Thrills at Boch Hollow State Nature Preserve

On September 21st Joan and I chose to revisit Boch Hollow State Nature Preserve for our weekly get-out-of-the-house hike. We started at the North trailhead,

and then worked our way towards the still unopened West trailhead. Very early on Joan spotted a spectacular caterpillar, the saddleback.

Those spiny hairs can leave you with a blistery rash that will linger, so do not touch! As spectacular as this critter is with its lime-green blanket, it turns into an undistinguished brown moth, Acharia stimulea.

As we drew close to the West trailhead Joan and I gingerly walked around a bright yellow "Trail Closed" sign. The last segment of the path as we knew it was virtually invisible, filled with branches and brush, and a newly hacked trail veered off to the left. It became apparent that we were headed for a new bridge to the West parking area.

Coming out of the woods ...

The bridge itself.

The parking area it led to was not finished; yellow tape forbade cars from entering, and the bulldozed ground still needed reseeding. A few workers were there so Joan and I did not nose around too much. However, a berry-hunting flock of Swainson's Thrushes on the west bank caught our attention. These birds only migrate through Ohio; they nest further north.

We turned around to see how far east we could go before returning to the North trailhead to be home in time for an on-line event. Soon, however, we stopped to admire this coral-tooth (sometimes called comb-tooth) mushroom colony.

Hericium coralloides

A closeup. This fungus is edible, exhibiting a mild nutty flavor when fresh, but turns sour as it ages. Joan and I did not sample it, and neither should you, unless you're an expert.

Tromping east, after several intersections we came to a screeching halt for another caterpillar, a Hickory Horned Devil, in the middle of the trail.

These critters are 5" to 6" long and 3/4" wide, huge!

They have a fascinating story. They spend all of their life as a caterpillar up in the tree canopy, munching away. In their final instar (skin) they descend to the ground to find a good spot in the earth to tunnel into, and pupate over the winter in their snug subterranean abode. No forming a chrysalis hanging out in the open for them, no sir! It emerges as a regal moth.

Image from ourbreathingplanet.com/regal-moth

A closeup of the head. As fierce as it looks, it's utterly harmless, unlike the saddleback.

I had to capture its locomotion.


Joan was concerned that other hikers might not look favorably on our Devil, and, coaxing it onto a stick, moved it a few feet into the woods behind a rotting log. Later, on reading about the Devil's underground metamorphosis, we realized Joan had given it an assist.

This was our second astonishing caterpillar/moth find in the easternmost part of the preserve, the other being the luna-moth we saw  a few months earlier.

We hiked on as far as the top of the descent to the East trailhead, then turned back. Passing a pond for the second time, one of the frogs, who always jump into the water and hide from us, did not. It scooted to a new spot and hung motionless.

A Tiny Fellow

The jack-in-the-pulpit flowers of spring produce eye-popping red berries in September.

Joan and I had our final snack sitting on a log, gazing out at the rock formation underneath the next bend in the trail. This part of Ohio is full of lithic features created by erosion of the underlying sandstone.

Some in Boch Hollow are quite large.

Caterpillars ... fungus ... frogs ... swainson's ... what more could you want?