Night's Silent Hunters

            Owls are amazing birds that are found in all regions of Earth except Antarctica. They have many adaptions that allow them to be excellent hunters, many of which to make them great nocturnal (meaning they are active at night) hunters. Owls have exceptional hearing and sight. An owl’s ears are actually openings, called apertures, which are located on the sides of their heads hidden underneath their feathers.

For example, this is a Barn Owl's ear.

    To assist in the triangulation of sounds the apertures are offset, on one side the opening is higher on the head than on the other side, giving the owl a greater ability to locate hidden prey in complete darkness or under cover.

    Owls eyes are also specialized and allow for not only good night vision but also allow for exceptional prey tracking. Owls’ eyes are incredibly large, with some species having eyes that are five percent of their overall mass.

This is a Great Horned Owl skull to show just how big the eyes are in the head.

     Owls have eyes that give them a binocular view of an object, meaning they see it with both eyes, and are always facing straight in front of the face. The owl’s eyes are not round eye balls but elongated eye “tubes” that are not able to move in the owl’s head so instead of moving the eye like we would the owl moves its whole head.  In the owl’s neck there are fourteen vertebrae, compared to the human’s seven, which let the owl turn its head a 270°.

 The owl can look behind it without even having to move their body.

On their feet owls have large talons to grab on to prey, four on each foot.

 The length, thickness, and color varies by species but all owls have a locking mechanism in their feet that allows them to grasp an object or prey with full force without needing constant muscle exertion. Owls also have incredibly powerful beaks that can quickly crush smaller prey.

            Like other birds, owls cannot chew so their prey must be swallowed whole or ripped into small pieces. The issue with this is that the owl also ingests the parts that cannot be digested, such as fur and bones, along with the parts that can be digested. To solve this problem, the owl regurgitates (throws up) the problem parts in small compacted pellets, called owl pellets.

These pellets can be dissected to see what the owl has eaten.

 These pellets are one way to determine the presences of owl’s nests or often used roosts as they will collect on the ground around the immediate area.

            Other good ways to tell if there are owls in the area is to listen for their calls. These include the often thought of “hoots” but also include sounds not obviously from owls. Owls will also make non-vocal sounds such as the bill clacking and wing clapping. A common characteristic among many owl species is that the males are lower pitched than the females and the two are easy to differentiate when a pair is calling back and forth. Occasionally owls will respond to recordings but this method should only be tried sparingly as repeated use may disturb the birds and cause disruptions during nesting season. A good website to hear the noises that owls will make is here, which has the typical owls.

            But one part of owls that doesn’t make sound is their flying.

This rodent doesn't hear anything coming.

 Owls have specialized feathers that alters the way that wind moves over the wing, reducing the sound generated. The first part is the small structures on the leading edge of the owl’s wings that breaks up the wind. The next part is the trailing edge comprised of flexible fringe that further breaks up the wind. And the owl’s velvety down on the wings and legs absorb high frequency sounds that prey, and humans, are sensitive to. All this leads to an incredibly quiet flight, meaning owls are very difficult to detect in flight.

Not only is hearing the owl difficult but seeing it can also pose a daunting task. Owls are often camouflaged into their surroundings very well and when perched on trees can blend in extremely well.

 The Eastern Screech owl’s back has colorization and patterns to help it blend in to the bark of trees while the Snowy owl, rarely seen in Ohio, is almost completely white with few black marks so it can blend in well with the snow covered areas that it lives in. Often the easiest part of the owl to see would be their vividly colored eyes.
     -Connie

Resources:

            wildlife.ohiodnr.gov

            asknature.org/strategy/938e8c4d8e2bf786fa5c9922d181273e

            https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse_tax.aspx?family=55

Picture resources;

            Barn Owl ear: http://duhallow.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-barn-owls-secret-weapon.html

Great Horned Owl skull: https://www.flickr.com/photos/malama/976869585/in/photostream/

Owl skeleton: https://www.flickr.com/photos/photosharp/4904704812/?ytcheck=1

Owl pellet dissected: https://tamaracolson.wordpress.com/students/

Eastern Screech Owl w/ mouse: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/eastern-screech-owl-catching-prey-kevin-shank.html

            Swooping Great Horned Owl: http://eyes4earth.org/2011/10/eagle-owl-in-action/

            Camouflaged Eastern Screech Owl: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313586/Can-make-hoot-Natural-camouflage-leaves-American-owl-barely-visible-entrance-nest.html

 

Modern-Day Dinos . . . In Ohio!!

