Leaving Town - The Great Migrations

 If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I’ll sort of paraphrase for wildlife ... if the food you need isn’t in the kitchen, find another kitchen. Or if you or your preferred food can’t stand the cold, head south if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.

For eons, that’s exactly what animals have done through migration. When you’re looking for motives in human behavior, they say, follow the money. If you’re looking for wildlife, follow the food.

Migration was always a perilous time for land mammals. River crossings and predators, then humans (well before cars and interstate highways), made journeys treacherous. To date, there aren’t any major migrations of mammals in or through Southwest Ohio.

Read the complete article here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyles/flyover-country-birds-bats-and-butterflies-migrate-through-our-area/KW6QFEI25ZCYREJO2A2YQILPYA/

Migration Vs Roaming and Expanding

Different species roam in and out of Ohio, but they’re not migrating. The black bear that passed through the area recently wasn’t migrating, just looking for a new home. Similarly, deer, coyotes and bobcats can move great distances as individuals sometimes, but they’re not migrating.

And it’s just a matter of time it seems, before the nine-banded armadillo becomes a regular full-time resident in Southwest Ohio. Once common only in Texas and the South, they have expanded dramatically north and east in recent years.

They are in Indiana and headed this way.

Pawpaws - Taste of the Tropics

Quick — can you name the official native fruit tree of Ohio?

If you thought of Johnny Appleseed and said the “apple” you’re wrong, If you thought Buckeye, wrong again. That’s Ohio’s “official tree” and hopefully you know not to eat the nuts.

The answer is the Pawpaw.

It’s indigenous to Ohio, has existed globally for more than 30,000 years, and has held its designation in Ohio since 2009. It could grow almost anywhere in Southwest Ohio, and yet it’s unfamiliar to many people.

Local and different

When you think of flavors of the Midwest, two words that rarely come to mind are “light” and “tropical.” Yet that’s exactly what the Pawpaw offers. It’s unique because it’s the only fruit tree member of the tropical Annonaceae family to live in temperate regions.

Read the complete column here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyles/this-tropical-tasting-fruit-is-a-local-delicacy-but-many-dont-know-about-it/TVYYVQKDSJHMRF63AFJGRF6LXI/ 

RESOURCES

Where to Go

Cox Arboretum - Ruth Cummings Mead Woodland

There are two groves of Pawpaws on this trail, note that removing the fruit is against park regulations.

metroparks.org/places-to-go/cox-arboretum/

Pawpaw Fest Albany, Sept. 12-14

ohiopawpawfest.com/

Pfeifer’s Orchard

I saw them here once, no guarantees.

peiferorchards.com/

Supporting Pollinators

Greater Dayton Pheasants Forever Fall Banquet, Sept. 13

events.pheasantsforever.org/events/greater-dayton-pfqf-third-annual-fundraising-banquet/a002f684-e7da-4eb8-be3e-9e255a8cbfaf

Resources

ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/plants-trees/broad-leaf-trees/pawpaw-asimina-triloba

vnps.org/paw-paws-and-the-zebra-swallowtail-butterfly/

ale8one.com/product/pawpaw-ale-8-12-pack-bottles/

littlefishbrewing.com/beer/pawpaw-weizen/

Good for the Goose

 

We pushed prairie chickens out of the way and to the west. We were too late for the passenger pigeon. We overlooked the Carolina parakeet. Everybody got it wrong with the Heath Hen. But by the 1940s and 50s, we started to figure things out.

And boy, did we knock it out of the park with Giant Canada geese.

Changing views

As hard as it might be for some of us to believe now, not everyone at the turn of the last century believed in science or humans’ ability to impact nature. Crazy, I know. Some thought species could never go extinct. Many species were lumped into one of two buckets: valuable or nuisance. There wasn’t any middle ground.

In that time, Giant Canada geese were extirpated from Ohio in the late 1800s. Market hunting and egg collection gave them value, but the loss of habitat through the draining of wetlands was considered a good thing if anybody cared. After that, if you saw a Canada goose in Ohio from 1900 to the 1950s it was likely just passing through on annual migration from the James Bay region of subarctic Canada to somewhere warmer. But with 10-12 distinct subspecies that vary greatly in size but subtly in markings, it can be difficult to identify them, especially on the wing.

So why can't we just "shoot them all" as some have suggested?

Read the column here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyles/goose-gone-wild-ohios-conservation-success-story-gets-messy/ADFUBYYZNVAIVMCEUMNISSXSE4/

Season:

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Summer Bug Music Fest - No Ticket Required

 

While the volume of annual cicadas is slowly fading during the day, the 33 reported different species of crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids are ready to keep the concert rolling into late summer and fall.

I’m sure that there are a lot of people who just lump all of the species producing the seemingly continuous noise into “some bug over there” or “the crickets are really loud this year.” The facts are a lot more individual and interesting than that for the trio of singers: crickets, grasshoppers and katydids. 

Read the column in its entirety here, Summer bug noise: Three species keep the volume high into fall.  You'll learn how to tell the difference between the three and a sort of common "mercurial" trait they share.

Water. The Reason is Clear.

When the band America sang in the song A Horse with No Name,  “The ocean is a desert with its life underground, And a perfect disguise above,” they were somewhat right about rivers. Maybe. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but there’s a lot of life that goes unseen and disguised beneath the water’s surface. The reality is more connected and complicated. That hidden life underwater is directly impacted by many factors, including those under, around, and especially “above.” 

Read several ways that departments are helping to ensure clean water and how you can participate in my Dayton Daily News column here: Leave it Better than you Found It

Get Your Feet Wet in August

 I’m known to say, “I’ll do cold. And I’ll do wet. But I don’t do cold AND wet.”

While that hasn’t historically held 100% true, it has for sure put a nix on my duck hunting to date. That and my inability to sit still or wanting to force or watch a dog be still for very long. But real cold is not an issue in August in Ohio.

That’s why wet wading — wading without boots or waders that keep your lower extremities dry — is one of my favorite ways to fish for a number of reasons.

Read more in my Dayton Daily News column, ‘Wet wading’ a good way to fish for a number of reasons

Golden Days of Summer

The golden days of summer mean different things to people. Maybe it’s nostalgic mornings of soccer practice or evenings relaxing on the porch. Maybe it’s the rush of the last slow days before fall activities kick in.

Maybe it’s the earlier sunsets and rising sun.

Or maybe it’s just the literal color that seems to abound this time of year with American Goldfinches and Goldenrod flowering.

Stay golden and read the complete article here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/what-to-know/what-are-the-golden-days-of-summer-look-at-the-feathers-the-sunsets-and-the-plants/HOWZG4JT4RHBHGD7KJ2QOEVX5I/