North Carolina Botanic Garden (Chapel Hill, NC)

The North Carolina Botanical Garden, located off of Route 15-501 in Chapel Hill, NC is one of those rare places that can be visited and revisited time and again. The Garden offers a number of hiking trails, as well as a variety of gardens, which can be both spectacular and educational.

One garden, located behind the visitor center (the Totten center) is devoted to plant families. Here you can learn the key characteristics of major plant families, exploring plants from North Carolina and beyond. If you're interested in native plants, the garden has a beautiful ecosystem display, showcasing plants from North Carolina's rare long-leaf pine communities, wetlands and deciduous forest. Also, the garden sells a decent selection of native plants year round. This time of year, you can find beautiful Baptisia (wild indigo) varieties for sale. Particularly useful to people new to North Carolina, is the "what's in bloom" display, located at the entrance of the garden. Here you can find out which native plants are currently in bloom, the display seems to rotate weekly.

Baptisia spp. (Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois)

Finally, for those of you interested in seriously developing your artistic skils or learning about the ecology of North Carolina's native plant, check out the gardens two certificate programs. Classes run year round and are well worth the effort.

William B. Umstead State Park (Wake County, NC) and Triangle SCB

Today I joined a great organization, the Triangle Society for Conservation Biology, at their first meeting of the year. This organization was founded last August, and is largely made up of graduate students and faculty at Duke University and North Carolina State University, with a few representatives from the University of North Carolina, the Nature Conservancy, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission. The organization is open to the community and they would love to get more people from all walks of life involved! If you are interested, please check out their website.

At the first meeting of the new fiscal year, we met at William B. Umstead State Park (Wake County, NC) and took a hike down to Crabtree Creek, which runs through the park. Due to the heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hanna, the creek was high, muddy and fast moving. We saw remnants of the park's early history, including the remains of a mill dam, the company mill stone and large piles of quartz rock that farmers had cleared from their fields. The park offers a number of great hiking trails, from 0.6 to over 10 miles, running through mixed hardwood-pine forests.

The 3rd Annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour (Sep 20-21)

The 3rd Annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour, on September 20 & 21, 2008 (1-5pm) is a great way to learn about Carolina farmers and local food! For only $25, if you register early, you can visit all 19 farms on the tour. These farms produce anything from edible herbs to goat's milk, and are located in and around Durham, Creedmore, Louisburg, Garner and Fuquay-Varina. For more information on the tour, check out this brochure!

Eno River State Park - Few's Ford & the Buckquarter Creek Trail (Durham NC)

On Labor Day, my family (husband and grandparents-to-be) and I hiked the Buckquarter Creek trail, located in the western portion of Eno River State Park at the Few's Ford entrance. This is a great trail to hike with friends and family, especially in early fall when vibrant mushrooms rise from the ground, leaves start to change color and one is still able to find snakes, frogs and fall warblers.

The Buckquarter Creek trail begins in the parking lot closest to the park entrance, near the historic Piper-Cox house (which you can visit with a park ranger on Saturday afternoons, call 919.383.1686 to register). The roughly 1.5 mile trail first runs along the rocky Eno River. This section of the river is a favorite for waders, as the water is generally shallow and rocky. All of the rocks, and the forested banks, make a great habitat for snakes and turtles. On this trip, we saw nearly 20 turtles (river cooters and yellow bellied water turtles) and one queen snake. Queen snakes (Regina septemvittata) are docile, non-venomous snakes that feed almost exclusively on freshly molted crayfish. In many areas, their populations are declining due to water pollution and loss of habitat. These snakes are dark brown-gray in color, with keeled (rough) scales, and light tan to white stripes on the sides of their body.

After walking along the banks of the Eno River, the trail heads into the upland forest -- a mix of hardwoods, including maples and oaks, as well as scattered loblolly pines. Look for small hopping Fowler's toads here, as well as some wild mushrooms after a night or two of good rain. This section of the trail is usually a great place to find a black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta), one of North Carolina's most common non-venomous constrictors. On Monday, we were lucky enough to find a medium sized copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) that was about to shed it skin. When snakes are about to shed, they often appear less vibrant in color and their eyes become an opaque, milky gray. Snakes are very vulnerable to predators when they're about to shed, and they also have difficulty hunting, making them quite irritable. It is best not to handle any snake during this critical phase, but especially not a copperhead, which can deliver a nasty, although seldom fatal, bite.

This trail is a loop, so after walking through the upland forest, you can take a refreshing dip in the river before returning to your car.

If you would like further information about snakes and their conservation, please check out my doctoral dissertation, A Multiscale Investigation of Snake Habitat Relationships and Snake Conservation in Northern Illinois.

You can also click here if you're interested in guided nature hikes or other events at the park.

August Hiatus

This month has been remarkable. My belly is growing rapidly (I'm over 4 months pregnant now with our first child) and I've been working hard at the Piedmont Wildlife Center. My husband and I have taken a number of short hikes along the Eno River and at the Little River Regional Preserve, encountering lots young toads along the way. Next, we're off to Nova Scotia. Please expect a full resurgence of weekly nature blogs in September. Thank you for your patience!

