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d to call the swamp home as you walk along the nearly 300 year old dikes you can t help but marvel at the engineering feat they represent at the same time you can t help but feel an overwhelming sorrow when you realize that enslaved peoples from africa were the ones who toiled away to make these extensive dikes the colonial and early american rice industry was the second most dangerous industry for enslaved peoples to find themselves part of second only to the sugar cane industry between the harsh owners never ending work the oppressive heat of the carolina lowcountry rampant diseases and dangerous wildlife being a rice plantation slave was an absolutely brutal and many times short affair injuries and deaths were commonplace the mortality rate of enslaved peoples working on rice plantations is mind numbing to consider at some rice plantations almost 90 of children died before they reached 16 years old many adults did not make it past 30 the profit margins on rice were so high that an enslaved person only had to work for one season for the owner to make back the cost of the slave so slaves were viewed as a highly dispensable commodity although this mentality seems unfathomable today it was sadly common throughout the lowcountry in the 1700 s and 1800 s today the i on swamp looks like a very young secondary growth swamp forest when hurricane hugo slammed south carolina in 1989 the winds knocked down essentially all of the trees in the eastern section of francis marion nf including the i on swamp consequently most of the i on swamp s forest is only 28 years old despite the young age the forest is still impressive dwarf palmettos cover the ground red maples and black tupelos take hold in the drier areas bald cypresses dot the wetter areas where their knees jut up through the shallow tannin stained water alligators bask along the banks of the ancient dikes and river otters swim through the canals the place feels natural on the surface but while it is still natural to a certain extent true the i on swamp is scarred animals which should call the swamp home are forever gone plants which should be easily found throughout the swamp are uncommon and nowhere near as extensive as they used to be the water flows in unnatural channels and canals separated by earthen banks that shouldn t be there the landscape has been forever changed and a sorrow hangs in the air not only because the land will never be as it once was but also because so many lives were unnecessarily lost here despite the scars the i on swamp is nevertheless a fascinating place go visit the swamp if you re in the lowcountry of south carolina walk along the ancient rice field dikes as you travel through the swamp forest look for animals and plants and enjoy the landscape but while you do don t forget to take a few moments to reflect on all the history bound up in this swamp posted by kyle brooks at 1 19 pm 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks anthropology birds coastal plain conservation human history national forests ornithology south carolina south carolina history swamps wetlands location i on swamp rd awendaw sc 29429 usa tuesday february 16 2016 ross s geese in athens this february has shaped up to be one of the most spectacular migratory goose flights in ohio in awhile beginning in the first week of the month reports started pouring in from around the state on ebird birding ohio and other media reporting flocks of dozens to even hundreds of snow geese ross s geese and greater white fronted geese these species of geese are pretty rare in ohio but each winter will often bring many scattered reports of one or two individuals mixed in with a flock of canada geese the past 2 weeks for some reason has brought very large flocks of these rare geese throughout ohio luckily athens got to partake in what i ve heard people calling goosapalooza on february 12 ohio university professor phil cantino reported 8 white geese on the western side of athens near the hocking river these 8 white geese turned out to be ross s geese and they continued hanging out for several days yesterday on feb 15 a group of ohio university students including myself went to see the individuals it wasn t hard we drove past a large group of canada geese hanging out at the athens county fairgrounds and sure enough the 8 ross s geese were mixed in with the group of 150 or so canada geese the diminutive ross s goose is one of my favorite birds as i mentioned previously they are quite rare in ohio but they aren t globally rare however their rarity in ohio stems from their migration routes the ross s goose breeds in northern canada and overwinters in two distinct locations california and the southern great plains the populations which overwinter in the southern great plains migrate using the central flyway which is pretty much 2 states west of ohio since they utilize a migration flyway which doesn t come through ohio they don t really come through ohio either occasionally something whether it be a storm individual mistake etc will cause one or a few individuals to veer off course and end up in places like ohio in the case of this giant flight into ohio weather is probably to blame photo taken in fairfield county ohio back in december 2015 the snow goose is in the back while the ross s goose is in front of the snow goose as you might have seen i had a post on both ross s geese and snow geese back in december which you can read at this link the snow goose and the ross s goose superficially look the same but there are a few differences to note i ll use a nice comparison photo from the fairfield county ones i chased back in december in the photo above the snow goose is the white goose in the back while the ross s goose is the white goose in the front first take note of the black wingtips in both this shows that the goose is either a snow or ross s goose and not just a white domestic goose which will lack any black in the wings now how do you tell the difference between a snow goose and a ross s essentially a ross s goose is a miniature duck sized version of a snow goose size however can be deceiving another feature that can help but can also be deceiving is neck size a ross s goose typically has a very short stubby neck while a snow goose typically has a much longer neck however this can be dependent on how the goose is holding its neck and it isn t a good feature to solely base an identification on the best field mark to separate the two species is the bill with a snow goose the bill will be large and pretty long the bill will also have a distinctive dark mustache a ross s goose will have a much smaller and more dainty bill and it will lack that dark mustache in the case of the flock of 8 white geese this time around they were all tiny short necked geese with dainty bills this identifies them all as ross s geese this was pretty exciting the ross s goose was one of the last rare goose species which i hadn t yet seen in athens when rare geese do show up in ohio it s typically in the northwestern part of ohio or along lake erie southeastern ohio isn t typically a hotspot for rare waterfowl however the past 2 winters have brought an array of rare geese with greater white fronted geese and cackling geese and snow geese now i can add ross s geese to the list of interesting hocking river visitors if you live in ohio keep your eyes out for the rest of the week for any unusual geese