Blacklick Woods Metro Park

09/04/2026

Babies on the move! 🦌

Look who has been "spotted" along the park road! Twin baby deer have been hanging out with their mom along the park road in the wooded area before the nature center lot. As you visit, drive slowly and watch out for them as they follow mom and cross the road; they haven't quite mastered "stop, look, and listen".

📷: Shannon Heist

09/03/2026

Does this pollen make my pants look big? 🌸🐝👖

Have you ever noticed a large yellow or orange mass on the hindleg of a bee? That's their "bee bread" or bee pollen stuffed inside their corbicula also known as their "pollen pants" or "pollen basket".

As bees visit each flower, they collect pollen all over their body just like the small yellow grains as seen in this picture. To tidy up, they will comb all the pollen from their body with their legs into their corbicula and repeat the combing and packing until they are clean. Here in the pollen pants, tiny hairs hold the bee pollen in place as they fly. Imagine their efficiency if they could wear khaki pants!

📷: Shannon Heist

08/29/2026

Cheers to bats! 🥂🦇

Celebrate International Bat Night this weekend, August 29-30th. Bats provide many ecosystem services, from eating insects like mosquitoes to pollinating plants like bananas and agave (thank a bat next time you have tequila!). This weekend take a moment to go outside from sunset to dark and look to the sky for bats in your backyard, local park, or even in your driveway!

Pictured bats in order Red Bat, Little Brown Bat, Big Brown Bat, Eastern Pipistrelle, Silver Haired Bat
📷: Mac Albin, David R. Celebrezze, Tim Daniel, Al Staffan

08/27/2026

It's National Peach Day but here at Blacklick, we don't find peaches growing from trees, we find Wrinkled Peach mushrooms! 🍑

If you’re lucky, you could find this unique mushroom in the forest. This fungus enjoys decaying, low-lying, hardwood logs like maple and elm in wet environments. The cap is pink when very young but becomes more peach-colored with age. Covering the cap is a distinctive white netting pattern with interconnected veins and ridges that make them look wrinkled. Underneath the cap, the gills are pinkish and the off-centered stem often “bleeds” orange-ish pink droplets.

The scientific name, Rhodotus palmatus, refers to the wrinkles on the cap surface, resembling the lines on the palm of a hand. Despite being so cool looking, the Wrinkled Peach is an inedible mushroom. Its rubbery and gelatinous texture, along with its bitter taste, makes it unappealing for culinary purposes.

📷: Shannon Heist

08/25/2026

It's a man eat man world, or in this case, a wasp eat wasp world 🍽🌎

Check out this Paper Wasp feasting on what we think is a Dogwood Sawfly. This sawfly looks similar to a hairless caterpillar and feasts on dogwood trees. As it eats away skeletonizing the dogwood it is growing to metamorphosize to become a beautiful non-stinging wasp!

Unlike most wasps that feed on insects, sawflies feed on foliage often wiping out a whole plant at once making them a plant pest for many gardeners. Luckily, nature is the best natural pest control and the wasps will take care of the wasps.

📷:

08/24/2026

The park is slowing down but programs are not!Join us to learn about something new! 🧪🍄🚍🐟🐦🌿🍪🧘‍♀🧘🐢🌕🌄

08/23/2026

With all the rain and humidity lately, fungi have been popping up all over the park! 🍄

Peak growing season is during the summer due to the heat, humidity, and rain. You can tell it is peak mushroom growing season when you are melting from the heat and don't want to be outside yourself.

Check each fungi picture for the ID! 🍄

*as always please stay on trail and do not forage or pick things unless in a regularly mowed area*

08/20/2026

Blacklick Woods saw a monumental amount of flooding last night into this morning. Our Blacklick Creek was so high that much of our Greenway and Multi-Purpose Trail became part of the creek for most of the day. Take caution if out on these trails for the next few days.

📷: Aaron Storts and Shannon Heist

08/19/2026

Just like many parents, adult birds are becoming empty nesters this time of the year.🪹

Nesting season is different for each species but it typically takes place March-July meaning it has wrapped up by now. Around the park, bird boxes help house growing Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Carolina Chickadees, and Northern House Wrens like the one seen here.
Much like young humans, baby birds need soft and squishy food and this is usually in the form of caterpillars! About 75% of Ohio’s songbirds are dependent upon caterpillars as a food source, and without them, many species could vanish without them. As they age, hard food like the butterfly seen here are introduced to feed the many mouths inside this box.🐛

📷: Kurt Keljo

08/17/2026

Who let the dogs out...to go to Bark Bash?! 🐾
Bring you pup and have a doggone good time at Prairie Oaks Metro Park this Saturday!

Bark Bash - What is Bark Bash? Bark Bash is the dog event of the summer for you and your canine friends! The second annual Bark Bash will take place at Prairie Oaks