My current favorite hiking destination: Spring Creek Canyon. Scenic, close to home, interesting things to look at.
And it quite looks like a canyon, too, at least in spots.
You’ll be utterly unsurprised to hear that most of my photographic efforts have gone toward pictures of plants and fungi. But this last trip we saw more interesting animals.
This is a raggedy Red Admiral. We saw several, but they were mostly uninterested in sitting for a portrait.
The first snake zipped away too fast for a photo, but this one obliged, at least by zipping to somewhere I could get a clear shot.
I’m pretty sure that’s a Northern Water Snake. Which would only make sense.
I learned something interesting while I was looking up Pennsylvania snakes: all our poisonous snakes have slitted pupils like a cat, while all our nonvenomous snakes have round pupils.
Round. Neat.
I’ve seen these millipedes every time I’ve been to Spring Creek Canyon this year, from late March onward.
I think they must be Apheloria virginiensis, a common forest dweller. They can be yellow instead of orange like the specimen in the Wikipedia link. These millipedes exude cyanide from their skin: I’m glad I didn’t pick any up.
Poisonous millipedes: I wonder if their pupils are round or slitted? (Actually, insects don’t have pupils.)
