Living it Up on South Bass Island

Expecting party pictures? Well, I don't have any, but yesterday I was immersed in the fairly amazing party culture of South Bass Island, aka Put-in-Bay, which is the small party village on South Bass. Why did I go here, you may ask? Yesterday the Ohio Heritage Naturalists ventured to the island to meet up with Lisa Brohl and Debbie W. of the Lake Erie Islands Chapter of the Black Swamp Conservancy.

Our goal? Explore some of the more interesting shoreline areas of the island, which is basically a giant rock of dolomite. Where the dolomite meets the water, many interesting and rare plants grow- these systems are shoreline alvars, a very rare great lakes plant community.

Here we are exploring the Shoreline alvar.

Harebell, Campunula rotundifolia, abounds on these cliffs and slump blocks. This plant is extremely rare in Ohio, and is listed as a threatened species. This small and delicate flower is perhaps the poster child, at least plant wise, for this community. As Lisa explained to us, the real poster child of the community is the federally threatened Lake Erie Watersnake- Protecting its habitat also ensures the protection of the alvar community.

I always love taking pictures of people in front of interesting signs, and all the more interesting when the signs have a big "do not" painted across them.

The shoreline alvars have prairie affinities, including the native species\mountain mint (perhaps Virginia?- I didn't look at it well enough) and Big Bluestem.

Here's Rick Gardner, my botanical partner in crime, looking sneaky.

We also went out to east point, and waded across to Buckeye Island.

After east point, we drove through down town put-in-bay. What a nightmare. I was driving, and dodging all the pedestrians, golf carts, go carts, mopeds, bicyclists, tourist jeeps, buses and vans was crazy. No pics, as I was driving.

Our last stop was on the west shore of the island, to look at more shoreline alvar habitat. From this vantage point, we could see bands of microcystis algae- an indicator of water quality problems.

Here, Len is examining a sapling blue ash, Fraxinus quadrangulata.


Isn't that a beautiful hunk of dolomite? The shoreline alvars of the Lake Erie Islands are extremely rare Ohio plant communities. We were lucky to explore these area, all thanks to Debbie and Lisa and the Lake Erie Islands Chapter of the Black Swamp Conservancy.

Tom

Catawba Nights

Howdy all, are you ready for the weekend? Big day on Saturday for us at the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, our annual Cranberry Bog open house, and we have 550 people signed up, with walkups sure to come as well. It makes for a long day, especially if it is hot and sunny.

Some of you have seen my TA Photography blog where I put some of my favorite images that I've recently taken. I've set that blog up to be a photo gallery- the images are much larger there. I just added a thirty second time exposure from our Lake Erie trip two weeks ago. Here's a sample, but it looks so much better just a little bigger and viewed on a black background. See it here.

Tom

It's Always Nice to Find What You're Looking For

As many of you know, my job involves looking for rare plants and high quality natural ares in the Lake Erie watershed portion of Ohio. Searching for rare plants is a combination of knowledge, intuition, sticktoitiveness, extreme attention to detail, and sometimes downright luck. Last week, I searched for the tiny one flowered wintergreen at Oak Openings Metropark for about 3 hours, only to come up empty. It was the only sight know for that little plant in Ohio, and if I can't find it in the next week or two, it will probably be considered an extirpated species instead of endangered, because it won't have been seen for over twenty years.

Today was a different story. I went to relocate Iris brevicaulis at Dupont Marsh State Nature Preserve, adjacent to the Huron River in Erie County. Coupled with the knowledge of where the plant had been found, and the knowledge provided to me by my guide today, Brad Phillips of Erie Metroparks, were were able to locate this beautiful iris within about 5 minutes of stepping off the trail. A good day, indeed. This species was last documented from Dupont Marsh in 1991. It differs from our other blue irises, mostly distinctly, by its short, zig-zag stem, spreading perianth (the flower), and its 6 angled capsule (if fruiting).







Here's the more common iris of the Lake Erie marshes, Iris versicolor. I snapped this shot at the Navarre Unit of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge while co-worker Rick Gardner and I were surveying the vegetation of the diked marshes in the area, so very close to the Davis-Besse nuclear power station.



Notice how much longer the flowering stems are in the directly above, and then compare that with the low flower image in the next image up- the Iris versicolor flowers are the same height as the leaves, whereas the Iris brevicaulis flowers are hidden amongst the lower reaches of the blades.

It's always nice to find what you're looking for, and today, that is exactly what happened.

Tom

Muffleheads, Midges, or Chironomids- Your Choice

If you've been to Lake Erie within the past two or three weeks, you've likely seen thousands of these rather large flies, bigger than a typical mosquito. Taxonomically speaking, they're in the family Chironimidae, and known by the denizens of Ohio's north coast as midges or even "muffleheads". Millions and millions of these creatures have hatched from Lake Erie this June- they'll mate and die quickly. This one is a male, identifiable by its brush-like antennae.



This one, without the brush like antennae, I presume is a female.

