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Winging it

4/25/2022

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Yards and woodlands were all atwitter over the past few days. It would appear that the spring bird migration was definitely getting warmed up despite some dips in the temperature. Canada geese settled at the neighbor's pond, but they weren't the only birds making an appearance.
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This past Sunday's warm weather brought the first hummingbird of the season to the yard. It visited the feeder very sporadically and I was able to snap a couple of photos on Monday. I don't believe that the hummer was one of the regulars we feed during the summer. When Wednesday rolled around, there was no hummingbirds in sight.
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Nonetheless, my aunt, who lives in Warren, Pa., posted on Facebook that she had an oriole visit on Wednesday.

Despite having feeders out for a few days, I have yet to see one.

​I have spotted some catbirds and rose-breasted grosbeaks over the few days. However, their visits were so fleeting that I did not get photos.
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I was able to finally capture a photo of an eastern phoebe, despite the fact they have been back for at least a couple of weeks.
Last Saturday, I had some unusual visitors to the bird feeders. They were myrtle or yellow-rumped warblers While they are common visitors to the area, I had never seen them at my feeders.

The Cornell Lab's allaboutbirds.org stated, "Yellow-rumped Warblers winter across much of central and southeastern U.S., and they sometimes come to backyards if food is offered.

To attract them, try putting out sunflower seed, raisins, suet, and peanut butter."

​After reading that post, I surmised it wasn't that rare of an occurrence after all. A few days later the warblers appeared at their usual summer haunts near the neighbor's pond.
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The spring snowstorm on April 18 brought some chipping sparrows to the feeders. They appeared less than thrilled about the cold weather.
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Over the next few days a couple of pairs of purple finches showed up a the feeders. While my sightings were  considered normal, an April 10 post on the Seneca Rocks Audubon  Society's Facebook page touted a rare visitor.
"A yellow-headed blackbird is currently being seen coming to the feeders of a residence near Knox. This is a rare visitor to Pennsylvania and Clarion County. This birds normal range is the mid-western plains of the US and Canada," the post said.
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However the bird sighting that I was atwitter about was a barred owl that I first photographed in mid-April. I had heard owls calling over the past years, but wasn't able to capture any photos.
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I absolutely loved this owl. It was so very cooperative in terms of pictures.
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In fact, I spoke to it and told it that I had some red squirrels and chipmunks that needed "taken care of" in the yard.

Low and behold, my husband said that he had spotted the owl in the yard the next day.

​I have also continued to see the owl and hoped that it would stay in the area.
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"The Barred Owl’s hooting call, 'Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?' is a classic sound of old forests and treed swamps. But this attractive owl, with soulful brown eyes and brown-and-white-striped plumage, can also pass completely unnoticed as it flies noiselessly through the dense canopy or snoozes on a tree limb," stated a post on allaboutbirds.org.

The post went on to say that "the great horned owl is the most serious predatory threat to the barred owl. Although the two species often live in the same areas, a barred owl will move to another part of its territory when a great horned owl is nearby."

However the post on allaboutbirds.org raised the possibility that the owl I photographed might just stick around.
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"Barred owls don’t migrate, and they don’t even move around very much. Of 158 birds that were banded and then found later, none had moved farther than 6 miles away," the post stated.
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Birds were not the only ones fitting around. I saw several mourning cloak butterflies on past sunny warm days.

​I spotted as many as six in one area at a time.
There were skirmishes among the butterflies. They fluttered so hard that I could actually hear their wings.
A post on insectic.com said, "The male mourning cloak is territorial and will patrol the same area to increase its chances of mating and get fast access to the best resources."

"The mourning cloak butterfly male is known to display lekking behavior. ... The males gather in one area and compete against each other to impress the females, which will typically settle for the winner," the post continued.

It also said that "the butterflies don’t usually fight among each other.

