Water Life

On this hot, humid morning I took a slow stroll through Inniswood Metro Garden--much too hot for a brisk walk! Summer has turned the corner toward fall...the cicadas are singing (actually they started early this year, well before the 4th of July, but now they're in full voice), the bees and horseflies are buzzing, and many of the woodland critters are looking for some relief from the heat. Last time I was here the water in the frog pond was very high, with dozens of tadpoles zipping around and the bullfrogs singing. Today the pond has shrunk and the water plants have taken over...although, as you can see, the frogs are still around. Proof that they can be very hard to see: I didn't even notice this frog while I was snapping this photo! Imagine my surprise when I opened it on my desktop and there he was, staring at me with his beady amphibian eye.

The frog pond here has beautiful lotuses. This one was a good three feet above the water, even taller than the lotus leaves that all turn with the sun, like sunflowers.

The water is very attractive to insects, also. I saw an amazing assortment of dragon- and damselflies. The most striking was an iridescent blue damselfly with velvety black wings, but that one was quicker than my camera. This guy spent several minutes landing on this leaf, taking off, then circling right back to the same leaf. Another of the same type was doing the same thing a few leaves away.

The pond in the Children's Garden was by far the best for critter hunting. We aren't the only ones looking for a way to keep cool! Standing on the footbridge, I noticed something wrapped around the branches of a small black willow on the edge on the pond...a piece of cloth? On closer inspection, it turned out to be a rather large snake, a black rat snake judging by its color and size. He looked very comfortable there in the shade.

Across the bridge there were a few lily pads in the middle of the pond, where another snake was chillin' in the water. Had he had an umbrella drink (and a hand to hold it!), he'd have looked very much like a human floating around the pool on an air mattress.

And more frogs, of course, including one moose-sized bullfrog waiting for something yummy to zip by. One of his friends was enjoying the small waterfall nearby. By the time I walked all around the pond with my camera I was wishing I could climb into the water myself. Hopefully this afternoon's thunderstorms will bring some relief from the sultry weather.

A Mystery Beetle Identified

An obnoxiously hot and humid week in central Ohio, with temps in the 90s, so not much outdoor walking this week. However, I finally had a chance to do some Web research and identify a beetle I photographed at Highbanks in May!

I spotted this guy on the railing around an observation deck where I sometimes see deer. An intense iridescent green, he really popped out against the weathered wood of the railing. I probably spent ten minutes trying to get some photos of him that were actually in focus...my camera is pretty leisurely about autofocusing (Note to self: Manual focus on next camera.), and this guy was fast. Each time I'd start to push the shutter button, off he'd go down the railing with me trailing behind.

At any rate, I did finally manage to get some shots that were at least focused enough to be identifiable. This handsome gentleman (I'm assuming gentleman here; could be a female) is a six-spotted tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata). These guys are common in woodland areas in this part of the country, and often hunt along woodland paths. None of my photos show his mouth parts, but he sported a pretty impressive set of mandibles, used for capturing and eating other insects and arthropods, particularly ants. They're speedy because they often hunt on foot, though they also capture prey while on the wing. It's probably a good thing I didn't try catching him (which I often do when I want to look at an insect closely), because tiger beetles are capable of inflicting a pretty healthy bite when they feel threatened.

A cold front moved through the area today, which should drop temperatures a bit this weekend. Hopefully more posts later!

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

Last weekend I was walking the Dripping Rock trail at Highbanks when I encountered Walter, one of the park volunteers, looking up into the trees. "Hey," he said, "Wanna see something really cool?" He pointed up into a large beech tree next to the path, with a large broken-off limb extending over the trail. And there...was a snake. My apologies for the not-quite-sharp photo, but I had to post a portrait of the black rat snake who had been lounging in this tree for several days when I saw it. Judging from the loops visible on top of the branch, this is a pretty good-sized snake.  

Just for the record, black rat snakes are beneficial to humans and eat small rodents and bugs. They're wonderful to have in a garden and totally harmless to humans. And despite Walter's tongue-in-cheek warnings to passing hikers, they don't watch for people with straw (or white) hats and drop out of trees onto their heads.

On Undomesticated Trees and Summer Fruits

While wandering around Wyman Woods on a Friday evening, I noticed that there are a number of black walnut trees growing there. Black walnuts are interesting trees, with dark, beautiful wood and an unusual trait: their roots secrete a toxic substance called juglone into the soil around them, which prevents many types of plants from growing near the tree. Ask any gardener who's tried to grow tomatoes anywhere near a black walnut tree: it won't work. Black walnuts are not commonly used in landscaping plans; they're not particular shapely, they cause problems with other plants around them, and they drop extremely hard nuts with green husks that, when broken open, stain hands, concrete, clothing and anything else they touch a startling shade of purple-black. I think of black walnuts as sort of undomesticated trees, as opposed to the perfectly shaped hybrids usually found in city parks. Black walnuts are already bearing fruit in late June. The Wyman Woods squirrels will eat well this winter.

