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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 monday october 16 2017 a few birds from huntington beach state park two weeks ago i had a break from work and decided to head to huntington beach state park sc only a short two hours away huntington beach state park is a phenomenal and well known birding and tourist location along the atlantic coast of south carolina the park features a long typically busy beach and extensive salt marsh and lagoon nestled behind the beach dunes while birding around the park i was able to grab a few photos of some of the hundreds and hundreds of birds taking up residence throughout the park that day i first ventured out to the beach which was rather dead at the time other than laughing gulls and brown pelicans the little sandpiper pictured above was the only bird patrolling the beach this is the sanderling an incredibly common shorebird found along the beaches of the pacific atlantic and gulf coasts during the winter a small but massively charismatic shorebird the sanderling is well known for its wave chasing foraging when the leftovers of a wave begin to recede after hitting the beach individuals or flocks of sanderlings will run out onto the freshly exposed sand and probe for any sort of invertebrate that the wave either uncovered or left stranded on the sand as the next wave comes rushing in the sanderling will quickly dart away from the water this running back and forth as the waves come in and out is rather entertaining to watch and just a random fun fact the sanderling recently garnered non birder fame after being the focus of the pixar animation short piper which debuted in 2016 before finding dory 2 although the short strays from the biology a tad for artistic sake it s a beautifully animated and fun short film here s a link to watch the 6 minute short piper i left the beach and headed to the salt marsh and the bird diversity instantly picked up patrolling the low tide waters in the salt marsh were several wading birds including this great egret the great egret is a common species throughout much of the east especially along the coast like other wading birds the great egret is never found far from water whether it be salt marshes rivers lakes ponds swamps or the like the great egret is the largest of the egrets an egret is nothing more than a common name given to herons which happen to be white in the united states standing at over 3 feet tall the great egret is also the second tallest of the herons in the us only second to the great blue heron a great egret stretches out his neck to get a better view of the water fish are the preferred food for the great egret the lanky great egret spends most of its time slowly and carefully moving through the water looking for fish swimming about when a potential meal is spotted the great egret will pull its long neck back into a compacted s shape and take aim their long neck essentially acts as a spring when the egret is ready it will shoot its neck and beak forward into the water spearing the fish once the fish is speared the great egret will deftly maneuver the fish with its beak in order to swallow it whole hanging out on a mudflat near the great egret were several double crested cormorants the double crested cormorant can be found throughout pretty much all of the us at some point during the year and the coast of south carolina is one of their overwintering grounds the double crested cormorant is another fish eating and water loving bird like other cormorants the double crested cormorant is a diving bird and they typically dive to depths up to 25 feet in order find chase and catch fish you might also see individuals of this species sitting somewhere with their wings spread as they face the sun they do this in order to dry their feathers after a dive unlike most water dwelling birds the structure of a cormorant s feathers make it to where they do not shed water this is an adaptation which allows cormorants to more easily dive but it comes at a cost after a double crested cormorant dives its feathers are soaked dripping wet feathers make it hard to fly so the cormorant is forced to stand in the sun and let its feathers air dry if it wants to fly to another location the highlight of the day was a much awaited lifer the roseate spoonbill two of which are pictured in the foreground i ll get to the spoonbills in a moment first let s talk about that bald faced bird in the back meet the wood stork the wood stork is a resident of the marshes and swamps of the gulf coast and southern atlantic coasts here in the us but is also found throughout central and south america although you wouldn t guess it when visiting huntington beach state park where there can be hundreds and hundreds of wood storks at a time the wood stork is actually federally threatened in the united states habitat degradation invasive species disruptions to the historical food web and other factors led to the decrease of the population here in the united states during the 1900 s originally listed as federally endangered wood stork populations have been on a slight rebound over the past decade or so prompting the listing to be moved down to threatened in 2014 a good sign for now but the species is by no means out of trouble as i mentioned the highlight of the day personally were the roseate spoonbills i ve been wanting to see this strange wader ever since i was a young kid flipping through my sibley s field guide and i finally got my chance as becomes quite obvious upon seeing one their name stems from their pinkish color and their spatulate bill they owe their pinkish color to their diet much in the way flamingos do roseate spoonbills feed on shrimp and other organisms which contain a type of pigment called canthaxanthin this pigment is reddish pink in color as a roseate spoonbill consumes more and more canthaxanthin it sequesters the pigment in its feathers giving its plumage a pink coloration this also means that the intensity of pink and the exact hue can is different from individual to individual and location to location depending on the available food and the individual s specific diet of course the most attention grabbing feature of the roseate spoonbill is its spatulate i e spoon like bill the widened tip of their bill is actually a foraging adaptation when the roseate spoonbill feeds it waves its bill back and forth through the water with its