While you’re out looking for (or avoiding) skunk cabbage, there might be one other creature to avoid stepping on. If you want to keep your toes and other small appendages safe, keep your eyes peeled for snapping turtles! The Common Snapping Turtle lives throughout North America, though they are seen less in higher altitudes, such as the Rocky Mountains, and can be found in lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers or creeks. Despite the myths surrounding these majestic beasts, it is very unlikely that you will lose a finger or toe to a Snapping Turtle bite. They can exert about the same amount of pressure as humans, so it is possible, but not common. A bite from a Snapping Turtle is not to be underestimated, though. They have been known to eat other turtles, shell included. Snapping Turtles eat a lot of different types of things, actually. The great reptiles eat fish, birds, mammals, other reptiles, carrion (dead meat, think roadkill), amphibians, and almost a third of their diet consists of plant matter. This is a fairly diverse diet, and it can basically be summed up in ‘they eat whatever they can find in their habitat and fit in their mouths, or that they are able to rip apart.’ These pre-historic reptiles have walked this earth as long ago as the dinosaurs, and just looking at them, you can tell. 

(Found at http://a-z-animals.com/animals/snapping-turtle/)

(Also curtesy of http://a-z-animals.com/animals/snapping-turtle/)

The Common Snapping Turtle ranges from black to brown in coloration, although the bottom of their shells and bodies is usually closer to yellow. There are about three rows of plates that stretch from head to tail. The back of the carapace (a fancy name for the top half of the shell) has sharp ridges on it to help discourage predators from trying to sneak up behind the turtle. A Snapping Turtle’s tail is usually very long, about as long as its upper shell, actually (which can grow to be more than a foot long), and has a row of serrated scales going down it. The tail happens to be an extension of the turtle’s vertebrae, so it is never a good idea to pick up a turtle by its tail because you can do a lot of damage to it. If you absolutely have to pick up a Snapping Turtle, pick it up by its back feet. As long as you hold it away from your body and don’t drop it, you will not damage the turtle and it will not damage you. I would suggest avoiding picking up a Snapping Turtle, though; it won’t like it, and I doubt you would enjoy being picked up by some big scary creature, either. Besides, Snapping Turtles have pretty sharp claws and powerful legs for swimming and digging, so it’s best to avoid a nasty scratch and just leave the quiet giant alone. They will most likely ignore you unless they feel threatened (which is when they start SNAPping!!). The bottom half of a Snapper’s shell is rather small, which allows the turtle to have a greater mobility in its legs as well as more muscle to move rocks and dirt, which is very helpful for females.

(This picture was found by https://nicksnaturepics.wordpress.com/tag/snapping-turtle/)

Female Snapping Turtles will get the urge to travel landside when they are ready to lay their eggs. This happens anytime between April and November, and female Snappers have been known to travel more than twelve miles until they find a suitable nesting area. They will dig a shallow hole into the earth in a sunny, well drained area, lay between twenty and forty small, spherical eggs, and then leave the eggs to fend for themselves and return to the water. The following summer (usually between May and June), the eggs (which resemble ping-pong balls) will hatch, and baby Snapping Turtles will follow their instincts and travel to the nearest lake, pond, or slow river. Sadly, only about ten percent of the nests make it to the ‘hatching’ stage because predators, such as raccoons, will dig them up and eat the eggs if they can find the nest. However, once the baby Snappers make it to the water and their shells have some time to harden, they will be prey to very few predators for the rest of their lives.

(This picture was taken by me)

Snapping Turtles usually live for more than forty years and can grow to fairly impressive sizes in that time. We currently have three Snapping Turtles here at GNC: two babies that hatched this past October and a juvenile who is a year-and-a-half to two years old. To help give you an idea of what these little guys can grow into, I took a few comparison pictures with one of the babies and the full-sized carapace that we have.

