June 17-18 - Chimney Rock, North Carolina

Sister-In-Law Ellen was up at 4:30 this morning, so I rose as well, drank coffee, washed the linens, and saw her off to her work at the feed & tack store.  I breakfasted on a couple of fried eggs, then banged out a couple of Blog posts, did some laundry, packed and got on the road around 10:30 p.m.

Ellen's garden is full of flowers and butterflies

I drove up through Vass and Carthage, and past Asheboro to the freeway, then west toward Mocksville and Hickory.  Then I dropped south on State Highway 10 to see some of the countryside.  I’d pretty much zig-zagged across the State - there are no straight roads in North Carolina - making it to Lake Lure at about 3:30 p.m. and checking into the River Creek Campground, taking a couple nights in one of their ‘inexpensive’ cabins at $65/night.  Just a note if you stay here: Bring your own bedding; I used my sleeping bag.

I drove up to the Chimney Rock State Park to see what the situation was, and got some trail maps to plan for tomorrow.  On the way up toward the Ticket Booth, I saw a few birds near a seep spring alongside the road, and stopped - getting my binoculars on my Lifer Swainson’s Warbler!

Crappy photo, but a nice bird

There was also a pair of Hooded Warblers and a couple Cardinals at the spot.  Heck, I wouldn’t even have to stay here, but I will, as I am intrigued with the trails, fauna and flora of the park.

I came back down and stopped at the Hickory Nut Gorge Brewery for a celebratory pint, and found that they have food as well.  So, I paired a glass of their Bitter with a pulled pork sandwich, and washed it down with a pint of their cask ale.  Back at the cabin, I found that the internet connection was unlikely, so did not prep a Blog page, but the TV worked so I watched Michigan beat Florida State 2-0 in a College World Series game  and enjoyed the lightning and thunder storm.

The next morning, I again drove up to the park, which opens at 8:30 a.m., and paid the daily entrance fee of $13.  That seemed a little steep, but it would likely have been worse had the place remained a private operation.  In 1902, Dr. Lucius B. Morse purchased 64 acres at Chimney Rock Mountain, including the Chimney and cliffs, where he and his family owned and operated "Chimney Rock Park" as a privately managed park from 1902 to 2007.

Many small tracts purchased over the years expanded the Park to 996 acres.  In 2006 the land was put up for sale, and the State of North Carolina purchased it for the State Park the following year.  I found it interesting that the park has privatized many of the functions - ‘way beyond just having concessions; the LLC hires even the naturalists!  One of the naturalists, Mary Williams, was very helpful in letting me know about several of the rare plants growing on the cliff and seeps habitats.

I was the first ‘tourist’ admitted this morning, although there were a number of construction workers doing some repairs and improvements.

It was a little noisy for birding as I began my hike

I spent all day walking the trails on Chimney Rock State Park, beginning the day walking from the lower parking lot to the waterfall and back to the Gift shop.  It was cloudy/foggy, with a light south breeze, and warming from 65-72° F through the morning, and nearly to 80 degrees by afternoon.

There are some steep sections of trail in this park!

The trail here goes mainly through the deciduous woods, with few opportunities for views of the scenery.  But, not being able to “see far” allows a person to focus on things closer at hand, such as a leaf that is skeletonized by shredding insects.

The rhododendrons were blooming.

Rhododendron maximum

While I’m pretty good at birding back home in Olympia, I am unfamiliar with many of the bird songs in this part of the country, so it’s a bit frustrating to hear birds and not quite know what I’m listening to.  I really need to see most of these birds to be certain of what species they are.

Black-throated Green Warbler carrying food to her chicks

The ‘barks’ of the eastern gray squirrels kept attracting my attention, but that's OK - at least they are native here.

I arrived at the upper parking lot and took the trail to the upper falls.

The fog & clouds were burning off a little, but there was barely a breeze.

The muggy, 72° afternoon felt much warmer as I climbed... and climbed... and climbed.

I did stop to view the Devil’s Head rock formation, which was a bit eerie in the fog.

I’d been carefully avoiding the poison ivy along the trail, but after a bit it dawned on me that much of what I thought was  Toxicodendron radicans along the trail was an eastern shrub in the citrus family called Wafer Ash Ptelea trifoliata.  It sure looks like poison ivy, except for the samara seeds.

As the fog began to lift, there were some better views of the Broad River valley and surrounding hills,

and the butterflies and other insects came out in full force.

I've got Kenn Kaufman's butterfly guide . . . you'd think I'd look these up?

A millipede, not a butterfly . . .

I’d made it to the top at the upper falls overlook by mid-afternoon, and walked back down to the lower parking lot.

There was a clearer view of the Devil’s Head,

And, finally, a view of Chimney Rock itself!

From above . . .

I read the signage for the Gneiss Cave, which has been closed to the public after bats began roosting in the cavity.  Wildlife managers are concerned that humans can easily carry the fungus that causes White-Nose Syndrome from cave to cave, so keeping folks out of the cave may just help protect the bat population here.

I got back to town, and again ate dinner at the Brewpub.  The gal behind the counter had her 4-year-old Dean in the pub, and he was pretty energetic.  I let him clean up my table and "tipped" him with a $1 Canadian dollar coin that I had in my pocket.  There was another pretty good thunderstorm and rain this evening, but I slept well after packing to travel north tomorrow.

Southern Pines ‘morning coffee’ eBird Checklist is here

Chimney Rock State Park evening eBird Checklist is here

Chimney Rock State Park morning eBird Checklist is here

Chimney Rock State Park mid-day eBird Checklist is here

Chimney Rock State Park afternoon eBird Checklist is here

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