Black Barrel Mystery

Found this in the wood.

The barrel buckled as the tree grew and pulled the metal band tighter.

It had this label:

There were holes drilled in the bottom.

Found a second one, further on in the woods.  It still had a lid.  Netting was sticking out.

This one had a different label, with a "1" instead of a "2".

What they were for?  Animal homes?  What kind were they meant for?  How long had they been there?  Were there any more?  I looked but didn't find any others.

I searched on the internet for clues, but came up with nothing.  They remain a mystery.

Garlic Mustard

"It's evil!  It grows like crazy and kills other plants," said Jason, when I asked him what he knew about garlic mustard.  Yes folks, that about sums it up.

Garlic mustard is an invasive species that has taken a strangle-hold in several states, starting on the eastern seaboard and moving west.  It has even jumped the Mississippi River.  In some of these places, it has become the main plant in the forest under-brush.

Does it really kill other plants?  Well, it doesn't bite or stab them, but it does put out a chemical in the soil that suppresses a naturally-occurring fungi which many native plants and trees need to grow.  Also, according to the National Park Service, it "...outcompetes native plants by aggressively monopolizing light, moisture, nutrients, soil and space."  So, yeah, it takes everything they need to live, causing them to not live.

And how did Jason learn so much about it?  Mainly from a scout leader out at camp, who has a personal vendetta against the plant.  He can often be spotted pulling the plant up around camp, root and all.  Many are the scouts who have been unsurreptiously enlisted in his cause.  He's one of many people in the area that attend Garlic Pulls in the spring, to try to help eradicate this plant, or at least slow it's spread.

Gray Squirrel

Gray squirrel:  from the genus Sciurus, which is made up of two Greek words - "skia" meaning shadow, and "oura" meaning tail.  Shadow Tale.  Isn't that a cool name?  Sounds like a Redwall character.  (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

This one was kind enough to sit for a portrait for me.

Next he was bounding off.

Look at his cute little feet!  (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Trail Guides

My parents were my first trail guides, and introduced me to the natural world.  My sisters were my traveling companions in it.

We picked berries in the back woods, hunted morels on the roadside, and gorged on crisp filets at fish fries on the shores of glimmering lakes.  We collected curious pieces of driftwood on hot, sandy beaches, waterskied and went tubing through lake weeds, and swam the crooked circumference of an island in the middle of Gun Lake.

We canoed on the Au Sable River with my grandmother, camped in a Jayco pop-up at state parks, and rode horseback through our own woods.  We gathered sticks for campfires, strung sunfish and bluegill on a line, and hunted through the autumn woods.  We built snow forts, ice skated on backyard ponds, and snowmobiled on frozen lake tops.  It's no mistake that my CB handle back then was Nature Girl.  

We drove dusty back roads, through the woods, picnicking wherever we happened to be.  Mom curled bologna into the triangular bends of Butternut bread while Dad sliced cheese from a Colby round with his jackknife, and broke apples in half with his bare hands for our lunch.  The family suburban was my Conestoga, carrying me into the west of my future life.  

These experiences fortified my soul and I count them among my chief joys.  Thanks, Mom & Dad!

Confederate Violets

Saw tons of violets on a recent walk.  There were lots of purple ones, and plenty of white ones.  Then I saw this one.

It caught my eye because it was different.  When I got home, I looked it up.  It's a Confederate Violet - so called because their coloring reminded people of the blue-grey Confederate uniforms in the Civil War.  I have read that they are more common in the south than in the north.  What a delightful little find!

Northern Cardinal

I was happy to get this shot of a Northern Cardinal in a park near my home.  He seemed as surprised as I was that he let me get this close to him!

Shifts in the cardinal's taxonomic nomenclature are interesting.  According to Wikepedia (I know - I know!), it was first assigned to the genus Loxia.  Then, in 1883 it was placed in the genus Cardinalis, and was called Cardinalis virginianus - meaning Virginia Cardinal.  In 1918, its designation changed to Richmondena cardinalis, to honor a famous ornithologist.  And then in 1983, it became Cardinalis cardinalis, when its common name was changed to Northern Cardinal to distinguish it from seven other species of cardinals.

