Jun 5 Deer Lake and the Insectarium

 

Yesterday, we (Nanci, Will and I) flew from NC to Deer Lake Newfoundland. Deer Lake is located near the west coast of Newfoundland, about an hour south of Gros Morne National Park. Today, we have a free day before our Road Scholar journey begins. This is a very small town by our standards and without a vehicle, we are confined to a small area around the hotel. Will had learned there is an insectarium with a Deer Lake address. We quickly saw where it was on the map and walking on a busy road was not what we wanted to do. After looking at alternatives on Alltrails, I saw a hiking trail that went most of the way there, along the Humber River. So that is what we did, walked through a boreal forest and bogs to get to the Insectarium.

We did see some interesting stuff on the hike, including this Wood Horsetail. The forest was spruce and fir with a healthy number of Paper Birch and Gray Alder. In a bog we saw some Skunk current. Merlin identified a number of warblers we don't hear in NC. 

Before we could even buy a ticket at the Insectarium, we were mesmerized by the stick insects on display in the lobby. Above, is a very camouflaged stick insect. Can you spot it? My arrow points to its head.

A closer look at this insect's head. Look below it to see its legs branch off, looking just like a young tree branch. 

The insectarium receives weekly butterfly and moth larvae from Philippines and Costa Rica. Here in what I will call the butterfly incubator, the larvae feeds and begins the pupation stage, finally hatching after several weeks. Here are several stages before they emerge - upper left of photo.

The Atlas moth is the largest known moth. It may not look big here but it is a large one.

We were encouraged to go through the Butterfly house first as there would be a large school group coming soon. We walked in to the enclosure with many tropical moths and butterflies. A Koi pond and many butterfly feeding plants were throughout. Right away, we were entertained and intrigued by the Morpho Butterfly. Many others were colorful but the Morpho had beautiful blue wings on the topside and a brown paisley design on the underside which was not visible when they landed. We enjoyed this exhibit until an influx of invasives (school kids) chased us out.

The Morpho

Some real gems here.

In the main exhibit area we saw many mounted butterflies, moths, beetles and many other insects, a few tarantulas, a couple salamanders, some honey bees and a collection of other oddities. Postage stamps and currency with insects were there. Jewelry from beetles, commercial products with insects, a serving tray made with butterfly parts and bottled rice wine with scorpions rounded out the exhibit. 

The Sunset moth is considered to be the most beautiful insect. This is a nice specimen.

I think this is a Long eared owl with an owl butterfly.

One last closeup of a stick insect. This one looks like it has leaves attached to it. Nanci was the only one brave enough to hold it. 

Jun 2 Deep River State Trail

 

The new bridge over Bush Creek

The Deep River State Trail is about to add 2 miles of former railroad right of way to its trail system. The section connecting Franklinville and Cedar Falls is already a social trail although it does end abruptly before it can connect to a public road in Cedar Falls. Reclaiming old railroad beds is a bit of a chore. In North Carolina, abandoned railroad right of ways reverted to property owners sooner than in other states. Nevertheless, this old railbed is slowly becoming a top tier greenway. I wanted to familiarize myself with what this section has to offer. 

Beginning at Andrew Hunter Rd, I began my hike along the backyards of several town homes. Invasives, particularly Chinese Yam, an invasive vine, is choking everything in its path. It is a benefitable and nutritious plant in Asia and probably could also be here, if it weren't for its aggressive invasive quality. The tuber is edible and is considered tasty but handling it can cause a skin irritation. 

The trail surface is large chunks or gravel here until you get beyond the headrace for the hydroelectric powerplant. Continuing on to the long bridge over Bush Creek, old concrete railroad structures are on both sides of the railbed and on both sides of Bush Creek. The ruins on the opposite of Bush Creek look to be for a former mill site. Water upcreek has been channeled almost to the railbed. There, it turns from paralleling the creek to entering it between stone ruins which could have held a waterwheel at one time.  

If you follow the railbed, you will get glimpses of the river. It is a short distance from the railbed to the river and you can see some faint social trails for this purpose. I followed 4 to the river and back. I heard a Red Shouldered Hawk nearby, saw an adult Bald Eagle and a juvenile, as well as a couple Great Blue Herons. Of course there were Canadas here too. I watched a group of 12 adults and 12 goslings for quite a time. I stayed hidden except when I tried to get a bit closer. The adults saw me and gently coerced the goslings to slowly swim away. They need about 2 and a half months to fly after hatching. These still had a lot of fluffy down rather than feathers. The adults kept a tight perimeter around the goslings. 

