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nd in ohio with 3 of those species being state listed the slender ladies tresses is one of the more common of the spiranthes species in ohio the ladies tresses can be a difficult group to identify down to species to identify a ladies tresses you should first see if the flowers are arranged in a single spiral such as the slender ladies tresses or a double spiral like the great plains ladies tresses after that you have to carefully inspect the flowers there are several single spiral species that can be found in adams county but the flowers of each species differ slightly the slender ladies tresses has a characteristic green labellum or lip which can be seen above if you want to read about some of the other species of ladies tresses that can be found in the prairies in adams county check out my previous post spiranthes orchids at blue jay barrens the most exciting plant find of the day and a lifer for yours truly was the unassuming succulent pictured above this is false aloe manfreda virginica although common in the southern us false aloe is extremely rare in ohio where it can currently only be found in adams and highland counties false aloe has an extremely interesting history in this part of the state false aloe thrives in dry prairie openings which is currently a rare habitat in ohio but between 8 000 and 4 000 years ago the world entered a very warm period called the hypsithermal ohio became very dry and hot resulting in the prairies of the west extending into ohio false aloe a plant of the south central part of the united states is thought to have invaded northward into these new ohio prairies during this time where it thrived when this hot dry period ended around 4 000 years ago the forests began to recolonize ohio false aloe found itself suddenly restricted to the dry limestone barrens of southwest ohio which were already thousands of years old originally kept open during the last ice age by megafauna like the mastodon these barrens were now being kept open as a result of fires set by the early native americans in the region false aloe became the dominant plant in some of these limestone barrens and one european settler from the early 1800 s even made reference to an agave desert in the adams county region once the european settlers killed and pushed the native americans out of this region the human set fires in the prairies and forests of this region ceased and became a thing of the past as the 1900 s approached the people living in this region allowed the forest which had been all but clearcut in the mid 1800 s to come back the remaining limestone barrens of adams county that had not been developed or otherwise destroyed began experiencing the effects of natural succession red cedars and tuliptrees which had previously been kept at bay by the fires the native americans had set for thousands of years began pushing their way into the barrens as many of these barrens became forested the false aloe found itself dying out in ohio nowadays this species is found in only a few of the protected barrens which are managed with prescribed burns sadly a recent study found that many of the remaining populations of false aloe in adams county are reproductively isolated and inbred this will only lead to a further decrease in numbers over the next century as the seeds of inbred false aloe tend not to thrive at its current state the future of the false aloe in ohio seems rather grim moving aside from the doom and gloom to something more upbeat here is a recently hatched eastern fence lizard sceloporus undulatus that alayna found hiding under a loose rock learning that ohio has lizards may come as a surprise to many but ohio is indeed home to 5 species eastern fence lizard common five lined skink broad headed skink little brown skink and the non native common wall lizard the eastern fence lizard belongs to the genus sceloporus which are collectively known as the spiny lizards the eastern fence lizard is the only spiny lizard that can be found in ohio where it inhabits the southern and southeastern portions of the state alayna tokash master s student in ecology and evolutionary biology at ohio university studies the tiny eastern fence lizard as it perches on olivia brooks s undergraduate majoring in wildlife and conservation biology at ohio university thumb eastern fence lizards begin mating as early as late april here in ohio and the first round of eggs begin hatching in june the individual we found probably hatched out in either june or july although eastern fence lizards can live 3 4 years most don t make it past their first year due to depredation or other such life ending circumstances hopefully this individual makes it past the initial first year as chances of survivorship greatly increases in year two if you want to see what a grown up eastern fence lizard looks like take a peek back at my previous eastern fence lizards post only an hour later i came across another baby lizard that was hanging out in a patch of forest between two of the pocket prairies this is a recently hatched common five lined skink plestiodon fasciatus the five lined skink is the most widespread and common lizard in ohio but isn t commonly seen due to its secretive nature five lined skinks can be incredibly skittish and they will often dart up a tree under a log or under the leaf litter upon seeing a human or other potential threat approach the five lined skink along with most other species of lizards has another line of defense in addition to great evasion skills the five lined skink is able to detach its tail in times of danger if a predator gets too close or if a predator grabs onto the skink s tail the skink is able to willingly detach its tail at one of the several breakage points along the tail when the tail becomes detached it begins to wildly thrash about which if all goes according to plan will surprise and distract the predator giving enough time for the skink to run away the five lined skink that i caught had already used this defense earlier in the summer as can be told by the healing stub of a tail amazingly five lined skinks and other tail dropping lizards are able to regrow their tail over time the catch they aren t able to regrow the bones in the tail and are only able to grow a rod of cartilage that takes the place of the bones lynx prairie is a great location for five lined skinks the five lined skink exploits edge habitats which are areas where two different types of habitats meet they prefer edge habitats in which a forest meets some sort of disturbed open habitat especially if such an area offers plenty of rock and log objects to bask on and to hide underneath there are copious amounts of edge habitat at lynx prairie offering plenty of appropriate areas for five lined skinks to inhabit one of the most unexpected finds at lynx occurred when alayna flipped a small piece of wood underneath this tiny piece of wood were two long tailed salamanders eurycea longicauda the long tailed salamander was something of a nemesis species of mine for the longest time they can be found throughout ohio except for the northwest quarter of the state they can be relatively common in near streams in moist forests but they tend to hide pretty well under rocks and logs and in crevices in the ground despite looking for them for several years the long tailed salamander evaded me until this year that is this summer i ve seen several