April 1, 2011..No Fooling!

Morning mist rolls down the creek.

This yellow rumped or Myrtle Warbler is all dressed up in his Spring finery to impress the ladies now.

Spring Time in the Country

This is the view today from the top of "jump rock". You can see what jump rock looks like from down below by looking at the photo over on the right here at Whites Creek Journal.

Trilliums are emerging. This is most likely a yellow trillium. Let you know later in the month when it blooms.

There are joys one experiences when living in the country. This friend has passed on to that great kitchen floor in the sky, where all good little scorpions go when they get squished by the Great Lambskin Moccasin from the guy sitting in the chair next to the kitchen table.

Showing Off The Yard

Took a fine walk with a photog friend that covered over three miles of Whites Creek trails today. He hung with me as we jumped Ford Branch and hiked along the Creek to a spot above the confluence to Piney Creek. This place is way too big to see in a day or even a decade, but if my friends are willing to follow I'm willing to show them around. There's nothing like a long hike and good conversation.

Update: Mushy's photos from the day are posted at his site HERE.

Gobbler in the Morning

This old boy roosted just below the house last night. He was practicing his strut about 50 off the ground on a limb way too small for a twenty pound bird. Sorry for the fuzzy shot. I need to get optical grade windows or cut in a rifle port to take pictures through. There is way too much cool stuff that happens in our yard.

Today's Walk...Behind the Waterfall

This beautiful spot is on a tributary to Ford Branch. With the recent rains it was flowing nicely.

Spring Song

Taken through the window glass just now, the song is still sweet.

The call can be heard here.

Happy Valentine's Day..Love is Strange Edition...Really, Really, Strange

If you ever wondered where they got the idea for the Alien movie monster...

If you never thought of your friendly neighborhood mollusk as a man of action, think again. Freshwater mussels like this cheeky little Epioblasma triquetra (a/k/a "Snuffbox") propagate their kind by grabbing a passing fish, clamping it down forcefully and then proceeding to shove some larvae down its throat.

Watch

Today's View

Looking out over the Tennessee Valley.

Compare today's picture to this from last summer...

This last one is the wrap around image for the blog. I'll lead anyone who wants to follow up there. Just let me know.

The Boys are Dressing Up for Spring

We're starting to see courting behavior in the trees. I watched a nuthatch take suet to its mate in the dogwood tree and the spring color is beginning to show on the warblers and finches. Get outside and see for yourself what nice weather we have for hiking today. This yellow rumped warbler is terrorizing much larger birds at the feeder, showing off for the girls. His rump flashes are too fast for a picture to turn out so far.

Update: Here we go. Impressed girls?

Whites Creek Journal Global Headquarters

Do you know where you are? Whites Creek Global Headquarters is located at latitude and longitude :

35° 48' N / 84° 45' W

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The terrorists already know where you are...they're watching you.

Seen on a Walk

Saw this view on a walk on our friends' place in Ozone.

Here is the actual picture. 

Skinny Dip Sunday

It is amazing how fast an old man can get in and out of the water. Last night, in a wine fueled moment around a campfire, we said we were going to get our January swim in the creek today. It was cold. It stung. Now that we're dry and warm, it was glorious!

Yes, that is ice on the far side of the pool.

Through the Window in the Snow

I took these through a double pane window. Until it warms up a bit, that's probably what will happen so I apologize for the depth of field and clarity in advance. If that's a problem to you...so be it. Cornell has some nice pictures.

Actually, I've been taking pix of the brand spanking new granddaughter and birds, not so much right now.

Purple finch et al...

Pine siskins...

Photos by an Old Friend

Rare that I recommend photos but this is a must see. Click your way through John's work and be amazed...

Amazing work, John!

Snow Walk

Walk on Black Mountain

This may be the most amazing spot in East Tennessee, and possibly the most under visited for all its wow factor. Unfortunately my batteries blanked 20 minutes into a three hour tour. Renamed for Justin Wilson and now crossed by the Cumberland Trail, This wondrous geological fairyland is only a few miles off I 40 at the Crab Orchard exit. Oddly enough, the best trail is not marked. If you stay in the rocks and just wander around you'll find most of the best stuff in an easy amble that can be done in a half hour. I have no idea why anyone would cut a visit here short, though.



The Official Word

Bouncing Foxes

My friend Carolyn sent this from Minnesota.

