Stump Pass - 10.08.12 - Post 3

A couple of warm beach pictures from me today as I prepare to head back from the um... not-very-warm 'south' (Tennessee) to the actually frozen (6 degrees F!) Chicago tonight.

This struck me as some sort of beach art left for the next people who wandered through.  It's clearly not 'accidental' and I can't think of a reason animals would construct something like this.  So... it's just nifty beach art!





These trees break my brain. They're obviously dead now, but they were clearly once hugely thriving trees.  In the sand.  At the water's edge.  How does a tree grow like that in the salt water of the gulf?  In the sand instead of soil of a beach?  If you look closely you can see that they're now clearly woodpecker condominiums.  Didn't see any of those inhabitants that day, but there's still something striking about the dead tree, the sand, the water and the cloudy sky that looks warm to me.

More critters tomorrow, but I needed something warm today to brace me as I head into the cold Chicago winter night!

Just a few last things from Tennessee - Post 4

These are the odds and ends pictures for Bledsoe Creek (which, by the way, I never did see a creek there.  There was a lake... no creek.)

 The Tiger Swallowtail and the Pipevine from the first post were actually hanging out together when we were shooting them.  That was one of the major reasons I thought the pipevine was a black morph tiger.  Just look at the accent color schemes on both - the same blue and orange dots.

American Funnel Web Spider (2012 - 014)

 Wow, I think I was actually able to research the name of a spider.  It's harder than you think.  There are a truly stupid number of different spiders out there.  Also, I kind of gave myself the heebie-jeebies while doing it because of the pictures of Black Widow spiders on the same page.  Being from Illinois, especially northern Illinois, I forget that there's a lot of really, really dangerous wildlife in warmer parts of the country.  We don't have poisonous snakes or spiders to speak of up here.  So anyway, this is an American Funnel Web Spider.

Here she is in her entrance, the stripes on her legs a little easier to see.

And here is her funnel web.  Which, honestly is what made her so easy to identify.  Apparently there's only one particular funnel-web in Tennessee. :)





 

Northern Cardinal (2012 - 015)

 While going through my older posts for the comprehensive lists I realized I'm ignoring things I find commonplace.  Mallard ducks, robins, red-winged blackbirds...  And cardinals.  Like the Blue Jay, I want to get a really good cardinal picture some day.  This is about as bright as Illinois constant-dwellers get.  This one was seen in Tennessee, but we do get them up north and I need to stop ignoring them just because *I* see them all the time doesn't mean everyone else does.

And as a closing note... Cyprus tree nodules.  These projections are coming up off the Cyprus tree roots.  There's something very "medieval people go to Stonehenge" looking about these odd bits of tree root.




So that was my nature-seeking in Tennessee.  Chicago's starting to warm up now so I'm getting some baseline shots.  What animals are here now, in April, so that as the migrations start in the next couple weeks, I can track the timing of various species coming and going.

Matthiessen State Park - 9.25.10 - Post 2/2

Okay, here are the rest of the Matthiessen shots... (told you I didn't take many. :)

Stepping on Stones

Because this is a water-worn ravine/canyon, there are lots of places with either flowing or standing water.  Which led to a lot of either natural or concrete stepping stones.  Some of which were more stable than others.  One of our group ended up with one very wet foot. Whoops!

Roots Protrude

Erosion is a huge force in the area, which means that tree roots that were probably under earth or rocks or even water are now exposed.

Tangled Roots

 Here's a tree that's still growing strong even with this much of it's root system exposed to the elements. 

Roots Creeping Across the Terrain

Here's the long shot of that same tree.  Look how far the exposed root system extends.

My Kitchen Tap Has a Faster Flow

 One of two small waterfalls we saw.  It's hard to see from the only angle I could get, but the water at the highest level falls into a small pool and then the pool spills over, very slowly, into the next level down.  You can see that it's more of a water-migration than water-fall at that level as the lower pool is very still and highly reflective.

Sticks and Stones... Don't Break My Bones.  Please.

More stepping stones.  With fallen logs for bonus difficulty.

A Face in the Log

 So then there was this.  A fallen tree right across our path.  Is it me, or does anyone else see a face?

Not the Gator You Thought I Was

It reminded me a lot of this one from Volo Bog.

None May Pass!  Just Kidding.

 Okay, I am, in no way, a fan of graffiti.  But this did amuse me a little.  It's like it's a gargoyle guarding the cavern.

The Ghost of Hikers Present

And one last oddity.  I was running a thirty-second shutter to try and get the back of this cavern.  I didn't realize one of our group had gone back into it to explore the passage that was on the left hand side.  She came out and walked through my frame.  If I ever want to convince someone I've photographed a ghost, I know exactly how to do it now. ;)

Okay, that was it for this hike.  Like I said, I suspect it'll be better in the spring or summer, but I'm not looking to drive 2.5 hours each way again to get there anytime soon.