Atlantic Camus

My plant-lore is not nearly as developed as my bird-lore or butterfly-lore. This wildflower was seen at Schoepfle Garden along the banks of the Vermilion River, and I had no idea what it was. So I put some observational skills to work and did a web search for “light blue spring wildflower with six petals with a yellow stamen.” (I should have added “and a green center” but I did not notice it until afterwards.) This led me in the right general direction with a near-miss, the Great Camas. However, the Great Camas is only found on the West Coast, so a further refinement of the search for “Eastern United States” turned up the likely winner, “Atlantic Camas a.k.a. Wild Hyacinth.”

It’s very pretty, and it had filled up the river valley around Schoepfle with waves of azure.

The Song in Songbird

The Bobolink is not the most beautiful bird to look at. But he makes up for it with his wonderful song. There were two Bobolinks singing to each other in Bath Nature Preserve this morning, and I made a recording which you can listen to below.

Two Bobolinks Singing / Bath Nature Preserve / 2021-05-18
Bobolink / Bath Nature Preserve / 2021-05-18

Promise Kept

On my previous visit to Kopf Family Reservation, I noticed a lot of Mallards along Gable Creek. So when I made the sales-pitch to my wife to join me on this birding trip, I told her “You should come, there will be lots of ducklings, I promise!”

Well, that’s a lot to live up too. Fortunately the Mallards came through.

Mallard Female with Ducklings / Kopf Family Reservation / 2021-05-16

Does Kopf rhyme with Hawk?

So I made a second trip to Kopf Family Reservation over the weekend. Last visit, a Red-shouldered Hawk provided a great photo op when it landed in a tree only forty feet away from me. This time, a Cooper’s Hawk dropped in. This hawk was so close that he would not fit into my lens frame at full zoom. I highly recommend Kopf (Avon Lake) for a raptor experience.

Cooper’s Hawk / Kopf Family Reservation / 2021-05-16
Cooper’s Hawk / Kopf Family Reservation / 2021-05-16

Scarlet & Grey Black

The Scarlet Tanager is not your typical backyard bird, unless you live next to a large forest. Tanagers are not attracted to bird feeders, but might show up to raid your mulberry tree. My yard is heavily forested, but even so I was extremely fortunate to have this Tanager land in a tree right next to me. I was even more fortunate to already have my camera in my hands. As for the annoying twig, what can I say? Take a deep breath, and accept it.

Scarlet Tanager / The Backyard / 2021-05-18

Common Yellowthroat

In the bird world, the male is more likely to have showy colors. Perhaps this is the reason why I’ve seen (and photographed) many more male Common Yellowthroats than female: his bright colors and black mask help him stand out from the shrubs and briars he is normally known to skulk in. So I was pleased to finally get a photograph of the female, who is an attractive bird in her own right.

Female Common Yellowthroat
Female Common Yellowthroat / 2021-05-16 / Kopf Family Reservation

Lake Medina

Lake Medina is a man-made reservoir that was once the primary water source for the city of Medina. Those days are past, and now the lake is a great place to see migratory waterfowl like this Spotted Sandpiper, Blue-winged Teal, and Bonaparte’s Gull.

Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper / Lake Medina / 2021-04-20
Blue-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal / Medina Lake / 2021-04-20
Bonaparte's Gull
Bonaparte’s Gull / Lake Medina / 2021-04-20

Birding the Kopf Family Reservation

Located in Avon Lake, this forested reservation is very suburban, but also has amazing birding for woodpeckers and other forest birds. People regularly count 10+ redheaded woodpeckers this time of year. This is a rare-encounter bird for me so it was exciting to see them. I easily completed the “Ohio Woodpecker Challenge”, a.k.a. when you see every species of woodpeckers native to Ohio in one outing.

Red-headed Woodpecker, Kopf Family Reservation, 2021-04-13
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Kopf Family Reservation, 2021-04-13
Pileated Woodpecker, Kopf Family Reservation, 2021-04-13

Hybrid Ducks

Waterfowl hybridize more than any other type of bird, and Mallards are some of the most prolific when it comes to this behavior. I saw this bird yesterday, and was confused (for a while) about whether it was a Mallard/American Black Duck hybrid or just an immature/nonbreeding male.

But then he stretched his wings out and I got a clear view of the speculum patch, which was bordered with white: a sure sign of a Mallard and not an American Black Duck, and thus this bird was not a hybrid after all.