That’s Some Rock!

Saturday, Oct. 3 was one of those really perfect fall days – crisp, cool, sunshine and blue sky – so I decided to visit the natural arch that’s about 13 miles from our home.  I love rocks, and this one is impressive.

Wind, water and ice eroded the softer stone and left this hole in the hard cap rock, creating an arch that measures roughly  50 by 90 feet. The area around the arch is now a park within the Daniel Boone National Forest.  There are several hiking trails, including one that takes you down under the arch itself.  There’s another arch somewhere on one of the trails, but this is the major formation and I haven’t hiked all the trails yet, so I can’t comment on the other.

According to the Park brochures, the area under the arch was considered sacred ground by the Cherokee and the Native people that were here before them.  It isn’t difficult to imagine that it was, or that it still is.

This has quickly become one of my favorite places to visit, conveniently close to home, but so magnificent in what it has to offer that each trip is a new experience. I’ll no doubt be posting more about my explorations there.

It probably took me longer than most to hike to the bottom, only because I kept being side-tracked by other things to see, like this flowing rock with the straight line of pebbles caught in the motion. How did that happen?  A trip to the library for some books on Kentucky geology is in order…

I was also impressed by this forest of moss and lichen under the cedar trees on top of one of the rock ledges.  I’m not sure what the red hairy plant is – more books required!

The remaining photos are the area under the arch, and the last one is the view of the woods looking out from the rock shelter.  I have no doubt that this was, and still is, Sacred Ground.

The shelter area under the arch

IRFD Blog Sites

The results are in, and here’s a list of participating blogs. Check them out for some really interesting finds and photos!

The Natural Capital
Fertanish Chatter
Roundrock Journal
Just Playin’ Around
What It’s like on the Inside
KrisAbel
BugSafari
Sofia_Alexandra
Growing with Science
ChickenSpaghetti
NaturalNotes
Yips and Howls
Rock, Paper, Lizard
Outside My Window
The dog geek
Dave Ingram’s Natural History Blog
Via Negativa
Unplug Your Kids
ORCA: Observar, Recordar, Crecer y Aprender
Will Rees Fine Woodworking …
The Marvelous in Nature
Pohangina Pete
Ontario Wanderer
Bare Baby Feet
The Homefront Lines
Crazy Maize World
Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival
Wanderin’ Weeta

And don’t forget to check the Flickr group, too.

Not Much to Look At…

It rained most of the day today, but in between showers I managed to get outside in the backyard at least to participate in IRFD.  There wasn’t much to look at, really.

Mostly some wet dirt, fine roots and wormy-looking things.

A little burrow under this one…and lots of trails in the next two.

The most interesting find was a little snail under the last one I flipped.  I did maybe a dozen or so without much success for anything dramatic.  But after I processed the photos and put them up here, I think they’re kind of neat in their own way.  I’m sure a magnifying glass or microscope would reveal a lot of critters and plants not visible in these photos.

In any case, I had a great time in spite of the rain and noticed a lot of other stuff in my yard that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.  I’ll have to try this again when the weather is more favorable.

You can see the list of participants at wanderinweeta’s.

Food for Thought

Hi folks – thanks for the nice comments about continuing this blog. 

There’s a good article on the New York Times site about how our food habits are killing migratory birds:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/opinion/30stutchbury.html?em&ex=1207108800&en=110a4c484f3ed9f9&ei=5087%0A&exprod=myyahoo

I really  hope that link works!   

Revisited

Every time I decide I’m just going to abandon this blog, something draws me back.  Then, every time I decide I’m going to start blogging here regularly again, something draws me away.  Oh well – I’m going to quit trying to explain, because I just don’t know what else to say.

I DO know that this has been one long, cold, snowy winter here, and I am so ready for spring I can hardly stand it.  The daffodils have been blooming in Kentucky for more than a week, and the redbuds will soon turn the hills pink – but I’m going to miss both, since I won’t be going back there until after spring banding is completed here in NJ.

