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Pine Siskin

12/29/2015

 
Picture
by Alex Forsythe


This finch dressed like a sparrow can be seen in abundance one year, then rarely the next. The migration patterns are variable. During irruption years Pine Siskins travel further south and east in the winter in search of food. Normally seen in the northern states, some irruption years have resulted in large flocks of Siskins in places as far south as Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. In the winter of 2007-8 there were Pine Siskins reported at only 24% of the Project FeederWatch Sites. The following year was an irruption year, with 50% of the Project FeederWatch sites reporting flocks of Pine Siskins. Their movements are variable, with some migrating from northeast to northwest, while others migrate from north to south. A Siskin banded in Pennsylvania was later recaptured in Washington, while another bird banded in Texas was recaptured in Minnesota. They migrate in flocks of a half dozen to hundreds, often stopping at nyjer feeders along the way to dine alongside goldfinches. 

They consume a variety of insect and weed pests, including aphids, scale insects, and thistle. As the flock forages through the trees, parts of the flock "leapfrog" over one another. "Often when feeding, there are no birds in flight; at other times part of the flock may take wing and pass over those still feeding to other food trees. As the birds thus go "leapfrogging", the entire mass of the flock of busy, lisping birds appears to flow through the forest. Then all of a sudden the lisping ceases and the flock is silent; it takes flight with a very audible whirring of wings and flies rapidly away" - A. C. Bent, "Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds".

The courtship is a sweet combination of a song and a dance on the wing. Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, naturalist and frequent contributor to National Audubon Society's magazine "Audubon", described the courtship beautifully: "With a beam of sunshine illuminating his golden flashes, the male rose into the air with tail spread wide and wings in a blur of rapid motion. To the accompaniment of a flight song which seemed to express far more musical adoration than could be contained in so small a body, he described circle after circle around his chosen mate. That the female reflected none of her partner's emotion in no way seemed to dampen his ardor and, after he dropped on to a twig from pure exhaustion to catch his breath, a few moments later he rose again in a repeat performance no less ecstatic than the first... In the midst of all this sweet singing, two birds swing into the air in an extensive 'cloud chase,' their movements tightly synchronized as they alternate in the roles of pursuer and pursued... The female sat on a twig. Presently the male alighted on the same twig, hopped up to her and offered her a small particle, of what I could not see. She crouched and, with trembling wings, accepted the offering."

Siskins are often thought to be rather tame. E. R. Davis studied the Siskins in 1926 and wrote: "In a short time the birds came to regard me as their friend, and in the days that followed grew to be exceedingly sociable and to lose every vestige of fear. Whenever I would appear at the window, or step outside the door, down they would come and, settling upon my head, shoulders, and arms, would peer anxiously about for the food that they had learned to know I held concealed from them in a box, dish, or other receptacle."


Pine Siskins may be tame, but they are also tough. They can withstand temperatures down to -94˚ (that's 94 degrees below zero!) by increasing their metabolic rate up to five times their normal rate for several hours! They also put on large fat deposits to help insulate themselves, and they store 10% of their body weight in seeds inside their crop to sustain them for up to 6 hours in subzero nighttime temperatures.

Wherein is revealed some of the many places around the United States and the world whose name was influenced by the Limberlost

12/21/2015

 
By Curt Burnette

​   One of the many wonders of the digital age is the Internet search engine.  Recently, I utilized 
one of these search engines by typing in the word “Limberlost” to see what kind of results 
would be returned to me.  Of course, there were many entries regarding the Limberlost Swamp and Gene Stratton-Porter, but what really caught my interest were the many different places and things that had the word “Limberlost” in their names.

