Sunset in East Tennessee and other stuff.

When I first started this blog, my friends Tom and Meg both wrote to me and said "include pictures". So now, for every blog entry I include a picture or two. I haven't had any blog entries for a couple of weeks because I didn't have any good pictures to post.

I still don't, but I decided to post an entry anyway. This picture is a view of a sunset within the last week with our roses in the foreground. It is kind of dark, but that is the nature of this sunset. It is not much, but it is all I have at the present time. Even so, you have to love those dark, dark, reds of the sunset. If you lived in the west and saw this you would call the fire department.

I have been in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park 3 times in the last 3 weeks, but I didn't have the camera. In the Cades Cove area of the Park Nancy and I saw 4 bears in the tall wild Cherry trees fattening up on cherries for the winter. (By the way, did you know that in the Smoky Mountains that 80% of the bears hibernate in standing hollow trees, as high up as 80 feet.) I have been trout fishing twice and caught lots of small ones and a couple of nice Rainbows, but again no camera. (Another factoid....trout are not stocked in the GSMNP; all of the trout there are wild.)

We are going to the the Smokys for two days to stay at a lodge at Mount Le Conte (6,593 feet elevation...I know Gordon...it is not Colorado high but it is very high for the east) and we will take a camera this time. Hopefully we will get a few nice photos.

Traffic jam at the feeding station.

During most of the summer we have had one or two Ruby Throated Hummingbirds at our feeder. But several weeks ago that all changed. There are now Hummingbirds at the two feeders constantly and, as you can see from the photo, sometimes there is a waiting line for an open spot. We think that the reason for the big increase in birds is that the babies have hatched and now there are many more Hummingbirds around. Neighbors and friends with feeders have seen the same increase.

We have two identical feeders off the deck about 10 feet apart. For some reason most of the Hummingbirds prefer the one to the right. When they agree to cooperate, that feeder often has 5 or 6 birds feeding at one time.

The other feeder often has just one short fat male sitting on the feeder railing by himself. He aggressively chases everyone else away from "his" feeder.

One interesting event happened a couple of days ago. A neighbor called to say that a Hummingbird was in his garage and couldn't find her way out even though all 3 garage doors and the walk-in door were open. The bird stayed near the ceiling and wouldn't drop down to find a door. By the time we walked down to their house, Ron had herded the bird into a corner where she had nowhere to land, and when she tired from flying he caught her by hand. He carried the bird outside and laid her on a leaf on a shrub. The Hummingbird just lay there for about 10 minutes looking around and blinking but not trying to fly. Then, once she caught her breath and regained some energy she flew off into a high tree. She can now tell her friends about the giant human monsters that saved her life.

Various sightings

 I was just thinking recently about some to the wildlife sightings that we have seen here on the Cumberland Plateau in eastern Tennessee since we moved here last October.

When you consider the list you might think that we live isolated, out in the countryside. But Fairfield Glade is a pretty fair sized community with stores, restaurants, offices, and a population that I think I heard is approximately 6,500. However, we are surrounded by forest and bordered by the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area (similar to a "State Game Lands" in Pennsylvania). Wildlife is everywhere.

We have the regular assortment of animals that might live in most communities in many states such as raccoons, squirrels, groundhogs, hummingbirds, finches, garter snakes, toads, etc. But we also have an assortment of birds, reptiles, and mammals that would be very rare in many suburban communities.

Here is a list of a few of the wild things that Nancy or I have seen and then 4 animals that we are still looking for.

We have seen Pileated Woodpeckers (photo above) on the Hickory tree in our backyard, Downey, Hairy, Red-bellied, and Red-headed woodpeckers, Scarlet Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Cooper Hawks, many, many Gold Finches, Tufted Titmice, and many other, new to us, birdfeeder kinda birds.

We have heard from our back deck, Barred Owls, Screech Owls, and Great-Horned Owls. We see Wild Turkey several times each week.

There are several kinds of lizards that I haven't yet identified in the yard.