(In case you didn’t notice, these were all taken with my phone. *Insert winky face* )

Pretty cool, right? If you want to see them in person, stop by the Nature Center sometime; they’re pretty cute. :) If you have any pictures of snapping turtles, or a neat story that you would like to share, just send me an email at gncintern@gmail.com and I’ll include it in a follow-up post! Now, go enjoy this nice weather!! Thank you for reading!

-Connie

Information found at: http://animals.pawnation.com/jaw-pressure-snapping-turtle-4411.html

http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2723&q=469200

http://a-z-animals.com/animals/snapping-turtle/

A Trip Back to Scales

Whew! Things have been a little crazy recently, but I have another post in the works. In the meantime, here are some pictures of snakes!! These are all taken by myself here at the Nature Center. Feel free to send me any that you want to see posted on the blog! (I'm able to 'update' these posts, so if you have pictures of any of the animals/plants in previous posts, just send me an email gncintern@gmail.com )

(This is Jacob Reese at Breakfast With the Birds a few weeks ago. In this case, the early bird gets the snake!!)

(This is the same snake that Jacob is pictured with above. You can't tell very well in either picture, but he's about six feet long.)

(I lied, this picture was actually taken by my sister, Lauren. The little turtle is an Eastern Box Turtle. )

Thanks for sticking with me everyone! I promise that the next actual post will be up by the end of the week. :)

-Connie

Your Favorite Cabbage, This is Not

What’s better than a walk through the woods? How about a walk up the stream? I personally love going on walks up or next to streams because of all the neat things that you can find. Not that you can’t find anything in dry woodland, but there’s a different quality to streams and wetlands, something that I find very attractive. I’m not sure how to put it into words, but I’m sure that, at some point in your life, you have (carefully) gone up a stream and found fish, or salamanders, or even just a neat rock. There’s something magical about it, especially when you’re young. There is one thing less than magical about streams and wetlands, though. That’s when you come home and realize that that nasty smell is coming from your sneakers. And it won’t. Come. Out. Remember that big, green, leafy plant you accidentally stepped on back by the stream? It’s called a Skunk Cabbage. For good reason.

 (This picture was found at http://urbanecologycenter.org/blog/native-plant-eastern-skunk-cabbage.html )

Skunk Cabbage grows near wet, marshy areas like streams, slow-moving rivers, humid woodlands, and, well, marshes. The foul-smelling odor that it releases is to attract bugs such as flies and carrion beetles so that the plant can be pollinated. That smell is very easily carried by the humid air, but it increases tenfold when the plant is damaged, like when you stepped on it. Another element that helps the scent of these lovely plants travel is the fact that they produce their own heat! This allows them to be one of the first flowering plants to bloom each year.

(This picture is curtesy of http://carolynsshadegardens.com/tag/skunk-cabbage/ )

The heat produced by the buds allows them to bloom even when the ground is still frozen. They warm up to about seventy degrees Fahrenheit and melt through all of the snow around them. Once pollinated, the flower heads produce small berries that contain the seeds for next year’s growth, which will grow on the marshy ground that was fertilized by the decomposing plants of the previous year. It’s a fairly ingenious survival method, actually. The plants reek, so most animals avoid them, and the animals that choose to try and eat the Cabbage will get a mouth full of fire (the plants cause a burning sensation when eaten) which only bears are immune to, and even then, only the buds are edible. The actual plant is mostly made up of water, so it is able to decompose very quickly and does not hinder the following year’s growth. Since they are also the first blooming plants, they are able to be pollinated during the first spring thaw, which gives them a head start on the rest of the plants here in Ohio. In fact, if you are willing to brave this cold and go on a little hike, you might just find some Cabbage blooms right now. Heavens knows we Ohio natives are nothing if not stubborn when it comes to the cold, and in this instance, so are the plants we are looking for.