Then You Shake It To The Left

Just follow the easy steps

Listen to the music playing in your head...

And do the Kinglet Boogie!

Sunrise

When we laid out the foundation of our house we used a compass to get the correct orientation for passive solar gain. Oddly, the compass simply wouldn't work on the west end of the house. We figured it was because of the nearby heavy metal machinery and used the direction for south that the compass showed on the east wall. It was wrong by 13 degrees. It turns out that this ridge has large iron deposits and was surface mined heavily at one point in time. When we laid out the driveway we cut into one of the iron seams. One happy consequence of this is that the winter solstice sunrise comes directly and exactly through this window.

I should mention that this window was a work by the talented artist, Glenna Alderson, working in stained glass for this piece. It is a treasured gift.

Today's Walk

After 20 years here I see new things every day. This is a "clamber" up the steep side of Walden Ridge staying on our property. I followed deer trails and decided that whitetail deer must be closely related to mountain goats. The trails went up some fairly impressive pitches and are well used this time of year. The round leaf catchfly in bloom was a surprise, although the leaves on this one are not even close to round. The humidity is rather high even with the low temperature so the smoky mountains don't show up in the shot looking over Jackie's farm.

Scariest Canoeing Video Ever

Today's Walk at Whites Creek

Every winter we get ice and it is different every year. I never tire of staring into some of the formations.

Brown Creeper...Got Him!

Finally got a rough shot through the window of a brown creeper at the suet feeder. These hyperactive little birds fascinate me but they sure don't sit still long enough to get much of a picture. 

Swinging

Pine siskins and goldfinches swinging on the thistle feeder.

This pleases me.

Firefox cam, live 24/7 at the Knoxville zoo.

Now if we can only get the Darter Cam adopted at Conservation Fisheries.
(Warning! Graphic fish sex may occur)

At the Feeders

The Magic Log is bringing in the usual suspects and a couple of favorites that didn't come by last year. Once again the red breasted nuthatches are hanging around. I'll work on getting a better shot but these guys are odd in that they will take off if they see movement within the house but will land a few feet away if you are replenishing the empty feeder. 

We have a very shy brown creeper and the odd mystery warbler I'll try to get pictures of as well. Over at the sunflower seeds the doves work very hard to get through the spikes that are intended to keep them out so that the smaller birds can feed. I keep thinking about the dove and rice dishes we used to have as a child.

Purple finch

Titmouse flashing his crest.

And I need some help with this little guy. Who is up on their winter warblers? Is it a Kinglet?

Piggies

The adults were solid black except for one silver tipped old lady. I expect full blooded European boars to be black, even as babies. These may have some domestic hog in their lineage which is likely, or  I could be mistaken, which is somewhat less likely but known to happen on rare occasions.

We saw these beasties yesterday on a neighboring farm. They are definitely not completely wild.

(Great?) Gramma Hog

Tale of Two Thanksgiving Birds

OK, Three if you count the parrot.

We had five eagles playing above the house most of the day. They were loving the wind direction and apparently have a carcass close by to feast on. They aren't having to spend any time hunting at the moment, so they can play fight and talk to each other starting very early in the morning. 

Where I've Been For the Last Few Days

Just another southern blackwater river flowing through a swamp with owls, turkeys, otters, and near as we can figure it, a bear. 

This is the Black River near Kingstree, SC. We were stopped at one of the bridges over it and looking at our maps to figure out where we should put in, when a guy in a pickup stopped on the road and rolled down his window. That is either a good sign or a bad sign on trips like this. Mr. Kirby wanted to know if we would like him to open the gate so we could get closer to the river. "I just close it 'cause some people trash it out so bad," he told us. I know exactly what you mean. Mr. Kirby.

The beavers were apparently mad at us for camping in their dining hall the first night. It sounded like they were throwing refrigerators into the water for most of the first half of the night. I've never encountered that kind of sustained tail slapping. Usually it's one big "pow-ka-thunk" and they are gone.

We misread the guide book, which turns out to be somewhat suspect anyway, and set our shuttle vehicle 8 miles closer than we intended but we still covered about 30 miles in three days and two nights, a pretty laid back trip for us.

More pictures later.

The canoe I used is called a Sojourn. It's a solo touring boat that is the perfect choice for this kind of paddling  with a load of gear. I've had it for ten years and finally got it out on a trip worthy of its style.

