Spring wildflowers--April 23, 2011

It's late April, the snow has finally stopped, and the spring wildflowers are blooming. My small, wet second- or third-growth woodlot had suffered a lot of human interference before I moved here 15 years ago, and I work on and off to try to restore it to a more native state. It's been heavily planted with daffodils and daylilies, and the former owners apparently kept it raked.

It's very small and has been thoroughly infested with garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis). For the last five years I have dedicated a good deal of time each spring to pulling up this invasive weed, and while it's still a problem, the center of the woods is now largely mustard-free. I keep meaning to address the (also invasive) daylilies, but this time of year I tend to get overwhelmed with yard work, and never manage to get back to them. There's also multiflora rose that I hack down when it starts climbing into the trees and the native grapevine that I control the same way. I was lucky enough to have grown up in a large old-growth forest (by Ohio standards), and I well remember the annual carpet of wildflowers from my childhood. Although my woods here is beautiful to look at, I tend to see all the invaders as well as the fading ash trees, notice what's missing, and can't help but feel somewhat depressed.

I miss seeing trout-lilies and trilliums here, but some native wildflowers do appear. I transplanted this Dutchman's-breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) plant from a friend's property in Delaware County before her house was built, but there's a bigger patch down in the ravine. This beautiful wildflower grows in rich woods, but did not occur in my childhood woods for some reason and I saw it for the first time when I moved to Columbus. It's seeds are known to be spread by ants, and sure enough, there's a large anthill right on the edge of the woods.

Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) were prevalent and a sure sign of spring in my parents' woods, and I love seeing my own colonies thrive here.

A few spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) live here...,

....and there is one small patch of rue anemone (Anemonella thalictroides) among the Dutchman's-breeches in the ravine.

There is a huge number of violets, both common blue (Viola papilionacea)....

...and large-leaved (Viola incognita) in the woods and lawn. The blue violets are known to become weeds, and they are a welcome one for me!

There is a spreading patch of wild leeks or ramps (Allium tricoccum) for which this wet, muddy woods is especially suited. Ramps are a well-known spring delicacy in Appalachia and are threatened by over-harvesting in some states. I'd be happy to see this patch overtake the woods!

Delaware Wildlife Area--March 2, 2011

In the midst of this small break from the misery that has been this winter here in Ohio, I attempted to capture a photograph that eluded me around this time last year. I commute by this marsh in the Delaware Wildlife Area, and one morning last March the rising sun lit the trees and turned the water to gold. I brought my camera the next day, but was foiled first by a stretch of cloudy days, then the time change, and finally the drying out of the marsh which changed the whole character of the scene.

So this year, post-flood, pre-time change, and with a clear day forecast, I arrived just before sunrise. I came for the scenery, but was delighted to find flocks of waterfowl--mostly Canada geese and mallards, but also a small group of snow geese--not rare exactly, but birds I seldom see.

The sun rose, and I took lots of pictures, but never saw the orange reflection in the water I remember from last year. More flooding rain is forecast for the next few days, so I’ll have to wait for another opportunity.

December 18, 2010

Today I venture out into a frigid, breathtakingly beautiful, blue and white morning.

Last weekend's ice and snow still covers the ground and clings to branches.....

.....as well as the Queen Anne's Lace.

The teasel seed heads are rimed with frost.

This time of year, I'm rarely home in the daylight, so I enjoy the marvelous view on the way to the mailbox.

October 30, 2010

I ventured out to the mailbox this morning, the sun well up and the thermometer at freezing. Last week's storm blew most of the remaining leaves from the trees, but the sugar maple still flames and the mulberries are showing some green.

Milkweed skeletons hold their seeds to the wind...

And goldenrod seed heads catch the early sun's rays.

A flock of a dozen white-crowned sparrows flit between the rugosa rose hedge and the field, foretelling the coming winter.

I got busy with other things over the last couple of weeks (for more about that, see http://speedingpullet.blogspot.com), and when I turned around again, it was fall! It's gotten chilly at night, the furnace has been kicking on all week, and we've finally gotten some rain.

Fall colors are starting to make an appearance here and there like on this poison ivy in the field.

The goldenrod are past their peak, but the field is full of these purple-stemmed asters (Aster puniceus). I didn't see any butterflies, but the honeybees are still out and eagerly making use of them.

Large milkweed bugs are still to be found on the now-seeding milkweeds.

Oleander aphids (Aphis nerii), another toxin-sequestering milkweed denizen crowd the few remaining green stems. This is the wingless form of this all-female species--each offspring is a clone of the mother.

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.