Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Power of Collective Naturalizing III- Shawnee State Forest

What a fantastic day of naturalizing at Shawnee yesterday! Here are just a few of the very interesting things that we came across. As always, if you recognize something, no matter how basic, feel free to chime in and tell us a little piece of information, or maybe even put an I.D. on something. As always, in this list, there are things that I knew right off the bat, things I had and still have a general idea about, others I learned, and there are still things that are yet to be solidly identified. So here we go, here was our day at Shawnee, a state forest and park system about 2 hours south of Columbus, a few miles west of the Ohio River city of Portsmouth.

*****(It's Monday Night, and I'm going to write some updates and maybe give a few HINTS!)****

1. Kathleen correctly identified the biologists in this photo, with their floppy hats and all, but what is that shrub they are looking at? One clue: It has opposite leaves. Second clue: It is on the Ohio Rare Plant List.

2. I thought someone may have gotten this one by now! I know it by two common names, any guesses here?
3. Kathleen correctly ID'd the eastern tent caterpillar, which I learned on this trip from John Howard, an incredible naturalist from Adams County.
4. Yes, this one is in the pink family. I'm getting hot we're so close. Its starting to smoke!
5. Any ideas what family this plant may be in? Kylee, are you out there? You can't buy this one at Kroger or any garden center near you. Ok..I'm outta here, but I've given a few clues, more to come tomorrow.
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25 comments:

  1. 10 looks like they are having a meeting! Beautiful pictures!

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  2. Thanks Helen, Yeah, it seemed like every species of this flower (to be named by someone out there) had these little flies, which I'm sure have a name as well.

    Tom

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  3. A lot of cool stuff to see, but not a lot I can identify (except the iris that look like the ones that I can't control in my yard). I liked the shot of the flies in the center of the flower, too....never seen them do that. I see you managed to find a turtle :-) All good photos and I'll be awating the answers that will come flowing in.

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  4. Tom, what a super outing post and photos. My daughter and her hubby were on a nature hike this weekend too. :D

    Photo ten is quite the capture!!! Those insects aren't wasting any time. I swallowed a bug on a photo shoot at a harbor two nights ago and didn't have any water with me. LOL

    Do you have many bug bites from that hike? I have three black flies bites from last night when Jeff and I were along the beach and I was photographing the sunset. Had bug spray on.

    I wonder how I am going to keep the mosquitoes from showing up in the photos for a while. LOL

    I appreciate all of your advice on the Canon Rebel XTi and look forward to hearing about your experiences with different accessories.

    I want to soak up everything!

    Hugs, JJ

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  5. Just awesome, Tom. And people wonder why we should protect these places and the creatures that live in them!

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  6. It looks like you had a great day yesterday. Beautiful pictures! Here are my guesses:

    #2 No idea but James and I saw this last week on a ridgetop at Old Man's Cave in the Hocking Hills
    #3 Eastern tent caterpillar
    #4 No idea of the species, but in the caryophyllaceae or pink family
    #8 Silver bells?? Does it grow here?
    #9 Asplenium spp??
    #10 Very cool! I've never seen these little flies congregate like this! I think the flower is Geranium maculatum, the wild geranium.
    #11 & #15 some kind of neat fungi??
    #19 snake on a mayapple (Podophyllum)

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  7. ...and #1 is Homo sapiens var. biologist, easily recognized by their backpacks, notebooks, floppy hats, and attentiveness to flora and fauna above them and on the ground.

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  8. Wow, what a great collection. Looks like you had a very busy day. Sorry I can't help with IDs. I don't think we have any of these in my neck of the woods (Hawaii).

    Bobbie

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  9. I don't know anything, but reading your post keeps me educated! Thanks!
    #16 looks like some kind of iris? Maybe, maybe not.

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  10. Tom: Amazing pictures you have here today. The fly/flower is so funny, were they having a board meeting?

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  11. Great shots! I am envious as I would have had a field day with those bugs!

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  12. Any more thoughts anyone? There still are quite a few things here..Is this one too hard?

    Tom

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  13. Tom . . . you are killing me here! Looks like I need to go pull the field guide(s) out now!

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  14. Monarch-

    Don't worry.....I just gave a few hints...I'll give more. I'm guessing that you guys in NY don't have many of these southern species. Up in NE Ohio we have very similar stuff to what Jennifer posts, for example, but the southern unglaciated hills are a whole other story!

    Tom

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  15. 6 - Terrepene carolina (don't always find too many small ones...)

    13 - Hard to tell without really seeing the labial scales, but most likely Eumeces (Plestiodon) fasciatus. I can't exlude Eumeces (Plestiodon) laticeps though, which is the much better find/photograph in my opinion.

    14 - A tiger beetle of the family Cicindelidae (Cicindela sexguttata??)

    18 - An Anisoptera, maybe Progomphus obscurus?

    19 - a pretty Thamnophis sirtalis

    I was down that way last Tues and will most likely be back there getting after the herps later this week.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Jason

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  16. Hi Tom,

    I'm going to try for a couple of the plants and the butterfly.

    2 I thought Bee Balm at first glance, but upon getting lucky in my Wildflower book, I think it's Wood Betony/ Forest Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis).

    4 I thought this might be Royal Catchfly, but it's too early, so Fire Pink (Silene virginica)!

    5 I wanted to see some leaves, but maybe seeing no leaves was a clue. I'm going to guess it could be Penstemon, Salvia or Lobelia?

    7 Ahhh, Red-banded Hairstreak! What I'd do to attract one of these to my garden. Tell me what to plant and I will. My understanding is that they like oak or sumac leaf litter. I planted Fragrant Sumac, then learned that wasn't good enough! :-(

    9 A cool fern. Okay, I'm losin' it. :-)

    Rhonda

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  17. We have some great botanists, entomologists, and herpetologists here in Ohio and across the continent.

    Any more guesses? I'll keep this open until Wednesday evening, so keep your comments coming, I'll be sure to mention you if you have interesting input.

    Tom

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  18. How fun, Tom! I won't spoil it for the others, since I was there. But the flies on the geranium, Jenny said are Dance Flies. I looked them up on Bugguide and it looks like most likely they are of the species Rhamphomyia.

    http://bugguide.net/node/view/30020
    Janet

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  19. I'm not real familiar with the southern Ohio species but I'll give it a shot.

    #1 possibly a Viburnum molle

    #5 puttyroot orchid

    #16 Crested iris

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  20. I love the little turtle!
    13; Broad-headed skink, perhaps (picture of one of them on my blog right now, too.)
    14; 6-spotted green tiger beetle, maybe?
    16; Purple iris of some sort?

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  21. #4 Fire Pink....Silene Virginica

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  22. #8..looks like apple blossoms that have lost their petals.

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  23. Thanks everyone for the great contributions. I didn't make it to putting up what we've identified and what is left to identify. Look for the answers soon.

    Tom

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  24. 5. If I saw it here in California, I'd call it a Spotted Coralroot Orchid (Corallorhiza maculata).

    16. Probably different in your neck of the woods, but here I'd call it Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana).

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  25. The top photo looks like the 17 year cicada that we just had last year. My daughter used to call it the devil bug.

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