Predators and Prey, Hatteras, NC and Perrysburg, Ohio, October 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by C Barry

This fall the Ocean-side waves were too threatening for sailing or swimming all week long. Hatteras is aptly called “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”.

Hatteras Ocean Wave

Even the skies seem appropriately threatening.

Cirrus Clouds

When the sun shone it all looked much more inviting.

Ocean Side Sun and Waves

A small shark washed up on the beach.

Beached Shark

Marcus found that it had died from a fish lure lodged deep in its throat.

Marcos

By day, you see many small holes in the sand.

Crab

By night the crab occupants come out, but they are still not easy to catch.

Night time crab

Caught Crab

I wonder who eats them?

In the sand dunes this moth has evolved great camouflage to blend with the colors to avoid being eaten.

Butterfly needing ID?

While this wild flower needs all the color it can muster to attract scarce pollinators.

Red Flower in Dunes – Needs ID?

On the sound side of the dunes (where we windsurf) the scene seems more peaceful,

Sound-Side Sunset

This luminous green fly is a good contender for the Best Dressed Bug contest.

Green Fly

I don’t know if it is eaten by this magnificent large spider we found living in the reeds.

Black and Yellow Argiope

The female “Black and Yellow Argiope” (thanks Carol for ID) is 1 ½” (35 mm) long. She (not Carol!) eats her web (plus contents I presume) every night, and next morning spins a new one.

This one cormorant stopped for preening and was close enough for a photo.

Cormorant

Many, many thousands of these birds stream by every day, low over the water, sometimes diving en masse for fish, while flying south to some unknown destination which must be unimaginably crowded if they all congregate there together. (I now read that deep diving cormorants, mergansers and loons are dying in Lakes Michigan and Huron from a Type E botulism which they may be eating from the lake bottom)

On the water were kite boards and windsurfers. Jim’s amazing GoPro waterproof, high resolution cameras attached to the end of my windsurf boom reveal some of the tensions and subtleties involved when you try to connect with foot straps and harness, while riding the wind and the waves. At first it seems the foot straps are never where my feet are, but then later I find the straps actually are perfectly located. The harness is another matter: hooking in and out should be effortless, provided it’s properly adjusted – and you must always avoid accidentally hooking in when you should be out!

Footstraps and Harness (not stabilized).

The road back to Ohio goes past Kitty Hawk, where you can appropriately pay homage to the Wright brothers by taking hang glide lessons – very tempting. It would be good to try it one day with a GoPro.

Back home in Perrysburg this bug landed on my Prodigy board and showed me it has evolved a pretty good helmet to protect at least its shoulders from being eaten. I see now it is called a “Wheel bug” (Arilus cristatus). Very good to have in your garden as it devours aphids and others who’d eat your flowers and vegetables. But beware, while not easily provoked, it does have a very nasty bite. It injects digestive enzymes into its prey so it can more easily suck out the nutritious innards. Perhaps that’s what makes it so painful for humans.

Wheel Bug

And in the honey bees’ hive I found some of these tiny ants on the comb. Presumably their giant stinger gives them some protection from the much larger bees.

Small Ant with Big Stinger

It’Snow Fun – Cross-Country Skiing in Perrysburg

Posted on February 6, 2013 by C Barry

Three to four inches (75 to 100 mm) of the lightest, coldest (around 10 F (-12 C)) powder snow was just an illusion in Perrysburg last weekend (Feb 2, 2013).

The geese are too cold to shake the snow from their backs

The oldest of the beehives, with its 3 year old queen, gave up the ghost, along with about 4,000 worker bees, in the deepest cold of winter, despite having honey to spare.

There was a strange crystaline material in open honeycomb cells in the middle of the dead cluster. Some said it is crystalized honey. Has anybody seen this before?

The new hive is very healthy and energetic.

I set the Black Diamond trail and the Green cross-country ski trails and did nasty damage to the ski bottoms as the powder just blows away when you ski through it, revealing grass which wipes off all the ski wax and nasty little stones which do worse damage.

