Celebrating 100 years of "Nature" column

 

The Canada goose was the first animal mentioned in The Dispatch's inaugural Nature column by Ed Thomas in 1922/Jim McCormac

Celebrating 100 years of "Nature" column

Columbus Dispatch
March 6, 2022

NATURE
Jim McCormac

On March 5, 1922, a lawyer-turned-naturalist named Edward Sinclair Thomas penned the first incarnation of this column. The Dispatch had asked him to write a short series of articles about birds, and Thomas eagerly took up the challenge.

His writings proved popular, and the newspaper asked him to continue with the column. He did so with a passion, stamping out weekly columns for the next 59 years. Thomas wrote over 3,000 articles in all, in addition to his weekly “Blendon Woods — Metro Parks — Central Ohio Park System” series that was geared toward kids.

Thomas was born in Woodsfield, Ohio, on April 22, 1891 — fittingly, as April 22 would much later become the date of the annual Earth Day celebration.

The very first animal mentioned in Thomas’ inaugural column was, “A flight of wild geese…” referring to the now-ubiquitous Canada goose. A century ago, geese were not nearly so frequent and a wild skein of honkers passing overhead piqued great interest in the citizenry far below.

Thomas didn’t confine his prose to birds. He was an old-school naturalist, an ecological Renaissance man who once would have been termed a natural philosopher. He had expertise in flora, singing insects (the orthoptera), geology, amphibians, mammals and more — and he wrote about them all.

His last column appeared on Sept. 6, 1981, just about five months before his death on Feb. 16, 1982.

Thomas inspired many people with his encyclopedic knowledge of natural history and his passion. One of them was a young naturalist named Jim Fry. Thomas became a mentor to Fry, who went on to become a professional naturalist. He worked for Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks for over three decades, with much of his tenure at Blendon Woods.

Fry took over the column in 1981, segueing seamlessly from Thomas' final piece. By this point the column was dubbed Nature — same as it is today. Fry, who now lives in Hocking County — not far from Thomas’ cherished retreat known as Neotoma – is an ornithologist of note.

For the next 29 years, Fry regaled readers with his adventures involving birds, both rare and common. An inveterate lister, Fry annually racked up large lists of species in Ohio. He was well-known for his spur-of-the-moment chases of great rarities, no matter where they might appear. His regular fodder of bird subjects was often interspersed with other subjects in keeping with Thomas’ template of diversity.

In all, Fry wrote 802 columns. By the time he took over Nature, it had shifted to a bi-weekly format or I’m sure he would have written double that number.

Fry, in turn, was a mentor to me. I met him when I was still in middle school, and he was stationed at Blendon Woods. Because of my strong interest in birds, he took me under his wing, so to speak. I became a fixture at Blendon, soaking up knowledge from one of Ohio’s most accomplished birders.

In late 2009, Fry decided to cap his pen and hand off the column. I was flattered when he recommended me as his successor. I had already been writing a science column for The Dispatch, but when my editor offered me the Nature column, I jumped at the chance. This column is my 336th to date.

I appreciate The Dispatch’s long-standing role in supporting conservation and natural history. If there’s a longer running nature column in an American newspaper, I’m unaware of it. If you know of one that bests our centennial-eclipsing Nature column, please let me know.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Nature: Genetics play role in blue jay's lack of blue

An unusual white-headed blue jay prepares to visit the writer's feeders/Jim McCormac

NATURE: Genetics play role in blue jay's lack of blue

Columbus Dispatch

February 2, 2020

NATURE
Jim McCormac

In my last column, I wrote about an unusual melanistic fox squirrel. Although the average fox squirrel is dashing in tones of rufous and brown, this one is black. Dark forms of the eastern gray squirrel are well-known in Ohio, including Columbus, but melanin-enriched fox squirrels are far scarcer.

The dark fox squirrel turned up in my Worthington backyard on Jan. 9. Three days later, I glanced out the back windows and did a double-take. A blue jay with a white head was wolfing down seeds at the feeder.

I’m writing this column on Jan. 26, and both of these odd critters are still frequenting the yard. Sometimes at the same time, which makes for interesting wildlife-watching.

The squirrel looks as he/she does because of an excess of melanin, or dark pigment. It’s the opposite with the jay. He or she — it’s tough to impossible to determine sex in the field — lacks dark pigments only in the head and neck area.

