Notes About Nature

11 March 2013

It's been almost a month since my last post, so there is a little to catch up on, but I won't make it too long. I said in my last post that the weatherman was predicting and snow, and boy was he right! The sunrise on February 21 was absolutely beautiful. Since I had a dentist appointment at 8 that morning, I didn't go to work at 7 like normal. When I saw the sunrise, I quickly loaded my stuff for the day and headed to a downtown parking garage in an attempt to photograph the sky. By the time I made it to campus, the sun was no longer visible. So I spent the next hour walking around on top of the parking garage in the 15 degree weather. Here is a picture of the impeding doom coming from the West.

When I went into the dentist office around 7:45, it was just beginning to snow. When I came out an hour later, there was already 2 inches on the ground. I went on to work like normal. About 10:00 Jenna called and said that her boss was bringing her home since the roads were so bad, so I decided to leave as well. I'm glad I did. It took me over 45 minutes to go the 6 miles home. It wasn't so slow because I couldn't get around, it was slow because the roads were becoming parking lots. Before the night was over we had 13 inches. Just a few days later we had another 7 inches. The University was closed a total of two and a half days for the storms. The morning after the first storm, Jenna and I headed to Eagle Bluffs. The roads were still almost impassible from the stranded cars, but crews were working to clear the cars as quickly as possible so snow plows could get to the roads. Here are just a couple of pictures Jenna took of the snow on our way

 and a picture from Eagle Bluffs once we arrived.

Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Jenna's mom had knee surgery the day after the second round of snow, so I had the house to myself for five days. I didn't do much except sit in the house and watch it snow since it snowed almost an inch on each of those 5 days. Here are a couple of picture I took though my living room door

 A very orange male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

Harris's Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula)

and a few I took around Boone County during the snow.

Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestri)

Eestern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna)

 

Fast forward to 09 March 2013. Every year, the manager of Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area sends out a request for volunteers to clean Wood Duck nest boxes. Andy and I decided that we would join this year. Jenna wanted to join but is fighting some pretty bad sinus problems and didn't think it would be a good idea to be out in the cold and wet. Andy and I got there about 8:30 a.m. and were joined by a couple that had to leave early. They left about 10:15, which left Andy and I cleaning boxes until about 2 p.m., but at least we had a boat to pull around which gave us a place to put all of our stuff. There were about 20,000 snow geese that would frequently lift off and fly over us. The water around us would begin to splash everywhere when they would fly over, but somehow we avoided a direct impact from the droppings. Here is a picture of the rest of the group.

On the evening of the 9th, we decided to look for Salamanders. We were toward the end of the snow melt and thought maybe all of the ground water would help bring the salamanders out. Jenna, Andy, and I met Ryan Douglas at a place in Callaway County where there are a few fishless ponds. The temperature was in the lower 50's when we arrived and we were disappointed to see about three inches of snow still covering most of the ground. We didn't let that stop us though. Along the edge of a slushy pond, Andy found a Northern Cricket Frog. It was very odd to see this frog in the slurry of ice and water. After a while, Jenna and Ryan flipped a Spotted Salamander under a log. We spent some time trying to photograph this salamander, but I was not happy with my results at all. I'll get it next time. Here are some of my pictures.

 

The crew - Jenna excited about the salamander, Ryan's salamander

photo session, and Andy's always smiling face.

 

 

 

Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)

Yesterday morning, Jenna and I braved the rain and birded for a couple hours at Eagle Bluffs. Not long after we left, people reported both Sandhill Cranes and a Golden Eagle. Oh well, we beat our goal of 40 species. Here is our eBird checklist and a phone picture of Jenna in the rain with a Bullfrog.

Yesterday after supper it had just stopped raining and was 56 degrees, so we called Quentin and Andy who agreed to meet us a spot close to our houses. The Spring Peepers and Boreal Chorus Frogs were represented in good numbers and we found 38 Smallmouth Salamanders. We also found three Southern Leopard Frogs and a single Pickerel Frog. Here are some pictures from last night.

Me photographing a Smallmouth Salamander

Smallmouth Salamander (Ambystoma texanum)

Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus)

Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus)

 Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris)