April Flowers and Hemlock Polypores, April 25-28, 2012

The 62nd Annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage is this week. People come from around the world (but mostly the eastern U.S.) to see the glory of the Smokies in April. Unfortunately, Mother Nature’s normal schedule got a bit skewed, and April’s magnificent show burst forth in March this year. Many of the plants typically in flower [...]

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Whiteoak Sink, Feb. 4, 2012

Certain places just get in the blood. There are people for whom hiking Mt. LeConte is an annual rite. Porters Creek is a sentimental favorite of mine. Whiteoak Sink has a hold on Allen Sweetser. He and Susan share interest in a cabin just a short walk outside the park boundary at Schoolhouse Gap, allowing [...]

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Musings in Macro, Part 2, August 8 & 9, 2011

These two relaxed days of searching for tiny treasures not only yield some great photos, but provide ample opportunities for expanding knowledge too. And as a special bonus, such quiet pursuits also serve to refresh the spirit. A lifetime puttering through these mountains daily would never lack stimulating interests for the mind or soothing balm for [...]

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Musings in Macro, Part 1, August 8 & 9, 2011

In a place as biologically diverse as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, there is always something to attract the eye. Showy species can catch the attention of a trail runner at top speed, but to truly appreciate the full measure of this place, even a slow hiker like me must occasionally set aside a [...]

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A Tale of Two Onions

Scott Ranger is a friend and an inspiration. He works as a nature tour guide in Alaska during the summer, a job that suits him to a T. There isn’t a topic within the scope of natural history that he does not find fascinating, and the knowledge he has accumulated over the years in wide-ranging [...]

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Monarch Tagging, Sept. 29, 2010

Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont engages in various Citizen Science projects.  I profiled their bird banding in June.  In early fall, they tag Monarch butterflies migrating to their winter refuge in central Mexico.  I am pleased join this effort on my last day in the Smokies.  Josh Davis, the Citizen Science Coordinator at GSMIT, [...]

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Whiteoak Sink, June 18, 2010

On the western end of the park, there are pockets of exposed limestone surrounded by older Precambrian rock layers that were thrust over the younger Paleozoic formations 200 million years ago when the continents collided. Cades Cove and Wears Cove are two limestone “windows” and between them is a lesser known opening called Whiteoak Sink.  [...]

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Bird Banding at Tremont, June 16, 2010

The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont is licensed to band songbirds.  Several times each summer, they erect about a dozen or so mist nets at 6 a.m. and patrol them every 40 minutes until noon to retrieve, document, and band any catches.   GSMIT staffer Josh Davis is in charge of the operation, and he [...]

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Wool Sower Gall

As Clarence and I finished our 10.8 mile hike on Rich Mountain, we found a curious object that raised lots of questions for which we had no answers.  It looked like a 2-to- 3-inch diameter dense cotton ball with little russet-colored bumps dotting the surface.  There was a hole on the underside with several seeds [...]

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Blue Ghost Fireflies

Last year while at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont’s Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certificate Program Aquatic Ecology class in May, I was introduced to an insect with a compelling method for attracting mates.  Most people know about fireflies, cute little flying beetles with butts that light up at dusk to facilitate one task all [...]

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