Many of the trees at Wyman Woods are in fruit now. Along with the usual crabapples and redbuds (this is a city park, after all), I spotted some other less common park trees. One is the hackberry, which actually is sold at nurseries as a landscape tree but unfortunately doesn't seem to be used much here in central Ohio. Hackberries have really textural corky bark, a very attractive shape, and are excellent shade trees. They also bear nearly-black berries that birds love, and aren't particularly messy when they fall (if the birds miss any).

The other very undomesticated tree at Wyman Woods is the catalpa. There are several scattered around the park, much to my delight. My grandparents had an enormous catalpa tree, which my grandpa called an "Indian cigar" tree. That was for their long, thin seed pods, which do look a little like a long, thin cigar. (Note: They taste terrible. I advise not using them to pretend you're smoking a cigar. Fortunately, of course, I would never have done anything so stupid as a child.) People who like neat, groomed lawns don't like catalpas for those seed pods, but I love them. They have large, beautiful heart-shaped leaves and spectacular blooms in the spring...and they remind me of my grandpa. The catalpas are in fruit now, too.

And lest the more usual park trees should be forgotten, the redbuds are loaded with seeds now, also...this one appears to have many more seeds than leaves.

Crows

Last night I had a half hour to kill before going to my monthly meditation group, so I wandered around Wyman Woods, a small park in Grandview Heights. As I was driving in, I noticed a group of crows scavenging under the trees next to the road. I love crows, so of course I had to try to get some photos of this bunch.

Crows are extremely intelligent birds, totally unimpressed by humans with cameras. This wary group, seven in all, lit out for the trees before I got within good camera range. The best I could do was catch a couple of them as they sat high above my head, probably snickering to themselves.

Crows are usually found in pairs or groups, and sometimes a group will help raise young communally. I suspect there was a nest nearby, as there was one particular tree that most of this bunch headed for when I tried to get close, and I could hear very soft little crow sounds coming from that direction. They were also fond of lining up on the roof of a building behind the treeline and watching me trying to take their pictures.

For those who are interested in crows and their kin, Candace Savage has written two really fascinating books. The first encompasses the entire Corvus family, and is titled Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays. The other, which is one of my favorite books ever, centers only on crows and ravens. Check it out: Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys of the Avian World.

Cliff Swallows

When I walk in Grandview Heights at lunchtime, I've often noticed cliff swallows swooping through the air along the river bank and gliding inches from the water...but I never thought to look for their nests until I saw an article in the Columbus Dispatch last week about the swallows nesting underneath the Fishinger Road bridge in northwest Columbus (http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2010/06/20/adapting-to-life-in-ohio.html; the article was still live when this posting was written). This week I took the time to look up under the highway overpasses as I walked, and sure enough, spotted very small colonies of nests under two of them.

Cliff swallows (Hirundo pyrrhonota) are the famous swallows that have returned to the San Juan Capistrano mission in California for decades. These small, graceful birds once built their mud nests, which resemble small clay jars, on rocky cliffs. The colonies can be quite large, with hundreds of birds raising their broods simultaneously. As their habitats change they are adapting to building on man-made structures such as building ledges and yes, highway bridges. Even the Capistrano swallows now apparently prefer a nearby country club's building to their traditional nesting sites!

Cliff swallows nest in colonies and feed in flocks, catching insects on the wing. They are dark gray-brown above with some white on the forehead and back, with white belly, buff rump, and a reddish-brown throat. In flight they resemble the barn swallow, also found in central Ohio, but the cliff swallow's tail is square at the tip rather than forked. These birds are aerial acrobats, swooping and diving after insects and even dipping down to drink on the wing. This small colony is very entertaining on my lunch hour walk as they catch their dinners--mosquitoes, I hope!--and wheel through the air like tiny barnstormers.

A Butterfly Morning

Writer Robert Heinlein once said that "Butterflies are self propelled flowers." If the curmudgeonly Heinlein could appreciate the beauty of Lepidoptera, how could the rest of us resist?

I went walking at Highbanks Metro Park, on US Rte. 23 just north of Worthington, Ohio this morning. I spend a lot of time at Highbanks. My favorite season there is winter, when the structure of the woods is stark and the birds and other inhabitants are more easily seen (you can see my photos of Highbanks in all seasons at http://www.flickr.com/photos/44801031@N03/sets/). As a photographer, I find the summer woods overwhelming and difficult to photograph when everything is disguised under leaf cover!

That said, this morning's walk was enlivened by summer butterflies. The open areas at Highbanks support a variety of attractive wildflowers, and even in the shade of the woods the butterflies come to look for water. They are quick and elusive, but I managed to take recognizable photos of three varieties.

Great Spangled Fritillary

(Speyeria cybele)

As a group, butterflies have some of the most wonderful names going...fritillary, sulphur, comma, swallowtail. Two of these fritillaries were flitting around some clumps of butterfly weed along the path. They would settle, wait for me to be ready to click the shutter, then flutter off to another flowerhead, leaving me to refocus and try again.

