Author Archives: kkovarik

Well, I am finally getting around to putting up the information about the BioBlitz. It’s hard going, as Maeve is hanging over one arm as I type…She looks terribly uncomfortable, but what do I know? And half the pictures I placed disappeared right when I went to post this.

Mike Graziano with a group of interested BioBlitzers.

As I mentioned before, we had over 200 species found during our BioBlitz.

Just a few of the spiders:
Orchard Orbweaver
Nursery Web Spider
Wolf Spider

Wolf spider

Long-bodied Cellar Spider
Sowbug Killer Spider (How great is that name?)
Dark Fishing Spider

Some butterflies:
Cabbage White Butterfly
Mourning Cloak Butterfly

Mourning cloak butterfly

Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Hummingbird Spinx Moth

And lots of birds:
Wood Duck
Mallard Duck
Turkey Vulture
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Great Crested Flycatcher

Great crested flycatcher

Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Black-and-white Warbler
Northern Parula (This little beauty was the bird I couldn’t find with my binoculars…)

Northern parula

Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Eastern Towhee
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Canada Goose
House Sparrow
Tree Swallow
Chimney Swift
Wood Thrush
Hermit Thrush

And a few others:

Dekay’s snake

Redback salamander

There were also chipmunks, a bat, and many others. Can’t wait to see what turns up next year. My thanks to everyone who stopped by and also to everyone of the experts who helped us identify everything. And a special thanks to Mike G. for putting the whole thing in motion. Ah, the energy of youth!

Until next time!

Pete has been hearing a bird in our neighborhood for the last several days. I finally got to see the little guy, sitting in the silver maple across the street. What a beautiful creature! All yellow with dark wings. Of course, the lovely crooner wouldn’t turn around so we could see his face.

Pete thought it was a blue-winged warbler. The pictures I found on the web sure looked like that bird, but when I listened to the song on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site, it didn’t sound the same. I know that many birds have more than one call, so that might be the case here. Pete is pretty sure he’s got this one right.

A blue-winged warbler – but is it our warbler?

Here’s sound recording of the bird; it’s not the best quality (okay, it’s sort of bad), but it’s the only bird singing that you can hear.

Can anyone confirm our identification?

Until next time!

As promised, here is a longer post on the past weekend’s events. First, we had a chilly but productive Earth Day clean-up in Glen Echo. My allergies only allowed me to stay out for about an hour and a half, but I managed to pick up nearly a full lawn bag of trash. I found a door key plate that I thought might be copper, but alas, it wasn’t. Then I found a beautiful, small, cobalt blue bottle. I was so excited until I pulled it out of the ground, discovering that it was only part of one. Oh well. The rest were mostly plastic bags and Styrofoam.

Our progress is pictures – removing honeysuckle and creeping euonymus:

Honeysuckle branch that put down roots – tenacious!

What the hill looked like when we started…

…what it looked like in the middle…

…and what it looked like after a lot of pulling!

As I went back to the area farther down the ravine where everyone was working on pulling out creeping euonymus, I got a wonderful surprise: a De Kay’s snake. These snakes don’t usually get much longer than 12 inches and they eat earthworms, slugs, snails, and most other small insects. I loved its orange tongue.

The work that was done was amazing, with so many bags of invasive plants removed. It makes such a difference. As I walked through the ravine, I saw an increase in the number of spring flowers cropping up. I know it’s because we have removed many of the plants competing with the beautiful native wildflowers. I think by this weekend, those flowers might have popped open.

Then the next day, it was off to plant more understory trees in the Arboretum. My thanks to everyone who came out to – we were missing those OSU engineering students! But we had a lot of people answer the call for help, so everything that needed to get into the ground did. There is so much prep work that goes into planting these trees: addresses confirmed, trees delivered, mulch set out and indicated where, supplies brought out, so many things. Thanks to Mike and Pete who worked hard to make it happen. And Sam for his truck. And everyone else for their help, including my first planting partner, Corinne Advani (aka the Root Slayer), and Pete’s friend, David Brown, who, along with his kids, helped me plant my last tree.

David Brown and family

Kid power!

