A Strange Day in Rock Creek Park

The decision over what to feature in the first "real" post of From the Suburbs, Naturally was a daunting one. How do I properly set the tone? With almost four years in the 'burbs under my belt - and all of them filled with outdoor adventures - where do I begin? I thought about debuting with a cycling post, as that's a big part of my life right now, but ultimately it's not what this blog is about. I toyed with the idea of doing a species feature with photos and information about one particular critter, plant, or mushroom I've encountered. That seemed too narrow for an inaugural post. Instead, I will share a bit about one of the more interesting short hikes I've done over the last few years.

This hike began at the Rock Creek Nature Center in Rock Creek Park. A fun fact for us Silver Spring residents is that technically most of us live within walking distance of a National Park. Since the bulk of Rock Creek Park is located within Washington, DC's boundaries, it is managed by the National Park Service. It was a gorgeous day, and Laurel, Franklin, and I were ready to go.

Soon after we got going, we encountered the eastern worm snake (Carphophis amoena amoena) pictured below. This was a first for me, at least as an adult who knew what he was looking at. It didn't move at all in the few minutes we stood watching it, so it's possible that calling it "life" is too generous. I'm duplicating the species name above because this fella is the "nominate subspecies." What's that mean? Well, when an enterprising biologist successfully makes a case for a split into subspecies, one (the first discovered) retains the species name as its subspecies name. Once a species is divided this way, binomial nomenclature is cast aside in favor of the "trinomen."

Eastern worm snake

Our next oddity (well, 'next' if you can call a fairly common snake an oddity) was this blighted tree. Actually, I've no certainty that this is a blight at all...it could be a fungus or some entirely different tree problem I have yet to learn of. This sort of thing isn't really within my expertise, so I will present the photo without further comment.

The image doesn't show it, but the proper trunk of this tree is only about twice the thickness of the tree in the foreground.

A little farther down the trail (by now we were nearing the National Zoo), I saw a strange-looking seed wedged between a couple of sticks. It had an orange-brown hue, and seemed to be a spherical aggregation of tiny (also spherical) segments. Since it looked nothing like any seed casing I knew of, I reached for the twigs to retrieve it. Imagine my surprise when this 'seed' began to disperse in all directions! My seed was in reality a cluster of hatchling spiders. Please don't ask me to identify these to species; I can't.

It was a "that's no moon" moment.

Our final strange encounter on this hike was with an albino pigeon (rock dove, if you prefer - Columba livia to remove any ambiguity). I suppose I should note that this may not have been true albinism, but it sure looked like it to me. The appearance of such a bird was not in itself very unusual...but this specimen's behavior most certainly was. Perhaps this is best described in pictures.

Feces? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, not a sign of good health.

Something isn't right about any bird that lets you get this close.

My favorite Canis lupus familiaris notices something wrong too.  Instinct says, "Snack!"

I've seen stranger things than any one of the above encounters, for sure. I don't, however, recall many days with so many unusual encounters with nature wedged into just a few hours. This was a day that reminded me (as if I needed a reminder) of the wonder, diversity, and complexity of nature.