Animals with localized patches of white often are referred to as piebald. Commonly seen examples include white-tailed deer and American robins. These animals can be splotched throughout with white, have pale heads or other localized concentrations, or occasionally are nearly all white. The latter examples differ from true albinos in lacking pink eyes, and normally aren’t as bright white.

The genetic condition that typically causes piebaldness is leucism, and splotchy animals are said to be partially leucistic (loo-sis-tic). When I first saw the unusual blue jay, that’s what I thought it to be — a partially leucistic specimen.

Leucism is a genetic condition that inhibits normal melanin deposition, causing dark areas to become washed out. But genetics that cause color anomalies are complex and imperfectly understood. One can get bogged down in complicated and perhaps unverifiable explanations for various pigment anomalies. Other factors might be at work with this jay.

Suffice it to say, this blue jay is an extraordinary avian no matter the explanation for its unusual coloration.

Odd color genetics is largely a numbers game. The more common the species, the more likely that leucism will manifest itself. That’s why deer, robins and other common animals are the most commonly seen species expressing color mutations.

There are an estimated 15 million blue jays in the U.S., so it’s not surprising that leucism would rear its head in this species on occasion. A quick internet search will reveal numerous examples, but few of them possess the showiness of “my” jay (in my biased opinion).

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Nature: Seldom-seen caterpillars vital link in food chain

A mammoth hickory horned devil caterpillar/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

September 16, 2018

NATURE

Jim McCormac

Caterpillars represent the vast underworld of the food chain. Out of sight and out of mind, they make the natural world go ’round.

Trick question: What’s the biggest group of herbivores (by biomass) in Ohio? No, not white-tailed deer. Caterpillars. All our state’s deer would make a big heap. Pile up all of the caterpillars, and that stack would dwarf the deer.

So why don’t you see many, if any, caterpillars? After all, these larvae of butterflies and moths are fantastically diverse, with a collective 2,000-plus species in Ohio.

Short answer: They’re very good at hiding. But caterpillars are prolific and everywhere, especially in wooded areas.

I’ve been stalking caterpillars with a camera for years, and have made thousands of images of them. The vast majority were taken at night. Like a hidden army, caterpillars emerge from hiding spots under cover of darkness, the better to avoid predatory birds, insects and other diurnal predators

Caterpillars have evolved a large, diverse bag of tricks to avoid predators, but literally tons are still found and eaten. Experts think the mortality rate hovers at about 99 percent. Thus, most moths and butterflies engage in carpet-bombing reproduction. One female might lay hundreds or thousands of eggs. Such prolificacy is necessary to get a few through the predatory gauntlet and to the adult-reproductive stage.

The fallen caterpillars did not perish in vain. Birds galore, other insects, and even mammals made meals of them. Caterpillars underpin food webs, and without them we would lose many of our higher animals. The plants that are eaten by caterpillars — which is all of our native species — would go haywire.

Some of these crawling tube steaks are especially impressive, and I recently encountered a Holy Grail. While on a southern Ohio excursion, an exceptionally keen-eyed friend, Molly Kenney, spotted a hickory horned devil 12 feet up in a black-walnut sapling

Our group gathered to marvel at the hotdog-sized behemoth. We eventually extracted the horned devil from its tree for photos. Fierce as it looks, horned devils are harmless. The orange-and-black spines do no damage, nor does it bite.

However, the shock-and-awe factor probably sends most songbirds fleeing.

Eventually, hickory horned devils come to the ground of their own volition and roam about searching for soft earth. This is when people most often encounter them. Once a suitable site is found, the devil will burrow in and form a subterranean pupation chamber in which it spends the winter

Come spring or summer, the adult moth, which is known as a royal walnut moth, will push from the ground. The adult moth is bat-sized, orange-brown and as spectacular as its larva. Unlike its gluttonous caterpillar phase, the moth does not feed, lives but a week or so, and exists only to find a mate and reproduce.

Hickory horned devils are an important part of the ecology of hickory, sweetgum, walnut and a handful of other trees. Most other caterpillars are tightly wedded to a small suite of plants that are indigenous to their area; they will eat nothing else.

