Season 2 (Spring) Episode 9 (Brimstone Road)

On Today’s episode of Adventures with Gary The Wood Sprite: Season 2, (Spring) episode 9 (Brimstone Road). It’s May 5, 2026. We started at the Brimstone Road entrance within Caesar Creek State Park in Wilmington, OH. From there we took the evacuation route which connects to the Ward Road loop mountain bike trail, and also connects to the Harveysburg bike loop.  This was my very first-time seeing a vulture very up close! Yay!

Well, it finally happened. You know how in all of my posts I have a picture of me inside a hole of some kind, mostly trees? Today came across an old rotted out beech tree that I have seen many times before. I entered the hole like I normally would and suddenly something moved inside and scared me so much I yelped and jumped away! I crept slowly back towards the hole and peeked inside. My first thought was huh that’s weird, why is there chicken on a nest in the middle of the woods? Then I realized; this ain’t no chicken. It was big! I was only able to get one photo and its just of hiding brown feathers (there is another picture with feathers but that was from a cardinal that probably was someone’s dinner).

My lovely human guide called the Raptor Center in Yellow Springs, OH and asked what they thought it might be. After sending pics and a video via text, the nice bird expert lady said it probably was either a turkey vulture or a black vulture sitting on a nest.

Woah. It never occurred to me: vultures have nests? Have eggs? Have babies? Have mommies and daddies? Have nests on the GROUND! They do more than just glide around? Duh. Of course.

As it turns out: Turkey vultures do not build traditional nests, but instead lay 1–3 eggs directly on the ground, on leaf litter, or on rotten wood in dark, secluded, and sheltered areas. Nest sites include rock crevices, caves, hollow logs, thickets, mammal burrows, or abandoned buildings. They often reuse the same site for a decade or more.

Turkey vultures protect their nests from predators primarily through a defense mechanism of regurgitating highly acidic, foul-smelling, semi-digested meat. They further protect their young by choosing concealed, quiet nesting sites such as hollow logs, caves, dense brush, or abandoned buildings, where they may hiss and stomp when threatened.

So, I got stomped! Vulture style stomped. Grateful I didn’t get barfed on.

You can see the pic of the big empty beech. It even has a hole on both sides which is rare and also makes for a good fairy portal. The entrance also had a smiley face grown on it. Do you see it?

The lesson of the day is this: If you are going to stick your hand into a hole in nature maybe be careful and slow or take a stick and poke in first a little, or look carefully first or just don’t go in too far in case a nature friend is already using that space and they are shy or sleeping and want some privacy or protecting babies.

Another bird we encountered was a gorgeous Wood Thrush. This is my all-time favorite bird. And this is rare for me: I actually added a video so you could hear the sound! Because the wood thrush can control both branches of its syrinx (voice box) independently, it can produce two different, harmonized notes at the same time, essentially singing with two voices. Its song is considered exceptionally complex, often described as a three-part song where the final phrase involves high-frequency harmonic notes. How cool is that?! Since I couldn’t see the bird and get a picture, I added a stock photo of one so you know what it looks like. So cute. Another wonderful think. I have heard this bird in the same place at the same time year after year.

On to the flowers!

I scored another Fire Pink (see S2E5) by accident. Such vibrant red. Love.

Another pretty flower: the tropical looking orange and yellow and green tulip poplar. The flowers on a tulip poplar tree are frequently called tulips because they look like greenish-yellow and orange tulips, though they are technically not related to the garden tulip bulb. The tree is called the tulip tree and belongs to the magnolia family. Even the leaves are shaped like tulips. The wood is a versatile, lightweight hardwood frequently used for furniture, cabinets due to its straight grain and easy workability.

There is a cluster of white, pink, and yellow flowers called Philadelphia fleabane. It got its name because of folklore saying it keeps away fleas (it doesn’t) also the petals look like a flea comb. There are several other flowers with bane in the name. They include wolfsbane, cowbane, bugbane, dogbane, henbane and leopard’s bane. The name bane comes from the old English word for slayer. Rock on!

The cream-colored flowers that look like a bunch of grapes are from a black locust tree. This is a rare find to get access to these because they are usually high up in a tree and out of reach. The aroma is absolutely magnificent. They have both male and female parts. They can be eaten raw, fried in fritters, or used to make syrups, jellies, and teas. Oh, how I wish smell-o-vision is a thing. You would love it.

There are several rare flowers in this group that were entirely new to me: a two-flowered dwarf dandelion (the pic only has one, it’s very orange.) A pink and white Valerian (looks like a fireworks), A star of Bethlehem (single, white and star shaped), plantain pussytoes which gets its name from two distinct features: the white, fuzzy, clustered flowers that resemble a kitten's paw ("pussytoes") and the leaves, which are shaped like those of the plantain plant. And the tiny purple colored violet wood sorrell.

Other plants seen before: dwarf larkspur (blueish elf hats, round leaf ragwort (bright yellow clusters), wild hyacinth (light purple and yellow, first seen S2E6), red elf cup, a lichen called reindeer moss, Osage orange tree.

There are two plants in this group that will really hurt you: poison ivy (shiny and three) and stinging nettle. Wow that really smarts if you accidently touch it and oh so itchy.

Two animal finds aside from the birds: American giant millipede, which are detritivores, meaning they consume decaying organic material like leaves and wood, helping to recycle nutrients into the soil. A snail, another crucial decomposer.

This section of the mountain bike trail was rerouted in several places by the trail stewards because of erosion (see more pics of erosion in S1E4). Otherwise, the bikers would take a tumble into the creek below.

Trash finds: a Gogo squeeze applesauce tube (ew), a few shiny blue sequins (weird), Tinks doe pee deer attractant (gross), old rusty cattle fencing all balled up – but that doesn’t really count because it was here before the state park was made. Also in this category: more beech tree romance carvings. Come on Karen and Mike! We know you love each other, leave the poor tree alone.

Have you ever been jump scared in nature? What happened? Did you get startled or surprised or caught off guard by an animal or bug?