When you’re out and about exploring nature, practice LNT, Leave No Trace. Leave no sign that a human was there, take nothing but photos, leave only footprints. Enjoy the Maps and Trails tab on this site; be prepared when you hike and explore. Please send photos you take of nature and wildlife to meadobson@gmail.com; we may be able to share them on the website.
Cashiers area folks have already posted on the Facebook group Cashiers Community Together photos and videos of bears and cubs this spring. Yes, they’re out and about, so keep your garbage secure, don’t store it or leave food trash in your vehicles, and lock your vehicle doors if it’s outside of a garage.
Bears are S M A R T and can open a door handle or break a window to gain entry to yummy smells. Getting themselves out of the vehicle is more challenging for them, so the interior will get torn up by their efforts to get out. Bears can detect the scent of food up to 20 miles away!
If your home is under construction, request that no food trash be thrown into the construction dumpsters because the bears climb in to find the food smells. Not only do they drag that trash out and around the property, this alters their natural feeding habits and potentially alters their behavior around people. Bears whose behavior significantly changes can lead them to make physical human contact, and that’s bad news for the bears. They have to be removed to another location or, failing that, euthanasia may have to be employed by law enforcement or NC Wildlife.
What else are bears attracted to? Bird feeders with seed or humming bird nectar. Go natural, let the birds feed in nature’s café so the bears will also “go natural” in their food searching.
More bear info: There’s a blog post on this site from last fall or visit https://bearwise.org/.
More wildlife---NC Wildlife Resources and Commission wants to know if folks see armadillos! They’ve been sighted in 28 NC counties from Cherokee to Dare Counties. That’s from the mountains to the coast. They can survive milder winters, and with NC experiencing milder winters (discounting the Christmas 2022 weekend!), armadillos are spreading into the state. An armadillo article and how to report a sighting is right here: https://www.ncwildlife.org/Connect-With-Us/see-an-armadillo-in-north-carolina-the-wildlife-commission-wants-to-know
The Wildlife Commission has labeled the timber rattlesnake, pictured below, Special Concern and wants to know if you see one. Don’t kill them!
From ncwildlife.org: Of the six venomous snake species native to N.C., three are rattlesnakes – the timber, the pigmy and the Eastern diamondback. Each one is in decline and protected by the North Carolina Endangered Species Act. Persecution by humans and habitat destruction are the main culprits. If anyone spots a rattler, they are urged to send an email to rattlesnake@ncwildlife.org with a photo (required), date and time the snake was observed and location (GPS coordinates preferred), or they can log their sighting on the HerpMapper mobile app. Seen 4.12.2023 https://www.ncwildlife.org/Connect-With-Us/Blog/snake-sightings-common-as-the-weather-warms
This link from ncwildlife.org is about North Carolina nonvenomous and venomous snakes. There’s only ONE venomous water snake in NC, the cottonmouth. There are 6 venomous snakes that slither on land. https://www.ncwildlife.org/learning/species#8682112-reptiles-snakes Seen 4.12.2023
Bears, armadillos, and snakes! Oh, MY! Let’s do native plants and flowers. This spring, you’ll see native plants in Chinquapin and in Panthertown National Forest next to us growing and blooming.
Flame azaleas are tall with orange blooms.
The serviceberry trees are already blooming. Personal note: I grew up in Boone, NC and pronounced it sarvis, not service. One story holds that this tree was so named by Appalachia natives because it bloomed at the time the ground was unfrozen and able to be dug to bury those who died over the winter; thus the burial service, sarvis, could be held. This butterfly is feeding on serviceberry blooms.
Ferns are unrolling themselves.
Wake robin and violets will bloom. The dogwood trees are budding and blooming, coming out last at the highest elevations.
In late April and in May, you might see lady slipper blooming. Tip: go to the Salt Rock entrance (go to the end of Breedlove and continue on the dirt road to parking) of Panthertown, walk down the trail (here it’s wide enough to call a road) and watch for lady slippers on either side. Wild lady slipper is protected and doesn’t transplant well, so take photos where you see it growing.
Here’s why lady slippers need to be left where they are:
In order to survive and reproduce, pink lady's slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. Generally, orchid seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds. Pink lady’s slipper seeds require threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach them to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the pink lady's slipper seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older and producing most of its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots. This mutually beneficial relationship between the orchid and the fungus is known as “symbiosis” and is typical of almost all orchid species.
Lady slipper photographed in Panthertown, May 2022
Later this spring, mountain laurel will bloom, followed by rhododendron, pictured below to the right.
As you hike the Chinquapin interpretive trail established last summer by Dave Barnett and volunteers, notice the plants,
trees, and their signs.
One last bit of nature & science--The science behind the Blue Ridge Mountains—The Blue Ridge Mountains maintain their blue haze because of the chemical released by the native trees that scatter blue light called isoprene. Trees emit isoprene as a way to protect themselves from excessive heat.
Photo taken in 2015, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Martha Dobson
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