Mentor Marsh, Mentor, OH Videos

Woohoo! Day flying moths like this Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, Hemaris thysbe, delight us with their bright colors and hummingbird-like flight and shape. Have you been lucky enough to spot one? This moth was nectaring on our Monarda in our native landscaping at the Mentor Marsh Nature Center on Sunday afternoon. What floral visitors are you observing on blooms? See comments to see our native beds in bloom, too! The larval host plant of these sphinx moths are Virburnums. See comments for a link to the Caterpillar Lab for more information on the caterpillars. For more natural history information on Hummingbird Moths: https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/clearwing-moth/ Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 7/7/24 Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Good morning, summer! Are you hearing the annual cicadas singing? Hearing these songsters marks a shift in to these long, slow and warm days of summer! To learn more natural history information and to hear the songs of different species of these annual cicadas: http://songsofinsects.com/cicadas Northeast Ohio, 7/7/24 Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Enjoy a snippet of morning insect songs and Swamp Milkweed in bloom in the Mentor Marsh Nature Center’s front prairie the other morning! Enjoy additional pictures of wildflowers in bloom in the comments. Swamp Milkweed is a cheery, pink flowering native plant that grows in wet habitats, like our great wetland, sunny edges of swamps, bogs, and fens, and along the perimeter of ponds and streams. It can also be found growing in drier habitats, in fields and prairies and can even thrive in backyard wildflower gardens. It’s not as aggressive in native landscaping beds as Common Milkweed, so is perfect for adding to your property’s biodiversity!! With its pink, sweet-smelling flowers in bloom from June-August or maybe even into September, Swamp Milkweed attracts butterflies, bees, wasps, moths, flies, beetles to its nectar. Of course, milkweeds are hosts to Monarch caterpillars as well! A wide range of insects have adapted to consume milkweed-from leaf miners to other caterpillars to bugs and beetles. Hoping all can ‘embrace the milkweed menagerie’ for all of the insects! For more information on this milkweed menagerie: https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1128 Do you have milkweeds growing on your property? What kind of wildlife are you seeing on the plants? Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 6/28/24 Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Happy World Environment Day! A sure sign of summer is watching fireflies light up our landscapes. As one in three species of fireflies in North America may be at risk of extinction, it is important that we work to help them and today on World Environment Day is a great reminder of this need for action. “Hear the word firefly or lightningbug, and what comes to mind? Warm summer nights? Flickering lights in the encroaching dark? Maybe soft grass underfoot, with children running about? Few species ignite such warm feelings of nostalgia as fireflies. These beacons of light are some of our most beloved insects, and no wonder. Their bioluminescence fills us with awe. Their very presence feels magical. Their light has inspired artwork, literature, dance, and music. Beyond their immense cultural value, they have played critical roles in scientific research and medicine, and they are integral components of healthy, thriving ecosystems” (Xerces). How can we help these invertebrate treasures? “Despite concerns about potential population declines, fireflies have received relatively little conservation attention. Help us initiate this important conversation by advocating for fireflies in your community; participating in community science projects that track their distributions; and taking steps at home to turn out your lights at night and identify, protect, and restore high-quality firefly habitat” (Xerces). Learn more about how you can help fireflies: https://www.xerces.org/endangered-species/fireflies/how-you-can-help For more natural history information: https://www.xerces.org/endangered-species/fireflies/about Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Hurrah! In addition to bird songs, other warm weather choruses include singing insects like Spring Field Crickets and a new cricket, these Spring Trigs heard singing at the edge of the Marsh on Friday afternoon. They’re also singing at the woods edge and prairie at the Mentor Marsh Nature Center as well as out in the Sonia Teraguchi meadow on the Kerven Trail, too. These tiny trilling crickets are a new arrival to northern Ohio, expanding their range up from central Ohio. This is the first time I’ve heard them here! For more local natural history information on this tiny cricket with the pleasing trill: https://www.listeningtoinsects.com/spring-trig Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 5/32/24 Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Good Monday morning! Wishing you lots of energy, industriousness, and seemingly effortless work ethic just like our Marsh beavers to start your week! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 4/14/24

Happy Eclipse Day! This is a video from yesterday, mid morning at the rim of the Marsh, but keep nature’s sounds-Spring Peepers peeps and birdsongs in mind as you watch the eclipse this afternoon! We’re too early in the spring for singing insects, but we should hear and observe noticeable changes in wildlife behavior today! Will you be near any native wildflowers? Will they close as we approach totality? Let us know what you see and hear! We’re so excited!! Woohoo! Here we go! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 4/7/24 Video credit: Becky Donaldson

