Blue Branch

These shots are from last Wednesday. The area is about three miles upstream of Whites Creek global headquarters.
 

Yellow Trillium

Taken today.

Spring on Fleet Feet

The spring flowers are screaming by at an advanced rate this year. This round lobed Hepatica has already gone away and I just took the shot three days ago. Get out there and breathe deeply, and do it now!

Spring Wildflowers

A round leaf hepatica nods as it wakes up to the day. If the wind holds down I'll try to get a full "facial" of this beautiful spring jewel.

  Rue Anemone

Often used as a spring tonic back in the day when spring tonics were the rule, Yellow root has a beautiful flower that's hard to catch. A tea made from the roots is loaded with vitamin C and is as distasteful as it is healthy.

Preventing Environmental Destruction In Sate Parks Is "Discrimination"

I can't believe this article and the statements made by these folks. Get those emails to TWRA going folks.

TWRA seeks public comments on ATVs at Cummings Cove Wildlife Management Area

"Parts of the [Wildlife Management Area] resemble a moonscape, void of vegetation, wildlife and stream aquatic species, once plentiful there," ...

So Cummings Cove actually is closed to any vehicles, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Lt. Joe Busch said.
"We haven't enforced that law since we took over [in 2006]," he said. "We're not looking to start enforcing it at this time. Will we enforce it in the future? I don't know."... 

Insanity!

Evening Flight to Wisconsin

Taken at 6 pm March 1, 2012 from the deck at Whites Creek Global Headquarters.

Looks Like Spring to Me

Hepatica blooming today.

Mt. Roosevelt Trestle

Fossil Fuel Extraction Endangered List

The list includes a beautiful fish that the team at Conservation Fisheries is working hard to save:

Kentucky Arrow Darter: Toxic waste from mountaintop coal mining is poisoning streams and killing the rare Kentucky arrow darter fish (and contaminating the drinking water of downstream communities). The arrow darter has been wiped out from more than half of its range.

The full list and story is here...

Today at Hiwassee Refuge

We did get a view of the Hooded Cane as it flew by but nothing to show a picture of. We had a Whooping crane for a few minutes until it turned into an albinistic Sandhill crane...a rare enough white colored sandhill but not a Whooper.
I was amazed at the number of folks from foreign states and even countries that were hanging around. Some folks had been there for ten hours when we arrived. The light was pretty marginal for photos, as you can see from the above.

Golden Christmas

Our Christmas Eve hike led us by this little winter jewel, a blooming goldenrod on the lip of Walden Ridge. It sits in a small patch of dirt between the sandstone outcroppings that layer the last pitch to the ridge top. It would have been easy to miss or step on. I have no idea what species it is. In such harsh micro habitat, a particular plant can get dwarfed and twisted in the fight to survive, and the normal identifying characteristics escape me and my book.

December Anole

Taken this afternoon with my Christmas present to myself...

She's Alive...For Now

In the Morning Mist

Fossil?

I noticed this rock that turned up when I was digging on the edge of a service road above the creek. We see fossils in sandstone a lot but nothing like this in a conglomerate. The rock itself is about 6 inches across. What can anyone tell us about this?

More pictures

Whites Creek Fossil

November Morning

Seems like it is staying beautiful longer this year.

Morning after the storm

I was expecting all the leaves to be knocked to the ground but this was the view in the early light. As you can tell, in winter we don't get first light. The Rhea County side of Whites Creek Gorge hogs it all. That's fine with me because we get the views.

Looking Up the Hill

Taken from the bedroom balcony looking north. We're getting storms today so this may be the peak. I am amazed at how the same view looks so different as the light changes at different times of the day.

 Here's another shot in different light. The main tree species from left are black oak(still green), shag bark hickory, tulip tree (triple trunk, also mistakenly called yellow poplar), assorted soft maples, dogwoods, and a southern red cedar (actually a juniper).

Evening

Morning