Blacklick Woods Metro Park

10/19/2026

Join us at the Beech Maple Lodge this upcoming Sunday for another For Adults: Science Sunday of 2026! 🐿

Learn about our most common squirrel in Ohio, the Southern Flying Squirrel, with Donald Althoff; then take a stroll to check our nearby flying squirrel boxes for inhabitants.

10/18/2026

Fall is a great time for mushrooms because of the warm temperatures and rain but the best reason? They have spooky names just in time for Halloween! 🎃🍄

Check out some of our recent finds and fall favorite fungi we see in the park; both big and small and edible and poisonous (more information in the descriptions on each photo!). Learn all about our favorites in our recent blog post, Frightful Fungi, link in the comments.

10/12/2026

Grab your costumes and head to Blacklick Woods for a fun evening of collecting treats with the family! 🎃👻

10/11/2026

AH! She's back!

No, we aren't haunted by creepy dolls, but we do see trash in the park in our nightmares. The scariest thing this Halloween season is litter! Let's get rid of it! Join us next Saturday and help us clean-up our waterways! 🗑💧

The flooding in August moved a lot of trash and debris into our waterways. Walk down to the creek with us, wade through the water and on the banks and help us clean-up the creek. Who knows what we will find? (Hopefully no more creepy dolls!) Boots and gloves are helpful to have! We will provide bags and grabbers.

10/10/2026

Boogie into the weekend like the aphids! 🕺🏼

In our last post, we talked about a carnivorous caterpillar that eats aphids (if you haven't read that, you're missing out!). Now let's talk about the aphids!

Beech blight aphids are on a number of trees in our park right now. They can be found feeding on beech tree sap, hence their name but they rarely damage the tree. If they feel threatened, these small insects, also called boogie woogie bugs, move their wooly behinds to look like one large organism to deter predators.

Keep your eyes peeled for these fuzzy dancing bugs! 💃

📷: Shannon Heist

Send a message to learn more

10/08/2026

Harvesters are a unique type of butterfly. While they may look normal with their orange and white spotty wings (see harvester butterfly picture in the comments), this species has an unusual eating habit.

Harvesters prefer to live in woodland habitats, where their favorite food lives, aphids. As a caterpillar, they have become the only strictly carnivorous caterpillar in North America. During their larval stage, they mainly eat aphids, like the beech blight aphids in this photo. To stay hidden from predatory ants, they will use their silk to empty carcasses of the aphids they have consumed to their body.

As a butterfly they continue to stray from the norms of a typical butterfly and reject nectar. Instead, they will eat the honeydew or aphid sugary secretions, and feed on mineral sources such as dung, sap and mud.

📷: Shannon Heist

10/05/2026

We are seeing more and more wildlife at the nature center feeding area lately! Many birds are passing through on their way to warmer wintering grounds and with these cooler temperatures lately, everyone is looking for food to prepare for winter. 🐿🐦🦆

Just at the nature center bird feeders we have seen at least 12 warbler species, all 7 Ohio woodpeckers, many migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Swainson's Thrushes, Belted Kingfishers, Green and Great Blue Herons, Red-tailed Hawks and Cooper's Hawks. Deer are starting to make appearances, and the squirrels and chipmunks are stocking up on all the nuts!

We would love to hear what you have seen around!

📷: Shannon Heist

10/02/2026

Many of the flowers blooming in the fall at Blacklick Woods are purple and yellow...is it Reynoldsburg Raiders school pride? 🪻🌻

This combination is due to the way insects see colors. These colors reflect ultraviolet (UV) light that we can't see but bees can and this acts as a "nectar guide" to direct the insect toward the pollen. The yellow and purple combination side by side in the field actually makes the colors more vibrant and easier for the insects to see versus if it was just all yellow or all purple in the field. Fall flowers with yellow and purple blooms are a favorite food sources for pollinators, especially bees. Take a walk through the fields to see monarchs, bees, and other pollinators visiting the goldenrods and asters.

📷: Shannon Heist

10/01/2026

The park is getting 𝕊ℙ𝕆𝕆𝕂𝕐 which means our hours are changing! 💀
Winter hours of operation are October 1st through March 31st

Canopy Walk- 9am-5pm
Nature Center- 9am-6pm
Park- 6:30am-8pm

📷: Shannon Heist

09/29/2026

Fall flowers are blooming, the temperature is dropping, and the park is starting to look spooky...it must be October! Join us on a FREE program this month to look at the fall colors, help us clean-up the creek after the recent flooding, learn about flying squirrels, or dress up for our Trick-or-Treat Trail! There's something for all ages. 🎃🍂🌻🐿️