    There are certainly a number of things in Adams County that incorporate Limberlost in their names, especially in the Geneva area.  Limberlost Construction, Limberlost Apartments, the Golf Club of the Limberlost, and the newest, the Limberlost Diner in downtown Geneva, are all examples.  On the east side of Decatur, near Stratton Park, can found the street called 
Limberlost Trail.  And there are several places similar to these in the Rome City area where 
Gene built her second cabin.  But there are also Limberlosts in other Indiana cities.  There is a 
Limberlost Drive in Carmel and one in Goshen, and a Limberlost Lane in West Lafayette.  A 
business in Indianapolis has the name of Limberlost Consulting, Inc.

     Other places in our region of the country with businesses or places having Limberlost in their names would include The Limberlost, a restaurant in Houghton Lake, Michigan, and Limberlost Farms in Atlanta, Michigan; also in Michigan look for Limberlost Road in Three Rivers and Limberlost Lane in Allegan.  That covers examples in Indiana’s neighbor to the north.  In our neighbor to the west, Illinois, Camp Limberlost has been located near Bloomington since 1931.  And to our south will be found the Limberlost Chalet in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

    Farther afield in the U.S., in Tucson, Arizona, there is a neighborhood called Limberlost, 
containing Limberlost Drive, Limberlost Circle, and Limberlost Place, and such businesses as 
Limberlost Pre-school and Limberlost Studio Apartments.  In the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, one can hike along the Limberlost Trail.  In 1920, a woman bought 100 large hemlock trees in the land the trail runs through to preserve them from logging, and her husband named it the Limberlost Forest after A Girl of the Limberlost.

     Use of the Limberlost name doesn’t end at the borders of our country.  In Canada, the 
province of Ontario seems to be particularly Limberlost crazy.  A company from there, Beaver 
Homes and Cottages, has a model called Limberlost.  Limberlost Road can be found in London and Huntsville, Ontario.  Near Huntsville is the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve, and if you wish to stay in the Limberlost Lodge, go to Thessalon. But if a person should really want to travel afar while still lodging in a place called Limberlost, book a room at the Limberlost Hotel in the seaside town of Wilderness, South Africa. 

     Well, there’s a taste of how Gene Stratton-Porter spread the name of the Limberlost around 
the country and the world.  And, by the way, with the world in mind, I believe I might have to 
contact the Guinness Book of World Records.  I wonder if there is a category called: greatest 
usage of the word “Limberlost” in a single newspaper column.  If the record is under 39, I am 
the new world champion!

Wherein our columnist indulges in wild speculation by wondering if Tarzan of the Apes was influenced by Freckles of the Limberlost

12/14/2015

 
By Curt Burnette

     Not long ago, I bought a used paperback copy of Tarzan of the Apes.  I had read a version of 
the tale when I was a child and, of course, had seen Tarzan movies on TV.  Like many a young 
boy, I imagined myself to be the mighty “Lord of the Jungle” and spent hours swinging wildly on ropes through the tree in our yard while uttering a fierce and savage cry as I flew. Since I was quite young, the mushy, romantic, “Me Tarzan, you Jane” portion of Tarzan’s life held no 
interest to me whatsoever.  

      Jane was introduced in the original Tarzan adventure.  Interestingly, Jane’s full name is Jane Porter.  It struck me that the names Gene Porter and Jane Porter were somewhat alike.  This started me thinking, and I realized that there were similarities between Gene’s character 
Freckles and the famous ape-man.   Freckles was published in 1904 and Tarzan in 1912.  Had 
the author of the Tarzan books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, read Freckles and been inspired by it in some small way?  

     Like Freckles, Tarzan was an orphan who did not know of his true blue-blood identity. 
Freckles was of Irish ancestry and his real name was Terence Maxwell O’More of the Dunderry House in County Clare. Tarzan was of British ancestry and his real name was John Clayton, Jr., Lord of the house of Greystoke. Freckles was a hungry, weak, and desperate young man when he came to the wild Limberlost swamp and forest where he strengthens in body and mind. Freckles was adopted in a way by the Duncans, McLean, and even the Bird Woman.  Tarzan is a weak, hungry infant who will surely perish after his mother dies and his father is killed, when a she-ape that has lost her baby adopts him.  He grows up in the jungle and becomes strong of body and mind.  

