On Patrol

While checking boundaries and patrolling park roads on Sunday morning I came upon this deer browsing on the side of the trail. She had the most worried, yet curious expression on her face. Of course, being worried/curious did not stop her from chewing. Note the positions of her lower jaw in the two images below. You may have to "embiggen" (thanks, Pablo!) the photos by clicking on them to fully appreciate my point.

She only took a couple of steps as I approached her -- and those steps were toward me instead of away from me. Do you ever wonder what a deer thinks? What was going on in that little head of hers as I eased by her in the truck? At one point I was nearly close enough to touch her. Strange critters, deer.

Noting plants in bloom and plants about to bloom was on my agenda as well. Sadly, I left my insect repellent in the office on my desk so I did most of my observing while sitting in the truck. Not the most efficient way to do a bloom survey.

Rambler Rose, Rosa multiflora. This is one flower I could have done without seeing. What a nasty invasive this one is. Time to write up a resource management plan and bid this rose goodbye.

The Poison Sumac, Toxicodendron vernix, is almost ready to bloom. It is actually a very attractive plant. Too bad it causes some folks to break out in a rash.

Fetter-bush, Lyonia lucida, was in rampant bloom. I have never seen these shrubs so full of flowers. They fade to a very nice pink as the blossoms mature.

Many other species were in bloom, but were situated in such a manner that I couldn't get a photo from the driver's seat of my vehicle. Since I didn't feel like chasing ticks the rest of the day I just said no to getting out and positioning myself for a shot.

Puddling Palamedes swallowtails (Papilio palamedes) posed prettily for me as I leaned out of an open door...

as a Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, perched conveniently atop a plant nearby.

You gotta love a camera that will zoom!

Otter Fare

Some otter has been eating well as evidenced by this well rotted scat. We found several similar piles around the edges of an old borrow pit down the road from the house. I can't tell you what kind of fish the otter's been eating, only that its been eating lots!

Yet Another Dinner Table

Another lump on another bald cypress...with evidence of some critter's dinner leftovers on top. The same tree had some bear claw marks on it and claw marks of something smaller, perhaps raccoon.

 

 

Oh, Bother!

Beaver feel quite at home in the pond and in the swamp. As we paddled deeper into the swamp, we happened upon a beaver snoozing atop a lodge. When he became aware of us, he decided the water was a safer place to be and headed in -- but not before giving me a look that seemed to say, "Oh, bother!"

 

Friday, On The Pond

Friday dawned clear, bright and breezy. The weatherman informed us that the day would be mild, the last such day for while. Since I had the day off, Treebeard and I decided it would be a good day to head to the Millpond and do a little paddling.
We were right :)

Loads of turtles were out basking. Most were very skittish so I had to zoom in to get a shot.

Red maples grow on old cypress and tupelo stumps out in the pond. The flowers create a nice contrast with the gray of the Spanish moss.

This beaver lodge has been in more or less constant use for at least the past 30 years.
Every once in a while it will be empty for a year or two, but then some enterprising couple will move in and fix it up again. It, like all the other lodges on the pond, is a great place to find basking snakes in the warmer months.

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Species list from Friday:

Insects: Honeybee, Apis mellifera; and others that we didn't take the time to ID

Amphibians: Spring peeper, Pseudacris crucifer crucifer; Brimely's chorus frog, Pseudacris brimleyi; Southern leopard frog, Rana sphenocephala utricularia

Reptiles: American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis; Northern black racer, Coluber constrictor constrictor; Yellow-bellied slider, Trachemys scripta scripta; Eastern painted turtle, Chrysemys picta picta; assorted Cooters, Pseudemys sp.

Mammals: Eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis; Nutria, Myocastor coypus

Birds: (Order in which they were first observed)
Tree swallow
Canada goose
fish crow
red-shouldered hawk
red-tailed hawk
eastern phoebe
Carolina wren
winter wren
yellow-rumped warbler
wood duck
American black duck
American wigeon
turkey vulture (143 at once!!)
black vulture
mallard
bald eagle
ring-necked duck
pintail
killdeer
ring-billed gull
goldfinch
purple finch
green-winged teal
ruby-crowned kinglet
downy woodpecker
red-bellied woodpecker
white-breasted nuthatch
eastern bluebird
hooded merganser
hairy woodpecker
great blue heron
pileated woodpecker
American robin
Carolina chickadee
common grackle
barred owl
sharp-shinned hawk
northern flicker
golden-crowned kinglet
pied-billed grebe
belted kingfisher
redwing blackbird
pine warbler

A Toothsome Smile?

