Thursday, October 5, 2017

Ramble Report October 5 2017



Today's Ramble was led by Dale Hoyt.
The photos in this post, except where noted, came from Don's Facebook album (here's the link).
Today's post was written by Dale Hoyt who hastily compiled notes taken by Don Hunter.
24 Ramblers met today.
Announcements:
Today's reading:
Because this year's Harvest Moon occurs on October 5 Dale read two passages about it. The first is an excerpt from Joe Rao's Skylog column in the October 2017 issue of Natural History magazine:
At 2:40PM EDT the moon officially turns full. This month’s full Moon occurs closest to the autumnal equinox; thus, it is referred to as the harvest moon.
Usually, this event happens in September. However, from 1970 to 2050, it happens in October with some frequency, about once every three years, althought as much as eight years can pass between occurrences, as from 1990 to 1998 and from 2028 to 2036.
Next was the entry for September 24 in An Almanac for Moderns, by Donald Culross Peattie:
I try each year to disbelieve what my senses tell me, and to look at the harvest moon in a cold and astronomical light. I know that it is a small cold sphere of rock, airless, jagged and without activity. But the harvest moon is not an astronomical fact. It is a knowing thing, lifting its ruddy face above the rim of the world. Even to the thoroughly civilized mind, where caution for the future is supposed to rule all impulse, the strange moon of autumn invites the senses to some saturnalia, yet no festival of merriment. The harvest moon has no innocence, like the slim quarte moon of a spring twilight, nor has it the silver penny brilliance of the moon that looks down upon the resorts of summertime Wise, ripe and portly, like an old Bacchus, it waxes night after night.

The second reading was provided by Bill Pierson, the designer of our Nature Rambler t-shirts. Bill showed us his own sumi-e (Chinese ink drawing) inspired by the Buddhist poem and read some additional commentary:
Bill holding his sumi-e inspired by Zhuang Zhou
庄周梦蝶 Zhuāng Zhōu mèng dié (Zhuang Zhou Dreaming (he is a) butterfly.)
"Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. (2, tr. Burton Watson 1968:49)”

Door prize: In honor of the Harvest Moon Dale passed out hickory nuts to all the Ramblers. The nuts were collected from a local tree and are most likely a hybrid, possibly between a Mockernut Hickory and a Pignut Hickory. Germination is best if the nuts are shallowly planted in the fall. If held over to spring germination is unlikely until the following spring.

Today's route: From the Visitor's center we picked up the White Trail off the lower parking lot and followed it to the power line right of way. Then walked to the river, turned left on the Orange Trail and returned via the Orange Trail Spur back to the White Trail and to the parking lot.

Apology: Please accept my apologies for the abbreviated post; we are going out of town tomorrow and short of time.

Visitor Center Parking Lot:
We came upon a Brown Ground Skink warming up on the sidewalk around the tree island.  It ran off into the mulch before it could be further observed and photographed.

Power line ROW:
As soon as we popped out of the woods on the mown path out to the ROW the first thing we noticed was the heavy dew on the ground and all of the tall vegetation. Inquiring minds wanted to know why all the plants were so wet.
Air contains water vapor; the warmer the air, the more water vapor it can hold. We refer to this as the humidity, but, more precisely, it is the relative humidity. The relative humidity is a percentage. When we say that the humidity is 90% it means that the air contains 90% of the maximum it could hold at its current temperature. If it contained the additional 10% water vapor it would be fully saturated. When air is fully saturated with water vapor what happens when its temperature drops? As the temperature lowers the air can hold less water so the excess water condenses to form liquid water; we call it fog. When fully saturated air cools not only is fog formed but water also condenses on surfaces, like plant leaves and stems. A useful measure of how much water vapor is contained in the air is the dewpoint. It is the temperature at which the air becomes saturated and starts to condense. Whenever the air temperature is less than the air dewpoint dew will form. During a Georgia summer the overnight temperature seldom falls below the dewpoint, so we don't get our feet wet when we walk through the grass to get the morning paper. But during spring and fall the overnight temperature is almost always below the dewpoint and your feet will be wet if you venture outside.

