plenty of mud flats were exposed. Several Greater Yellow Legs were up close, probing through the short grass and mud flats. Far away were over 150 smaller shore birds that had darker legs, shorter bills, and had white below the upper chest area. They didn't "bob" the tail or head/neck and were pretty steady on their feet...didn't teeter while walking. Admitted, shore birds are a weak area of my identification prowess. Didn't appear to be Pectoral or Solitary Sandpipers. If any one is around Fremont and would like to view them, go behind the filtration plant and look to the right into the large pond. I'd enjoy your input as to what these shore birds are.

Drove on Rt. 6 to Castalia Pond. Many Canada Geese, Mallards, a dozen N. Shovelers, several dozen American Wigeon, but zero diving ducks, etc.

"Fluctuations in the numbers of the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in North America" by F.A. Urquhart, Professor of Zoology, Un. of Toronto, Canada, Dezember 1970

CONCLUSION

"It is concluded that a virus epizootic may be responsible for marked fluctuations in populations and that, as a result of this, one can expect to record years of heavy migration of certain species when the population is at a maximum and years of light migration when the population is at a minimum. Crow (1957) has pointed out that the cycles of population is a response to virus infection followed by a host strain resistance. It would appear, from these observational data, that a resistant strain may occur in a well-defined geographical area and that, if the species is a migrant, this will result in the reappearance of the species where it had been absent for a period of time.

It would be of considerable interest to those of us involved in migration studies to have comparative data on the fluctuations in numbers of those species that are not well-defined migrants or are not remigrants such as species that enter areas formerly unoccupied by them. An examination of reared specimens of other migrants during periods of low population density may indicate an epizootic similar to that here described and perhaps follow a cycle similar to that of the monarch butterfly both in time and duration. There is also the possibility that the distance travelled during migration varies with population density, with greater distances during maximum and lesser during minimum density.

The data obtained for the monarch butterfly, although admittedly not of an exact nautre to allow for statistical analysis, is presented so that others interested in following the movements of migrant insects may wish to carry out a similar study."

Note: If any one wants this original pamphlet of F.A. Urquhart's study, I will mail it to him/her. It was fun reading. In an era with no computers, internet, GPS systems, digital cameras and cell phones, it must have been difficult to amass field observations that spread from Canada to Mexico. The video (below) taken with a digital camcorder of Monarch Butterflies swarming in Iowa could have been sent to Dr. Urquhart's office at the University of Toronto at the speed of light!

A neat video! Dr. Urquhart mentioned in the above study, that "...the monarch buterfly reached a peak of abundance in 1950 and 1951 which period was marked by countless thousands of specimens that clustered in hug masses on various species of trees during the annual fall migration. This period of peak abundance was followed by a marked reduction in numbrs in 1952, and by 1953 no roosting colonies could be found and only seven specimens were collected during our summer field studies. By 1954 a few small roosting clusters were located and 58 specimens were collected. By 1956 the population had once again reached a peak of abundance. This cycle occupied a period of six years."

Urquhart also mentioned, "We had noticed, throughout the periods of scarcity, that a disease, marked by a black, foul-smelling liquid in the bodies of dead specimens, seemed to be responsible for the decline. Our laboratory colonies were almost completely destroyed- as much as 98.2% mortality- which hindered our research on other phases of the ecology of this species. During the last population decline we were able to ascertain that the pathogen involved was a polyhedrosis virus (Urquhart, 1966). This virus was later identified as a cyctoplasmic virus (Howard et al, 1968). That a virus is responsible for cyclical fluctuations in other species has been previously reported on, as for example, Balch and Bird (1944); Steinhaus (1948); Crow (1957); Bird and Burke (1962)."

Interesting, from a "backyard" Monarch enthusiast's point of view,  with the Monarch population way down, I'm wondering about the primary cause of the decline. In my area, roadside cuttings and sprayings have been all but absent. Large highway interchange areas have prospered with milkweed and nectaring wildflowers. But, there were few eggs laid on the plentiful supply of milkweeds! Is the decline's primary cause due to OE and other parasites, or is it due to man-made destruction of Monarch habitat? Of the chrysalis' I had this season, a large percentage had the "black, foul-smelling liquid" as Dr. Urquhart referred to. Of the last 33 chrysalis' I had this season, 12 were infected and never opened. Will we have a dramatic increase in the Monarch population in the cyclical time frame Dr. Urguhart observed years ago?

(A-3) IOWA COUPLE CREATED THE ULTIMATE IN WILDLIFE FRIENDLY YARDS!

I came across an article in The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun about Monarch Watch. Jake Krob, the publisher of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun newspaper gave me persmission to publish it on the site. Mr. Krob's newspaper is the official newspaper of Mount Vernon, Lisbon, and Bertham, Iowa.

The article was written by Dave Morris on September 2nd. It's about a couple named Bill and Winnie Hosford of Lisbon, who have an official Monarch Waystation on their property. Here it is:

Monarch Mission: Lisbon couple ‘hooked’ on helping butterfly species

Bill and Winnie Hosford of Lisbon, Iowa have made Monarch butterflies their mission. Tucked away behind Main Street in Lisbon is their home, the reconfigured former Gardner Arms fourplex on about a half acre of land. A sign at the entrance to their yard (left photo), which contains a variety of gardens (or rooms, as the Hosfords refer to them) identifies the property as an official Monarch Waystation, as designated by Monarch Watch, located at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The sign notes: “This site provides milkweeds, nectar sources, and shelter needed to sustain monarch butterflies as they migrate through North America.”

“The milkweeds are there as the portico,” Bill said, noting that the Monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed leaves. Sure enough, once a Monarch lands on a milkweed leaf and flies away, Bill finds an egg on the leaf’s underside. The leaf is pinched off the plant so the egg may become a part of the Hosfords’ “nursery” on a kitchen counter, a collection of cups with gauze lids that contain developing butterflies in egg, caterpillar and chrysalis stages. Once a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, it is released. As of last week, there were 30 future butterflies in residence.

The Hosfords say their interest in butterflies goes back three decades to when Winnie was a nurse at a Scout camp, but was rekindled in recent years by a program they attended in Jones County. “We thought, ‘We really need to do this,’” said Bill, a former science teacher who currently is librarian at Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids. “We just got hooked.” When milkweed plants emerged in their yard four or five years ago, “we just decided to leave them,” Winnie said. The result of their efforts is about 1,000 square feet of flower space in plots spread over their half-acre of land.

To become a certified Monarch Waystation, the Hosfords met a variety of requirements that included having the appropriate plantings and avoiding use of any pesticides or herbicides. As part of their interest, the Hosfords created a website, www.gardnerbutterflyinn.com, that leads visitors through the property. It’s a whimsical but informative approach that makes website visitors feel as though they are checking out a bed and breakfast. A “room-by-room” tour of what they call the Gardner Butterfly Inn illustrates the habitat the Hosfords have created for their “guests”:

• Blue Room: This garden is in full sun and features blueberry bushes that attract a variety of birds.
• East Room: Actually a suite of gardens, it contains perennials and a variety of decorations. A mosaic sphere by daughter Heather Hosford illustrates the life cycle of the Monarch. Common Milkweed is present in some of these smaller gardens.
• Fence Room: This one contains mostly hostas and is of little interest to butterflies, but rabbits are attracted to it. “We don’t discriminate,” Bill pointed out.
• Gazing Ball Room: This is a small, 13-square-foot garden that includes plants that do well in the shade.
• Meadow Room: A large stand of milkweeds is here, along with tall grasses, sunflowers and nectar-producing plants. In addition to butterflies, the garden attracts both migratory and native birds.
• North Room: The small, circular garden featuring nectar plants and tall grasses, draws dragonflies and butterflies.
• Octagon Room: This raised bed is designed with Monarchs specifically in mind and includes nectar and host plants, as well as cover and water. Three species of milkweed are present in this 170-square-foot garden.

Tagging butterflies is an important part of their participation in Monarch Watch. Small, adhesive tags are put on the butterflies in mid-August through September to help track the annual migration to Mexico. Each tag has a unique number that is recorded by the tagger to indicate the butterfly’s origin. The taggers’ information is entered into a Monarch Watch database, and through this information migration trends are identified. “Sometimes, I’ll go out, grab a net, snag it and tag it (photo right), then release it,” Bill said.

