Watering Rocks

A good number of us spent Wednesday in Columbus at the Ohio Environmental Council's Lobby Day. We met with our Senators and State Representatives to encourage them to stand against "Fracking" - especially in our State Parks, Wildlife Areas and Natural Areas and Preserves.

No one reads this blog to hear about politics, but if we regular folks don't stand up and say "whoa" we soon may not have neat places like Shawnee Forest and Magee Marsh to go get our orchid and warbler "fix."

Watering Rocks...

One fellow environmentalist said his wife chastises him, saying that our efforts are as futile as "watering rocks."

That may be, but I believe that little by little the reasonable man speaking the truth, can make a difference.

After all... look how water eventually wore away the rock in several of our western states: behold the Grand Canyon.

So, please call your state Rep. and Senator, and tell them you value our State Parks for the natural resources we can see, smell and hear.

Ohio's parks make up only 1% of Ohio's landmass. Let's do our drilling, cutting and mining elsewhere, and preserve these areas, as intended, for our children.

Corvid Canyon

Many folks go west to see the expansive scenery, and of all the glorious sights- nothing could be more famous than the Grand Canyon. However, in honor of this ambassador to birding, I would like to rename this section: Corvid Canyon.



Common Ravens rule much of the west, and along this wall, he is the cock-of-the-walk. While often written off by the uninformed as just crows-on-steroids, these jumbo sized Corvids are highly intelligent and long noted for their problem-solving abilities. Ravens are common throughout the south-west and greatly revered in Native American legends. As omnivores, their varied diet allow them to prosper on the bleakest habitats as well as lush woodland edges. This handsome one was not above snacking on tourist left-overs when presented with opportunity.



Just over the raven's shoulder was one of the most scenic overlooks in Arizona. We returned to this same spot several times, as it offered spectacular views and a good variety of Corvids. We found not only ravens, but several species of jays that I had hoped to locate as well.

The Western Scrub Jays were obvious, acting much in the manner we would expect from our own eastern Blue Jays.

However, the Pinion Jays were fast and flighty, determined not to be photographed. PJ's are a bit smaller and more evenly blue than the other jays present. They flocked together, hard at work gathering pinion cone seeds.

The gaudiest of the jays, the dark headed Stellar's Jay was also present at this stop. He loudly squawked at me from within the pine trees but refused any photo opportunities, as well.

So I returned to the overlook wall to spend quality time with my favorite Raven, and we both admired the view.