September 23, 2010

While Ohio has had some spectacular weather lately, none of it has come this way. It's good not to have had the damaging winds, but we haven't gotten much of the rain either and everything is just crispy. It was as hot and windy yesterday evening as a July afternoon, and it occurred to me to worry about fire. It was an appropriate worry, since today as I post this, several brush and crop fires burn south of Columbus, and the rain has missed us here yet again.

Yesterday though, turkey vultures sailed in an expanse of blue.

The white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum) in the woods is blooming, but it's struggling and not as widespread and luxuriant as last year.

Black walnuts litter the ground under the big tree.

A lot of the herbaceous plants have just folded up the tent and that includes most of the milkweed. Adult large milkweed bugs crowd onto whatever remaining green seed pods they can find.
It's interesting that the bugs on this drying pod arranged themselves like the seeds. It's a good trick--I didn't notice them until after I took the picture!

A lot of butterflies are still making use of the goldenrods and asters. This pearl crescent paused for a moment on an aging Queen Anne's Lace, then flew off.

Sept 12, 2010--Beaver Marsh

Last Sunday we headed north to the Towpath Trail at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We've bicycled here often in the past without spending much time at any one spot, but Sunday we traveled on foot at a more leisurely pace.

South of Peninsula, beavers have created "Beaver Marsh" from an old auto salvage yard and the remnants of the Ohio & Erie Canal, opened here in 1827 and abandoned by 1913.

It was a bright sunny day and although we were there mid-afternoon when most animals are not very active, there were plenty of things to see.

Duckweed-covered Eastern Painted Turtles sunned on logs....

And hid under lily pads.

Wood ducks were plentiful. Young ones bathed in the canal....

And a male in eclipse plumage eyed us balefully.

A Great Blue Heron hunted among the lilypads.....

And a Canada Goose interrupted its nap to wonder about our intentions. A naturalist told us that earlier in the day another lucky goose had narrowly escaped a snapping turtle with its foot intact and only a couple of skinned toes to show for it.

A carp lurked in the shallows.....

And a bold chipmunk on the trail posed for a portrait as we were leaving.

Sept. 8, 2010

We missed our one chance for rain on Tuesday afternoon by less than a mile. I watched the storm blow through just south of here. My yard is full of fallen leaves and branches from the wind, but not one drop of rain fell. Everything is crunchy dry and the leaves are starting to fall already.

It's a beautiful day though.

A spider web shimmers in the late afternoon sun and dances in the breeze.

The pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) practically glows. I've seen bluebirds eat the berries, but Wikipedia points out that although some parts of the plant are highly toxic, other parts "can be used as food, medicine, or poison." Sounds like the fugu of the plant world!

I'm finding a lot of Monarch caterpillars this summer. Last year I only found two the whole season. This one is sharing its leaf with a milkweed bug.

The goldenrod is blooming now and the honeybees are taking advantage.

I'm newly allergic to hornets, so this time of year I watch my step. This insect really caught my eye, but it's a locust borer beetle (Megacyllene robiniae). The adult seen here feeds on goldenrod pollen and nectar, but the larvae eat the sapwood of black locust trees.

This black morph tiger swallowtail sailed overhead looking as big as a bat. I caught up with her on these asters. Some female tiger swallowtails are dark like this instead of the familiar yellow with black stripes because they mimic the toxic pipevine swallowtail.

Butterfly Garden--Sept. 1, 2010

Yesterday I headed out to the Kokosing Gap trail in Gambier to rollerblade before it got too hot. First though, I stopped by the Brown Family Environmental Center of Kenyon College to check out the butterfly garden. It was a riot of butterflies! My brand new "Butterflies of Ohio" field guide by Jaret C. Daniels got a real workout.

I was greeted by a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), a common, territorial butterfly that I often see in my field at home. The caterpillars feed on various species of aster.

There were several fritillaries. This one is a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia). It is a common visitor here, but does not breed in Ohio.

This is a rather faded Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on a zinnia, probably a female. They mate in early summer, then the females don't lay their eggs until now. By now the males have disappeared.

There were a dozen Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes). It's a common garden butterfly and this one was so intent on its flower that it permitted me to approach it closely.

Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) were abundant here too. I grew up seeing these in the woodland canopy, rarely getting a close look. The zinnias and butterfly bushes in this garden brought them in!

A Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti) allowed me to get close enough for a picture. The adults feed on rotting fruit and carrion as well as flower nectar. They are at the southern edge of their range here, rarely appearing south of Columbus.

After I left the garden I hiked back along the riverside trail. There was a flock of Summer Azures on jewelweed as I entered the woods, and this Northern Pearly Eye (Enodia anthedon) flitted along the trail. The caterpillars feed on woodland grasses and the adults are common in shady woods feeding on sap flows, carrion, and dung.