#Ottawa national wildlife refuge

[tylerkphotography]

First few photos for my tumblr page woo! These photos of this gorgeous bald eagle were taken at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Oak Harbor, Ohio. I spotted this eagle perched on a branch about 80 yards away. I watched it take off and fly south, curve west towards me, and then swoop down towards the top of an old dead tree. Without stopping, it grabbed a branch and snapped it off the top of the dead tree, with a loud CRACK. It then continued flying north past me about 30 yards away while carrying the branch to its nest. It was an incredible experience and left me with phenomenal photos. It was also my first time seeing a bald eagle in the wild!

[middleland]

Northern map Turtle Ottawa NWR 15 May 2024-3904 by Douglas Burkett

[petnews2day]

Guide to saving birds while keeping cats happy - Westlake

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/LCsm4

Guide to saving birds while keeping cats happy - Westlake

Some say there’s nothing to do in Ohio. I couldn’t disagree more. Did you know we live in a world-renowned birding paradise, home to 450 bird species? Just take OH-2 West to Magee Marsh, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Maumee Bay State Park – really any park, shore or island – and you’ll find yourself in […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/LCsm4 #CatsNews

[scarletwitchie2]

Friends of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge FB

The BEST of Me Photography - Gramma's Funnies

Love Animals FB - What a wonderful world this could be

[day-poems]

5/4

Next week I go to see the warblers.

It is the Biggest Week in American

Birding festival on the Erie Shore

in Ohio, where migrant warblers

settle out for an hour or a day

to stock up on mostly bugs,

before making the flight out over

Lake Erie. There will 25 species

of warblers there in the trees and

brush of Magee Marsh, and Ottawa

National Wildlife Refuge and all

along the shore, and thousands,

literally thousands, of birders

come from all over the US and

from across the world to feast

on warblers…and catbirds, and

orioles, and maybe a woodcock

or two, and owls if we are lucky,

and certainly House Wrens, and

some vireos, and woodpeckers…

the whole host of singing birdkind…

and water birds if you get down

by the lake…waders and swans…

ducks and geese. Last year there

were Yellow-headed Blackbirds…

I know, no big deal for westerners,

but a treat in the east. You never

know. With thousands of pairs

of birding eyes, all kinds of odd

discoveries are possible, and

even likely. Should be fun. I will

get to see a bunch of birders

and photographers I have not

seen since last year this time,

as the birding community

gathers, settles out to feast

on warblers and whatever else

we find along the Erie Shore.

[americasgreatoutdoors]

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio manages 6,500 acres of wetland, grassland and wooded habitat. This peaceful refuge is home to a diversity of waterfowl and other migratory birds, resident wildlife, and endangered and threatened species. It provides a place for people to enjoy wildlife-dependent activities and learn about the complexities of the natural world through education and interpretive programming. The refuge adds to the richness of the community by holding in trust a portion of the natural heritage of the Great Lakes ecosystem for the continuing benefit of the American people. Photo by L. Sauer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

[camerist1]

Great Blue Heron Flying into the Sun

Great Blue Heron Flying into the Sun

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in North Central Ohio

[undefeatxble]

[wausaupilot]

Plan to expand hunting, fishing in wildlife refuges revealed

One of the new refuges where hunting and fishing would be allowed is Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.

OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed opening up more federally protected land for hunting and fishing in what it called a major expansion of those activities in the nation’s wildlife refuges.The plan affects 1.4 million acres (5,666 square kilometers) on federal public lands, including 74 national wildlife refuges, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said at…

[typhlonectes]

Trumpeter Swans with heads stained by soil during the nesting season at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Ohio, USA.

photograph: Karl Fleming/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

[sixtyfivehundredmiles]

Great Lakes Moment: River otters return to western Lake Erie

Most people know river otters from zoos or YouTube videos as endearing playful creatures that can put a smile on anyone’s face.

The river otter, once common throughout much of North America, was first reduced by trapping and then displaced from many areas by loss of habitat from urbanization and pollution. But sightings along western Lake Erie at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio and Point Pelee National Park in Leamington, Ontario, and evidence of a return of river otter to Toronto Harbour, raise the prospects that they just might return one day to the Detroit River too.

The river otter makes its home near the water. They live in a den by the edge of a lake, stream, or marsh. One fun fact is that River Otters don’t dig their own dens, they either use a natural hollow or burrow made by another animal. Otter dens feature numerous tunnels with easy access to water, especially for night hunting for fish, amphibians, crayfish and other aquatic delicacies. They can even close their nostrils to keep water out during long dives and stay underwater for up to 8 minutes.

Trail cam photo of a river otter from the Toronto and region watershed. (Photo credit: Toronto Region Conservation Authority).

Historically, river otters were present throughout most of North America, including southeast Michigan and southwest Ontario. One Monroe County, Michigan, creek is even named Otter Creek, a testament to how common they were during the late 1700s. However, that all changed during the Fur Trade Era when river otters were harvested in large numbers for their valuable water-resistant pelts. While hunting and trapping reduced otter numbers in Michigan, Ontario and Ohio, urbanization and water pollution proved to be the final blows. By the early 1900s these semi-aquatic mammals were gone.

