2 Signs of spring…wildflowers and chiggers

This afternoon, Emma and I took a hike down the Dee’s nature trail near the visitor’s center.  In just a week or so, the warmer temps have brought out the first wildflowers of spring.  Many of them are white in color, and most all are very small… less than 1/2” in size.

One of the most colorful is this violet type flower.

As we walked along the trail, there were still remnants of seed pods from last year, and still gal berries available from last year’s crop for birds to snack on.    The gal berry is one of three types of holly that grow in the wet pine savannah.  All of the hollies have berries that are toxic for humans, but the wildlife doesn’t seem to be effected adversely by them.

 

About a week ago, I made a really big mistake.  I guess I just wasn’t thinking.  I headed through the brush and grassy area in the savannah wearing shorts.  Since I’ve done that, my legs have been driving me crazy with chigger bites.  OMG!  The itching even wakes me up at night.  I’ve tried rubbing alcohol and hydrocortisone cream, but nothing seems to help.  I haven’t had to deal with chiggers in several years, so I just didn’t think about them.  Believe me, I won’t wear anything but long pants in the bush for the remainder of the time I am here!

 

This morning, I headed out with the biology interns and a local volunteer to help with a grassland bird survey (wearing long pants!). 

We went to two areas on the refuge to do the survey.  It involved marching through the savannah to identify and count birds that we flushed as we walked along.  I told the crew before we started that I wasn’t a very fast walker, and I’m glad I did.  I made it through a couple of the transect areas, but had to drop out since I just couldn’t keep up with them.    Two people carried long bamboo poles reaching out to their sides to tap through the savannah hoping to flush birds that are reluctant to fly up.  It was just too hard for me to walk through the hip high vegetation and uneven wet terrain at the speed that the young interns (with long legs) and the incredibly fit local volunteer maintained.  It was one of those moments when I came face to face with my own limitations.  While I’m glad I didn’t push myself too far, I felt sad that I didn’t have the endurance that I did 40 years ago.  Dang!  I guess the only saving grace is that next to no birds were flushed anyway.

Back to the hike on the nature trail that Emma and I did, we came upon a  young long leaf pine with a huge pine cone at the top of it.  The young pines are called candlesticks, and it takes quite a few years before they grow large enough to have more than that one burst of needles at their top.  They certainly do not produce cones.

As I looked skywards, I found where that huge pinecone had come from.  It just happened to land on top of the young candlestick as it fell from far above. 

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy