November at Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge: Green, Brown, Red And White

November 24th, 2012. We’ve endured what seems like weeks of gray clouds and rain. Life is shades mostly of the dull green of pine trees and the browns of dead leaves and grasses. Time to look back to late November when there were still leaves on trees and some sun shining between the clouds.
 

We drove into the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge on Starr Road from GA-83 as we usually do. We spotted a grass…

blooming in the pine forest west of the road. It took a few minutes to process the fact that it wasn’t on of the native grasses – the seed heads were too ‘white’ - but…
 

Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) that had seeded itself in the national forest north of the wildlife refuge.

We drove down to Pond 6A which… 
 

 Is a pretty pond, and a…

good place to see fine examples of Silver Plume Grass (Saccharum alopecuroides) in the distance across the pond, and...

 

up close on the dam.
 

We then drove over to Pond 2A. One the way we spotted a white ‘growth’ on the trunk of a pine tree; about 15 feet above the ground. This proved to be a…

 

 Tooth fungus (unidentified).

My favorite view of the Pond 2A shoreline.

On this occasion, we were surprised to find that a gate to the wildlife refuge just beyond Pond 2A was open and we took the opportunity to explore a new road.

At one bend in the road we found this oak tree with brilliant red leaves, and a…
 

side road bordered by trees still holding onto their browned leaves. And then a stop to examine…
 

a few stalks of grass (in the center of the image) that I had assumed previously to be in immature Broomsedge Bluestem (Andropogon virginicus) but which, clearly, were quite different when mature.

 

A closer view of the seed head. This is Elliot’s Bluestem (Andropogon gyrans).

 Then we made our obligatory stop at the bridge over Little Falling Creek. 

 

The creek had no water flow at all. There was just a lot of dry rock and a few, isolated pools of water.
 

We found several stands of Common Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) at Pond 11a, and the final find of the day…

An Asclepias species seed pod releasing seeds. This is almost certainly the Green Comet Milkweed(Asclepias viridiflora) 

Even when the main wildflower show is over for the year, there are still a lot of interesting finds to be had. 

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Beaver Lodge On Anderson Mill Creek Swamp

We found the swamps on Enoch John Road in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 2011 and drive by them every time we’re in the county. On the day we took the most recent photos of the beaver lodge on the eastern swamp on Enoch John Road, we discovered another lodge on the western swamp on Anderson Mill Creek.

We always stop on the..

bridge over the creek – looking west to the bridge - and take photos looking to the…

south..

A closer view, and…

north…

A closer view.

We stopped on the eastern approach to the bridge to photograph a…

Clump of Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) that had gone to seed.

We were wandering around and noticed something almost insignificant but not quite…

A mud dam stretching between two clumps of grass. This wasn’t there last time we drove along this road. The road grader had been through and opened up the vegetation along this stretch of road to allow water to drain from the upper swamp to the lower area.

This was a small dam. No doubt about it. The beaver in this area have built and extensive length of dam, more like a terrace, along the north side of the road to the west of the bridge. This small section was very similar.

So we started looking around and found, a little way to the north, another beaver lodge almost hidden. In this photo, it’s a gray mound just to the left of center behind the bushes. It’s there; you just have to know where to look.

There was no getting closer to it. Its in the swamp. The water is probably a couple of feet deep and the bottom mud is probably soft. We weren’t equipped and weren’t going to attempt to get closer. The only other option was to position the pickup in the best spot and climb up into the bed of the pickup and strain for a better view.

This was the best we could do but, clearly, it is a beaver lodge not more than approximately 30 feet north of the road.

Judging by how difficult it was to get a good view of the lodge now that the bushes have dropped their leaves, it would be impossible to see it in the Summer.

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Identification Resources:

University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: American Beaver (Castor canadensis)

Southeastern Flora: Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus)

Related post:

- Beaver Lodge On Wilkes County Swamp