April 19, 2023 I arrived about noon at Alabama’s Lake Lurleen State Park (LLSP; near Tuscaloosa), then departed mid-afternoon April 20 after a morning meeting of the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board. I focus this Post on forest treasures and delights I discovered and examined the first afternoon as I transited four-plus miles of the Lakeshore Trail.

Like all of Alabama’s state parks, trail information signage and maps mark the way. This trailhead lies within sight of the LLSP headquarters.

I try to record a brief video for each of my Posts. I’ve often repeated the timeless wisdom that a picture is worth a thousand words. That is the reason that from the get-go I’ve adopted the photo-essay format. I’ve learned with my trusty iPhone to move a step beyond a still photo, thus this 1:40 video, which hopefully translates to a video is worth ten thousand words!

Special Flowering Plants

I don’t recall previously see Florida anise in flower, yet it grew in relative abundance in moist shady sites along the trail. Its evergreen leaves and multi-stemmed shrub form remind me of rhododendron. The genus name (Illicium) derives from the Latin term, illici, meaning “seductive,” in reference to its scent. I found everything about the shrub seductive!

Phlox blue-brightened the afternoon. I pondered how many days a year, at any one of my favorite natural areas across the northern third of Alabama, would I find some flowering native plant in full flower. I believe that if we include the tiny open meadow bloomers, the season of flowering would extend twelve months. Compared with my winters in New Hampshire, Upstate New York, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and Alaska, I stand by my long-held conclusion that our Alabama autumns slowly transition to spring, with a few cold days tossed in time-to-time to add spice with the illusion of winter. However, of great import to me, we do enjoy the period mid-November through early April without forest crown foliage. I cherish dormancy, even if mild weather prevails.

Little brown jugs (heart-leafed ginger) is a native evergreen perennial common to rich hardwood forests. Its main ornamental feature is its mottled leaf surface and burgundy underside. Its brown, jug-shaped flowers lie hidden under its leaves.

Although I did not find the brown jug flowers, this is a flowering plant, thus its inclusion under the heading.

Ferns and Lichens

I’ve always been a big fern fan. I have two long-term favorites: interrupted and cinnamon fern, both of which we cultivated in abundance in our New Hampshire perennial beds. I don’t recall seeing interrupted fern here in the South. In fact, I just checked, finding that the species range stays well north of us. I love the cinnamon fern’s singular fertile frond standing at the center of its circle of attractive  vegetative leaves.

At first glance I identified this fern as “sensitive,” however iNaturalist identified it as netted chain fern. The leaf margins distinguish the two. I am satisfied that iNaturalist is correct.

I recall traveling a dozen years ago from Rovaniemi, Finland (on the Arctic Circle) north into Lapland, where native Sami have tended reindeer and managed reindeer lichens for centuries. Herders rotate their animals across fenced lichen-rich northern forests to keep lichen grazing at sustainable levels. The dixie reindeer lichen colonies below reminded me of the Lapland reindeer forests. My trip north into Sami country, then west through northern Sweden, then over and along the fjords of Norway provided stunning scenery, provocative geography and ecosystem diversity, and one of the most memorable international experiences of my career. Nature for me is an unmatched physical evocator of powerful memories.

Ferns and lichens, elements of an intriguing forest ecosystem, drawing my attention, spur me to learn more, and transport me to deeply pleasant memories!

Tree Form Curiosities and Oddities

Always on alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I discovered an American beech that did not disappoint. Hollow from some past injury and subsequent decay, this tree allows light to pass from one side to another. Its cambial rind is sufficient to support the tree’s mass, i.e. its trunk and full crown (right), and faithfully conduct carbohydrates, sugars, and water within the tree.

The trailside stilted sweetgum likewise encourages light to pass from one side to the other. I can’t offer a definitive explanation for this curiosity. Here is my best shot. Picture an old stump topped with decaying wood and accumulated organic matter, thick enough to germinate a sweetgum seed. The stump continues to decay as the seedling grows, eventually extending its roots along the stump iside into the soil. The original stump has long since fully decayed; the sweetgum roots now serve as stilts.

I am about to make a statement of universal truth…so obvious, in fact, that I have never bothered to include it explicitly in one of my prior 350-plus Posts. Within any developing forest, say here in our northern Alabama temperate region beyond age 25-30 years, heavy things (branches or entire trees) occasionally fall, often hitting other standing live trees. When slammed just right by those heavy objects, a still somewhat flexible live tree bends and may not break. The bent tree remains alive, even when its then living crown is snapped, as in this sweetgum tree (photos below). Responding to its bent-over condition, this sweetgum sprouted new vertical shoots from adventitious buds, sending them into the intermediate canopy. So often people well-intentioned attribute such manifestations to the intentional action of Native Americans to create Indian marker trees pointing the way to some landscape feature.

