Winter snowstorm

As always, click the photo to enlarge

I awoke to a winter wonderland. About five inches of powdery snow fell overnight (for us, that is a snowstorm), encasing everything in a blanket of snow. The aftermath of such snowstorms is often ephemeral, so I headed out before daybreak to bask in some real winter, one of my favorite seasons. This is the Olentangy River in Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio.

A snowy wonderland

 

Last Sunday, January 22, 2023, dawned cool and crisp, with the world covered in a gorgeous veneer of soft fluffy snow. Such scenes are not to be missed, especially around here when pure winter days are a rarity. Time is usually of the essence as soft snowy cloaks like this are typically ephemeral and begin melting by midday or so. I rolled out early and only had to head five minutes away, to a section of older-growth riparian woodlands along the Olentangy River in Worthington, Ohio.

It's hard to make much progress - as if that matters - when the landscape looks like this. Every new position and turn of the head offer interesting perspectives. I tend to dawdle along, looking for inspiration and love trying to capture interesting scenes with my camera.

I wondered what these Mallards thought of their breathtaking environs. While the ducks issued soft quacks, I could not interpret their thoughts.

A White-tailed Deer stands in a snowy forest. When I head out into a landscape like this, with intentions of capturing large-scale beauty, I often carry only two lenses: a 16-35mm wide-angle, and a 70-200mm for tighter views. I saw the deer before it saw me and bolted on the bigger lens as I was shooting across the river. As soon as I trained the camera on the deer, it looked over, but distance and a wide intervening river kept its fear at bay.

We'll be lucky to have one or two more days like this before winter's end. I hope we do and if so, that I am able to get out somewhere interesting to relish them. Unfortunately, these situations are often tough to predict. You awake, look out the window, and there it is. None of the weather people called this one, surprise, surprise.

Olentangy River, wintry snowscape

 

The Olentangy River as seen yesterday morning, just south of the State Route 161 bridge in Worthington. For several days now, a beautiful frosting of snow has covered the landscape, creating beauty everywhere one looks.

Rising from headwaters in Morrow County, the Olentangy flows nearly 100 miles south before confluencing with the Scioto River near downtown Columbus. It is a picturesque stream over most of its distance, despite encroachments by agriculture, suburbia, and urbanization.

In spite of an enormous people population along and near the stream, much effort has been undertaken to protect the Olentangy River and its water quality and riparian corridors are in surprisingly good shape. I drive past - or over - this river nearly daily, and could not resist the temptation to stop and photograph it yesterday in the snow.

Giant sycamore

A gargantuan sycamore arches over the black waters of the Olentangy River, its gnarled boughs scraping the sky. This section of the river is a watery avenue of the giants, lined with many massive sycamores, one of which hosts a bald eagle nest. I made this image yesterday, along the Scenic River Trail in Highbanks Metro Park, Delaware County, Ohio.

Olentangy River

Humble beginnings. This is the origin of the mighty Olentangy River, a stream well known to central Ohioans. Water washing off a field in southeastern Crawford County, some 90 river miles north of its mouth, form the Olentangy. This field runoff is shunted into a culvert, and then into that ditch in the background.

The Olentangy River at Highbanks Metropark, not far north of Columbus. By this point, the stream has become much larger, and far wilder. Many interesting creatures live in and along the river over its 97-mile course, and its corridors provide some of the most noteworthy scenery in central Ohio.

I am giving a program on the Olentangy on Tuesday evening, March 29th at 7 pm at the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW) meeting. Location: Worthington Library, Northwest Branch, 2280 Hard Road. It's free and all are welcome. FLOW is a good group to become involved with if you are interested in the Olentangy River.

NATURE
Wonders of Olentangy run deep, especially for kid
Sunday, March 20, 2011

Jim McCormac

The Columbus Dispatch

Olentangy is a funny word, but Columbus residents know it well as our premier stream.

It's a Delaware Indian name meaning "river of the red face paint." Good thing they changed it from the previous Delaware name: keenhongsheconsepung, which means "stone for your knife stream."

I grew up near the banks of the 97-mile-long Olentangy River, in Worthington, and it had a profound effect on my life.

As a lad, I frequently sneaked off to the river with my best buddy to look for turtles, fish, birds, whatever. We would grab the biggest floatable log we could move, set it adrift and hop on. Ensconced on our primitive vessel, we navigated what, to our preteen minds, was an uncharted wilderness full of exciting creatures.

Jeff and I would be dumbstruck by massive great blue herons - to us, pterodactyls croaking their displeasure at our intrusion.

We would marvel at the great springtime runs of redhorse suckers, with dozens of the big fish clogging the riffles.

Alien-looking softshell turtles were sought, captured and imprisoned in streamside enclosures of rock. We quickly learned that softshells are expert tunnelers and could dig their way to freedom.

Once, while I was wading in a clear pool, a Northern watersnake darted from a stone bridge abutment and killed a sunfish a foot from my thigh. That fired my 11-year-old imagination - as did the jumbo crayfish with the powerful pinch and the occasional mink with its silky, sinuous gait.

The Olentangy River is a linear ribbon of biodiversity - and a natural treasure for Columbus.

It hosts dozens of fish species, including threatened bluebreast darters. A half-dozen rare mussels burrow into its substrate, filtering food particles from the water. The white trunks of giant sycamores delineate its course, providing sanctuaries for barred owls and yellow-throated warblers.

Cliff swallows build globular mud adobes under the Olentangy's bridges. This is the same swallow that made San Juan Capistrano, Calif., famous. It is but one of dozens of species of birds that breed along the Olentangy.

In the early 1830s, botanist John Riddell noted a gorgeous purple-flowered aster along the river near Worthington. He gave his discovery - the sky blue aster - the fitting name of Aster oolentangiensis. The stunning plant is a fitting tribute to one of Ohio's most remarkable streams.

I hope we can protect it for other kids to enjoy.