I have seen (mostly dead on the road) Copperhead, Blacksnake, Corn Snake, Water snake, Blue Racer. I have seen several (some very large) Snapping Turtles in streams and ponds and 6 or 7, at last count, Box Turtles.

Nancy and I have seen both Red and Grey Fox and 2 Coyotes. We hear the coyotes howling at night or in the early morning regularly. Just last week I saw a Bobcat chasing a Grey Squirrel up a dead pine tree (the squirrel got away). I saw a Mink working its way up a small stream near the golf course a couple of weeks ago.

We haven't yet seen one, but I have talked to others in the area who have seen the Wild Boars that roam nearby and root up the golf courses from time to time. Also, I am still looking for Otters, Fishers, and Rattlesnakes that are around. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has re-established an Elk herd in the next county over and about once a year someone claims to spot a Black Bear in our county.

If you like wildlife, this is the place.

Snakes....don't you just love 'em.

As my friend Tom back in Texas says "every snake seen on land is identified as a Copperhead or a Rattlesnake, and every snake seen in or near the water is identified as a Water Moccasin". He isn't far off the truth. So far in Fairfield Glade, anyone that I have talked to that has seen a snake says that it was a Copperhead. Yes, there are Copperheads here, but there are also many non-poisonous snakes.

For example, the beautiful snake in the first picture is a young Eastern Milksnake. Obviously the picture is not the whole snake, it is only the undamaged portion. Unfortunately it was run over on the road a couple of hundred yards from our house. Milksnakes are non-poisonous and beneficial. But I would bet that fewer than one in one hundred people who saw this snake on the road knew what it was. I'll bet most people would have called this a Copperhead.

Two days after this picture was taken there was a dead Blacksnake on the same road within a hundred yards of the corn snake. It was about 4 1/2 feet long. I didn't have my camera and when I returned, it was gone. Probably the crows got it.

Last Friday while playing golf, I stepped onto a rock in a stream and another non-poisonous snake, a water snake, caused me a little adrenalin spike as it slipped into the water from the same rock that I was on. The snake probably had a little adrenalin spike also.

There are Timber Rattlesnakes in our area, although someone I know at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says they are very rarely seen. But there are some around because the workers killed one a few houses away from my house last fall. Rattlesnakes are kind of hard to misidentify because of the rattles on their tail.

Now, this snake is a real Copperhead. Again, unfortunately, this one was also dead. We found this snake on a Hiking Club trip along the trail. Someone hiking on the trail before us probably saw the snake and killed it. Copperheads are poisonous but they have less potent venom, shorter fangs, and smaller doses of poison than rattlesnakes. Copperhead bites are usually not even treated with anti-venom, although that shouldn't encourage you to pick one up because their bite will be very painful if venon is injected (it isn't always).

So before you kill that Copperhead that you see, remember that it might not even be a Copperhead. Also, even if it is, just leave it alone to control the rodents and frogs and such. Plus, it is illegal to kill a snake....probably a law that isn't often enforced, but it is illegal.

By the way, I read somewhere that most snake bites involve two variables.....teen or older males.... and alcohol. Imagine that!

Turkey wrangling

Yesterday while Nancy and I were out for a walk around 2pm we heard a clucking in the woods next to the road. At first, we thought that maybe we spotted a quail. But once we got a better look we could see that it was a baby turkey and it was very very small.

Then we spotted mama Wild Turkey who was the one doing the clucking. Mama and babies were just inside the woods at the intersection of two roads. I told Nancy to go on up the other road and I would go into the woods and try to herd the mama and babies in her direction so she could get a good look at them all.

Well, mama turkey herded nicely right across the road in front of Nancy but the babies disappeared. They had scattered and then sat tight in the undergrowth. I slowly walked through the brush and spotted one or two of the little guys. But once mama realized that I wasn’t following her and that I was looking for the kids, she turned around and started clucking in earnest to round up the family. One by one the babies scooted through the brush and caught up with mama who by then was only about 30 feet from me clucking softly but steadily and showing no fear.

If I would have had my camera I would have been able to get some good shots because the turkeys were all very close to me. Instead, I found this photo on Google Images so you could get an idea of what we saw.