The trail has been reset to start at the Constitution Cannons at the East end, and circle old Fort Meigs at the West end. (The Green trail starts below the Cannons and runs flat and level along Water Street for complete beginners). The new asphalt path under the Maumee bridge is very helpful. It is very clean so a little snow covers it well.

Best verified times for the full loop are now being recorded:

Black Diamond Trail, ungroomed, 70 yr+ age category: 58 mins

Green Trail 52 mins

The trouble with powder snow and no base is that it offers no tracking direction to the skiis. When they touch a tree root they wander at will, often invoking the laws of unitended consequences.

Three heavy bruises were detected by the Detroit airport full body scanner (see previous ski blog) on Tuesday morning at 5:30 on my way to New Orleans to complete my farewell to IGMA friends and the glass industry I knew so well, having now happily retired.

In Nawlins (New Orleans, LA) Preservation Hall has 45 mins of grand old Dixieland music, every hour, on the hour, for $15. Not to be missed. They had a drum solo in St Louis Blues that must have lasted at least 4 minutes – audience and all were equally delighted and exhausted.

Further East along Bourbon Street, on the North side, is Fritzels where Tom Fischer’s band plays traditional Dixieland jazz (there are very few places left), allow photographs and serve good beer.

Richard Scott the pianist plays awesome Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton:

Big beads are the fashion this year as New Orleans warms up for Mardi Gras on Tuesday 12th. Feb.

Sandy Storm Stories

Posted on November 14, 2012 by C Barry

Hurricane Sandy sank the replica of HMS Bounty on her way south as she tried to squeeze between Cape Hatteras and the storm which had been tracking NNE but then suddenly backed 90 degrees, headed to NJ and NY, and fatally closed the gap. The week before all had been tranquil at Cape Hatteras, NC.The light winds and calm sea only showed shore breaking swells (too high to go out int0) from very distant actions, but a reminder of the Cape’s ferocity.

The sand dunes do show how past winds have scoured out the sand. Here I’d say a good meter (3 ft.) depth of beach has been lost.

A dead sea turtle, with damaged shell perhaps from a propellor, washed in on the waves.

In the grasses a wild color mushroom hinted of other thrills. Nobody touched it.

The house architecture does show prepardness for floods to sweep across the sand banks. Note the front door 1 1/2 floors above ground level. So tall that they noticeable shake in the wind.

On the sound side of the outer banks the windsurfing was gentle. In the far distance there was a line of many thousands of cormorants flying south day after day.

The barometer fell briefly, bringing one night of wind and lightning (Thanks to Glen Gardner for catching the brief flash). The colored lights are from light sticks attached to windsurf sails braving the dark in search of good wind.

but for the most part we watched in vain for the Green Flash of sunsets. I can’t explain the circular sun even though it is half below the horizon.

One single mosquito held still for its final photo:

before I left for Washington DC to accidentally catch up on the latest in young men’s fashions:
Considering that a day pass on the metro (subway) costs $12 these stylish young men could hardly be considered poor.

Looking for storm signs in the sky there were perhaps some hints of something as we drove home.

When Sandy proper arrived the satelite photos showed that in Perrysburg, Ohio we were on the very outer edge of the huge cloud swirl – little wind but scary red sunsets.

A week later back in New Jersey I saw the remains of the early snow storm damage that added to the hurricane problems.

And in Manhattan the Flatiron Building at 23 rd. and 3 rd. Avenue, looked like the bow of the Titanic.

Nearby is an outstanding new Italian food market called “Eataly” – not to be missed if you are near by.

341 On The River

A Blog From Perrysburg, Ohio, USA

Category Archives: Wandering

Predators and Prey, Hatteras, NC and Perrysburg, Ohio, October 2013

It’Snow Fun – Cross-Country Skiing in Perrysburg

Sandy Storm Stories