Wildflowers and Sunshine- Highbanks Hike Continued

As I drove to work this morning, as I was curving around the off ramp and stopped at the traffic light, rain drops began to hit my windshield. I then realized that mixed in with the liquid water was semi-frozen slushy snowflakes. They were gone as soon as they came, but is was no-doubt-about-it snow.

And then just as I accelerated up the ramp to I-71, on my way home this afternoon, the heavens opened up once more, this time releasing wind driven heavy rain, and mixed in, big, wet, slushy snowflakes. With the high clouds that let quite a bit of light through, it was a strange sight. I'm just glad we're not going to receive the 6-12" of snow our local weatherman Jim Ganal predicted for my homeland, Northeast Ohio. Tom (fishing guy), have fun with this one, can't wait to see pictures.

With all this talk of snow, why not head back to last Thursday, a glorious spring day bursting with native wildflowers? I can't think of any reason not to, so here we go.

The other Tom (Mon@rch) that we all know and love apparently needs a baby fix, so why don't we give him one?


Here's Weston and Mom, wearing a wonderful little cap made by his Aunt Rachel. She's studying to be a nurse practioner in Virginia, so we'll have two advanced practice nurses in the family soon. Thanks Rachel, he wore this hat well.

Here we are at the trail head, near the nature center at Highbanks. We picked up on the pileated woodpecker trail, which winds through beech-maple-oak forest ravines, eventually down to the floodplain of the Olentangy River, and back up again. There were plenty of bloodroots, as you saw from yesterday's post, but several other interesting things were blooming as well.



Like this little guy, which I think is long spurred violet (Viola rostrata) but I looked at it only to take the picture. I remember way back when, 10 years ago, when I saw my first spurred violet at Eagle Creek State Nature Preserve. Ohio has over two dozen species of native violets, and this is one of them. Compare this one to the violets in your yard, and you'll see that they don't have this long spur.



The first flower I typically see each spring, without fail, is spring beauties. Although I had seen some by the time I had taken the violet image, it wasn't until I caught a few Dutchman's breeches just beginning to unfurl that I got both species in a picture. Look carefully, the breeches are the solid over exposed white flowers in the top right with feather divided leaves, while the spring beauties are in the lower left, with linear spongy leaves.



And what is spring without an early blooming sedge? I believe this is Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania sedge, which is a common early bloomer in mesic to dry woods.



As we walked, the trail dropped down to a small head water stream that cuts down to the bedrock of the area, the Devonian aged Ohio Shale. Same bedrock here that is in Cleveland that they find gigantic armored fish fossils called Dunkleosteus in. It also is the source of Central Ohio's home radon issues.



After leading us down, the trail led us back up the ravine on the other side. From this location, I could see the opposite eroding bank, and I spotted one of the concretions that I have blogged about before, even comparing Megan's pregnant belly to one of these round rocks. This shot was at full telephoto from about 100 feet away, and I would estimate the boulder to be about 3 feet in diameter. The jury is out about how these round concretions formed in rather flat, finely bedded shale, but my sister agency has put out a great fact sheet that is well worth a read. Would you believe that one of these concretions found at highbanks metropark actually had a devonian aged fish jaw fossilized in the center of it? They've got a picture of it at highbanks. Obviously, I'm finding it more interesting now than when we were there, or else I would have photographed the fossil!

Thanks for joining us on part two of our Highbanks adventure, tomorrow we'll make it down to the river, see what's inhabiting the upper reaches of the floodplain, and find out what bird species are already building their nests.

Tom

Hayden Run Falls- An Artistic Impression

And here it is- This image I shot at the base of the falls. I shot the file in RAW. Use Canon's Digital Photo Professional, I converted it to black and white, applied a digital "red" filter, and upped the contrast. Yesterday, biology and geology, today, art.

And for Jennifer, I really think I should paint this scene. Thanks a bunch for the idea.

Also- for Swamp Thing- This gorge is carved out of the Mississipian aged limestone. If I were at work, I could give you the exact name of this limestone. The orangish color from yesterday's photo may have been slightly more saturated and rich than it appears in real life, but to really be sure, I should print out the photo and return to the sight to see how I did. Thanks everyone for taking a look at my photos.

As for what is in store, I've been working on two things- First, I've been experimenting with podcasts, and hope to have a post from a nature hike I took in my old stomping grounds of Munroe Falls, Ohio. I will no longer be silent- you'll get to here my actual voice.

Second- I've seen three species of turtles so far this season prowling the waters of Ohio, and I have both video and pictures that are forthcoming.

Third- Megan and I spent about six hours shopping yesterday at the Easton Town Center Mall (if you read Zick's blog you've seen her posts about Easton), and it was a great little diversion for us. We finished off the evening with fancy martinis (I had ice cream!) at a chocolate cafe (yes, most things have chocolate in them sans a few soups and sandwiches) with our friends James and Kathleen over in the Grandview area.

Birding Black Hand Gorge State Nature Preserve and Dillon Lake State Park

Greetings!