you never know what you might find posted by kyle brooks at 3 17 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks athens county ohio birding ornithology rare birds location athens oh 45701 usa tuesday january 26 2016 a little blue heron in the salt marsh as i mentioned in my previous post on the cottonmouth i recently took a 2000 mile solo road trip during my winter break i spent most of my time birding throughout coastal south carolina racking up a total of 90 species including 8 lifers from december 28 2015 to january 2 2016 this wasn t my first time birding in south carolina just a few months prior i visited with my ornithology class for a 4 day field trip which you can read about here part 1 and part 2 it s an absolutely wonderful state to go birding in one of the locations i visited was pinckney island national wildlife refuge in the very very southern tip of south carolina it s a very interesting preserve and most of it is open saltwater or salt marsh i went to visit a productive freshwater pond named the ibis pond but first had to walk by an extremely shallow salt marsh and in that marsh was a small white bird and that small white bird was a little blue heron you might be wondering why a little blue heron is white and this is because it is a juvenile little blue heron this species begins life in all white plumage and individuals transition to their deep blue plumage upon maturity i would like to take a moment to talk a bit about the name heron as you might know there are herons and egrets both look essentially the same aside from species level color differences you might be thinking there is some kind of difference between the two groups like there s something that makes a heron a heron and an egret an egret i definitely thought that until i started my research for this post turns out there is no significance to the names although the little blue heron is called a heron that name doesn t mean much in itself in fact the little blue heron is most closely related to the snowy egret so why the two groups of names it s basically due to linguistic and societal differences birds in the family ardeidae are called the herons the name heron when talking about etymology the study of a word s origin and history comes from certain germanic languages including middle english egret on the other hand is still germanic but is based on the old french word aigrette which is pronounced egret aigrette can translate to little white heron but also refers to long decorative plumes that certain heron species grow during breeding season so basically the french term aigrette was borrowed by english and morphed into egret this term was then applied to white herons many of which also have those decorative plumes during their breeding season however when you look at the evolutionary history for these long legged waders you see that there s no biological basis for the differences in names the birds we call egrets and the ones we call herons are all intermixed in various genera and they don t break down into two completely separate groups this is one of the many reasons why common names can be deceiving back to the little blue heron this is a medium sized heron species that stands about 2 feet tall here in the united states little blue herons are most commonly a resident of sub tropical swamps and marshes in the southeast however like their cousin the snowy egret the little blue heron will also very sporadically breed in the northern half of the eastern united states little blues will also sometimes irrupt northward in the late summer after breeding is finished when it comes to ohio the little blue heron has an interesting history a few pairs have actually nested in ohio and these pairs have been confined to the wading bird nesting colony on west sister island in lake erie these nesting individuals show up to forage in marshes throughout ottawa and lucas counties including ottawa national wildlife refuge and magee marsh even then this is a very rare species to see in ohio to read more about the little blue heron in ohio check out this link obba account although they are rare in ohio the little blue heron is pretty common within their core range they are typically a bit shyer than other herons preferring to forage along the edges of wetlands either singly or in very small groups the little blue is a stand and wait predator meaning it prefers to quietly stand in one location and wait for prey to come to it instead of actively hunting them out they typically feed on fish amphibians and crustaceans but will also take insects and small mammals this individual was in extremely shallow water about 1 or so inches deep and fish were nowhere to be found i watched him as he slowly and carefully stalked about turning his head to inspect the water for life eventually he struck the substrate and pulled up a bristle worm as pictured above bristle worms class polychaeta are a diverse group of mostly marine segmented worms and easy pickings for many wading birds while researching information for this post i came across two very interesting studies that i would like to summarize both studies were done by gloria s caldwell and the papers can be found at this link caldwell 1981 caldwell 1986 to give some background most herons egrets have the same plumage coloration throughout their life the little blue heron is a bit unusual in this as it is dimorphic in regard to age the juveniles are white while the adults are dark blue is there a significance to this color dimorphism turns out there is and it s incredibly interesting caldwell 1986 found that herons with white plumage were attacked by hawks more often than herons with dark plumage at first glance it seems that the juvenile plumage of the little blue would be a hindrance to survival but it s actually a bit more complicated than that caldwell also found that flocks of herons have a significantly lower chance to be preyed upon than an individual foraging alone and this makes sense the more eyes you have watching for predators the less of a chance a predator will be able to commit a successful attack how does this flocking feature factor in caldwell 1981 found that snowy egret flocks will more readily accept juvenile little blues than adult little blues in fact adults were attacked by the snowy egrets while juveniles were left alone caldwell suggests that the white plumage of the juvenile little blues makes the snowy egrets a white bird themselves more apt to accept the juveniles than the dark colored adults so although white juvenile little blues are more likely to be attacked by predators than the adults they can mitigate this negative effect by foraging in a mixed flock with snowy egrets in addition to all of this caldwell found that juvenile little blues actually had a higher success rate catching fish while in a flock than when they foraged alone let me take a moment to sum everything up so far juvenile little blue herons which are white are better accepted into mixed foraging flocks than the dark colored adults by being part of a flock the juvenile little blues have a better chance to avoid predation in addition by being part of a flock juvenile little blues have better success at catching fish therefore by having a lower chance of being killed by a predator and by being better fed as they mature a juvenile little blue heron has a much better chance of making it to adulthood an...
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