A Bit of a Walk at Mill Mountain, Roanoke

Overlook at Mill Mountain, Roanoke, Virginia

     Depending on whatever the weatherman wants to throw your way, a walk in winter can be either unpleasantly harsh, or surprisingly nice. Or, it could be a little of both. It was certainly that our first time up the mountain, Mill Mountain, that is, which overlooks Roanoke, a city like many that is named after a Native American tribe (Algonquin for "shell money"). Mill Mountain, with its huge neon star overlooking the city at night, is also a place where you can view wildlife and get close to nature. But on this January day they were all holed up in their burrows and dens.

     Our guide, Tim, took a small group of us on a walk along the "ridge line" trail at the top of the mountain. But part of the way we were surrounded by the barest of tall trees, and strewn about logs, which didn't need to protect us from the elements -- there was little wind and the sun was up in a blue sky. He pointed out small animals may use the logs on the ground as their highway or runway to get from place to place. And when we came to a tree with a big hole in it about three feet up, he asked the kids in our group of a dozen why animals might like the big hole above the ground. He received answers like "to protect from the rain," "to stay warm," "to stash food," and a few others. We didn't see any critters, even if the day was warming up to almost 50 degrees. Snakes might come out of their den with prolonged warm temps and sun themselves on a log, Tim explained, but this surprisingly mild day saw no creatures stirring on this afternoon,  except for humans. Ah well. We might need to wait another month or two before the little critters come out.

Don't Eat the Christmas Berries

    This may be a little after Christmas, but those of us trying to learn more about nature and foraging (especially if you are ever lost in the woods!) need be weary of the many red berries we see around Christmas time. Like holly berries, which come from the female tree-- yes, some trees are like that, carrying the female parts and fruit, with male parts on other trees of the same species. There a number of different holly trees on the Radford University campus, and the red berries produced are poisonous. Maybe one berry wouldn't hurt much, but poisonous parts of plants in nature make people very ill, or the case of certain plants, like jimson weed or  poison hemlock, downright deadly.
      So don't let the kids or cats eat the holly berries that may be part of Christmas wreaths. The white berries of mistletoe, that little sprig you put overhead in order to garner a kiss, also are not healthy, the leaves even moreso than the berries and cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, not fun things to happen to you during the holiday.
     Wintertime and the woods seem rather brown and bare, and the bright berries on display then are for the birds, though they aren't the birds' first choice.

Did you know that-- about the parrot fish

                                                  It's Big! It's Blue! It's a Fish!

     It looks like a talking, cartoon fish. I stumbled upon something very weird on the Internet (not that that is difficult, but even so, this is surprising). Somewhere was posted several "weird" animals, animals being anything that can move independently. I then learned there is  a very unusual fish in the Caribbean (though they also have a variety of this fish in the Pacific as well). And it's called the parrot fish, this one being the blue parrot fish.
     This "blue" fish has a bump on its face making it look like a beak, and also a  fused set of teeth (instead of 32 individual teeth, like people have). And THAT, makes it look a bit like maybe a "Finding Nemo" kind of fish! 
     Many fish don't have any real teeth, as they feed on tiny insects or algae. The blue parrot fish does feed on algae on rock and coral, and bites off the rock in the process! It also has pharyngeal or throat teeth to further grind up the coral -- to tiny bits. It's then expelled out the other end: fish poop. If you were to swim by this three foot long fish it would leave you in a cloud of underwater dust!
     These remains help form the Caribbean beaches and islands. So maybe those "white" sands aren't as pure as you think! They say the parrot fish produces about 200 pounds of sand this way. It's certainly given me a new interest in the colorful fish of the Caribbean-- gee, did Captain Sparrow ever seek out any of these blue fish? 

What is by my door

     Near our front door, just besides our somewhat prolific red bush (now fading out), is a compound leaf of what looks like a "mini- tree", that's come out of nowhere. This means it could be the volunteer, invasive "Tree of Heaven". But it has leaves with serrated edges, which the Tree of Heaven doesn't have. It seems to be, more likely, mountain ash or maybe a type of sumac.

