Dawson Forest WMA: Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa)

February 18th, 2012. Last December, on one of our trips to spot new wildflowers, we stumbled upon a patch of Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa) plants on Mill Road in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area (WMA). A little research at Name that Plant indicated that these plants would probably bloom in March so we planned to go back to see the blooms this Spring. Given that we’ve had a warm winter, it seems prudent to go a little earlier. We finally got around to driving up to Dawson Forest on the 18th. It was late afternoon at about 5 p.m. when we found them.

There it was. A single white flower among the fallen oak leaves on the embankment by the road. I’d been looking for the characteristic leaves but they’d withered since last December.

A closer view of the flower. It’s a little past its best but unmistakable. The white structures are sepals, not petals I looked around and found more....

A blooms that was starting to open. At first I thought it had finished blooming but the stamen are fresh.

This photo shows the hairy stems.

Another bloom beginning to open. This is younger than the bloom above. It was quite blue. The sepals of the young blooms are blue and fade to white as they age.

Each bloom has multiple ovaries. It would be interesting to see if these develop seeds.

I looked around for more plants. I’d been looking for the characteristic leaves that were quite prominent in December.

I spotted one.

The leaves have withered since last December.

There are two varieties of Hepatica nobilis – Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa (Roundlobed Hepatica) and Hepatica nobilis var. acuta (Sharplobe hepatica). Both varieties are found throughout the eastern United States and Canada. The Roundlobed Hepatica appears to be found further south in Georgia than the Sharplobe Hepatica, the latter being found only in far northern counties. Both varieties bloom in March.
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Distribution:
United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database:
- Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa (Roundlobe Hepatica)
- Hepatica nobilis var. acuta (Sharplobe Hepatica)

University of North Carolina Herbarium:
- Anemone americana
- Anemone acutiloba

Identification Resources
Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia:
- Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa (Round-lobed Hepatica, Round-lobed Liverleaf)
- Hepatica nobilis var. acuta (Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Sharp-lobed Liverleaf)

Related posts:
- Dawson Forest WMA: Road to the Roundlobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa)
- Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area, Atlanta Tract: Mill Road and Railroad Road

Dawson Forest WMA: Road to the Roundlobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa)

February 18th, 2012. Last December, on one of our trips to spot new wildflowers, we stumbled upon a patch of Roundlobed Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa) plants on Mill Road in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area (WMA). A little research at Name that Plant indicated that these plants would probably bloom in March so we planned to go back to see the blooms this Spring. Given that we’ve had a warm winter, it seems prudent to go a little earlier. We finally got around to driving up to Dawson Forest on the 18th.

A sight I hate to see. A locked gate. We’d been following a game warden who told us the gate would be locked until some time in the summer. The forest section of the park administration made that decision, not the game section. The road is step, as these photos showed, and some people would drive it roughly during the winter when it rained and tear it up. It’s understandable that the WMA folk would close the road to protect it but… Arrrrgh! I hated to miss out on the opportunity to see the flowers so we decided hike out along the road and see if we could reach them. We remembered that the embankment was on the steep section of road and we had the GPS coordinates but we couldn’t remember how far it was from this point. We decided that if it turned out to be too far, we could turn back. So, off we went.

The road wound through open, dry woods but there were still some interesting things to see on the way.

A crustose lichen with fruiting bodies. These fruiting bodies are difficult to see unless you pick up the twig and look closely.

A closer view.

Pixie Cup lichen fruiting bodies (Cladonia sp.). These are nice specimens.

A moss starting to fruit. It has sent up stalks but there aren’t any fruiting bodies yet.

The top of a tree snag had fallen onto the road during one of the recent storms. Woodpeckers had bored holes into it. The hole on the left was a simple hole; straight in. The hole on the right extended into the hole to the right although it didn’t break through the top of the snag.

The ‘Orange’ multi-use trail ran parallel to the Mill Road for a while and then crossed it to continue on the other side. A sign had been posted to remind horse riders and mountain bikers that they had missed the trail and needed to go back to pick it up again. For some reason, I get a kick out of these signs that are posted at several places in this WMA. Horses don’t bother me but it’s comforting to know that I won’t have mountain bikers careening down the steep hill toward me without warning.

We had entered the long stretch of Mill Road that goes ‘straight down’ to the ledge above the Etowah River. The problem with this stretch of road is that we would have to go ‘straight up’ to get back to where we started from so we began to assess how far we wanted to go in search of the plants. W decided to turn around. I thought I’d go a little further and took the GPS unit. I had walked another 10-12 feet before I spotted a single, white flower on the embankment. I checked the coordinates and we were there – at the spot marked ‘X”….
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Related posts:
- Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area, Atlanta Tract: Mill Road and Railroad Road

Piedmont NWR: The First Dimpled Troutlily (Erythronium umbilicatum) Of Spring

February 11th, 2012. We’ve had a really warm winter compared with a normal year. Only a couple of nights in the 20s F, so we’ve been guessing that we’d have to get out sooner this year to see some of the early Spring wildflowers. One of the wildflowers we wanted to see was the Dimpled Troutlily (Erythronium umbilicatum) that we’d found in midMarch last year in a small area near Allison Creek in the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Jones County, Georgia. They had almost finished blooming then so we wanted to catch them a little earlier this year. And we certainly accomplished that.

We arrived at the location and hopped out of the car. I have to confess that, momentarily, I had forgotten what the leaves looked like so I had to wander around before I found one. And then I spotted them.

Just a couple of their very distinctive leaves. And then, as we wandered around, we found them all over a small area at the edge of the woods on a ledge above a small creek.

