Craggy Pinnacle No #1. (Fog, Hunger Games, and More Plants) (Another non - Illinois post)

(No #1 indicates I'm going back)

Dicken's famous line,  It was the best of times,  it was the worst of times, summarizes this experience for me.  On one hand, clouds obscured the famous views from this Blue Ridge Mountain peak.  On the other hand, I got to see several new (to me) species, enjoy being inside a cloud, and spend one on one time with my dad. This was the climax of a great vacation as well.

This trail is in North Carolina, along Blue Ridge Parkway, and the road is visible from the top when the weather permits.  This region is one of the wettest in North America.  Combined with strong elevation changes and varied soil types based on rock and exposure (north, south, east and west), the Blue Ridge Mountains and nearby Smoky Mountains are some of the most biodiverse regions of the U.S.  I had no idea of this, and it was a grand surprise to me to see so many different plant species.   

Craggy Pinnacle is located in a heath bald community a mountain plant community with low species diversity, but almost no Illinois-common species of plants.  Rhododendrons dominate the environment, shading out most other species.  However, at the same time, the heath bald along Craggy Pinnacle is changing over to an acidic cove forest, another mountain environment with more species diversity and, more importantly, northern species found only at high elevations this far south in the 6,000 foot high mountains.

Here's a look at the mountain itself.

As you can see, the plant cover is low.  I doubt most trees are over thirty feet high.  We parked in the parking lot and immediately I spotted more than one new plant, including this veronica in a mowed strip alongside the pavement.  Note the amount of moss.  This area is completely open, and next to a rock.  It's just wet enough that moss grows everywhere.

We entered a tangle of bushes and trees, thick and mossy, with liverworts and lichens painting the trunks. The trail was steep and rugged, in a way that gave our flatlands legs a real challenge.

Here the ecosystem is mostly heath bald. with rhododendrons, primarily rosebay rhododendron.  Ferns and sedges (Carex sp.) dominate the understory.  A few warblers flit through the trees, none sticking around to pose for a photo.  The plants do, so they get photographed.  Gnarled sweet birch (Betula lenta) grow alongside the path, twisted into fantastical shapes by the cool winds.

Other, smaller plants grew in this area.  The next few plants are northern plants that grow this far south due to the cooler temperatures at higher elevations.  To explain how cool, this is early June in North Carolina, and there's still a bit of snow along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the highest spots.  This is Canada or Maine temperatures in winter and summer.  Combine that with frequent rain, and you get a lot of interesting plants.

 Here are some large leaved  Clintonia borealis, or blue-bead lily.  Found mostly in boreal  (northern) forests, south to Cook County, Illinois in the west and the mountains here, blue-bead lily has blue fruits.  Here it is half out of flower.  At certain points large clumps could be seen in the undergrowth.

 Canada mayflower, Maianthemum canadense, here blooming in early June, are common residents of the undergrowth. These can be found in northern Illinois as well.

Oxalis montana, another species of the north woods that lives at high elevations in the mountains.  This specimen grew on rock and moss alongside the path.  This species is not as frequently encountered as the first two.

Many species,such as rock polypody ferns (Polypodium),  grow in the moss covered rocks.  Similar species grow in the jungles of tropical America as well as in Illinois canyons in Starved Rock State Park and the Shawnee Hills.

Cliff saxifrages (Micranthes petiolaris), lichens, and mosses grow on more exposed rocks.  Note the full-flowered Catawba rhodie in the blurry background.

Mountain meadowrue, Thalictrum clavatum, are a species only found in this region of the world, unfortunately so for the rest of us.  Dozens were in full flower on the trail.

Lady ferns (Athyrium) and sedges (Carex) form a major part of the groundcover in more open areas closer to the peak.  As we reach the top, the clouds almost fully encircle the peak, leaving us this view below  only briefly until thick fog settles in.

 Ericaceae, the heath family, is well represented, as you can tell by the shrubs in the pictures above and below. 

