ENTS,
Today I went up in Wharton State Forest to eat my lunch and then to search out
wetlands plants, especially carnivorous plants, to photograph with the digital
camera. First I went to the ghost town of Harrisville and saw some sundews
there. I'm not sure if they were round-leaf or spatulate-leaf sundews. The
Harrisville pond had thousands of Swollen Bladderwort on it, in full bloom.
That was cool. Then I went up to the ghost town of Martha Furnace. Near there,
there is a bog along the Wading River. I checked that out and photographed tons
of either spatulate-leaf or round-leaf sundews and also thread-leaf sundews.
There are dozens or perhaps hundreds of pitcher plants there, many of them in
full bloom. But I estimate that there are tens of thousands of sundews,
probably of all three species. After spending time in that bog and along the
river bank I went into Martha Furnace and checked out all the Catalpa trees
there, which I've discussed here before. I
wanted to see if all the ones I thought were alive actually were. They are!
One was barely hanging on to life, while all the other half-dead-looking
Catalpas that I thought were alive last winter definitely are. Catalpas seem to
be a really tenacious tree. They are amazing, living with the roots half out of
the ground, trunks hollow or broken in half, etc.
After I was done there I drove to the ghost town site of Calico, arguably the
most mysterious and least known ghost town in the Pine Barrens. I wanted to see
the wetland where the beaver pond is. The beavers have expanded a pre-existing
wetland into a good-sized pond, making two large and deep puddles in the sand
road that goes through there, the Calico-Warren Grove Road. When I got to the
beaver pond I found a man there who was sitting in a lawn/beach chair,
relaxing, listening and watching birds, and whatever else. I hung out there a
long time. Every now and then some frogs would call. Finally some Pine Barrens
Treefrogs started calling. I turned on my digital camera to video and recorded
the sound during the last time the frogs were calling. That was very cool.
During the entire day I photographed trees and ferns. I took pictures of
several Blackjack Oaks. Most of them are either very young or stunted. I only
saw one that was tree-sized, and it wasn't big. It's rare to find a large fully
grown Blackjack Oak. I also photographed some Scrub Oak. Most Blackjack Oaks
are about the same size as nearby Scrub Oaks, even though they are supposed to
get to be tree-size.
So it was another fun day out. The day I stopped at Batsto to see the
chopped-up oak tree I photographed a lot of Blue Flag iris along one of the
roads, and then tons of Blue-eyed Grass in an open semi-wetland near Batsto.
By the way, the Mountain Laurel, all around, is now in bud. In fact I found one
or two that were starting to bloom. I also found blueberry bushes with
blueberries on them. The berries are small and green right now, as it's still
early in the season. While I'm out in the woods I often wonder how old and how
big a blueberry bush can get to be, or how old and how big a Scrub Oak can get
to be. It would b e interesting to know.
Barry
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