Falls Colors and Hiking Blue Ridge and Mabry Mill

                                             Me on the Rock Castle Gorge Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway.

                                     The scenic Mabry Mill, Blue Ridge Parkway in VA.


     It was over a week ago, after being "inside" the previous weekend promoting nature, that we went outside to take our first real trip on the "Blue Ridge Parkway" to partake of the fruits of nature's labors in autumn: the fall colors.
     Actually, on Route 8 on the way to the Blue Ridge Parkway, I think the colors were brighter and peaking a bit more. I think it depended on what part of the Blue Ridge Parkway you were on. But we did see some outright bright reds (of dogwood, sourwood, red oak, sumac, most likely) at a few overlooks, amongst some greens and other muted colors. On one hillside, at the "Rock Castle Gorge" overlook, it was bright with many shades of yellow and oranges. I noticed the yellow orange color was prominent at the Rocky Knob picnic area.
     The Rocky Knob area was, well, rocky, with many outcroppings people could walk among as they headed toward a very rustic, slate colored restroom. The information station on the Parkway itself was also slate colored, and small. But it had some neat little items, like brochures showing the entire route of the Parkway you could take. If you wanted more, they had for sale cards identifying Eastern forest trees,  drawings of animal prints, and even hats and pocket knives for sale. But the picnic area itself, which seems to be "at the top" of the parkway, was windy and a bit shady and cold. I needed to head back to the car for my hat before sitting down to wolf down a sandwich in the cold wind. And I noticed a big oak above me --- most of its branches were near the top, and the top of it swayed to and fro about 80 feet above me!
     But diagonally across from Rocky Knob was Rock Castle. We looked out a bit, but also wanted to see a bit of a trail. The trail had some rocks you  had to get over and I almost tripped a few times --- good thing my spouse went back to the car to give us some steadiness with our walking sticks. The trail in many parts was "slushy" with fallen, dry leaves, and I noted the hickory nuts and some turkey oak and white oak too. As I told my college students, the trees are having their late hurrah before winter and then going dormant. It was a short trail, and we took pictures by these  rocks in the middle of the woods, in a configuration and little bit like an "open" Stonehenge.
     Then we drove several miles down the road to the reknown Mabry Mill, which was in business in the last century and before, at a time when they went to a grist mill to have their corn ground. It was packed -- you'd have had to wait an hour to get in their little restaurant, but there a guide speaking about the grist mill's history, and many other artifacts at the site, like an "evaporating dan," blacksmith log cabin, wooden wagon with wooden wheels, etc. And even some information on making soap. The good ol' days, when people were very self sufficient. And everyone was taking pictures of the mill and pond nearby, a few fall colors adding some contract to their dark color.
     Fall colors are an interesting way to get people out on the trail. The Parkway was busy the third weekend of October and hopefully it will continue to have visitors through the entire month.  

A Naturalist at the Hokie "Bug Fest" at Virginia Tech

     

                                         

                                             Tarantula in a container at the annual "bug fest"



