East Ridge Trail in Montreat

We went for a walk on the East Ridge trail in Montreat last week. One area on that trail is so peaceful and beautiful with this lovely fern covering the ground on both sides of the trail which runs along the ridge of mountains of the Blue Ridge range. This fern is Lady Fern and it is this lovely bright green and very soft looking. Also on this trail we saw these pretty red flowers called Fire Pink.

The third picture is Chinquapin. This shrub is in the same family as American Chestnut. The Chestnut was once the dominant hardwood of our eastern forests. It has been wiped out by a blight. We still see some small chestnut trees here in Montreat but they never get very large because they are killed by the blight. The Chinquapin was once believed to be immune to the Chestnut blight but that is not the case and Chinquapin will likely suffer the same fate as the Chestnut.

Early summer at the ponds.

I took a walk to the Beaty St. pond today as well as the pond at Roosevelt Wilson Park on Griffith St. I saw this male Mallard duck and he was pretty friendly. I think he's used to people feeding him. Notice how dark green his head is. The female Mallards are more brown all over and lack the green head.

At the Beaty St. pond I noticed that the algae bloom is beginning. In this picture you can see bands of green on the surface of the water which is the algae beginning to form. As the summer goes on it will get much thicker. One thing that contributes to algae bloom is runoff from lawns and other places. The fertilizer on lawns gets concentrated in the water and provides food for the algae. This can be a problem for fish and other animals living in the pond. In this picture if you look closely you can see a turtle floating just under the surface of the pond. The top of his shell is showing as well as his head.

Beautiful day at the pond

At the pond today I saw a Canada Goose family. Mom, Dad and 6 newly hatched goslings. They were very cute swimming around on the pond and didn't seem to mind me being close by. Later they came up on the bank and ate some leaves off low growing plants.

On my way walking to and from the pond I see a lot of this plant. In case you don't know, this is Poison Ivy. One of the most familiar plants in our woods. It's an irritant to the skin of most people. The oil in the leaves and in the stems and vines is hard to remove from skin, clothes and from your pet's fur. It's pretty easy to identify this time of year. It loses it's leaves in the fall and then the danger is not recognizing the vines. You can still get the oil on your skin in the fall and winter and you might not realize it until it's too late. If you think you have touched any part of this plant you should wash well in warm soapy water.

This pretty white flower is the Bloodroot. This is a native perennial plant that has a bright red sap which is were the name comes from. We saw lots of bloodroot flowers up on "Little Piney" and "Big Piney" when we went hiking there yesterday. There will be more wildflowers coming soon. Although we couldn't see them, we heard a lot of spring warblers, on their way north or choosing a spot for their place in the northern part of their range. I'm sure we heard the black-throated green warbler and the red-eyed vireo. Turn your ears on and listen for what you can hear.

Limbs to pick up and holes in our trees.

We are in Montreat this week.

Lots of limbs fell during the winter. Looks like the ice storms and snow storms cleaned out the broken, and dead branches from our woods.

One of our neighbors here is the pileated woodpecker. One of the things this large, amazing bird does is drill large holes into trees. We hear this bird more than we see it. It makes a loud knocking sound when it is drilling these holes. Also it makes a loud call, they say "Woody Woodpecker" is patterned after this bird both for his looks and his call.

Spring blooms.

Not a lot to say. All these beautiful blooms are in my yard or my neighbors' yards right now, today. And there are more. The oak trees are blooming making everything on or porch yellow as well as coating the windshields of the cars. Spring is alive!

Dawn Chorus!

This picture was made a few weeks ago, notice the snowy background. But what I want to talk about today is the sound I hear early in the morning before the sun rises. It's called the dawn chorus and all the birds are singing. We heard a Northern Cardinal singing outside our window this morning about 6:30. It was saying Cheer, Cheer, Cheer, Birdy, Birdy, Birdy, or at least that's what it sounds like. And then a little later I heard Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody. The white-throated sparrow has such a sweet song. Some people say it says, instead, My sweet Canada, Canada, Canada. Anyway, it's a sweet sound to hear. These birds will be migrating north soon. Probably to Canada! Enjoy these beautiful early morning sounds.