Author: Nicolette Cagle
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Paean to a Walnut Tree
In a North Carolina neighborhood, constituting one small portion of a corpulent suburban empire, a young walnut tree bows to the wind. The rain pelts its leaves, but those leaves hardly quiver. The rain is not the walnut’s king. The walnut kneels like a courtier only for the wind, and when the wind decamps, the…
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Pettigrew State Park (Creswell, NC) & Pocosin Lakes NWR (Columbia, NC)
Each Spring, I make my way to Pettigrew State Park (Creswell, NC) to explore the rich vernal wildlife around North Carolina’s 2nd largest natural lake, Lake Phelps. Lake Phelps is one of the Carolina bay lakes – elliptical lakes aligned on a northwest-southeast axis of uncertain origin, hypothesized to have been carved out by ocean currents,…
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Braving the Bitter Cold for the American Bittern
On my birthday, in mid-December, I dragged my entire family — parents, husband, and 4-year-old son — to find an American Bittern. We drove to Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh, NC, following a trail of eBird and list-serv sightings of this bulky brown and tan bird in the Heron family (Ardeidae). On a crisp, clear winter’s day, we slowly…
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Eastern Garter Snakes: Mating Balls & Sex in the Trees
Last week, Duke Forest staff photographed Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) intertwined on the forest floor. They had a discovered a “mating ball” of small males vying for the chance to fertilize a mature female. Other garter snake species are better known for their mating balls, including the Red-Sided Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). In…
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American Beech
“[The] Beech is identifiable by the gleam of its wondrously smooth bark, not furrowed even by extreme old age. Here it will be free of branches for full half its height, the sturdy boughs then gracefully down-sweeping. The gray bole has a further beauty in the way it flutes out at the base into strong…
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What is the coldest environment birds can tolerate?
A Triangle Naturalist reader recently asked: “Is there a temperature limit past which birds can no longer withstand the elements?” While many bird species migrate to avoid to the chill of winter in temperate climates, some species, like the Emperor Penguin live year-round in frigid Antarctica, where temperatures can dip below -76°F and winds roar…
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Where do birds go when it snows?
On days like this, when the snow drifts down steadily in large, dense clumps, where do all the birds go? Many birds species spend the winter in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Some species, like Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, spend their time in mixed foraging flocks, searching for food sources as a group. Other…
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Return to Flat River Impoundment (Durham County, North Carolina)
Every September, many local lepidopteraphiles (butterfly lovers) make a pilgrimage to the Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment in northern Durham County, North Carolina. Located just north of Historic Stagville along Old Oxford Highway, the impoundment offers a gravel loop trail through wetland habitat. The area abounds with alternate wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), bitterweed (Helenium…
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New Hope Bottomlands Trail (Durham, NC)
The New Hope Creek Bottomlands Trail is a 2.2-mile loop located off SW Durham Drive in south Durham. At the moment, the access point at Sherwood Githens Middle School is closed. The best way to reach the trail is to park near the dumpster in the North Carolina Orthopaedic Center parking lot (3609 SW Durham…
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Temple Flat Rock (Wendell, Wake County, North Carolina)
Just outside Wendell, North Carolina (an eastern satellite town of Raleigh), Temple Flat Rock protects a striking expanse of exposed granite—about 5,270 square meters—that supports a specialized community of lichens, bryophytes, and flowering plants. In 1984, the Temple family donated this unusual Registered Natural Heritage Site to The Nature Conservancy. In the mid-1990s, stewardship transferred…
Sense of Place 