One Trail Twelve Times - February

An American beech (Fagus grandifolia) that looks like it's bearing the weight of the world.
I wonder why those bulges develop?

I led the the second installment of my "one trail walked 12 times " over the course of a year program a week ago on Sunday afternoon, February 19.  The day was cold (like it was during the January jaunt), but unlike January it was sunny and snowless.

A pine sapling barked by a buck rubbing its antlers

 Emerging from the woods into the meadows (which are bisected by a church's driveway)

Praying mantis (Mantis spp.) egg case on a blackberry cane (Rubus spp.).  In looking up the scientific binomial of the the mantis, I learned that there are two mantid species living in the northern and eastern United States, both of which were introduced, one from Europe and one from China (the Chinese mantid is in a different genus!  Native mantids are only found in the southern states.

Shriveled fruit of horse nettle or ground cherry (Solanum carolinense).  When they're ripe, you can make a jelly from the fruits of this native weed in the tomato family (Solanaceae).

You can tell it's been a mild winter: multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) hips are still to be found in February

 Persistent seed heads of a pioneer tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera)

 Navigating the damp lower end of the meadows before entering the woods

 Hikers on the footbridge spanning the ravine

 Pointing out skunkcabbage emerging from the winter's duff in the spring run

Skunkcabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

Mossy rocks in the spring run

One of the trail's eponymous springs

Rent asunder by lightning

Assorted vertebrae from a hapless white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiana)

The final leg of the trail leads through an allee of white pines planted in the 1920s 

I wish that I could devote a bit more time to composing my images, but leading the walk, trying to find and point out interesting natural history features, and taking pictures make photography challenging.

One Trail Twelve Times - January

 

 Hikers on a newly installed bridge.  Kali stands third from left.

Yesterday was the first installment of a year-long series of hikes I'm going to lead called "One Trail Twelve Times."  I shamelessly stole this concept from a Cleveland (Ohio) Metroparks naturalist who led hikers on the same trail once a month for 12 months to experience the natural world throughout the seasons.

My group is walking a 0.6-mile trail called the Beech Springs Trail, which features venerable old woodlands, expansive goldenrod meadows, and voluminous springs bubbling up from the ground in a grove of American beeches (hence the trail name).

The trail begins in a beatuiful, mature mixed woodland

Lichens encrusting a white oak trunk

 From the woods into the meadows

Goldenrod fly gall produced by the maggot of a peacock fly (Eurosta solidginis [Tephritidae])

Goldenrod moth gall produced by the caterpillar of Epiblema scudderiana

Preying mantis egg case awaiting spring warmth

 One of the eponymous beech springs

Water was flowing beneath the ice

A Pileated Woodpecker had been at work on a non-native bird cherry tree trunk, leaving its characteristic rectangular calling card.

We also encountered a Hermit Thrush at the edge of the woods--a rare, but not completely unexpected winter visitor.

Back out into the meadows to complete the circuit.