Upcoming Events - 06 DEC and 10 DEC

Just a reminder about a couple of upcoming events. 

First up is an event this Saturday at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve

Sylvan Solace Late Fall Prowl (Saturday 06 December 2014)

Join me on Saturday December 6th at 7:00PM at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Sylvan Solace Preserve for a moonlight walk.  This event is free but participants are required to register.  Please see the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy website for more information on this event.

Also on Saturday is an event at the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland.


Nature Art Show & Sale (Saturday 06 December 2014, 8:00AM - 5:00PM)


From the Chippewa Nature Center website:


"Artists at the show will offer some of the best photography, wood carvings, copper sculpture, pottery, books, baskets and more! Come to the art show to fill your holiday list, make your wish list, or just to enjoy the art. Either way, we hope to inspire you to protect the natural world."

If you haven't finished (or begun) your Christmas shopping this is a great place to buy a nature-related gift for someone special - or buy something for yourself.


The third event that I would like to mention is scheduled for the December 10th.


Club Member Sharing Night (Wednesday 10 December 2014)


Join the Chippewa Valley Audubon Club from 7:00PM to 9:00PM at the Veterans Memorial Library in Mt. Pleasant for our annual Club Member Sharing Night.  Members of the CVAC are invited to bring digital pictures, prints, artwork, crafts or other memorabilia highlighting outdoor activities. 

I plan on sharing 12 photos, one from each of the past 12 months.

Roadside Snowy Owl in Northwest Michigan

Yesterday (Sunday 30 NOV 2014), I saw my first Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus).  Not my first of the year, but my first ever.  This owl was found along U.S. Route 31 just south of Traverse City (near Chum's Corner).

Photo by Shara LeValley

A big thank you to the staff at the Traverse City Wild Birds Unlimited for letting us know where this bird had recently been sighted.   We saw this bird as we were traveling home from a long weekend visit to Traverse City - the bird was literally sitting in the ditch along our route home.  We stopped to look at it for couple of minutes.

After several minutes of observing, the owl took off and flew atop a pole across the road.

The local group of crows did not like the presence of the owl as much as we did.  When we left, the owl was still sitting atop the pole, and the crows were sitting nearby watching closely

Nature's Bounty

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States.  It is a time to give thanks and be grateful for the bounty that has been bestowed upon us by nature and the fruits of our honest labor.  I thought I would share just a couple pictures that depict some of nature's available bounty that may be found this time of year in Mid-Michigan.  These images were taken last Friday (21 NOV 2014) in the field behind our office.

Raptors and Niches

One of the programs that I do for 4th and 6th grade student is on animal adaptations.  One of the concepts that is discussed during this presentation is that animal adapt and evolve to fill an ecological niche.  The concept of an ecological niche is essentially that a species has a certain position or role in its natural community.  One way that I have been demonstrating this concept is with the skulls of a number of species of raptors (birds of prey) - these skulls are all replicas.

I like using the raptor skulls to explain the concept of a niche because the students can see the obvious similarities between the species - large hooked beak,  large forward facing eyes, and presence a prominet supraorbital ridge (brow bone) in most species.  The students can also easily notice the differences between species, especially size.  This size difference makes it easy to explain that each raptor species occupies a specific role or niche in the environment.

Here are the nine replica raptor skulls that I use.

The skulls in this photo include:  (front row) American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Osprey; (middle row) Red-tailed Hawk, Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle; (back row) Barn Owl, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl.

It is easy to see the similarities among these birds.  It is also easy to see the difference in size among these species - the grid-lines on the paper background are at one inch intervals.

While these birds all exhibit similar characteristics, the skulls in the above photo represents three different orders and five different families.  The three different orders evolved separately toward a common form and function - this is known as convergent evolution.  Within each order the birds have evolved to fill different niches; they vary in size, shape, and in the species of prey that they prefer.  During this process they have become separate species - this process is known as divergent evolution.

Right now, I don't want to discuss the specific ecological niche of each species, but merely focus on the size difference between the species.  This size difference clearly indicates that each species fills a different place in the environment.

American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon

The first two species are both in the Order Falconiformes and the Family Falconidae - the American Kestral (Falco sparverius) and Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus).

Osprey

The third species is in the Order Accipiteriformes and the Family Pandionidae - the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).  The Osprey is the only species in its Family.

Red-tailed Hawk

Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle

The three species in the middle row are all in the Order Accipiteriformes and the Family Accipitridae -  the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).

Barn Owl

Barred Owl and Great Horned Owl

The three owls are all in the Order Strigiformes, but represent two different families.  The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is in the Family Tytonidae.  The Barred Owl (Strix varia) and Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) are both in the Family Strigidae.

Tunnels

Last winter I wrote a post about how small mammals use the subnivean zone for shelter and transportation.  Yesterday I went out into the same field behind the office and found several collapsed subnivean tunnels in the freshly fallen snow.  The longest of these tunnels extended nearly 20 feet.

Chippewa River at Mill Pond Park - 20 NOV 2014

After giving two presentations this morning I took a few minutes to stop at Mill Pond Park and take a few photographs. 

A Mallard Duck surfs through one of the weirs at Mill Pond Park

The same Mallard now facing upstream below the weir

Ice has begun to form along the shore of the river and the banks are covered with this week's snowfall

Beetle holes in a standing dead tree

Honeysuckle berries and leaves

Reflections of the sun on the surface of the Chippewa River

Looking across the Chippewa River toward  the south

The sun and clouds - my favorite photo of the month so far

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - One Hundred Fifty- One Years ago today

The Soldiers National Monument at the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA - near the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
19 November 1863