The Sweet Taste of Sourwood

This article was published in the Fairfield Glade Sun weekly newspaper on July 22, 2009

Enjoying Nature

by Don Hazel

My neighbor Bill has tried to convince me to raise bees. It is not just because he doesn’t want to raise them himself; he has raised bees. The reason that he wants me to get a hive is because of the tree in the picture that grows near my backyard.

This is a sourwood tree. They bloom for a few short weeks this time every year. They are sometimes called the lily-of-the-valley tree because of the flowers which look almost exactly like the lily-of-the-valley plant. Sourwoods are not large trees; usually only about one foot in diameter and typically only about 50 feet tall, and their wood is insignificant in the lumber industry. But to some people, sourwood trees are like gold…precious and few. And, we just happen to live near the geographic center of sourwood tree distribution in the United States. Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee is sourwood heaven.

So what is it about this tree that gets so many people excited? The answer is in the flowers. The leaves and bark may taste bitter (hence the name sourwood), but the flowers are sweet. The nectar from sourwood flowers produces what many people believe to be the best honey in the world. Sourwood honey has been called the Cadillac of honeys. One writer said, “Most honey is made by bees. But sourwood is made by bees and angels.” I am not a honey connoisseur, but I have heard the praises for this honey so much that I have to believe it is true.

Supposedly, in order to truly be called “sourwood honey” it must be tested and found to be nearly 100% sourwood with few other types of nectars. If you like honey you probably ought to try some sourwood honey. I am not sure if you can get it in the supermarkets but I know that it is available in the gift shops in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

This brings us back to the bees. The only problem with me raising bees to take advantage of the sourwood trees in my yard is those little stingers that bees have. I am not inexperienced with bee stings. My dad had a hive or two of bees for a number of years when I was a youngster and I have more than a few memories of being on the wrong end of a bee. Once, a wrong turn caused me to run my little homemade go-cart directly into the front of a hive with unfortunate results. Fortunately, I am not allergic to bee stings, but the darn things do hurt. They say that beekeepers get used to the stings, but for me, I will just enjoy the sourwood trees out my window and get my sourwood honey in a jar at the store. I guess my neighbor Bill will have to do the same.

Big Scary Night Bugs

This article was published in the Fairfield Glade Sun weekly newspaper on July 8, 2009

Enjoying Nature

by Don Hazel

My wife came in the house the other evening after dark and asked “what are those big scary bugs out on the driveway?” A couple of neighbors asked me the same thing. Well, to many people, just about any and every “bug” looks scary. But, to me, the insect on the driveway that night was beautiful. That insect was an American Salmonfly (Pteronarcys dorsata). It is also called the Giant Stonefly. They are about 2 inches long, not counting the antennae, and they are twice that big in some parts of the country.

Stoneflies are important natural trout food and many artificial flies are tied to imitate stoneflies. The word “Salmonfly” is usually reserved for one of the several species of very large stoneflies. Stonefly nymphs live underwater in clear, clean, streams and usually hatch over a short period of time once a year. When they hatch they climb out of the water and break out of their underwater shell, sprout wings and fly. During this time trout go crazy chasing the big juicy morsels and consequently trout fishermen go crazy casting imitations of stoneflies to the trout. To a trout fisherman, anything named “Salmonfly” usually brings tears of joy.

The only problem here is that there are no trout streams on the plateau that are cold enough to support the giant trout that like to eat the giant stoneflies. So I can’t quite get as excited as they do in the Western States where the Salmonflies are twice as big and the biggest trout in the stream get careless chasing them. Even so, to me, the sight of a harmless Giant American Salmonfly in my driveway is a beautiful sight.

There is another large insect probably on your porch right now that scares a lot of people. It looks like a giant mosquito…I mean like twenty times the size of a regular mosquito. This is the harmless crane fly. The adult crane fly doesn’t eat; they just exist to mate, lay eggs, and die. The larvae looks like a fat worm an inch to 4 inches long and some species live in streams and some in the soil.

My neighbor Lynne has crane fly fun on her porch every morning. The crane flies are attracted to the lights at night and some get stuck on her screen. In the morning the chipping sparrows gather up the crane flies and pluck the long spindly legs off one by one and then the wings. Once the crane fly is just a body with no legs or wings, the sparrows eat them or carry them away for their babies.

