It's only been a week since Halloween, but this time of year on the Edge does get a little spooky. It seems that Autumn is when many of the critters we have decided are "scary" come out to play. The cast from our childhood horror stories are easily found right around Halloween.
Not only does Autumn produce some pretty landscape scenery, but pretty scenery on a smaller scale as well....pretty scary!
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| Autumn on the Edge |
If I had to pick a cast of scary creatures we find in the fall, I'd have to start with spiders. First thing you might notice when hiking on the Edge around Halloween is all the spider webs. The orb weavers seem to be large and make larger webs after summer has past.
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| The banded garden spider, Argiope trifaciata waiting for the morning dew to evaporate. |
Without fail, many orb weavers spin their webs face high. If you have ever eaten web while walking in the woods, the culprit may have been the marbled orb weaver,
Araneus marmoreus. Don't feel bad if you walk through its web during the day, the spider is usually hidden in a leaf structure on the side. Many spiders make new webs every day. Some even eat their webs in the morning to regain some of the proteins the web contains.
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| Araneus marmoreus rebuilding its web. You can see its back leg pulling the web from a spinneret on the abdomen tip. |
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| Found around houses, Neoscona crucifera is one of the most common orb weavers people encounter. |
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| Another Neoscona crucifera. Notice the glue droplets on some of the web strands. Not all web is sticky, but even the spider can get stuck in its own web if not careful. |
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| Ocrepeira ectypa hangs out on the tips of twigs and looks just like a bud of a tree when still. |
The next cast of critters found commonly this time of year would have to be Reptiles and amphibians. Beside spiders, nothing is more hair raising and heart pumping to many folks than snakes, frogs, toads and salamanders.
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| An orange and black color variation of the Eastern hognose snake, Heterodon platyrhinos. Notice the flattened head of the snake on the right side. (Photo by Chris Bedel) |
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| Gray rat snake, Pantherophis spiloides, found on side of road. They use the warm roads in fall for temperature regulation. |
Careful while driving the roads in October. Although it is a great time to get out and see the fall colors, it is also a busy time for reptiles and amphibians crossing roads! At this time of year, especially on warm days and nights, many of these creatures are on the move to their wintering spots. In one day/night, I encountered 45 brown snakes,
Storeria dekayi, 1 spotted salamander,
Ambystoma maculatum, 4 garter snakes,
Thamnophis sirtalis, 2 black rat snakes,
Pantherophis spiloides, 2 rough green snakes,
Opheodrys aestivus, 1 Kentucky spring salamanders,
Gyrinophilus porphyriticus, 1 E. box turtle,
Terrapene carolina, 10 American toads,
Anaxryus americanus and 7 gray treefrogs,
Hyla versicolor crossing the road. This occurring in about 9 miles of road. Imagine how many animals crossed that road throughout the day. And yes, unfortunately many of them were roadkill.
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| 2 brown snakes on the road. One was inflated and acting aggressive, which shows a more striking pattern through its scales. |
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| Many of these brown snakes I find under cover boards occupied by ant mounds. They are known to utilize ant burrows in winter. |
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| An American toad crossing the road on a warm and rainy fall night. |
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| Gray tree frogs were out in force the night of Halloween. |
Of course, there is no more iconic critter that represents this spooky time of year than our misunderstood friends, the bats.
This fall Rich McCarty came across a bat roosting on the side of a tree. This species of bat has only been observed a few times by the staff. Usually it is viewed flying over the Ohio River, and can be recognized mainly by its size. But on this lucky day, right after Halloween, Rich saw this bat...and if these pics don't induce shivering.....nothing will.
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| What would you think this hair ball on the side of a tree is?? (Photo by Rich McCarty) |
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| A hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus, hanging on a tree waiting for nightfall. (Photo by Rich McCarty) |
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These migratory bats move north in summer and back south in winter and hibernate in trees and leaf litter.
(Photo by Rich McCarty) |
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| Okay, maybe this is why bats are synonymous with Halloween! (Photo by Rich McCarty) |
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| Our largest bat, and I might say the most attractive bat with its bi-colored wings, frosty highlighted hair and buff colored face fur. (Photo by Rich McCarty) |
Autumn is a very interesting time of year, with plenty of animal activity. Preparing for winter, many critters are moving about and easy to find. I use Halloween as a reminder to get outside the last few warm days of the year and look around. You never know what you might find.
DISCLAIMER: The animals depicted in this post are not dangerous of course. They have just been selected many years ago as the cast of our horror stories and nightmares.
Posted by: Mark Zloba
