Mock Orange

Mock orange (Philadelphus sp.) growing along the trail along the canal at Delphi's Canal Park.
Growing wild, possibly spread here from a nearby garden.  Probably Philadelphus coronarius.  Photo taken June 12, 2019.

Link to Philadelphus coronarius:

Moneywort

Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) flowering along the canal at Canal Park in Delphi, Carroll County.  Photo taken June 12, 2019.

Link to previous post on Lysimachia nummularia:

Link to Lysimachia nummularia:

Link to Canal Park:

Black vulture

This black vulture (Coragyps atratus) landed on this dead tree and then spread its wings to gather some sunshine.  It held its wings in this sunning position for several minutes while I got some photographs.

The top of this tree was a perfect spot for this bird to get some sunshine,  It was a single barkless trunk about twenty feet high.  This was at Lake Monroe in Monroe County, near North Fork of Salt Creek.  Photos taken June 5, 2019.

Black vultures have been reported curiously damaging cars at Monroe Lake, here is a link:

Link to Coragyps atratus:

Black Rat Snake

Found this black rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) crawling across the overlook deck of Trail 2 at Prophetstown State Park.

A closer view of the traces of this mature snake's scale pattern left over from its earlier juvenile period.

Photos taken May 27, 2019.

Link to Wikipedia page on Pantherophis obsoletus:

Williamsport Falls -- Potholes -- Big Pine Creek, January 31, 2019

Williamsport Falls, noon, January 31, 2019.  There had been two previous nights of about -16 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.  The falls were starting to ice up.  In previous cold winters I have seen it as one huge icicle from the top of the falls to the bottom, so this is not as big as it could have been.  You can see a mound of ice at the bottom about a third as high as the falls.  Also notice the new icicles that have formed underneath the sandstone.  These are from water seepage out of the more porous bedrock (I think it is shale).  Below a short video of the same scene.

After visiting Williamsport  Falls I went to the Potholes, here is a scene from there.  To the lower left the trail, normally solid sandstone, was a sheet of ice, so I didn't attempt to get across to the stairs to go any farther.

The view of Big Pine Creek at Twin Bridges, looking upstream.

All photos taken January 31, 2019.

Ice floes on the Wabash River at Lafayette, January 2019

Ice floes on the Wabash River, January 30, 2019.  There had been two previous nights of temperatures reaching a low of about -15 degrees Fahrenheit, I thought that would have been enough to form an ice jam on the river but the ice was still riding the river.  It will jam up when it gets really cold but I guess the river having been at flood stage only a few days ago, still was high enough to keep the ice floating.  A fair pastime in Lafayette is to stand on the pedestrian bridge watching the ice floes smash into the bridge abutment.  If you look at the first photo you can see my shadow showing where I am standing.  This is the best place to stand watching the ice floes.  The short video was filmed from this spot.

Extreme water flow at Williamsport Falls

I went to Williamsport Falls hoping to see some ice formations due to about 2 or 3 days previously of about 10 degree F weather.  In the immediate 24 hours before I got there, there had been a warming trend and heavy rains.  Any ice formations that may have been there were melted away and I was surprised to see so much flow that a second waterfall had appeared alongside the regular one.  Never seen this before.  Photo taken January 23, 2019.

Here is a short video of the same scene:

Here is a view from the top of the falls.  During the normal low flow of this stream, potholes are visible in the sandstone bedrock here.

Edit 1/28/2019:  Photos were taken about 10:30 am, January 23, 2019.