What a wonderful morning for a hike! This week's Tuesday morning Early Morning Discovery Hike was a wonderful way to re-start our 1.5 hour hikes now that summer camps are over for 2010. We had birds singing, dragonflies swooping, butterflies floating and flowers blooming... all withwonderfully cooltemperatures of 65 degrees and nearly zero humidity! Awesome morning for a hike in August to be sure.
The past 8-9 weeks have been crazy busy around the Park District with 7 summer camps, scout camps, public programming, paddling and more. Looking back, it's hard to believe it's Fair time and the summer is already on its way out. Due to the increased number of camps this year, these emails took a back burner, but with the end of camp, we will resume our weekly
emails to update you on what is happening in the natural world around you
and within the Park District. In addition, the new Nature Notes
for autumn
2010 is done and will be emailed out later this week!
This week's hike provided a tantalizing glimpse at what's to come as summer gives way to autumn in the coming weeks. We had increased bird
activity, there were butterflies everywhere (even with the cool temps) and
most of all the mosquitoes were almost nowhere to be found!
While the bird species numbers weren't as high as they may climb as we head into autumn migration, we still had nearly 30 species this morning. We had many of the usuals with a few "fun" birds making themselves known. We had a Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling as we wrapped up the hike. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been sparring for bragging and feeding rights at the various feeders located around the Nature Center. We even
had a good look at a low-flying Great Blue Heron as we walked through
the back prairie.
In addition to the birds this morning, we had many insects to feast our eyes on (and very few to donate blood to!). We had amazing looks at several butterflies, including Pearl Crescent, Northern Pearly-eye, Eastern Comma,Common Buckeye, and a Delaware Skipper. All of these beauties were moving a bit slow this morning with the dew and the cool temps, which was perfect for viewing as we were able to really study each individual and
get a good ID without the use of a net.
We also got several good looks at some of the resident Dragonflies and Damselflies of Shawnee Prairie.
These included a Ruby Meadowhawk,
and several Ebony Jewelwings. If you've yet to discover the wonders of Ohio's Odonata (the order of insects that includes dragonflies and damselflies), you're missing out! These amazing creatures love to eat mosquitoes, can fly up to 30 mph (think how fast that would be if your car was only 2" long...), can see up to 60 feet away and live in nearly all parts of the world. This week's hike was a great one and we are looking forward to many more before the cold of winter shows itself. If you have Tuesday mornings off and available, join us in the parking lot of the Nature Center of Shawnee Prairie Preserve, just off OH-502 outside Greenville at 8am. Most hikes last around 1-1.5hours. Bring binoculars if you have them... if not, there are a few pairs available to borrow for the hike.
We'll see you at the Fair!
Observation date: 8/17/10
Number of species: 26
Great Blue Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Mourning Dove 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 2
American Robin 3
Eastern Towhee 1
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 3
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 2
House Finch 8
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
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