Sunday, November 05, 2006

Fire @ ESB

Tomorrow, I'll be participating in my first prescribed burn. Ok., make that second. While at Miami U. for grad school, I helped out (which actually meant watched) with a small prairie grass burn. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Erie Sand Barrens State Nature Preserve in Erie County, not far from Sandusky Ohio. I'll be suiting up in my Nomex fire proof clothing, lacing up my yellow vibram soled rocky work boots, and beyond that I'm not really sure what to expect. We'll see and I'll describe the experience come tomorrow.

Today Megan and I went to Grandpa's Cheesebarn and Fin Feather Fur outfitters in Ashland. A few natural history items of note. One, there was a nice buck lying in the back of an old blue truck right in front of the outfitters. I thought of my brethren at the Division of Wildlife. Which makes me think, on our way up to Ashland from Columbus, we must have seen at least 10 deer that had been struck along I-71. Second, after our visit to Fin Feather & Fur, Megan spotted a wooly bear caterpillar "booking" across the street as we walked to the cheesebarn. Jim McCormac blogged on these guys a few days ago, and be on the lookout for one of these weather predictors in your backyard. They are really cool and remind me of being a little boy. Ok, they don't really predict the weather, but it is a pretty neat old myth.

Tom

2 comments:

  1. So sorry I haven't emailed you back! I suck. I was waiting for all your wedding detritus to get over and done with and now I'm just swamped. But a question: do wooly bears territory extend up into Michigan? One would think it does, but a few weeks ago one of my students brought one up to me excitedly as if it was some kind of novel species. I said "That's a Wooly Bear." The entire class agreed they had never come across one before and passed judgement that I was making this "wooly bear" up. Perhaps it's because they've been raised in the concrete jungle?

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  2. Hi Beth,

    From what I have found on the net is that these guys range throughout North America. Their scientific name is Isia isabella. Thanks for reading!

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