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7/3/02

The Nature Notebook

SMN
Birds:

° Golden-crowned kinglets (very active, with fledglings,) red-breasted nuthatch, chestnut-sided warbler (with immatures,) black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, northern parula, blue-headed vireo, dark-eyed juncos and eastern towhees (with fledlings,) brown creeper, blackburnian warbler and veery (6/29, Heintooga picnic area and Flat Creek trail, Don Hendershot)

° Grasshopper sparrow, along Howell Mill road, in Waynesville across from rec center (6/28, Bob Olthoff)

° Immature eastern phobe (hanging around nest,) indigo bunting, blue-headed vireo (6/28, Cove Field Ridge Overlook on Blue Ridge Parkway, Don Hendershot)

° Osprey (6/29, Lake Junaluska, Bob Olthoff)

° Mourning warbler, alder flycatcher (6/30, Roan Mountain, Bob Olthoff & Wayne Forsythe)


Wildflowers:

° Spiderwort, Tradescantia subaspera; flowering raspberry, Rubus Odoratus; basil balm, Monarda clinopodia and Turk’s-cap lily, Lilium superbum (Turk’s-cap & Carolina lily, L. michauxii are starting to burst open all along the BRP,) (6/28, across the parkway from Waynesville Overlook, Don Hendershot - note; bee-balm, Monarda didyma, just beginning to open here and at other points along parkway)

° Sundrops, Oenothera fruiticosa; fire pink, Silene virginica; New Jersey tea, Ceanothus americanus; flowering spurge, Euphorbia corollata; whorled loosestrife, Lysimachia quadrifolia; spiderwort, Tradescantia subaspera and St. John’s wort, Hypericum mitchellianum (6/28, area of rock outcropping across parkway from Cove Field Ridge Overlook)

°Why we love the mountains - this slope at milepost 437, just before Grassy Ridge Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway is a kaleidoscope of colors from white to red to orange to pink to purple to yellow - sundrops, Oenothera fruiticosa; yarrow, Achillea millefolium; fire pink, Silene virginica; Indian paintbrush, Castilleja coccinea; mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia; campion, Silene sp.; beard tongue, Penstemon canescens and ragwort, Senecio sp. (6/28,Don Hendershot)