Jerry Smith park

I got out there this morning. It was about 45 degrees F, but it didnt feel THAT cold. I walked to the big tree in the center of the park and followed the stream down. Its flowing well from yesterdays rains. I found several crayfish? borrows along the side of the hill above the stream that I had not seen before. I wrapped around to the sagerwoods trail and flipped some rocks. The snakes and skinks and beetles that I had found a week or so ago are not there- they must have been driven back into their winter places by the cold spell we've recieved this week. I flipped more and found a single, very cold Bombardier Beetle. He fled in slow motion- no fast enough! I put him on a piece of limestone and took some photos. These beetles are facinating! Read about them in a previous post, March 31. Click on the photo to get a larger, more detailed one!

The nettles are up- here is a pic of the underneath of a leaf.. The plant grows these toxic barbs on the stem and leaves. The needles can be so large and strong that they can go through jeans and gloves. They deliver an irritating, stingy-ithchy feeling when the fresh plants are touched- Ive heard its an acid in the needles. The plant is really harmless and has been used for a varitey of medicinal uses from kidney stones to hay fever. I read that the plant offers pain relief- by rubbing the irritating nettles on a wound or painful area... (probably just distracts you from the pain by itching you crazy)

I peeked behind the barn before I left and found a few skinks- two adult femails and a juvinal with a stubby blue tail. The two larger ones never bothered to move, but the little guy did- he was just about as successful as the poor, frozen beetle. He never stopped moving, but I got a pic and left them alone.