Longnose Gar

John Howard, an excellent naturalist who lives in Adams County, was telling me about the fish that live in Scioto Brush Creek. Where we first entered the stream, it was rocky and shallow. Several hundred feet downstream, however, the stream deepened and widened into a gigantic pool. In this pool, we spotted perhaps the coolest fish I have ever seen in Ohio, a Longnose Gar, Lepisosteus osseus. Here you can see the gar looking like pencil in the river. I then zoomed in on the fish to give a closer view. I just never realized we had these fish in Ohio. I haven't seen any in the Olentangy, and I doubt they are here in Columbus, but in Scioto Brush Creek, they are readily seen as they like to float at the surface.

Tom

 

 

More from Scioto Brush Creek

I'll throw up some more pictures.....I had a request. Here we have a violet dancer, Argia fumipennis violacea, and northern brown snake, Storeria dekayi.

More Dragons

Sometimes you have one of those days when you see tons of cool stuff. Bugs, plants, reptiles, amphibians. Today the Ohio Heritage Naturalists traveled to Scioto Brush Creek and here is just one example of the interesting animals we found. I believe this is a black-shouldered Spinyleg, Dromogomphus spinosus. An amazingly beautiful animal, it was basking in a meadow opening above Scioto Brush Creek.

Tom

 

Mohican!

Megan and I met my family yesterday at Mohican State Park and Forest. We share a meal at a restaurant in Loudonville then visited the Pleasant Hill Dam, on which we were standing while posing for the first picture. My Dad looks confused, I think my Grandpa was looking at a bird or something, my mom, Megan, and I understood to actually look at the camera and smile, and I think Tim was probably looking for girls. Anyways, there we are.

 

After the dam, we drove down to the cover bridge to see Ohio's newest scenic river, the Clear Fork of the Mohican. What a beaut!

 

Action along the river was light. I did see an eastern forktail damselfy and a few butterflies. I managed to capture an image of this species. It was checking out some, oh, well, some feces of another animal. At least it sat still and I could photograph it.

 

Finally, I plant that I do not see very often, but it is common in eastern Ohio forest, and that is purple flowering raspberry, Rubus odoratus. This large leaved raspberry, a native plant, has brilliant purple blooms. This shrub was covered and it made for a spectacular show. This native Ohio species grows well in cultivation. I did a google search and found several nurseries that sell it. Quite a interesting plant that not everyone gets to see, and we saw it in full bloom.

 

Tom

Living Dangerously!

White photographing the large dragonfly in the last post, I noticed this rather scared bullfrog just behind me. This fly was living life dangerously by perching on the Frog's head, but the frog was probably thinking I was a predator about to eat him, so he didn't pay much attention to the fly.

 

Dragon Summer

On Saturday, I spent hours photographing and looking at dragonflies and damselflies. Megan is studying for her PhD candidacy test, a pretty major ordeal, so I've been giving her plenty of time to study and I go look at dragonflies.

Here we have some stream bluets, a blue female form of the powdered dancer (i think!), an ebony jewelwing, and finally, some other really huge dragonfly was buzzing around a small stream and surrounding reed canary grass meadow.

Tom

 

 

 

 

Art and Turtles in Downtown Columbus

I wore my turtle t-shirt to our trip to the Columbus Arts festival today, but I sure didn't think I would see any live reptiles! Megan and I traveled down to the arts festival this morning. We looked around a bit, saw some art, including several turtle themed pieces of jewlery, etc. and then decided we would head home. I wanted to walk down to the river, pictured below, to get a few shots of the Columbus skyline. Sure enough, as I glanced over the concrete side rail into the river, I spotted a giant cottonwood log. It had came to rest upon the retaining wall, and on it was basking a huge female map turle! Very cool.....as we kept looking, we saw no less than four other turtles on the log. Male map turtles are pint sized compared to the egg laying females. We saw at least one mature male, and some even smaller immature guys or gals. These little turtles have brighter coloration on there heads-in the photos look for the yellow lines. Finally, the ubiquitous Canda Geese arrived on the seen, lured by food tossed over the rail by art fair goers. The geese didn't bother the turtles. They sat basking right on the way through. The female turtle was truly huge. I would say it was pushing 16 inches, and the head alone had to be three inches wide! It was great to see map turtles in this segment of the Scioto. Yes, it isn't what a natural river should look like-at all (it is dammed and really is more like a lake than anything else), but seeing map turtles, a riverine species, brightened the place up just a bit for me. So, if you do go to the arts festival, look for the turtles on the cottonwood log along the riverside sidewalk at the north end of bicentennial park!

