The Call of the Wild - Green Treefrog

The warmer temps and almost daily showers and thunderstorms of the past few weeks seem to have all the reptiles and amphibians on the move in central Carolina. This brilliant green treefrog seems to be hanging out in the shadows cast by the late afternoon sun, waiting for the cover of darkness to complete its descent from the canopy to an ephemeral pool nearby where others of its kind will gather. 

Surprisingly inconspicuous on the furrowed, gray, lichen-blotched skin of a gnarly old sourwood, this emerald-hued amphibian patiently waits for nightfall.

Large for a treefrog, this individual is distinguished not only by its bright green dorsum, but also by the yellowish-white stripe running down its side, its white belly, and the irregular smattering of golden spots on its back.

Hyla cinerea is generally larger and brighter green than the similar squirrel treefrog, and has much smoother skin than the largest of our green treefrogs, the barking treefrog.

Most of our treefrogs breed throughout the summer, so we'll keep our eyes and ears open for an opportunity to share a glimpse of the others, including the elusive pine barrens treefrog.

In the meantime, listen tonight for the insistent, hopeful "queenk, queenk" of the green treefrog, the call of the wild, just out back...

Chelonian Crossing - Snapper on the Move!

Since Mother's Day, seems we and Hunter have crammed every nook and cranny of "free" time with thousands of really cool words and definitions in final preparation for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in D.C. next week. Somehow he managed to squeeze in a soccer tournament in Statesville over the weekend, and as we returned home through intermittent showers, we paused briefly to assist this lovely lady across the road.

May is the month in North Carolina when female snapping turtles are on the move, leaving their aquatic homes just long enough to lay their eggs, then returning to the friendly confines of their local stream, pond or lake. 

Kudos to Jay for snapping these photos, which in spite of the "zoom" lens still required strong nerves to nab a shot like this one...

In honor of Hunter's pending departure for this year's Bee, the more mundane "turtle" has been replaced in the title of today's post by "chelonian," a word Hunter encountered and successfully spelled live on stage at a previous Bee.   This particular chelonian, Chelydra serpentina, has been doing its thing in North America for millions of years, but the advent of automobiles and paved highways has made the egg-laying season a bit more hazardous in recent years.

This gal appears to have had enough of the paparazzi, and decides to enlighten us a bit as to the origins of her common name. Being rather attached to all our digits, and having assisted her across the most immediate strip of asphalt in her path, we leave this remarkable animal and the "roly poly" exploring the leading edge of her carapace to complete their journey without us. 

As you travel the roads in your neck of the woods over the next few weeks, please be alert for chelonians crossing, and at the very least, slow down and give them a wide berth as they make their way home. 

Don't Mess with Mama...Happy Mother's Day!

Unyielding in the face of a predator a hundred times her size; 

no other force in nature matches Mom for moxie...

Neither heat nor damp, marauding crow nor grazing cow can deter this mother from her task.

On this Mother's Day, Hoot Owl Karma offers kudos for the courage, commitment and sacrifice of mothers everywhere. 

To paraphrase an old Irish blessing:

Bless those washing dishes,

Bless those ironing clothes,

Bless those praying quietly

While the rest of us sleep.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Celebrating National Wildflower Week - Blue Ridge Beauties

In the spirit of National Wildflower Week (May 4 - May 12, 2013), we've expanded our range a bit to encompass a previously unreported early May excursion to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. In between soccer games, we slipped up the Parkway to a couple of our favorite hiking trails where we ran into these cool wildflowers. 

Large flowered trillium, Trillium grandiflorum

Star Chickweed, or Great Chickweed, Stellaria pubera

The five individual petals are divided so that the five rays of the "star" appear to be ten.

More trillium, narrower petals, but still Trillium grandiflorum?

Painted trillium, Trillium undulatum

Rare pinkshell azalea, Rhodedendron vaseyi

Wild oats, Uvularia sessilifolia

More painted trillium

Golden ragwort, a spring-blooming aster

This crayfish is not a wildflower, but it was on the prowl in the crystal clear waters of the stream alongside which we found the trillium. Don't be fooled by the red exoskeleton, this critter's very much alive, and the water is about as far from boiling as you can get without icing over!

More pinkshell Azalea, a rare treat!

Cool leaves...

 

Dwarf Wild Iris

Wild Strawberries, with a single violet

Wild strawberry, up close...

Mystery...look it up and tell me!

Serviceberry (shadbush) in bloom, if you'd like some fruit, come back in June!