mouth slightly open the widened tip of the bill allows the spoonbill to better grab onto various prey items fish crustaceans worms etc as the beak offers more surface area imagine that you had to catch an insect that was moving around quickly would you rather use two chopsticks to catch the insect or two large spatulas the spatulas would be much more effective at grabbing the insect for the same reason that the spoonbill s beak is better than a sharp pointed beak of course birds weren t the only reptilians as birds are nothing more than an offshoot of dinosaurs patrolling the waters for food huntington beach state park is also extremely well known for its american alligator population and i saw around a dozen that day either swimming in the lagoon or basking on the land several people regaled me with a story of earlier in the day when a particularly large alligator shut down traffic as it crossed the main road apparently this is a rather common occurrence at the park and one that i would love to see my new job has kept me busy and it s been difficult to find time to blog i ve got some more downtime this month so hopefully i will be able to find time to photograph some things and pump out a few blog posts thanks for reading posted by kyle brooks at 5 52 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks birding birds south carolina location huntington beach state park 16148 ocean hwy murrells inlet sc 29576 usa monday september 18 2017 blog name change and update hello all i have some exciting news on september 23 2017 i will be leaving athens ohio and moving down to south carolina i have accepted a seasonal position as an outdoor education field instructor at clemson university s camp bob cooper as such ohio nature will soon not make much sense as my blog name if you have been a long time follower of this blog you might remember when i changed my url from www ohionature blogspot com to the current www kylefromohio blogspot com as i mentioned in my 2015 post about the url change that was done in preparation for the likely outcome that i would be leaving ohio upon graduation i chose to retain ohio nature as my blog name at that point because i was still living in ohio and still writing about ohio nature now the time has come that i won t be writing strictly about ohio nature and i felt the need to change my blog name to reflect this this blog will now be entitled on the subject of nature i will still be blogging the same type of material but now i won t be tied down to a geographic location and although the specific places and species i will be covering will change as i move from seasonal job to seasonal job and location to location the core mission of this blog will remain the same highlight interesting subjects in nature and talk about the science and the issues surrounding them the full image of my new blog background this is an abstract shot of blooming trees from a w marion state park in central ohio in addition i decided to change up the looks of this blog just a tiny bit i changed the background image from an open source image from the blogger library to a photo i personally took i also slightly widened the text boxes and increased the size of my post titles finally i want to thank everyone for reading and supporting this blog i recently surpassed 150 000 page views which is way more than i thought this blog would hit your continued readership pushes me to find more interesting subjects to talk about take better photos and write more compelling posts posted by kyle brooks at 1 57 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks updates sunday september 10 2017 caterpillar extravaganza this past weekend i attended the third annual caterwauling for caterpillars night despite the strange name this event is a yearly gathering of insect loving ohio university students who have one goal in mind find cool caterpillars although the overall diversity wasn t too great this year we still saw some interesting cats and i wanted to highlight a few of them here first up is the saddled prominent heterocampa guttivitta this wide ranging species is quite variable in appearance and it took me awhile to figure out just what species of prominent family notodontidae this individual was the main identifying features are the saddle on the top of the 3rd and 4th abdominal segments the two segments which have the first and second prolegs the white line running down the body near the back subdorsal line and the brown and white band on the head the saddled prominent is a generalist when it comes to host plant preference unlike some caterpillar species which feed on only one or a few species of plants the caterpillar of the saddled prominent feeds on pretty much any woody plants including american beech birches buckeyes dogwood hickories maples oaks sumacs and many other trees and shrubs a relatively common species in southeast ohio yet one that i always enjoy seeing is the giant leopard moth hypercompe scribonia although you can t really tell from the photo giant leopard moth caterpillars are large they re also extremely easy to identify if you see a large black caterpillar covered in black bristles with red rings where each abdominal segment meets you ve got yourself a giant leopard moth the caterpillars of this species feed only at night spending most of the daylight hours hiding out on the forest floor although the black bristles which are technically called setae look formidable the giant leopard moth does not actually sting instead they will simply roll up into a ball if threatened and hope that they look scary enough for the threat to leave them alone if you want to read about the adult giant leopard moth check out my previous post mothing at clear creek the showy a few minutes after seeing the giant leopard moth caterpillar another strikingly similar caterpillar crossed our paths this is the caterpillar of the agreeable tiger moth spilosoma congrua like many other species of insects the agreeable tiger moth is able to sequester toxins found in the plants that they eat in order to become toxic themselves in the case of this species these caterpillars sequester iridoid glycosides although the levels of iridoid glycosides aren t very dangerous to most potential predators of the agreeable tiger moth they do make the caterpillar taste pretty nasty which would hopefully deter any predators from eat...
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