While visiting Shawnee State Park, we decided to stop off at the park's nature center, and we're glad that we did. It turns out that this is the only nature center operated by our state government where the public can touch or hold the local wildlife. The wildlife that was present during our visit consisted of various reptiles and amphibians. In the topmost photo, the park's naturalist lifted an Eastern ratsnake from the terrarium and held it so that visitors could touch it's skin. If a guest was Read more ➜ Nature Center at Shawnee State Park
While visiting Shawnee State Park, we decided to stop off at the park's nature center, and we're glad that we did. It turns out that this is the only nature center operated by our state government where the public can touch or hold the local wildlife. The wildlife that was present during our visit consisted of various reptiles and amphibians. In the topmost photo, the park's naturalist lifted an Eastern ratsnake from the terrarium and held it so that visitors could touch it's skin. If a guest was Read more ➜ 
The video below shows a group of Whirligig Beetles that I filmed swimming on the water's surface at Hoover Mudflats. They are called "whirligig" beetles because of the way they whirl around in circles when disturbed as seen near the end of this short video.
Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/xk-B0_VyAX4
When I first saw these, I had no idea what I was looking at. Since then I've learned quite a bit about them, and they are fascinating little critters. Below is a photo one in profile 
One of our favorite locales for bird watching is Hoover Mudflats Boardwalk. We've previously posted about it here. This locale is constantly changing with the season and the level of Hoover reservoir, but it rarely disappoints.
Hoover reservoir is purposely lowered every fall to create a way station for migrating shore birds. But due to the drought, the water level has dropped earlier than usual. When summer began the boardwalk was several feet above the water's surface. Last month the 
While I was at Gahanna Woods, I spotted these partridge peas growing in the meadow. They are native to the eastern United States, growing up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall. Their leaves are compound with each leaf having five to eighteen pairs of leaflets. Although I have heard of flowers that fold up their blossoms at night, the partridge pea is somewhat different in that it folds up its leaves at night. Each of the plant's yellow flowers has five petals with the bottom petal being longer than 
Photo courtesy of tanakawho, license: CC BY 2.0
Mosquito
Outbreak of 2012
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as of August 21st, nearly 1118 people have become ill from the West Nile Virus this summer; 41 have died from the most severe form of this illness. This is biggest outbreak since 2004. Since the virus is transmitted by mosquito bites, the high incidence of the disease is attributed to an unusually large number of mosquitoes. More mosquitoes than usual survived over 
I was really surprised when I saw the turtle pictured above. First, this species of turtle, a Red-eared Slider, is not known to occur in the wild in Franklin County. Second, what on earth is wrong with its shell? Let's look at it more closely.
The turtle's shell is subdivided into sections called scutes. In my photo there is a front scute that's a lighter color, almost a light brown, toward the front of the shell. It seems to be raised above the surrounding scutes. Toward the 
We have bird feeders in our backyard. I like to sit in our breakfast nook reading or working on the computer. Then from time to time I'll lift my head to see what birds are out there now. The feeders are located far enough away from our house to make it unlikely that a bird will strike our windows. But that means that I sometimes resort to using binoculars if I want to get a good look at a particular bird.
My bird watching got a little easier when the goldfinch in the topmost photo 
All the squirrels that I am featuring today are Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Although my focus is going to be on unusually colored squirrels, lets start by taking a look at some normally colored ones. I believe that these squirrels look gray because their fur includes a random mixture of black and white hairs. There are brown hairs, too, but the amount of brown varies greatly among individuals. Nonetheless you can count on the underside of a gray squirrel being 
Malabar Farm State Park was once the home of Louis Bromfield (1896 – 1956). He was a novelist and screenplay writer. His very first novel (The Green Bay Tree) was a critical and commercial success. His third novel (Early Autumn) won Bromfield a Pulitzer Prize. He was good friends with movie star, Humphrey Bogart (deemed to be the greatest, male film star of all time by the American Film Institute). When Bogart and Lauren Bacall were making their wedding plans, Bromfield offered them the use of 
I really like how color-coordinated the insect and flower are in the photo below. Prior to taking that photograph I had never seen that particular insect. There's such an astounding number of insect species that I find it really difficult to identify new species. But then I discovered BugGuide.net.
BugGuide.net helps people identify bugs that occur in the United States or Canada. To use their online guide, click on the drawing of the insect that most looks like your insect. This will