A Walk at Charleston Falls with Tom...July 23, 2019

Tom and I loaded up Tom's old power chair and headed off to look at flowers.  His new chair is   wonderful but it is not as powerful as the old one.  Since Charleston Falls has hills, power is important.

We saw butterflies at the new entrance to the trail. Tom took photos.  Our first thought was that they were Pearl Crescents...

But then Tom enlarged the photo and we could see that they were Silvery Checkerspots.

Then we moved a few steps further and he got to see the Rain Garden for the first time.

The Queen of the Prairie that I saw had finished blooming but Tom spotted a Cardinal Flower and the Rattlesnake Master..

and a lavender blue one that we think is a Monkeyflower.  I didn't know until I was looking through my wildflower field guides at home that I should have checked for a square stem.

We were off to a good start.

Tom stopped to take a photo of the falls through the trees.

We turned off toward the Octagon Prairie...

Tom with his camera...

Me with my camera.

Tom stopped to take a few close-ups of Gray-headed Coneflowers...

He looked at the other side of the trail and said,  "Look, there is a Viceroy butterfly."

I took these pictures.

And Tom took this one.

Deptford Pinks are an alien species but I have never seen more than a couple plants in any one spot.  They don't appear to endanger the native species.  They are tiny.  I never knew they were spotted with white until I took a photo of one and enlarged the photo.

April 6, 2019...A Walk at Brukner Nature Center

I came to Brukner Nature Center to see the Snow Trillium.  They were scattered about at the foot of Short Step Hill.  They were growing among clumps of Hepatica.  It was a beautiful hillside.

Here and there, single Spring Beauty flowers bloomed.  There will be clusters of them, soon.

With my walking stick in my left hand, my binoculars strap around my neck and my Olympus Tough camera in my right hand, I headed to the swamp to see if the Marsh Marigolds were blooming.

On the way I made more discoveries.

The first completely open sprays of Dutchmen's Breeches that I have see this spring...

Purple Cress in bud....

Another photographer was focusing on a tree trunk as I headed up Wren Run.  I didn't get a picture but we saw a Red Admiral, a Mourning Cloak, and an Eastern Comma sucking the sap running down the bark.  All three stayed on the trunk the entire time we admired them.  So nice to see three different colorful butterflies at the same time.

And onward toward the swamp...

The boardwalk on the floodplain was still mostly covered by water.

But as I looked down on the steps to the swamp section of the boardwalk I saw the Marsh Marigolds...

and Skunk Cabbage leaves unfurling its leaves throughout the swamp.  In a few weeks the leaves will cover the entire surface.

The boardwalk in the swamp was not flooded.  It rarely floods.  I followed it out to a little rise where the Harbinger of Spring and the Squirrel Corn grows.  I found the Harbinger of Spring but not the Squirrel Corn.  Maybe next week...

But I found one blooming False Rue Anemone (Isopyrum)...

and this pretty Waterleaf leaf.

I was pleased to get a good photo of a Crayfish Chimney.  I find them hard to photograph.

As I was climbing the hill out of the swamp,  I spotted a Bloodroot fully open.

And I was surprised to see the leaf of a Mayapple that had just broken through the ground.

As I hiked up Hickory Ridge, I found a few more signs of spring.

The Buckeye buds were opening, showing their clusters of  leaves.

There were many more Snow Trilliums and Hepatica in white, lavender and pink.  There were Purple Cresses in bud...

And after much searching I found a Purple Cress blooming.  A pollinator had found it, too.

April 3, 2019...A Perfect Spring Day in the Woods

Frogs singing for their mates provided music for our ears and flowers provided beauty for our eyes.   This was the first day of Spring in Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary.  The calendar Spring is only a date.  This was an event.

Harbinger of Spring clusters were sprinkled throughout the woodland, little tufts on the blanket of last year's leaves.

Here and there other flowers joined in the celebration.

Spring Beauties...

Hepatica...

Bloodroot...

And a little further down the boardwalk, Dutchmen's Breeches buds were swelling.

A few Sessile Trillium were opening their leaves.

Waterleaf was just beginning to show itself all through the woods.

And the pollinators were busy gathering food for themselves and spreading pollen.

A bee or a wasp or a fly?  The flower is Purple Cress.

Eastern Comma Butterfly

A couple Eastern Garter Snakes  awakened to check out the territory.  

One decided to explore further.

Happy Spring, everyone.

A Walk at Charleston Falls, July 24...Wonderful day for seeing butterflies

It was a beautiful day for a walk.  It was cooler than it has been, only about eighty degrees, Fahrenheit, the humidity was low, the sun was shining.

Shortly after I turned off the main trail I saw butterflies dancing everywhere.  I assumed they were Pearl Crescents since they are a common species.  But when I looked at my photos I discovered most of them were Silvery Checkerspots, a butterfly I had never heard of until Ruth Bowell told me about it when I was walking with the butterfly Transect group at Brukner Nature Center.

After enlarging this on the computer I am fairly sure this  is a female Pearl Crescent. (Phyciodes tharo)    Wingspan: 1.25 -1.60 inches (3.2-4.1 cm)

I assumed this was a male Pearl Crescent. However, back home, I looked through my butterfly field guides and I decided it is a Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis)  Wingspan: 1.4-2.0 inches (3.6-5.1 cm  It has the two white spots in the row of black spots on the hind wings.

Soon I came across a cluster of butterflies clearly enjoying whatever they had encountered on the ground.  I didn't look too closely at their treasure because they might have been enjoying poop of one kind or another and I wasn't in the mood for poop. I was still assuming that I was seeing Pearl Crescents.  When I enlarged this on the computer, I discovered that although I had assumed they were Pearl Crescents, most of them were Silvery Checkerspots. 

In this still photo taken at the butterfly gathering spot, I have pointed out another distinguishing characteristic of Silvery Checkerspots.

According to the field guide, Butterflies of Ohio, a field guide by Jaret C. Daniels, Silvery Checkerspots fluctuate in population from year to year in Ohio, locally common sometimes and other times nearly absent.  This is why I automatically assumed I was seeing Pearl Crescents.  I was amazed when I looked at this video on the computer and discovered these were mostly Silvery Checkerspots.  Daniels further commented that the "males often gather at damp soil or animal dung".

Now I am not sure whether this is a Pearl Crescent female but I am still tending to think it is.

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Of course, at the time I was just enjoying the dancing butterflies, the sunshine and the flowers.

On my return walk through the area a Hackberry Emperor stopped close enough on the path for me to get this photo.

Some of them were enjoying the same "treasure spot" as the Silvery Checkerspots.

Out on the prairie , a Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) Wingspan: 1.75-2.4 inches (4.4-6.1 cm) took its time nectaring from a teasel. 

The other butterflies flitted by too fast for me to photograph...Cabbage Whites, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, a dark swallowtail with lots of yellow dots on its body, several Red-spotted Purples, and a Monarch.  Plus lots more of those little orange and brown/black spots...Pearl Crescents and Silvery Checkerspots.

Looking back on this walk I decided I had chosen the perfect day and the perfect hour.