Category Archives: Journal

#Birding Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and Harrison Bay State Park

Cindy and I decided to take advantage of the first sunshine in 9 days by driving up to the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Meigs County, TN on Friday (Jan 18.)  Over the past decade this area has become a main overwintering stop for Sandhill Crane.  We had gone up there in mid-November to check them out (and the excellent nearby Cherokee Removal Memorial Park,) and we did get to see a number of the cranes, but none closer than probably 1/4 mile.  We were really hoping to get a closer look, and we did, but not quite what we wanted.  We saw a couple dozen of these large birds, but none closer that probably 150 yards.  After we watched these birds for a while with the couple of dozen other birders there, we went down to Harrison Bay State Park, and photographed some ducks and coots.  Here are some photos.

Sandhill Crane at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge by USWildflowers, on Flickr

Sandhill Crane at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge – slight crop & straighten; watercolor filter applied

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#Waterfalls Water Levels – Cloudland Canyon State Park

I’ve posted most of these photos on Facebook and Twitter already, but in my semi-retirement I am more and more using the Journal to try to track some of my activities – Cindy and I are finding ourselves asking each other “What did we do last week?”  Some of those Journal entries are just private notes as to what we did, but some, like this one, might have some community interest.  This is one of those.

Since I work part-time now, my weekend usually starts on Thursday afternoon, but this week some projects used more of my time earlier in the week so I finished up a couple of hours earlier than usual.  We’d had rain (lots of rain) for 9 days in a row, and there was slight break in the rain before a cold front came through bringing more rain and possibly snow (some nearby areas got some; we didn’t.)  I decided to take that break as an opportunity to run up to Cloudland Canyon State Park to see what the waterfalls looked like after all the rain.

The first waterfalls that I saw wasn’t one that I expected.  During normal water levels you don’t even notice this one across the canyon from the main overlook.  I suspect that during dry weather there may be no water at all in this unnamed stream tumbling down the bluff.

Waterfalls at Cloudland Canyon State Park by USWildflowers, on Flickr

Waterfalls at Cloudland Canyon State Park after heavy rain

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A Winter Walk on the Riverwalk – Hawks, Herons, and the American Lotus

Chattanooga has done a great job of developing its riverfront and greenways over the past 20 years.  The Riverwalk that runs for 10 miles along or near the Tennessee River from the Tennessee Aquarium on the riverfront in downtown Chattanooga all the way up to Chickamauga Dam is a jewel of that development.  It’s one that I’ve so far neglected to explore except for a couple of small pieces.  My wife, Cindy, and I will start trying to correct that neglect.  On Friday and Saturday we walked and photographed a section of the Riverwalk near the Amnicola Marsh, visited the bridge over Chickamauga Creek, and also enjoyed a Great Blue Heron rookery on the Chattanooga State Community College campus. Here are a few photographs from this past week.

Red-shouldered Hawk - Buteo lineatus by USWildflowers, on Flickr

Red-shouldered Hawk – Buteo lineatus – along the Riverwalk near Amnicola Marsh

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Red-osier Dogwood (Western Dogwood) Fruit #Nativeplants

In early September I did a Boundary Waters canoe trip with a couple of friends – great time with them, and great to get back after several years of absence.  One of the plants I photographed was a large shrub with white berries.  I hadn’t been able to identify it until recently, when I was browsing my copy of Idaho Mountain Wildflowers – A. Scott Earle and saw those white berries in a photo.  Slapped my forehead – Dogwood!  Red-osier Dogwood has WHITE berries!  A bit more research on what Cornus species were found in Minnesota ensured that this was Cornus sericea.  I like reducing that list of “Unidentified” in my photo catalog.

Red-osier Dogwood, Western Dogwood, American Dogwood - Cornus sericea Berries

Red-osier Dogwood (Western Dogwood, American Dogwood) Berries

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More Fall Colors – Racoon Mountain Tennessee

Raccoon Mountain is near Chattanooga Tennessee, and in the 1970’s TVA built a power storage system on the mountain – they pump water out of the Tennessee River during periods of low electricity usage, storing it in a reservoir at the top of the mountain, then use that water to turn turbines to generate electricity during period of high demand.  But TVA has developed it, as with many of their properties, for some recreational uses, including hiking and mountain biking.  But it’s also a really nice drive, with great view of the area.  Much to my embarrasment, I’ve only been up on the top once or twice.  Today was beautiful, and my wife and I spent a GREAT day driving, walking, and photographing the fall colors around Raccoon Mountain today.  Here are a dozen photos.

