Down the Darby

We took our annual first Saturday in April canoe trip today. After a nippy morning we had a glorious day on the Darby Creek. Designated state and national scenic rivers, Big and Little Darby Creek are home to 98 species of fish, five of which are endangered in Ohio. Forty-three species of freshwater mussels live in these waters, eight of which are on the Ohio endangered list. The Big Darby is a less technical paddle than the Little Darby so in the interest of not dumping on a cold day we opted for the Big just in case.

Among the birds we saw kingfishers, wood ducks, and herons.
We also saw a queen snake, a beaver and many turtles.

The virginia bluebells were blooming high up on the banks.

Here's Kirk coming down the creek in his new (from last summer) kayak.

The sycamores, also referred to as ghost trees, really stand out against the blue skies.

We stopped on a gravel bar and photographed the shells of several species of freshwater muscles (also called clams) that I found strewn about. As you can see they vary in size, shape and color of nacre. Possession of certain types of freshwater muscles (live or dead) is prohibited by law. Poachers have cleaned entire (somtimes endangered or near extinct) populations out of their natural habitats in rivers and streams in the south in order to collect the shells which are later cut into "seeds" and sold to the cultured pearl industry for the purpose of being implanted into oysters to produce pearls in those parts of the world that culture them. In this photo are several species including: fat muckets, pocketbooks, kidney shells, wavy rayed lamp muscles, more lady fingers and fragile paper shells.

Freshwater muscles are valuable to the ecosystem and a diverse populations
is indicative of an extremely pristine waterway. Above I am holding a lady finger which has a purple nacre. Most of them have a white pearly colored nacre.

Here's my collection from the day. An antique bottle with a rusted on lid, a piece of antique class with its copyrite and smoothed edges and some natural fiber from a cottonwood tree.