Some of the biggest, scariest night creatures are just harmless insects looking for sex and trying not to get eaten. It’s a tough world out there in nature.

A tick in Time

This article was published in the Fairfield Glade Sun weekly newspaper on June 28, 2009.

Enjoying Nature

by Don Hazel

OK, I have written about ticks before; about how to avoid them, what diseases they can transmit, etc. But this time it is a little more meaningful to me and hopefully it will be to you too.

As I am writing this I am recovering from Ehrlichiosis, a tick transmitted disease that is not fun to catch. Hopefully in a few more days I will be back to “normal” (although there are some friends who think that may be asking too much). And, hopefully, by reading this you will be a little more careful when playing in tick territory.

It started on Tuesday, June 2. I went up to Black Mountain near Crab Orchard to scout out a location for a hiking group picnic. On Wednesday evening June 3, I noticed a tiny (size of a pinhead) tick nymph attached to my left hip. I am boring you with the dates because the time frame is critical. You see, unless a tick is attached to you for at least 24 hours you odds of getting anything bad are very very low. This one had a good 36 hours to have his fun with me. That still didn’t mean I would get anything bad, just that my odds went from near zero to something greater.

Well, 9 days later (the incubation period for Ehrlichiosis is 5-10 days) my legs had a slight dull ache all day and my knees ached also, but not too bad. The next day everything hurt just a little more. The following day I was hurting bad enough to go to the Emergency Room at 4 am. Doctor McKinney in the Emergency Room knew his stuff. He knew about the 24 hours to be attached, knew that Ehrlichiosis in this part of the country is transmitted by the Lone Star Tick, and knew that Ehrlichiosis doesn’t usually cause a rash in adults. Some doctors are not nearly as informed about ticks. The symptoms plus the tick bite plus the timing are enough to start antibiotics immediately.

I am telling you all this so you can avoid the same fun that I had. Even though I started the medicine right away, it takes several days to feel better. I had a few pretty miserable days. And I am not the only one…I know several other friends and neighbors who have gone through the same thing and the Doctor said he saw 4 other cases in the past few days. Ehrlichiosis isn’t the only tick disease around here; we have something called STARI and more Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever than the Rocky Mountains, but thank goodness Lyme disease is extremely rare in Tennessee.

Here’s your 3 step plan to avoid a bad encounter with a tick.

• Avoid brushing against vegetation when in the fields and forests if you can…especially knee high grasses and low shrubs. Ticks are usually down low where they can catch a ride on any number of hosts like a raccoon, rabbit, fox, or mouse, as well as a deer or a human. Your mowed lawn is probably pretty safe because a tick isn’t going to have much luck grabbing a meal from a 3 inch piece of grass.
• Use DEET, Permethrin, or Lemon Eucalyptus, and carefully read directions. Avon Skin so Soft won’t stop a tick.
• And number 1….Do a tick check after venturing into tick habitat. Look carefully, tick nymphs are only the size of a pinhead and they can have all of the bad stuff as their bigger brothers and sisters. If you find any ticks within 24 hours you are pretty safe. Use tweezers to remove them safely…the only recommended way.

The good news is that I might have some immunity to Ehrlichiosis going forward. But trust me; it is far better to catch the tick in time.

Return to Mt. Cammerer

Summer is the time when we do our harder hikes. You would think we would do hard hikes in cooler seasons, but when it might be hot in the lower elevations in Tennessee, it is cool in the Smokies. A few weeks ago we hiked to Chimney Top and Andrews Bald and before that we hiked to Gregory Bald, all in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Last Thursday we did the 12 miles round trip to Mt. Cammerer. Linda and I had been there last November but 4 others had never been there.

It was near 90 in Knoxville, in the Smokies at almost 5000 feet elevation we were mostly in the 60s all day...a great day for hiking!

Six of us left Fairfield Glade at 5 am for the nearly 2.5 hour trip to the trailhead. All of the males but me dropped out for various reasons...injury, previous commitments, chicken, etc. Our group consisted of Karla, Linda, Erin, Ellen, Nancy, and me. Those are the girls in order on the lookout tower on top of Mt. Cammerer. As always, you can click on the photo for a bigger view.