Today in the car, about a mile away we saw another mama turkey and some babies….very small, just like the first bunch. Then when we continued driving up the road to the area near our house where we saw the first turkey, there she was again at the side of the road with her brood. This seems to be hatching time.

Talking to a Barred Owl

Last evening about 10pm I stepped out on the deck to listen to what was going on in the woods at night. Often it is very very quiet. But sometimes a whip-poor-will or two will be calling. When in top form, they can say "whip-poor-will" non-stop for hours or for several minutes before flying to another spot and starting up again.

Last night the tree frogs were singing everywhere. A week ago we didn't hear any. But far away down in the valley I heard another sound. It was only one note but I recognized the voice from nights of camping in Oklahoma for fly fishing. It was a Barred Owl.

Barred owls are very large, over 20 inches tall, and almost the same size as Great Horned Owls. We have heard Great Horned Owls from our deck several times. They have a low, soft, hoohoohoo hoohoohoo hoo. Barred Owls, on the other hand, have a very loud, higher pitched, "who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all" sound.

I only heard one note, not the whole "who cooks for you" sound, but I knew immediately that it was a Barred Owl. I went to the closet and got out my tape of a Barred Owl (doesn't everyone have one of these?) Two Barred Owls began answering my tape with their whole repertoire of sounds. I would play one call and then mute the tape and wait for the answers. The owls moved closer. After a while they were in the two largest trees nearest our house and calling loudly in a three-way contest...owl #1, owl #2, and me on the tape player...each calling in turn. We turned the spotlights on in the backyard and the owls stayed in the trees calling. We saw them flying to another tree and back a couple of times. We played this game for about 30 minutes until the owls begin to tire of the fun. If any of the neighbors heard any of this action, now you know who was making all the noise. Tonight we may try for Screech Owls.

New neigborhood sign

This picture is probably not too exciting unless you live here....and it is really not too exciting even then. This is the new sign at the entrance to our neighborhood that was just installed about a month ago. It is kind of cute with all of the colors and the mountains, the trees, and the setting sun. I like it!

Identify this rock.

For those of you who saw me sitting in my front yard the other evening and staring at a rock for 20 minutes....I have not gone over the edge....yet. I was trying to wait for an Eastern Box Turtle to emerge from his shell so I could get a picture.

Box turtles have a hinged plastron (bottom shell) and they can retreat completely inside their shell and close up tight when threatened.
When I picked up this one in a berry patch he retreated inside and wouldn't come out for a picture.

If you look closely on the right side you can just see his nose beginning to poke out. That is as far as he would come out for a picture. At least you can see the beautiful camouflage pattern of his shell.

Box turtles supposedly live up to 80 years in the wild. This is the 5th one that I have seen this summer. An hour after this picture he was long gone ... probably looking for the next blackberry patch for dinner.

Wild Blueberries and wild Blackberries

It is kinda cool to be able to walk into your backyard and pick fresh wild blueberries and take them right from the woods to your cereal. But I must admit that they are much smaller than the ones at Krogers and not quite as good. I thought that I remembered from years past that "Huckleberries", as wild blueberries seem to be called, were much sweeter than the store bought ones - but these aren't. It is the "wild" and "free" part that makes them taste good.
The blackberries just started to ripen in the last few days. They are not in the backyard but they are within a 5 minute walk of our house. There are more of them and they are much bigger than the blueberries. Too bad I don't like them as much.

Deer fawn.

Although we have lots of deer here in Fairfield Glade, this picture is not from the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. It is from Aurora Ohio. This is our granddaughter Marissa with a white tailed deer fawn that showed up in her neighborhood. The deer walked through yards and even walked up onto Marissa's front porch. It is very rare for a deer fawn to show little fear of humans like this one. It is probably (hopefully) just temporarily separated from its mother. After following the neighborhood kids around for awhile it scampered back into the woods. This was such a cute (and rare) picture that I couldn't resist posting it.

Babies

Bluebird babies at last!

Well, here is the story.

