Thursday, December 26, 2019

A rare sight






And now we have some catching up to do.

And a post that originates with Betty Thompson, our eye to the sky in Kansas, albeit this came from their trip through Missouri. It's about a rare sight, unless you are at where they are at.


"As we were driving thru the north St. Louis area I noticed a sign for Columbia Bottoms, a conservation area," emailed Betty. "I took full advantage of Tim sleeping and took the exit. It sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. The volunteer at the Nature Center was very helpful and pointed out a very special bird, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Although not rare their range is very limited, which I find very interesting.  According to the volunteer their range is N.E. Missouri, and I read from other sources parts of Illinois southeastern Iowa. But why not most of the Midwest?  The weather and food sources are similar. Anyway they are very cute and I wish I had some in my backyard, along with a few trees and bushes!

Generally, a species that is thriving yet in a very limited range is not very good at competing with the more aggressive birds that surround it.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Eurasian Tree Sparrows were brought to St. Louis, Missouri, in the 19th century as part of a shipment of European songbirds imported from Germany. The birds were destined for release as part of a project to enhance the native North American avifauna. Around two dozen Eurasian Tree Sparrows were released in late April 1870, they bred successfully and gradually established a presence in the Midwestern United States. Typically a commensal of humans, it has, in part, been displaced from urban centers by another introduced species, the larger, more pugnacious House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Today, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow is most frequently associated with wooded urban parkland, farms and rural woodlots.”

Thank you Betty! And as always, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.




Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Remembering Rex 30







We could go on but we will sadly end our 30-day remembrance of the late Rex McDaniel with a story posted last April 29. Again on the topic of Rex the "Owl Whisperer." 

Only a few months before he died, Rex had just found and photographed one of the nascent nestling barred owls at the nature center near the Homesite pond built by H.P. Ijams for his daughters in the early 1920s. 

Click: the owl whisperer



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Remembering Rex 29







How do they do it? Weighing barely more than three grams, yet every fall Ruby-throated hummingbirds fly south for the winter. It's a flight that takes them across the Gulf of Mexico in one non-stop, over night dart over the sea. 

In August 2016, I found one laying on a bench in great distress. It had apparently flown into a window. Picking it up, I comforted it, hoping to nurse it back to health and flight readiness. And Rex McDaniel was there to capture it all with his camera. 

Click: dazed and confused



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Remembering Rex 28







One of the things that Rex McDaniel was very good at was finding the fuzzy owlets just out of the nests as he did in May 2018. The owlets would sit motionless high in the trees waiting for their parents to return with food. 

Click: fuzzy baby owlets



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Remembering Rex 27







Over the course of a few years, we went on many Bird-Abouts around the region for Ijams

In January 1018, it was a trip to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge to watch the sandhill cranes and, of course, Rex McDaniel was part of the class. 

Click: sandhill cranes



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Remembering Rex 26







We simply cannot forget the local trees. 

In April of 2017, the TN Naturalists @ Ijams class explored the nature center looking up at the trees and Rex McDaniel was part of the class. 

Click: Tennessee trees. 



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

An evening about raptors


*



Please join us at the Bearden Public Library this Thursday evening at 5:30. 

You'll met Doc, a non-flighted, state-permitted American kestrel, the smallest falcon that lives in the Americas, and learn all about him and other raptors.

Thanks to David Spakes for invited us to this edition of Science Café. 

Monday, December 9, 2019

Remembering Rex 25







If we were looking for owls, Rex McDaniel was usually with us. He just had a knack of finding them, especially at the Homesite around the pond built by H.P Ijams for his daughters.

Barred owls preferred habitat is woods near a pond, stream or wetland.  

Click: looking for owls



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Remembering Rex 24







Oh, do you remember the Sunday that the -ologists went on a Dragon-Quest looking for the aquatic palaeopterous insects around the Plaza Pond at Ijams? 

Rex McDaniel and Jason Dykes came along with their cameras. It was quite an adventure. 