Tom

 

 

 

 

Animals that Come to an Artificial Backyard Pond

A few days ago, I showed a picture of a dragonfly. At that time, I didn't name it, but its common name is the "blue dasher". The sunlight washed out the colors in the last photo. Upon returning home from work this evening, I spotted a male blue dasher (females aren't blue at all) once again circling our goldfish pond, but this time, he was stopping to bask on the limestone slabs rimming the pool. I grabbed Megan's camera and got a few shots. In addition, a confused and perhaps trapped American Toad seems to be lingering in our pond. It has been a good two months before we first started hearing and seeing toads in the pond. This one might have just fallen in one night while foraging for food. Unfortunately, the pond level is low due to a lack of rain, and if the toad hasn't found his way out by tomorrow, I may give him some assistance.

 

 

The Yard

I captured all of these photos from in my yard. All relatively common species, but still, fun to photograph!

 

 

 

 

Tom

Damselfly Orgy

Here are the aforementioned damselflies. In total, we have 9 individuals, including two females with attached males laying there eggs on submerged water willow. These little guys were hovering all over the water willow. Looking for mates, I presume. Damselflies have intensely bright colors best appreciated with some close focusing binoculars. In the past most identification was done in the laboratory after catching these creatures, but once dead they loose their magnificent color. Various guides, both local and national, have come out that help you identify them with binoculars. According to my count, there are at least 8 powdered dancers, Argia moesta, in this photo. The males look like they have been coated in blue-gray talcum powder, hence the name. The only females in this shot are at the bottom, and they are attached to males, who actually seemed to over in the air while their abdomens were pointed straight down into the water, somehow holding onto the partially submerged ovipositing (that's the official name for laying eggs used by experts) female. A single male of another species also popped into this shot, and although I am not certain, I have seen and photographed Stream Bluets, and these seemed to match . Not as large as the powdered, this damsel is jet black and blue, quite a stunner.

 

Disturbing the Peace

So Megan and I are shooting pictures in the relatively quiet Kenney Park on Sunday, looking at damselflies, etc. Megan was getting a bit ancy, since I tend to, oh shall we say, dote around the water willow taking hundreds of pictures of damselflies. Anyways, suddenly, over the constant din of state route 315, I hear a crash! splash!, I look up, then see a deer running, leaping, doing anything it can to get across the shallow water. I managed to grab my camera and get a shot of it just before it made it to the opposite bank. To say it startled us would be an understatement!

 

Tom

Shooting Film at the Columbus Zoo

On Mother's Day, Megan and I went to the Columbus Zoo. I thought I might bring along my film camera for the day, an old Canon Elan IIe. I drug it out, put some kodak hi-definition film in, screwed on a cheapo sigma zoom lens, and here are my results! Yes, I dropped off the film at target, then scanned them in using my MP510 all in one printer-scanner-copier. Isn't technology wonderful? These results are a combination of old school and new school.

More Insects

Megan and I took a walk in Kenney Park this afternoon, and we found several very cool insects. I'm just a novice with insects, but photographing them is amazing fun. Their bright colors really pop with a digital camera, and it seems with every turn of the head, I saw another insect. Here is what we saw today.

 

 

 

 

Weeds in the backyard....or Frontyard

Megan and I rent a house, and that means that we pretty much mow the yard but don't care if the yard is made up of grass, sedges, mints, clover, violets, or any other type of plant. Two common weeds in our yard this spring were Indian Strawberry and Creeping Buttercup.

Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens, is quite an attractive plant. Although considered a non-native invasive here in Ohio, it does sport a plethora of intense yellow blossoms. The leaves, palmate and speckled, are also quite appealing to the eye. I don't believe this plant is threat
to natural areas in Ohio at this time, but it does seem to spread quickly. Last year, I don't remember seeing it, and this year, we have copious clumps in the back of our yard. I kept it since it was bar far the most showy plant we had this spring. Right now, the flowers have wilted away, but the leaves are still attractive. The ant crawling around in this flower caught my eye, and I decided the scene was Canon-worthy.

 

Next up, we have the fruit of Indian Strawberry, Duchesnea indica. Not actually a Fragaria, the true strawberry, this fruit nonetheless does look exactly like a strawberry. That is until you look at it closely, especially through the eyes of a macro lens. As you can see, this trawberry looks rather "seedy," lacking any of that succulent flesh you might find on a California grown berry. This plant is a common lawn weed, and it is profuse in our front yard. It has yellow flowers, while native Fragaria blooms are white.

 

Macro Photography

Digital cameras have advance to the point where anybody can take extreme closeups of really cool things, allowing them to see more than they do with the naked eye. My Canon a610 camera, has one such feature. I found this beetle in my back yard, set the camera to the macro mode, and fired away. I may post this picture on bugguide.net, and see what the experts there think this beetle is.