Last year, in addition to Bill and Winnie’s work, daughter Shelley Kamp of Marion tagged 250 monarchs. The Monarchs, after spending seven to eight months in Mexico, begin the return trip to the north, but the butterflies that arrive here are several generations down the line from the ones that began the journey. In Mexico, the Monarchs’ habitat is being threatened by logging in their native habitat. Monarch Watch has called for better enforcement to stop illegal logging and increased tree planting, among other measures. In the United States, planting of milkweeds on both private and public-owned land is being encouraged as a way to keep the Monarchs’ habitat in abundance.

The Hosfords moved from Franklin, Mass., in 2001 to be closed to Shelley and her family. Their younger daughter, Heather, also lives in Iowa and is a graphic designer and artist. Bill has created similar habitat for Monarchs at Taft Middle School, and it recently received the Monarch Waystation designation. He sees both of the waystations as a way to promote environmental awareness among both young people and adults. He also created a poster showing the development of the Monarch. “It’s nice to show how fascinating they are,” Winnie added.

For information about Monarch Watch, visit: www.monarchwatch.org. Plan of action ... Monarch Watch director Chip Taylor has suggested the following actions to save the migration of the monarch butterfly. In the United States and Canada:
• Encourage departments of transportation to adopt planting and mowing practices that favor the growth of milkweeds and nectar plants.
• Promote and support conservation organizations (such as Monarch Watch) that have habitat protection as part of their mission to encourage the planting of milkweeds and native nectar plants.
• Encourage private land owners to adopt monarch-friendly land management practices.
• Encourage milkweed restoration on private and public lands. • Encourage gardening associations, gardeners, and homeowners to plant milkweeds.
• Encourage nature centers, zoos, schools, libraries, parks, municipalities, and other public facilities to plant milkweeds.
• Develop a habitat protection plan for the 1 billion acres of federal lands that contain monarch habitats.
• Fund outreach and educational efforts needed to accomplish the above.
• Modify existing laws, particularly in Canada, that prohibit growing milkweeds on private lands. Source: http://www.features.ku.edu/monarchs/

(A-2) HAPPENINGS AT WAYSTATION NO. 613

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Hiked through Wolf Creek Park in Sandusky Co., Ohio. Saw two Monarch butterflies in good condition in the Wolf Creek meadow, gorging on the nectar plants. New England Astor, Golden Rod, Primrose, Queen Anne's Lace, purple colored Thistle, Wild Grape vines, Common Milkweed, Sumac, Yarrow and Ironweed dominated the flora. The Monarch seemed to enjoy the Thistle best (left photo).

Silver spotted Skippers (below right), Cabbage (below middle), and Yellow sulphur (below left) butterflies were prevelant in the meadow as well.
I'm hoping to see more Monarchs migrate through the Wolf Creek Park meadow on their southern journey to Mexico. Collected a dozen Swamp Milkweed seed pods off the Waystation No. 613 plants and put them in ziplock sandwich bags. Will mail them out to those asking for them (See Saturday September 5 notes below). Plan to visit the Wolf Creek Park meadow at the same time to determine the upswing of Monarchs migrating through. Not real scientific, but better than haphazard watching.

Saturday September 5, 2009
I saw a total of only 25 Monarchs in my yard this year. I carted my last 33 chrysalis' down to Columbus, Ohio to visit a friend. I left them there, figuring they'd have 110 miles less to fly to Mexico. I'm offering my overabundance of Swamp Milkweed seeds to those who want it. So far, I'll be mailing Swamp MW packets to two people:

(1) Ina Warren of North Carolina- "I always enjoy reading about your waystation activities...
You shared seed with me last year, and I in turn shared it at the dozen or so formal programs I gave to environmental/stewardship groups. I would love any/all of the seed that you don't otherwise need and am glad to swap it with some of the A. exaltata that I have (Poke Milkweed).
Also glad to pay postage on your mailing it to me. Thanks for your kindness and willingness to share this "gift of life" for the monarchs..."
Blessings,
Ina Warren.

(2) Cindy Schmid of Journey North- "Hi Robert, I would love some swamp milkweed seeds for my Waystation 95 in Grant, Minnesota. I have over an acre of land to plant it on!
Thanks!
Cindy@Journey North
http://www.learner.org/jnorth

I'm always glad to help out because these individuals will put the seeds to good use teaching to wonders of Monarchs to others! Here's some Swamp MW from my side yard (below photo). Well, back to the yard. I've got Swamp MW seeds to collect and MW plants to trim down.

