I'm traversing this slightly larger waterway, of which Mill Creek is a tributary.
What is the Mahoning River?
Contrary to popular belief, bats are not truly blind (only color blind!), but they do use this sophisticated method of navigation to find food while flying in low- or no-light conditions.
What is echolocation?
This early season frog can be identified by the prominent "X" on its back and it's self-referential call.
What is a spring peeper?
...garden cultivation and management
What is horticulture?
The highly recognizable butterfly pictured here, which can be found throughout all 88 OH counties and lays its larvae exclusively on milkweed.
What is a monarch butterfly?
I'm hunting for spring critters like amphibians or fairy shrimp in these temporary bodies of water, such as one might find at Vickers Nature Preserve of Hitchcock Woods, for example.
What are vernal pools?
All 11 species of bats found in Ohio are either nocturnal (active at night) or this other "spooky" word, which means active at dawn and dusk.
What is crepescular?
This amphibian is also known as a "red eft" during its immature terrestrial stage, which begins about three to four months after the larva hatches.
What is a red-spotted newt?
...the possibility of life beyond Earth.
What is astrobiology/exobiology?
True or false: Butterflies and moths are members of the same genetic Order, classified separately simply due to their physical, behavioral, and life-cycle differences.
What is true?
I'm standing on Parapet Bridge, seen here, overlooking this lake.
What is Lake Glacier?
This descriptively named bat is one of Ohio's few true hibernators.
What is the little brown bat?
Ohio's most common frog by far, known for the short, high pitched cry it utters as it dives into the water when disturbed.
What is a green frog?
...fungi, from mushrooms to molds.
What is mycology?
This most common of Ohio's royal silk moths is named for both its coloration and its preferred host plant.
What is a Rosy Maple Moth?
I'm ducking inside to get away from this unusual frozen precipitation that is sometimes referred to as "snow pellets" or "soft hail."
What is graupel?
Bats reproduce relatively slowly, live long, and are evolved to face limited natural threats like predation, making emergent diseases such as this condition caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, particularly devastating.
What is white-nose syndrome?
This amphibian is remarkable for its long trilling call, as well as the high volume of eggs produced by females of the species (up to 20,000!), which appear in the water as two coiled strings.
What is the American toad?
...the precise dating of tree rings, closely associated with a similarly named branch of climatology.
What is dendochronology?
Relatively common in Northwest OH, the federally endangered butterfly whose larvae rely on the wild blue lupine (both pictured here).
What is the Karner Blue Butterfly?