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.