These insects don't bite or spread disease, but why they're increasing is debated. Some researchers believe that the midges are a sign of polluted low oxygen zones, while other researchers believe that they indicate a cleaner lake. They also helped the Cleveland Indians in a fall playoff series against the New York Yankees in 2007. They swarmed pitcher Joba Chamberlain as he was on the mound, rattling him to the point where he could not recover.

Tom

This is my contribution to this week's Camera Critters meme, hosted by Misty Dawn.

The Swamp Darner

I consider 2007, for me, the year of the dragons. Living near a major river in Columbus, the Olentangy, I was hooked all summer and photographed dozens of species and hundreds of individuals. After we bought our house in Worthington, I live less than a mile from the river, but it just isn't the same. I miss photographing dragons, and two weeks ago on the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, I had a great photo op of a beautiful dragon called the swamp darner. This a really big bug that frequents wet woods and swamps, which are wetlands with woody trees or shrubs.



Even better, I managed to get a shot of this female ovipositing, a fancy way of saying that she was laying eggs. She was quite focused on laying her eggs in the damp log, and allowed me to approach fairly close with the point and shoot camera I was carrying that day.



Eventually, she did find my presence annoying, or she was simply done laying eggs. She flew up and rested in the leaves of a Hawthorn tree. In the shot above, you can see her feather shaped cerci at the tip of the abdomen.

All in all, this creature was a surprise for me- We spent most of the day surveying diked, open marshes, but ended up in a closed canopy swamp forest. Definitely a great way to end the day.

Tom

Catawba Marshes, Lake Erie

The floating leaved marshes between the mainland and Catawba Island provided for amazing reflective sunsets. I took this image from the parking lot of our hotel.

It's just too bad that the non-native invasive species, that giant grass in the foreground, Phragmites australis subsp. australis, or simply "Phragmites", has become so prevalent along the lakeshore. For more about this nasty plant, you need to watch this video.

There is a native subspecies of Phragmites, Phragmites australis subspecies americanus that isn't invasive, but it is quite rare. I've found it in Lake Erie Marshes and prairie fens further inland.

Tom

Marblehead, Lake Erie

To all my Flickr friends who have inspired me with their beautiful images of Lake Erie, here is my contribution to their collective body of work. Megan and Weston allowed me to leave the hotel room early the morning of June 7th and drive the ten miles or so to Marblehead, to photograph Lake Erie and the Columbus Limestone that forms the shoreline there. My only company- the waves and two fisherman. If you go to Marblehead, go early before sunrise, you will not regret it. Megan just looked at this image and said "When did you go to the ocean?"

Tom

Botanizing Middle Bass Island and the Lake Erie Islands Region

The Lonz Winery, July 17, 2006, by AceFrenzy

Hi. Im writing from the ferry dock on middle bass island.
Fun day of botanizing on lake erie.

Update: I'm back in the hotel. I sent that quick update from my cellphone. It took all I had to type that out on my non-querwty keyboard phone. I'm done with my work trip, and now I'm free to spend time with Megan, Weston, and my parents and brother here in the Lake Erie Islands region. Usually I'm up and back to Columbus in the same day- I must say it is nice to watch the sunset, which we have a wonderful view of right out of our hotel window. Botanizing today was fair. No major discoveries, although the island did have a few nice wetlands. Tomorrow, we're off to Firelands winery for a tasting and tour (Megan loves factory tours- ask her about all the ones she's been on through the years). Tomorrow afternoon, we might hit Lakeside and the Marblehead region. I'd like to show Megan the quarries and Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve. Weston is doing fairly well, although he woke up last night at 3, with a full diaper. That's what we get for putting him to bed in the "poop on Michigan" onesie!

Tom

Featured Comment from Mary-

"Doesn't Middle Bass have an old winery on it? I think I have an old photo somewhere. Lake Erie in that area is very interesting."

Yes Mary, it sure does. It's the old Lonz Winery and is now owned by the State of Ohio. Here's an image of the eclectic looking winery, which, according to Wikipedia, hosted five presidents. It is now shuttered, waiting for its next phase of life. I've added a creative commons image of the winery, it still looks the same today.

Lake Erie Ice Fisherman Rescued, One Death Reported

Hi All- I botanize along the coast of Lake Erie quite a bit. I don't get up to the coast in winter, so I'm not familiar with ice fishing. Apparently, this morning, a large ice floe broke away off of Crane Creek State Park (aka Magee Marsh Wildlife Area), stranding hundreds of people. A large rescue effort is over, but the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting at least one death.


UPDATE: This has become quite a amazing story, making national headlines. I've head a few links to my blog from CNN.com...very interesting. My heart goes out to everyone today- the rescuers, the fisherman, and the families. You can only imagine what that was like. I've been to Crane Creek many times-the park where the ice floe broke off. It is one of the best birding areas in the country, and is adjacent to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. For those of you that don't have experience with the Great Lakes, they really are inland seas. They are dangerous systems- its not like walking out on the ice at Little Pond in Maine or even an inland reservoir. Thousands of people ice fish on the lakes every year, and I here that the fishing has been great this year. Amazing stuff, again, I know this area of the state pretty well, so my heart again goes out to everyone involved today.

Tom