There’s hope though – I heard a phoebe singing yesterday – and the titmice and chickadees are changing from a few chirps here and there to bits of actual song. 

I think I’m going to be a lot like some of these hibernating animals – coming more fully awake as the weather warms up and the sun shines again!  Life is chilly – but good.

New Blog and Bragging Rights

Those of you who have been readers of Natural Notes know that my son Rob is a great photographer and once in a great while I’ll post one of his photos here, as I did in my previous post for Wordless Wednesday.

Well, Rob has finally joined the world of blogging http://robertsochaphotography.blogspot.com/ and if you enjoy his bird and nature photos, you may want to stop by his blog and take a look. There’s a link in the first post for his Etsy site, where many more photos, including more on the red-winged blackbird flock, are posted.

Hope you all survived the onslaught of snow/ice of the last week. For me, the novelty of winter has worn off and I am ready for spring. Only 4 or 5 more months to go, and we’ll be complaining it’s too hot! Works for me.

Dark and Lovely

The last week of rain and humid temperatures have at least been good for something – if not bird banding. A lovely patch of mushrooms growing in the wood chips right outside the bird observatory door.

I have no idea what kind they are, and haven’t had time to look them up, as I’m on a book deadline. They didn’t last more than a day, but soon took on an even more sinister look as they began to wilt and topple.

I’m not an expert on fungi, by any stretch of the imagination, but I would venture to say that these babies are probably deadly. They have that look, wouldn’t you say?

Berry Pickin’ and Sacred Trees

July 4th may be Independence Day, but for me, it’s also the reminder that the blackberries are ripe! And so they are…

This morning, Boomer and I headed out to our favorite blackberry patch, along our favorite birding/wildlife watching road. Evidence of other berry pickers – human or not – was readily apparent by the many trampled paths in the berry patches. Last night, taking this road as a shortcut on my way home, I watched two mink chasing insects in the road. Bear and deer are plentiful here. I plan to come back sometime soon around dusk, park the Jeep and watch. With camera, of course. I’m sure all sorts of critters will be coming through to feast on berries.

I finished up my pickin’ since I had enough to add to my breakfast cereal, so we headed down the road. I rounded a bend and saw another car stopped in the road. The woman driver was just getting back into her vehicle.

Since this is a very narrow road, I pulled over and stopped to allow the other vehicle to go by. The other car stopped too, and she rolled down her window – but I spoke first. “You’re not picking MY berries, are you?” I jokingly asked her. She popped a handful into her mouth and said, “Nope. Not eating them either!” We both went on our way, smiling. Life is good.

After the berry pickin’ I decided to visit one of my favorite trees, just around the corner and on the way home anyway.

This amazing tree is hundreds of years old. It’s a walnut, I think. The base is at least five feet across, and possibly more. I haven’t actually measured it, because the poison ivy vines growing on it are probably just as old. They are the largest poison ivy vines I’ve ever seen. But I’m guessing this tree is a minimum of five feet across – maybe more.

These are not three nearby trees, but three branches that rise from the main trunk. They are each as large around as most of the forest trees nearby.

The bark is deeply furrowed and has the most interesting patterns. The strip and leaf at the far left is the edge of the poison ivy!

What stories this tree could tell! I have no doubt that it stood during the French and Indian War (1756-1761), and the Revolution. Its branches probably gave shade to the folks that built the nearby house I wrote about in this post, in 1830. That house, by the way, is called ‘Heron’s Nest.’ The mason who built it was Nicholas Tillman, hence the “NST” initials on the date stone. It was purchased in 1927 by Frank Stoll, who was a horticulturist with the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Surely such a man loved this old tree.

His house is in ruins now, as are his gardens – but this old tree is still here, still weathering the storms, the heat, the insects. Rooted solidly in Mother Earth, with its branches touching the sky, and holding the secrets of Age. A Sacred Tree. I’m humbled to know it.