Their lekking behavior refers to them establishing given territories and defending them against competitors and intruders."
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The whole show was very interesting to watch.
I was also to get a shot of what I believed to be a gray comma.
​I had seen some flitting around, but wasn't able to get a good photo.
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The bumblebees were also out and about feeding on some trailing arbutus.
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More and more spring flowers were encouraged by the warm weather this past weekend.
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Sherman decided to help the flowers out by watering them.
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Clem then felt compelled to follow suit. That's just the nature of things 'round here.
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Unhoppy Easter photos

4/16/2022

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In the interest of health and safety, only one cat, Wiggles, was captured for an Easter photo. None of the animals were harmed in the making of this post. Well, some of them may have had their pride hurt.
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A rare sunny day prompted one of the annual Applegate animals' Easter photo shoot. The goal was to make Easter cards, but that didn't happen. Friends and relatives would just have to be happy with Facebook posts.
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Originally, the session started with all four dogs out and about. That was determined to lead to failure. Either one was in the shot or no one was in the shot. There may have been one good opportunity, then there was a fuzzy butt photobombing session. Gus also decided he needed to try to eat the plastic Easter eggs used as props when I was distracted. Every few minutes I had to pry one out of his slobbery jowls.
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 So it was quickly determined that the photos would take place one dog at a time. This seemed to work better and treat dispensing could be done more accurately. My parents' house wasn't originally intended to be in the backdrop, but I had to take what I could get.
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I did get at least what considered four good photos for the cards that never happened.
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Of course, there were many photo fails and outtakes. Those garnered the most Facebook comments and likes.
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One commenter asked why they're weren't any goat photos this year. It was because I valued my health and safety. However, they saw me coming with the bunny ears and went into hiding. I was able to capture Kennedy eating a daffodil that I was trying to photograph.
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Meanwhile, things were looking a bit more like spring outside with the daffodils opening.
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Needless to say, some of the daffodils were harmed in the making of this post. That's just the nature of things 'round here.

​The cast and crew of The Nature of Things wishes you all a Happy Easter.
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Overcoated?

4/10/2022

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"I felt like I was on a trip toward spring with Mother Nature at the wheel.
​I was constantly asking, "Are we there yet?"
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 "What jacket should I wear?," became a daily question I asked over the past weeks.

Sunny days, what few we have had, were deceptive. I would choose a lighter jacket only to regret my decision when the wind picked up.

​Temperatures were up and down. A choice of winter jacket in the morning proved to be too much in the afternoon. I felt like I was on a trip toward spring with Mother Nature at the wheel. I was constantly asking, "Are we there yet?"

​I endured what seemed to be a series of wrong turns back toward the direction of winter. I would check the daily forecast.

Some days I would exclaim, "Yes, we are almost there."

​However, a recheck of the forecast would leave me sighing and saying, "Nope, not today."

​Of course, there was no shortage of April showers. Thus a jacket with a hood would have been an appropriate choice. 
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Nonetheless, spring posies kept popping up.

This year didn't seem to bring as many crocuses as past years.

​Facebook memories from a year ago showed that by this time last year the daffodils were in full bloom.
This spring appeared to be a bit behind last spring.
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Last year the trailing arbutus was already out and covered in blossoms. This year the buds were tightly closed waiting for warmer weather.
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Also last year, I had posted photos of blooming violets in early April. This year only the violet's leaves have made an appearance so far.
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I had also spotted a hermit thrush in late March, but failed to get a photo. I also missed a photo opportunity with an eastern phoebe that made an appearance in the yard this past week.
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Last year, I had spotted numerous mourning cloak butterflies out and about. This year I have spotted two so far but not in the numbers like last year.
A Facebook memory from 2012 showed me that I had photographed a spring azure butterfly. I kept looking for butterflies this year, but they favor warmer and sunnier weather than we have had of late.
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However, I was able to get a few photos of a mallard couple that has returned to the neighbor's pond.
While the pond had been free from ice, I was concerned how some wood frog eggs had fared with some freezing temperatures over the past few weeks. It seemed that some had survived and were possibly on their way to being tadpoles.