Catawba rhodies graced the summit, covered in purple flowers.  Around them grew the larger rosebay rhodies, the dominant plant on Craggy Pinnacle.  Blueberries and huckleberries grew around them in a few spots.

The fog restricted us from seeing the nearby mountains and would fade in and out, now fifty feet, now twenty feet of visibility.  It was eerie.

So of course I focused on the lichens nearer at hand.  This is one of the most lichen covered boulders I have ever seen.  Other plants also grew on the rocks.  Someday soon this trail is going to be closed on account of the plants seen center right in the following picture.

Note the grassy-looking plants growing out of the rock crevices?  Those are special varieties of sedges (Carex), and they are only found on a few peaks in these mountains.  That's it.  Their habitat is easily damaged by careless hikers, so this popular trail is going to be closed over a few sedges.  I understand why, but I still don't like the idea.  Nevertheless, when the range of these plants is legitimately a few mountaintops, I get that they need protection.  A new trail should be opened someday on a nearby peak to replace this one, so it's not a massive loss.

On our way back down, we spotted something running across the path.   A shrew family had a nest hole alongside the path, and were scurrying around.  The shrew moved too fast for a clear shot.

When we got back to the parking lot, the fog was a lot less at just a barely lower elevation (300 ft. or so) and so we got some really great views.  The lake below was featured in the first Hunger Games movie.  This is as close as you can get, since the lake is also Asheville, NC's water supply and is protected from disturbance.

We drove off on the Blue Ridge Parkway, seen below.  Despite the lack of views from the top, it was an incredible hike nonetheless.  I hope to return before the trail closes.  I had an absolutely wonderful time, having never seen many of the plant species listed above until this hike, the last one of our trip.

Bird Banding #1

At Lincoln Land Community College, there is a program to do bird banding.  I often visit the station.

Here's a quick list of bird banding information for "dummies":

1. Who?  Volunteers licensed by the US Geological Survey do all the work, at least at LLCC.

2. What?  Banding is catching a bird, in the case of LLCC, out of a net or trap (non-harmful, of course) and carefully and painlessly putting a metal band around the leg of the bird as a tag.

3.  Why?  The band is used to track dispersal of what species in what areas, population, migration paths and times, behavior, life span, heath, etc.

4. When?  At LLCC, banding begins late August in the fall and late March for the spring. ending in mid November for the fall and mid May for the spring. and occurs every morning during these seasons from around 6:30 to 11:00.

5. Where?   LLCC BBS (bird banding station) is located behind Menard Hall, directly behind the batting cages near the baseball stadium and prairie restoration area.  Nets are located around this area.

6.  How? Mist nets are set up on poles.  These nets are hard to see and birds, especially newcomers to the area, fly into them.  Everything from hummingbirds to hawks can be caught. Nets are checked at scheduled times throughout the morning, roughly once every half-hour to 45 minutes and the birds are brought in to the banding station in soft cloth bags.  They are measured, banded, and released as soon as possible.

By helping to check the nets here, I get to see all kinds of birds I've never seen before.  Rarities are sometimes caught, such as this Southwestern species, the Ash-throated Flycatcher, pictured below.  Note that the bird was released before it became very stressed.  The point is to monitor, not harm. Some environmentalists are very vocal in protesting bird banding as detrimental to the bird's stress levels and health.   However, it's done in a low-impact way and doesn't harm the birds. This has been proven through several studies.

Here is a goldfinch in a net in the prairie restoration area.  Note how hard it is to see.  At LLCC BBS, this is the most common species at certain times of year, especially winter.

Here is LLCC BBS' president about to release a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  This is a northern species migrating south for the winter.  Bands are visible in the lower right of the picture.  They are kept on wires and organized by number, so for instance a certain bird will require a size 1A band, number 63 on the wire.

Here is a blue jay from this season.  All prior pictures were last season.  This is one of Lincoln Land's biology professors who helps to run the station. 

