The EcoLab at Ohio State’s Mansfield campus is hosting a Nature Film Night from 6:30–8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20. The event will feature five short films and discussion. Nicole Jackson of CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources will moderate the discussion. Admission is free and open to the public. Find details and check out the flyer.
biodiversity
How you can ID a tree with no leaves
The series called “A Day in the Woods” concludes on Friday, Nov. 8, with “Identifying Trees in Winter.” Set for southeast Ohio’s Zaleski State Forest, the event will give tips on how to identify trees based on their bark, buds, twigs, nuts, and overall shape; will explore the forest’s Moonville Tunnel area; and, by visiting habitats ranging from wetlands to dry ridges, will showcase the diversity of Ohio’s Appalachian woods.
Coming up: A day in the (fall) woods
The series called A Day in the Woods continues with “Woodland and Wildlife Research” on Oct. 11.
The event will feature research underway in southeast Ohio’s Vinton Furnace State Forest near McArthur, including on subjects such as blue jays, rattlesnakes, and sustaining oak-hickory forests.
Just as important, the flier says, you can also just “enjoy the fall woods.”
CFAES’ OSU Extension outreach arm is one of the series sponsors.
Over your head? MASSIVE dragonfly swarms
MaLisa Spring, CFAES alum (MS, entomology, 2017) and coordinator of the Ohio State-based Ohio Dragonfly Survey, was quoted today in a story on the CNN website about how recent swarms of migrating dragonflies are so huge they’re appearing on radar.
What makes hemlock forests special—starting with hemlocks
Discover the Hocking Hills’ hemlock forests—and the things that make noise in the night in those forests—on the next A Day in the Woods (and part of a night). It’s this Friday, Aug. 9. (Photo: Hocking Hills State Park, Getty Images.)
One humdinger of a bird walk
On Saturday, Aug. 10, CFAES’ Secrest Arboretum in Wooster is holding a free public bird walk. You can see and learn to identify birds, such as the ruby-throated hummingbird shown here. And you can also see what the birds have to say about the arboretum’s plants and ecosystems. “One of the most useful things that birds can indicate,” an EnvironmentalScience.org webpage called “Birds as Environmental Indicators” says, “is overall habitat quality.” (Photo: Getty Images.)
Quoth the pewee: ‘There’s a lot of things about me you don’t understand’
A CFAES workshop on Aug. 16 will check out the Wildlife in Your Woods. Sign up by Aug. 9. (Photo: Eastern wood-pewee, Getty Images.)
All about that bass (and its friends)
What fish live in Lake Erie? Find out at “Walleye, Perch, and Bass, Oh My!” (which are three good clues right there), the next Ohio Sea Grant science talk at Lakeside Chautauqua on the Marblehead peninsula. You’ll meet some finny friends and then will hear about what concerns them. It’s from 2–3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16.
Admission to the talk is free but requires paid admission to Lakeside and a parking pass.
Find out more. (Photo: Smallmouth bass, Eric Engbretson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)
Where it winters, why that matters
The prothonotary warbler, which in summer breeds in eastern and central North America, including Ohio, spends winter in just one country in South America. So says a new study led by Christopher Tonra, assistant professor in CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources. The finding, Tonra said, “speaks to how important habitat protection in this one country is to the (birds’) overall population.” Read the story. (Photo: Male prothonotary warbler, Getty Images.)
Our 2 main kinds of big, buzzy bugs
Get up to speed on Ohio’s cicadas, courtesy of scientists from CFAES.