June 10-16 Southern Pines, No. Carolina

Yes, Yes, Yes.  I am aware that this narrative is a month behind.  I've spent the week in the Southern Pines area, where Marty and I are visiting her sister, Ellen.

My birding slowed down the second week of June, as I was ‘volunteered’ to assist my Sister-In-Law in getting some yard and house chores done.  She had not torched her burn pile for at least two, maybe three, years, so that was a priority.

Also, her window frames needed scraping and re-painting.

I'm not the one who's afraid of heights . . .

But, the women can get the lower trim.

The only complication was that there were rain showers every day, and trying to get the burn pile dry enough to burn, or the windows dry enough to prime and paint took a bit of waiting.

One of the chores that was pretty minor was replenishing one of the water troughs for her horses.  It merely needed tipping the stale water out and refilling the tank.

Should be a simple task?

I was surprised to find snakes underneath, and was much more careful after this, as I’m not certain which pit vipers might live in this country.

This is one of two snakes under the trough

The Coral Snake also lives in the region, and being a West Coast boy, I never memorized the ‘Snake Rhyme’:

Red Touch Yellow - Kills a Fellow

Red Touch Black - Venom Lack

Yellow Touches Red - Soon You'll Be Dead

Red Touches Black - Friend of Jack

If the snake has a black nose, it's a Coral Snake. That's a good hint.  These are Scarlet Kingsnakes, Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides, which are fairly common in the pine forests of the Coastal Plain.  Kingsnakes have the red-and-yellow color bands separated by black, and also have a red nose.  Cute li’l things.

In the interim between rain showers and waiting for the side of the house to dry out enough to paint, I took a couple of walks through the Walthour-Moss Foundation lands past Forest Lake and up to Moor Meadows.

The Foundation was established through gifts of land from ‘Pappy’ and Virginia Walthour-Moss, and now totals more than 4,000 acres of prime longleaf pine habitat.  This land is managed to restore and preserve the native pine ecosystem, and is some nice country.  The main use seems to be from the equestrian community; we were the only pedestrians that I saw using the miles of trails.

Among the bird species to be found here is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, which has been on the Endangered Species list since 1970.  This woodpecker is dependent upon mature, open longleaf pine forest.

Nearly all of the RCWs I saw were banded

This type of forest was a result of fire ecology, and covered millions of acres in the pristine southern landscape.  There is not much 'topsoil' above the sandy subsoil.

Unfortunately, stands managed for timber tend to be too young to provide the necessary older trees (80+ years of age, with red heart fungus “disease”) for nesting, and the preclusion of fire from the woods has resulted in the oak understory growing up, rendering the forest unusable for these habitat specialists.

Fortunately, however, the Foundation, and many other private, local, State and Federal land managers are managing their forest lands to benefit this little gem, using prescribed fire and thinning to maintain the open pine forest that the woodpeckers and other pinelands species require.

The longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) sprouting in the understory start out looking a lot like a tuft of grass.

This is a tree!

But as they grow, they begin to look a lot more like trees.

The longleaf pine, when used as a nest tree of a pair of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, develops a distinctive look.  The woodpeckers drill holes below the nest hole, which drips pine resin.  The pitch supposedly keeps climbing predators at bay.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker nest tree

I also made a trip over to the nearby Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve one morning, walking over 5 miles of their trails and fire lanes.  The preserve is part of the consortium of agencies and groups managing the longleaf pines, and provides interpretive signing for their prescribed burning program.

This area burned last year already shows considerable regrowth.

An area burnt this spring will hopefully provide good nesting for Bachman's Sparrow when the understory grasses flourish next year.

The oak trees re-sprout following a fire, and will take over the pine forests if not burned regularly

The understory also includes the southern poison oak.  I didn't handle it to see whether I'm sensitive to it.

And there is a prickly-pear cactus, which is pretty distinctive.

Besides the woodpeckers, there are other feathered friends in these woods.

Some of the Eastern Towhees here have white eyes, rather than red ones

Summer Tanager carrying food back to his brood

Male Orchard Oriole

And neat invertebrates that we don't have Back West.

