Sowing Seeds for the Future

Have you ever struggled with germinating Milkweed seeds? A lot of folks wonder how to get those seeds started. Generally it is best to plant them in the fall or early winter, as milkweed (Asclepias sp.) seeds native to Ohio need to be stratified, meaning cold treated.

Elijah Martineau with his excellent poster.

 Yesterday I met an extraordinary young man and had the opportunity to discuss Monarchs and Milkweed seeds with him.  His poster showed a step by step process for easily germinating seed which need to be cold treated.

Here is a large photo of Elijah's poster and below is a portion of his text:

The best time to sow seeds (also called seed stratification) is late January or early February. This is so the seeds get the necessary amount of cold temperature time.

Once warm weather sets in, you may need to tear the duct tape off so you can keep the soil moist.

Transplant the small plants when they have four leaves, either into the ground or into small pots.

 Keep the plants watered while they are developing their root system during the first summer.

It is unlikely the milkweed plants will flower the first year and may take 2 - 3 years to flower.  It can still be used as a host plant for Monarchs.  Try growing some nectar plants to provide food for adult butterflies. 

                                                            From Elijah Martineau's poster display. 

  Cutting drainage holes.

Watering the seed from the bottom. 

I hope Elijah's poster gives you some ideas for germinating Milkweed seed, but he was not the only conservation minded citizen I met yesterday.  He was just a small part of an incredible gathering at the Wilderness Center in Wilmot, Ohio, where the children were remarkable and the youth were taking charge!

It was my honor to attend the Ohio Young Birders Club Annual Conference.  These are some of the brightest and best of our future generation.  Lest you think they are only "bird brains," I'll dispel that notion rather quickly.  These youth may have united over birding, but they are budding scientists and conservationist!  OYBC empowers them with remarkable educational opportunities.  They are birding, butterflying, mothing, on land and by and kayak.  They check out plants, insects and all matter of life on earth.  This is the place for youth to meet other like minded youth and to be educationally encouraged. 

 If you, too, think kids should use their brains, I hope you will buy an adult membership or send the a nice $$ check to support the OYBC efforts! I can honestly say meeting these students is always a highlight of the year for me.  If they are our future, we will be OK after all.

ABA's Young Birder of the year, Alec Wyatt presented Taking Action for Birds.

The excellent programs ranged from Growth and Development of Blue Birds by Stephen Bischoff, The Impact of Plastic on Birds by Dakota Callaway, 4-H and Ohio Birds by Corrine Woods, Birding Costa Rica by Tyler Flicker and Ethan Rising, Soaring with Birds by Joey Tomei, Listing Research and Competition by Doug Whitman and Trevor Zook, and Alec Wyatt's, Taking Action for Birds.

Alec travelled to Ohio from San Antonio, Texas to give his presentation and I predict we will be hearing more about this young man in the future!

A young-at-heart Kenn Kaufman and his Bird ID Quiz was assisted by Cassidy Flicker, Helena Souffrant and Nate Koszycki.  May Martineau was an excellent M-C for the event.

 Thanks to all the students and the excellent staff of Black Swamp Bird Observatory for providing the platform to success for this incredible group.  I hope to see you all at the conference next year!

Fall Birding and Discovery

Fall has unwrapped her colors across Ohio, yet this is but one gorgeous moment in time, and times. Sunday found me standing on the edge of Meadowbrook Marsh in Marblehead, Ohio where it was a privilege to witness a scene which has unfolded here for countless ages: fall migration.

This location which previously was inaccessible to “birders” has changed very little over the last several hundred years.  The purchase of the wetlands was kicked off by the CarbonOffset Birding Project at Midwest Birding Symposium 2011; our goal was to see it protected and conserved to aid birds far into the future.

To many people fall migration is the sight of ducks and geese in formation flying across the sky.  It can also be the trickle of south-bound warblers in toned-down dress.  Fall hawk watchers set up in the narrow crossings of Lake Erie at Detroit and New York.  They know the sky above open water is generally avoided by soaring birds such as eagles, falcons and like.

This weekend the Ohio Young Birders converged upon the viewing platform at Meadowbrook to hold a Big Sit!  Their bird sightings were certainly impressive. But most remarkable was the number of raptors seen, nine species in total: Bald eagle, golden eagle, red-tail hawk, American kestrel, merlin, sharp-shinned hawk, cooper’s hawk, northern harrier and peregrine falcon.

  

Golden Eagle photographed in Ohio (2011) by Cheryl Harner

 These birds of prey generally  prefer to go around the lake.  Safe crossing lies above terra firma, as these soaring “flap and glide” experts utilize thermals, those warm air columns that rise off of land.  There are no buoyant air columns created upon the water, and therefore, no raptors. The sheer number of raptors seen at Meadowbrook this weekend seemed to belie that logic. 

We butterfly enthusiasts know the Monarchs use the Erie islands as stepping stones; one must wonder if birds do the same when weather conditions allow.

Our map of the Western basin of Lake Erie shows a straight trajectory from Point Pelee in Canada, to Pelee Island, on to Kelleys Island which leads to a perfect ending above Meadowbrook Marsh.  If warming land masses create columns of rising air, the soaring birds could skip across these thermals as easily as butterflies island-hop mere feet above the water.

Thanks to the Ohio's Young Birders weekend's findings,  we have more support for a theory that birds can hop-scotch the air-columns above the islands. Meadowbrook Marsh may now become a popular hawk watch location along the North Coast.

Ohio Young Birders, Photo provided by BSBO / Kelly McKinne

The Ohio Young Birders Club presents Danbury Township Trustee Dianne Rozak with a check for more than $1700 for the continued efforts to preserve Meadowbrook Marsh! The students raised the money during last year's Big Sit!

A special thank you goes out to Kenn and Kim Kaufman, Mark Shieldcastle and all the other leaders (Katie, Kelly and Rob!) and supporters of the Ohio Young Birders.  It was a great privilege to bird a bit with my friends and some of the greatest kids around.  Not only does BSBO help kids learn more about nature, they are grooming conservationists for the future. 

Congratulations Ethan!

A very fine young man and an excellent birder just graduated from high school. Congratulations Ethan Kistler, all of your friends in Ohio's birding community wish you the very best!


Ethan holding a Purple Finch during today's bird banding/graduation party.