Click: damsels and dragons



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Friday, December 6, 2019

Remembering Rex 23







We had a hooting good time at our Owl-ology 101 class just four years ago with Lynne McCoy and Sugar a snow white owl.   

Rex McDaniel came along that day with camera in hand.

Click: snow white owl. 



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Remembering Rex 22







There is something about a damp, muggy day in May to bring out the raspy-voiced tree frogs at Ijams. 

We could hear but not see them on our group's walk through the woods. So Rex McDaniel went back with his attentive eye and camera to find one and, as he usually did, he found his treasure of the day.

Click: raspy tree frogs 



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Remembering Rex 21







Rex McDaniel became known as the "Owl-Whisperer" around the Visitor Center at Ijams. Here is one he found back in May 2013 at the Homesite Pavilion very near where we held his "Celebration of Life" in November.   

Click: Homesite owl.



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Remembering Rex 20






If you were to sit on your back patio or front porch chances are in fairly short order you would see a Carolina wren. And since they tend to mate for life, you would probably in time see two.

These perky birds with the white eye stripe love to live around our homes. Rex McDaniel sent me a photo back in the spring of 2013. The pair had nested near his home and they were fairly busy raising their young family. 

Click: Carolina wren.



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Monday, December 2, 2019

Remembering Rex 19






It was five years ago today—December 2, 2014—that I posted a story about my ancestral homeland with autumnal photographs that Rex McDaniel had just sent to me. 

Click: Roaring Fork



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Friday, November 29, 2019

Remembering Rex 18






It was three years ago plus a few dark hours—Monday, November 28, 2016—that a once contained wildfire in the Smokies was whipped into something more horrific by 87 mph winds. The resulting firestorm roared down out of the mountains and left a scar across 10,000 acres of the national park, plus in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and beyond. Fourteen people died, 134 were injured and many people were left with broken hearts.

Three years ago today, I published a post about the fire not knowing what had been lost. I even wondered about the four preserved cabins at Junglebrook and along Roaring Fork. I am related to all who once lived there. Their DNA is intertwined within my own. 

Unaware of its fate, I included a photo of a log cabin taken by Rex McDaniel. He often went there with his camera in hand. For him, it was a place of great solace, as it is for me. 

Had anything survived? 

Click: Gatlinburg fire storm



Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Happy Turkey Day






"Our two regular visitors came by this afternoon for a snack. I hope they aren’t on someone’s menu tomorrow!" emailed Lynne Davis late yesterday.


Indeed. They have been a regular part of our Thanksgivings since the very first one, so much so that wild turkeys had all but disappeared. But through focused conservation efforts they have made a slow comeback. Lynne and Bob Davis now routinely see them around their house.

Reports of the menu for the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims celebrated with the Wampanoags and their chief Massasoit are a bit sketchy. Only two written accounts survive, one a letter written by Edward Winslow dated December 12, 1621 and the other, William Bradford’s “History of Plymouth Plantation” written 20 years later. The foods the men mentioned were corn, Indian corn (ground into cornmeal), barley (mainly used to make beer), peas (but only a few because the first crop didn’t do well), fowl (probably ducks, geese, swans and cranes), fish (mostly bass and cod), venison (the Wampanoags brought five deer) and wild turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving. 

And we all have many many things to be thankful for. 

Monday, November 25, 2019

Remembering Rex 17






Ever so often it is necessary to reinvent oneself. The old ways no longer apply. But perhaps the most spectacular re-inventors are the insects that go through complete metamorphosis.

Data fata secutus.

In September 2013, Rex McDaniel found a wonderful example in plain sight: the green park bench on the plaza in front of the Visitor Center at Ijams. Rex even got a video. 

Click: metamorphosis


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Friday, November 22, 2019

Remembering Rex 16







When the 2016 edition of TN Naturalist @ Ijams went to the ponds to find and learn about frogs, newts and other amphibians, Rex McDaniel was there to record the fun of it all. And it was fun!