Below is a grey catbird banded today, prior to release.  These are called catbirds for their meowing calls.  They are very common locally in brushy areas.  In the background's woods, more nets are set up, which allows for other species such as this catbird to be caught and studied.  Future posts will show some of the highlights of the bird banding station.

The rest of the orchids...

To begin with, if you are expecting strongly attractive and colorful plants, only a couple of the following are going to be that way.  As someone who isn't all that old, my life list of plants and animals I haven't seen and want to could stretch the length of Sangamon county.  Thankfully, I plan to correct this ASAP.   In order of discovery are the other orchids I have seen in the U.S. that are native.

The dark leaves in the center are Tipularia discolor overwintering leaves, the Crane-Fly orchid, in Georgian woods.  The specific preserve is Flatwoods Nature Area, owned by the Southern Conservation Trust.  This is a fairly common orchid for the East Coast.  Like Aplectrum, this species blooms in the summer and produces an overwintering leaf that disappears in the spring.  However, the distinctively warped appearance of Tipularia, as well as the purple underside of the leaf, serve to distinguish it.

 Tipularia orchids are only found in the Shawnee Hills in Illinois.  This is the edge of their range, which stretches from Texas to Massachusetts.  Disjunct populations can also be found in northern Indiana.

Next up we have a bit of a story.  I was looking for the Tipularia discolor I had found earlier at a second location, Line Creek Natural Area in Peachtree City, Georgia.  This is a glade/wetland and a diversity hotspot, one of the best places I have ever hiked.  Seriously.  That will be the topic of a future post.   Whilst there, hunting among the brush,  I noted a small green plant, and lost it completely.

Meet Malaxis unifolia, one of the smallest orchids in North America.  The flowers are so tiny that they are horribly out of focus for the average camera, aka mine.  Also, this is the third orchid in a row that I have found with only one leaf (the one above is actually two separate plants).  Next to it are pine saplings, and they are't much over two inches.  The taller plant is roughly six inches at most.  That's about the maximum height of this minute species.

Here is my best picture. This specimen was nearly out of flower, but seems to have set at least three seedpods, indicating a healthy population.  I saw about sixty of these scattered under the oak/maple/pine woods, mixed with ferns and saplings.  This was a more remote northern section of the preserve, right along the trail.  This remains the only native orchid I have seen in flower. These are recorded from Cook, Henderson, Hancock, Menard, Clinton, and Williamson counties in Illinois, and seem to be extremely rare here.  I would love to know where the Menard county population is, but it's likely on private land.

While still on the hunt for Tipularia at Line Creek, I found this:

This is Goodyera pubescens, an unusual species known as rattlesnake plantain.  The leaves, not the flowers, are the attraction.  Mind you, that is a still-growing flower stem, not a flower.  Goodyera pubescens is perhaps the most common orchid in the Appalachians and the Northeast.  It can also be found in the Chicago area, a few central Illinois counties, and the Shawnee hills in Illinois.

Here is a second specimen, found along an unnamed trail that leads to a view of Linville Falls in North Carolina  from the right side of the falls where most pictures are taken.

Here is a larger population along the Graveyard Fields trails west of Brevard, NC.

At first glance this appears to be Goodyera pubescens, but in fact this is the rare G. repens, easier to spell and almost as attractive.  It's almost impossible to find as well because each leaf is about an inch long at most, less on this specimen.  It's an endangered species in North Carolina.  This was found along the same Linville Falls trail.  This species is not found in Illinois.  It was found under dense rhododendron cover along the trail.

  These are the largest specimens I found on the trail.  Compared to  5cm Rhododendron leaves, this species is tiny. I heavily suspect it is more common in reality but goes unnoticed.  Moving one leaf can entirely shade out this plant and hide it from view.

So that concludes the orchids I have seen.  Please comment below which one was your favorite and which ones you have found in Illinois and where.