Penny's Bend Nature Preserve (Durham, NC)

On Sunday, July 6, my husband and I explored Penny's Bend, in northeastern Durham. As a native Midwesterner, I especially enjoy visiting this unique preserve because I can find a little piece of home there, in the form of prairie. Penny's Bend is a 84-acre preserve, surrounded on three sides by the Eno River. It is underlain by diabase rock, which not only deflects that Eno River, thus accounting for the characteristic "bend," but is also responsible for the unusual, high pH soil at Penny's Bend. This soil supports a rare remnant of Piedmont prairie, one of the highlights of the site.

The preserve is located off of Snow Hill Road at the intersection Old Oxford Road. Trash litters the gravel parking area, but a small path to the right leads to a true North Carolina gem: Piedmont prairie. At the beginning of July, one can expect to see the fading white blooms of wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium), the bright yellow disks of rosinweeds (Silphium spp), and the stunning purple head of the federally and state threatened smooth purple coneflower (Echinacea laevigata). The dark seed pods of wild blue indigo (Baptisia australis) also make a strong impression.

Smooth purple conflower (Echinacea laevigata)

Wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium)

Whorled rosinweed (Silphium trifoliatum)

After taking in the beauty of the prairie, visitors can continue to hike through floodplain forest along the Eno River. Be on the lookout for eastern box turtles, black racers, butterflies (e.g., common wood nymphs - Cercyonis pegala, red spotted purples - Limenitis arthemis), and dragonflies (e.g., widow skimmers - Libellula luctuosa).

Red spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis)

Widow skimmer (female) (Libellula luctuosa)

For more information on the regarding Piedmont prairie, please refer to:

Davis, J. E., C McRae, B. L. Estep, L. S. Barden and J. F. Matthews. 2002. Vascular flora of Piedmont prairies: evidence from several prairie remnants. Castanea 67(1): 1-12.

Taecker, E. M. 2007. Identification and prioritization of lands for restoration of Piedmont prairie in North Carolina. Master's Thesis: Duke University. 44p

ROADTRIP: Green Swamp Preserve (Wilmington, NC)

The Nature Conservancy's nearly 16,000 acre Green Swamp Preserve represents one of the best examples of the region's longleaf pine savanna. The understory is filled with carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, and sundews. The preserve is also home to a number of orchid species. Mostly dominated by pocosin -- thick, shrubby boglands, the Green Swamp Preserve is excellent place to spend the day botanizing. It also has some pleasant surprises for birds, including Henslow's and Bachman's sparrows.

If you choose to visit the Green Swamp this time of year, the pocosins will be largely dried up, but you will get to see pitcher plants in full bloom!

Sarracenia flava

Howell Woods, Four Oaks, NC

On Sunday, I was able to explore Howell Woods, a property donated to the Johnston County Community College in 1993 by Rudolph Howell. The preserve boasts a number short trails that traverse floodplain forests, old fields, ponds, and savannahs.

Birding here is excellent. During a short hike we were able to identify 26 bird species including red throated hummingbirds, hooded warblers, common yellow throats, chipping and fox sparrows, Acadian flycatchers and eastern kingbirds.

For herp enthusiasts, we also discovered a number of amphibians (Fowler's toads, cricket frogs, and Cope's gray treefrogs), lizards (racerunners), and snakes (black racers).

Mason Farm, Chapel Hill, NC

This past weekend, I tried to enjoy what may be the last peak weekend of the spring bird migration through North Carolina. On Saturday morning, I visited the 367-acre Mason Farm Biological Farm in Chapel Hill, NC with the Duke Natural History Society.

The Reserve contains a number of great birding habitats, including hardwood bottomlands and old fields. It also houses more species of animals than any other comparably sized site in the Piedmont -- including 216 bird species.

Walking the two mile Reserve loop, we identified over 33 bird species with the help of expert birder Will Cook (please visit his excellent website: http://www.carolinanature.com/). Species included tanagers, vireos, redstarts, black-and-white warblers, yellow breasted chats, and common yellowthroats.

If you're interested in visiting Mason Farm Biological Reserve, stop by the Totten Center of the North Carolina Botanic Garden up the road and pick up a pass.

ROADTRIP: Stone Mountain State Park (Roaring Gap, NC)

Located about 140 miles west of Raleigh, NC, Stone Mountain State Park is a beautiful spot to spend an afternoon. The park, created in 1975, features large, smooth granite rock faces and a number of waterfalls. Most visitors will take the short hike to Stone Mountain falls, enjoying a number of different views. If you keep going past the main attraction, you will be delighted by babbling, rocky brooks and the smaller, but more serene Lower and Middle Falls.

Besides having a great water features, the park also has some interesting tree species that are special treats for those living in the Piedmont, including white pines and eastern hemlocks. Some of the ridges are also covered with scarlet and chestnut oaks. This park is sure to be a crowd-pleaser during the spring bird migrations (think: scarlet tanagers), which should be starting shortly.

After your hike, be sure to stop into the small visitor center to view some old folk art and learn about the natural history of the area. Wine enthusiasts can also stop into a number of local vineyards for tastings -- McRitchie Winery is highly recommended.