Today's Ramble was led by Don Hunter.
The photos in this post, except where
noted, came from Don's Facebook album (here's the link).
Today's post was written by Don Hunter
[additions in square brackets are by Dale Hoyt - DH].
30 Ramblers met today.
Today's readings:
Bob
Ambrose recited the latest poem in his “Evolution” series, titled “The
Transition”
Don
read a quote from Eckhart Tolle: "When you look upon another human being and feel great love
toward them, or when you contemplate beauty in nature and something within you
responds deeply to it, close your eyes for a moment and feel the essence of
that love or that beauty within you, inseparable from who you are, your true
nature."
Rich recited Rudyard Kipling....”Teach us delight in simple
things.”
Show and Tell:
 | |
| Girdled twig |
Richard brought a limb from his yard that had been
girdled by a twig girdler beetle. We had
a discussion about where, exactly, the beetle laid her eggs. Some thought it was on the exposed cut
surface after the twig had broken and fallen to the ground, some thought it was
on the dying end of the twig. It turns
out the eggs, up to about six, in some cases, were deposited on the exposed
edge of the dying section. The eggs
hatch after the twig falls to the ground.
 | |
| Terrestrial planarians |
Halley brought a container in which were four or five
dried up planarians. [These are unusual
animals – terrestrial planarians that prey on earthworms. They are an
introduced species and most commonly found in or near horticultural green
houses. We found one eating an earthworm on the sidewalk in the Shade Garden
back in September 26, 2013. Click
here to read that account; it explains what a flatworm is. Another recent land
planarian sighting was on the Greenway earlier this year. DH]
 | |
| American Chestnut leaf |
Kathrine, freshly returned from her recent trip to
Maryland, brought a few pressed chestnut leaves to share and told of finding
many small trees, growing from the bases of previously dying larger trees. This appears to be the cycle, with no
extremely large mature trees to be seen.
[All the stump sprouts are infected with the chestnut fungus that killed
the tree. They will not survive, but do live long enough to keep the stump
alive. DH] Halley mentioned that of the
300 or so chestnuts recently planted at the Sandy Creek Nature Center, most did
not make it. They are planning another
round of 300 trees later on.
Katherine Edison mentioned that in addition to the large
numbers of various sulphur butterfly species that are present in the area at
this time, seen mostly near ground level, there is also quite a large number of
Monarchs. For the most part, they can be
seen well above ground, flying around tree top level. When they observe a garden or other large
patch of suitable flowers, however, they will drop down to check them out. “Look up!” she said.
Today's Route: We convened briefly in the parking lot near
the arbor then headed down the sidewalk path in the Shade Garden to the Dunson
Native Flora Garden. We then crossed the
road and headed, via the White Trail, to the woods and the Green Trail. We walked it up to the Service Road and then
took the Service Road down to the little meadow and the Blue Trail. We took the Blue Trail back to the ROW and
then back to the Visitor Center via the Shade Garden path. Many of us then retired to the Cafe Botanica
for refreshments and fellowship.
Dunson Garden:
·
Joey,
the Dunson Garden curator, was busy working at the entrance to the garden
(where the old, painted sign is located).
He took a few minutes to describe what they were doing. They were placing large rocks on the
slope below the path to retain some soil
they are bringing in. They will be
relocating several ferns and pachysandra to this location in an effort to spiff
up the appearance in the vicinity of the entrance.
White Trail, ROW:
 | |
| Blue Mistflower |
·
We
stopped to look at the large patch of Wingstem that is still looking pretty
good. While there we also saw several
Castor bean plants, some Blue Mistflower, laden with dew drops and Common
Mullein (just the basal leaves).
 | |
| Purple Bristle Grass |
·
Sue
noticed one of the bristle grasses, looking almost purple with the dense
pattern of purple bristles. Pennisetum setarium 'Rubrum'.
 | |
| Bowl & Doily spider web |
·
Just
before entering the woods, we stopped to look at a small bowl-and-doily web in
a small pine tree located trailside.
Green Trail:
 | |
| Hurrican Irma damage on the Green Trail |
·
As we made our way
up the Green Trail, we were quickly met with the devastation left by the
remains of Hurricane Irma as it made it's way across the Athens area. There are many large trees down in the woods,
with huge upturned root balls and broken smaller trees. There were numerous places where Garden staff
had cut the centers out of some of the fallen trees across the trail to restore
access to the trail system.
·
At one of the
fallen tree locations, where the trees were long dead and becoming debarked, we
found nice examples of several of the common bracket fungi found at the
Garden. Among these were:
 | |
| Mustard Yellow Polypore |
a.
Mustard Yellow
Polypore – a dark red and yellowish bracket, growing both alone and in larger
groups. If you pick one of the brackets
and break it into, the dark mustard yellow color can be seen, as well as what
appear to be striations but in actuality are cross-sections of the pores.
 | |
| False Turkey Tail |
b.