Allow me to disabuse you of any such notion. This particular sweetgum tree is no more than 90 years old, having sprouted into life a full century after most Native Americans relocated (voluntarily or otherwise) from our state. A Native American marker tree — no. A natural phenomenon — yes!

Burrowing Crayfish and Green Snakes

The trail weaved generally through uplands with an occasional dip into wet areas along the shore. The wetter soils provide habitat for saturated-ground-dwelling crawdads (burrowing crayfish) that live below ground in excavated hollows, connected via vertical outlets to the surface. The crayfish lift balls of mud from their burrows, piling them into vertical passageways (left) with a clear exit hole (right).

I found an online document on burrowing crayfish at the Missouri Department of Conservation website:

These burrowing crayfish are called “ecosystem engineers.” Like beavers, who modify and build habitats to better suit their needs, crayfish modify their surrounding environment, create a specialized role for themselves, and often provide habitat for other animals and plants. Burrowers often excavate and inhabit tunnels (burrows) near surface water like streams, ponds, marshes, and even human-made ditches. They dig down into the soil until they reach the water table and use underground water for moisture and breathing.

I’m always on the lookout for fascinating features.

I nearly stepped on this rough greensnake, an attractive principally arboreal non-venomous forest inhabitant. The species typically consumes insects and small lizards that it finds in tree canopies.

I felt blessed to discover it at my feet!

Combined with burrowing crayfish, a stilted tree, cinnamon fern, and seductive anise, the greensnake served as a cherry topping on a sundae of Nature delights. I entered the forest seeking none of these especially, yet I found all of them and more. Nature never disappoints those willing to believe surprises await, capable of looking with purpose, open to actually seeing what lies hidden within, and acceptable to feeling the joy of immersing in all things natural.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Even a four-mile forest saunter opens windows into deep mysteries and special wonders.
• And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
• What could be more rewarding than an afternoon encountering a tree on stilts, a rough green snake, and a burrowing crayfish!

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:

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

January 31, 2023 I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary early afternoon following a night of steady rain. Saturated forest and field, streams and the Flint River running full, and deep overcast gave the Sanctuary an air of solemn spirituality. I returned February 14 on a spectacularly sunny Valentine’s Day and a week later on a fabulous spring afternoon. This Post offers observations, reflections, and photographs relevant to the signs of wildlife I encountered in aggregate on those three visits. I do not try to distinguish among the three visits.

Revisiting the Sanctuary always reminds me of mid-20th century American conservationist extraordinaire Aldo Leopold:

There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.

Insect Consumers

Death does not end the useful ecosystem “life” of trees. Standing dead trees attract insects whose presence beckons hungry woodpeckers in search of insect snacks and meals.

Fallen trees likewise provide food and shelter for insects and their grubs. Foraging birds or small mammals are shredding this log in search of food. The entire process constitutes the never-ending cycle of forest life.

Beavers

Beavers, industrious amphibious rodent-engineers, range across North America and are common at the Sanctuary. One of the few animals capable of (in fact, insistent upon) modifying its environment, I occasionally find evidence of curious beaver behavior. Perhaps the individual responsible for chewing this eastern red cedar liked the fragrant essence this amazing wood, famous for cedar chests!

Fresh beaver-chewed saplings indicated the presence of an active colony. The severed stems absent the tops suggested that the beavers had harvested and transported the edible cambium, buds, and twigs to their bankside homes.

Nearby, two recently-built dams retained 10-12 inches of pool depth on the stream draining Hidden Springs. The entire riverine ecosystem benefits: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals…the entire community thriving in the Sanctuary. As well as all the interdependent life forms, from trees, shrubs, herbs, and macro- and micro-invertebrates.

I value the Sanctuary, in its abundance and diversity of life, for its 400 acres located within the city limits of Huntsville, Alabama.

Deer

The ubiquitous deer have their own network of forest and field paths.

I find their telltale hoofprints wherever I stride. In fact, when off the formal human trails, I follow deer paths routinely. They seem to know the easiest route across fields, around wet spots, or through the forest. As is the case for all life forms, deer do not live forever. Primary consumers (vultures and coyotes, among others) have picked the bones clean in a meadow.

