Timber Rattlesnake at Shawnee

Today I went out into Shawnee State Forest in southernmost Ohio, with a group lead by Doug Wynn. Doug is a high school teacher from Columbus, who is also a longtime rattlesnake researcher and recognized expert. He uses radio telemetry to track timber rattlesnakes. Shawnee is the last Ohio stronghold of this poisonous snake.

I'll tell the entire story about our snake hunt in a post in the near future. For now, I'll share with you a short video of one of the snakes Doug recently caught and marked with an embedded microchip. This female is set to be re-released into the wild soon.

Even though I was a good six feet away from the snake, it still gave me chills to see it rattling in a coiled pose.

Clean Office

It only happens once a year, but here is photographic evidence of my office @ Bird Watcher's Digest looking clean as a whistle.

I cleaned it (with a backhoe and a pressure washer) for our recent open house celebrating BWD's 30th anniversary. I'd show you a Before photo, but there are some things that are simply too disturbing for the Internet.

The Onset of Autumn

The other morning I smelled autumn in the air.

The ambient odor changed from new-mown hay to the sweetish smell of dry leaves slowly decaying. Autumn's arrival can be a somber time, especially if you dwell on everything that is leaving (birds), ending (long summer days), or dying (insects, garden plants).

So I prefer to focus on what interesting sights, sounds, and experiences come our way during these autumnal changes. The hummingbird feeders are hosting their peak activity. The adult males will leave soon, but right now we've got a huge posse of nectar drinkers buzzing all around the super-sized feeders.



The red-eyed vireos are everywhere, singing, chasing, foraging. This is our most pugnacious fall migrant. Red-eyes spook more birds into view when they get the urge to chase another bird: tanagers, orioles, and especially warblers garner the vireos' ire. The ornithologists tell us it's a rush of hormones that makes the red-eyed vireo so rambunctious in the fall—a precursor to the rigorous migration ahead.
The milkweed I mowed over in the meadow in June is now perfect for the monarch caterpillars. They vastly prefer younger, more tender leaves of milkweed to the tough old milkweed trees that have been growing all summer. Julie and Phoebe discovered this a few summers ago, so now we try to manage our milkweed patches to please the monarchs. And who does not want to please the monarch?


Autumn is copperhead time on our farm. We watch where we place our hands and bare feet. We step carefully through the garage door, lest we surprise a snoozing viper. Julie has captured and relocated two large adults already in late August. All hail the inventor of the snake tongs!

Now that we're on the downhill side of Labor Day, there's no denying that the wheel of seasons is turning. Hope you can find small wonders in your part of the world this fall. Happy autumn everybody!