A Zebra Swallowtail at Strouds Run State Park in Athens, Ohio

Birding in Athens, Ohio and Hocking Hills

...continued from the Road Trip! post.

Today I made it to Strouds Run State Park. It's not far at all from my hotel and seemed a great place to start. It was very pretty. Most notable were the butterflies, blackberries and Catbirds!

A Zebra Swallowtail butterfly...I know this because I bought

"Butterflies of Ohio" by Jaret C. Daniels at the Wayne National

Forest Visitor's Center. It's about time I start learning the

names of these incredibly beautiful and beneficial creatures!

A Silver Spotted Skipper. You can't see his orange

splotch. It's hidden behind that spiky blade of grass.

I think this is a Great Spangled Fritillary. Look at his

tattered wings. He has seen better days. I wonder what

happened to him? Maybe a bird tried to nip at him...

or he overwintered and his wings are just worn.

In Cincy, I see Catbirds every year, but not that many of them, but at Strouds Run State Park, I saw twelve...and every one was near, on, or eating blackberries! In three different spots in the park, I saw batches of blackberries and found Catbirds. Unfortunately, they said "No photographs today, please. We are eating blackberries and have no time for posing."

Wherever I saw a stand of blackberries,

I saw several Catbirds standing around...

Yum...I would too!

What in the world is this???

Check out this photo. I took it on the Hocking River Bike Trail. In the bottom-right corner, you can see a very blurry Acadian Flycatcher looking down (another non-posing bird), but what creeps me out is on the left side on the trunk of the tree. It looks like a big gelatinous pink wormy thing. I didn't see this when I took the photo...I only noticed it when I was cropped down the photo of the Acadian Flycatcher. I have five photos and they all have this on them, in the same spot. Is it some sort of fungus...or some sort of alien wormy thing? I hope someone out there knows! It's sort of weird...

Do you see the blurry flycatcher at the bottom right?

Now...look to the left. Do you see that pink, segmented,

wormy thing? It's pretty big and extends all the way up

the side of the tree for 3 or 4 feet (maybe more...that's

all my photo shows). It's that glistening bumpy stuff.

Here's a shot of just that end piece. See the segments?

I guess it's some sort of fungus, but it looks like it could

uncurl and reach out and grab that flycatcher! :-)

Road Trip...to Athens, Ohio and Hocking Hills!

Rick, Matty and I headed up to Athens, Ohio yesterday. Matty is at a tennis camp at Ohio University all week, and while he's hitting tennis balls I'm going to visit the parks, but before I get to that...guess who I had dinner with last night? Heather of the Hills! Heather and her husband, Dave, invited me to their beautiful home for a yummy, yummy dinner. Heather made veggie lasagna with zucchini from her garden. Delicious! We talked and talked and had a great time. Heather is every bit as gracious in real life as she is on her blog, and Dave is incredibly nice too. I also got to meet her dogs, Jupiter and Emmet. Very cute and sweet, they spent most of their time sleeping...just like they do on her blog! 

Heather and me standing next to her garden. Dave must have 

said something funny, because I'm laughing. I can't remember...

The wooded drive leading up to Heather and Dave's house. They 

are nestled in thick woods...truly a bird lover's paradise. I don't 

think I could get any work done if I lived there because I would 

be tromping through the woods looking for birds...all the time! 

Tomorrow Heather and I are heading up to Old Man's Cave in Hocking Hills. Our target species...a Cerulean Warbler and a Hooded Warbler! Wish us luck...