long tailed salamanders with these being number 3 and 4 as their name implies the long tailed salamander has an abnormally long tail when compared to other plethodontid lungless salamanders in fact a long tailed salamander s tail makes up approximately 60 of its entire body length visiting lynx prairie always makes for a fantastic day however this trip decided to give me two rather unpleasant surprises somehow while in the cedar barrens i managed to pick up dozens and dozens of tick nymphs in fact i ended up pulling 87 tick nymphs off my body that day and also got 40 chigger bites as well i guess that s the price you have to pay to see neat things posted by kyle brooks at 5 45 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks adams county ohio amphibians botany lizards prairies rare plants reptiles salamanders location edge of appalachia nature preserve 4274 waggoner riffle rd west union oh 45693 usa wednesday december 16 2015 short eared owls this past sunday i was out chasing a ross s goose and two snow geese in lancaster ohio when driving back to circleville i noticed that it was approaching dusk on a whim i decided to drive just south of circleville to radcliff road and see if there were any short eared owls about radcliff road and the attached river drive cuts through the area that was once the pickaway plains a small section of prairie now all but gone more recently a large section of land in this area was put under control of the conservation reserve program in an attempt to create habitat for wildlife and restore land that was intensely farmed for decades farmland was converted to a sea of various grasses this area including the famous charlie s pond has become well known to birders for the interesting array of grassland species that call it home the grasslands along radcliff road and river drive have been known to harbor overwintering populations of short eared owls for several years actual numbers of individuals of vary year to year and i ve personally missed out every time i ve gone looking for them here but this night was different just a few minutes after turning onto radcliff road i noticed a short eared owl on the ground looking at me finally my short eared owl lifer i was dancing in my car from excitement and shooting photo after photo finally after a few minutes i decided to continue on down river road then i noticed the others there were short eared owls flying everywhere this is when i really started freaking out from excitement at least 7 short eared owls were flying over the grassland i wasn t really expecting to see any let alone have them circling my car the short eared owl is a medium sized owl species that can be found on every continent except australia and antarctica in north america the short eared owl breeds in canada and alaska as well as the north western quarter of the lower 48 during the winter months they will migrate farther south to overwinter their migration isn t quite like the typical migration of most birds and instead they exhibit more of an irruptive migration basically they follow vole populations when vole populations crash in the northern section of north america large numbers of these owls will irrupt southward to find better food sources sometimes this results in these northerly owls being found as far south as florida or northern mexico and in great numbers if the vole populations are high in the north these owls will not go as far south and might be completely absent in locations they were abundant at a year ago these irruptive cycles can make them hard or easy to find in ohio when it comes to a yearly basis but they always make an appearance throughout the state each winter there have even been a few records of them breeding in ohio including right here in pickaway county probably in this location but i cannot find exact details but these records are few and far in between spot the short eared owl the short eared owl is an inhabitant of grasslands prairies marshes and other open country habitats they are nocturnal but they often begin to come out and hunt up to an hour before sunset these owls were out and about at 4 30 while the sunset wasn t until 5 10 or so as you might have guessed the decreasing light made it hard to take decent photos telephoto lenses already don t do well in low light and i have a pretty amateur level 300 mm telephoto lens at that couple that with my nikon d5100 camera sensor that does okay with iso light sensitivity levels and it was pretty hard to get a decent focused photo without a crazy amount of noise all of these photos were shot at f 8 with a shutter speed of 1 250 seconds and an iso of 320 and 400 i also shoot in raw which allows me to be more flexible with exposures these photos were all underexposed but lightroom does a wonderful job at bringing under and over exposed raw photos under control since the short eared owls came out while there was still light they weren t the only ones patrolling the grasses for voles northern harriers which are essentially the niche wise daytime equivalent of the short eared owl were still out the two species didn t like this competition though and some scuffles broke out the photo above shows a short eared owl on the left chasing a northern harrier on the right these two frantically chased each other for a bit and occasionally hit each other if one got close enough to launch an attack these owls are strikingly beautiful you might be wondering about their name though the short eared owl is called such as they have small feather tufts not actual ears that stick up from the top of their head much like a great horned owl however these owls only raise these tufts when alarmed or excited most of the time these tufts are held down like in the individual above if you want to see these owls check out radcliff road and river drive in southern pickaway county at dusk if you aren t near this location try checking out nearby hay fields or grass fields at dusk the roads around the wilds near zanesville seem to produce a bunch as well thanks for reading posted by kyle brooks at 4 02 pm 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks birding birds birds of prey pickaway county ohio prairies location circleville oh 43113 usa wednesday september 2 2015 spiranthes orchids at blue jay barrens nearly a month ago i had the pleasure of visiting blue jay barrens some of you surely recognize that name blue jay barrens is a large tract of land in adams county that s owned and managed by steve willson if you ve heard of this place chances are you ve read about it on steve s wonderful blog entitled blue jay barrens if you haven t checked out his blog i highly suggest you do i ve been meaning to make a post on some of the amazing things i saw there but the past few weeks have been crazy for me i ve had to finish up my summer lab work as well as move back in to ohio university and deal with the insanity that is the start of a new semester anyway i now have a little bit of time to write so better late than never as i said before blue jay barrens is a privately owned tract of land that resides in the northern part of adams county i ve been an avid reader of steve s blog for a few years now and he recently reached out to me and asked if i wanted a tour the answer to a question like that is always yes i came down on august 13th and steve gave me a wonderful tour that lasted about 6 hours he has 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