Journey To The Center  

In spite of some back problems, I did manage to get out to flip a few rocks on International Rock Flipping Day. I didn’t have such great luck this year, but the results were interesting enough. Beneath some loose, weathered bricks stacked against the foundation of the oldest section of the house, I found a few of the very dark, largish sowbugs that are common around the garden. I have no idea of their identity, but have posted the photo above (click on images for larger views).

My other interesting sighting was of a hapless male wolf spider, that to me, looks to be of the genus, Pardosa. Although the poor fellow was missing half of his legs, he was quite able to race over, under and around the fist-sized rocks in the ruins of the old cooper’s shed on the hillside next to the house (see below).

I had intended to flip a few rocks down in the river, with the hope of finding larvae of caddisflies and stoneflies, but by this time, my back was protesting too much, so I called it a day.

To see the blog posts and photos by others who wish to share the results of their own explorations, visit the following links:

Lynda at mainlymongoose
Kordite in the Flickr group
Bill Murphy at Fertanish Chatter
Malia at The Shell and Mantle
Rebecca In The Woods
Dave Bonta, on Via Negativa Here and here and on Flikr.
Paul, The Obligate Scientist
Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta – Here and on Flickr.
Kate St. John on Outside My Window
Ontario Wanderer on Flickr
JayLeigh in Pacific Northwest Nature for Families
Fred Schueler: a Google document, copied here.
Rikaja in Slovakia
Bev Wigney at Journey to the Centre.
Hugh, at Rock, Paper, Lizard

Thanks to all of the participants, and a very special thanks to Susannah of Wanderin’ Weeta for coordinating this year’s event. Hope to see plenty of participants again in next year’s event.

Those of you who have been reading since the old days of my nature blog Burning Silo, will be familiar with International Rock Flipping Day. The past couple of years, my life has been so upside down in early September, that I was unable to participate. However, I intend to get out there to flip at least one or two rocks tomorrow to see what lies beneath. Rather than describe what to do, I’m going to send everyone along to read up on the “how to” part at Dave Bonta’s Via Negativa and Susannah’s Wanderin’ Weeta blog. Thanks to Susannah for coordinating this year’s event. Check out the instructions. It’s not at all difficult to participate, whether or not you have a blog of your own. It’s interesting and educational and a great activity to do with children. Just remember to carefully pick up those rocks and then replace them just as you found them. Have fun everyone!