False Turkey Tails
– banded brackets, with bands of cream, tan, red and brown. The key to identifying these lies in observing
the underside of the brackets. Those of
False Turkey Tail are smooth, lacking an obvious pore surface.
c.
Turkey Tails –
these look outwardly similar to the False Turkey Tails, however they have a
rougher, pore bearing surface on the underside and uniformly have a white edge
or margin along the outer edge. Just as
their scientific name (Trametes versicolor) implies, they are found in a
variety of color patterns, from earthen colors, to grays and blacks. They are
often somewhat hairy as well.
 | |
| Crowded Parchment fungus |
d.
Crowded Parchment
Fungus – these bracket mushrooms generally have a light orange color, have a
wavy appearance and are found in tightly packed groups.
·
At the same
location as the mushrooms, we also saw several piles of coarse sawdust underneath
the rotting logs. Based on the appearance of these piles, they
were probably created by the wood boring Patent Leather (or Bess) Beetle even
though none were seen.
Service Road:
 | |
| Possible spider egg case |
·
Angeli
found a brown, fallen Post Oak leaf with a curious looking, bright green woven
egg case located near the tip of the leaf.
We didn't open the case to see what was inside as Angeli insisted on
returning it to where she found it. It
was difficult to determine the source of the green color of the mat of silk
comprising the case. It didn't really
look like algae though it might have been.
[It's likely that this was either a spider egg case or, possibly, a shelter for
a caterpillar within which it could pupate. Difficult to tell without opening
it. DH]
 | |
| Oak Apple galls |
·
Two
Oak Apple galls were found by Ramblers while we were
stopped for the curious egg case. The
galls were both old and in poor condition, with no visible intact larval
suspension structures inside.
 |
| Shed Aphid exoskeletons |
·
On the underside of a brown
fallen leaf we found
numerous molted aphid exoskeletons.
 | |
| Twelve-spotted Skimmer |
·
Before
we moved on, someone found a torpid Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonfly clasping
the end of a hophornbeam twig. We were
able to get in very close, within six inches of the dragonfly, without it
showing any outward signs of being disturbed.
This is not a common spotting and I don't recall photographing this
species in the four and a half years I have been photographing observations for
the Nature Rambling blog.
·
Moving down the service road we saw a
territorial ground scrape, a way of territorial marking made by one of our
American White-tailed deer. The deer
paw and clear down to bare earth a circular area two to three feet in
diameter. When this is accomplished they
then urinate on the bare soil to mark their territory.
·
Before
hitting the clearing, we stopped to look at a small blackjack oak. The leaves are unusual looking and have
rather shallow lobes and are broad at their ends. [Possibly
not a blackjack oak; the juvenile oaks frequently don't have the leaf shape of
the mature tree. DH]
Meadow:
 | |
| Bush katydid |
·
A
bush katydid was observed, semi-torpid, resting on the dewy leaves of a small
Wingstem. It was easily distinguished
from a grasshopper by it's long, gracefully arching antennae.
 | |
| Grass spider in its funnel web |
·
We
also saw many webs of the funnel weaving Grass Spider, Agelenopsis sp. Occasionally, the occupant of the web could
be seen far down inside the throat of the funnel, laying in wait.
·
Don
pointed out that this will be one of the prime frost flower observing locations
later in the season when hard freezes are predicted.
·
More
foxtail bristle grass was seen in the meadow.
Blue Trail:
 | |
| White-tailed deer rub |
·
A
deer rub was seen on a large pine sapling occupying the space beneath the large
oak on the right as we headed down the Blue Trail. Deer rubs serve two purposes, one to remove
the velvet from the antlers and the other to mark the deer's territory.
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Wingstem
|
Verbesina alternifolia
|
Castor Bean
|
Ricinus communis
|
Blue Mistflower
|
Conoclinium coelestinum
|
Common Mullein
|
Verbascum thapsus
|
Purple Fountain Grass
|
Pennisetum setarium 'Rubrum'
|
Bowl-and-doily Spider
|
Frontinella communis
|
Mustard Yellow Polypore
|
Phellinus gilvus (= Polyporus gilvus)
|
False Turkey Tail mushroom
|
Stereum ostrea
|
Turkey Tail mushroom
|
Trametes versicolor
|
Crowded Parchment fungus
|
Stereum complicatum
|
Patent Leather Beetle
|
Odontotaenius disjunctus
|
Aphids
|
Superfamily Aphidoidea
|
Twelve-Spotted Dragonfly
|
Libellula pulchella
|
American Hophornbeam
|
Ostrya virginiana
|
American White-tail Deer
|
Odocoileus virginianus
|
Blackjack Oak ??
|
Quercus marilandica
|
Bush Katydid
|
Scudderia sp.
|
Grass Spider (Funnel Weaver)
|
Agelenopsis sp.
|
White Crownbeard
|
Verbesina virginica
|