First, a view from the reservoir dam looking across the gorge that many refer to as “The Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River.”  As usual, click on the photo to go to Flickr where you can view a larger version.

Fall colors in the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River

Fall colors in the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River

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#Fall_Colors in Middle Tennessee

Cindy and I took a drive over to Franklin, Tennessee yesterday (Friday, Oct 26).   We were going to Carnton Mansion, but Franklin was in the cold, wet front that was headed our way, so we decided to do Carnton on another trip.  As we drove back east, things got warmer and brighter.  Here are a couple of photos from that drive.

Methodist Church

Methodist Church in Marion County, Tennessee

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Pigeon Mountain – Trees and Tunnels

Pigeon Mountain – a major spur of Lookout Mountain – is a wonderful place, even outside the fabulous wildflower site called The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain.  During hunting season – turkey in the spring, and deer in the fall – there are a few roads opened that are closed the rest of the year.  These were opened in early September at the beginning of archery season (firearms deer season started today – Saturday, Oct 20, 2012.)  I was fortunate enough to get down onto two of these – Estelle Mine Road and Owl Hollow over the past couple of days.  Ostensibly the trip on Friday was to photograph an Agalinis species that I really wanted to be, as reported by others, Agilinis decemloba.  I got the photo, and I think it’s likely Agalinis tenuifolia instead.

False Foxglove - Agilinis spp.

False Foxglove – Agilinis spp.

While I was disappointed not to fine retuse corolla lobes on the Agalinis, Friday at Pigeon Mountain, followed with a wonderful drive with my wife on Saturday morning up the Estelle Mine Road, was anything but disappointing.  Check out a few of the photos I took on those two days…

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Sunrise at Lake Ocoee

My wife and I were going over to Waynesville, NC on Thursday to pick up a granddaughter who had been spending a few days with her best friend from Papua New Guinea.  Being the fall color season, we wanted to take some time for some photographs in the mountains, so we left early, before 7 AM.  It turned out that sunrise was just as we were getting to Lake Ocoee (also known as Parksville Lake), and the cool morning brought fog and mist with it.  We also had time to take brief drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the daytrip to Waynesville.

Sunrise over Lake Ocoee

Sunrise over Lake Ocoee

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Retirement – What does it mean?

I’m now, as of September 22, retired.  In a couple of weeks I’ll be semi-retired, since I’ll be going back to work for my former employer on a part-time basis.  I was on 3 weeks of vacation prior to the official retirement date, so I’ve had some time to reflect on what this watershed event in the lives of my wife and I means to us generally, and specifically for USWildflowers.com.

What does it mean?

  1. Less money – Even with the part-time work, we’ll have a lower income than when I was working full time.
  2. More time – I’ll be working something less that 20 hours per week in my part-time job when that starts in mid-October, so I’ll have over 20 hours extra per week to pursue other activities.
  3. Less stress – I determined a couple of years ago that I was not handling the stress of my job as well as when I was younger, or perhaps the stress levels had increased past the point of my tolerance.  In any case, I knew something had to change relative to that stress.  The reduction in that stress has been wonderful these past four weeks.  I hope it is also making me less of a pain in the neck to my dear wife, since she has to put up with me for more hours each week now.

Those first two items may have an impact on USWildflowers.com.

Gerry photographing Yellow Fringed Orchid by USWildflowers, on Flickr

Will I be doing more of this?

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#Wildlife Slugfest

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I spent some quality time with a slug.  How many of us can make THAT claim?  (Maybe the more appropriate question would be “How many of us WANT to make that claim?)  Actually our interaction started with me bumping the dandelion leaf under the slug’s “tail.”  He withdrew his head – wait, I’m beginning to realize that I know so little about slugs that I don’t even know if those body parts are heads and tails.  Hopefully someone with some real knowledge about these creatures will leave a comment and educate us, rather than relying on my speculation.

Slug hiding

Slug hiding

I waited a few minutes to see what would happen.  Soon the action began…

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