Hi, I live in Hemlock Hills and saw this fox in my backyard last night. It's not red or gray. I would love your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Your pictures are of a Red Fox, a highly variable species with three major color morphs. The first is what we typically think of when we think of a Red Fox. Another is “Cross Fox,” which is black where there usually is white, and last is the “Silver Fox,” which is all black with silver guard hairs on the back and face. All three of these color morphs can occur in the same litter of kits!  In Ohio, the Cross and Silver phases are pretty rare. Your Red Fox looks like it overall has the typical color and pattern for a Red Fox, but possibly a bit darker than average. A special sighting regardless!

-Naturalist Andy Avram

Hoping for help with these two snakes I just pulled from my attic
Geauga resident
Close proximity to swampy/marsh lands in back yard

These are both Eastern Milk Snakes. These snakes are constrictors that feed primarily on mice and other small rodents, but they are known to also eat other snakes and lizards, too. When disturbed, they will sometimes coil up, shake their tail, and do their best impression of a rattlesnake, but rest assured, Eastern Milk Snakes are not venomous!

-Naturalist Andy Avram

If silica is pH neutral, why are silicate sandstone stone outcrops like Thompson Ledges populated with acid loving plants like chestnut oaks, low bush blueberry and wintergreen?

Soil pH is the result of numerous factors. Composition of the bedrock is one factor. In this case, the silica which is a component of sandstone actually does create slightly acidic soil.

Another factor creating acidic soil is the leaching out of the soil of nutrients and minerals by rainfall, which itself is moderately acidic.

A third factor in soil acidification is decomposition of organic material such as leaves. Since the sandstone outcropping creates sandy soil, it drains more easily and therefore leaches out more quickly.

All of these factors together create the acidic soil seen at Thompson Ledges, and therefore you will find acid-loving plants there.

Thanks for your question!

-Naturalist Denise Wolfe

At Swine Creek, Valley trail walking towards Swine Creek Road, on the hill, looking East there are three tarps stakes to the ground and have been so for month. Do you know why?

You’ve photographed the site of small research grant-funded research being conducted by a Kent State University graduate student at Swine Creek Reservation, Big Creek Park and The West Woods. She is collecting leaves from various trees with the tarps and looking at decomposition rates, soils, moisture, etc. Thanks for asking!

-Park Biologist Paul Pira

We have found two baby birds like this. They are at least 10 feet from the nest, so I don’t think they are falling. How or why do they come out of the nest and end up so far away? (Dandelion for size)

I can’t definitively answer this question, since there are several reasons that baby birds may be found outside of a nest. Usually, it’s the result of some sort of predation. Non-native House Sparrows often wreak havoc on native nesting birds — especially bluebirds or other cavity nesters. I have personally watched a House Sparrow removing baby chickadees from a nest box on my property and dropping them on the ground outside the box.  I have also found dead adult bluebirds inside a nest box with their heads pecked.  Blue Jays also may raid the nests of other birds for eggs and nestlings. Snakes and raccoons can also cause trouble.

Click here for a troubleshooting chart geared toward bluebirds, which can apply to other nesting birds as well.  It lists potential problems and their culprits, and offers some solutions. I hope this helps.

-Naturalist Linda Gilbert

I found this wildflower in mid-April in Brecksville. At first I thought it was bloodroot, but the leaf is wrong. Can you identify it?

This flower does look very similar to bloodroot and blooms at approximately the same time in the same habitat, but as you noted, it is not a bloodroot. Rather, it is called twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), and gets its name from the two leaflets which you can see in your photos. Like bloodroot, the bloom is very short-lived, so it’s really nice to get the photos of it when it is in full bloom with all its petals!

-Naturalist Denise Wolfe

I had a tragedy happen with my bluebird family. The five newborns were killed, 3 thrown out of the nest, one hanging dead in the door and one dead in the nest. Blood everywhere. I am very upset of course. My husband took care of it and put the box back where it was even though I said take it down. The next day I saw a house sparrow come out of it. I immediately took the box down. That was most likely the murderer. My question is should I put the box back up after a bit? I had 2 successful families in it last year and was so happy they were in it this year. I feed the bluebirds well, spending too much on mealworms for them. The parents are still around but I'm not sure what to do about the box. I don't want that to happen again. And my husband says he can't take me crying like that again. lol
thanks! Tracy Crawford

English House Sparrows are truly a bane to the existence of the Eastern Bluebird. They do indeed attack and kill both adults and hatchlings.

Numerous strategies exist to handle the house sparrow problem. First, you should put up a second box so that the bluebirds have an alternate location to nest. The second box should be 20 or 30 feet away from the other box. Another action to take is to carefully monitor the box with the house sparrows and once they have built a nest, remove the nest. Keep removing the nest once it is built over and over again. The house sparrows may make five or six nests (or more), but they will eventually give up. There are other strategies involving removing their egging, shaking their eggs, and other such actions, but I try to stop the problem before it gets to that point. If you do get a nest with house sparrow eggs, which are whitish with brown speckles, destroy the eggs as soon as possible.

All of this will require you to closely monitor the nest boxes. You wouldn’t necessarily have to look at them every day, but maybe every third day. Do not worry about disturbing the bluebirds; they will come back to the box quickly after you have peeked inside.

Here is a link to the best bluebird website I know of. Good luck!

-Naturalist Denise Wolfe

What bird is this? I found it sitting in my driveway in Middlefield. Sadly, it was deceased when I found it. Seek app could not correctly identify it.

Very sad to say that this was probably someone’s pet bird.

It’s a type of finch found in Australia, per Naturalist Andy Avram. I’ve seen them in pet stores.

-Naturalist Denise Wolfe

I read on this site that the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake is not present in Geauga… I have one in my yard in Geauga…

The snake you found is actually a milksnake, which are not venomous. They eat rodents and can be found throughout Ohio.

Click here for pictures from a researcher showing their many color variations; what I noticed is the edges of the spots are lined in black.

Click here for an ODNR Facebook video about them.

And click here for an ODNR field guide on reptiles. Milksnakes can be found on page 39.

Thanks for checking on the ID!

-Naturalist Denise Wolfe

Does Geauga County have Hybrid Coyote or Wolf/Coyote cross? I have seen (twice) a medium sized dark colored Canine running across the road in the SAME exact area at two different times towards dusk.

The canine you have seen is most likely a dog, or possibly a coyote, since wolves do not live in Ohio. Coyotes gradually moved into our state, and all of North America, from the southwestern plains, as wolves were eliminated from Ohio in the middle of the 1800s and most of the lower 48 states by 1900.

Research and genetic analysis of the Eastern Coyote seems to conclude that the canine now found in all 88 Ohio counties is slightly larger than the southwestern coyote and likely has a small amount of DNA of both wolf and dog. Coyote expert Stan Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, rejects the term “coywolf.” He doesn’t even like referring to them as hybrids, which implies a 50-50 mix of wolf and coyote, and just isn’t the case.

If you see the canine again, you will know it is a coyote if it has a drooping bushy tail, pointed ears, a slender muzzle and long legs, but a dog if the tail curls upward. Coyotes are variable in color, so a dark-colored canine could still be a coyote, especially if the rest of the description seems to fit.

-Naturalist Dottie Drockton