Sessileleaf Bellwort, Wild Oats

More wild strawberries (white flowers, 3 leaflets), growing alongside dwarf cinquefoil (yellow flowers, five leaflets), commonly mistaken for wild strawberries!

Apple tree, growing wild in a wooded mountain meadow.

More apple blossoms...

Wake Robin or Red trillium, Trillium erectus

Trillium erectus with spider, beware!

So ends our tribute to early May wildflowers (and big red crayfish) of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Boone/Blowing Rock area.

Happy Wildflower Week!

More Blooming Trees - Black Locust

Just like the tulip trees we met over the weekend, the black locust trees are in full bloom this week, and this young specimen is looking particularly lovely by the light of the setting sun. 

Black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, is native to North Carolina and is prized for both its wood and its flowers; although the blooming season is short, black locust is the source for a great deal of spring honey production. The wood is extremely durable and resistant to decay, and is perfect for outdoor applications such as fence posts.

The blossoms are strongly reminiscent of garden pea blossoms, and the black locust is indeed a member of the botanical family Fabaceae; you guessed it, the pea family. The black locust is quite adaptable and spreads aggressively into newly cleared areas, so much so that it has been identified in many areas of the U.S. outside of its native southeast as an undesirable invasive species. Be that as it may, the black locust's aesthetic appeal is undeniable this time of year, and we're inclined to like it.

Tulips in the Trees - Liriodendron Tulipifera

Known variously as tuliptree, tulip poplar, yellow poplar, canoewood, or simply poplar, the American tulip tree is my favorite deciduous tree. Its smooth, straight trunk, towering height and impressive girth have long distinguished it as royalty in the great eastern forests of North America. In the rich cove forests of the Great Smoky Mountains, specimens may exceed twenty feet in girth, and some individuals exceed 170 feet in height. 

Right here in the Sandhills, the mature tulip tree will consistently be the tallest tree in a wood where it is found, but more significantly at this time of year,  it is the only tree whose branches are adorned with masses of pale green, orange and yellow tulip blossoms!

The genus name, Liriodendron, literally means "Lily Tree," but the tulip poplar is not closely related to either lilies or tulips. Despite that little technicality, "the eyes don't lie," and folks in the south can see well enough to know when they're confronted with a tulip tree.

If you're out and about over the next few weeks, keep your eyes on the forest edge and perhaps you'll spy some tulips in the trees. Its distinctive, squarish, four-lobed leaves are unmistakable, and they turn a brilliant yellow in the late summer, making the tulip tree a year-round standout in our neck of the woods.

Hoot Owl Karma has noticed a few other trees in bloom this week as well, so we'll try to share a few more bark-skinned bloomers in the week ahead. In the meantime, go outside, take a look around, and relish your place in the natural world.

More May Flowers...Crossvine

May is prime time for North Carolina's native wildflowers, not to mention the birds and the bees and the trees...

And since it's also time for tennis regionals and soccer tournaments and quarterly tax returns, Hoot Owl Karma has no chance of keeping pace with nature's springtime frenzy. 

So we've decided to simply catch what we can and pass it along, hoping that you'll do the same and between us perhaps we won't miss too much!

Crossvine is another of North Carolina's showy native wildflowers which peaks in early May, and as luck would have it, we crossed paths this morning as I made my daily delivery run. So...

right after supper, we dashed back over to get better acquainted before darkness set in.

The brilliant two-toned reddish-orange and gold blossoms resemble those of its summer-blooming cousin, the trumpet creeper, but the crossvine blooms earlier and seems to have a much shorter blooming window. 

From a distance, the profusion of blossoms seems to cascade down from above with no apparent attachment at all. Upon closer inspection, the buds occur in pairs or in clusters of five or six, and a paucity of leaves further enhances the illusion of the cascade.

Cultivated versions of this native woody vine are popular in piedmont gardens, but they tend to be more uniformly orange and most we've seen lack the sharp contrast between outer red and inner yellow that characterizes the wild variety.

Hummingbirds are likely the primary pollinators of crossvine, with their flower's tubular form and both male and female flower parts perfectly situated to take advantage of a foraging hummer's forehead.

The leaves have an intriguing structure, in that each "leaf" consists of a pair of leaflets and a tendril for clinging and climbing, and the fresh green leaves on this specimen are beginning to emerge with a vengeance, right behind the blossoms.

As you make your hectic way through the next few weeks, keep an eye on the trees for these bright smiling faces, and if you're lucky enough to spot a crossvine in your neighborhood, pause for a moment and get to know it; you'll be glad you did!