Arrowhead viburnum

There is that Tree of Heaven 

At this spot there were several Trumpet Creeper Vines in 3 trees for a nice display. 

Part of this hike was to assess invasives along the trail. Once you get to within 250 yards of the Sapona side, an ocean of invasives occurs. The adjacent property owners have open and early successional growth which has led the way for a tangle of vines, mostly Multiflora Rose.  

I had a lot of fun here. Jumping from stone to stone, I saw so many freshwater bivalves, mussels and clams. I think the clams may not be native here. The river alcove where I saw the largest pile of shells looked like a great spot for a hungry raccoon. 

Where else do you see Indian paintbrushes?

Our leader and guide is Rob who grew up at the base of the mountain. He has been coming here all his life. We bumped our way to the top in two vehicles. It seemed worse than the last trip up here but maybe I'm not remembering right. It had rained all night so we were walking in water many places. The rain also filled the pond by the Edwards cabin. That pond feeds the stream that flows over the side of the cliff near the cabin. I've heard that waterfall each visit but have never seen it. 

Three Top Mountain is the center of the background. I'm told there are 3 prominent (high) peaks and 8 others for a total of 11.

Golden Alexander 

This plant and flower resembles an European herb popular during medieval times called Alexander or sometimes parsley of Alexandria. Both are in the carrot-parsley family.  

In his search for Spreading avens, Matt spotted this cute clump of Roan Mountain bluets. We are at 4400 feet which is generally lower than where these are normally found. 

Doesn't this look like a lichen in a concentric pattern on a rock? Commonly called Concentric Boulder lichen. 

The Edwards family has retained the right to use this cabin for 100 years from the date of the Nature Conservancy's property purchase in 1978. The original purchase was for 701 acres. TNC has continued to add land and now holds over 3900 acres. 

Eft's alternate walking pattern.

The only one that still had some nice color. 

 

May 9 Picnic at Little Long Mountain

 

For 10 years, hikers have been using the overnight shelter atop Little Long Mountain on the Uwharrie Trail. It will be a bit more comfortable now that the Uwharrie Trailblazers have installed a picnic table on the site. How did that happen? How do you get a picnic table 3/4's of a mile from a trailhead to the top of a big hill? You disassemble it, carry it piece by piece and reassemble. 

Some Summer bluets

Jack

Lots of Sumac

Fire Pink

The prickly Pear here blooms in Mid May, so we are just a bit early. It appears that many of these blooms may have been nipped by the recent frosts. Still it should be a nice bloom. Social trails throughout the area have impacted these plants that seem to cling to the rocks here in order to survive. 

That weird Wire Thread Coreopsis. 

Galax

Apr 8 Roy J Maness Nature Park

 

This Troy park is a great place to fish, picnic and smoke weed. That is what I see every time I visit. I never thought of what wildflowers might there until I saw a post from a hiking club visit on Tuesday. There were lots of photos of flowers I would not have expected there. Arriving early there was only one vehicle in the lot, smoking weed. And I could see the very distinct sign of Spring in NC, wisteria. 

The park is comprised of a pond formed by damming a tributary of Densons Creek. There is also a dam on Densons Creek just above the pond's outlet. It is right in the area of the dams, there was a homesite and maybe a mill. The land has been disturbed so much that it is difficult to see what may have been there. 

Beavers are active in the pond. One of them started to gnaw on this keyhole tree.

Walking on the Densons Creek Trail which leaves the park, follows the creek toward the USFS District Ranger Office. Starting out just past the wisteria, I ran into a number of Catesby Trillium. They were throughout the hike. Another flower of note, Atamasco lily was in several locations, just in time for Easter. 

Several times I left the creek and trail no explore open woods. On this jaunt, I followed some railroad tracks and noticed a cemetery out in the woods. 

There were about a dozen graves ranging from the 1880s to 1927. There was no sign of a road or home here. Perhaps the railroad was the road back when the first graves were dug.

This pile of debris is from a renovation of the bridge going over Densons Creek. 

There is a very healthy and vibrant scattering of Pinxter azalea along the creek.

Careful of the aging wooden infrastructure.

Eastern Bluestar