Not hardly! Click on the picture to enlarge it and check out those nasty nutria incisors. We saw nine of these invasive mammals out on the millpond today - ick.

Old Millpond

 

Across the road and just through the woods, there is an old millpond. Yesterday's warmer temperatures and rainfall melted the ice that had covered the surface following Friday and Saturday's very cold temps. Today there were mallards, black ducks, and wood ducks swimming there. In the warmer months it's a good place to find a variety of snakes and turtles, including spotted turtles. It's always a good place to find an assortment of predators -- or at least evidence of them...

 

This owl pellet was along the shore line of the old pond. Rodent teeth, long bones, and bird beaks give evidence of some of the small animals that live around the pond. Nearby there were a couple of bobcat scats containing hair and a few larger bones, most likely rabbit.

 

I like knowing that across the road and just through the woods there is an old millpond...

This Morning's Walk

click on the collage to get a closer look at individual pictures

It was 7 degrees F this morning when we woke up. A couple hours later it had warmed to near 20 so we decided to walk down to the pond to see what was stirring.

The critters in the collage are a nutria (grrr), a hermit thrush, and one crazy great blue heron. The heron was in full sun, way across the pond, standing on one long leg. Made me cold just to look at him!

As for the bird dropping...I had to add it in because it had frozen bubbles in it. You just can't pass up frozen bubbles!

The freaky frost is included because we don't often see that around here. Same goes for the other icy pix.

Track of the Cat

 

The bobcat that made these tracks was about half mile ahead of me on the trail. I watched him through my binoculars for about 10 minutes. Sometimes our super-straight, long trails offer up wildlife viewing opportunities you don't get on more picturesque hiking trails. This was one of three bobcats I was able to observe this week -- have I mentioned lately that I love my job ;)

Cottontail

Yeah, you're looking at the picture thinking, "Such a cute bunny...chewing on some grass."

I'm thinking, "Wow, I wish I could get a better look at the fat ole tick on that cottontail's neck. Wonder if it's a rabbit tick?" Don't see the tick? Look closely at the lower edge of that cinnamon patch -- you'll see a little gray lump with a dark spot in its center.

Cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus

Denizens of the City

We spent last weekend at my sister-in-law's house. (She is mom to the infamous Ratdog.) SIL lives in the city of Charlotte in the piedmont section of the state. As cities go, Charlotte is a pretty one - at least in places :) It tends to be a city with lots of trees and many of those trees are oaks of various species. The picture below is a shot of the willow oak in SIL's front yard. Whenever we visit we always check out what's hanging out in or around the tree. This trip yielded various insects, a female hummingbird, the ever-present mockingbird, a robin, and oodles of squirrels.

Here's a little evidence of the eastern gray squirrels that romp among the branches. Squirrel scat!

By the way, the eastern gray squirrel is the state mammal of North Carolina. If you were a fourth grader here you'd be expected to know that.

Itty Bitty Bear

In a drying mud puddle I spied the cutest little bear tracks I have ever seen. The tracks may be hard for you to make out, but they are there. They were very small for this time of year - hope the little cub makes it.

Front foot with my reading glasses for scale.

Back foot. The sun came out when I was taking this picture, changing the color of the mud.

Going In To Work

Traffic was a real bear today...three bears, actually. This is the only one I was able to get a picture of however. Sorry about the grainy quality -- we are having air issues here thanks to the fire that is still burning.

Silly Rabbit

Such a funny bunny. Marsh rabbits, Sylvilagus palustris, are very common in the work swamp. I have read that they are good swimmers, but have no personal knowledge of this fact. I think it would be very amusing to watch a rabbit swim -- do they keep their ears up or lay them back? Exactly how would one do a bunny paddle?
I should be able to keep track of sightings of this particular rabbit. It has a distinctive notch in its right ear. Hmmm, wonder if it caught its ear on a briar....

Maybe if I turn away that pesky ranger will leave me alone. This grass is delicious and I have much more to eat...go away ranger.