[Waymninelia]

I often submit posts about orchids that are found here or there near hinckley reservoir and I realized yesterday
that I'd never posted any pics of it. yesterday I went to grant fen near the east edge, drove around some of
the back dirt roads checking things out and headed over to the 'jones road' sites where there are orchids.
on the way back down rt365 I noticed that you could see some of the adirondack mountains up one of
the reservoir 'valleys' so turned around to get some merged pics. Hinckley is one of two dammed reservoirs
(one out of commission by design) on top of that 'hill'; this one supplies much of the drinking water for the
general utica area and alot of the drainage goes to supply water to the newer version of the erie canal
(ny barge canal). the water is very clean. hinckley reservoir isn't completely in the adirondack park, but
I believe the northeastern section is.

the main image is a merge of 9 pictures, so may take a little bit to load if you have a slow connection
(and you will have to scroll to the right)

there are a few other pictures that I'll submit in reply posts


if you look up the furthest upper valley in about the third frame, you can
see a good number of the closest peaks of the adirondack park back in the mist

the camera position is at the lower left 'elbow' of the reservoir. there is also more area to the right
where the park is and the dam to the far right. there actually is a boating area below the spillway
area of the dam where you can boat and fish. the dam also has a small power generator inside
of it which supplies some local electricity

[suidinguilelf]

Nice job putting that one together. I'd love to visit the Adirondacks one day - another thing to put on the to do list...

[Waymninelia]

lots of native orchids in the park! I don't know if I'll ever get to canoeing around some of the larger lakes like I'd really like to do. in the inlet area are the fulton chain lakes where you can start at 1st lake and boat/portage through either eight or nine lakes that are connected with water or short hikes between

after I finished taking pics at grant fen (rain chased me away) I decided to wander over some of the dirt roads between there, around hinckley reservoir and then north to jones road where there are also quite a few orchid spots


found this colony of bee balm (oswego tea) while driving around trying to get from grant fen over to jones road. though this species is native, I don't think pink is a native color and likely is an escape from a garden






composite flower close-up


large fungi growing from the base of a small, rotten stump. note the slug eating at the base of the mushroom

please note the next image below is of a slithery, creepy crawly critter, so
those allergic to this type of animal might want to scroll down quickly!
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a harmless garter snake not very perturbed by my stopping to take a pic
(maybe it was posing)


goodyera tesselata orchid, not flowering this year. grows in shady, well-drained position where the moisture from surrounding water keeps the humidity fairly high


a salamander called a 'red eft'. I believe that it's actually the immature version of a darker salamander that looks almost the same except it's a very dark green/grey and (the adult) lives under water except for laying eggs (I think). if someone would like to clarify, please do!

more pics in next post

[Waymninelia]

part 2 of flowers and more while driving around hinckley reservoir area

these pics are in the beaver meadow towards the northern end of jones road before it intersects state route 8


can't remember if this is a form of cotton grass or just a sedge flower


sundew


wild astilbe? note the hovering bug lower right of flower


club spur orchis clump. this spot has some of the tallest ones I've seen, sometimes approaching a foot tall




camouflaged predatory bug waiting for some dinner. was very tough to get a clear image of this because the wind kept blowing the plant around. finally i just grabbed the stem and held it with one hand and the camera in the other... it took a few tries to get the focus right, of course


I noticed this unusual sundew. all of the others have a skinny stem with tiny white flowers that open one at a time and close before the end of the day


what's unusual about this sundew is that instead of the normal flower and seed 'pods' on the thin stem, if you look closely you'll see that there are 'leaves' and such with sticky sundew growing on the flower spike where the flower bracts would normally be. i've never heard about this variety though i'm sure others have seen it before. I don't know if it would propagate by seed or if it would need to be divided somehow. hopefully nobody will ask me to try and collect that plant and send it to them; imagine trying to find one sundew out of thousands on a beaver meadow! (besides the fact that it's illegal in the park without permits)

[olivelappers]

Wonderful shots, thanks again!

[vNGiDaFX]

Collect that sundew and send it to me! Thanx for posting, the red-eft, is a juvenile stage of the eastern newt, they come out in bunches to in a dispersal migration, then they live mostly in the water in a green stage.

[casinobonbiner]

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

[elalmhicabalp]

Amazing photos Charles!!! Well done!!!

[suidinguilelf]

Great pics, thank you. You always make me feel nostalgic with your photos. I've only seen G. tesselata in habitat a couple times and it is one of my favorite North American Goodyeras! There's something about those brigh green leaves...

[boanuatiguali]

The salamander is a "red eft". Its the immature stage of the common eastern newt. After an aquatic larval stage, the newt spends several years on land as an eft. Very well hidden. Easy to find after a rain, but nearly impossible to find otherwise. They are supposedly poisonous at this stage, hence the bright red color. After a few years, they return to the water...color turns olive drab, although they keep the red dots. The tail becomes flattened, and the male gets a very wide "fin".

[rXpX]

Another great tour -- thanks, Charles!

[Heclailia]

Very nice! Thanks!

Ramon

[Waymninelia]

server is back up so pics available to see again...

[12Cickprior]

i once got some weird sundew growth after i sprayed with botanigard wp. don't know if it was from that or the sticker/spreader (capsil) but i kinda doubt anyone sprayed that out there....

[fmrcurter]

Thx for the photos! Beautiful area.

Ron

[Gulauur]

thanks for those great pics Charles!!!! Jean

[vNGiDaFX]

Hey Charles, I met a few of your friends who took the bus trip to Silvas!

[Waymninelia]

that's nice, who did you meet up with? .. and how much did they spend?
(and how much did you spend? )