      From my standpoint, the  annual "bug fest" at the Virginia Tech Conference Center was fascinating, totally noisy, maybe a little too much for the real little ones. One parent complained to me his six year old got scared in the haunted house, and it was a lot of stimulation for preschoolers. But it was really a great event, conveniently held inside as it did rain on Saturday, October 11. I even got to hold a praying mantis!
      All kinds of natural interactions awaited kids and adults alike at this conference with a little bit of everything: bee dancing, holding bugs, eyeing glow in the dark scorpions and juvenile fireflies in a "luminescent cave" upstairs, even nature games on a row of ipads. Kids could even use a remote control so that robotic metal and plastic colored "bugs" could move around on a little platform, or see monsters in a haunted house.
      The haunted house, according to one parent of a six year old, had creepy monsters that scared his son --- maybe they should have designated that for the older kids, or teens. It was definitely an event attracting very little kids, up to those in middle school. I suppose teenagers consider bugs to be just creepy and uncool, so that may be why I didn't see too many there from my spot manning the "Master Naturalist" information booth. Dr. Fell, the bee expert, pointed out (at this 10- 5 event) that by 11 a.m. they had 1,100 people pass through. 
      Fell, who's taught bee keeping at Virginia Tech, engaged kids and others in some "bee dancing," or what he called the bee waggle. He told the kids to follow the customed "Hokie bird" . "Are you ready, Hokie bird?" he asked at the beginning of the bee waggling dance.
      There was an entomology table with a question sheet kids and adults could fill out, based on information from displays and just talking to exhibitors. I had a game, a sorting of insect and non insect pictures, and some people asked me about the insect questions. Specifically, insects have three body parts -- head, thorax, abdomen -- and three pairs of legs. This includes bees, butterflies, ladybugs, mosquitoes. Non insects, in a different bug grouping, include spiders, slugs (long snails without a shell), earth worms and others. Non insects, like ticks, can have four pairs of legs and two body sections.
     Virtual bees on the computer screen flew in and out of a bee hive section and were pretty noisy, along with kids and adults looking over all the bug fest had to offer, from a bug wizard question wheel to beeswax candles to a bug zoo with different kinds of hairy tarantulas and giant cockroaches, the latter maybe four inches long!
      Not all adults were enthused about bugs, though. One parent was encouraging her son as he tried to maneuver the robotic blue bug that looked like a mechanical spider. "Too bad we couldn't control all bugs," I told her. She replied, "Yeah, have them go to the river and drown."
I meant have them leave the house; that's all, but many adults don't realize we need bugs. They provide food for bats and song birds; they pollinate most of our fruits and vegetables. E. O. Wilson says we couldn't live without them.

Cove Cleanup "Dunk"

     It seems that the third time is a charm, and I wound up getting all wet in the process. I was referring to my chances to get out in a canoe in my area.  We don't own a canoe-- since you can easily rent one it would seem to be a bit of a waste of space. So we looked forward to getting in "someone else's" canoe for the ride to the annual Jean Elliot- Master Naturalist picnic that is off the New River and on the way to McCoy (I believe). But we went down a road and took the wrong turn, then received lousy directions from this young guy who sent us on a wild goose chase. Spouse Frank was fed up and tired and drove home, so we missed the picnic and canoeing.
     Another time at Claytor Lake there was a weekly (and early for me) canoe ride on Fridays in the summer. The time we decided to go it was foggy and a little rainy. The spouse went while I walked around and got a hot chocolate from the gift shop, and bought a mug in "another" gift-supply office at Claytor Lake State Park. He told me later that it stopped raining after a half hour and I should have gone on the ride. Another canoe experience missed!
     So this third time, picking up trash via canoe or on land (or a combination) I went with "gung ho" Master naturalist member Michael (I think he's a little hyper)by canoe, and he was hyped up to pick up stray bottles, and plastic. And one time I saw something green and he, with his open rubber "boat sandals", walked in and pulled a ripped up  baby pool out of the water. I also found the  letter R, and many pieces of plastic, a plant that had grown through Styrofoam, glass beer bottles, and these Skol tobacco tins.
     In his family owned canoe I also received my first and only "dunk" in the water of the season. Normally, I was paddling in front and he was steering in back. But he turned the boat around. I was facing away from the cove and didn't see what he was doing. Next thing I know, the front of the canoe was tipping to one side and I completely fell in! He didn't apologize either. I think I tried to laugh it off (and a good thing that my rain coat, ironically, was dry in a waterproof bag we'd packed). I only fell in 2-3 feet of water, but that's all it takes to get soaked! Luckily, the air felt pretty warm and I wasn't getting chilled till we were finally heading back to where we started and a bit of wind was coming at us -- I didn't seem to heat up even as I was paddling at a good clip.
     Another unique find we put in trash bags -- we collected 6 big bags and some loose stuff as well ---was a pair on dark colored pants caught on a tree limb. Toward the end, as I was already wet, I got out of the canoe and put a bunch of plastic bottles, glass bottles, and pieces of plastic and bottle caps into a trash bag of my own. Fishermen can be lazy. Oh-- we also found some caps in good condition, and flip flops, no doubt blown off their wearers at some point. I got some good exercise and received a certificate for finding the "least expected piece of trash" (for the baby pool).