Click: amphibians!


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Remembering Rex 15






In 2013, Rex McDaniel and I had a wonderful conversation about slugs that included a photograph by his son James. 

Yes, these mollusks, really shell-less snails, can be rather interesting. 

Click: white slug


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Remembering Rex 14






And then there were our yearly May road trips to Chota, the Cherokee peace town. We went to honor the grave of Oconastota, the great Cherokee Warrior Chief who died there with peace in his heart in 1783 and in the afterglow, we listened for cricket frogs and chuck-will's-widows in the twilight. 

Rex McDaniel often went with us to be in that sacrosanct place on the lake, to be in the moment. 

Click: Chota in the twilight 

And make sure you listen to Jason Dykes recording at the end made that night in 2013. 


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Monday, November 18, 2019

Remembering Rex 13






For the past several springs, a pair of red-shouldered hawks have built their nest in the trees behind Tiger's enclosure by the parking lot at Ijams.

In April 2014, the attentive eye of Rex McDaniel was the first to see the young clutch moving around in the lofty nest and he got a video of it. 

Click: red-shouldered hawks.


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Remembering Rex 12






We looked at a hot day in June, what about a rainy day in May? 

In blustery May, Ijams is often slow on Mondays but the attentive eye of Rex McDaniel caught some action in 2012 even in the rain with a caption that could have read...

"Don't you just love Ijams." 

Click: rainy day.


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Friday, November 15, 2019

Remembering Rex 11






On a hot day in June, what better way to escape the heat than go to the creek? And that's just what we did in 2016. The attentive eye of Rex McDaniel decided to come along to watch the fun. And it was truly a cool way to spend the afternoon. 

Click: in the creek.


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Remembering Rex 10






One day in July 2017, the attentive eye of Rex McDaniel found a late Northern cardinal nest. Very active, low to the ground in the shrubs. July is somewhat late in the season for cardinals to be nesting. Most of the resident species—wrens, chickadees, titmice, robins—nest early. By July parent birds are beginning to molt. Feathers grow faster in the warm weather.   

Click: late cardinal nest. 


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Monday, November 11, 2019

Remembering Rex 9







The attentive eye of Rex McDaniel took in the little things. He saw everything from big to small. As small as a fly blowing a bubble in 2013. 

Click: fly bubble?


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Sunday, November 10, 2019

Remembering Rex 8







If our topic was owls, Rex McDaniel was generally there, as he was in the fall of 2015 for the Ijams Owl-ology class that also featured wildlife rehabilitator Lynne McCoy and Sugar, a snow-white barred owl, and Laura Twilley with her owl cupcakes. 

Click: Owl-ology


Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Saturday, November 9, 2019

Remembering Rex 7







At the memorial "Celebration of Life" for Rex McDaniel held outside last Sunday at the original Ijams Homesite near the woods and pond that Rex loved, Sharon told a story of his attentive eye. 

When they were working on the front desk together, Sharon said she could go out to the Universal Pond in front of the Visitor's Center and not find a single frog, but Rex could go out after her and find 13, as he did when he found the first bullfrog in 2012.

Click: first bullfrog

Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Friday, November 8, 2019

Remembering Rex 6






In 2014, Maryville Life magazine showcased the nature photographs of Rex McDaniel. We all were so proud of him!

Click: Maryville Life.

Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Thursday, November 7, 2019

Remembering Rex 5






Few people like cowbirds, probably not even cows. Naturalist and photographer Rex McDaniel took a photo of one and we covered that topic in 2013.

Click: cowbirds.

Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Remembering Rex 4





Club moss? What in the world is club moss?

Well, naturalist and photographer Rex McDaniel and I covered that topic in 2016.

Click: club moss?

Photograph/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 



Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Remembering Rex 3






Trust me. Birds take baths. They have to keep their feathers clean and cool off in the summer.