Dutchman's Breeches

Being a novice at plant identification, I appreciate Dutchman's Breeches.  They are a darling little plant, and so easy to identify, that even a child can do it.

It is a treat to come upon a patch of these charming plants.  They sit there on the forest floor, intricately fashioned and so delicate.  One imagines tiny fairies have hung out their laundry to dry on a woodland clothesline.

In his book An Introduction to Wildflowers, John Kieran describes their whimsical look:  "It seems like something that might be produced in a toy shop or sold at a candy counter."  Exactly!  They look like tiny little confections ready to be plucked and eaten.  But don't - they may be toxic.

Evidence of Wild Animals

I am a scouter, and one of my favorite requirements to help the scouts with is to identify evidence of at least 10 kinds of wild animals.  I love seeing the boys out in the woods, noticing things they've never noticed before, and getting excited about how much they can deduce on their own.

The first morning started off well right at the campsite.  The boys found this torpid amphibian, and some deer guard hairs.  We also heard several bird calls and saw evidence of squirrels having feasted on nuts.

Next we went out on a hike.  We took to the miles of woods and fields on our scout camp property.  We had 2 adults and 22 scouts.  It seemed like everyone was noticing everything - tracks, scat, calls, and animal homes.

The rank requirement says to find evidence of animal life, including birds,

mammals,

reptiles,

fish, and mollusks.

The most exciting find of the day was a deer carcass.  The boys swarmed it like bees - "Wow!" - "Cool!!!"  We guessed at what might have brought it down.  Disease?  Bow hunters?  Coyotes?  We had heard them (the coyotes that is) yipping and wailing in the night.  They might have done the deed earlier in the year.

It seemed like everywhere we looked, we found some new critter, or part of one!

(Note:  No crawfish were injured in the production of this blog post.  This one, who lost his claw, was already dead before we found it.)

Photo credit:  Jason

All of the animals and evidence were left where they had been found, even though this practice was a hard sell for some of the scouts.

My personal favorite on this hike was evidence left behind by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (isn't that just fun to say?), as seen on this tree trunk, where it "drilled" these holes to get at the sap.  Pretty cool.

We got caught in the rain near the end of the hike, and had to shelter for a while under a fortuitously nearby structure, but it was still a wonderful hike.  I think we all had our interest in the outdoor world rekindled.

Early Blossoms

Every time I take a walk, I see something new and different.  This is true even if I have been to that place a dozen times before.  And this time it was the giddy display of trees in spring bloom along the trail.

Not only did these beautiful blossoms look pretty from a distance, dressing the long-naked trees in soft while petticoats, but up close they presented a whole new display to dazzle the eye.

To the best of my knowledge, these are ornamental pear tree blossoms.  They were beautiful in the morning sunlight, and I only wished my camera could reach further into their intricate structures so that I could marvel more at their amazing design and perfect beauty.

Purple Loosestrife

Purple Loosestrife.  It's an invasive species.  Ever heard of it?

Invasive species can be beautiful to look at, but they are blood-thirsty invaders.  They pillage and burn in that they disrupt the native eco-system, affecting native plants, tiny organisms, birds and mammals.

Purple Loosestrife was brought to America for medicinal purposes, and was planted for its beauty.  At that time, people had little idea of the damage it could do.

When I saw these beautiful flowers growing in a ditch in my neighborhood, their brilliancy and color caught my attention immediately.  They were stunning!  I wondered what they were.  The more field guides I looked at, the more worried I became that they were Purple Loosestrife.  They were.

This opportunistic plant establishes itself where the ground has been disturbed and chokes out the life of the native species that otherwise would thrive there.