As a refresher, you will remember that the bluebirds in the nest box in our backyard back in early May built a nest and laid an egg. The books say that they usually lay one egg per day until 5-7 eggs are complete. Well each day for 5 days our nest had only 1 egg total. And then on the 6th day there were two. But, on the 7th day there was only one again. The only explanation was that a snake was probably climbing the pole each night and eating that day's egg. In the morning the female probably laid another egg and then that night the snake....you get the picture. This is not that unusual. The bluebirds abandoned their nest.

After I installed a predator guard on the pole and threw out the old nest, the persistent bluebirds built another nest and laid 5 eggs. The eggs hatched on May 22. It usually takes 16 days or so for the baby birds to fledge (leave the nest). Supposedly, the more food they get the earlier they might fledge. After $30 worth of mealworms these babies should have been well fed. Unfortunately we were out of town for 5 days during that time and missed the grand emergence. When we returned everyone was gone. No babies were to be seen and not even the male and female were coming to our deck for mealworms as they did within 5 minutes. That was Tuesday.

But on Wednesday the parent bluebirds returned for mealworms and by watching the direction that they flew we spotted the babies in the high trees nearby. We can't tell exactly how many are around because the babies hide pretty well among the branches and they move around alot. They also stay pretty high in the trees.

But this evening the babies were in the trees close to the deck and one precocious fledging (out of the nest but still relying on their parents to feed them - the equivalent of a college student) flew to the deck railing when he/she saw where dad and mom were getting all of the mealworm goodies. The male bluebird is a little fuzzy in the picture because he was moving, but it is a pretty good first picture of one of the babies. Soon the youngsters will have a degree in Entomology (insects) and the bluebird parents can retire to a place in Tennessee and play tennis and golf. Not a bad deal!

House pictures........finally!

Well, finally I was able to take some pictures of the new house. The delay was because our lawn and landscaping was just completed a week or two ago. We had elected to go with an independent landscaper instead of through the builder and we had to wait until we got to the front of his schedule. Earlier pictures had dirt for lawn and mud for shrubs.
The top picture is from the street on the left side of the house. The bottom picture includes some of my neighbors driveway and shows the right side of the house and the recently added sunroom near the back. The sunroom was previously a screened in porch but the rain and wind caused us to rethink our plan after we moved in.

Wild Trout in East Tennessee

On Wednesday, my fly fishing buddy Ray and I hired a guide for a little wild trout fishing in far Eastern Tennessee. We had to leave Fairfield Glade at 4am in order to cross a time zone and meet our guide by 8am eastern time. We actually drove into Damascus Virginia (a famous stopover on the Appalachian Trail) before crossing back into Tennessee to access a wild Brook Trout stream.

Wild trout are trout that spawn naturally in a stream without having to be stocked. Brook Trout are the original inhabitants of the Eastern United States before Rainbow and Brown Trout were stocked in the streams many years ago. Brook trout normally live only above 3000 feet elevation in the tiny mountain streams that are cold enough and free from larger rainbow or brown trout. A nine inch brook trout in these small streams is comparable to a 20 inch Rainbow in a larger stream.
Because the stream was small and tight there was very little back casting and we had to flip and sling our fly lines into the stream.

Nearly every small pool held a brook trout. Because these fish live in small steams with limited food they voraciously strike any available food, or any fly that looks like food. We probably caught 20+ between us and missed that many more. One miss and that pool on the stream was done for the day. The little buggers are spooky.
Our guide provided lunch in a small town restaurant appropriately called Mountain City. A thunder and lightening storm happened mostly during lunch, but we had to revise our plans because the heavy rain muddied up a couple of streams that we had planned to fish. But it worked out OK, as our guide knew streams in different drainages that weren't affected by the localized rain. We caught wild Rainbows in 2 different streams in the afternoon and on the last cast of the day Ray landed the best fish, a wild Rainbow that was about 12 inches.
Miles driven...a lot, cost of a guide, even more, wild Brookies and Rainbows.....priceless!