I'll need to look up this stunning damselfly, when I get a chance

 . . . as well as this horned spider spinning her web.

I got Marty off to the airport at Raleigh-Durham, as she needed to return home and go back to work.  I finished up with the chores at Ellen’s, and finally packed and left on Monday the 17^th.

Walthour-Moss Foundation 16 June eBird Checklist is here

Weymouth Woods State Park eBird Checklist is here

Walthour-Moss Foundation 11 June eBird Checklist is here

April 9 - More time in the Flint Hills

Today was another sunny, 50º day, and I returned to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  Along the roadside, as I’d seen all across the State, was a lush growth of Henbit.

This is a non-native ‘weed’, but adds a lot of color to the highway verges.

Henbit - Lamium amplexicaule

The Bottomland Nature Trail follows along a restored prairie bottomland, with riparian trees.

Much of the remaining tallgrass prairie consists of areas such as the Flint Hills, which were too rocky to plow.

But, the bottoms along the streams had deep soils that were cultivated by the settlers, and only remnants and restored areas such as this still remain.

Wood Ducks flushed from Fox Creek and a pair of Canada Geese were feeding.

A Barred Owl was still hunting in the late morning, and came over to check me out.

Barred Owl - Strix varia

I ended up with several ticks from the morning’s walk, and can only recommend that people follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control.  I, of course, was out in the tall grass without having used a DEET-containing repellent.

Harris’ Sparrows fed on the young green seeds of the elm trees.

These tree seeds are quite abundant here

The protein content of developing seeds is high enough to entice the birds, and will help fuel their migration to their breeding grounds in the Canadian North.

Harris' Sparrow - Zonotrichia querula

I returned to the Visitors’ Center, where I had stopped yesterday afternoon.

At the Jones’ house and barn, I took some time to appreciate the stonework.

Wonderful setting for a midwest farm . . .

An amazing stone house . . .

. . . complementing this amazing stone barn

There was little wood, back in the day, to build fences, so the landowner had stone brought in from the quarry at Strong City to fence miles of the farm and pastures.

They even made the fence posts out of stone!

Around the house, the front steps, porches, and buildings were constructed of the same stone.

Mortared and unmortared wall

A "perfect ashlar"

Hand-hewn stone steps

Hewn stone pillar at the porch steps

I had learned that the difference between a Stone Mason and a “Cowan” was that the Mason would use mortar, whereas the Cowan worked in unmortared stone.

The Cowans were "dry wallers" . . .

Instead of heading out onto the open prairie, I chose to walk the “Southwind Trail” up to the old schoolhouse.

Fox Creek Schoolhouse

Along the small tributary to Fox Creek, there were more Harris’ Sparrows - still feeding on the elm seeds.

Fattening up on elm seeds

The trail had several blooming wildflower species, as well as the accompanying butterflies.

Purple Locoweed - Oxytropis lambertii

Gray Hairstreak - Strymon melinus

I finally left this little gem of a prairie, thankful for the forces and politics that preserved the land and its flora & fauna.

Eastern Phoebe - Sayornis phoebe

Driving south, there was yet more annual burning of the tallgrass prairie.

Acres and acres were burned along my route

This fire, along the highway adjacent to Interstate 35, burned right up to the road.

A Ranchland Trust property undergoing prescribed burning

Fires burn right up to the roadsides around here

Burn, Baby, Burn!

The fire attracted several hawks, which coursed over the burned area looking for fresh-toasted mice and insects.

The livestock didn’t seem all that concerned about the fires, waiting for the flames to settle a bit before heading back out.

The burned area will “green up” in short order, providing ample forage.

Heading south, I pulled into Pawhuska, Oklahoma at about 5 p.m., and loaded my belongings into Room 22 of the Black Gold Motel, then went down to check in for $69.  I talked to a few of the birders who were staying there for the field trip through the Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival, but no one seemed interested in going out for supper, so I went by myself to Rancho los Primos for Carne Asada and 2 Negras Modelos for $18.  Then, I went to bed early, as we were off early to view the Prairie Chicken lek tomorrow morning.

Bottom Land Nature Trail eBird Checklist is Here

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve eBird Checklist is Here