Speaking of views, unfortunately the only view from the tower this day was about 30 feet instead of 80 miles. The mountain was fogged in all day. But with master gardener Karla with us we did get to see and identify many plants and flowers. The rhododendron at the higher elevations was in prime bloom and several places along the way we walked on a trail strewn with blossoms. Plus we ate fresh wild mountain blueberries along the trail.

We saw and learned to identify crimson bee-balm, dodder, Indian pipe, galax, Turk's-cap lilly and a few others thanks to Karla. If your wildflower book is too heavy to carry when hiking, just take Karla...you don't have to carry her and she has more information than any old book.

The hike included a little over 2 miles on the Appalachian Trail which is the most beautiful section of the route to Mt. Cammerer.

As usual, we stopped for a nice dinner on the way home. P.F. Chang's is getting to see us on a regular basis.

Bluebird Update

Here is a picture of the male bluebird on top of my front yard nest box with a nice tasty green katydid for his babies.

The babies are 17 days old today. They should fledge (leave the nest) at usually 19-21 days old. We will be watching closely to catch the action this week.

About a week ago I had some technical difficulties! After a very hard rain the camera ceased to work. When I turned it on one morning it had static and no picture. I found that the cable which had been running from the box to the TV along the outside of my house had some damage from what appeared to be rodent bites. I am guessing that a mouse was chewing on the plastic coating of the cable. I spent several hours trying to isolate the problem with no success. I gave up and did something else around the house for a couple of hours and when I turned the camera back on to resume my trouble shooting I found it to be working again. I am guessing that the camera got wet somehow and then dried out in my house when I brought it in to work on it.

I decided not to reinstall it for a couple of reasons. First, the babies were 11 or 12 days old by that time and you cannot open the box at 12 days or they might jump out prematurely. But also because they were beginning to fill the screen as they got bigger. It was getting hard to see more than one or two babies because of their size and closeness to the camera. Plus, another bluebird box in the backyard had 3 eggs in it and I was going to mount the camera in that box.

I am not sure what was going on in the box in the backyard. Several weeks ago a pair built a nest and then laid no eggs in it after 2 weeks. I cleaned out the nest. Then within 2 days they built a 2nd nest and laid 3 eggs in it but stopped there and didn't appear to sit on that nest. After another week of no visible activity, a raccoon got into the box one night and pulled out the nest and probably ate the 3 eggs. I think I had the predator guard too low on the pole and the raccoon might have been able to reach the top of the guard and pull himself up to then reach in through the opening and pull out the nest and eggs. I am sure that it is the same raccoon that did the same to my neighbors box. I will be live trapping that raccoon soon and relocating him to a territory 5-10 miles from here. I am just hoping that the box in the front yard with the 4 babies isn't found by Mr. Raccoon before they fledge.

My friend Gary has a bluebird box that fledged 5 babies a few weeks ago. The bluebirds had built a 2nd nest and laid at least one egg. However that egg is now missing. Gary doesn't have a predator guard and we suspect a blacksnake got the egg or eggs. Gary has seen blacksnakes in the vicinity. He will be installing protection to see if the birds can regroup and lay some more eggs. I will keep you informed.

Hike to Virgin Falls

Well, we had been waiting for a good rain. A few days ago we got it...1.25 inches at my house. We were waiting for the rain to hike to Virgin Falls. We wanted to make sure that the falls were running at full capacity.

So last Thursday afternoon we decided to see who was interested. The hike to Virgin Falls is considered "strenuous" because it is 9 miles round trip and because it is mostly uphill on the way back to the cars. some of that uphill is pretty substantial. A total of 7 of us decided to go.

This is a great hike. It is only about 30 minutes away to the trailhead and there are 4 great water features along the way. The first is Big Branch Falls. This is more of a cascade than a falls but it is very nice.

At about 2.5 miles in is Big Laurel Falls. That is Big Laurel Falls in the photo above. This waterfall has about a 40 or 50 foot drop and is very wide. It has a cave behind it that you can go into. Except this day the cave was flooded from all of the recent rain. I have been there before when there were people camping in the cave with a tent...but not today.

In another mile or so we came to Sheep Cave. This is where a stream comes out of a cave and cascades down over a long drop. I understand that you can go a ways into the cave when the water is down...but not on this day.