Red Admiral

(Vanessa atalanta)

Unlike the fritillaries, who wanted only to flirt with my camera, this guy fluttered past me, landed beside the path, and appeared to pose. He seemed unimpressed by me and by several other walkers who passed by and stopped to look at him.

Red-Spotted Purple

(Lemenitis arthemis astyanax)

This beauty was also not shy, but landed in the middle of the walking path for all to admire. There should be red spots at the top curve of the wing

for this species, but either my angle on the wings doesn't let them be seen or this particular butterfly has only white spots for some reason. Are there any butterfly experts out there who can tell me about this?

Those of you in central Ohio who would like to explore Highbanks would do well to go during the week or early in the morning on weekends, when there are fewer walkers. It's a wonderful place, interesting geologically as well as having beautiful walking trails and a variety of birds and wildlife.

Bristling Thistles

Along the same walking path where I first began contemplating invasive plants, there is a thriving thistle population. Many varieties of thistles are also invaders in this area, and are notorious for spreading quickly in disturbed areas and in suburban lawns and flower beds. They are, however, also often attractive (once you get past the spines!), with interesting blossoms. At least one nation (Scotland) has made the thistle its symbol, so they are not universally considered lawn pests!

Bull Thistle

The first photo shown is a Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Bull thistles can be quite tall...this bloom was right at eye level. Bumblebees love bull thistles; one flew away from this one just before I took this photo.

Nodding Thistle

The Nodding Thistle (Carduus nutans) is well named, as is shown in this photo. I watched this bloom for several days as it opened, from the time it was a barely-opened, dark rose bud. My favorite of the thistles along the path, the nodding thistle has a spine-free stem leading to the blossom. And, as with other thistles, bees love the blossoms.

Canada Thistle

Considered a pest plant in central Ohio, these thistles grow in large, fast-spreading clumps. It is believed that Canada thistles (Cirsius arvense) may have been spread in animal feed. However they arrived here, they are now common, found in large unattractive bunches in fields and waste areas. The blossoms of the Canada thistle are small (these were about a half inch in diameter) and appear in bunches, unlike the large single blossoms of the bull and nodding thistles.

Next time you spend an afternoon attempting to remove the tap root of that thistle that's taken up residence in your daylily bed, consider the toughness and resilience of its species. If that stubborn, spiny (dare we say it) weed were elsewhere, it could grow into a blossoming plant beloved of Scots and bees. How can it be all bad?

Clovers and vetches and non-native invasive plants, oh my!

There is a walking path in Grandview Heights where I sometimes take a quick walk at lunchtime. This path runs along and underneath sections of an interstate highway and has seen a good deal of construction in its recent past, so the plant life tends to be species that thrive in disturbed areas. In the past week, I've been noticing just how many of the common plants in the area, while pleasant to look at, are not native to this area at all. Ohio has seen recent efforts to remove honeysuckle, ailanthus trees, and wild grapevines, to mention a few invasive species, but how many of us even recognize how many of our common herbacious plants came from elsewhere? Nearly all of the plants along the edge of the path here are invaders.

Crown Vetch and Birdsfoot Trefoil

Somewhere, someone realized that crown vetch was great for covering difficult sloped areas (like highway rights-of-way) with attractive flowering plants that didn't need mowing. Unfortunately, crown vetch not only spreads over those difficult slopes, but everywhere else its roots can reach. It forms thick mats of vegetation that choke out other plants and cover large areas with its white, pink or purple blossoms. Some biologists compare crown vetch to kudzu for agressive growth. A close relative, birdsfoot trefoil, has also become increasingly common in open areas, its cheerful yellow blossoms often mixing in with crown vetch.

Sweet Clover

In late spring open areas in central Ohio are often covered with white and yellow sweet clover. This plant has been very common here for decades; I grew up in Ohio and it was certainly widespread when I was a child (ahem) several decades ago. Sweet clover is very attractive to bees; I've seen several types of bees (including the increasingly rare honeybee) sharing blossoms along the path.

Bad Plants?

Are invasive plants "bad" plants? Not necessarily...but when they crowd out native species they may change their new environments permanently. It behooves us all to be careful about what kinds of plants we use in our landscaping, as many invasive plants are garden escapees. A few to be cautious about: barberry, privet, honeysuckle, ailanthus, purple and/or gooseneck loosestrife, purple passionflower. More use of native plants in our gardens can not only help prevent unplanned changes in our environment, but will also decrease the amount of time spent maintaining plants that may not be ideally suited to conditions here in central Ohio. 

Musings of an amateur naturalist

Once upon a time I wanted to be a biologist when I grew up. That didn't work out, and eventually I realized that I wasn't all that interested in studying the processes of life at a cellular level anyway. What I REALLY wanted to do was be able to identify, observe, and enjoy the plants and animals around me. The suburbs of Columbus, Ohio might not seem like an ideal place to walk and study nature, but Ma Nature is everywhere, from the local metroparks to walking trails on abandoned railroad rights-of-way to rebellious, unlandscaped corners of suburbia. My intent for this blog is to post some of the things I notice on my wanderings, just for the sake of sharing with like minds in Cyberland. Enjoy.