The Armored Catfish of Wekiwa Springs

I was at a professional development class in Florida last week, and as I usually like to do, I ran off into the nearest woods as soon as the class was over. This time it was to Wekiwa Springs State Park, which is a beautiful little park about an hour north of Orlando. I saw some pretty cool things there, including an armadillo, which we don't get in Jersey (sorry, I only got a blurry photo of his butt as he was running away).

The photo above is of the river filling with armored catfish (aka Orinoko sailfin catfish, plecostomus, pleco). These are an invasive species that has been spreading throughout Florida since about 1971. It is believed that they escaped and/or were released from aquariums and aquarium fish farms. They are originally from the Orinoco River basin in Venezuela and Colombia.

Here is a closeup from the Army Corp of Engineers, who is interested in these invasives because they like to destroy what the Corp has built.



During the day these catfish burrow into the river banks, causing erosion. At night they come out by the thousands to feed. All of the fish in the top photo are facing to the left, so the water flowing from the spring washes algae and small critters right into their mouths. Every once in a while, they come to the surface and take a gulp of air. All of this gulping sounded like someone was dropping stones into the water. These fish were very close to the spring, which apparently has low oxygen content as it comes out of the ground. Armored catfish can breath air fairly well, and can survive out of the water up to 30 hours!

Three types of heron - a green, a little blue and a great blue (named Henry according to the ranger) - stood to the side, patiently trying to find something to eat besides an armored catfish. Because of their tough, armored skin and sharp spines, these have been known to choke birds who tried to eat them. But the bears love them. The ranger told me that last year a group of volunteers "gigged" (speared) 5000 of them and left them out in the woods for the bears.

Here is some more info about these invasives and the damage they can cause.

Wissahickon Valley Park

This weekend my wife and I took a hike in Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia. Despite having driven past the park entrance many times, I had never been inside. As soon as you walk out of earshot of busy Lincoln Drive, you would think you were in the Pocono Mountains.

Since we didn't have a trail map, we stayed on Forbidden Drive, which is the main path through the park. Forbidden Drive used to be called the Wissahickon Turnpike, but they changed the name when those new-fangled horseless carriages were forbidden to drive on it. Here is a photo of the Blue Stone Bridge, which replaced the old Red Bridge in 1896. The little building to the right is the toll house. It is hard to imagine a time when this road was so busy with carriages that they would charge a toll to ride on it!

If you look in the window of the toll house, you can watch the elves baking Toll House Cookies. Or you can read the archaeological display, which includes a photo of a coin marked "Taylor's Hotel, Wissahickon, PA", which they believe was a bridge token.

To see a postcard of the bridge from the good old days, click here. Then click on the postcard to zoom in.

Here is an even more curious photo from our hike. I have no idea what those rectangular brown things are on this bush. They look like some type of shelf fungus, but I could not find them in any fungus books at the book store. Maybe they are part of the bush itself. In any case, it is odd that they are so rectangular. Well, that is a mystery for another day.

Roaring Run Iron Furnace

I was on a business trip near Roanoke, VA last week, and I had some free time to take a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here is a photo of Roaring Run Furnace in Jefferson National Forest.

It's pretty wild to come across something like this just sitting out in the middle of the woods. But that's where furnaces needed to be in the good olde days, because they would cut down acres of trees for the charcoal to run the furnaces. Click here for a great and sad description of this process.

If you are more the archaeological type and want all the somnolent details, try this site. And if you love old maps like I do, check out this one on the Library of Congress website. I can't imagine that too many members of Congress need old maps of iron furnaces, but I guess they have to be ready just in case. If you love all old iron furnaces, go here.

Roaring Run Furnace is on the Roaring Run Trail, which runs along Roaring Run Creek to Roaring Run Falls. It is all very beautiful, as you can see by the smile on my face.

Pinelands Adventure #1 - Brooksbrae Brick Company

I am fortunate to live on the edge of the NJ Pinelands, which, depending on who you ask, is the largest expanse of open land between either Boston and Richmond, or northern Maine and the Everglades. It covers 22% of the state of NJ, which is welcome relief in the most densely populated state in the nation.

Last fall my wife and I went on a hike sponsored by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. Led by local archaeologist Scott Wieczorek, we explored the ruins of an early 20th century brick factory. Here is my favorite picture. In the upper right you can see a family picnicking on top of what used to be the drying tunnels.

To see more photos, check out this site. For a description of the site by Mr. Wieczorek himself, click here.

The NJ Pinelands had a pretty colorful history before it became a National Reserve. To learn more, check out Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens by Barbara Solem-Stull. It includes directions, maps and lots of info on many interesting sites in the Pinelands.