Mountain Camellias Are Going Off at Whites Creek

This one is a few hundred yards from our house. It seems to have some disease that is warping the leaves but the flowers are wonderful. This bloom is several centimeters wider than the 6-8cm called for in the yellow stamen variety and closer to the 12 cm called for in the purple stamen varient. See Stewartia ovata.

We found three in bloom and two smaller plants. We tagged them at the request of our botanist friends who want to try propagating them. We'll see. Here's the Tree Trail link.

Signs of the Season

The Dobson fly is the adult helgramite. The elongated jaws don't pack the punch of the larval jaws but they still aren't much fun as I found out. This male was almost 5 inches long. 

Both of these shots are from yesterday evening. 

Hummingbirds love these trumpet vines and fly right inside the flower to feed.

How To Deal With Invasive Animal Species

This wild boar should be ready sometime tonight.

Update: Damn, that was good!

Happy Endangered Species Day!

Friday I got to swim along with some associates who raised and released several bags full of rare and endangered Conasauga Log perch into the birthplace of their ancestors, their natural and only home, the Conasauga River near the Tennessee Georgia border. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has the story.

The orange stripe is a dye marker injected by the CFI staff so that each fish can be documented if it is ever seen again.

What's A Scud?

The small tributaries to Whites Creek are populated with all sorts of interesting creatures. While the large ones get all the hype, the small ones are sometimes more important to the food chain and are indicators of the health of the ecosystem. Most folks don't know that there is a tiny shrimp like beastie called a "scud" living in the mossy water's edge. I find them by turning over moss covered rocks in the small streams of Whites Creek Gorge.

Pictures and other stuff about Scuds

If you're nice, later, I'll tell you about the jelly fish that live here. Really! I didn't know either until we found them swimming around in the hot summer water.

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