It's hard to believe that something so gorgeous can be so harmful, but there it is.  There's a lesson in that.

Spring Break

I took advantage of one morning the boys and I both had off together, and asked them if they wanted to go for a walk with me.  I tempted them with breakfast out afterwards.  Jason opted to stay home, but Ajax was game.  We hopped in the car and away we went.

It was a colder morning than it looked  We were glad for our knit caps and fleece jackets.  The wind was thrashing across the river, lock and marsh the whole time.  Only when we were on the west side of the island did the trees shelter us a little, but they also blocked us from most of the sunshine!

Right near the footbridge we saw a bald eagle.  What a treat!  I thought those had all gone.  Our mild winter and early spring meant the ice did not last long on the river.  I was delighted to see this remaining eagle, and was glad to share the moment with Ajax.  When I was a girl, seeing a bald eagle in the wild was a rare thing.

This one swept across the marsh and disappeared over the island, but we found him when we got down to that end of the trail.  (We have protected areas for eagles along the river here, but this area is not one of them.)

As we walked, Ajax pointed out a landmark he had nicknamed while working on the trail project last summer - "Triangular Trouble".  It is an exposed section of tree root.  He had to look out for it as he pushed his wheelbarrow full of mulch along the trail.

It was fun learning about this old memory of his on the trail.  It was also fun having him along on the walk.  It's not often that I get a buddy to go with me.  And I was true to my word.  I treated him to breakfast and we even brought home something for his brother.

Trilliums - At Last!

All spring as I walked, I looked faithfully for trilliums.  I saw their leaves, everywhere, but no blossoms.  Walk after walk, park after park, I looked and looked.  One day I spotted what looked to be a dead trillium blossom, and I thought to myself, "I've missed it!  I've missed their bloom time, and now it will be another year until I get to see them."  That was disappointing.

Then one morning, with just a little time to spare, I took a walk on one of my favorite trails.  I hurried along, because I wanted to make the two mile round trip and still be able to be on time to an early appointment.

Suddenly, as I came to the fork in the trail, I saw them - trillions of trilliums!  They were everywhere, carpeting the woodland floor with their beautiful red blossoms.  They were so thick that I could hardly step off the trail to photograph them without stepping on some.  I was so excited to see them!

One of the neat thing about them is that they were blooming all over the rest area at the fork.  I had spent many days last summer working on a trail project there, with several other people.  We had no idea what was waiting under our feet and wheelbarrow wheels.  The trillium blooms surrounded the rough hewn benches where we had rested and enjoyed our lunches.  All that time they had been waiting underground, for the conditions to be just right, and here they were!

I was thrilled, and took several pictures, although I was afraid the darkness from the overcast morning would not allow their beauty to really show up in the pictures.  I was wrong!

Trillium is called Wake Robin, because it makes its appearance at the same time that robins appear each spring, and they have a common red coloring.  They are sometimes called Stinking Benjamin due to their very unpleasant scent.  They are also called Wood Lilies.  No matter what they are called, they are beautiful - especially by the thousands!

Linnaeus named this plant "trillium" because it has three each of leaves, sepals, flower petals and other parts.

So, I found my treasure at last, in an unexpected moment.  My friend Ashley pointed out that while I had thought I had missed out on something wonderful, God knew I had not, and He didn't have just one trillium to show me, but thousands.  It was a gift!

Trailhead

Ever since I was a kid, I loved the thrill of striking out on a new trail and following where it led.  It didn't matter if it was a deer trail through the woods, rabbit tracks in the snow, or a properly maintained trail in a national forest.  I just wanted to get out and explore.

I still love walking trails today, and discovery the beauty of the plants and animals that live along them.  There's something exciting about rounding the next curve, topping the next rise, or breaking a new trail.  You never know what you will find!

This blog transposes the delights of the trail through my camera lens and fingertips, into the images and texts presented here.  So, at this new trailhead, I wave a welcome to those that follow as I head out to see what I can find on the trail.