     Freckles and Tarzan each have close relationships with animals: Freckles with the wild birds of the Limberlost and Tarzan with many of the jungle creatures.  Even their names both relate to the appearance of their skins—Freckles by the obvious freckling on his body, and Tarzan by the color of his skin.  “Tarzan”, in the language of the fictional ape species he lives with, means “white skin.”  People around them notice that both Freckles and Tarzan have natural, inborn traits that weren’t diminished with the circumstances of their upbringings—they are far more than they should be given the conditions of their lives.  

     Eventually, both Freckles and Tarzan learn the truth of their lineage and heritage.  Lord and Lady O’More journey from Ireland in search of their missing nephew and fate brings them together with him in Chicago.  Tarzan learns he is Lord Greystoke after he leaves Africa to go to the civilized world in search of Jane.  Neither man wishes to return to his ancestral home.  Freckles goes back to the Limberlost to be with his love, the “Swamp Angel,” instead of going to Ireland.  Tarzan chooses to go back to the jungle with his love, forsaking the luxuries of civilization for the world he grew up in.

     So was Tarzan influenced by Freckles?  Probably not, but it is fun to speculate!

Wherein a year-long project is completed and startling numbers are revealed

12/7/2015

 
By Curt Burnette

“Mr. Archibald, who lives near Decatur shot the last deer in Adams County in 1867.”

     This news item appeared in the Decatur News of Dec. 7, 1882 and was reproduced in the 
mammals section of the biology chapter of The 1979 History of Adams County, Indiana, 
published by the Adams County Historical Society, Inc. in 1980.  In the paragraph that followed, the book states that “Adams County has a higher population of white tail deer today in 1979 than they did in 1867.  One reads of deer being killed by cars at least two or three times a year.”  Two or three times a year?  Oh, my goodness how times have changed!  Nowadays, cars and deer collide as often as two or three times a day!

     The word “extirpated” means a species of animal or plant has been eliminated entirely from 
a given area, such as a county or a state or any other defined region.  The species has not 
become extinct; it is just gone from that location.  So, deer were extirpated from Adams County in 1867.  And they were extirpated from all of Indiana in 1893 when the last one was shot in Knox County.  White-tailed deer were reintroduced to seven counties in Indiana by the DNR in 1934.  The first limited hunting season occurred in 1951.  Today, there are far more deer in our state than there have ever been, including before Indiana was first settled.

     But how can this be, when the estimate of forest in pre-settlement Indiana (1820) was about 19,840,000 acres, and the forested area in modern Indiana (2005 data) is only 4,700,000 acres—a reduction of 85% coverage to 20%?  Most people think of deer as forest animals, so it would seem logical that the more forest there is, the more deer there should be, right?  While it is true deer will live in forests, they are much happier at the forest edge.  They prefer open areas intermixed with small patches of forest, as Indiana is today, instead of one giant forest as it used to be.  Modern Indiana is a more favorable habitat for deer than it ever was.  The result is more deer now than there were in 1820 or 1867 or even 1979.

      I faithfully checked the Portland Commercial Review newspaper daily for a year, from mid-
March 2014 until mid-March 2015, and recorded the locations in Jay County where the Sheriff’s Department reported deer/vehicle collisions.  There were 123 collisions during that time.  On 17 of those 123 days, there were 2 collisions on those days.  On 4 of those 123 days, there were 3 collisions on those days.  And on one of those 123 days, 4 unlucky people collided with deer that day!  The total of estimated damages to the vehicles was between $180,500 and $413,000.  This averages out to about $300,000 worth of damage in Jay County alone in one year!  

     I placed a dot on a map of Jay where each collision occurred.  Although drivers should be 
wary basically everywhere, this map does indicate where extra caution might be needed, 
especially in the fall.  A copy of this map is available at the Limberlost Visitor Center.  When it 
comes to driving and deer—let’s be careful out there!

    Author

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