The Oak Ridge Bird Man

The Oak Ridge Bird Man I'm an ornithologist and TWS Certified Wildlife Biologist® located in beautiful Oak Ridge, Tennesse

Spigelia marilandica is the most acid goth plant I know.There's a (sadly) good chance you've never seen this plant befor...
05/22/2026

Spigelia marilandica is the most acid goth plant I know.

There's a (sadly) good chance you've never seen this plant before in your life; or even more so, that you've heard of it under one of its seemingly dozens of different names, but didn't have a face to go with it. I've seen it named Indian pink ("pink" in the sense of pinking shears - literally "having a perforated/scalloped edge"), woodland pink/pinkroot, Carolina pink/pinkroot ... the list goes on. None of these names really evoke the aura this utterly unique herb has in my eyes, so as it stands, it's Spigelia in my book.

Most of the year the aboveground portions of this plant are completely unassuming, but in May, when the blooms finally emerge, it sheds its corporate normie exterior entirely. Each of its blood red arrowheads splits open like a xenomorph egg, revealing chartreuse tentacles surrounding a central spike as proud and pointed as a hornet's sting.

It only looks severe, though - each of these features has a wonderful purpose.

The red color is to catch the eye of its primary pollinator: hummingbirds!

That long, arrowhead shape is to project them as far above the ground and stem as they can, given that this plant only grows a foot or so high.

The radial petals, in their vibrant yellow-green, are to guide the hummingbirds in on final approach to the nectaries located at the very base of the flower. And those nectaries, in turn, are way down at the bottom to maximize the amount of pollen that the hummingbird moves from flower to flower as it feeds.

But when I say this herb is "acid goth," that's all just aesthetic right? Well, FWIW, there's one name for it I left out in the list above, and that's "wormgrass." This plant, especially the root, is absolutely chock full of a compound called spigiline that will absolutely blast your guts out if you take too much. ... But at *just the right dose*, it'll only massacre those squiggly little unwanted hitchhikers whose names end in "-worm." Thus, wormgrass.

So yeah: blood red; acid green; Alien egg; utterly toxic; and pollinated by the Aztec god of war?

How much more street cred do you need?

We've got just one event this weekend - come find us!
04/28/2026

We've got just one event this weekend - come find us!

"Why did they lay two small and one big one?" is a question I've been very happy to receive following my updates on our ...
04/21/2026

"Why did they lay two small and one big one?" is a question I've been very happy to receive following my updates on our chickadee nest. Some of you know the answer, and some among those will have very strong feelings.

In short, this nest is compromised. Sometime last week, a female Brown-headed Cowbird selected my nest box as the loving home which would raise one of her children on her behalf.

I hear a lot of hate about BHCOs. A LOT. I think only snakes and wasps rank higher in the "totally cool to trash talk" listings among self-professed animal lovers. It is true that cowbirds (of which there are five other species in addition to our brown-headed variety) exert a negative effect on the nesting success of the birds they parasitize. But one could say the same of any number of critters, from lice, to humans. They are *obligate* brood parasites: they didn't choose this life; their ancestors who nested as other birds do simply did not find success, and now the door to that evolutionary path is closed to them.

What especially bothers me about the hate they get is that it keeps people from appreciating what an utterly fascinating bird species this is. Their closest relatives include not only fellow black birds such as, well ... blackbirds ... but also colorful and charismatic species like meadowlarks and (New World) orioles. They are incredible vocalists, able to use their paired voice boxes to sing in two different registers simultaneously. Their song sounds like scraping metal and falling drops of water at the same time.

Cowbirds take their English name from their tendency to follow cattle to feed on the insects they stir up, but before Europeans arrived in North America it's thought they did the same with our native megafauna - not just bison and elk, but likely their extinct forebears of the trunky variety. Brood parasitism evolved as a way to reproduce without having their food source leave them behind.

Even their most notorious behavior is multifaceted. I could, and desperately want to, continue, but I'm at the character limit - so keep an eye on my stories for even more info, and to watch them develop!

It's the big event of the spring! We'll be there with nest boxes, feeders, mounting hardware, feeds - everything you nee...
04/14/2026

It's the big event of the spring! We'll be there with nest boxes, feeders, mounting hardware, feeds - everything you need ... so come see us!

Remember folks, spring is coming, and with it (here in eastern North America), Archilochus colubris. We're pumping out ...
02/09/2026

Remember folks, spring is coming, and with it (here in eastern North America), Archilochus colubris. We're pumping out the hummingbird feeders in preparation, so if you'd like to be ahead of the curve get yourself to https://www.oakridgebirdman.com/product/hummingbird-feeder-with-hanging-cradle/ and get you a whole setup!

The handy mnemonic is "Fools to Ghouls" - 04/01 to 10/31 - so be ready!

Just a heads-up guy this weekend: we'll be selling at TWO venues! You can find us at Roane State Community College from ...
01/14/2026

Just a heads-up guy this weekend: we'll be selling at TWO venues! You can find us at Roane State Community College from 9:00-12:00 for the Oak Ridge Winter Farmers Market; and this weekend (because we got popped off the waitlist, woohoo!) we'll also be at Market Square for the Winter Farmers Market from 10:00-2:00!

Pictured is a Hermit Thrush, a relative of the robin and bluebird that can be found in our area from late fall through spring, when they fly north to breed. While they're not often thought of as a backyard feeder bird, they absolutely love Bird Butter, which you can buy at both the markets listed above this weekend!

Hey bird folk: as you can see here, I'm hard at work training up the newest member of the Oak Ridge Bird Crew. Because o...
12/17/2025

Hey bird folk: as you can see here, I'm hard at work training up the newest member of the Oak Ridge Bird Crew. Because of that, I, personally, may be a little bit harder to reach for the next little bit here. Fear not: the other crew members are still out and about, hard at work keeping our market stalls running.