At about 4.5 miles we came to the very impressive Virgin Falls. This falls drops 110 feet and has a very large volume of water going over it. But the most interesting part is that the water comes out of the mountain, goes over the falls, and then disappears into the ground again. There is no visible stream either above or below the falls. I had heard of Virgin Falls for several years but never hiked to it until this spring. I was blown away by the size of the waterfall both in volume of water and height of the falls. Look at the picture above. That is about the height of a 10 story building. It would take about 20 people standing on top of each other to reach the top. Before I hiked there the first time, I didn't realize from the pictures the impressiveness of this waterfall. There is a very loud roar and a lot of mist from the falls.

It was a long uphill 4.5 miles back to the car but we all made it in good shape.

About a mile from the parking lot on the gravel road we saw a herd of wild boar. There were about 10 and they were all black and most had heavy manes. They crossed the road and ran into the woods. They stopped a ways inside the woods were we all got a good look at them. They were quick and agile. They certainly all had the appearance of Eurasian boars rather than feral pigs. The herd that I had seen in March had several members that had the coloring of domestic pigs, but not these.

We stopped at the Artist Corner Cafe on the way home and several of us had the lamb special for that day along with a little Fat Tire beer. A great hike and a great day!

BB Cam update July 11

Although I didn't plan to provide another update this quickly, I have a cool picture that I wanted to share.

I opened the nest box today to check for bluebird blowflies. BB blowflies are parasites that can live in the nest and feast on the babies. A adult blowfly (with red eyes) lays eggs in the box and the larvae which look like gray maggots which hide in the nest during the day and feed on the blood of the babies at night. My daughter has found them in one of her bluebird boxes just once. I found no blowfly larvae today.

While I had the box open I took this picture which shows the color of the babies that the in-box camera doesn't capture. The second picture from yesterday's posting is essentially the same picture but you can see today what the in-box camera doesn't pick up.

BB Cam update July 10

Well, the bluebird babies are growing rapidly!

If you scroll down to previous blog postings when the babies had just hatched you can see the differences. When first born there was just a little fuzz on their eyes and backside. They were born (hatched) on July 2. The picture above shows them on July 6, at 4 days old. You can see the beginnings of feathers down their backbone and on the edges of their wings. Also, feathers were just barely starting to show on the back of their heads as little dots.

At 4 days old I removed the unhatched egg. Information about bluebirds says that sometimes the mother might remove it herself, but that if it is still there after 3 days it is best to just remove it because it won't hatch if it hasn't by then.

This second photo shows the babies at 8 days old on July 10. Notice the big difference. The birds are much bigger and much darker because feathers are growing. The feathers on the wings look pointed as they grow out. Also, because the birds are bigger they are beginning to fill the TV screen. The mother covers the whole field of view in the camera when she comes in and since the babies are about as big as the parents by the time they leave the nest, it will probably get harder and harder to see what is going on as they grow.

We can watch as the parents bring food in regularly all day long. They started out with small worms, caterpillers, grubs, and especially spiders. But as the babies grow, the food gets bigger. We now see grasshoppers, large grubs, moths, and even, we think, katydids. The babies sometimes have trouble choking them down, but they eventually always do.

We have had many friends stop by to see the action. Everyone seems to be very interested and amazed watching the babies sleep and eat.

I will shoot for another update in 3 or 4 days.

Our second bluebird box in the back yard had 3 eggs in it yesterday morning. I expect that there are 4 there now, but I will check later today.

Bluebird Cam Update July 3

Yesterday, July 2, was a big day on Bluebird TV. The babies began hatching!

To get up to date you can scroll down to the posting from July 18. That entry tells about the camera set up, etc. These pictures are from me sitting on the couch in the living room and pointing my camera at the TV.

The 5th and last egg was laid on July 18 so we expected the eggs to hatch on July 1, 2, or 3. During the incubation period only the female sat on the eggs. During the day the temperatures were in the mid 80's and she would leave for 15-30 minutes at a time approximately every hour. She would be on the nest all night every night from dusk to dawn. The male during this time was often nowhere to be seen.

About noon on Thursday July 2 the mother left long enough for us to see one egg cracked open and a tiny pink bluebird baby struggling to get out. While the first baby was trying to break out of the shell the mother hung on the outside of the box and watched. About 3pm there was another baby and about 6pm we saw a third.

