Posted on September 11, 2017
Every couple of years we rendezvous with friends near Asheville, NC for a few days of hiking. Much of what is seen is different than that found in in central Ohio and that’s part of the area’s appeal. However, unlike central Ohio with it relatively flat terrain, the rugged ups and downs make the trails no walk in the woods. Because of this, as well as the length of some of the hikes, the serious cameras were left at home. Even so my wife got some excellent results with her Panasonic FZ200 while I explored the performance limits of the ZS50.
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Our base of operation is the Sourwood Inn which is convenient to Ashville and highly recommended should you find yourself in the area for a hiking vacation or just a quiet getaway. On our recent trip we hiked portions of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST), The Snowball Mountain Trail, Craggy Gardens Trail, and the Craggy Pinnacle Trail which are part of the Craggy Gardens Trails group.
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In past years we’ve seen plenty of fungi, moss, and lichen, and this year was no exception. Usually numerous butterflies are seen while hiking but this year we saw more along the Blue Ridge Parkway as we drove to the various trailheads which was not convenient for pictures.
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Usually located not far off the trail, fungi, lichen, and moss captured our attention. Except for the low light seeing and photographing it is relatively straight forward. However, once in possession of a photograph trying to identify it can be a humbling experience. Over the years we’ve seen some often enough that identification is straight forward. For most this is not the case so many of the ID’s should be taken as our best guess.
This group appear to be some type of chanterelle, Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) near Rattle Snake Lodge.
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When we weren’t trying to figure out the fungi there were wildflowers to enjoy.
Beech-drops, a parasitic plant which grows and subsists on the roots of American beech, line portions of the Snowball Mountain Trail.
This is one of those cases where I was so fascinated with the structure of the flower that I forgot to photograph the leaves making identification almost impossible, Craggy Gardens Trail.
A cool morning made this lethargic bee easy to photograph on some trailside Goldenrod, Craggy Gardens Trail.
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And butterflies:
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Even a turtle:
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But not as many birds as we would have liked:
Dark-eyed Junco, Craggy Pinnacle, (Donna). Seen in central Ohio only in late fall through early spring. However, due to the elevation which creates a climate similar to that occurring much further north, these birds are year round residents.
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With it’s high elevation and harsh weather trees have to be tough to survive along the Pinnacle Trail.
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For those in the eastern part of the country looking for a some beautiful mountain hiking, the area near Asheville, NC is highly recommended. The plus is that with a vibrant downtown, good restaurants, fascinating shops, and excellent galleries, Asheville is a great place to explore should you decide your legs need a rest day.
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Thanks for stopping by.
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XXX
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Should you wish prints from various posts may be purchased at Purchase a Photo. If you don’t find it on the link drop us a line.
Category: Blue Ridge Mountains, Central Ohio Nature, North Carolina, photography, Sourwood Inn, Wildflowers Tagged: Appalachian Brown, Asters, Beard Lichen, Beech-drops, Boletes Family, Crown-tipped Coral, Dark-eyed Junco, Downey Rattlesnake-plantain, Eastern Box Turtle, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Honey Mushroom, Indian Cucumber Root, Lung Lichen, Mountain Laurel, Old Man's Beard, Panasonic FZ200, Panasonic ZS50, Pinesap, Powder-cap Amanita, Rooted Polypore, Snakeroot, Tinder Polypore, Turkey Tail, Turtlehead, Velvet Foot, White Coral
Posted on July 26, 2015
With the amount of rain we’ve had recently it seemed like a great time to visit Clear Creek Metro Park to see what fungi might be making an appearance. The park is unique, located about fifty miles southeast of Columbus in an area where the last glaciers stopped their southward advance. It’s 5,300 acres of woods, sandstone cliffs, ravines, and creeks are home to hemlocks, oaks, and hickory. As we left Columbus we were hoping to discover some things not seen closer to home.
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It was still early when we arrived and everything was wet from a recent rain. The air was cool but the humidity was very high. Given these conditions, we were drenched in perspiration for most of our five mile hike, with glasses and viewfinders fogging up every time we attempted to take a photograph. On this particular day, it was the price of admission.
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Interestingly, the first thing seen was lichen growing on the roof of a visitor information board not far from where we parked.
British Soldier Lichen, red fruiting bodies are less than 1/8 inch across. It was the first we had seen in Ohio.
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Leaving the lichen, we began a rather steep assent into the woods and immediately started seeing fungi. This continued throughout our hike of the Creekside Meadows, Fern, and Cemetery Ridge trails. Seeing so many unfamiliar fungi, the challenge soon became one of trying to figure out we were looking at.
Berkeley’s Polypore. One area of the woods was dotted with these. This one was about 6 inches across.
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As if all the fungi were not enough, wildflowers were also making their presence known.
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. . . and while not flowers, pretty nonetheless.
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Given that flowers and many other plants were in abundance, butterflies and moths were easy to spot.
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While not our main objective, we did hear a lot of birds and even managed to see a few.
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At the end of our hike, we were in awe of the things seen. Many were first’s for us in Ohio. It had been a magical day.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Category: Central Ohio Nature, Central Ohio Parks, Clear Creek Metro Park, fungus, nature, outdoors, photography, Wild flowers Tagged: Apricot Jelly, Berkeley's Polypore, Boletes Family, British Soldier Lichen, Brown Thrasher, Chanterelles, Coral Mushroom, Crowded Parchment, Downey Rattlesnake-plantain, Downey Skullcap, Eastern Wood Pewee, False Coral, Great Spangled Fruitillary, Hooded Warbler, Hummingbird Moth, Jellied False Coral, Lepiota, Oswego Tea, Panasonic FZ200, Panther Mushroom, Pink Polypore, Pipevine Swallowtail, Powder-cap Amanita, Red-belted Polypore, Rosy Russula, Spiderwort, Starry Campion, Tufted Collybia, Tufted Titmouse, Turkey Tail, Woodland Sunflower
Posted on June 15, 2015
Those were the words of our son when he saw our pictures of butterflies congregating on a small tree. The butterflies were noticed yesterday at water’s edge while walking along Griggs Reservoir. They were very numerous but dispersed in groups around the tree making a total count difficult. It wasn’t exactly something we had seen before. Usually it’s a butterfly here and another one there. In the past, when seen groups, there’s usually some identifiable substance attracting them and it’s not always something pleasant.
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In this case, whatever the attraction was (perhaps tree sap?), several different species could relate to it, with the Hackberry Emperors being the most numerous and aggressive in their efforts to keep the others away.
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After we left the tree a very small but beautiful butterfly was noticed on a clover flower.
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There were also other insects about.
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There was no shortage of flowers to keep the insects busy.
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Our friends the turtles were happy to make an appearance. One river rock appeared to be particularly attractive.
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Recent rains had brought out some interesting fungus.
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Unlike my wife, I spent most of my time looking for birds and other creatures (perhaps a Mink?) to photograph. With the leaves providing ample cover for the larger creatures, small things carried the day.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Category: Central Ohio Nature, Central Ohio Parks, Columbus, fungus, Griggs Park, Griggs Reservoir, Ohio Nature, photography, Scioto River, Wild flowers Tagged: Apple Bark Borer Moth, Boletes Family, Common Split Gill, Coneflower, Eastern-tailed Blue, Hackberry Emperor, Heart Leafed Umbrella, Horse Nettle, Map Turtle, Morning Glory, Panasonic FZ200, Question Mark, Red Admiral, Rhodotus Palmatus, Stream Bluet, Water Willow
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