Boyer Nature Preserve is wonderful, mini-wetland that sits in the middle of suburban Westerville, Ohio. The site's main feature is its stream-fed pond. Although it may look like an ordinary pond, it's actually very special due to the way that it was formed. During the last ice age, Westerville was beneath approximately one thousand feet of ice (305 m). As the climate warmed, a large fracture formed near the edge of the melting glacier. Once that fracture became large enough, a huge slab of ice separated Read more ➜ Boyer Nature Preserve
Boyer Nature Preserve is wonderful, mini-wetland that sits in the middle of suburban Westerville, Ohio. The site's main feature is its stream-fed pond. Although it may look like an ordinary pond, it's actually very special due to the way that it was formed. During the last ice age, Westerville was beneath approximately one thousand feet of ice (305 m). As the climate warmed, a large fracture formed near the edge of the melting glacier. Once that fracture became large enough, a huge slab of ice separated Read more ➜ 
This past weekend, Bob and I went to Caesar Creek State Park to do a little hiking. However once we got there, we happened upon this amazing spillway that was just full of fossils.
In case you are wondering, this is basically a gigantic ditch. The Army Corps of Engineers constructed it to safely channel water from the Caesar Creek Reservoir in the event of flooding. The floor and one wall of the spillway consists of limestone and shale bedrock (dolomite).
The bare bedrock 
Knox woods State Nature Preserve is a small, 30 acre woodland with two loop trails. However there are several connector trails to the adjoining Knox County park, Wolf Run Regional Park. Wolf Run is a 288 acre park with diverse habitats (woods, meadows, wetlands) and many facilities for guests. Besides having an enclosed dog park, guests are also allowed to take their leashed dogs on the trails at Wolf Run. Because the park and preserve are next to each other, you can go on a great hike that takes 
I have had the good fortune of vacationing in Canada on a couple of occasions, and one thing that became immediately clear to me is that Ohio has way more Canada Geese than Canada has. It's possible to go an entire day in Canada and not even see a Canada Goose. Let's see you manage that in Ohio!
Given that Ohio appears to be the center of the Canada Geese population, I suggest that we rename them Ohio Geese, or since Ohioans go by the nickname, "Buckeyes," maybe we could call them Buckeye Geese.
My 
Overview
The Newark Earthworks were constructed about 2000 years ago by the prehistoric, Hopewell people. These are the largest, geometric earthworks in the world. To give you a better sense of the size and shape of these structures, it's best to look at an aerial view. Since I can't take aerial photos myself, I photographed some of the interpretive signs near the earthworks.
The plaque below shows the layout of the Newark Earthworks which occupy four square miles (10.6 square kilometers).
I 
When other seeds germinate, the seedlings struggle to emerge into the sunlight, so they can photosynthesise and make their own nutrition. When a squawroot seed germinates, it squirms farther underground in search of its nourishment. It "feels around" in the dark until it finds the root of an oak or beech tree and latches on for dear life. For the rest of its life it will feed parasitically off these tree roots. The oak roots develop little, knobby protuberances where the squawroot has latched on, 
Gallant Woods Preserve is part of Delaware County's Preservation Parks system. In contrast to many of the parks that we have discussed which are tourist attractions in their own right, Gallant Woods is more of a local community resource. It consists of 231 acres of mixed habitat including old growth woods, a wetlands woods, a meadow that's being converted into prairie, and glacial moraine. There's now 1.8 miles of developed trail with more trails planned for the future. The existing trails are all 
The glacial grooves on Kelley's Island are a designated National Natural Landmark. They were formed during the last Ice Age about 18,000 years ago, and they are the world's largest, known glacial striations. Typically glacial striations are formed when boulders and gravel are dragged across the bedrock under the immense weight of a glacier. Geologists rely on these natural features to determine the direction in which the now-melted ice once flowed. However according to the Ohio Department of Natural 
Quite a few of the parks where I hike have structures or other vestiges of days gone by. During our hike to Clear Creek Metro Park, there was a log cabin and a barn made of hand-hewn timber. For a while I had been thinking, "Wouldn't it be fun to take my photos of these structures, and give them a vintage look?" So here is my first effort at doing just that.
I followed the instructions I found in this YouTube video to do the above photo-editing. The instructor in the video 
This post features assorted, spring flowers that I photographed this past April in Ohio that did not have spiders on them. Click on a flower if you'd like to see a larger version of it. Hovering over each photo with your mouse will display the species name if I've managed to identify it (Update: I've since gone back and added an identifying caption after each pair of flowers). If you can identify any of the mystery flowers, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.