Singing bridge

The Lindberg Road bridge across Coot Slough was singing Tuesday morning March 17, 2015.  When a strong northerly wind blows across the bridge, the railing on the north side produces a musical tone.  Both creepy and awe-inspiring.  To hear it you have to walk out on the pedestrian pathway.  Cars going by will drown out the sound so you have to wait until they go past.  To my knowledge nobody has been able to produce an audio recording of the sound.

Winter aconite

Winter aconite (Eranthis).  Winter aconite is a non-native plant and was planted here in the woods at the south end of Celery Bog Park several years ago.  It is a perennial and once it is planted will emerge every year as one of the earliest spring flowers.  Photo taken March 17, 2015.

Link to previous post on winter aconite in this same location two years ago:

Link to post on winter aconite at Clegg Garden last week:

Scarlet cup fungus and waterleaf

In the woods at Cumberland Park, scarlet cup fungus.  This is sometimes called Sarcoscypha coccinea but I will call it Sarcoscypha austriaca based on the treatment in the Hoosier Mushroom Society website.

Link to Sarcoscypha austriaca:

Link to previous post on scarlet cup fungus:

The green plant is waterleaf (Hydrophyllum sp.).  This is one of the few green plants appearing in the woods this early in the season.  A few green leaves of spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) can be seen poking through the leaf litter elsewhere in the woods here.

Photo taken March 15, 2015.

Link to previous post on Hydrophyllum:

Foggy day on the Wabash River

A foggy day on the Wabash River.  Looking downstream from the State Road 26 bridge at Lafayette.  Photo taken about 6:30 pm March 13, 2015.  The river here is about 14 feet above flood stage.

Link to Wabash River levels:

Red-tailed hawk

This red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) sits on a lamppost overlooking the parking lot at Celery Bog Park.

Photos taken Feb. 4, 2015.

Link to previous post on red-tailed hawk:

Beaver lodge

Here is a beaver lodge on the west side of Coot Slough, that is part of Celery Bog Park.  Photo taken Feb. 18, 2015.

Link to previous photo of beaver activity at Celery Bog Park:

Iron bacteria

Iron bacteria shows up as a rusty colored gunk in this spring.  This spring is just a few steps from Wildcat Creek in Tippecanoe County.  Probably what is happening is that sewage from houses on higher ground nearby is leaking into the groundwater.  As bacteria feed on the organic matter from the sewage they deplete the oxygen available in the ground.  As there is organic material still available, anaerobic bacteria start feeding, but instead of using a respiration process requiring oxygen, they convert ferric ion (+3) to ferrous ion (+2):

        H2O + Fe2O3 → 2Fe(OH)2 + O2
        (water) + (Iron[III] oxide) → (Iron[II] hydroxide) + (oxygen)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_metabolism#Other_inorganic_electron_acceptors

Then when the deoxygenated ground water emerges to the surface at the spring, the high concentration of ferrous ion in solution provides food for iron bacteria.  Iron bacteria do use oxygen as an electron acceptor in their respiration process (as we humans do in ours) but they use the energy difference in the two states of iron for power, rather than most other life forms that use the energy in carbon bonds.

        2Fe(OH)2 + O2 → H2O + Fe2O3
        (Iron[II] hydroxide) + (oxygen) → (water) + (Iron[III] oxide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_bacteria

The iron bacteria themselves have no color, the reddish stuff is the bacteria's waste product, an insoluble precipitate of ferric oxide.

Photo taken Feb. 13, 2015.