Fresh deer droppings hinted that deer are ever-present across the Sanctuary. Since last growing season, a buck has scraped velvet from his antlers on the 2.5-inch sapling along a forest path.

Life abounds on this forever-protected wildland!

Coyotes and Foxes

I’ve yet to spot a wily coyote in my Sanctuary wanderings, yet the evidence is ubiquitous. Scat rich with fine hair reveals a small mammal prey at left; coarser deer fur is apparent at right.

Fox scat was nearby below.

An evident mix of mammal predator and prey indicates a healthy ecosystem.

Great Blue Heron

A resident great blue heron is yet another keystone predator…fish, amphibians, snakes, birds, and small mammals. I am told that a heron rookery is near the Sanctuary along the Flint River. I cannot recall visiting the Sanctuary without seeking at least one heron.

I recorded this 0:44 video of a very patient and tolerant heron:

Visiting the Sanctuary rewards me without fail, regardless of the season or time of day!

Prior Visits

Enriching this Post, I borrow from prior visits, including two mallard drakes.

More woodpecker excavations.

Three common water snakes in the creek exiting Hidden Springs.

Marian Moore Lewis photographed this black swallowtail as we hiked.

She’s also credited with this blue dasher dragonfly (left) and jewelwing damselfly (right, bothe of these finds on a day we hiked.

Likewise, Marian managed to bring this osprey in close with her telephoto lens. We watched the bird circle multiple times over the lake off-property near the Sanctuary’s main entrance, stooping twice into the water. We could not discern whether the dives had been productive. We also viewed a great blue heron standing along the shoreline, then rising to fly into the Sanctuary.

Over the course of my many visits to the Sanctuary, especially when accompanying Marian, the wooly pipevine draws my attention.

I like its heart-shaped leaves, but I simply love the vine’s intimate relationship with the pipevine swallowtail butterfly (internet photo).

The butterfly’s entire life revolves around the pipevine: a location for egg-laying; a site for adult butterfly romance (see stock photo above); the exclusive snack bar for the caterpillars, which we found in abundance. See the one on underside of a leaf (below left) and in Marian’s hand.

The Sanctuary is a special place of wonder for me. Its magic is not limited to wildlife. The entire ecosystem is rich with Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. Aldo Leopold
• Seldom are we guaranteed seeing wildlife on our ventures, yet always the signs are there to the discerning.
• A wildlife sanctuary is more correctly viewed as a habitat preserve; provide it and they will come, whether you are there or not.

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:

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I am pleased to offer the ninth of my new GBH Brief Form Post format to my website (Less than three-minutes to read! Not including the brief videos). I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish the brief Posts regularly on at least a trial basis.

I visited Alabama’s Lake Lurleen State Park, ten miles NW of Tuscaloosa, April 19 and 20, 2023. Watch for two subsequent Full-Posts offering observations, reflections, photographs, and videos. One focuses on the lake itself; the other offers treasures I encountered along the Lakeshore Trail.

The Lake Itself 

Two-hundred-fifty-acre Lake Lurleen defines the Park. It draws people to the Park, like the powerful essence of frying bacon, invites diners to the breakfast table. Who could not be enticed by magic of a spring afternoon or the special elixir of an April dawn!?

Here are photos from shoreline the first afternoon (April 19) and the second morning from the nearby pier (April 20).

My 1:36 sunrise video from the same pier. The beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of the simple things of Nature!

Treasures along the Lakeshore Trail

I explored more than four miles of the Lakeshore Trail Wednesday afternoon, gifted with a bounty of spring wildflowers, trees erupting in fresh foliage, tree-form oddities and curiosities, lapping waves, and seasonal birdsong — a fascinating collage!

As a so often is the case, a brief video (1:41) speaks more lucidly and powerfully than a static photograph:

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts to a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. More than a half-millennium ago, Leonardo da Vinci observed, Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. Here is my simplistic observation:

• Nothing is superior aesthetically, spiritually, emotionally, and physically than a late spring day along a lake surrounded by forest!

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

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!

January 31, 2023 I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary early afternoon following a night of steady rain. Saturated forest and field, streams and the Flint River running full, and deep overcast gave the Sanctuary an air of solemn spirituality. This Post offers observations, reflections, and photographs relevant to the mid-winter waterworld I encountered that day and on subsequent visits February 14 and 21.

I’ll begin with a 2:56 video that I recorded at the Sanctuary’s east entrance, highlighting the saturated environment.

