Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary...October 10

October tenth was a beautiful day.  Tom decided it would be a good day to take video to turn into a treadmill video.  The treadmill videos are a set of DVDs that Tom is making so people walking on a treadmill can pretend they are taking a walk. People have discovered they exercise longer if they are "walking on a nature trail".

Here is Tom with the camera mount he rigged up. With this mount and his smoothly running scooter, he can get video that is steady.

Off he went down the trail. I followed after and here are some of the plants and other things I found.

This is White Snakeroot. If cows eat too much of this plant, they give tainted milk which can cause death. This caused the Milk Sickness that is believed to have killed Abraham Lincoln's mother.

Zig-zag Goldenrod. This is the goldenrod whose name I can remember. I always have to look up the other varieties in a field guide.

This seems to be a kind of Aster. I've always called it Woodland Aster but I don't find an aster by that name in my field guides.

I was surprised to find these. Puttyroot leaves are found throughout the winter but die and disappear before the flowers appear in mid May in our part of Ohio. It is in the orchid family.

Since finding the Giant Puffballs earlier this year and then the Dog Stinkhorn, I find myself looking for fungi. Here are some that I found.

Pretty little umbrellas.

These looked as though a woodland animal, perhaps a mouse, had been chewing on them.

These were tiny. If I hadn't been looking for fungi, I wouldn't have seen them.

I might have missed these, too. Below is a closer view.

There was no missing this one, a Giant Puffball. I was surprised it still looked fairly fresh. The ones at Charleston Falls have completely disappeared.

I found lots of evidence of leaf miners. The thought of tiny insect larvae so small they live between the top and bottom layers of leaves is mind boggling to me.

And Tom spotted this caterpillar. I wonder if it is some type of Tiger Moth.