Posted on November 4, 2018
The image of a flower bouquet kept entering my mind as I thought about this post. Something enjoyed only briefly and then gone. Perhaps it’s the realization that today images are everywhere and the best we can hope for is a fleeting appreciation before they pass into time. So no iconic Ansel Adams images here, just glimpses of autumn in Ohio. If the reader soon forgets the images but is left with a positive feeling or inspiration the carries them into the day with a smile, we will smile.
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In no particular order, the photos were taken during the past week and are from a hike on a “new to us” trail along the western shore of Alum Creek Reservoir in Alum Creek State Park (AC), and also hikes in Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park (BD), Clear Creek Metro Park (CC) and Griggs Reservoir Park (GR), an easy to over look city park just mile a from our home. The fungi pictures are a reminder that even with most wildflowers gone until next year there is always something to discovery during a walk in the woods.
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Walking a wooded path
with little more than
the colors of an autumn day,
the earthen scent of fallen leaves
touched by rain,
and the sound of a solitary woodpecker,
I awoke in the richness
of the moment.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Category: Alum Creek State Park, Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park, Central Ohio Nature, Clear Creek Metro Park, Columbus, Griggs Reservoir Park, Nature Photography, Ohio Nature Tagged: Common Split Gill, Cracked Cap Polypore, Eastern Wahoo, Eyelash Cup, Lemon Drops, Panasonic FZ200, Panasonic ZS50, Shaggy Mane, Sony A7 with Canon FD lenses, White-egg Birds Nest
Posted on October 16, 2018
As I write this the temperature has finally arrived at more normal levels for early October. Until just a few days ago it was much warmer and the season betrayed by the calendar was having a hard time getting started with leaves still reluctant to show their autumn color. That wasn’t all bad as we were treated to sightings of butterflies and other insects not usually seen this late in the year. Given the above average rainfall it continues to be a great time to see fungi which seems to be almost everywhere. Below is a celebration of some things seen over the past couple of weeks. Missing is “the picture” of me paddling the Scioto River, fishing for Smallmouth Bass, as two mature Bald Eagles circled overhead. Oh well, some things would be hard to capture in a photograph and must just be experienced.
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The above experience prompted me to consider things that can be photographed, which in this case happens to be landscapes. Specifically, it has to do with the difference between how a scene is seen and how the camera captures it. Or putting it another way, after we have been enchanted enough to take the picture, and after a preliminary look are happy with the results, does the image convey the desired message as shot? This then will have a lot to do with the kind and amount of post processing used and it’s limits for a particular photograph. Such things are often a matter of opinion or taste, there being no right or wrong. With that said, we’ve all seen the over saturated colors in autumn landscapes which risk devaluing the place and experience as if to say it wasn’t beautiful enough. Things worth considering I believe.
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As already mentioned it’s been a great year for fungi. Apparently chicken Fungi and puffballs are edible but I think we will just enjoy looking at them. At their peak the colors of some fungi are no less spectacular than the loveliest wildflower.
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Despite our recent fungi fascination other things have been hard to ignore. A number if years ago it took a really spectacular insect to make an impression but as I’ve spent more time looking at them my appreciation has increased. With greater knowledge and understanding it has become much harder to consider them a lower life form less noble than ourselves. They have become part of the beautiful tapestry of life where boundaries between self and the natural world disappear.
Yellow-collared Scape Moth is very similar to the Virginia Ctenucha but is slightly smaller, (Donna).
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Pausing at water’s edge, rippled reflections dance to the rhythm of wind and light gracing us with a new vision and an invitation to a new place.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Category: Central Ohio Nature, Central Ohio Parks, Columbus, Ohio Nature, Wildflowers Tagged: Bearded Tooth, Bolete, Chicken Fungus, Chickweed Geometer, Common Checkered Skipper, Dead Man's Fingers, Dryad's Saddle, Eastern Comma, Eastern-tailed Blue, Giant Swallowtail, Gray Hairstreak, Green Darner, Meadow Fritillary, Orange Mycena, Orange Sulfur, Panasonic FZ200, Panasonic Lumix G7 Leica 100-400mm, Puffballs, Rosy Russula, Shaggy Mane, Sony A7 with Canon FD lenses, Turkey Tail, Variegated Fritillary, Wrinkled Peach, Yellow-collared Scape Moth
Posted on November 8, 2017
In the back of our mind during outings over the past week has been the thought that we might see the season’s first White-throated Sparrow. For us, along with the arrival of the Dark-eyed Junco, this small bird marks the passing of the season and the certain coming of winter. During breeding, they are found further north in either coniferous or deciduous forests up to tree line in the U.S. and across Canada. During migration and during the winter months central Ohio is just one location they call home.
