August Sightings #1

More nature photos from our outdoor respites in the middle of covid seclusion and mask-wearing.

Boch Hollow ...

A re-visit to Boch Hollow State Nature Preserve, on July 31st. Almost August. Climbing from the east trailhead, Joan and I reached this pond, with wonderful reflections of the far shore.

Zooming in on the blooms of "water shield," which is not common but locally abundant in ponds and shallow water throughout the eastern US. The submerged stems can be up to six feet long!

The hairy wood mint. I have since learned how to manually set the aperture to get a greater depth of field in focus.

Happy gilled mushroom growing out of a log. Looks fresh!

Here the mycelium ("roots"), an interconnected network of hyphae, anchor some shrooms in the coral family to the side of a tree.

A spiny orb-weaver spider.

The work continues at the closed west trailhead. Maybe next year?

Slate Run ...

Slate Run Metro Park hosts a historical farm, picnic and play areas, woods, and wetlands. There's a lot of variety there! Joan and I started at the west, or wetlands, entrance, and moved slowly because there was so much to see.

Algae everywhere in this pond, and each juvenile green frog had barely one square yard to itself.

In clearer water,

There were several juvenile green herons along the shore of one pond.

They are stalkers who can strike a fish instantly. This is an action shot of a greenie flipping its catch before swallowing it whole. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Overhead, a juvenile osprey, sometimes called the "fish hawk," searched for its breakfast. This diver will plunge into the water and then beat back up into the air with talons grasping, it hopes, a juicy catch. This contrasts with the bald eagle, who will wet no more than its feet.

A northern water snake, a common species but usually not where Joan and I wander; we're not often around unspoiled water. It dines on fish and small amphibians.

Just chillin' ... or rather, warmin' in the sun.

As the trail left the wetlands the land gradually rose; grasses and flowering  plants became more common. On the left, we have wild senna, often used by Native Americans for medical purposes, but now declining through its range. On the right, blue vervain.

A short climb took us to an observation point, complete with a deck where we could sit and gaze and have a snack. Against the horizon, with binoculars, you can locate the Franklin County landfill and the warehouses surrounding Rickenbacker International Airport. The airport began as the Lockbourne Army Airfield in 1942, but is now primarily a cargo port with some passenger service and an Air National Guard refueling wing.

We continued east, and spent time tromping through meadows and then woods, including trails we'd never followed before. Gotta rack up those miles!

A great tree.

The view from a deck that was a stone's throw from one of the parking/picnic areas.

Just below the deck a huuuge chicken-of-the-woods fungus grew. The species is edible. Colorful too.

After more trail exploration my photography resumed as we passed through the wetlands on our return leg. Zippy and fluttery winged creatures were out now, including these three dragonflies.

Widow Skimmer

Eastern Pondhawk

Halloween Pennant

But the really, really, really big treat was a family of sandhill cranes, two adults (with the red patch on the head) and two juveniles. The southwest section of the Slate Run wetlands is off-limits because sandhills sometimes nest there, even though this far south is not ordinarily in their range outside of migration.

Along the way Joan and I collected various bits of trash, including a lost reusable water bottle, for proper disposal. We've being doing that on all our hikes this year. The stuff some people throw on the trail ...

Rockbridge ...

A repeat visit to this geological formation. The first stretch is a trail with some boardwalk sections with fields and woods on the right, and a fence and farmland on the left. Here we see a dodder plant, one of 201 parasitic species in the parasitic genus Cuscuta. You can see how it has latched onto this host.

The common or square-stemmed monkey flower. This plant has a high salt content and, dried, was used as a salt substitute.

A bee who took no notice of me, focused on the joe-pye weed.

A jazzier rendition via the DeepDreamGenerator.

The trail soon split, to the right for the Rock Shelter and the left for the Rock Bridge. We followed them both.

First, at the Rock Shelter, with Joan for scale.

A closer look.

We finished our visit to the Rock Shelter by taking an additional loop trail. On the way, we encountered this gnome, an invasive species that favors parks and preserves.

Returning to the other loop we reached the Rock Bridge.

It hardly looks able to support its own weight, but most folks, including us, had the nerve to walk across.

Christmas Rocks ...

Our repeat visit to Christmas Rocks began early on a cloudy morning with a good chance of rain. The forecast kept others away; we had the first 3½ hours to ourselves. A light sprinkle during the last hour was mostly intercepted by the green umbrella of the woods.

There was damage on the trails from a windstorm a few days before.

The first part of the trail system is an old road, now a gravel driveway to a house, where the preserve actually begins. The low terrain to the right of the road as you go in supports all types of moisture-loving vegetation, and at this time of year, butterflies, such as this tiger swallowtail, are searching for blooms.

The biggest treat of the day was this female northern walkingstick. This creature is no more than 4" long, and it is an insect, meaning it has six legs. The front legs are held out in front when motionless to reinforce the "I'm just a stick" message.

At Home ...

Not a hike, but nestled between the weathered wooden slats of Joan's basil planters, a gray tree frog, well camouflaged, don't you think? He visited us for two days.

There's more to August, but this post is plenty long enough. See you next time!