Caterpillar production is a huge part of why conservation of native plants is vital — they serve to fuel much of the rest of the food chain. Nearly all caterpillar species shun non-native flora. By planting native species in your yard, you can help generate little sausages for birds and other critters.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Head on with the fantastically bizarre hickory horned devil/Jim McCormac

Nature: Latest bird atlas shows species rebounding, declining in Ohio

Double-crested cormorants at Lake Erie/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

September 2, 2018

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Early in my birding years back in the 1970s, a double-crested cormorant was a big deal. Most years saw fewer than a dozen reports, and any birder would brake hard for cormorants. DDT, a pesticide once sprayed with impunity, had caused a precipitous decline in their population.

The fish-eating cormorants are an indisputable winner among our avifauna. Following the 1972 ban on DDT, cormorants adversely impacted by the pesticide began a slow ascent out of the abyss. Today, they are again abundant.

In 2016, a book titled “The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Ohio” was released. It summarized mountains of data generated during a statewide survey conducted from 2006 to 2011.

Two of the most interesting tables are found on pages 48 and 49. They show species with the largest increases, and decreases, from the first atlas, which took place from 1982 to ’87.

It’s no surprise that two of the biggest winners were also DDT recoveries. The bald eagle spiked a whopping 2,300 percent, and the peregrine falcon increased 1,200 percent. As with the cormorant, DDT disrupted their reproductive cycles by causing fatal thinning of eggshells.

Other reasons causing upticks in bird populations are interesting and varied. Wild turkeys have boomed because of the state wildlife agency’s ambitious stocking program, plus habitat recovery. A steadily warming climate might be permitting black vultures and blue grosbeaks — both southerners — to expand northward.

Opportunistic cliff swallows have learned that large bridges are good substitutes for rock faces and now create colonies on many large spans. Sedge wrens have been the beneficiary of prairie restorations and grasslands established through the Conservation Reserve Program.

Harder to explain are northern breeders spreading south, such as the winter wren and yellow-bellied sapsucker. Recovery of formerly denuded forests might explain their increase; they are recolonizing former haunts.

Less encouraging is Table 4.3-2, which lists the species with the most significant declines between breeding-bird atlases. It is a much larger list than the expansion table.

The fascinating “butcherbird” or loggerhead shrike leads the list with an 82 percent population drop. The carnivorous songbird is a victim of habitat loss: the shift from wildlife-friendly agricultural landscapes to highly manicured corn- and bean-scapes devoid of habitat.

Declines of many other species correlate with large-scale changes in agricultural land-use; they include the bobolink, northern bobwhite and upland sandpiper.
Less clear are losses of eastern whippoorwill and ruffed grouse. These forest dwellers might be victims of changing woodland ecology wrought by an increase in invasive plant species and loss of biodiversity.

Declines in other forest birds, especially the cerulean warbler and veery, might be in part caused by their nomadic lifestyles. These birds and many others nest in Ohio forests, but they migrate several thousand miles to winter in tropical forests of Central and South America. They face threats on the wintering grounds, and numerous man-made obstacles along the migratory corridor.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

At a glance

‒ Jim McCormac will give a presentation about Ohio’s role in bird conservation at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, 505 W. Whittier St. The discussion will explore the winners and losers, reasons for changes, and what can be done to help. Admission is free.
For more information, visit http://grange.audubon.org/.

Snowy Owl makes front page!

This is the front page of the Columbus Dispatch, yesterday January 12th, 2012. A striking photo of a Snowy Owl, taken by Nina Harfmann in north-central Ohio, dominates. CLICK HERE for the story. The owl shunted aside all of the politics, war, crime and other typical newsfare of the day. If you saw the paper yesterday, you saw the owl - it just couldn't be missed. As a result, word of birds and birding probably reached a few hundred thousand people in one fell swoop.

Props to Nina for her excellent photo, and kudos to the Dispatch for their consistent coverage of nature and the environment. By the way, Nina's beautiful photo of a spotted salamander will be featured on the 2012 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp (OWLS). CLICK HERE for a look.

As a sad footnote, the owl in Nina's photo was found dead yesterday, the apparent victim of starvation. That fate, unfortunately, probably awaits all too many of these juvenile owls that venture this far south in search of food. On the upside, three new Snowy Owls were reported in Ohio yesterday (the reports need confirmation) and may they thrive.