Wabash River January 23, 2010

The Wabash River from the pedestrian bridge at Lafayette, January 23, 2010, The ice jam has broken up and just a little ice remains. Air temperature has been mostly just above freezing for the last few days.



Link to Wabash River levels:

Ice pack slowly breaking up

This picture of the Wabash River at the pedestrian bridge at Lafayette was taken January 16, 2010. Air temperatures near the melting point for several days has caused some of the ice pack to break up.

Kentucky coffee-tree on Purdue campus

There are three Kentucky coffee-trees (Gymnocladus dioicus) on the north side of the Marstellar Street parking garage on the Purdue campus. Once you know what the seed pods look like, in the wintertime you can spot where the coffee-trees are as you drive around. Picture taken January 10, 2009.

Link to previous post on Kentucky coffee-tree:

Red-tailed hawk as scavenger

This red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) scavenges a deer carcass. Near Stair Road, January 10, 2010.

Link to red-tailed hawk:

Scolytid galleries on hackberry tree

The bark has dropped away from this dead hackberry tree showing the egg galleries of Scolytid beetles. On the Wabash Heritage Trail, just south of Tapawingo Park, January 10, 2010.

Link to Scolytidae:

Gray Squirrel and Fox Squirrel

A gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) sits in a honeysuckle bush (Lonicera maackii). This is along the Wabash Heritage Trail south of Tapawingo Park just past the railroad bridge.

Link to Sciurus carolinensis:

Link to previous post on Lonicera maackii:

Link to another previous post on Lonicera maackii:


This fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) rests in the sunshine high on a silver maple tree (Acer saccharinum) on the bank of the Wabash River, along the Wabash Heritage Trail south of Tapawingo Park past the railroad bridge. Both pictures were taken January 10, 2010.

Link to Sciurus niger:

Link to Acer saccharinum:

Bald eagle at the Wabash River

This was the best picture I could get of a bald eagle yesterday. The eagle is flying upstream and can be seen in the center right of the picture. This is the Wabash River just downstream of the bridges of Lafayette. St. Ann's church on Wabash Avenue can be seen in the background on the other side of the river. There were at least three mature and one immature bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at this part of the river yesterday, January 10. 2010. The river is not frozen over completely here.

Link to previous post on bald eagles in Lafayette:

Frozen-over Wabash

Looking upstream from the pedestrian bridge. The ice floating on the Wabash River has jammed up behind the pedestrian bridge at Lafayette. These pictures were taken Friday afternoon, January 8, 2010, the ice jammed sometime Thursday evening or before dawn Friday. The ice jam likely stretches for miles upstream. The Wabash is a wild river, unlike the Mississippi which has a series of dams along its length which will capture ice floes earlier in the winter. As the ice floes on the Wabash get bigger and bigger this bridge often provides the bottleneck for the jam.

Link to Wabash River levels:

View from the downstream side of the pedestrian bridge. Several dozen mallard ducks are on the open water here.

Wabash River at Lafayette, Jan. 6, 2010

Wabash River at Lafayette, Wednesday morning, January 6, 2010. Ice floes are still floating freely downstream as the cold weather continues. It takes several days of cold weather before the river freezes over.

Link to Wabash River levels:

Watercress

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) grows in some of the streams around here, and shows some green color through the winter. This is in a small tributary of Burnett's Creek along the Heritage Trail, a bit south of Battleground. Probably not safe to eat it due to the E. coli in the water. Picture taken January 2, 2010.

Link to watercress:

Kentucky coffee-tree

This Kentucky coffee-tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is along the Burnett's Creek section of the Wabash Heritage Trail, somewhere south of Burnett's Road. You can tell which trees are coffee-trees from the distinctive seed pods at the ends of the very top branches. A bald eagle had just passed over the treetops before I got this picture. By the time I had my camera out the only picture I could get was of the coffee-tree. That is the advantage of plants, they sit still for photography. Picture taken January 2, 2009.

Link to Kentucky coffee-tree:

Link to Kentucky coffee-tree seed pods:

Link to previous post on bald eagles:

Great Blue Heron at the Wabash River

Two views of the Wabash River from the same vantage point. Heron Island is upstream just behind the bend to the right. There are over a dozen great blue heron flying around over this part of the river. January 2, 2010.

Link to previous post on great blue heron:

Wabash River at Lafayette, January 2, 2010

January 2, 2010, and the Wabash has iced up some since the previous day. Air temperature is again in the single digits.


Link to Wabash River levels:


A swan in the Wabash River near Tapawingo Park, January 2, 2010. Probably a mute swan (Cygnus olor)

Link to mute swan:

Cottonwood trees

These two cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides) in Shamrock Park in Lafayette have grown very big, they are about five feet in diameter. These trees are in the flood plain of the Wabash River, as is the rest of Shamrock Park. Pictures taken January 1, 2010.

Link to previous post on cottonwood trees:

Link to previous post on cottonwood trees:

Link to previous post on cottonwood trees:

Cocklebur grove

A grove of cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) near the Wabash River trail, West Lafayette, January 1, 2010.

Link to previous post on cocklebur:

Datura

Datura stramonium, bank of the Wabash River at West Lafayette, January 1, 2010.

Link to Datura stramonium:

Wabash River at Lafayette, January 1, 2010

Predawn hour, January 1, 2010, at the pedestrian bridge. Temperature in the single digits. Ice floes are beginning to form on the surface of the Wabash River.


The new decade begins with a full moon setting over West Lafayette.

The new sun nears dawn behind the Lafayette side of the Wabash River. The snow line on the bank shows the river level before the last snow a couple days previous. Datura and Xanthium in the foreground.

Link to Wabash River levels: