Vernal Pools

It's been a while since I posted, life tends to happen! But I took the time to walk to the vernal pools yesterday evening. It had just been pouring, and slowed down to a soft drizzle. The rain clears out all the mosquitoes, so that's one less thing to deal with while trying to take pictures.

                  The stream becomes a dirty brown in even the lightest rain, but it quickly clears up.

                            Moss covers everything by the stream, its thick and feels great on bare feet

           The grass quickly soaked my shorts, the seed heads hold water for a long time.

Small fungi thrive in the moist enviorment near the vernal pool

                                      Skunk cabbage make a sea of green on both sides of the stream

False Hellebore (which is still poisonous) grows among the Skunk Cabbage

The moss is ankle deep, and it looks just like small trees up close

Ferns grow waist high, some almost reached my shoulders!

Blueberry bushes are almost hidden amongst the ferns

Ferns as the toads see them.

This is a single pine, I couldn't reach ever half way across the massive trunk

I'm definitely not someone you'd cal squeamish, but wading through this, I just didn't think about what could quite possibly be in that muck under my bare feet.

The vernal pools have a....almost jungle like look to them, right here in Jersey we do have places that can be truly beautiful.

Walkin in the Rain

I woke up yesterday to pouring rain. I had already decided I wanted to walk to the Flat Brook river first thing, and a lil rain wasn't going to change that. I pulled on a light rain slicker and just went barefoot! The water turns the tree trunks a very dark brown, and that contrasted alot with the pale green of the new leaves. The leaves of the tree (above on right) turn a silvery color when they get wet, and every time the wind blows it sends light dancing off the leaves.

This newt was crossing the road when I found found him/her. Around this time of year the amphibians cross from one wetland to another for mating purposes. Not all of them make it across the roads though..

This is a large patch of May Apples I found by a vernal pool. The video is the sound of the frogs from the pool, it was really interesting sounding!

The river was running a little high because of the rain, and the water was muddy colored, not the normal clear clean looking water.

And last thing I found was this critter. I have no idea what it is, but it's all over the Ceder trees! So my best guess is it's some kina parasite. I brought a sample home and I'm working on identifying it.