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.

The Rain Garden at Charleston Falls, July 13, 2019

I sat down to write this and realized I hadn't taken notes or pictures of everything to tell this story.  When I saw the prairie plants flowering in the Rain Garden near the entrance to the trails at Charleston Falls, all I thought about were the blooms.

I know Rain Gardens, whether planted in a a natural depression or in a dug out depression, are meant to drain water and are usually wet only seasonally or after heavy rains.  The flowers that grow on tall grass prairies are adapted to land which is wet in spring and dry in the summer so prairie plants and Rain Gardens complement one another.

A section of the Rain Garden at Charleston Falls.  The rock covered dip to the left of the photo slopes down from the paved gathering place for groups.

And in the depression, I saw....

the round flower heads of Rattlesnake Master and Queen of the Prairie.  The yellow Black-eyed Susans, (Rudbeckia hirta) are on the higher ground of the rest of the planted prairie.

I usually have to go to Garbry Big Woods Preserve to see the Rattlesnake Master and to Aullwood Audubon Center to see the Queen of the Prairie.   Seeing the two plants made my walk one to remember and I hadn't taken a step into the peaceful woods.

Closeup of the Rattlesnake Master, (Eryngium) ...

Each bud will open exposing a tiny flower.

A closer look at the Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra) ...

Walks at Garbry Big Woods, April 10 and April 16

April 10 Bloodroot.  Tom and I saw Bloodroot on April 16, also but a lot of them had lost their petals.

April 10 Harbinger of Spring...We didn't see any on April 16 but that may have been because we were looking at all the new species that had begun blooming.

April 10 Spice Bush...Tom noticed one bush in full bloom at the entrance to the woods but we didn't see any other blooms.  I think we missed their showy season.

April 10  Blue Cohosh...Maroon flowers were still blooming on April 16.

April 16, Blue Cohosh...I found the yellow version, too.  I didn't see those on April 10.

April 10 Mayapples...The Mayapples were emerging.

April 16 Mayapples...Lots of Mayapples as tall as they ever get.  The two-leafed ones had plump round buds.  Looks like this will be a good year for Mayapples.

April 10 Yellow Trout Lily (Dogtooth Violet)...This was open as far as any I saw on April 10.

April 16 Yellow Trout Lily...The entire woodland floor was sprinkled with open Yellow Trout Lilies (Dogtooth Violets)

April 16, Yellow Trout Lily...Lots of the Trout Lilies nestle among the roots of the trees.

April 10  Large Flowered Trillium...Tom and I were pleased to find this Large-flowered Trillium showing its white petals.

April 16 Larged Flowered Trillium...Still not a lot of Large-flowered Trillium completely open but there were a lot that were close to fully open.  In a few days the woods will be white with them.

April 16 Large Flowered Bellwort...We didn't see any open on April 10 but today there were enough that their paler yellow was noticeable even though there were also lots of the brighter yellow of the Trout Lilies.

April 16  Wild Ginger...The leaves are beginning to emerge.  The fuzzy buds were visible on some of the plants.

Wild Blue Phlox...I found this as we were heading back to the van.  After I saw this one I saw several more.  None of them were showing buds, yet.

And that is why the early flowers of Spring are called "Ephemeral".  Here this week and gone next week.

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.

A Walk with Pat at Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary...May 7, 2018...Part 2

Pat has sharp eyes, sharper than mine.  She was the reason we saw most of the following things during the walk.

"Doesn't that Trillium have four petals?"  she asked.  It did.  It had curiously different arrangement of sepals and leaves, also.

We walked on.

She found several small Crayfish Chimneys.  These chimneys are much daintier than the ones we find in the swamp at Brukner Nature Center.

She likes bright-colored fungi.  You will have to click on the photo and enlarge it to see the fungi she spotted.

Two more Fungi, a little easier to see.  They were beside the boardwalk.

A pollinator, a tiny Ladybug.  Below is a cropped photo.

Ta Da....

This is what Pat found that excited me the most.  As we walked, I told Pat about the few times Tom and I have seen adult male Five-lined skinks displaying their red throat patches for females on the boardwalk.  No, she didn't find a displaying adult.  Even I would have noticed him.  But  she found something neither Tom or I had ever seen....

This little fellow was about the size of a Red-backed Salamander which are common at Brukner.

He moved really fast.  This was the most in focus photo I got as he scurried off to find cover elsewhere.

When I got home, I searched on the Internet for Five-lined Skinks, wondering if this was a young one.  I knew as the adult males had red on their heads and this little fellow had a tinge of red around his face.  On the Internet I learned that Five-lined Skinks live from two to six years so an immature might be the size of a Red-backed Salamander.

I also learned that one way that Skinks vary from salamanders is that they have claws.  And because the critter was so slow and wary of leaving the crack in the log, the hind foot on it was in focus.

Looks to me like he has claws.  I'm going to say he is an immature Five-lined Skink.  So, so pleased with myself.  Hope no one pops my balloon!