Goldenrod bent over by Irma, but still blooming
We noticed lots of goldenrod and yellow crownbeard growing in close proximity to each other.  The crownbeard has more or less gone through it's blooming season and has begun to set seeds but the tall goldenrod is still blooming and is an important source of pollen for honeybees at this time of year.
Torpid Bumblebee on Goldenrod

Torpid Bumblebee on Wingstem blossom
We noticed, on both goldenrod and the verbesinas, many small bumblebees in a state of torpor or near torpor. They have been caught foraging when the air temperature fell below the critical temperature they need to fly. They hang on where they were and as the day warms they reach a temperature where they can be active again.

A large orb weaving spider wraps its prey in silk.
Someone noticed an orb weaving spider with a reddish brown body and translucent red legs, with the back legs having yellow and black segments.  It had just bitten its prey and was wrapping it up silk for later consumption
.
Ripening seeds of a wingstem; notice that each seed has a wing.
Linda pulled Don over to photograph ripening wingstem seeds, that are also winged.

Sunflower Rust spore producing structures on the underside of a Sunflower leaf.
Someone noticed many orange specks on the undersides of Rough Sunflower leaves.  Dale suspects they are fruiting bodies of a fungus; Don finds that they are probably Sunflower Rust.

Arrowleaf Tearthumb
We saw that the Arrowleaf Tearthumb is now flowering.
Also seen was Dotted Smartweed and Pennsylvania Smartweed, closely related to the Arrowleaf Tearthumb.

Differential Grasshopper
Dale captured a Differential Grasshopper lacking one of the jumping legs. Some wanted to know if the leg could grow back. The answer is no, because it is an adult insect. If it had been a nymph the leg would slowly regenerate each time the exoskeleton was shed. Since adult insects don't molt anymore it will remain one legged. Grasshoppers drop their legs they are attacked by a predator (or a human grabbing them by their leg). It's better to lose a leg than a life. 

Climbing Buckwheat fruits
Before reaching the river we saw the first of many climbing buckwheat vines in the floodplain and along the riverbank.

White Trail:

Carolina Coralbead

Carolina Coralbead seed
Carolina Coralbead, a vine with red berries, was seen growing up a stalk of River Cane. Linda crushed one of the berries to reveal the pulpy seed inside.

A Gulf Fritillary butterfly was observed flitting around the new River Cane that had been planted by volunteers from the local Audubon Society.

Exposed sand bar on Middle Oconee River
Everyone commented on how low the water level in the Middle Oconee River is right now.  Dale feels like the water levels in the river have been impacted by the opening of the Bear Creek Reservoir several years ago.

Orange Trail (along Middle Oconee River):

Velvet Ant, Through a Glass Darkly
Eleanor found a Velvet Ant, which is not an ant, but a solitary wasp.

River Oats
The River Oats along the river are beginning to turn brown.

Climbing Hempvine
We saw Climbing Hempvine growing over downed trees next to the trail.  Linda commented that the flowers look much like those of the bonesets (thoroughworts).

Fall Webworm caterpillar
Dale found a fuzzy Fall Webworm Moth capterpillar. When the caterpillars reache the size to pupate they leave the web and crawl off to look for place to form a cocoon.
Bur Cucumber
We saw several vines of Bur Cucumber growing along the river.  

Blue Mistflower
Just before we turned onto the Orange Trail Spur to head back, we saw several blue mistflower plants growing next to the trail.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Brown Ground Skink
Scincella lateralis
Tall Goldenrod
Solidago altissima
Wingstem
Verbesina alternifolia
Yellow Crownbeard
Verbesina occidentalis
Bumblebee
Bombus sp.
Orbweaver
Family Araneidae
Fragrant Sedge
Cyperus odoratus
Rough Sunflower
Helianthus strumosus
Sunflower Rust
Puccinia helianthi (?)
Arrowleaf Tearthumb
Polygonum sagittatum
Dotted Smartweed
Polygonum punctatum
Pennsylvania Smartweed
Polygonum pensylvanicum
Differential Grasshopper
Melanoplus differentialis
Climbing Buckwheat
Fallopia scandens
Carolina Coralbead
Cocculus carolinus
River Cane
Arundinaria gigantea
Gull Fritillary Butterfly
Agraulis vanillae
Cow Ant/Velvet Ant
Family Mutillidae
Solitary Wasp
Order Hymenoptera
River Oats
Chasmanthium latifolium
Climbing Hempvine
Mikania scandens
Fall Webworm Moth
Hyphantria cunea
Bur Cucumber
Sicyos angulatus
Blue Mistflower
Conoclinium coelestinum