Within a hundred yards of the entrance, the trail crosses a bridge over a creek entering the Flint River, which at bankfull has filled the small creek to the brim. Below right the Flint is within a few inches of level with the forest floor.

This yellow poplar, marked with two horizontal lichen strips, stands near the water’s edge. I can at best only speculate the cause of lichen colony patterns on this or any other tree trunk. However, like so much in Nature, competition for resources so often plays an important, if not fundamental, role in determining which individuals, species, or life forms hold at least temporal custody and dominance of a particular habitat niche. Yes, a patch of bark stands as a niche. The lichen competes for the truf with other lichens, algae, and moss, among various life forms vying for the space. I include this photo within the Sanctuary’s water world because even five feet high on a tree trunk, moisture is among the life-resources enabling lichen to thrive. I can also say this photo belongs here because the river appears as background. Regardless of my written rationale, I feel compelled to point out that all elements of Nature and ecosystem function represent a fiercely competitive world, where diverse life forms vie for finite resources. Nature provides no assurance of equal outcomes. Even a lichen must earn its place through performance.

Hydric soils dominate the meadows. Fingers of standing water reach into the fields from channels draining into the nearby Flint River. I sloshed through the grass and sedges beyond the filled channel. Water ankle deep welcomed each footfall. Even the “high” ground felt spongy, springing as I lifted to the next step. The Natural Resources Conservation Service defines hydric soils:

A hydric soil is a soil that formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part.

Hydric soils, according to Wikipedia, the universal font of all knowledge and wisdom, hydric soils express their saturated nature with a grey color:

Gleying is essentially the process of waterlogging and reduction in soils. In waterlogged soils where water replaces air in pores, oxygen is quickly used up by microbes feeding on soil organic matter. The removal of iron leaves the soil a grey or bluish colour.

Again, these soils are seasonally very wet, a fact expressed by wet feet when trundling across, even absent the evidence of soil gleying!

I recorded a 2:50 video at this very same flooded arm:

Within 100 yards of this wet area, just north of the woods-edge where I stood, a tupelo stand occupies an old slough of the Flint River, offering literal and symbolic reflections of trees…and of life and living.

The tupelo pond merited recording this 2:04 video:

A miraculous experience, exciting deep spirituality and lifting my mind, heart, soul, and body. Yes, such special places and everyday Nature buoy my emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. What human-made art matches the magic of tupelo trees, moss-cloaked, and fern-bedecked…rising buttressed from the calm waters? I’m reminded of Joyce Kilmer’s immortal verse:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

I can’t top the wise depth of Kilmer’s more-than-a-century-ago rhymes and spiritual insights.

Because I always feel that my own words fall short of expressing my incalculable connection to Nature, I like turning to the timeless wisdom of Muir and da Vinci:

As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can. John Muir

Water is the driver of nature. As man has a pool of blood in which the lungs rise and fall in breathing, so the body of the earth has its ocean tide which likewise rises and falls every six hours, as if the world breathed. Stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Wetland Restoration Project

Far into the western end of the fields, much closer to the Sanctuary’s western entrance, a “forest” of white tree shelters marks a two-acre wetlands restoration project, where the city of Huntsville has contracted an environmental engineering firm to restore original, pre-agriculture hydrology.

If your eyes do not detect the vertical cylinders, please accept my word…and watch for a subsequent Post highlighting the resotoraction.

Firmament

I’ve often stated that most images of land, water, forest, and meadow are incomplete without complement of the accompany firmament, in this case, a patterned alto-cumulus stretching to the horizon on Valentine’s Day. Oh, yes, here is a closer view of the seedling tree shelters within the two-acre restoration project. See, I wasn’t fooling about their existence!

The sky is often its own focus, particularly on the Valentine’s Day visit.

A week later, mid-afternoon altostratus offered a different, yet just as lovely, ceiling above the meadows and forests.

I can’t get enough of Nature’s gifts. All required of me is venturing into her warm embrace.

Paraphrasing John Muir, I’ll learn the language of flood and storm, and get as near the heart of the world as I can. My visits to the Sanctuary…and any number of other special wild places…transport me to the vibrant heart of Nature, where her blood courses and flows into me, renewing and energizing my own heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Snowscape and ice-locked waterways are rare in northern Alabama; instead, Nature’s water-worlds reign!
• Water is the driver of Nature. (Leonardo da Vinci)
• Nothing in Nature is more dynamic than her endless, restless, life-giving cycle of water.

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:

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.