This morning (Friday July 3) at about 7 am I noticed a 4th had hatched. He/she must have just hatched because the few feathers that they have at birth were still wet and sticking together. Within an hour the feathers dry and are just a little bit of fuzz around their eyes and back. As you can see in the picture below, they are pretty much pink and featherless. They have large unopened eyes and wide, large mouths.

Once the eggs start to crack open from the baby pecking on the inside, the mother helps by chipping away at the crack and making it bigger, but she lets the baby break out most of the way on its own. The mother then eats the entire egg shell. She doesn't feed the baby right away, but rather settles back down on top of the babies and the remaining eggs. You feel like she might smother them but obviously they can breathe just fine through the nest.

About an hour after the first baby hatched the mother left for about 15 minutes and returned with something to feed the baby. The male then began bringing food to the mother by hanging on the outside of the box and passing food in to her. She passed the food on to the babies. Later in the day the male began bringing food directly to the babies when the mother was gone. If he was in feeding the babies when she returned, she would wait on top of the box until he left.

When the female was sitting on the babies and unhatched eggs and the male came to the opening, we could hear a chirp or two. We couldn't be sure but it seemed to be the male making the sound, maybe announcing food was here.

The food being brought to the babies appeared to be small worms, similar to mealworms, and several spiders. The babies often have a hard time swallowing all the legs of the spiders.

When the parents are away from the nest the babies mostly just lie face down apparently sleeping. When one of the parents comes with food one or more of the babies jerks their head up and opens their mouth hoping for food. For the most part they seem very feeble and can't move around much more than to lift their heads.

Here is an update on two other bluebird boxes. Another bluebird pair in my backyard completed a nest in another box about 2 weeks ago. However, no eggs were laid and we often saw the male singing in a nearby tree, apparently calling for the female. We figured that the female must have been picked off by a Cooper's Hawk or some other predator because we didn't see her for that two weeks. So I took the nest out of the box hoping that the male would find another female and she would build a new nest. I left the nest on the ground near the box so if he found a new girlfriend that she could reuse some of the nest building materials. Well, 2 days after I removed the nest there is a new nest in the box. I will check for eggs in the next couple of days.

Bad news for a friend's bluebirds. His box was on the same timetable as mine that just hatched...4 or 5 eggs waiting to hatch. A couple of days ago he called me over because he saw what looked like part of a nest under the box. When we opened the box, sure enough the nest was gone. There were muddy raccoon track on the black predator guard. A raccoon had climbed up and reached in and pulled out the nest and the eggs. We don't know if it got the mother or not. She would have been sitting on the eggs at night but she might have flown when she heard the raccoon climbing up the pole. Why didn't the predator guard stop the raccoon? My friend had wired the bottom of his predator guard so it wouldn't wobble in the wind. However, the wobble part is what is supposed to keep the raccoons from climbing. He has since removed the wire and restored the wobble. If the mother escaped she might rebuild a nest and start over. That happened when a snake got my eggs a couple of years ago. I highly, highly recommend properly installed predator guards for your bluebird boxes.

I will provide another update in a couple of days.

Hiking to the top

Another great day of hiking in the Smokies!

I went hiking in the Smokies with the TTA (Tennessee Trails Association) Wednesday hikers. I hike with them about once a month or so. I like to pick hikes that I haven't been on before or ones that are especially interesting. Wednesday can be a bit of a problem sometimes because that is my designated fly fishing day.

This week the hike was to Andrews Bald in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to hopefully see more wild azaleas. I had been to Gregory Bald the week before which has a larger azalea field, but Andrews Bald is supposed to peak a week or so later and have better long range views. I hadn't been to Andrews Bald.

Eight of us showed up for the hike. Because the Andrews Bald hike is only 3.6 miles we added a hike to Chimney Tops to the schedule. Chimney Tops is rated strenuous because of the 1350 elevation gain in just 2 miles and much of it very steep. 1000 feet of the gain is in just one mile. The end of the trail at Chimney Tops is where the fun begins. You can, if you want to, climb the Anakeesta rock formation a couple hundred feet to the top. The rocks are steep and slick. Warning signs at the beginning of the trail near the parking lot and again at the base of the caprock remind you that many injuries have occurred here and that you climb at your own risk. At the photo to the left you can see our view looking down over the route that we climbed. Click on the photo for a bigger view.