Fairfield Glade Hiking Club

Here are 4 pictures from the Fairfield Glade Hiking Club trip last Friday to the Savage Gulf, State Natural Area. The bridge was one of those swinging kind that you always see the bad guys chopping at in the jungle movies.

The stone cliff is typical Tennessee landscape, especially on the Cumberland Plateau. Near this location was the "Stone Door", which is a crack in the rock that allows you to walk through to the bottom of the cliff, 154 steps down.

This is one of the three waterfalls that we hiked to on Friday. Nearly all of the Hiking Club hikes go to a waterfall. I am not sure what hiking clubs do in other states, but we usually have a destination with a nice waterfall vista.


And finally, here is Nancy by a different waterfall. There were 28 people on this hike. The total mileage was about 6 or 7 miles

Mountain Laurel

The Mountain Laurel is in full bloom on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee and in our backyard. Nancy took this photo in our yard just beside the Bluebird box.

Good news....the Bluebird babies hatched two days ago and the male and female are very busy flying back and forth to the nest supplying insects to the kiddos. It is a good thing that the pole supporting the nextbox has a predator guard because the other two bird feeder poles in the yard have muddy raccoon prints all the way to the top to get the birdseed. The other night Nancy woke me up at 2am to listen to a raccoon fight in the backyard. It was very loud growling, snarling and screeming. We turned the spotlights on but the raccoons got into the woods before we could see them.

Spiders and Snakes...and Turkeys

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of spiders and snakes...yet. But here are two recent encounters. First, when picking up trash at a trailhead last week Nancy tried to put a Black Widow spider in the garbage bag I was holding. The beautiful shiny, patent leather black, spider was clinging to a piece of metal that Nancy was holding. There was a perfect red hour-glass shape on the underside of the abdomen. I took the spider home and tried to get a picture, but my camera doesn't focus close enough to get a good picture of something so small. The spider body was about the size of a pea.

A lot of people seem to be concerned about Brown Recluse spiders these days, but Black Widows are probably more common than you might think and their bite is supposedly very painful and can be very dangerous. Their web is cottony and messy and there should be no mistaking the shiny black female spider with the red hour-glass underneath. The males look much different and are not poisonous.

As for snakes, one of our hiking buddies called me a few days ago saying that he just encountered a Copperhead in his yard. He was mowing and came within a few feet of the snake stretched out on the one sunny spot in the yard. He confirmed the identification with several other people. I am still turning over logs and rocks looking for my first Copperhead or Rattlesnake in this area.


I do have a picture of a friendlier outdoor subject. This morning at 6:15am I looked out my front window and saw 2 Wild Turkeys in the yard. We see turkey regularly but only saw them in the yard once before. I had just a few seconds to grab the camera and snap a picture of this one through the blinds before he stepped into the trees in the lot next door.

Latest Bluebird update

Here is a picture of the female and the male Bluebird. When we put mealworms on the railing of the deck the male usually gets to them first. But often he puts 5 or 6 mealworms in his beak crossways and then the female lands and begs and he feeds the mealworms to her. Nice guy!

Here is the female sitting on the nest. Yesterday I opened the nest box to check on it and the female didn't fly. There are 5 eggs. Today when I approached the box the female flew out and both the male and the female dive bombed me while I was near the nest. They zoomed past my head and made a clicking sound as they just missed me. That wasn't very nice to their mealworm supplier.

Bluebirds back at it

The image isn't crystal clear, but I was shooting through the bedroom window. Yes, that is a male Bluebird sitting on the railing of our deck trying to decide if he really wants those raisins and dried cranberries for dessert. He just finished the main course of 6 mealworms that I put there for him.

But the good news is that the Bluebird pair is back at it again after an unsuccessful first nest. As explained in an earlier post, I think a snake got the first batch of eggs and the Bluebirds gave up in frustration. But after starting over they built a new nest and now have 5 eggs in it. I had a cut off milk jug for a predator guard, but I just built a more substantial one out of sheet metal that should also keep out raccoons.

And just to show that there are raccoons in the yard, here is a picture of raccoon tracks from the front yard two days ago.

