Thursday, June 28, 2012

Oconee River: North To Fishing Creek

May 25th, 2012. We launched at the boat ramp at the Dyar Pasture Recreation Area off SM Copeland Road in Greene County. We headed north. Not to see how far we could go up the river but to see if we could go up into Fishing Creek.

Our route.


We saw damselflies before we launched the boat. Blue-fronted Dancer (Argia apicalis)

Heading up river from the Dyar Pasture boat launch

Dragonfly. I’m not sure what this is. Its wings were deformed; it couldn’t fly.

Another male Blue-fronted Dancer on a snag.

Nearby, about a foot away on the same log, a damselfly that looks like a female Blue-ringed Dancer (Argia sedula)

Then there were the freeloaders who rode up the river on our boat – including what looks like a pair of Blue-fronted Dancers.

We headed up Fishing Creek. The entrance to the creek was fairly wide but shallow, only about two feet deep in many places.

*****
The creek narrowed. We had to keep an eye on the river depth. Georgia Power generates hydro power at the dam at the southern end of the lake which means that the lake, river and creek levels can fall a foot or so reasonably suddenly. We could have been stranded literally ‘up the creek’ had the power company started generating power. We were lucky though…

We were treated to an show of Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans) along the way.

The creek opens out into a wide, shallow bay. The Pink Queen we saw a year ago is to the left as we entered the bay. This is the entrance to the bay. The rods in the water have ropes with crayfish traps attached. We circumnavigated the bay and encountered this…

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) high in a tree. It was fanning to cool itself in the hot afternoon.

We returned to Dyar Pasture and then decided to go south to Lake Oconee. Highlights of that trip next…

Click on an image to view a larger image


Identification resources:

Southeastern Flora: Campsis radicans (Trumpet creeper)


Giff Beaton:

- Blue-fronted Dancer (Argia apicalis)
[Male] [Female]
- Blue-ringed Dancer (Argia sedula)
: [Male] [Female]

Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)


Related posts:

- Running The Oconee River: North from Dyar Pasture

- Pink Queen (Cleome hassleriana)

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