A nice patch of leaves. It didn’t look like any were blooming and then we spotted…

a few plants in the bare earth; two with buds and a third with a bloom just starting to open. They were difficult to see; we almost missed them and would have if we hadn’t been walking bent over to scan the ground.

A closer view of one of the buds, and…

of the flower beginning to open.

And then, off to the left – about a foot away – another flower that had opened a little further.

A closer view of the opening flower.

In a little while, they’ll look like this, and…

this, and…

this. These shots were taken in the same area on March 12th, 2011.

These blooms can also be seen in several locations at the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve in DeKalb County – near the start of the the Bradley Mountain Trail and along the RR and the Lake Loop Trails.

Three Erythronium species with yellow flowers - Erythronium americanum (Dogtooth Violet), Erythronium umbilicatum (Dimpled Troutlily), and Erythronium rostratum (Yellow Troutlily) occur in the southeastern United States. Only Erythronium umbilicatum subspecies monostolum and umbilicatum have been documented to occur in many counties in the Georgia Piedmont.
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Distribution:
United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database:
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. monostolum (Dimpled Troutlily)
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. umbilicatum (Dimpled Troutlily)

University of North Carolina Herbarium:
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. monostolum
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. umbilicatum

Identification Resources
- Southeastern Flora: Erythronium umbilicatum (Dimpled Troutlily)

- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia:
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. monostolum (Southern Appalachian Trout Lily)
- Erythronium umbilicatum ssp. umbilicatum (Dimpled Trout Lily, Dogtooth Violet)

Related post:
- Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve: Bradley Mountain Trail (Part 1)

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) and Friends

December 29th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.

The most exotic birds on the marsh were the ibises – White (Eudocimus albus) and Glossy (Plegadis falcinellus). The Glossy Ibises were feeding out on the marsh and were hard to sight. The White Ibis, on the other hand, were clustered in a couple of spots seemingly soaking up the heat from the sun. Some brave souls were feeding along the shore of the marsh and we got much closer views south of the tree grove and along the canal on the east margin of the drive.

On the afternoon of December 28th. White Ibis were soaking up the head in the afternoon sun. They weren’t active at all and weren’t in the same spot the next morning.

Another group on the south side of the tree grove, however, were there on the afternoon of the 28th and the morning of the 29th – in about the same place.

A closer look showed that there were not only White Ibis but a couple of Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis) in the center of the group and a single Glossy Ibis to the right.

This was the best look we got of one of two Cattle Egrets that were feeding with a few White Ibis.

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Several pairs or small groups of White Ibis were feeding and, although continuously on the move, gave us several nice sightings.

It’ll be interesting to visit this refuge at different times to see what other birds inhabit the marsh during the year.
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Identification resources:
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology:
- White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
- Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Related posts:
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Evening Before
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Morning After
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Alligator Alley
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)

December 29th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.

I’ve seen occasional Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) on the lake at Fort Yargo State Park in the winter but have never had the opportunity to see them actively feeding. We saw this grebe feeding along the canal on the eastern margin of the refuge. This grebe was feeding from north to south and followed a very repetitive pattern.

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It would dive. It would either feed in the same spot or swim south as it grazed on the plants on the bottom.

When it surfaced, it always faced north. It would sit for a minute or so, and then

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circle around to face south again,

shake off the water from its previous dive, and then repeat the process over again, and again, and again.

We followed this grebe for 10 minutes and it invariably followed this routine. I wonder if this is a common practice among Pied-billed Grebes.
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Resources:
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)

Related posts:
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Evening Before
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Morning After
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Alligator Alley
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Perpetual Motion in Feathers

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Perpetual Motion in Feathers

December 29th, 2011. Between Christmas and New Year we took an overnight trip down to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in search of some sun and warmer weather. The weather was a little cool due to a northwesterly wind but it was sunny. The Savannah NWR is located on the east side of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Georgia. We visited Argyle Island that is accessed from Alligator Alley.

Most of the birds were on the move, all the time. Perpetual motion in feathers! They were going about their business on their own terms. Feeding was at the top of their 'to do' list. They weren't posing for photos thank you very much. But we got some anyway.

When we started out in the morning the air was crisp and cool. This heron, probably a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), in the left of the photo thought so too. It had taken up a position in a relatively sheltered to soak up heat from the sun.

A closer view. It looked distinctly frumpy in the cold air. Most of the bird activity was along the canal on the south and east margin of the drive.

American Coots (Fulica americana) were among the most numerous birds on the marsh, usually in groups. This was one of the few loners

We’d seen a male Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) on the canal when we drove the loop the previous evening so we were looking for him in the morning. And there he was. He was feeding on the opposite side of the canal.

This was the view we saw of him almost as much as seeing him right-side-up. He’d launch himself up and make a little loop to dive under the water. I tried to capture the jump but only got the sight of splayed tail feathers as he disappeared under the water.

A female Bufflehead. I’d seen male Buffleheads before but never a female. This was a nice sighting. She was hanging out by herself well away from the male.

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My best guess is that this is a Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis). I’ve never seen one before. I’d appreciate feedback as to whether my guess is correct or a correction.

A Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) looked on somewhat disapprovingly before it flew off to a quieter location.

We also saw Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps), White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) and Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis). More of these next.
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Resources:
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology:
- Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
- Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
- Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)
- Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor)

Related posts:
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Evening Before
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: The Morning After
- Savannah National Wildlife Refuge: Alligator Alley
- Bufflehead Duck (Bucephala albeola)