What to See This Week

Another winter bird has been spotted in the Bird Watching Garden: the dark-eyed junco. Dark-eyed juncos often visit in groups and spend their time foraging for food on the ground like other members of the sparrow family. Dark-eyed juncos come in 6 color forms across North America and the one that visits us each winter is the slate-colored dark-eyed junco. 

Vireos build distinctive nests that are often well hidden until leaves on trees begin to drop. Vireo nests are pendulous, built hanging within the “Y” of a branch. This one was built in one of the bloodleaf Japanese maple trees along the Parkwoods Trail planted all the way back in the 30s!

The Red Barn Reserve is an amazing location to visit any time of year. You can always find signs of wildlife and beautiful scenery. Just by the parking lot is this incredibly bright smooth sumac. While the name may be concerning to some, sumac is harmless unlike poison sumac which is closely related to poison ivy. Poison sumac grows in very wet, swampy areas but smooth sumac is often seen along roadsides and provides bright red fall color.

The Red Barn is also full of blackberry brambles; all changed to a beautiful deep red/almost purple. Although many people focus on trees for fall color, shrubbier plants can also be beautiful! 

A lot of prairie habitat around The Arboretum is covered in goldenrod. Ohio is home to over 20 species of goldenrod. They are very beneficial as they feed more caterpillar species than any other herbaceous plant in the area. The majority of goldenrod has now gone to seed along with most other plants in the prairie. The seeds are also great food for birds.

A few goldenrod plants are still holding onto some flowers! Along with a handful of asters, mistflower, and purple coneflower, these goldenrods are still attracting some insects that are out during warmer periods and bumblebees and butterflies can still being spotted occasionally.

The wet and misty conditions today made it the perfect time to see just how many spider webs are still tucked into plants in the Pollinator Garden. These webs belong to bowl and doily spiders, named for the shape of their webs that consist of a bowl-shaped upper web and flat sheet web just beneath.

Spring peepers are best known for their spring chorus that can be heard from over a mile away. Once their breeding season is finished, they are quiet throughout the summer but as temperatures begin to drop and day lengths shorten, you may hear some spring peepers begin to call out again. This one was seen near the Log Cabin. Keep an eye out for these tiny frogs, they are hard to see in the fallen leaves!