Fieldtrip Report:
out my back door....
by Charles Blakeway,
March 4th, 2005
Cabin fever got the better of me the other weekend,and I took a stroll down to the little crick behind my house. The recent floods should have exposed some fresh specimens,and I was not dissapointed.I walked down a little gully on the way,but found only the usual colonies of horn coral. These are so common,you could easily collect enough to build a house! I can't resist picking up and examing them,however. I have named a few of the larger colonies,and I think they enjoy my visits...
I pass the mouth of the gully,where it reaches the little crick,stopping as always to look at the little spring off to one side. I see no sign of the racoon who used to frequent the little opening above the spring,probably because he has moved under my house!
I keep my eye's glued to the gravel bars ,and the gravel under the stream,as I walk upstream. More of the same coral,chert gravel,for several hundred yards. I pause occasionally to examine some of the larger chert nodules,occasionally they contain some pretty pockets of drusy quartz.
I soon reach the waters source,two springs,one on either side of the crick. The left hand spring wells up from small crevices in the limestone. The right-hand spring emerges from a short cave in a low bluff.
Just up from the springs,in a bend,I find the first gastropods. One,then,a second gastropod,both complete and near perfect in shape. One has a reddish cast to it,and they are both about 1 1/2" in diameter.
I continue up the now dry wash,finding another 3",slightly flattened snail. Over the next few dozen yards,the gravel bed yields a couple fragments,and a few flat chert plates with the outline of the gastropods showing as white chalcedony.
Another bend in the dry wash,and another pair of snails are found. These are somewhat distorted,flattened and stretched by the long weight of time since they last crawled along a sea bottom,long before the great reptiles flourished and then dissapeared.
A few steps beyond the bend,and my eyes are drawn to a small geode. Alittle pocket of druzy quartz surrounded by finely banded chalcedony in shades of blue,white,and,pink. A novelty,but it goes in my pack with the snails.
Sunset,and the light is fading fast. Several more bends,and nothing remarkable catches my eye. Just one more. I'll turn back when I find one more.
Another bend.
And another.
No trace.Stepping around a log,I see the one,and it's twin,laying among the gravel. They are both well travelled,and show the effects of ages of rolling along in the gravel.
Retracing my steps,I walk through the deepening twilight. I take the old logging road up the gully,disturbing a flock of turkeys roosting in the trees. They make a great ruckus as they fly off to a more secluded location.
Almost dark now.
I reach the house and admire the days finds.
They won't be seen in the Smithsonian,but I don't care. I have a place for them in my collection,and a space in memories of the few hours spent in the search.