"A late freeze does not necessarily kill developing embryos. They simply stop growing and wait for warmer temperatures," wrote Scott Shalaway in an article titled "While It May Seem Early, Wood Frogs Rush The Season" in a February 2020 post on www.post-journal.com.

"Wood frogs emerge in late winter when rains trigger the breeding season. This is hardly surprising for a species whose range reaches north of the Arctic Circle. In fact, wood frogs occur farther north than any other North American amphibian," Shalaway added.
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An article titled "The Wood Frog, a Frog for All Seasons" by  by Kelly Vowels  on the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest's site bernheim.org explained how the eggs may have survived freezing temps.
 Wood frog "eggs are adapted for this fluctuating temperatures. The mucoprotein jelly around the eggs have a melting period higher than the fluids found in the eggs.

So when the ponds freeze, the jelly will freeze before the egg and will pull water out from the egg. These dehydrated eggs are more resistant to freeze and are more able to survive the fluctuating temperatures in late winter and early spring," Vowels posted.
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With this new information, I had hope that the eggs would produce tadpoles.
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​As I lamented the freezing temperatures, a Facebook post from April 2016 reminded me that  things could be worse.
Meanwhile as temperatures rose, those with thick furry overcoats took the chance to cool off in the neighbor's pond.
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It did appear that the neighborhood deer were starting to shed their winter coats.
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Kyle also looked a little rough around the edges as he began to shed his coat as well. 

Are warmer temperatures here to stay? Will I need a simple windbreaker or a winter jacket? These questions will be answered on a daily basis as spring is a season of transition.

​Change is the only constant. 
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 That's the nature of things 'round here.
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Trail camera chuckles

4/3/2022

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Weekly checks of the trail cameras in the surrounding woods often makes me giggle.
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The motion-triggered cameras captured deer and other wildlife with their natural and curious expressions.
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What causes the deer to take interest in the cameras could be a variety of things. The cameras are an unusual bump on the tree with a different smell.
Some cameras also may have emitted an audible click when snapping a photo. A click that would not have been a natural sound.
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Some of the night vision on the cameras emit a red light at night that would also create a distraction.
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I just love the deer's inquisitive and innocent expressions. It is a chance to get face-to-face with them that I may not necessarily have when viewing them in person.
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Meanwhile, a series of photos showed that a raccoon shared the spotlight with the deer feeding on a mineral block.
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In addition to the deer and raccoon, a puffed up male turkey strutted his stuff in front of a camera. I speculated it may have been a selfie for a Tinder profile.
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 However, not all wildlife selfies are funny. A friend, Sarah Jones of the Franklin area, captured a very big bruin on her trail camera in late March. There have not been any bears appearing on my camera yet. Nonetheless, her Facebook post was a good reminder that the bears are out and about after their long winter's sleep.
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My trail cameras did show that the wood ducks had returned to the neighbor's pond. A photo-bombing deer also entered into the shot.
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Aside from the game cameras, I was able to get a couple of photos of a brown creeper. Longtime birder and author of "Birds of Venango County," Gary Edwards wrote that the creeper is an uncommon year-round resident for Venango County. He penned that migrants moving north peak in April. That statement may have explained the creeper's recent appearance.
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As I impatiently waited for the colors of spring to appear, the trail cameras were a much needed distraction.
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Of course the deer weren't the only ones who get up close and personal with the camera. It was a daily struggle to keep Kennedy, the goat from messing with the camera. He adjusted the angles with crooked photos as a results.
​That's just the nature of things 'round here.
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    Author

    "The Nature of Things" features the writings and photographs of Anna Applegate, who is a lifelong resident of Pinegrove Township, Venango County. She is a graduate of Cranberry High School and Clarion University. After a 15-year career in the local news industry, she made a change and now works at a steel finishing plant in Sandycreek Township. She is a avid lover of animals and nature, and a gifted photographer.

    ​Very happy to be able to share Anna's great "The Nature of Things" blog.

    Check out Anna's other artwork here!
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