Red Buckeye, a Colony of Aphids, and a Swarm of Tadpoles: Spring in Our Midst!

I met with friends Chris Stuhlinger, Marian Moore Lewis, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Ben Hoksbergen on the morning of March 26, at the Taylor Road entrance to Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. The five of us wanted to learn more from archaeologist Ben about the Native American history he gleaned from a prior survey he conducted on the Sanctuary. Rather than share the fascinating history, I offer you our never-disappointing ecological saunter through the Sanctuary, revealing seasonal spring discoveries.

Red buckeye showed its colors amid the morning vapors above Hidden Spring.

 

I recorded this 59-second red buckeye video.

 

Hidden Spring lies 30-feet below the entrance deck and shelter. Something within the deepness beckoned me, but the steep descent and the vegetative jungle compelled me to stay at the bluff to capture the Hidden Spring magic from above. What would have been a quick descent, brief exploration, and return scamper to the brim at age 45, is now daunting 30 years hence. Such a possibiliy is now reduced to a Southern term: “usedtocould“!

 

A still photograph and my 59-second video will have to satisfy my curiosity for a closer look.

 

Hidden Spring Brook collects and channels the Hidden Spring flow, beginning its jorney to the Flint River.

 

Here’s my video of Hidden Spring Brook.

 

Approaching Jobala Pond, Hidden Brook is terraced by a beaverdam. Ever the habitat-modifying stream engineers, beavers insist on having it their way!

 

A city crew rectifying a drainage issue temporarily muddied Jobala Pond with sediment inflow.

 

 

 

 

I’ve been monitoring a large and rapidly expanding burl five feet above ground on a water oak at the Jobala Pond outlet for eight years. I always snap a photo, wondering what is the endgame for this unusual growth.

 

Nearby, a pileated woodpecker is creating a high-rise apartment complex. I could not get close enough to see whether there are different unique compartments…or separate entrances to the tree’s hollow interior. The woodpecker’s excavations serve a self interest. Does the bird know/understand/care that in pecking away to secure food (insects and grubs) that it is performing a valuable ecosysten function? How many mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fungi, and other lifeforms interact with the bird’s ratta-tat-tat drumming?

 

John Muir appreciated the essential interdpendency of all things earthly:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

AND

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

 

Butterweed’s season exalts across three glorious early spring weeks. She tends her stored sunshine secretively through our southern winter. Suddenly after the requisite threshold of degree days, she lets loose, explosively…from drab dormancy to lasered brilliance emanately from roadside ditches.

 

Most specimens along the main sanctuary trail were pest free, this heavily black-bean-aphid-infested plant an exception.

 

Oh, the ecological lessons in plain sight on a three-hour spring saunter, like this silky field ant tending black bean aphids! Ants and aphids share a well-documented symbiotic relationship, which means they both benefit mutually from their working relationship. Aphids produce a sugary food for the ants, in exchange, ants care for and protect the aphids from predators and parasites.

 

A small flowered buttercup expressed spring’s urgent call to action. Summer’s rampant vegetative growth will rapidly smother this harbinger of spring. Her call is to get it done now, while the gettin’ is good!

 

Bulbous cress is another early spring ephemeral whose window will soon close.

 

We puzzled a few minutes over the streamside identity of buckthorn bully. I love the interplay of enthusiastic Nature enthusiasts clamoring, researching digitally, testing with iNaturalist, and even arguing (good naturedly) to see who can claim the identity summit. The competition was so savagely engaged that I already forget who prevailed!

 

One of us noticed a roadside puddle thick with tadpoles. I recorded this 60-second tadpole video.

 

I pondered the fate of the tadpoles. Did rain replenish the puddle long enough for frogs or toads to emerge? Will predators prevail?

 

 

 

 

 

We proceeded to the wetland mitigation area, where I recorded a video.

 

The project’s intent is to restore the agricultural fields to their original hydrology and to restore bottomland hardwood forest species. The tree shelters protect planted wetland hardwood seedlings.

I’ll close this post with a repeat from a prior recent photo essay. I’m drafting this narrative 25 days after major left shoulder replacement revision surgery. Recovery includes lots of physical therapy and encourages walking. Walking on the sidewalk and greenway variety! Woodland excursions are weeks away for a less-than-sure-footed 75-year-old. My Doc discourages falling, jarring, and stressing the prosthesis! I chose to once again employ the closing. I’m not yet at the end of my forest hiking/sauntering, but one day we all will reach that juncture when we’ll hike again with old friends, long gone. Until then, I will trek my haunts while I have the chance…until I can’t.

Closing

 

I recalled and reflected upon the lyrics of a beautiful, haunting, sobering song written by Cody Johnson and recently re-released by Kid Rock:

If you got a chance take it
Take it while you got a chance
If you got a dream chase it
‘Cause a dream won’t chase you back
If you’re gonna love somebody
Hold ’em as long and as strong and as close as you can
‘Til you can’t

Here’s Kid Rock’s performance: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=kid+rock%27s+til+you+can%27t&type=E210US752G91913#id=1&vid=65bad198429e2f998a60294e98819e09&action=view

 

After wandering forests for three-quarters of a century, I was struck with the notion that I intend to continue doing so…until I can’t. A day will come when I can’t. I look at my wife, kids, grandkids, friends, and colleagues through the same reality filter. A day will come… when I can’t.

I recall the dawn…my dawn…from a growing distance. I sense the evening gloam approaching. I ask myself, do I want to invest a single woods venture by racing with a group from one place, through the woods, to another, with virtually no time for inter-personal, social intercourse? And certainly too little time to harvest photo essay fodder. I relish each step at my own pace, embracing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration?

I shall remain a dedicated servant of encouraging informed and responsible Earth stewardship...Until I can’t…

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

• When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. (John Muir)

• I shall remain a dedicated servant of encouraging informed and responsible Earth stewardship…Until I can’t… (Steve Jones)

• Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Until I can’t!

Vision:

• People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
• They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future