Hurricane Hunters

It's Hurricane Awareness Week, and two "hurricane hunter" aircraft came to the Roanoke airport yesterday. Most hurricane fatalities are due to inland flooding, so Roanoke is a good location to remind everyone of the dangers of flash floods from excessive rainfall. Who could pass up an opportunity to visit these aircraft (an Air Force C-130 and a NOAA P3-Orion)?

The first plane we got to see was an Air Force C-130. We waited about an hour to tour this plane. Who knew that so many people would come out on a Wednesday afternoon?

We entered through the rear cargo door of the aircraft.

The "dropsonde" port. Dropsondes are used on both aircraft, and send data back to the plane as they fall through the hurricane.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a Navy plane, the P3-Orion.

Workstation to monitor data on the NOAA plane.

The front of the NOAA plane reminds me of a narwhal.

This aircraft has studied 106 hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones going back to 1976. (Strong tropical systems are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean.)

Wildlife & More

So I've been procrastinating before posting these pix ...

Signs of spring (this is back in April): Hepatica

We got rid of rickety old wood racks on our deck and built some more substantial ones.

An interesting "tree arch" in the national forest near our property.

From the right angle it can look like an animal (horse? donkey? rhinoceros?).

Now for some real animals. It's been many months since our trail cams caught a black bear moseying by.

Coyotes are commonly seen on our trail cams, but this one appears to be carrying a fresh kill to its den.

Morton Arboretum

Monday, 8 April 2019

While we were visiting family in Naperville, Illinois, we made a springtime visit to the Morton Arboretum. The weather was glorious and spring was in the air.

Visually, it was still winter: no snow, but no green or leaves either, ...

... but hepatica is a sure sign of more spring wildflowers to come.

There were far more wetlands than I had remembered. Partly it's because it's spring and still wet. Partly it's because there's no screening vegetation around the marshy areas. Spring peepers (frogs) were out in force, and we saw two snakes swimming in the ponds.

Mallards were plentiful.

And fat squirrels were everywhere. Most of the squirrels were the rusty-colored fox squirrel.

Trolls

The trolls are still at the arb. They came through the winter with only a bit of wear. So if you didn't get to the arb last year, you still have a chance to see them. They will be removed only when they deteriorate to the point that they are unsafe.

Since we saw all six trolls and their hideout last year, we didn't make an effort to see them all this time.

Rocky was still throwing rocks at cars in the main parking lot.

Alexa is still trying to lure unsuspecting prey to her trap.

And Ema still waits by her tree.

A closer look at Ema's face shows that the trolls weathered a Chicago winter very well.

We'll certainly return to the arb this summer when the Gateway to Tree Science exhibit will be open (it's nearly complete now), and "Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks by Sean Kenney" will be on display.

Hocking Hills Region

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Hocking Hills is a sprawling network of state lands in southeastern Ohio that includes Hocking Hills State Park and Hocking State Forest. We visited last week. Despite the mid-week date, the park was filled with families enjoying a warm sunny early-April day.

The Upper Falls are the start of a network of trails that connect Old Man's Cave, Whispering Cave, Cedar Falls, and Ash Cave. On Wednesday, Lon hiked about 10 miles in this area while I was at a conference in Athens, Ohio. On Thursday, we returned to do a smaller subset of the trails.

The stream has cut a gorge through sandstone and the gorge trail crosses the creek many times.

Old Man's Cave (the overhang at the left of the photo) is near the beginning of the gorge. Most of the "caves" are really natural large, deep overhangs cut into the soft sandstone. They are very similar to the caves used by the cliff-dwellers in Mesa Verde (Colorado) or Buddhists in Sri Lanka. This particular cave takes its name from a recluse who lived here for many years at the end of the 18th century.

A stone bridge, several stair cases, and a tunnel provide access to Old Man's Cave.

The gorge between Old Man's Cave and Lower Falls. This particular view is called the "Sphinx Head".

Gorge and stairs leading to Lower Falls.

Lower Falls

Tree roots take advantage of every crevice they can find, ...

... but sometimes they're still not enough to anchor a tree in place.

Sunlight reflected off the creek illuminated the multicolored sandstone of the gorge walls.

Whispering Falls is at the western end of the Old Man's Cave trail.

Ash Cave is a truly immense rock shelter with a paved trail from the parking lot for accessibility. You can hike here from Old Man's Cave, but it's about 5 miles each way. It's much easier to drive to the parking lot and take a short hike (1/4 mile).

Ash Cave from the other side.

There's plenty more that we didn't see, so a return visit may be in order. It's really not very far off our usual route between Virginia and Chicago.

Our introduction to Hocking Hills came from Atlas Obscura. There's always something interesting near you to be found there.

Trees & More

Winter makes it easier to see the "bones" of the landscape.

I only recently noticed this tree. At some point it nearly fell over and the top broke off, but a side branch then became the main trunk. I'm going to have to "core" the tree and look at its history!

Less than a hundred feet away from the previous trees are these two "twisty" specimens.

Until recently, this blow-down was a hollow log about 20 feet long, but most of the log collapsed leaving only the hollow stump end.

A small herd of about 5 deer have been regular visitors to our "meadow" (septic drain field), I think because it's a south-facing slope and the snow melts before other places. They also came up close to the house.

Another look at the deer. My asparagus beds are just off to the left. I've got to protect them this spring!

One of our trail cams caught a squirrel leaping across the snowy road.

More than wildlife can be caught by our trail cams. This was a particularly good picture of Dakota.

Jackson River Scenic Trail

With unusually warm weather last week and a need for more exercise and to get in shape for a walking tour in England in a few months, we've spent some time hiking along the Jackson River Scenic Trail. Walking (as opposed to bicycling) affords more opportunities to see the details.

A hooded merganser and a mallard swim in the cold Jackson River.

Without a skull I'm pretty clueless when it comes to bones. Rabbit?

Recent rains made for a lot of drippy rocks along the trail with colorful vegetation.

And rainbows in front of the rocks.

We knew there was a "swinging bridge" across the river just below Indian Draft, but without leaves on the trees, it was possible to see it and walk to it from the trail.

Snow Days

A school "snow day" doesn't mean anything to us any more, we still enjoy the winter wonderland while it lasts. We had about 4 1/2 inches of snow from Saturday night through Sunday night. Now that it's a sunny Tuesday, the snow is melting fast.

Yesterday (Monday): Our solar panels don't make much electricity when they're covered with snow. (Actually, they haven't even "turned on" for 2 days.) As the snow/ice slips off, it's amazing how it coheres in one piece.

The view from behind the panels.

This morning, the sheet of snow/ice had slipped further yet. We didn't expect it to last overnight.

The bottom edge is deteriorating quickly. About two hours later, the whole sheet slid off the panels. Unfortunately, we didn't see it happen.

Our landscape-eating rabbits were hard at work overnight.

With the trees covered in rime from a cold fog overnight, and sunlight in just the right spot, made Fore Mountain look like an old volcano.