Many hikers climb part way up, but a extra steep section with very small handholds about half way up stops most. Of the 8 of us, only Ginger and I made the climb all the way to the top. Coming down is even harder and requires considerable butt scooting. Ginger announced to everyone within earshot what a exhilarating experience it was. I agree, it was very cool. Here we are at the top.

Next the group headed to Clingman's Dome and the trail head to Andrews Bald. This hike starts at about 6300 feet elevation and the Bald is at about 5800. although it was in the mid to upper 80's in Knoxville, it was a perfect 65 degrees with a nice breeze at our elevation. The trail goes through a beautiful spruce-fir forest. Unfortunately the azaleas at Gregory Bald were about over for the year, but there were a few bushes still in full bloom. However, the views for many miles in several directions are great and it was a pretty clear day for the summer. The picture at the top is one of those vistas.

Although the Gregory Bald hike is rated easy to moderate, the previous 4 miles at Chimney Tops added on top pretty much wore us out. We did a total of almost 8 miles and it seemed that every step was either up or down....steeply. Dinner at the Smoky Mountain Brewhouse in Pigeon Forge helped us feel a lot better for the 2 hour ride home.

Two great hikes...I highly recommend both of them.

Hike to Gregory Bald

On Thursday June 25 we did our long planned hike to Gregory Bald in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We have been planning this trip for a year, ever since 3 of us hiked it last June. The reason that it took a year to hike it again is because the wild Flame Azaela only blooms for about 2 weeks each June. If you miss the bloom it is just another green shrub until next year.

In the picture above, Karla and Ray are strolling through some azeala bushes. The horse belongs to one of 4 riders that passed us on the trail.

Gregory Bald is named because it is an open area on the top of a mountain that is...well, bald. No trees grow on this approximate 15 acre area and no one knows exactly why. The area was just a grassy field when the first pioneers found it. Back then it was about 4 times the size that it is now. It may have been fire that cleared the area of trees initially and then grazing bison and elk kept it clear. Later settlers grazed their cattle and goats here each summer. Once the National Park was formed in 1934 grazing was stopped and over time the trees around the edge have crept in. The National Park service plans to slowly move back the trees to restore the bald to its original size.

At some point the wild Flame Azaela plants and wild blueberry plants began to grow on the bald. Each year many people hike the 9 to 11.4 mile round trip (depending on which trail you take) to see the fabulous display of azeala flowers. Most of the azealas are orange but there are many shades of orange as well as some white, yellow, red, fuchia, etc. Many of the plants are 10 feet tall or taller.

Nine of us made the trip. Seven of us left Fairfield Glade at 5 am and we met two others who were RVing at the National park. Just for the record, we were Linda Barclay, Mary Listenberger, Karla Miller, Jim Grove, Ray Miner, Dick Bachelder, Dave and Sarah Southall and me. We were hiking in the Smokies, we were not in Argentina.

The road to get to the trailhead is gravel and because of recent rains it was very soft at spots. At one hill we all had to walk the hill while our driver, Linda, backed down the road and got a running start in order to make it to the top without bottoming out. Plus, after the hike on the way out we crossed probably 6 or 7 water crossings. If the stream was running much higher you might have to wait for it to recede to get home.

The trail started at a little over 2000 feet elevation and the top was 4949. So you gain almost 3000 feet in 4.5 miles. It is basically all up for 2.5 hours. Although Knoxville hit 97 degrees that day, it was under 80 at the top.

Last year we hiked the Gregory Ridge Trail which is 11.4 miles RT. We did the shorter Gregory Bald Trail this year at 9.0 miles. We didn't like the shorter trail because they let horses on that trail and the horses just tear up a trail. They make the trail a muddy mess both with regular mud and with horse poop. Even though it is longer I would recommend the Gregory Ridge Trail.

At the top we stayed about an hour or more. We ate lunch, enjoyed the views of the valley below, took pictures of the azeala and more. The more part is pretty interesting. Ray was wandering around and a deer came up to him and licked his hand for several minutes. Then it went over to another hiker and licked her cheek. A little yucky, but cool!

