North Bass Island

I definitely have one of the greatest jobs available in the State of Ohio. I have had the opportunity to travel this summer to North Bass Island, in Lake Erie, three times this year. With my co-worker Rick Gardner, I'm working on a vegetation survey of the island for the Division of Parks. Here are a few of my shots from this past Monday-Tuesday trip.

We leave from Catawba State Park, where I can remember fishing when I was a teenager. There is a nice cobble limestone beach there which really looked great in the morning sun as we were waiting for our boat.



We arrived at the Island and were greeted by Dale Burris, and, well, grapes. Even though many of the vineyards have been removed, grapes are still a big presence on the island.



After saying goodbye to our hosts, we loaded up the utility vehicle and drove to the lodge. Here to greet us outside near the deck was a large Lake Erie watersnake.



But today was not all fun and games. We had some serious work to do. One of my goals was to find a chinquapin oak on the island, a limestone loving oak species, but we were not able to come up with one. There are very few oaks on the island, but there is this large red oak in the woods just to the south of the chapel.



Also in this woods grew Smilax illonensis, or Illinois greenbrier. This plant has globular blue fruits that look like a little bit like grapes.



Next it was onto Honey Point, the southeast tip of the island. Here, waves come at the point from two directions.



Growing on the beach was seaside spurge, one of Ohio's potentially threatened plants. In Ohio, this plant is found only along the shoreline of Lake Erie. I usually see it in sandy situations, but here it was growing amongst the cobbles.



After our vegetation work was done for the evening, I had an opportunity to photograph insects in a nearby field. There were many interesting little creatures, including this pearl crescent whose color seemed washed out and faded.



Several other interesting insects were present, including a chickweed geometer, a colorful larval lepidopteran, thousands of grasshoppers, and even some female damselflies, possibly familiar bluets.







The sunset was fairly spectacular, and it cast amazing light on everything, including several Jerusalem artichokes and the back wall an abandoned house on the island.




Finally, the sun set, creating up more photo opportunities.




With no light left, I retreated to the lodge, watched a bit of Ontario television and learned about the Green Party in Canada, and was off to bed. We were treated to a spectacular sunrise the next morning.



Tom

Olentangy River Fish

I'm going to make this one quick, but last night I was able to catch some fish in my five dollar bug net. I was in the Olentangy, and I think I came up with a banded darner, and some other type of riffle dwelling minnow, perhaps a central stoneroller, but that is a complete guess.

 

 

 

Apple Pickn'

Megan and I headed to the Legend Hills Orchard near Utica Ohio in Knox County Sunday to pick apples. Since then, we've made fresh apple sauce and even a nice pie from our quarry.

 

Here I am, looking kinda crazy, in the midst of an apple tree looking for Cortland apples.

 

Even though I was picking apples, I took time to look for other creatures, including butterflies. There were plenty of pearl crescents and even monarchs. There were also several robin's nests in the apple trees.

 

Great fun was had by all, including our friends James and Kathleen and their dog Eva. Megan holds the apple picker, a great tool for anyone under 6' 6" or those who do not possess "go go gadget" arms.

 

Tuesday

I'm pretty wiped out after spending another night on North Bass Island. We jetted back this morning on the 450 horsepower state park patrol boat, getting to the mainland about 9:45. We saw several interesting things during our 24 hour trip, including a bluet damselfly that I'm not sure about. I sent off some photos. We'll see what the experts say. It was harvest time on the island, so I was able to get several shots of the vineyards and ripe grapes. We also had a spectacular sunrise. Photos to come tomorrow. Right now I'm heading down to the Olentangy to see if I can get a shot of a dragonfly that I watched through binoculars this afternoon. Wish me luck.

Tom

Images from the Olentangy

Although my favorite photographic target, dragonflies and damselflies, seems to be diminishing down on the river as the temperatures drop, there are still plenty of interesting subjects to photograph.

Right now Jerusalem artichoke is in full bloom. This plant seems to like floodplains, and I have observed it at Whetsone Park and Kenney Park here in Columbus. It is a beautiful native sunflower in the genus Helianthus.

 

As fall approaches and cool air moves south into Ohio, the light cast upon everything along the Olentangy is very rich, clear, and crisp. I was mesmerized by the direct afternoon light bouncing off a pool and reflecting back up and rippling on this dead tree.

 

Last evening, around 6:00, I startled this great blue heron. The heron watched me just long enough to get out the camera, focus, and fire a few shots.

 

Finally, the leaves of a silver maple. If you've ever wondered why silver maple was given this moniker, just look at the undersides of their leaves. These were particually silvery, as the were receiving light bounced off the Olentangy River.

 

Buzzards Roost

Today, the Ohio Heritage Naturalists ventured to Buzzards Roost, a county park managed by the Ross County Park District.