The highlight of Sunday was seeing a fox kit sleeping on a log. So cute! I was in awe of such a lovely creature. He’s a little hard to see in the photo below, but all I had was my iPhone, which isn’t the best for longer distances…look for the brown blob in the middle of the photo!

EVENTS NEXT WEEKEND

• Saturday, 4.27.13 :: 8am – 8pm, BioBlitz at Glen Echo Ravine at the Bird Mural
• Sunday, 4.28.13 :: 10am, tree planting at LOUA kiosk
• Sunday, 4.28.13 :: 2pm, LOUA tree walk at LOUA kiosk

Until next time!

This will be a quick post, mainly because I am tired beyond belief! Two days of cleaning up the ravine and planting trees has taken its toll. I am not as young as I once was! But I did want to take this moment to send a heart-felt thank you to all of those wonderful people who braved cold temperatures in the ravine on Saturday (Pete said it snowed!) and sunny but brisk temperatures today to get the trees in. We couldn’t have done it without you! And also a thank you to those in the Arboretum who just stopped by to say “Thanks” for us planting trees. It makes the sore muscles and achy back all worth it.

I promise to have a blog with pictures this week (including two that you won’t want to miss!), but until then, remember that Saturday, April 27, 2013 is our big BIOBLITZ in the Glen! Here is a quick link to the code of conduct and time table for the Glen Echo BioBlitz. This will be a wonderful kid-friendly opportunity to see what’s living in our ravine.

Until next time!

Hope you can come out to help plant 80 understory trees – I promise, you won’t have to plant all of them! These are small trees so they go in the ground quickly!

Sunday, April 21, 2013
10am at the LOUA kiosk

We’ll have all the necessary tools!

Hope to see you then!

Okay, there is a lot going on this upcoming weekend! It is Earth Day, after all! I hope you will be able to come to an event…or two!

Saturday, April 20, 2013
There are several cleanup events in Glen Echo to remove invasive plants. If you go to the link below and type in “Glen Echo” in the search engine, you’ll pull up three different events. LOUA’s event is in Glen Echo West from 9am to 1pm; call Pete if you have any questions (261-0092). We’d love you to come help clean up our ravine. The pictures to the left show just how much a few volunteers can accomplish in a few hours. It really makes a difference for the native plants and critters.

Click here to register for a Glen Echo event on Earth Day.

Sunday, April 21, 2013
There are two events on Sunday:

1. At 10am, we are having another tree planting of understory trees in the Arboretum. Meet at the LOUA kiosk and we’ll have all that you need to place a little green to the planet!

1. At 2pm, there is another tree walk. Meet at the kiosk and take a journey among the trees to learn all about their wonders!

And finally, I want to remind you about the special event we are going to have on April 27, 2013: BioBlitz! It will be in the Glen Echo Ravine from 8am to 8pm. It’s a chance to learn all about the various bugs, birds, and other living creatures of the ravine. We’ll have a bunch of experts who will look at what you find and tell you what it is, what it eats, what it does. I’ve attended a few bioblitzes, and they are fun. I found and saw so many things – it was amazing. As I get more details (a schedule of events), I’ll post them here.

Until next time!

LOUA will host another tree walk at 2pm today. This one will be guided by my husband, Pete Kovarik. Interested persons can meet at the LOUA kiosk on Weber across from the Indianola Informal K-8.

We had another successful day of planting trees yesterday, except that I didn’t take one picture! About 20 understory trees went into the Arboretum. We have about 80 more to put in the ground. I can’t wait to see what the Arboretum looks like next spring. Our red bud is starting to put out flowers and Pete says the dogwood has buds on it, too.

So if you would like to help out for Earth Day, we will be planting trees on April 21, 2013 at 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, meeting at the kiosk. All needed materials for putting the trees into the ground will be provided.

Finally, LOUA will have its first BioBlitz2013 April 27, 2013 at 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Glen Echo Ravine Park. A BioBlitz is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. This is a kid-friendly event, where your kids can find all sorts of critters in the ravine and learn about what they are, what they eat, and why they are important. This is the kind of event that you can just drop in and stay for as long as you want. I’ll get a schedule up soon!

Hope to see you then!