missouri – Page 73 – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

Northern Invasion!

No, I’m not talking Yankees or those pesky French-Canadians. The invaders I’m speaking about are rare northern birds that are moving further south than usual, including the Ozarks. I’ve been having some fun trying to find these rarities, and some of these we can’t even call rare this winter. During the past month Missouri has had multiple reports of sightings of at least these birds: Common Redpoll, Pine Siskin, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill and Northern Shrike. I have been able to photograph all these with the exception of the WWCB and CORE, but it looks as though I may have ample time to find these species yet.

In the five or six years I have been bird watching I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been able to see a Red-breasted Nuthatch. In the past month or two I’ve literally been able to spot more than 100 of these birds. It has been fun training my ear to discern the differences between the nasal call notes of the WBNH and the more nasal notes of the RBNH. From what I’ve heard and read the irruption southward of this species happens periodically every few years or so.

“Red-breasted Nuthatch”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF500mm f/4.5L USM lens, ISO 640, f/7.1, 1/200 sec

Pine Siskins can also be found over most of Missouri right now. Almost always found in flocks ranging from six to thirty or more birds, these guys typically prefer to forage at the top of branches of seed-bearing trees, like this hemlock. Similar to the RBNH, this species is well known to have irruption years where they plunge southward in great numbers.

“Pine Siskin”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF500mm f/4.5L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec

Not only was this the first photograph of a Red Crossbill I was able to get, but it was a lifer for me as well. This was definitely an unexpected and exciting development in the StL area this year. These guys are feeding mainly on Hemlocks and Sweetgums in selected parks where these trees are found around the metropolitan area. You can just make out the characteristic crossed-bills in this photo, apparent adaptations for better removing seeds from the cones of tree species like hemlocks. Like I mentioned earlier, I have yet to photograph the WWCR, but I did get to see one lone individual briefly.

“Red Crossbill”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF500mm f/4.5L USM lens, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/400 sec

The next and final bird in this post is one of those special and unusual species for my tenure as a birder. The Northern Shrike is apparently much more uncommon in Missouri than the Loggerhead Shrike. I believe this is the forth NOSH I have seen and I have yet to see a LOSH. It seems that the NOSH might find something it likes around the StL area, where they seem to have been spotted more frequently. For any “non-birder” reading this, if you do not know about the Shrikes, look them up now. These birds are too cool for school and I love watching them. Check out this interesting link for more information.

“Northern Shrike”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF500mm f/4.5L USM lens, ISO 640, f/6.3, 1/1000 sec

During my hunt through the fields of this nice little park, located in the western outskirts of the StL metro area, I was stoked to be able to find three short honey-locust trees that this bird was using as food caches. There are several reasons proposed for the uses of these caches, including use as a food reserve, territory marking and attracting mates. All three of these ideas sound like they could be plausible. These birds will use barbed-wire to do this as well, and sometimes small vertebrates such as lizards, small rodents and even smaller song birds can be found stuck on thornes. Not only was I pleased to find these cache’s, but I am really excited about bringing my love for all things Lionel Ritchie, by using this photo’s title… ;=)

“Stuck On You″

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, ISO 250, f/11, 1/30 sec

“…Yes I’m on my way, I’m mighty glad you stayed…”

Chestnut-sided Warbler

birds, wildlife

“To him who seeks in the woods and mountains only those things obtainable from travel or golf, the present situation is tolerable. But to him who seeks something more, recreation has become a self-destructive process of seeking but never quite finding, a major frustration of mechanized society.”

-Aldo Leopold-

“Chestnut-sided Warbler”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Caspian Tern

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds, wildlife

“Hangin’ around, nothing to do but frown;

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”

-Karen Carpenter-

“Caspian Tern”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec

One Grand Palimpsest

"monochrome", landscape

“When a page is written over but once it may be easily read; but if it be written over and over with characters of every size and style, it soon becomes unreadable, although not a single confused meaningless mark or thought may concur among all the written characters to mar its perfection. Our limited powers are similarly perplexed and overtaxed in reading the inexhaustible pages of nature, for they are written over and over uncountable times, written in characters of every size and colour, sentences composed of sentences, every part of a character a sentence. There is not a fragment in nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself. All together form the one grand palimpsest of the world.”

-John Muir-

“One Grand Palimpsest″

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM* @ 45mm, ISO 100, f/14, manual blend of two exposures*

A Foggy Day in the Missouri Ozarks

abstract, landscape

“Probably if our lives were more conformed to nature, we should not need to defend ourselves against her heats and colds, but find her our constant nurse and friend, as do plants and quadrupeds.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“Fog″

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 200mm,* ISO 100, f/14, 1/8 sec*

Black-throated Green

birds, wildlife

“The world, we are told, was made especially for man – a presumption not supported by all the facts. A numerous class of men are painfully astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all God’s universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call useful to themselves.”

-John Muir-

“Black-throated Green Warbler”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/250 sec

Autumnal Tints

landscape

“Indeed, without the evergreens for contrast, the autumnal tints would lose much of their effect.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“Autumnal Tints″

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 155mm,* ISO 100, f/9, 0.3 sec*

October’s Warmth

landscape

“We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood. It asks a bright sun on it to make it show to best advantage, and it must be seen at this season of the year.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October’s Warmth″

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 135mm,* ISO 160, f/16, 10 sec*

Mondays Are For The Birds – Cooper’s Hawk

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds, wildlife

“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”

-Karen Carpenter-

“Cooper’s Hawk”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/200 sec

The Ozark Tree

macro

While growing up in the inner St. Louis suburbs, I have relatively few memories of nature before entering my twenties. One memory that particularly stands out is on a trip south seeing an Osage orange fruit for the first time. Just what the heck was this strange fruit, so reminiscent of the cerebral cortex of the human brain? Like so many ignorant of nature, I wondered what its purpose was and why it had to be so creepy.

Thirty years later I realized I still did not know much about this tree. Sarah found this fruit on our trip through the Ozarks and I brought it back to make it the subject of this study. The common name, “Osage orange” is rather self explanatory. The name Osage comes from the Osage tribe that was historically found over much of Missouri and the fruit does resemble an orange, so commonly eaten. I have since learned that the best adaptive story to explain such a large amount of flesh covering the hidden nut is that the primary disperser of these seeds were the Mastadons. Following the disappearance of these large herbivores, humans became the primary dispersers of this species, planting these trees as windbreaks and fences. The wood of these trees is some of the heaviest, densest and hardest in the Ozarks. This fact plus the thorns on young branches made this the perfect species for such purposes.

The nature of this species wood also made them perfect for use in making bows by native Americans. This fact prompted the French to name them “Bois d’Arc” or bowwood. This name is the most favored in being responsible for the name “Ozarks” given to the hills and habitats of Missouri, Arkansas and surrounding states. It is theorized that Bois d’Arc was bastardized to “Bodark”, and later to Ozarks by English settlers. To my understanding, this cannot be proven, but is the best conjecture given by historians. That is why I titled this post “The Ozark Tree”.

So, I brought this fruit home and took it out in the backyard and placed it among colorful white-oak leaves, a milkweed pod, Monarda seed heads, and a prairie dock leaf. It is still siting in my backyard. I want to see, if left alone to rot over winter, whether or not the seeds will germinate.

Tag: missouri