Happenings in the Pines

[Rooftree]

I started roaming the Pines in 2009. Over the years I had accumulated many photos along the way. Recently, I weeded out many. Here are a few archive photos showing my past experiences of 'what's going on' in those woods.

(Stay tune; I got another set of 10 coming soon.)

An outlet from an ore bog that drains into the Batsto R. It's one of my favorite spots, but you have to be very careful. You can go down over your boots. I know.

I spotted this cedar waxwing while wading in the Wrstecunk Creek south of Warren Grove.

I discovered this solitary sandpiper along the edge of a spung as I was looking for the rare short-beaked beaksedge. It made for a good day. I found the plant.

I found this frog in a milky-like water in a ditch that surrounded a rye field in Greenwood Forest. I came back a good number of years later and the water was still white only in this spot, Wonder what caused it?

I found this guy walking slowly down a sandy road in the Great Swamp near Rockwood heading toward the Sleeper Branch. It was interesting that as I walked around him, he would pivot around keeping constant eye contact on me.

This is one of my favorite plant photos. A nice population of Small's yellow-eyed grass growing in the shallows along the edge of Watering Place Pond.

This is a very rare recorded fungi. A blue colored mushroom found deep in a cedar swamps of Penn State Forest. At the time I found it, I couldn't get a ID. I previouly did a post on it. A mycologist responded and ID it as Calliderma (Entoloma) indigofera. This is a very significant find.

This photo was taken shortly after the Spring Hill Fire that occurred back on 3/30/2019, along the upper Sykes Branch near Coyle Field.

Here's another plant photo that I caught at the right time for its lighting effect. I was at a borrow pit early morning not too far off of Route 206, south of Atsion Lake.

A deer I spotted in the woods, just off of Friendship Speedwell Rd, as I was driving slowly by.

 

[Rooftree]

The next 10.

One cranberry. I just like that picture. Very simple. It was off of Cherry Hill Rd.

I found this frog in a big mess in a small swampy area. I guess he likes it.

I caught this pickerel in my favorite fishing hole. You have to fish early in the season before the water gets choked with weeds. (The fish was properly handled and safely returned to the water). After catching a few, I stashed the rod in the bushes before continuing to explore the area.

I'm not into amphibians, but my best guess it is a northern two-lined salamander. When I first saw it, it looked like a small snake swimmimg in the stream. It wasn't until I used the zoom on my camera that could tell it had legs. I found him in the upper stretch of the Batsto R where you could almost jump across.

Another simple photo. This time a lily pad.

To the rescue! I saw this butterfly stuck to a spatulate-leaved sundew while scouting out an ore bog. I waited almost a minute before I pulled him off. He then flew away. Hopefully he thanked me.

While exploring a swampy area along a stream in search for a green wood orchid, I sat down on a bare root coming out of a hummock, the only dry spot there, to get a close shot of the plant. I happen to look down right next to me and there it was, a curly grass fern. This plant is so small, if I didn't do that, I would have gotten my picture of the orchid and moved on.

I found this northern black racer (I think) right at the JCRR bridge over the Batsto R. He was just hanging out in the thicket. Can you see his head? He was almost perfectly folded in half.

This red-bellied turtle (I think) is getty ready to lays eggs. This photo was taken in the lower end of the Friendship Bogs. This occurred in the month of June.

This appears to be a 'hybrid' duck. Probably half goose and half mallard. This was taken along the Batsto R, just north of the lake.

 

[bobpbx]

Ron, that shot of the fire close to the Sykes; is that the trail where you and I go in to the good spots?

 

[Rooftree]

No. The trail is on the east side of Sooy Rd heading toward the direction of Coyle Field.

 

[stiltzkin]

Great photos! The mushroom and the curly grass fern finds are extra special.

 

[manumuskin]

Thats not an amphibian,it's a lizard (Reptile) It's a Ground Skink

 

[manumuskin]

The butterfly appears to be a Spicebush Swallowtail

 

[manumuskin]

That would appear to be a racer since the scales to not look keeled but the belly appears cream instead of grey which says rat snake.The fact that it's in a bush with cream colored splotched belly i will say rat snake with exceptionally smooth looking scales,head scalation looks like a rat as well but not real clear,how bout it Dragoncoj? If you had of grabbed it you would have known it's species immediately

 

[Rooftree]

Thats not an amphibian,it's a lizard (Reptile) It's a Ground Skink

When I first observed this living thing, he came out from the near bank of a stream (Batsto R) swimming on the surface of the water in the manner of a very small snake. He came to rest on a leaf laying on the surface of the water. It wasn't until I took a photo in zoom mode, that I noticed it had legs. Maybe his legs were tucked in to his body while swimming. I assume it was a tpe of amphibian. (He was mush smaler then how he appears in the photo). Ground skinks prefer area with loose soil and ground cover. They can be found taking shelter under leaf litter and soil.

As for the black snake, I took that photo in 2009, the first year exploreing the Pines. I labelled the photo as a racer at that time. Here's another photo of the snake showing full length. That may help for its ID.

 

[bobpbx]

With that larger snake photo Ron, I wonder if it was hesitant to move with all those vine prickles against the body.

This does not look like a log, maybe some man-made dumped material?

 

[Rooftree]

With that larger snake photo Ron, I wonder if it was hesitant to move with all those vine prickles against the body.

This does not look like a log, maybe some man-made dumped material?

View attachment 18849

Bob. I think he is just resting in some brembels sunning himself. As for that material, it could be an old RR tie, a piece of concrete. or other. If walking down the tracks coming from Riders Switch, it's right on the right before the bridge over the Batsto R. Go take a look and report back. The material is probably still here from 13 years ago, but most likely the snake is not. The photo was taken on Oct 23rd, 2009.

 

[bobpbx]

Bob. Go take a look and report back.

Okay, will do.

 

[manumuskin]

Thats a Black Rat Snake and the lizard was a Ground Skink. I"ve never saw one swim but I"m sure they can.I saw a box turtle walk across a crik bottom once then suddenly expel some bubbles and pop to the surface like a cork and swim the remaining few feet to land.I have no explanation for that behavior unless maybe he had been gorging on baked Beans

 

[manumuskin]

The kinked posture of the snake signifies a climber which rat snakes are.Thats how they climb trees

 

[manumuskin]

Species Profile: Ground Skink (Scincella lateralis) | SREL Herpetology

 

[Rooftree]

Thats not an amphibian,it's a lizard (Reptile) It's a Ground Skink

Thanks Al. I agree.