In 1986, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources began a 7-year project to reintroduce river otters to areas with clean water and abundant food supply. More than 100 River Otters were captured in Arkansas and Louisiana, where they were still common, and transported to eastern Ohio. They were then released in the Grand River (a tributary of the central basin of Lake Erie) and Killbuck Creek, Little Muskingum River and Stillwater Creek, which flow into rivers that are part of the Mississippi River watershed.

By all accounts the river otter has not only survived but thrived in these watersheds. Monitoring has shown slow but steady growth of the population, and in 2002 it was even removed from Ohio’s list of state endangered species. But as the river otter population grew, individual otters began to adventure out to new watersheds – what scientists call expanding their range.

Some of the adventurous otters have now found a home in western Ohio. River otter sightings have occurred annually for more than 10 years from Cedar Point south to Darby, Ohio, near Columbus. Along the southern shore of western Lake Erie, not only have they been seen in Cedar Point, but Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge located just 15 miles east of Toledo, Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and the Toussaint River. Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge manages 6,500 acres of wetlands, grasslands and woodlands for protection of a wide diversity of waterfowl and other migratory birds, resident wildlife, and threatened and endangered species. Refuge biologists and volunteers have confirmed that they are now reproducing in refuge. What a thrill for conservationists and nature lovers to see them frolicking in the waters of western Lake Erie after an 80-year absence.

In March 2019, a naturalist discovered a set of tracks in the snow at Point Pelee National Park in Leamington, Ontario, on the northern shore of western Lake Erie. The tracks were discovered near the DeLaurier Canal and immediately they knew that they were not the mink tracks often seen in the park. There was a set of mink tracks nearby for comparison, which were much smaller, narrower and of course did not have the “slide” marks characteristic of otters.

Suspected river otter tracks at DeLaurier Canal, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Point Pelee National Park.) 

 Then in June 2019, two Parks Canada team members were in a boat entering the channel to West Cranberry Pond in the park marsh when an otter swam very close to their boat before diving underneath. Within a couple of weeks of that sighting, another team member working at the marsh boardwalk saw an otter swimming in the open water just to the left of the marsh tower. You can imagine how exciting it would be for a naturalist to see the return of river otters to this revered national park for the first time since it was established in 1918.

Situated on the northern shore of Lake Ontario is Toronto – Canada’s largest city and a key hub of the nation’s commercial, financial, industrial and cultural life. It has long been recognized as a pollution hotspot. In 1985 the International Joint Commission identified Toronto and region as a Great Lakes pollution hotspot and area of concern. Since then, substantial cleanup of pollution and habitat restoration have occurred, resulting in a surprising ecological revival.

More than $80 million alone have been invested in habitat restoration in Toronto and region since 1987. One exciting wetland restoration project has been Corner Marsh at Duffins Creek. For decades it had been in a degraded state, and over 10 years ago it was restored to the point where wetland vegetation, nesting birds and amphibians were flourishing again. Corner Marsh now has the highest population density of muskrats on the north shore of Lake Ontario, which attracted river otters to the area. River otters then spread from Duffins Creek and now occupy the entire Toronto waterfront. It has been over a hundred years since river otters freely inhabited the Toronto waterfront.

Knowing that river otters have returned to the once heavily polluted Toronto Harbour, that they have been successfully reintroduced into eastern Ohio, and that they have now been seen along western Lake Erie in Point Pelee National Park, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and other locations, is it possible that they just might return one day to the Detroit River?

I say yes.

Skeptics might say no. But we must all remember that as recently as 1985 there were no bald eagles, peregrine falcons, or osprey reproducing in the Detroit River watershed because of eggshell thinning caused by pesticides like DDT, no lake sturgeon or lake whitefish were reproducing in the Detroit River, and beavers had long disappeared.

Today they are all back. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had one more ecological surprise?

Check out the Detroit Zoo’s live otter cam HERE.

(source: Great Lakes Now)

By John Hartig, Published May 4, 2020

Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.

[middleland]

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge - Egret & Trumpeter Swans (2) (3) by Jaci Starkey

[birdsandbirds]

Tree Swallow

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge

Oak Harbor, OH

[scarletwitchie2]

Friends of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge FB

Sean Purcell Art FB

The Country Cook FB 😂😂😂FINALLY!

Twisted Tails FB

Chuckaholics (Chuck Jones Group) FB

Anouk the Ninja Cat FB #Cats Too Many Mouseburgers 🙀

Our Kindred Cats FB

My Twisted Inner Child FB

My Twisted Inner Child FB

My Twisted Inner Child FB

[ofviolentdeath]

Just some pics from our trip to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge yesterday

[americasgreatoutdoors]

The @usfws Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Ohio, is home to a healthy population of bald eagles.

This national symbol is one of the greatest conservation success stories in America, thanks in part to those dedicated to preserving wildlife, as well as the Endangered Species Act!

Forty years ago, the bald eagle was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the contamination of its food source, largely as a consequence of DDT (a pesticide), decimated the eagle population.  

Habitat protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act, the federal government’s banning of DDT, and conservation actions taken by the American public have helped these majestic birds make a remarkable recovery. We are still taking steps to help preserve and protect endangered wildlife to usher in our nation’s future conservation success stories.  

Photo by Joan Pearse (sharetheexperience.org). Photo description: A bald eagle stares off to the distance while perched on a tree branch.