But they take their baths in private because they are so vulnerable. On any given day, a bird has to find enough food to survive one more day and avoid attention so that they are not eaten themselves.

So finding a secluded pool of water is important. They are taking a risk. Here is an indigo bunting, a gorgeous dark blue summer resident that Rex McDaniel found bathing in 2013.

Click: indigo bath.

Photo/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper. 




Monday, November 4, 2019

Remembering Rex 2






At Ijams Nature Center, Rex McDaniel became known as the "Owl Whisperer." Finding an owl in the canopy of the forest is not an easy task. But he could do it. 

His death affected us all. 

As we remember him, here's a look back.

Click: Owl Whisperer

Photo/graphic by his friend Chuck Cooper


Sunday, November 3, 2019

Remembering Rex






Today, we celebrate the life of Rex McDaniel, friend to Ijams and friend to me.

Rex loved to explore slowly the grounds at the nature center, Cades Cove, Roaring Fork or just anywhere outdoors. Rex had an inquiring mind, a patient and thoughtful observer, an artist always ready to capture the fleeting moment with his camera. Because all moments are fleeting. 

Rex was an owl whisperer, he could find one if it was there, he had the "attentive eye" and always reminded me of the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same fields, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”  

As I was remembering him I began to look back at the times he appeared in this blog over the years or in my emails from him with a subject line that simply said: "A photo for you."

The consummate interrupter naturalist, Rex shared nature through his photographs and stories. So here we begin our time of remembrances of Rex.

Click: strolling about

Above photo/graphic by Chuck Cooper.





Today, we met at the Ijams Homesite to celebrate Rex's life and share memories of him. And we know the quiet space was special to him because there and down the Discovery Trails to the pond and wetland, Rex could always find an owl, if it was there to be found. Because Rex was the owl whisperer.


Miss you, Rex. 



Friday, November 1, 2019

visit to the historic Cliff Dwellers







True cliff dwellers are rare. 

The two closest living relatives to the American kestrel are the prairie and peregrine falcons. Both are true cliff dwellers that prefer to nest on rocky outcroppings and search for prey in the lowlands. The smaller kestrels evolved to live closer to terra firma. They are secondary cavity-nesters that seek out hollow trees, abandoned woodpecker holes or even nestboxes that face open fields and meadows for their own nests.


Recently, Doc and I visited the Cliff Dwellers in the Glades community near Gatlinburg, my hometown. 

Doc is a non-flighted, state permitted American kestrel that has an injured right wing. He is in my care and under my state education permit, we are required to get out into the world to meet people and raise public awareness of the smallest falcon to live in the Americas, besides Doc likes the outings. They fall under the category of "enrichment" for the highly intelligent raptor. They are used to flying through the region, surveying their domain.

The Cliff Dwellers, 1941
The Cliff Dwellers is the oldest art and craft gallery in Gatlinburg. The historic structure was built in 1933 on the Parkway, the main street of Gatlinburg, by artist Louis E. Jones. It served as his home, studio and gallery until his death in 1958. Longtime visitors to the gateway to the national park recognize the building but perhaps not its current location. In 1995, the building was about to be razed by the new property owner, Smoky Mountain artist Jim Gray saved the structure and moved to its current home. This is a noteworthy accomplishment since the small resort town has lost most of its historic buildings. 

Today, the Cliff Dwellers is owned and operated by artists Louise Bales, Sherry Mummert, Pat K. Thomas and Winnie Utterback. (Full disclosure: Louise is my Smoky Mountain cousin.) The gallery showcases contemporary and traditional artwork of over 60 local artists including this naturalist and artist. 

Here's where we come full circle with this narrative. They stock and sell my illustrated Natural History notecards. Every notecard sold buys four mice for Doc the injured kestrel.

1 card 4 mice? What could be simpler? Quid pro quo, i.e. "something for something."


Cliff Dwellers. "A very interesting place." Indeed!


The Cliff Dwellers, 2019















Artist/Owner Louise Bales arranging my cards


 
•