Then, as Linda, Mary and I were exploring some large azeala bushes at the edge of the woods Linda stopped and pointed near my feet. I thought it was a rabbit in the vegetation at first because the size of the brown animal I saw was the size of a rabbit. But when the rabbit rattled I saw that it was the biggest Timber Rattlesnake that I had ever seen. It rattled and moved away very slowly. I could see the head of the snake about 8 feet away but thought that there was another one because I could hear the rattle just 2 or 3 feet from me. The rattle belonged to the snake. I saw the whole snake but not all at once because of the vegetation. Through a gap in the thick vegetation I saw the head all the way to the rattles as he/she moved away. We estimated it to be well over 5 feet long and much bigger around than a softball. Beautiful! That made my day. Too bad I couldn't get a picture.

There were probably at least 25 other hikers on the bald while we were there. It was a beautiful day. The fellow hikers in the picture ate their lunch on a log at the edge of the azealas.

On the way back down the trail to the cars we came across a rotted log next to the trail that a bear had torn apart looking for insects between the time we went up and came back down. We did see a bear in the Park earlier on the drive to the trailhead. I didn't get any good pictures but the bear stopped in the woods and we observed him answering that age old question....yes they do poop in the woods, we witnessed it.

On the way home we stopped in Knoxville and had a great meal at P.F. Changs. That was part of the hiking plan all along. I think that 2 of our 9 hikers were convinced to hike mainly for the P.F. Chang part of the trip.

If you can make it next June, around the 20th or so, plan to go to Gregory Bald.

Busy Day

What a busy wildlife day!

First, this morning at 6am I went for a walk across the street to a subdivision that is being developed. There is only one house there now but a nice paved road and lots of lots with fresh grass and no houses yet. It is a nice place to walk.

One of the local police cars was parked there doing his paperwork before going off the night shift. I stopped and talked for a while. He said he just had seen a herd of wild pigs and a couple of turkeys. I mentioned that I ran into a herd of pigs in March while hiking nearby. I said there were about 12. He said the herd he saw had about 12 also and two were white with brown spots and the rest brown or black. It was exactly the same herd that I saw 3 months earlier. Interesting!

He drove off and I walked on. About a minute later I heard a loud sound that most people have never heard and would have no idea what it was...but I knew immediately. Years ago I bought a cassette tape of a "screaming rabbit" used to call in coyotes, fox, or bobcats for hunting. Most people don't know that rabbits can make an awful, loud deep, not high pitched, squealing sound, when they are in distress, such as when a predator catches them. I followed the sound about 100 yards and over a hill and this is what I saw...

A large Bobcat leaving the scene. Luckily I had my camera and got one shot before he melted into the underbrush. I don't think he saw me at all. Click on the picture for a larger (although grainier) view.

Next, I went to breakfast at the golf club and someone explained to me how copperheads are one of the 6 most venomous snakes in the world. Wrong! They are the least venomous of all the pit vipers in the U.S. I dropped off some articles to them later to get them the correct information. A lot of people have a lot of wrong information out there about a lot of stuff. Of course some folks probably think that way about me too.

Next I came home and turned on the Bluebird Cam and saw that Mrs. Bluebird laid a 5th egg. Then I checked my neighbor's bluebird box and saw that they have 4 eggs.

And finally, I noticed that there was a pair of bluebirds going in and out of one of the boxes in the back yard. That box is only about 100 feet from the one in the front yard and about 200 feet from my neighbor's bluebird box. Usually they need about 100 yards between boxes but maybe the large human houses between the three boxes provides some territory protection and allows 3 pairs to nest on adjacent lots. I checked the box tonight and after all that all day activity there is only about 10 strands of dry grass on the bottom of the box. But then that is how the nest in the front nest box started. It usually takes 5-7 days to complete a nest. Hopefully, this is the real thing and the nest will continue in the coming days.

Bluebird Cam

This will keep me busy.

For Father's day, my daughter-in-law, Jennifer, got me a tiny (approximately 1 inch square) camera that is made to mount inside of a birdhouse to be able to watch the birds hatching, getting fed, growing, etc., etc. It is a gift from Jen and Scott, but we need to give credit where credit is due...Jen found the camera!