Good Friday morning! Our east end Marsh beavers were making some additions to the lodge early this morning. What plans do you have for today? Any remodeling? Or any outdoors time? If you would like to see beavers at Mentor Marsh and get impatient with the every once in a while share from this beaver cam, you can always hike the Wake Robin boardwalk to marvel at the west end beavers. You can’t miss their new lodge along the boardwalk and can witness the trees that they’ve harvested in the area. I was on the boardwalk at sunset a couple times this week and they were actively swimming in the pond at that time of day, though we see them in the daytime, too. Access and parking for the Wake Robin boardwalk is at 8934 Woodridge Lane. Our state nature preserve trails are for foot traffic only and please leave your pets at home. Please also remain on the boardwalk and designated trails, too. Help keep our wetlands and woods wild! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 3/29/24

Woohoo! Here’s another wildlife species to add to the list of diversity of wildlife found at the Marsh! It’s a quick view on our wildlife camera at the Beaver cam, but that black tipped tail is unmistakable! It’s a Long-tailed weasel! “Long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata) may be small, but they are very aggressive. They will even threaten animals much larger than themselves…This weasel is very adaptable and can be found in all land habitats near water. Like most weasels, it is chiefly nocturnal, but can also be active by day. They can climb trees and swim, but most of their time is spent on the ground. They typically eat rodents, rabbits and birds, but in the summer they may also eat fruits and berries” (Division of Wildlife link below). For more information of Long-tailed weasels: https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/animals/mammals/long-tailed-weasel#:~:text=Description,of%20its%20total%20body%20length. Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 3/3/24

Good morning! Happy Friday! Here’s a snippet of video from our wildlife cam at the Shipman Pond beaver lodge from yesterday afternoon in the light rain and the beginning of this foggy weather. How’s the shroud of fogginess where you are? Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 2/22/24

An American Mink was captured on our wildlife cam at the Shipman Pond beaver lodge early this morning! Woo-hoo! We just spotted mink scat last weekend at the Second Saturday Science open house in the Marsh and often see scat on the Wake Robin boardwalk, too. Some folks are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them crossing the road around the Marsh. Mink live around watery habitats and we sure have them at the Marsh! Have you spotted one around here? For more natural history information on mink: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Neovison_vison/ Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 2/17/24

Camera shy! 🤪 Most critters that are captured on this wildlife camera don’t seem fazed by the camera (noise?), but this White-tailed Deer was a little more cautious early this morning. Happy Friday! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 2/16/24

Good morning from our frosty, but sunny wetlands! This marsh is marvelous! 2/4/24

Happy #WildlifeWednesday! Today, we’re checking in on Mentor Marsh’s busy, busy, Shipman Pond beavers who have been adding more materials to their lodge now that the ice is off the pond. It’s a great way to use the discarded sticks after they’ve eaten off the inner cambium, the living parts of trees they consume. What a great reuse! And a reminder that we’ve got more winter weather ahead! See video in comments from later overnight last night to see how much was accomplished last nights. Go beavers! This Marsh is marvelous! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve last night, 1/30/24 (Video in comments from the wee hours of the morning, 1/31/24)

Good foggy morning! We’re checking in on the weather and amount of snow remaining at the Marsh’s Shipman Pond beaver lodge via our wildlife camera. Looks like it’s hazy with a chance of pea soup, with no creatures stirring, and the snow melting with these warmer temperatures. Why is fog compared to pea soup? Pea soup fog is a heavy fog, one that’s hard to see through. This phrase was first used in 1711. London’s hazy, polluted fog of the 1800s was also called pea soup fog and many deaths were attributed to that industrial, toxic fog. Lucky for us and thanks for air quality standards, this morning’s fog is not toxic like the London Fog. It’s just regular old, common here in winter-advection fog. “Advection is the horizontal movement of an atmospheric property (temperature, moisture, etc.) from one place to another by the wind. Advection fog is produced when warm, moist air moves over a cold surface, such as snow-covered ground or a body of cooler water. The originally warm air was able to hold more water vapor than the now cooling air, causing some of the vapor to condense into water droplets. This type of fog typically occurs in the winter and early spring. It often covers a large area and can be very persistent (from the Midwest Regional Climate Center link below).” For more on fog and winter fog in the Midwest: https://mrcc.geddes.rcac.purdue.edu/living_wx/fog Be careful out there! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 1/24/24

Checking in from the beaver cam at the Marsh. Looks like a bit of snow and a chance of a deer sighting! Be safe out there with our wintry weather conditions! Let us know what you’re observing if you get outdoors to explore today. Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 1/19/24

All’s quiet at the Marsh, save for this squirrel checking out the Shipman Pond beaver lodge. The beavers are snug in their lodges and with little open water around the Marsh, the ducks have flocked to the nearby lakefront. Both eagles were spotted yesterday, too, eating in the nests. What are you observing in these wintry days? Hope you and yours are safe. Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 1/15/24

Our Marsh beaver was checking for wind storm damage like just like the rest of us! All has been quiet at the Shipman Pond beaver lodge lately but there’s been an uptick in activity in the past 24 hours with raccoons, deer and squirrels using the area in addition to the beavers. Go beavers! This marsh is marvelous! Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, 1/10/24