Glory in the Morning. all pictures by John Dancy-Jones

 All pictures click to enlarge

It has been a slow year at Raleigh Nature, squeezed by my Meniere’s Syndrome, classroom teaching, other online interests, and gardening.  Here are some nice images from 2010, some with notes on the separate posts I would  liked to have written with them.  Thanks for checking in and we’ll keep plugging.  Have a great one!

 The snowy holidays were great fun and a white Christmas seemed like an enticing treat from the Climate Change Coming. We are still working on raising food year round at the Person Street urban homestead and the chickens have been a spectacular success and my best excuse for not being out in Raleigh nature.

Esperanza, our combless Aracauna, with her friends, out for a stroll

Fall pond at Oak View Park

I am truly grateful for Get To Know a Park, since I would rather concentrate on out of the way places, but there are still plenty of park rows to hoe.  Besides Oak View, there is a small new one on Honeycutt Road, and little gems like Hymettus Woods at Wade and Dixie.  One of my biggest regrets of 2010 is not getting over to the new section of greenway emerging by the beltline on House Creek, where I have been specifically invited by a reader (lo siento  ) 

Fall colors at Oak View

Cemetery Branch

There is always a lot of nature lore to explore, and 2010 was no exception.

woad blue mold after heavy rains

Raleigh Swamp mallard hen

sunlit slider on Middle Crabtree

my TFA science classroom's pet box turtle

 

Oakwood hawk with a diappointingly invisible captured squirrel

snapper in the Wilmington creek beside Dorian's apartment

There is a lot I would like to cover from my travels outside Raleigh as well. The Maine post went well, but my mountain traveling has been heavy, and there is always just sooo much to tell.

Boulders on 64 in western NC

rock sculpture at UNC-A's Botanical Garden

ballon from rest stop on 40

Bass Harbor, Maine

There are so many things happening with parks and green amenities in Raleigh.  I had hoped to write about the beginnings of the Neuse River trail, which starts at Fall Dam and eventually hits Anderson Point, the river’s intersection with Crabtree.  This wonderful, under-used park has been the source of many a stimulating walk and deserves multiple posts.  Halfway down that trail (where it joins the existing one) is Raleigh Beach and the Milburnie Dam, which is up for possible removal.  Now THIS topic I would have preferred to address at Raleigh Public Record, and I may yet (the project is on a back-burner currently).

raccon midden at Milburnie Dam (hat for scale)

Happy New Year and here’s hoping again for an invasive species page, a record trees map and more straight street pieces in 2011 – and if we’re lucky, Marsh Creek Part II !           Love,  John

This owl swooped down and landed on a branch directly above Crabtree Creek as I walked on the high greenway that traverses a steep hill off Capital Boulevard.  This is just east of the sad section that has recently had its woody buffer appropriated by bulldozers.

 It sat there for the 20 minutes or so I watched it from different angles.  I believe it’s a Barn Owl.  This was about half hour before dusk.  The owl was getting ready for work.

The owl is somewhere in the scene below.  Crabtree takes a sharp bend as it approaches Capital Boulevard near the beltline.  It is turned by a large rock outcrop that underlies the hill on which a large former car dealership resides, framed by the south ramp off the beltline.  The slope from the back of the car dealership down to the creek is some really interesting terrain, and the troublesome but dramatic walkway that clings to the hillside is one of my favorite stretches in the whole system. One reason being it’s a great place to spot turtles, as you will see below. (snapper story below that)

Below is the rock that turns Crabtree.  It looks dark and foliated, but it’s drenched in algae, so Iwon’t make a specific guess.

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Snapper Lays Eggs

The family of one of my students had a female snapping turtle crawl up into a sandy area near their backyard creek and lay some eggs.  She finished and went on  back to the creek, and now they get to watch for babies.  Good luck to Carson and her family!

Check this out.  I have been watching this particular red maple on Hardison Drive in Quail Hollow all spring.  What amazing red color from the early samsaras, which emerge and mature before the first spring leaves.  Cool shift through orange as the helicopter seeds slowly lose out to the foliage.

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Snapper Loose!

 So last week my high school teacher assistant, Randall, a senior helping with my 6th grade science class, brings in a turtle.  Except this turtle made my day, entertained almost my entire school population, and impressed the heck out of us all.  He was huge!  For a 6th grade classroom, anyway.  My students of all ages were in awe as I lifted him from the back and displayed the gaping, snapping mouth and long sharp claws.  By day’s end I had little claw marks all over my hands. On the other hand, this snapper was weary and disgusted.  I promised Randall I would find a nice spot to release him. (Randall had hooked him by the leg with a casting line and hauled him out of the lake in his backyard, where he certainly was not expected back). I though of Blue Jay Point, where I have released ailing box turtles and morose sliders.  I thought of Lassiter Mill, where I have seen, just as I mentioned in the recent post on that subject, animal control officers release unwanted specimens.  This was a big, dangerous turtle ( though they do get over twice this size), and I decided I wanted an undeveloped stretch of water.  Crabtree on the east end of Buckeye Trail was the obvious solution.  Snapper could climb up the bank into the Marsh Creek marsh by Yonkers Road, or float on down to Anderson Point and find the Neuse River, with lots of side choices along the way.

So I wrestled him back into his tub one last time and drove to Milburnie Road and parked.  As I got out, a small peculiar lady with four young children came ambling down the road.  I spoke to them and explained I was a science teacher who could share something interesting if they had a minute.  The kids were appropriately aghast and entertained, but Mom had other ideas.

” You don’t mean you going to turn that turtle loose!  You can give that turtle to me.  I’d love to have it.”

Now even if it wouldn’t have been crazy to give a strong, heavy, dangerous reptile to a small woman with four small kids, I knew exactly why she wanted it, and I was having no part of it.

“You just want to cook this turtle!  I’m going to turn it loose like I promised Randall.”

 And the woman just wouldn’t let go of the idea that I might give her this turtle.  She wanted it badly.  She and her kids watched as I started off down the greenway, lugging the tub.  They started on down Milburnie, but were clearly watching through the trees.  So rather than turning him loose in the small tributary right next to Milburnie, as I had planned, I heaved and puffed with the tub all the way down to Crabtree.  I set him on the grass and took these photos.  Then I slid him down the bank and took the video linked below.

I was right proud of myself as a Baby Boomer teacher who has embraced the 21st century, because I was able to show my students ( and especially Randall) this video post on Pecans & Mistletoe, my nature projects blog, the very next day.  They didn’t have to trust my account, they could watch this turtle go into Crabtree.  Hope you enjoy it as well.

 Snapper Loose! video

If only this were Raleigh!  I’m a real stick in the mud, but Cara gets me out whenever she can.  This is east of Seattle, where we spent last spring break, and this waterfall has a power generating plant carved into the rock behind it that generates enough electricity for a town or two.  Below are two fully humanized photos that reside best in this section for nifty odds and ends. The Miami-phase corn snake is characterized by white more than yellow background tones and is posed on The Fletcher Academy’s baby grand.  My nine year old common snapper is peering from her tank.