Yeah, well...You put up tarp lines your way and we'll put up tarp lines our way. We did scare the rain off and an 80% chance of thunder storms turned into a ten minute shower under the lunch tarp. We don't usually take ultralight trips. All of us have done that and now prefer to camp in style with fine dining and appropriate spirits. This trip was sponsored by LaPhroig Scotch, a 23 year old rum, and some other delicacies. I think we should write the culinary guide to canoeing in the South.

Should There Be a Hunting Season for Sandhill Cranes in Tennessee?

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I couldn't do it unless I was starving and had  run out of nuts, berries, twigs, and insects.

From Today's Walk

As leaves drop into the water in the fall, we see it turn a golden color from the leaf tannin. 

And then we wait for the rain to come.

Caught these mosquito-like midges(?) working over the last few fall flowers. I have never noticed these insects before. Anybody know what they are?

Larry's Rod (Golden)

One of the cool things about living in a rare place on this planet is learning about the rare things that live here. We have several plants that are rare, threatened, or even endangered that call Whites Creek home. We also have a goldenrod that acts as a ground cover and then sends its bloom stalk up on a rhizome instead of coming out of the center of the basal rosette like most of them do. Goldenrods are blooming and going to seed right now and nobody is sneezing because of them. They don't cause allergies, in spite of all you were told growing up.  I had the pleasure today of going out to collect  specimens of our local goldenrod so that it can be sent around to other botanists for evaluation. It appears that ours is undescribed to science. That will change soon. 

Dr. Larry Pounds is my go-to guy for plants. He has led several field trips in the gorge and is a patient teacher. He is also the person who identified the unusual nature of this goldenrod and has located several other rare plants that live here. It was fun to dig in the dirt and follow the underground connection from plant to plant as we realized that a given patch of goldenrod is more than likely just one plant and its offshoots.

Dr. Pounds examines a specimen he is about to put in the press for preservation. A previous specimen sent to U. T. was lost. We now have several new ones for evaluation by other botanists.

This is one patch we sampled in its ground cover phase. It is a beautiful plant even without the blooms. I'll keep you posted on the process and whether it is determined that this is a new species or a variant of one already described.  

It's Starting

10-7-10

Joe and Betty's oldest boy is now 61 years old as of today at 10:45 a.m. which is the time listed on my birth certificate. It also list my father Joe's profession as "Butcher". Mother Betty was 19 at that moment and is listed as a housewife. That was about 61% of a century ago and gravity is working much more fiercely on my body. I am now locked in mortal combat with gravity.

So in the epic battle for truth, justice, and the American waistline I have started riding a road bicycle. I like it.

For my 61st I decided to do something hard (for me) and ride from the Tennessee Valley to the top of Mt. Roosevelt on the Cumberland Plateau. That sounds more epic than it is since our yard goes from the Tennessee Valley up to the Cumberland Plateau  but it is still an 9 mile ride if you go by pavement with 1200 feet of vertical, half of which is in the last mile or so. The pavement at the end of our driveway is at 800 feet. The Roosevelt Mountain Fire Tower is at 2000 feet. Here's the Google Maps Route. For some reason the Google wouldn't let me embed it. Point A is the end of our driveway in case any of you decide to come by. Point B is the Fire Tower. If you note the embayment and main lake on the right that is the Tennessee River backed up into Watts Bar Lake. You can see the embayment and the Tennessee river main channel in the distance in this picture. The picnic platforms look to be old CCC projects made of cut sandstone. In case you've ever heard of Crab Orchard Stone, it comes from a little way past the the back side of this mountain.

So that picture is taken from Mt Roosevelt looking across the Tennessee Valley to the Smoky Mountains in the distance. On a clear day, of which there aren't that many any more, you feel like you can reach out and touch North Carolina. My bike is resting while I take pictures. It's tired.

Here's the old fire tower which they have fenced off with razor wire. I think it would be an awesome project for Tennessee to restore this old relic. I've been up it and the view is 360 degree fantastic. People would pay.

This is the view looking northeast toward the Cumberland Mountains. Sorry about that old guy getting in the way. Somebody's undying love for somebody else has been marked through on the rail behind him but you can't see that. Apparently "will love...forever" doesn't mean forever.

 Just so you know...it is much easier on the thigh muscles to ride a bike down 1200 feet than going the other way. The only thing that hurt going down was my hands from the death grip on the brake levers.

First Winter Grosbeak