Fremonters help rescue Monarch butterfly from extinction
I walked into Fremont City Hall in Fremont, Ohio and talked to Ken Myers, the Safety Service Director. Mr. Myers listened intently as I expressed my concern about the city’s mowing of an area that is beneficial for Monarch butterflies. Thinking of all the city problems that he, Mayor Overmyer, and the city council face, I didn’t think he would be interested in preserving a section of Fremont for Monarch butterflies. I was wrong.

Ken Myers remembered, as a youngster, the vast numbers of Monarchs which passed through Ohio every year. Now, these fragile butterflies, which migrate over 2,800 miles to Mexico each fall, are endangered by roadside mowing and spraying, genetically modified crops, and urban sprawl. I described the place to Mr. Myers, a meadow south of the east end of Hayes Street bridge, just past the Sandusky River embankment. It frustrated me because hundreds of Monarch eggs and caterpillars are destroyed each time the city mows there. Several hundred milkweed plants grow in the area and the females lay their eggs upon it because it’s the only plant the caterpillars feed upon.

Mr. Myers met me at the site with the supervisors of the Fremont Parks and Street Departments. The 8,000 sq. foot area had been mowed, but new milkweed shoots were sprouting. As if on cue, a beautiful orange and black female Monarch butterfly appeared and glided to a milkweed shoot in front of us. She gently deposited one of her 300 eggs underneath a leaf and then floated in the breeze to the next one. While we looked on, she visited dozens of Milkweeds. Ken Myers and the supervisors were apparently impressed! They agreed that the area was not to be mowed or sprayed with herbicides and that the city applies for a Monarch Waystation certificate. The City of Fremont received an approved certificate No. 829 and is included in the International Monarch Waystation Registry. (Left photo)

Then, there’s Hayley Wilson, age 5 (Below photo), who will start first grade this fall at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Fremont, Ohio. Her parents, Ed and Sherry Wilson, co-owners of Fremont’s Depot Pizza & Tavern, said that Hayley grew fascinated with Monarch butterflies when she raised one from an egg several years ago. So far this year, Hayley has raised and released 9 Monarchs and still has one chrysalis and 16 caterpillars.

There’s also Sue Strohl, who works in Fremont Memorial Hospital’s surgery department. She plants milkweed in her yard to attract Monarchs, then collects the eggs, raises and releases them.

Each fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to over-wintering areas in Mexico where they wait out the winter until conditions favor a return flight in the spring. The monarch migration is truly one of the world's greatest natural wonders and it’s nice to know that the City of Fremont, Hayley Wilson and Sue Strohl are contributing to Monarch conservation and helping to assure their preservation and the continuation of the spectacular Monarch migration phenomena.

THURSDAY AUGUST 6, 2009
Searched our side yard at Monarch Waystation No. 613. I collected 13 Monarch eggs off the Swamp Milkweed (Photo below), none off the Common Milkweed. Also collected 5 parisitized Monarch eggs, where the transparent egg shell was intact, but the innards eaten out. A small slit showed where the parisite invaded. This morning 4 eggs hatched in my "incubator" (plastic aquarium), and 4 eggs hatched into caterpillar "hatchlings" this afternoon. Here's a tally of observations I made so far this year:

Total Monarch seen everywhere= 15 (Not many!)
Total eggs collected = 102
Current eggs in "incubator" aquarium = 56
Total eggs hatched = 33
Current hatchlings(caterpillars in 1st. instar) = 27
Total caterpillars (hatchlings + cats past 1st. instar)= 39
Current cats = 12
Total Fatalities= 27 (Most have been parisite that leaves shell intact but sucks out contents)
Total chrysalis’ = 8
Current chrysalis’= 7
Total Monarchs released = 1 M= 0 F= 0 DK = 1
Projected Monarch release (hatchlings + cats + chrysalis') = 46

The Swamp Milkweed planted at Waystation No. 613 has a beautiful flower and its fragrance is like a Lilac on steroids! It makes a nice, attractive flower to have in your yard. Hopefully, garden centers will begin growing and selling these aromatic plants on a large scale. What a boost to the Monarch butterfly that would be.