This video was the first of my "Ride Along" videos and filmed on Willow Drive, which runs across the southern edge of the Lima Marsh area. When I returned on October 1, 2006 this road no longer exists as it appears in the video. Since June the road has been torn up, slightly widened and is currently an unpaved gravel road for the majority of it's length. Personally I'm hoping this is being done as a maintenance issue, and not that it signals increased building along this end of the marsh area. The good thing is that most of the land to the north of this road is owned by the State, however on the other side is a another story. Due to this being a marshy area, and I'm sure the residents depend on septic systems, I don't believe it could support too many more homes in that area without extensive specialized waste systems, and hopefully will prove cost prohibitive for most people.
Click on small pictures to see larger versions
This picture was taken just east of the Willow Drive and County KK intersection. A mixture of deciduous trees, saplings and prarie grasses. Behind the trees are mostly fields and marsh land.
Another picture of a wooded area along Willow Drive adjacent to a marshy area.
The marshy area just to the east and adjacent to the woods shown in the previous picture.
An area of marshy and boggy land with scattered saplings.
More area as the previous picture shows.
Lots of brush and grasses, it may not look like much but most of the grasses are over five feet tall making travel by foot quite difficult in this portion of the marsh. Even when the going seems fine, one wrong step and you disappear as you step into a two or three foot hole in the bog. The next three pictures are all taken in the same area showing mixtures of foliage. Although the area in the background might look like an open field, it's full of holes, clumpy boggy ground and tall tall grasses. One could easily get lost, at least temporarily out there. I'd recommend you find a couple tall landmarks, at the beginning and end of your intended course. That way if you do fall into one of those holes, or find yourself in grass over your head, you still have something to guide you.
This last picture was of a pile of a silt like material, unsure where it came from or why it was placed here. The tracks going through it appear to be canine of some sort, however way too small to be attributable to anything the size of "The Beast". Unfortunately the silty material was too soft to hold a decent impression of the print as is apparent by the picture.
Just a closer look at those berries I addressed on the Home Page, will post the name and type of berries as soon as I can identify them, or if someone can identify them sooner email the answer to me at [email protected]
Checking around it seems the berries and leaves match up most closely to those in the Wild Currant family. If that is the case they are considered to be quite edible and used in jellies and jams. So why doesn't it seem the animals are eating them? Maybe something around that chases all the little animals that would normally eat them away? Or the little animals simply sense something big and dangerous to them is there and they stay away? Here's some pictures to look at, and decide for yourselves.
While adding the little comments above regarding why the berries haven't been eaten, if they are in fact Wild Currants, reminded me of an incident while at the marsh. While I was scouting around north of the County KK and Willow Drive intersection there is a long section of the road that has significant water in both ditches. The water table is quite high in marshland, and the ditches apparently fell below that so simply filled up. While traveling along I saw a Great Blue Heron standing in one of the ditches, and thought it was a good opportunity to get some closup video of one.
However the moment I hit my brakes I noticed the Heron immediately go into an alert state, he dropped his head, craned his neck and began to raise his wings as if to take off in flight. I released the brakes and continued on my way, watching the heron return to a relaxed state in my rearview mirror. After a while I turned around and began to head back towards the same area I had just traveled through. I kept my eyes open for the heron which was in the ditch on the opposite side of the road, and soon saw him again. This time I continued driving until I was probably close to an eighth of a mile past him before I began to pull over. I figured I'd stay low and across the road until I got close enough to try and sneak a good picture.
As I began to walk back towards the heron I looked up and saw a dog come out of the field on the east side of the road, probably less than 100 yards from the heron. I thought it was all over, that the heron would see the dog and take off, but the heron didn't seem to be affected by the dog's presence. At the same time I was about three times the distance, and stood up a little to get a better fix on his location. It seems the moment I was standing up enough for him to distinguish I was bipedal, he took to flight, quickly leaving the area.
So why did he react to me, so much more differently than to the dog? Was it a a situation of one being on all fours and the other bipedal? Could I have simply looked hungry at the moment? Had the heron had a bad encounter with a person in the past? Was it just coincidence? Or, could it possibly be due to previous encounters with another biped in the area, besides man? It's all speculation and since the heron can't possibly talk, it will remain unanswered, at least for now...