So....I plan to keep you up to date on what is going on with Bluebird Cam. I don't believe that I have the knowledge, equipment, or bandwidth to show the live feed on the internet like some of those live cams do. So I will take pictures of my TV screen from time to time and post them here along with an explanation of the happenings.

This first report will be much longer and more detailed than you will get for awhile. I don't plan to watch BB TV all day. But I do want to get you up to date and also I want to record the eggs laying process. Bluebirds lay one egg per day until all eggs are laid. Only then do they begin to incubate the eggs. That way all the babies hatch about the same time and compete for food equally. Once the female starts sitting on the eggs my posts may be several days apart since the two week period until they hatch could be very similar..."female on nest".

The camera is a color camera, but color needs lots of light and there isn't enough of that inside a bluebird box. That is why the pictures look like they are in black and white. It also has sound but you won't experience that here although we hear every sound perfectly through the TV. It also has infrared lights (they can't be seen by humans or birds). So I get just as good a picture at night as I do during the day. The camera is a Hawk Eye Night Owl Nest Box Camera, also called a Hawk Eye Nature Cam. Birdingdepot.com seems to have a good price.

The camera is attached to 100 feet of cable that snakes along the outside of my house, in around the front door, along the foyer and into the den, under the rug and out into the hall, under the runner, behind the bookcase, around the corner, and into the TV. My other option was to drill a 1/2 inch hole (to accomodate the plugs on the end of the cable) down through the wooden floor and out through the crawlspace. Plan B would not have been approved by the home superintendent (Nancy).

I have 2 bluebird nest boxes in the back yard and they have each had bluebird nests in them the past 2 years. But they compete with the box in my neighbor's back yard. I have 2 boxes to give the birds a choice, but all three boxes in the back (my 2 plus my neighbor's) are within 100 yards of each other and normally only one of the three will have bluebirds nesting at a time due to bluebird territory requirements.

So, I decided to add a Bluebird nest box in the front as a third choice and hopefully to not compete with my neighbor's birds. One of my boxes in the back did serve as a home for some Carolina Chickadees this spring. The picture of the front bluebird nest box shows where it sits at the north corner of my house...left front as you look at the house from the street. Notice the "Kingston" predator guard on the pole. I just recently read on a bluebird web site that it is estimated that in Tennessee snakes comprise 1/3 of all predation on bluebirds. Other predators are house sparrows, house wrens, mice, squirrels, ants, raccoons, mink, etc., etc. A good predator guard should protect the birds against almost all of those concerns. However, it won't stop black bears, which will also eat baby bluebirds (as experienced by my friend Bill Cuppett in Pennsylvania).

So here are the time frames to get you up to date. The bluebird started the nest about Tuesday June 9. That day there were only a few strands of dry grass in the box. Over the next 4 days the nest took shape. I actually never saw the female carrying any nest materials into the box, but each evening when I checked the nest was fuller and eventually the nest cup was completed on Sunday, June14.

One egg each was laid on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, June 15, 16, and 17. That is the picture that you see here with 3 eggs. I waited until there were 3 eggs before installing the camera because I didn't want my activity to cause the birds to abandon the nest. I installed the camera on a spare roof and then just switched the roofs so that I would disturb the nest box for as short a time as possible.

June 18, Thursday I turned the Bluebird Cam on about 5 am when I got up. Still 3 eggs no activity. I left the BB Cam on while I went outside for awhile and about 6 am I heard the male BB calling from a nearby tree. In a few minutes he flew to a high tree to a branch where the female was sitting. I think he was looking for her.

At 6:25 while I was making coffee I noticed the female (via the cam) entering the box. She rearranged some of the dried grass of the nest and then sat on the nest. The picture here is her on the nest as viewed on my TV. after about 12 minutes she left. Still just 3 eggs. At 7:25 she returned and sat again for about 10 minutes and left again...still 3 eggs. At 8:05 she returned and at 8:25 am, she jumped up and voila, the 4th egg. She stayed for about 5 minutes and then left again.

At about 11:30 am she returned for about 5 minutes and then left again. I am guessing that since she isn't staying that she might have another egg for tomorrow. Bluebirds typically lay 4 or 5 eggs.

So now you are up to date. Hopefully you will enjoy and learn from the camera experience almost as much as I plan to.