Megan and I are staying at the Cherry Valley Lodge in Newark, Ohio, this weekend. We just had to get away from the city. Well, this is not completely true, since Megan is here attending the Ohio Certified Nurse Midwife Conference. With her at the conference all day long, I had two choices-- pay $15.00 to spend a day at the CoCo Key indoor water park, OR go birding at Black Hand Gorge and Dillon State Park. This was not a difficult decision.



Black Hand Gorge State Nature Preserve lies at the foot of a tiny little town called Toboso. Toboso is almost ten miles due east of Newark, itself about 45 miles east of Columbus. What this means is that here, I am in a completely different ecoregion. We're talking unglaciated Ohio. Unglaciated Appalachian plateau. Acidic soils, sandstone bedrock, and hills.

The centerpiece of Blackhand is the Licking River, which has cut a path through the hard, massive, coarse grained orange-yellow rock called Blackhand Sandstone. That's right, this sandstone that occurs throughout eastern Ohio was named after this gorge. But why blackhand? A large and prominent Native American petroglyph once existed on a large natural sandstone bluff in the gorge overlooking the river. Unfortunately, the glyph was destroyed during construction of a canal in the 1820's. Some of the canal's infrastructure exists today, but there is no sign of the historic glyph. Yet there is plenty of its namesake sandstone.



Think sandstone, think river gorge, think abandoned nineteenth century quarries, and think of a railroad that once hauled stone the across Ohio, and you have Black Hand Gorge State Nature Preserve.

I park Megan's yellow Volvo v40 at the trail head. The defunct railroad is now a four mile long bike trail and the quarries are long abandoned and grown up with natural vegetation. A typical gray winter day. Cold, about 30 degrees, no wind, and no shadows. Very quiet. A few cars in the parking lot. I open the trunk, reach for my camera and slide on the telephoto lens. What birds will I see?



I began by pishing near an old open quarry now filled with water and choked with buttonbush shrubs. Carolina chickadees fly in almost instantaneously, appearing from hiding places in the wetland and adjacent oak woods. Within a few minutes, I have six. Then comes a lone tufted titmouse, and finally, a curious song sparrow.





I keep listening, watching, and panning the horizon with my bins. Within sight, I have several interesting and diverse habitats- river and floodplain, buttonbush wetland, and dry upland woods. A flash of red down in a buttonbush. The racket of the chickadees catch a male northern cardinal's attention. Sure enough, a loud repetitive squawking from across the river, only to be answered further downstream. The call of two conversing pileated woodpeckers! I manage to get a pretty crappy shot of a beautiful male. What else? Rattle, a flash of blue and white, zipping down the ice free river, and a male belted kingfisher is on my list for the day. Not too bad! I move on, breathless from pishing, no longer worthy of the chickadees attention.



I keep walking, photographing the gorge, the old canal infrastructure, and the outcropping where the black hand was said to have been. I walk through the old rail road cut through the sandstone. It looks as if this were a tunnel with no roof. I finally arrive at an opening across the river created by the active railroad line that still runs through the gorge. A twitch in a box-elder. I reach for the bins, see a little olive bird with a gorgeous yellow patch on its round head. A yellow-crowned kinglet. A hear a Robin, but it is different. Flash, bins to the eyes, up to the tree, and sure enough I have a thrush. Robin sized, white breasted, dark brown streaks. A hermit thrush perhaps? I snap a few shots to compare with the field guides when I get back. It is cold! Still cloudy, no wind. I continue down the trail after picking up the white-breasted nuthatch, red bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, and downy woodpecker.

A hermit thrush?

Several patches of sandstone to my left are very icy. So icy that the sedges, liverworts, and Christmas ferns have been enveloped in an ice glaze. I slap on the macro lens and shoot away. Maybe I can use these shots for my photography class?







On my way back I take the quarry rim trail, and I think I hear something. I dismiss the sound. I shouldn't have. I should have put back on the telephoto lens! Four white tailed dear bound up ahead of me.



The quarry rim trail is high and dry. The trail is flat and winds through Virginia pine above and ground-pine (Disphasiastrum digitatum) below, both signs of sterile, dry soil. Towards the edges of the old quarry grow species that are like things damp and moist-American beach, Canada hemlock, and yellow birch. In between the super dry and sheltered cliffs grow red oak, white oak, and black cherry. Still cloudy, still gray, still no shadows. Very few birds, so my attention turns back to plants. I see a winter rosette of a Panicum grass, of which species I do not know. Flowering dogwood and mountain laurel also pop up along the rims of the old quarries. Finally, an old Virginia pine that has just been massacred by yellow bellied sapsuckers. It is cold, it is gray, and I have to pee.









On my adventure, I came across a few brave hikers. Two people mentioned bald eagles. The first visitor asked me if I had see any eagles, and he said that he saw one around the river about a month ago. On my way out, another man walking his dog asked me if I knew "where the eagle nest was at". Hmm. Rumors? Truth? The preserve is over 900 acres and there are plenty of hidden places where a pair of eagles would feel comfortable. I think to myself that I'll have to follow up on this. But ultimately, I couldn't help but think I was going to see an eagle on this day, and I had one more place on my birding list, Dillon Lake State Park.

Tom