Keep your fingers crossed for the Bluebirds. It is a hard world out there

More birds....

Not much new or exciting this week, except a few new bird notes. First the bad news. The Bluebirds have abandoned their nest. After 8 days the two eggs went down to one. The only explanation that I have is that they were probably laying 1 per day as expected but something (probably a snake) was removing an egg each night. I put a snake guard on the pole but too late to prevent the birds from giving up in frustration. Nancy did see a large snake near the back of the lot yesterday. We still see the Bluebirds around the yard and hopefully they are saving up some energy for more eggs and another try.

The good news is that there have been up to 4 Hummingbirds at the feeder at one time. The picture above was taken Saturday at the Hummingbird feeder off the back deck. There is at least one Ruby Throated Hummingbird feeding every few minutes. Plus, we have spotted three new (to us) birds in the yard. A Rose-breasted Grosbeak, an Indigo Bunting, and a Hairy Woodpecker.

That is about all the excitement....except for this bit of important information. Did you know that you can buy 1000 mealworms (to feed Bluebirds) on the internet for only $6.00. (They are $4.00 for 50 at the pet store.) Or better yet, you can get 100,000 for only $240. Just make sure that you grab the right container out of the refridgerator when reaching for the green beans.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Birds.

Here are some recent pictures from our yard. The first is a sunrise and the one below that is a full moon rise. The moon was full just a day or two ago. I don't know if it is because of the full moon or because it is just the time of year, but the Whip-poor-wills have been calling loud and long into the night, although we haven't seen any.
Speaking of birds, I hope to add some bird pictures in the near future. I just need to get the birds comfortable enough with me to get close enough for some better pictures. Coming to our backyard are: American Goldfinches (many), Tufted Titmice, Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Cowbirds, Doves, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Flickers, House Finches, Wren, Nuthatches, and probably a few more that I can't identify or can't remember. We see Turkeys regularly in the area, although not in the yard. Also, the first Hummingbird showed up at the feeder two days ago. Best of all...we have a Bluebird nesting in the nestbox in the backyard with two eggs so far. We have been feeding the Bluebirds mealworms and raisens on top of the nestbox. Stay tuned for regular Bluebird updates and hopefully pictures.

Waterfalls, waterfalls....

Wow, Tennessee is a state of waterfalls! We have seen many since we moved here and we saw many more on the two day hiking trip we took Thursday and Friday with the Fairfield Glade Hiking Club. Twenty-four of us traveled about 1 and one half hours south to an area northwest of Chattanooga. We also visited Sewanee University of the South for lunch at the campus cafeteria and then a short tour of some beautiful architecture styled after Oxford University in England.

In the evening we had a wine and cheese gathering and then dinner. We stayed overnight in Monteagle, Tennessee. On the way home we stopped at two other State Parks for short waterfall hikes.

While hiking we saw deer, turkey, and an Eastern Racer (snake), and many,many wildflowers, including violets, bluebells, dutchman's breeches, and wild iris.

We had a fun and beautiful couple of days!

The view from here

The entire back of our house is windows which face the southeast. The view is different every day. Sometimes there is fog in the valleys; sometimes the fog is on the hills. There are many nice sunrises. The view here was on a cold winter morning in January. It kind of looks just about like the Tennessee license plate shown in an earlier posting.

Hiking to Piney Creek Falls

Nancy and I went hiking with the Fairfield Glade Hiking Club last Friday. It was a short (about 3 miles) but excellent hike. We hiked to and then behind an 80 foot waterfall and then to the top of another 45 foot waterfall. This was our second hike with the Club.

Trout on Cane Creek

Went for a little trout fishing today on Cane Creek - about 45 minutes away. We each caught about 15-20. Ray kept 6 for dinner; I released all of mine. They were obviously stockers, but nice size for stockers - 11-13 inches. Caught most on nymphs, but I caught about 3 or 4 on an Parachute Adams dry fly. One fun time was when a couple of local guys stopped on a bridge and asked me if there were any trout in the stream. I caught 3 while I was talking to them.

New Tennessee License Plate