A Long Journey, but it's All Roses Now.

On an early morning outing on my day off at the Whetsone Park of Roses, a real gem of Columbus, I encountered this beautiful shelled creature. I went to photograph the rose garden for my microstock photography venture, but came back with a decidedly more interesting image. That is, if, you just happen to love turtles, and well, I just happen to love turtles.

This is a three-toed box turtle, a subspecies of the eastern box turtle. This girl's bland olive shell and only a small little bit of orange on the side of its face tipped me off right away that she released here in Columbus, and was enjoying her time at the park. A quick look at her only hind leg (the right one was completely missing) and my initial ID was confirmed- three long toes with sharp fingernails- and a perfectly flat lower shell and small tail meant she was a she.

I happened to talk to a few Columbus Recreation and Parks employees, and they said they encounter box turtles frequently, but they thought they were the native subspecies. Now my interest is really piqued. Surely, the turtle that I found was released by an unwilling pet owner. The three-toed subspecies is the one supplied in the pet industry here in Ohio, although I've not seen wild caught ones offered for sale in a while. This turtle was probably hatched somewhere in the Southern U.S. in the wild, caught by a dealer, sold to a pet wholesaler, who then sold it to a pet store, who then sold it to a pet owner who eventually got bored and released the turtle back into "the wild". Now that is a story that I should expand upon. Now she's able to cruise the woods, lawns, and rose gardens of Columbus' Whetsone Park.





Tom

Highbanks Metro Park

Today, Megan and I went to Highbanks Metropark, part of the central Ohio Metroparks system, now simply known as "Metroparks".

Here we are on a trail by the Olentangy River.

 

I am always amazed by the how much we see every time we go on a walk. Megan picked out a Meadow vole scurrying through some goldenrod a few feet off the trail. I believe that her initial inclination was that it was a bird, but as soon as she swung around me, I knew that what she spotted must have possessed fur! Sure enough, I managed to scope it out with my binos, and I think she found a meadow vole.

Other cool stuff on the day? An interesting lichen clinging to a tree trunk at about head height. The camera is only centimeters from this strange creature.

 

This small stream, full of Devonian aged shale, trickled down from the upland oak forest at highbanks and into the floodplain. We stood on the bridge and watched the water flow for a while. Overall, we had a wonderful time at Highbanks. We even did some sun salutations and a few warrior poses to stretch ourselves out at the end of the hike. The day was fairly birdy as well, and I know spring has arrived. As we were leaving, a flock of about 100 Canada geese flew high overhead, in their classic V-formation. I also had two Cooper's hawk, several male and female cardinals, a hairy woodpecker, Carolina chickadees, a few dozen turkey vultures, male-red winged blackbirds calling like they'll never find a female, a nuthatch about 5 feet from the trail warning us, and a few song sparrows.

 

Although I look creepy in the following picture, I thought I would put it up because we finished off the evening with a trip to the Pig Iron BBQ in north Columbus. We have been by this place 100 times, always thought about going, but admittedly, it somewhat scared us. Tonight, we went, it was great, excellent food, fun, down to earth people, and a sweet atmosphere. Go to the Pig IRON! During lent, they also offer plenty of fried fish options, using the recipe from Old Bag of Nails Pub. I couldn't leave without framing us in front of the big giant pig.
Tom