In fact, this very weekend (12/20) they'll be at both Market Square and the Oak Ridge Winter Farmers Market. Those two events will, however, be our last two markets until January, so if you're looking for in person sales, this weekend is the time to go!

That said, we still have other opportunities for your last minute holiday shopping and bird supplying. First, this Thursday (12/18) we'll be doing our biweekly supply drop at - just order through our online store by and write "KnoxFill" in the comments, and we'll hook you up! Normally the cutoff would be tonight at midnight, but if you get them in by tomorrow I'll make it work. (The next drop day on the schedule would be 1/1, so nothing doing on that date.)

And as for the Big Day on 12/25, I'll be taking delivery orders through 11:59 pm on Sunday 12/21 for a final delivery run on Monday, 12/22. You can order through our website, or just message me directly and we'll make that holiday magic happen!

We'll be playing it by ear between Christmas and when the markets open back up in January (and, again, the pictured small human will probably be keeping yours truly away from in person events for the immediate future). But please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything restocked. Happy holidays, and the Oak Ridge Bird Crew will see you in the new year!

This reminder is a quick one: birds this time of year love peanuts! Never mind them being rich in fats, proteins, and mi...
11/27/2025

This reminder is a quick one: birds this time of year love peanuts!

Never mind them being rich in fats, proteins, and minerals, but they're also the perfect shape and size for caching - this titmouse here is going to fly off with this mouthful and hide it under leaves, bark, or in a hole in a log or tree. As the winter goes on, if times get lean they'll open up their hidey holes and have a strategic reserve of nutrition waiting for them.

Whole peanuts like this are a part of our ever-popular Feeder Mix (https://www.oakridgebirdman.com/product/feeder-mix/). We don't generally carry peanuts on their own at markets, but they have a whole page in our online store (https://www.oakridgebirdman.com/product/peanuts-whole/) where you can order them in quarts, gallons, or a five gallon bag, for pickup or delivery!

It's time! STURGEON TIME! This coming Saturday, find us at the boat launch at Seven Islands State Birding Park where we'...
10/14/2025

It's time! STURGEON TIME!

This coming Saturday, find us at the boat launch at Seven Islands State Birding Park where we'll be vending and YOU will have the opportunity to release a baby sturgeon, by hand, right into the French Broad River!

The event is 10a-2p, and rather than make you read the details twice, lemme just direct you to https://7islands.org/sturgeonfest for everything you need to know.

Besides this once a year event, this Saturday we'll also be in our usual spots at Jackson Square in Oak Ridge and Market Square in Knoxville. Hope to see you!

You're walking in the woods. There's no one around, and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye, you spot it:C...
10/09/2025

You're walking in the woods. There's no one around, and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye, you spot it:

Chicken of the woods? Chanterelles?

NO!

These are jack-o'-lantern mushrooms! They are a poisonous lookalike for not one, but two separate edible mushrooms (those I just listed above). And today I'll teach you how to tell the difference.

The easiest way to tell jacks from COTW is by color and shape. First off, they are *completely* orange (one might even say, pumpkin colored?); compare this to chickens, which can be orange above, but are typically somewhere between yellow and peach colored underneath. As for shape, COTW are a type of shelf fungus, which means they project horizontally from their substrate (i.e. whatever tree part they're growing out of) and tend to be semicircular, or even shaped like pizza slices. Frequently, though of course not always, their edges are also wavy. Jacks, however, as you can see here, grow out from the substrate on a classic mushroom stalk, and are topped with a round cap. It tends to be slightly indented in the middle, like a funnel.

As for the comparison with chanterelles, it takes a bit more of a discerning eye. At the broadest level, jacks grow from wood while chanterelles grow from soil. In some cases, like in the third photo with the Oak Ridge Bird Dogs, it can look like they're growing from soil but they're actually fanning out along the dead tree's roots. Jacks also grow in clusters, while chants emerge singly or in pairs. And if you look under the cap, you'll see that jack-o'-lanterns have true gills - thin lines running up the stalk to the edge of the cap - whereas chanterelles do not (they do have veins, which are thicker and almost entirely on the stalk).

FWIW jack-o'-lantern mushrooms are completely safe as long as you don't eat them (my boys there are fine to sniff around). And they're plenty cool on their own - did you know they're bioluminescent? If you find some, come back at night, or even just bring a box with a hole cut to look through; you'll finally know what "foxfire" looks like!

It was a spectacular day for a pawpaw hunt - swipe to see the highlights and our final haul!1) The open river en route t...
08/22/2025

It was a spectacular day for a pawpaw hunt - swipe to see the highlights and our final haul!

1) The open river en route to pawpaw territory.

2) Navigating the forest as it comes out to meet us.

3) Cutleaf coneflower growing along the bank. This plant is also known as sochan, and is a staple of Cherokee cuisine for its greens.

4) Cardinal flower - that would explain all the hummingbirds we kept hearing, wouldn't it?

5) Monarch butterfly on Joe Pye w**d - where trees were absent, the banks were absolutely lined with the faintly pinkish pompoms of this incredible pollen producer. Milkw**d ain't the only plant these migrants love.

6) OUR VICTORIOUS PILE! It's still early in the season so there's much fruit left on the trees, but we still found a nice harvest of ever so slightly squishy green potatoes that left us needing to wash our chins after eating 😁

If this looks like the sort of adventure you want to have, visit https://www.oakridgebirdman.com/product/expedition-by-boat/ and get yourself a spot!

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