Category: slabtown

dusk bike ride

Slabtown Road sign and cloud
At 8:00pm I rode a five mile loop of state roads. I saw two bald eagles in a clear cut perched on top of trees. I saw a committee of crows beefing at the eagles, sitting on horizontal wood littering the clear cut. In the course of the ride I was never passed by an automobile

Cow Oak

3 swamp chesnut oaks
Named for French botanist, Frances A. Michaux, who wrote a three volume treatise on the trees of eastern North America. Called “Basket Oak” because baskets were woven from fibers and splints obtained by splitting the wood. These strong containers were used to carry cotton from the fields. The sweetish acorns can be eaten raw, without boiling. Cows consume the acorns, hence the name “Cow Oak.” Swamp chestnut oak is considered an early succession species with mature trees retarding growth of understory vegetation due to an allelopathic effect.–Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Quercus michauxii- in its final Autumn the progenitor swamp chestnut oak had a prolific mast year, it created and released thousands of acorns, too many for the squirrels and bluejays to carry away. Several hundred of the acorns sprouted and made it to yearling status. Deer grazed many of the saplings out of existence. These three remain, the largest individuals in a thicket of QUMI.

bird identification

Slabtown is sparsely populated. Walking the 6/10 mile tree loop my phone heard a Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Canada Goose, Tufted Titmouse, American Crow, White-eyed Vireo, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Fish Crow, Great Crested Flycatcher, Carolina Chickadee, House Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, Osprey, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Bobwhite, Indigo Bunting, House Wren, and a Great Blue Heron. It was not able to identify the mechanical bird. (I could hear that one)

Slabtown

waning crescent moon
Had a week in Slabtown reacquainting with the sun moon stars night and Ixodidae.
bicycle trees
If I stayed on the bike the ticks wouldn’t be a problem, but I am on the ground a fair amount. Removed 4 attached Ixodes scapularis and
Amblyomma americanum individuals.

Questing!
The lone star tick is widely distributed across the East, Southeast, and Midwest United States. It lives in wooded areas, particularly in second-growth forests with thick underbrush, where white-tailed deer (the primary host of mature ticks) reside. Lone star ticks can also be found in ecotonal areas (transition zones between different biomes) such as those between forest and grassland ecosystems. The lone star tick uses thick underbrush or high grass to attach to its host by way of questing. Questing is an activity in which the tick climbs up a blade of grass or to the edges of leaves and stretches its front legs forward, in response to stimuli from biochemicals such as carbon dioxide or heat and vibration from movement, and mounts the passing host as it brushes against the tick’s legs. Once attached to its host, the tick is able to move around and select a preferred feeding site.–Wikipedia

Surveying

spring morning
Spring mornings are a delight for the eye and nose. A low hemophagic critter index prevails but it is warm enough to volatilize a universe of scents.