I often see, and more frequently hear, Wood Ducks on Cedar Creek. However, if they catch even the slightest glimpse, they’re off!
Yet, a few days in late November 2021, they were so obsessed with one section of the creek that they would fly only a few yards and land. I discovered they were bobbing for acorns falling from creekside trees:
The birds were about sixty yards away in complicated light, a challenge to both me and my camera.
Frost “flowers” and “ribbons” form with the first hard frosts of the year. With cold temperatures, the moisture in the grass and weed stubble of our pastures expands causing cracks in the stems. Moisture seeps out of the cracks. Once exposed, the moisture freezes and these ice crystals are then pushed out by water coming behind and subsequently freezing. This continuing process of expansion and freezing causes small, delicate crystal structures that look like flowers or ribbons.
Casually walking trough the pasture, the little frost flowers and ribbons are not so eye-catching.
But, up close:
Links: Frost Flowers and Ribbons, https://www.weather.gov/lmk/frost_flowers
Elk in the Oconoluftee and Cataloochee Valleys, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina, 2021
From visits this year to the Oconoluftee and Cataloochee valleys, I’ve learned that bulls with a herd live a busy life. For the benefit of passing on their genes, they must gather a group of cows and fend off other bulls. As the others graze, the old man spends a great deal of time chasing wandering cows and calves and returning them to the herd. All the while, he’s keeping an eye on the younger bulls in his own herd and warding off would be interlopers. Thus, during the breeding (rutting) season, as his herd grazes and grows fat for winter, the old bull spends little time grazing and a lot of time expending energy. I suppose within a few years, he will fall from his position and again be on the periphery of the herd looking in.
Elk Wallow: While viewing elk at the Oconoluftee visitor center, we witnessed what I believe was the old bull creating a scent-wallow. First, he began digging up the earth with his antlers. Then, he added urination to the process. He would urinate, profusely, then dig his antlers into the newly wetted spot. The old fellow did this several times until it must have been rather muddy, messy, scent-saturated spot. Then, he lay down in the wallow and bugled from this position. See the process in the slides below:
For information on viewing elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park see https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/elk.htm. See also historical information on elk in South Carolina in the post “Elk in Cedar Creek” at Common Ground Blog.
This post features cows and calves from both the Oconoluftee and Cataloochee Valley herds in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The photos were taken in September and October when most of the calves had lost their spots. In the late evening the Oconoluftee herd often invades the Mountain Farm Exhibit at the Oconoluftee Visitor Center.
Elk in the Oconoluftee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
Elk in Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina
On a frosty, October morning, these two young bulls grazed side-by-side. They were in sight, but well away from the older bull and the cows and calves in the older animal’s herd. Like “teenagers” of other species, often they palled around. At other times they fought. These were apparently mock battles, preparing, I think, for the time when they would challenge the older bulls.
Within the Columbia metropolitan area, the Broad and Saluda Rivers come together to form the Congaree River. Not far from the site of this image, the Broad River flowing down from the mountains of North Carolina and the piedmont of both states meets the smaller, swifter Saluda River flowing from a more narrow wedge of mountains and piedmont in South Carolina. The two rivers come together at the so-called fall line and form the Congaree River. This fall line is the meeting place of the hard rock of the ancient North American continent and the layers of soft sediment that have eroded over millions of of years from the mountains and piedmont to form the coastal plain. The result of this meeting of rivers and fall line is an exposure of rocky riverbed that often turns into whitewater rapids. Then, as it flows over the edge of the ancient continent, the Congaree river slows down and spreads over the softer sedimentary rocks and soils of what has locally been called Congaree Swamp. However, it is more accurately referred to as a floodplain, and it is the location of Congaree National Park. The result of all this is that Columbia has both a rapidly flowing, often whitewater, river in the northern and central part of the city and a soaked bald cypress floodplain just below the city limits. Columbia is blessed with rivers.
This is a photo image that embodies the vagaries of nature photography–a lot of things have to come together to capture an good image. When I shot this photo I was on an early morning bird walk with friends, and I had made a trip to the restroom at the northern end of Columbia’s Riverfront Park. On coming out of the building, I noticed this heron. Now, I see Great Blue Herons quite often, and as they are solitary and still hunters, they are rather easy to photograph. Should I take the photo or join my friends who are waiting for me? I decided one quick shot. Resting my elbows on the steel railing of the walkway, I snapped one, then several more shots, after which I quickly closed down my camera and was off to look for other birds, apologizing to my friends by saying I stopped to photograph a heron. Only on downloading the images did I realize that not only was I wise to carefully prop my elbows on the railing for a steadier shot, but also that the early light just happened to be perfect for the shot. I also noticed that this particular image looked rather like a Romance-era painting! In the studio, photographers can move the subject as well as the lighting, in the outdoors I keep walking and snapping pictures, and occasionally it all comes together.
Elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Elk were reintroduced to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2001.
Now, this young fellow has several Smoky Mountain ancestors.
Olaus J. Murie’s book, published in 1950, remains the basic source on elk biology, behavior, and management. (Stackpole Press)
