I found a map of Ohio of the Federally Endangered, Threatened and Candidate Species by county. Not a lot of detail, but interesting. Se the link here LINK
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Matt Cross from BGSU and Metroparks Toledo are conducting research on Eastern Box Turtles and area burns. As part of this research, they brought in Turtledogs to find turtles to add GPS tags and record location and individual statistics. This effort took place on Tuesday adn Wednesday of this week and will continue on Thursday. I was able to participate on Wednesday. We managed to find three turtles before the rain chased us off, we actually were out for about an hour in the rain before the sky opened up and almost drowned us. We started with some explanations in the Buehner center, and then moved out to sites. The dogs are Boykins and are very friendly. Here is a link to a video about them. LINK The dogs were given a dousing of water to keep them cool (they gather scent better when they are not panting), and then we were off. It took a while to find some turtles. But along the way we entertained ourselves by finding a young hog nosed snake acted very ferocious until it decide to play dead. And then we saw some Jack-in-the-Pulpit fruit. Eventually the first turtle of the day was found. And shortly after two more. I was off following a dog that was on a trail, so I missed the 2nd and 3rd turtles. After that it was more following the dogs, but no more turtles. The rain turned from a light rain to a downpour, and the day was called. I think it will take us all a few days to dry out.
On Saturday Sept 6 I attended the ONAPA Field Trip on Late Summer Wildflowers of Shawnee State Forest. ONAPA is the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association, if you are not familiar with them, I encourage you to look at their website (LINK), they are a great group. Leading the walk was Guy Denny, who has a remarkable amount of knowledge about the regions plants and ecosystem. We toured for almost 6 hours and saw many plants, some rare and some common. It will take me a number of posts to share the information. The Shawnee State Forest has been called the "Little Smokeys of Ohio" and many of the plant there are plants that you see more commonly in the Smokey Mountains. On of the first plants we saw was Hollow Joe-pye Weed (Eutrochium fistulosum). It looks very similar to the Sweet and Spotted Joe-pye weed we have in Northwest Ohio, but is a little different form, and the stem is hollow. Besides plant there we many insects, the first we noted was the Sycamore Tussock Moth Caterpillar shown below. And yes there were Sycamore trees in the area. This nice little yellow flower, Seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia) was next to be spotted. I did not get a great photo of this, but the one below shows it fairly well. In this area, we were shown a demonstration of using nettles to make a cord. Some Wood Nettle along the side of the road had its outer layer stripped and twisted to make a crude, but strong cord. Apparently it has been done for a long time (back to the ancient Greeks), but it was the first I had heard about it. There were many plants of the confusing family of sunflowers out, so I was glad to have an expert for identification. The first we saw was the Small-Headed Sunflower (Helianthus microcephalus). It does indeed have a small head, with sparse petals on it. The final plant for this post will be the Spotted Phlox (Phlox maculata). Most of the Phlox family is hard to tell apart, but this one is the only one with a spotted stem, making ID easy. I included a photo of just the stem to show the spots. That is not even a quarter of the way through my list, so hopefully I can squeeze in some time to add more posts. This weekend we end to Cedar Bog near Urbana, and then continued to Clifton Gorge. Both are unique habitats that support unique wildflowers. First, Cedar Bog is not a bog, it is a fen. Bogs have stagnate water, while fens have moving water that stays much clearer. But it has been called Cedar Bog for so long that no one has an interest in changing it. One very unique feature of Cedar Bog is where the water comes from. The site is near where part of the ancient Teays River was (wiki LINK). This river was filled in during early glaciers, but is a deep a porous area for water. Being deep, the water from it is very cool, and this water helps to keep the temperature of the Cedar Bog low. The very big thing at Cedar Bog is that Showy Lady Slipper Orchids. But we found many more plants to look at. So lets start the journey These Showy Lady Slippers were certainly the star of the show, and there were several areas with many plants.
We also saw a Lily not yet in bloom. From what we saw, it might have been a Michigan Lily. The nature center at Cedar Blog was very nice. The person in attendance was an OCVNer and was very helpful and they had nice displays. They also had some nice books of wild flowers for the public to look at. They were arranged by blooming month and by color. It is a really nice idea, and was very helpful in confirming the flowers for us. Maybe some local parks should try that. Here are some links to Cedar Bog Cedar Bog Website Cedar Bog Facebook Page Next we traveled another 30 minutes south to Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve. Is is supposed to have wonderful spring wildflowers. But as we found out it has very nice early summer wildflowers as well. Here is a link to the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve Website. It was a VERY busy day there. The gorge is deep enough to provide a different climate for the plants between the gorge bottom and the rim. We started out finding two different Waterleafs in the gorge bottom.
After getting home and making a list, we came up with 12 plants we had not identified before. For a trip within Ohio, that is a pretty good day.
At Wildwood the other day, I saw one insect carrying another and then land on a leaf. The larger insect is maybe 1.5 inches long. I have not had time to try to identify the insect, but here are some photos. It looks like there are young versions of it around. Did it bring home dinner? Maybe...
After looking a bit, I think this might be a robber fly Laphria , perhaps the Laphria sericea or maybe the Laphria aktis. Here are some links to photos that look close. http://wisconsinbutterflies.org/robberfly/species/305-laphria-sericea http://wisconsinbutterflies.org/robberfly/species/306-laphria-aktis http://bugguide.net/node/view/116960 http://bugguide.net/node/view/882621/bgimage Man, bugs are really hard After planting some Lupine at Oak Openings, I decided to go for a walk. I was going to check on the Yellow Ladies Slipper Orchids when I ran into Brenda and Dean, who were looking for them. I showed them the location. The flowers were looking a old, but were still impressive. Here is a photo of them in their prime. While on the Red Trail, I spotted these Orange Hawkweed. While I have seen may of the common Hawkweed, I am not sure if have ever seen the Orange variety. I wandered around a bit, and saw a nice stand of Puccoon, with a butterfly on it. It was a ways off trail, but thanks to some nice image stabilization, I still got a nice shot. I was on the trail looking for some Whorled Loosestrife that we had seen last year, and it was back, still not in full bloom, but still pretty. I really like how the flowers come off the axil in 4's. A quick walk in nature turned into a pretty nice time, as it often does.
We ran across this at Bradner Preserve (Wood County) a few days ago in a pre-bloom state. I went out today between the rain to see if any flowers had opened and I did manage to find one. Not a real showy flower, but still pretty. Photos below. It is has an unusual leaf structure with a whorl of leaves half way up, and then a smaller whorl of leaves plus the flowers at the top.
USDA Plant Database Link Wiki Link Other things blooming were May Apple, Canada Mayflower, Sweet Cicely, Solomons Seal, Solomons Plume, Spring Beauty, and Jack-in-the Pulpit. And the mosquitoes were VERY thick. Chris and I did a quick walk thru Wintergarden Park in BG today and saw May Apple finally blooming. Also saw an Indigo Bunting (I think) - see photo below.
The Lakeside Daisies are blooming!! This flower is the most rare plant in Ohio. It only blooms in a few places in North America. The largest remaining area of the flower is in Marblehead. Here is a a link to the preserve information: LINK
Link to the USFWS article on the Lakeside Daisy: LINK Link to a page on the Lakeside Daisy from Michigan: LINK Below are photos of the Lakeside Daisy Large White Trillium is a flower that most people love to see. Unfortunately there has been a fairly dramatic decline in its numbers in most areas. However, we have found a spot in Bowling Green, Ohio that seems have a great number. The photos start out up close, and keep pulling back. And yes, all those white spots in the last photo are trillium. If you want to know where they are, send me an email and I will send you the spot. It is out in the public, but I am not sure I want to make it well known.
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AuthorRandy Haar Archives
September 2015
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