Environmental Study of my backyard

[freeztar]

Awesome PTP!!
It doesn't have to be your *back*yard.

I've only seen stinkhorns one time, at the UGA campus. The stinkhorn fruiting bodies I observed were very phallic looking and much different than the photo you posted, but I'm sure that many stinkhorn varieties are present in our area and I certainly wasn't raking at the leaves around the specimen I observed. (off to Google I go...)

[palmtreepathos]

a few links found while looking up recipes for "French-fried stinkhorn eggs"...

Shows both emerging eggs and mature fungi...
Stinkhorns
The Amazing Fungi

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by freeztar

I must make a correction. The aster family (Asteraceae) is alive and well. What happened is the Aster genus was broken into other genuses, except for Old World species. More here...

I said I would find the butterfly dependent groupings and I finally did. Primarily, its the Crescents and smaller Checkerspots who's caterpillers feed on various asters.

crescent - BugGuide.Net

checkerspot - BugGuide.Net

[palmtreepathos]

Three times this month I have seen sandhill cranes flying south here in cherokee county ga... I caught a pitifully small clip of them, This is where a killer videocam would be nice to zoom in on something... the trilling sound of the cranes even at this distance is so cool to hear but was drowned out by the road noise, I include a clip of their sounds, imagine a bunch of them doing it at one time...
Maybe someone with better vision than myself could count them? There were 3 groups of a similar size over a few minutes time...

UnCut Video - Now Playing "sandhill cranes-"

Listen

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by palmtreepathos

Three times this month I have seen sandhill cranes flying south here in cherokee county ga... I caught a pitifully small clip of them, This is where a killer videocam would be nice to zoom in on something... the trilling sound of the cranes even at this distance is so cool to hear but was drowned out by the road noise, I include a clip of their sounds, imagine a bunch of them doing it at one time...
Maybe someone with better vision than myself could count them? There were 3 groups of a similar size over a few minutes time...

UnCut Video - Now Playing "sandhill cranes-"

Listen

The numbers I counted were 82, 81, 81, 80, 83 over several attempts. It seems you could say 80 birds without exaggeration for the film clip.

I dont know their habits in that area but around here they start to "stage" in late september. They hang in a staging area until it gets very cold and begin to move south between begining of Nov and end of nov (weather dependent). Usually the exodus takes a couple weeks once they start moving out. If a snowstorm hits, they can (and have) all left within a few days.

Their habits here during staging are to move out of their staging area between dawn and around 10am. Then they come back to their area from around 2-3 hours before dark for the night. You might want to spend some time in the area your seeing these guys before dark to see if they are coming back for a night stop, or if they are moving through. As you know you can hear these guys for a long time so even if you cant see them, you might get an idea of what they are up to and better position yourself during free time to get some closer pics.

You also might want to search for a rare bird alert posting. Lots of times they will (at least around here) give information on viewing large numbers of birds moving through an area. Heres the georgia line: GOS Rare Bird Alerts

BTW, there is a birding thread also that you might want to post your sightings in.

[palmtreepathos]

Thx Cedars for the link and your thorough and thoughtful research that filled in the blanks on the crane watch.... I am amazed that I had never "noticed" these huge flocks before this year. Of course knowing what they are makes it an event, each time, worth seeing and sharing. The surveyors at the street were thinking I was nuts as I flew out of the woods toward the clearing where I might see and capture the video clip. They heard them but didn't have a clue what they were, so we chatted a while and they shared with me about seeing the blue herons down the road in the wetlands. They were out recording watershed changes on the "industrial corridor" map. Who's to say how it will impact us, but for now it seems someone is on guard! Hopefully the wetlands will keep the distance between industry and us!

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by palmtreepathos

The surveyors at the street were thinking I was nuts as I flew out of the woods toward the clearing where I might see and capture the video clip. They heard them but didn't have a clue what they were, so we chatted a while and they shared with me about seeing the blue herons down the road in the wetlands.

In my experience, surveyors are great people to talk to. You can most often glean some useful info from them and they, having encountered nearly everything, are almost always enthusiastic to learn about the things of Nature they are so fortunate to commonly see (as work that is).

They were out recording watershed changes on the "industrial corridor" map.

Well, maybe you mean surveyor in a different meaning now that I think about it. The traditional surveyor carries rods and tripods and records topographic data. But perhaps that is what they were shooting in the points for and they just explained the why, or they were delineating wetlands and might have been mistakenly called surveyors as described afore?

Who's to say how it will impact us, but for now it seems someone is on guard! Hopefully the wetlands will keep the distance between industry and us!

Amen!
Fortunately (at least in my experience) the Savannah ACoE does a pretty good job of enforcing impact reduction of wetlands and streams for private companies (industry). Cherokee County is regulated by Justin Hammonds I believe. He seems like a reasonable person and we've had good experiences working with him.

Watersheds are regulated by several agencies including EPA, GA DNR, and GA EPD. I'm not very familiar with watershed management in GA as I don't work with those agencies and watershed management is not a priority in GA like it is in other, more progressive states such as WA, CA, VT, etc...

[palmtreepathos]

Originally Posted by freeztar

The traditional surveyor carries rods and tripods and records topographic data. But perhaps that is what they were shooting in the points for and they just explained the why...

Yep that is how they appeared... and "walkies talkies" ...I think (that could spell trouble by itself ) they are capturing the topographical picture of "today" 900 ft either side of 575, all the watershed information, etc. They were not just working on our wetlands, the industial corridor is quite large. He might have meant the "watershed" info as a "for instance", huh? Maybe part of what they were "shooting in the points for"? He may have been talking down to me, poor daft woman, seems to be the norm in this world, but he was your age and nice so no worries.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by palmtreepathos

I am amazed that I had never "noticed" these huge flocks before this year. Of course knowing what they are makes it an event, each time, worth seeing and sharing. Hopefully the wetlands will keep the distance between industry and us!

The numbers of Sandhills in Minnesota and Wisconsin have increased alot in the last 20 years. Earlier this spring I was reading in a newsgroup about someone sighting one near albany New York and they were an experienced birder who had never seen one before. You are probably seeing something returning to an area that once was a flock of a few birds.

So anyways its very possible the action is increasing in your area from the successes going on around the northern tier and canada for these birds, and its not so much that you have missed this going on, rather you were deprived of it because of the losses these birds went through long before you were born.

I found out about the losses my own area endured back in the early 70s from an old farmer who told me stories of how the skies were darkened by the numbers of birds moving through and he told me of where the cranes staged back then. You are seeing the effects of the conservation efforts began with the clean water/clean air/endangered specie acts. Its not just the eagles who have benefited from these protections. Enjoy these guys, they are an impressive bird for sure!

[Turtle]

Need some help ID'ing this wildflower. Wildflower group is gone kinda dead so forgive the double posting.

This is a singular plant ~ 4 feet tall with multiple blooms each on its own stalk and very thin strap-like leaves, and growing in an unattended patch beneath some fruit trees in greater metropolitan Vancouver Washington in the good ol' US of A. The bloom looks similar to Bachelor's Button, but my plant in overall height seems too tall, pistils/stamens don't look similar, and the leaves too straplike for Bachelor's Button. Only other thing I found similar in my books was Spotted Knapweed, but again the pistils/stamens don't match nor the leaves. The plant is over in an acquaintance's backyard and if it survives I will check again for more details and hopefully even collect seeds.

This concludes another random act of flowerage. The smoking light is now on.