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Camp Otyokwah
Nature Study Camp
June 1 -6, 2008

It's All For the Birds

click on any photo to enlarge

Sunday, June 1

Sunny 72º

We began our week by settling in and enjoying supper before our evening program. Photographs from Nature with naturalist, Olivia Fitzsimmons, presenting a slide show featuring photographs taken by her husband, also a naturalist from the area. As a former employee of Malabar Farm State Park, Olivia showed photographs featuring Malabar and of Mohican State Park. This area of Ohio abounds with natural phenomena including great birding and hiking trails.

Monday, June 2

Sunny and 72º - a delightful day.

Monday saw us eagerly anticipating the day's activities with a bird walk at 7:30 a.m. led by Olivia.

      After breakfast we traveled to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary near Mansfield.    
This proved to be very interesting with a talk on the birds by Jan Ferrell. 

These birds are undergoing rehabilitation from various injuries.   Many have recovered,  but without the ability to survive on their own.   The birds provide a wonderful educational opportunity for school groups and adults.   Much has been invested into large flight areas where the birds allow you to "hand feed" them.   Jan gave us mealy worms for this demonstration.

Birds in this area included the  blue jay,    cowbird,     doves, pheasants, brown thrasher and others.

There are also flight cages for raptors which included hawks, owls, falcons and eagles. Jan Ferrell, an employee of the sanctuary, did a wonderful job of presenting the information and explaining the functions of the sanctuary.

Patty Volland wrote a story for her newspaper on this site.  Click here for the link:

After a hike on the, we enjoyed a picnic lunch under the trees at the sanctuary.

Our next stop was Gorman Nature Center for “Poking in the Pond”, led by naturalist, Steve McKee .
 

We retrieved many water species including dragonfly nymphs, clams and many types of     
tadpoles, among other species.
    

Followed by a demonstration of bird banding by Steve with a captured song sparrow and a tour of the nature center.

Many interesting exhibits in the visitors' center were enjoyed by all.

The evening program was our annual plant auction. All campers provide interesting plants from their gardens for the auction. Proceeds from the auction helps defray camp expenses.

Later that evening Joan Coho treated all to a decorated cake in honor of Bill's 65^th birthday.
NASA will be less on Rocket Scientist come the end of the year as Bill plans to retire.
Snacks and jigsaw puzzles were started at the end of a perfect day.

Tuesday June 3

Heavy Rain, 73º

We awoke with eager anticipation of another great day, scheduled to begin with our ritual bird walk and identification. Unfortunately we were in the midst of a thunderstorm which changed our plans, one of many changes to be made this day. Olivia Fitzsimmons arrived with rain gear but we all decided it was too risky, with thunder and lightning, to be out and about. Olivia then shared some books that she had on various birding and nature topics.

After our breakfast the morning  program, which was to be a hike at Malabar Farm, was changed to a program Ohio Blue Birds  superbly presented by Malabar Volunteers, Don and Diana Plant. 

They used videos and photos in a power point presentation and did a fantastic job of entertaining and educating all of us to the plight of the North American Bluebirds. The efforts of this organization are helping bring back their declining numbers.  These birds are losing habitat and nesting sites in great part due to encroachment by non native birds, the European Starling and the House Sparrow, which compete for the declining number of available nesting sites. 

They also showed several types of nesting boxes that can be constructed to help these birds thrive and ways to keep predators from destroying the nests and the young fledglings.

    After lunch we had a window of rain free weather.   We then decided that we would go to

Malabar Farm State Park with Olivia and hike to “Rock City Cave”.

Some of the less adventurous stayed at the state park visitors center and enjoyed the museum and gift shop.

It was an exhilarating hike up to the cave.  A passage through the cave led to an opening at the top, which we all traversed with some difficulty and delight. 

 All made it to the top and enjoyed the “thrill of victory.”   Plants were identified along the path and many birds were singing, some of which were identifiable by the “campers”.   One bird offering good visibility was the female Indigo Bunting which sat close by as we all got a good look at her.

When we left the main park entrance we traveled to a viewing area high on a hill called "Mt. Jeez" overlooking the park. It was still "misty" and gave a surreal view of the landscape and buildings of the park below us.   A stop at the “spring” was also of interest on the way back to camp.                                            

A wet day, but as always enjoyable, was followed in the evening by a tour and program of the  Warren Rupp Observatory.  

Because of the inclement weather we could not use the telescopes;  instead we were presented with a program while seated inside a "blow up" simulator in the commons area of the facility.   The views of the night sky were projected inside a dome of fabric.   This mimicked the night sky and progressed  from dusk to dawn.  We viewed the many constellations and stars visible to the naked eye on a clear night.  The demonstration of "light pollution" as it affects our ability to see the universe was impressive. 

Everyone enjoyed the day and the programs.  Back at camp we then settled into the puzzles and games until well past bed time.

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