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Recently, walking along the Scioto River looking for White-throated Sparrows, and perhaps a stray kinglet or two, we stumbled across some slightly larger birds.
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At river’s edge, almost right below the eagles, a young male White-tail deer relaxed. It was apparently not too concerned about the eagles.
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The next day, hoping for additional photos of the eagles that were now nowhere to be found, Golden-crowned Kinglets seemed to be everywhere .  .  .
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.  .  . along with a few of their close associates with the exception of “the sparrow”.
Yellow-rumped warblers continue to stick around enjoying the Poison Ivy Berries, Griggs Reservoir Park, (Donna).
“Must you take the picture when my mouths full and besides, I’m not a bird!” Red Squirrel, Griggs reservoir Park.
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Wanting to check out a location not previously explored, we decided on Shale Hollow Park, one of Delaware County’s preservation parks. Blustery cold conditions made birding less than optimal, so while birds eluded us we did find something quiet different and no less interesting, concretions. Probably some of the best examples we’ve seen in central Ohio. For us it was proof once again that one should always be open to the wonder of the day.
For those that are curious, “A concretion is a hard, compact mass of matter formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles, and is found in sedimentary rock or soil. Concretions are often ovoid or spherical in shape. Concretions form within layers of sedimentary strata that have already been deposited. They usually form early in the burial history of the sediment, before the rest of the sediment is hardened into rock. This concretionary cement often makes the concretion harder and more resistant to weathering than the surrounding strata. Concretions have long been regarded as geological curiosities. Because of the variety of unusual shapes, sizes and compositions, concretions have in the past been interpreted to be dinosaur eggs, animal and plant fossils, extraterrestrial debris or human artifacts.” (Wikipedia)
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In addition to concretions, with the coming of wetter weather, there have been other things to appreciate.
Disclaimer: Fungi identifications represent our best effort.
On a fallen branch a, almost too small to see, mushroom pops up through some lichen, Griggs Reservoir Park.
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It’s often when least expected, near the end of a long hike, almost back to the car and too tired to care, that what we seek appears. Such was the case with the White-throated Sparrow.
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Some may wonder what the big deal is. Why is seeing a sparrow so meaningful? For many who spend time in nature the answer is simple; seeing a white-throated Sparrow brings expression to a sense of connectedness to a world much bigger than ourselves. We usually first hear and then see the sparrow and for the time it sees fit we are in its presence. It in turn acknowledges us in its own unique way. This small, seemingly fragile, creature has travelled perhaps a thousand miles and during this brief fleeting moment we are part of each other’s world. Next summer if we look, we will not find it. It will again be further north engaged in its own dance to the cycle of life. This wonder graces our lives with the appearance of the first spring wildflowers, the larger than life sound of spring peepers, the spring migration of the many too beautiful to imagine warblers, the sight and sound of a distant summer thunderstorm, the call of the loon on a northern lake, the color of leaves as a low autumn sun filters the branches, and the slow quiet descent of winter’s first snowflakes.
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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: Birding in Ohio, Central Ohio Nature, Central Ohio Parks, Columbus, Griggs Reservoir Park, Nature Photography, Ohio Nature, Shale Hollow Park Tagged: Amanita muscaria var. guessowii, Blue Bird, Canon 80D Sigma 150-600mm lens, Downy Woodpecker, Dryad's Saddle, Eastern Phoebe, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Panasonic FZ200, Panasonic Lumix G7 100-400mm, Pink Polypore, Radiating Phlebia, Red Squirrel, Rusty Polypore, Shaggy Mane, Sony A7 28mm Canon FD, Split-pore Polypore, Turkey Tail, White Tail Deer, White-throated Sparrow, Witches' Butter, Wood Ear, Yellow-rumped Warbler
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