Cardone

Traditional cardone (we pronounced it car-doon-a), also called cardoon, is the stalk on which an artichoke grows. It’s a delicacy that’s only available in specialty Italian markets for a few weeks around Thanksgiving, and I’m betting it is expensive.

But, for my family, it grew wild right out in the yard in the spring and summer.

It’s a safe bet to assume that, when I was a child on our family farm in the 1950s, there were no Italian specialty markets nearby, and if there were, they probably didn’t have traditional cardone. As a matter of fact – I had no idea that there actually was a ‘traditional’ cardone that was not the plant I knew – until a couple of months ago. To me, and to my immediate family, cardone was the Italian name for burdock. Yep – that old roadside weed that makes those annoying, barbed burrs that stick to everything they touch, is none other than the cardone of my childhood. In fact we never called it burdock at all. It has always been, and always will be, cardone.

As luck would have it, there’s a fine patch of cardone growing right near my cabin. And it’s cardone season.

Cardone -Ok, burdock, is usually touted for its edible root. Oddly enough, I’ve never eaten the root and have no idea what it tastes like. When we cook cardone, we’re after the leaf stalks.

The leaves are huge, and the stalk resembles rhubarb. We cut it low to the ground, and remove the leaf, so only the stalk remains. The stalks must be thoroughly washed, and then parboiled.

The larger and older the leaves, the more likely they are to be slightly bitter. Parboiling removes the bitterness, and also prepares the stalks for the next step.

Once the stalks are washed and boiled, we let them cool, then dip them in a beaten egg with a little milk added. Next, they are dredged in seasoned breadcrumbs..

And then fried. I use olive oil, but you could also use any vegetable oil suitable for frying.

Since they are already parboiled, they won’t take too long to fry. Just long enough to brown nicely. Drain them on a paper towel and enjoy!

We made cardone as a side dish, right there with the mashed potatoes and corn and whatever else we were having for supper.

I’m not sure how my father came up with this replacement. I don’t think burdock plants grow in Sicily – maybe they do. Perhaps someone told him about them, or more likely, someone told my father that burdock was edible. Maybe he tasted the roots that someone prepared, and it reminded him of the traditional cardone, and so that is what he called it. My mother doesn’t remember either – to her, it’s just cardone.

Obviously, don’t try this unless you know what a burdock plant looks like!

Here’s a great resource: http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/Burdock.php

Mmmmmmm!  Life is Good!

Anemones Growing on Cedars?

So there I was at six this morning, opening the very wet field nets, when I noticed the sea anemones in the cedar trees. Huh?

Now, since I consider myself to be fairly intelligent, I guessed right away that they weren’t really sea anemones – but had to be something else, in spite of what they looked like. Whatever they were, they weren’t there yesterday.

The above photo is a typical sea anemone, which looks like a plant but is actually an animal. It lives in the oceans and doesn’t grow on cedar trees at all.

This is what was hanging around on the cedar trees this morning. It is a cedar apple gall, which looks like a sea anemone but is actually a plant. Fungus, to be more precise. The ‘arms’ of the cedar gall were soft and rubbery – not unlike an anemone. In all my life hanging around eastern red cedar trees, I have never seen cedar galls.

After a little research in the RRBO library and then on the web, I am even more fascinated. The cedar gall is actually a fungal disease, Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae but it’s goal is to infect apple and other fruit. The fungus spends part of its life cycle on cedars and junipers, and part on rosaceous family hosts, such as apple, crabapple, hawthorn, quince, serviceberry, and pear.

The orange “anemones” that I found this morning are called telia, which produce bright orange spores, called teliospores. The teliospores rely on the wind to take them to an apple tree or other rosaceous host.

After the spores have dispersed, the gall turns brown and hardens. Now that, I’ve seen before. Just never paid attention to what it was, assuming it was some type of insect case.

I always love it when I learn something new – especially by accident. There are no apple trees near these cedars. These spores depend on the wind to find them a suitable host. What a precarious and beautiful thing life is.

Ok Ok – here’s the bird of the day. Blue winged warbler!