First up is a northern dusky salamander, Desmognathus fuscus, which members of our group discovered crawling under wet shale that had slumped off from a bank above. This species occurs in all but northwest Ohio. This brown or dark gray salamander can be identified by the light line running from behind its eye downward and back to the base of its jaw.

 

One of the neat things about going on these trips is meeting people from across the state that are interested in divergent aspects about Ohio's natural history. It isn't often that I meet people interested in herps, but today we had several people interested in herps. One of those people, Greg Gentry, found this eastern five lined skink under a rock. It was a squirrelly guy, and hard to contain, so we placed it in a jar to photograph this spectacular lizard.

 

In the bottomlands of Paint Creek, I was able to photograph this eastern comma butterfly. This species has a silver-gray shape on the underside of its wings that looks like a common, hence its common name. There is even a question mark butterfly as well.

 

Finally, the last herp of the day was this eastern box turtle. This individual was hiding out under a log, and it required a very sharp eye to spot. Joe Letsche, another herper on the trip, spotted it immediately. Although this male's colors is somewhat subdued, I always relish finding a box turtle.

 

American Rubyspot

My best shot to date of an American rubyspot damselfy. As the temperatures get cooler, these insects seem to be a little less "flighty" and will let you approach them without flying away.

 

Whetstone Park and Prairie

After visiting the art show at Whetstone park on this super humid day, Megan and I ventured down to the Whetstone prairie, a project organized by a group called Columbus Wild Ones.

Although the plants growing in the prairie are very much past their prime, there are still several interesting things to be seen.

All summer long, I really didn't have a good chance at photographing a Monarch butterfly. Well, one was hanging out, nectaring on some goldenrod, and this guy seemed happy to be photographed.

 

Fall is the time for symphyotrichums. It used to be the time for asters, but botanists have decided to go with a different naming system for the plants formerlly known as asters. At least scientifically. The north american Asters have now become It is still perfectly acceptable to still call this heart-leaved aster for the common name but drop aster and add Symphyotrichum to your botanical dictionary.

 

There were hundreds of goldfinches in the prairie. They were mostly after the seeds of leaf-cup, of which there were hundreds of plants here reaching over ten feet tall. This individual is a female "goldenfinchie" (this is what goldfinches are called by some in Maine.)

 

Finally, a skipper. This butterfly may be a Peck's skipper, Polites peckius. That is the closest species I could come up with using the Kaufman focus guide to butterflies. What a beautiful animal. This insect appears to be nectaring on this Liatris , which was planted here at Whetsone.

 

Black-shouldered Spinyleg

Although different dragonflies come and go during the season, one species that I have consistently seen throughout summer has been the black-shouldered spinyleg. I snapped this shot along the Olentangy River here in Columbus. This one may have been on its last legs. It allowed me to approach within inches. Look carefully for the black shoulders and very large rear legs, which have sigificant, nasty looking spines.

Tom

 

Signs from Maine

Megan, my fab life partner, aka spouse, grew up in western Maine, in the foothills of the white Mountains. We were married about one year ago, and many of my friends ventured up to that great state to take part in the festivities. I just don't think my Ohio friends completely "got" Maine in the short time they spent there. To me, western Maine is really, really, really quirky and hilarious. But it is all pretty subtle and you have to be immersed in the culture to really "get it".

Here are a few signs that point to what I'm talking about.

Restaurants are pretty common across the country, but rarely do they take second billing to baked beans. Yes apparently, Andy's Baked Beans are just so good that the fact that you can eat them in his restaurant is merely an afterthought as evidenced by this sign. Mainers really want you to get the point.

 

Ok, the next sign I thought was hilarious since the Oxford County Fairgrounds, are, well, rather worn down looking, especially when the fair isn't going on. The second fact about this sign: Maine only has sixteen counties. So just the fact that somebody hands out a "most improved county fair" award is just silly since your chance of getting is pretty great. And after giving this award once to every county, are the fairs really go to improve all that much? I thought this sign was hilarious.

 

Finally, Smedberg's grocery store advertises their "native" Maine products, but they have clearly misspelled lobster on their sign. And I think the Milk & Meat is just hilarious as well. I'm not sure why milk & meat go together, but in Maine, they do.

 

American Copper

So, I was thinking this afternoon, didn't I used to have a blog? It seems like it has been ages since I last posted something, and a bunch of factors have lead to my absence in cyberspace, including a broken digital camera card reader, but I thought I would get back into the swing of things by going through some of the photos that I took in Maine this past August.

This butterfly is possibly an American Copper. At least this picture really looks like the photo of the American copper in the Kaufman focus guide on butterflies. The most interesting thing about this butterfly? Even though it is called the American copper, according to Kaufman's book, some experts feel that it may be introduced from Europe. Why would that be? Apparently, the larvae eat sheep sorrel, an introduced plant.