Murray's Mill--a GREAT family hike!

Emmy and I visited Murray's Mill twice last week to walk.  Each time we got out of the car--she headed straight for a view of the "waterfall!"

 They recently dedicated a trail that completely encompasses the mill pond as part of the Carolina Thread Trail and I wanted to check it out.  I was absolutely blown away by the variety of habitats we encountered along the 1.5 mile trail.  I have to say that I've been coming to Murray's Mill my entire life--but until this week I had never explored or even really thought much about the surrounding terrain.

We began by going below the store to a short trail that follows the creek below the mill.  It is a beautiful path with lots of twisty Mountain Laurels and American Hollies.

View of the creek . . . .

View of the trail below the creek . . . .

And the view of the dam from underneath the old bridge . . .

The trail around the mill pond passes a couple old houses and then edges along this beautiful field of winter wheat.  We had a flock of about 40 American Pipits and a female Northern Harrier in this field on our first trip!

The trail then enters a fairly mature Pine/Holly forest for about 1/2 mile . . . . .

And then you get to a boardwalk over some extensive wetlands!  On both of our trips we encountered Mallards and Wood Ducks back in this area--and you could tell they were wild because they flew as soon as they saw us!

There were some Alders along the boardwalk that had Wooly Alder Aphids--which I was surprised to find in January!  I guess it has stayed warm enough for them to flourish.  These aphids are the preferred food source for the rarely encountered Harvester Butterfly caterpillar . . . . so I will be keeping my eye on these closer to spring to see if I can find a caterpillar to raise!

This is the largest of the three creeks feeding the pond in the boardwalk/wetland area . . . .

Soon after passing the Shiloh Methodist Church cemetery where John Murray--owner and operator of Murray's Mill is buried, we came across this patch of Lycopodium obscurum (Rare Clubmoss).  I had never seen this species before!

They look like short little hemlock trees. :)  Here is a link to their known range in NC on the USDA Plant Database.

The trail then comes into another field--this one had been planted in corn last year and was full of hundreds of Mourning Doves.

And near the end, a short causeway skirts the edge of a pond and another small wetland area before you head back toward the mill and store area.

Southern Flying Squirrel!

I had quite the surprise today when I knocked on this bluebird house at Riverbend!  I was expecting to knock down some Box Elder Bugs for Emmy and Mrs. Whiteley to take some photos of . . . .but instead we found a winter nest of at least one pair of Southern Flying Squirrels!  Emmy took this first photo while I ran back to the building to get my phone to call Alisha.  She is counting mammals for our Catawba Valley Crazy Big Year and needs this for her list!

 I guess it was a good thing that I volunteered to help with Service-Learning Orientation for Mrs.Whiteley and her CVCC Biology students or else I would never have gotten to see this beautiful creature.  I've seen this species only a couple of times my entire life in the wild . . .but always on the move and during twilight or later.

 I think the best part was how excited Emmy was about seeing it.  She wanted to go back every time we walked near--but I told her we didn't want to scare it away so that we could share it with everyone else.  It didn't take but just a few seconds after we stepped away before it zoomed back into the box and settled down.  Man, I love my job some days! :)

Hope your day was as awesome as mine . . . .

Jacob's Fork in January

 I decided to head to Jacob's Fork Park this morning to get in my exercise for the day.  While I was there I also made a "pit stop" into the Target Distribution drive to see if any ducks were on the pond.  There were! There were 9 Hooded Mergansers who all swam quickly in the opposite direction when I got out of the car.

 Part of my intentions for the morning was to photograph these berries and try to figure out what they are.  My hunch is that they are one of the deciduous hollies.  The birds must LOVE them because the whole understory was full of them on Christmas day when my mom and I were last here.  Today--there was only a small patch that still had berries.  I bet Robins or Waxwings had a gorge-fest recently! :)

 The little pond behind the ballfields had a thin layer of ice . . .so no herons or ducks . . .but I did see a TON of Song Sparrows!

 I also walked the perimeter of a small field near the river and found a nice little marshy spot that would be perfect for a migrating Marsh Wren!  Today, though, there were only more Song Sparrows and 7 beautiful little Swamp Sparrows.  I think they may be my favorite sparrow species--but none would cooperate for a photo!

 Lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers were flitting around where the Jacob's Fork (coming in on the left--flows through South Mountains State Park) and the Henry Fork (coming in from the top--also coming from Burke County) merge into the South Fork of the Catawba River.  I used to be so confused by how this all came together--but seeing it first hand last year made all the difference!

 I did, finally, get one lone Song Sparrow to cooperate and let me snap a photo!

And finally, while heading to the car--I literally almost stepped on this beautiful cup fungus.  I tried to look it up but I haven't had any luck so far!

Cline Village---BRRRRR!

 I decided to do my morning walk today at Cline Village in Conover.  It's just a few miles from my house and the "abandoned" part of the subdivision has nice sidewalks and a paved road that has some great hills to help burn calories.  It also has some GREAT habitat--including two ponds and borders Lyle Creek on the backside.

 There were lots and lots of American Goldfinches out there today despite the 26 degree temperature!  They were feasting on these Alder seeds and didn't seem to mind as I inched closer and closer.

 I decided to take a deer path that looked WELL used and came across this set-up (above).  I can't for the life of me figure out why there would be 48 cedar poles guy-wired together in the middle of a field next to a creek bottom.  It appears to have been mowed sometime this fall--but there was lots of mullein and pokeweed growing in the rows.  Very strange indeed!

 I kept following the deer path along the creek and scared up these 6 Savannah Sparrows.  I looked at them  for what seemed like an eternity trying to figure out what they were.  In my 15 years of birding, I have never ran across any Savannah Sparrows that were this red--usually they are just a dull gray color.  Needless to say, once I got out the Sibley Guide I found out that there was, indeed, a "reddish" form and a "grayish" form.  I guess you learn something new everyday!

And here is what most of the habitat looks like there--lots of open fields with grasses and blackberries coming in.  It wasn't too bad as long as I kept moving--but boy was my face cold when I stopped for pictures and the wind was blowing!