I’ve been going to work way too early and getting home way too late. Now I’m too tired to focus on any one thing for very long, so I thought I would offer up some questions about things I’ve recently seen. Above is a deflated helium balloon I found in the field. I find three or four spent balloons such as this each year. I’ve often wondered what this rate of balloon fall would translate to on a State-wide basis. Blue Jay Barrens is roughly 107 acres. If we apply a rate of three balloons per 107 acres to the entire State we arrive at the conclusion that about 740,000 deflated balloons fall from the skies in Ohio each year. When my daughter was young, I told her she shouldn’t release helium balloons because it was a form of littering.
In the barrens, I found this cluster of Green Milkweed leaves, but there was no stem to be found. I’m wondering what would eat a milkweed stem, but not the leaves. Did something just pluck the leaves and run away with the stem? I may never know.
This is my attempt to get photo documentation of White Worm Coral fungi. Did I really photograph the fungi? When I look closely, I don’t see the fungi. I just see nothing. It looks more like I took a picture of the ground and erased long strips of color, leaving only white.
I’ve been going to work way too early and getting home way too late. Now I’m too tired to focus on any one thing for very long, so I thought I would offer up some questions about things I’ve recently seen. Above is a deflated helium balloon I found in the field. I find three or four spent balloons such as this each year. I’ve often wondered what this rate of balloon fall would translate to on a State-wide basis. Blue Jay Barrens is roughly 107 acres. If we apply a rate of three balloons per 107 acres to the entire State we arrive at the conclusion that about 740,000 deflated balloons fall from the skies in Ohio each year. When my daughter was young, I told her she shouldn’t release helium balloons because it was a form of littering. 
In the barrens, I found this cluster of Green Milkweed leaves, but there was no stem to be found. I’m wondering what would eat a milkweed stem, but not the leaves. Did something just pluck the leaves and run away with the stem? I may never know.
This is my attempt to get photo documentation of White Worm Coral fungi. Did I really photograph the fungi? When I look closely, I don’t see the fungi. I just see nothing. It looks more like I took a picture of the ground and erased long strips of color, leaving only white. 
Just getting caught up on your entries... so much to see here! We found a deflated helium balloon in the field across from our house in spring, and it had followed the wind currents east from Cincinnati (it had a school name on it, so we were able to track it, in a way). That's a wonderfully interesting point you bring up about releasing them as being a form of littering. Don't know why I never thought of that! I think you should nickname the white worm coral fungus "The Eraser".
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