Snow in March

A recent snow provides a nice scene to the Wildcat Creek trail.  Snow doesn't stay around long in March.  Photo taken March 14, 2017.

Pileated woodpecker

A pair of pileated woodpeckers were exploring the area down by the Wildcat Creek at Clegg Garden.  This is a photo of one of them.  Photo taken March 14. 2017.

Link to pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus):

Winter aconite

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is flowering here behind the NICHES headquarters house at Clegg Garden.  Look closely and see a honeybee in one of the flowers.

Photos taken Feb. 18, 2017.

Link to previous post on winter aconite:

Skunk cabbage is coming up

Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is appearing now at Clegg Gardens.  These pictures taken yesterday, Feb. 18, 2017, at the small wet spot by the trail that runs along the Wildcat Creek.

Link to previous post on skunk cabbage:

Under the Sea-Wind

Inside the Niches headquarters at Clegg Garden is a small library that is open to the public.  It has a fine collection of nature-related books.  Here is a particularly good piece of nature writing, Rachel Carson's first book, Under the Sea-wind.

Carson devotes two whole chapters of this book to a study of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata.  The thirteenth chapter, Journey to the Sea, describes the migration from the rivers and streams of North America to the breeding zone at the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  The fifteenth chapter, Return, has the newly born eels journey from their mid-ocean origin to the interior of the North American continent.

Eels are occasionally seen in the Wabash River and no doubt find their way up the Wildcat Creek that goes by Clegg Garden.  They are much less common than they were many years ago but the dams that were built for shipping on the Mississippi River prevent many of them from migrating this far.  Only a few get through somehow.

Link to Under the Sea-Wind:

Another link to Under the Sea-Wind:

Link to Anguilla rostrata:

Link to Anguilla rostrata in Indiana:

Red-shouldered hawk

A red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) perches in a tree at Clegg Garden.  Photo taken October 18, 2016.

Link to Buteo lineatus:

Link to Buteo lineatus:

Phellinus gilvus and Lycogala epidendrum

Fallen logs along the trail at Clegg Garden with fresh Phellinus gilvus shelf mushroom and wolf's milk slime mold (Lycogala epidendrum).  Photo taken October 4, 2016.

Link to Phellinus gilvus:

Link to Phellinus gilvus:

Link to Phellinus gilvus:

Link to Phellinus gilvus:

Link to Lycogala epidendrum:

Link to Lycogala epidendrum: