Weekend Walks

Last week we had a couple of really hot humid days. Then a wonderful thunderstorm on Thursday evening which cooled things off. Friday when I came out of the office it was a lovely evening so after dinner I went for a walk by the creek near home. I haven't walked near the creek for two or three weeks. In the interval someone has been out with paint to decorate under the bridges and the garbage cans. I haven't been able to find out who did it but they sure did a nice job!

Last month when we went walking out at Silver Creek, Karen took this photo of a porcupine. It waddled along the base of the cliff and then climbed the tree. It was fun watching it climb up and have a snack. Moving from one fork branch to the other seemed to require a great deal of coordination.

On Saturday I went back out to Silver Creek for a walk. The little frog lives in the leaf litter and is less than one inch long. The snail was living on a decaying log just a few steps further up the trail. It was much bigger than the frog. I wished the two would have been together. Normally the frogs I see when I hike are like the big green one here. This one was in a little stream and I almost stepped on him too!

When I switched to walk along the trail on the other side of the road, I noticed this tree. It looks like a face in the bark. I see two eyes and a large flat nose (with nostrils).

There were lots of these little butterflies. Growing up, one summer there were thousands of these in the fields near the house. We were near the MNR office one day so we took one that happened to be in car into the office. The man told us the common and scientific name. The common name didn't stick but the scientific name he gave was Adopaea Lineola. We called them Dopies for short.