(You can check out this picture at http://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/skunk-cabbage)

 Information citation: http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/plants/skunk-cabbage.aspx

Whew! I think it’s a little chilly out, don’t you? If you decide to brave this cold and go find some flowers, shoot me an email (gncintern@gmail.com) of a picture and I’ll post it on here! Thank you for reading! Your support is awe inspiring and I’m glad to have it. Stay toasty! 
-Connie

IT'S A WATER MOCCASIN!!! Oh . . . wait . . . Maybe not?

You remember that 6-foot long black snake you saw in the woods or over by the pond? Guess what? It’s not a water moccasin. It is probably a Black Rat Snake.  Would you like to know how I know this? Because there is no part of Ohio that is home to water moccasins, and there are no other black snakes in Ohio that have the ability to reach over 5 feet in length. But most people do not know this, and assume all large black snakes near water are water moccasins.

Black Rat Snakes are really quite remarkable; when they feel threatened, they are able to flatten their heads temporarily so that their head becomes arrow-shaped (this is called ‘head-morphing,’ and there are several other non-venomous snakes that use it as a defense). An arrow-shaped head is one of the tell-tale signs of venomous snakes, so it’s no wonder that most people panic when they accidentally stumble upon one of these beautiful creatures in the wild. But the teeth in this snake’s mouth are only a few millimeters long and can’t do much damage to us humans. In fact, they generally don’t want to harm us at all!

(This picture is from a ‘field trip’ that Jan Ferrel (naturalist here at GNC) went on to visit a class, the link is http://anthocs0311.edublogs.org/2014/01/page/2/ and there are tons of other awesome pictures!)

There is a lot you can learn from the name of any animal. White-tailed deer have white tails, skunk cabbage is a cabbage-like plant that smells bad, and Black Rat Snakes are black snakes that eat rats. It lends information in a creative way, doesn’t it? Rat Snakes are not solid black, though; they have light bellies that range from off-white to yellow-grey, and sometimes you can see patterns along their backs and sides, as well. These patches can be a variety of browns and greys, but they do not always travel the entire length of the snake and are most visible near the snake’s head. When they are young, Black Rat Snakes are a lighter grey or brown and their markings are very prominent so that they are able to blend in with rocks and soil.

(The first picture was found at http://www.marshall.edu/herp/snakes/black_ratsnake.htm  and the second was found at http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_rat_snake.htm )

Rat Snakes breed in the spring, usually between the months of April and June, and can lay 5-30 eggs (10-14 on average). When they hatch, these young are almost immediately independent and able to hunt for insects. A little over a foot long, these juvenile snakes don’t have to grow much before they are able to start feasting on the rodents for which they are named, but they don’t stop growing there. Black Rat Snakes can grow to be over eight feet long! On average they will grow to be about five feet long and can be found almost anywhere outdoors.

(This picture is curtesy of http://naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge-ecostation/what-time-is-it-in-nature/archive/black-rat-snake )

Black Rat Snakes are found in all of Ohio and most of eastern America. They are very good climbers and often hibernate in rocky cavities with other snakes during the winter. You can often find them up in tree hollows or along branches, they can even be found sunning on the roof! This allows them to have a wide variety of prey to choose from, although they most often choose to eat rats, mice, small birds, and eggs. This makes them wonderful for pest control, and that helps keep those pesky critters out of your gardens and kitchens.

(This picture can be found at http://johnburk.zenfolio.com/p581253011/h61268BD5#h61268bd5 )

So next time you’re out looking at the wildlife around you, take a closer look at that tree branch, and thank the snake you have one less mouse to deal with in your house.

Thank you for your support everyone! I have to admit, it’s pretty epic. I you have any pictures of Black Rat Snakes that you would like to share, just send them to me via email at gncintern@gmail.com! 

Information Citations: http://animals.pawnation.com/interesting-eastern-rat-snakes-4318.html

http://www.oplin.org/snake/fact%20pages/rat_snake_black/rat_snake_black.html

I would also like to thank Amanda Kriner (Director of Volunteers at GNC) for help verifying facts and Ms. Costas (my English teacher) for checking my grammar. They are both stellar people and I enjoy working with them both.

Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!
-Connie