Back to the Mountains

The beginning of May marked the start of another field season (ok, we actually started in mid-April but only for one night, so it doesn't really count...). On our way to the study sites we had to stop a couple of times to clear downed trees. Thankfully we had a saw in the back of the vehicle, because both trees were very tall and impossible to move without cutting apart first.

While driving up the main road, we unintentionally saved a salamander! From time to time we see small mammals run across the road, and I thought I saw one in the middle of the road but it was moving in a strange way. So we stopped the car to see what what happening. Instead of a small, furry creature, we found a small slimy one. A salamander was moving off the road with bite taken out of it's tail:

  At first, we thought this is what we had see from the car, but upon further exploration, I found a squished shrew (not pictured). It was slightly upsetting to know we had hit the shrew, but in the process we seemed to have saved the salamander (shrews are known predators). Talk about an odd start to the field season!. 

Late spring is a good time to see some wildflowers, though the flowering season is not in full bloom. 

Mayapple flowers (Podophyllum peltatum)

Flame azalea, just starting to bloom

Trillium! 

Bear corn (Conopholis americana)

Lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule)

Lady's slipper with a flower bud!

Some fun lichen that looks like Venus Flytraps! 

We saw a few salamanders, but not very many. The species we work with are generally more active in the summer and fall.
  

We could see incredible numbers of stars in the clear skies (one of the benefits of less rain) and it made for pretty days at the dorms between samples!

The darker green patch is a planted pine stand, as part of large scale research at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory

The next week we continued sampling at different plots and found some cool invertebrates!

 <- This is a Glassy Grapeskin snail, a native to Southern Appalachia. I don't know what is different about this year, but they seem to be all over the place, and I don't remember ever seeing them before!

This is Megarhyssa macrurus (Giant ichneumon wasp). -->
It was one of the stranger insects I have seen in the woods, thankfully it didn't sting anyone or seem to care that we were there.

 <- Pretty moth, not sure what species...

We also found a worm snake (Carphophis amoenus amoenus)! 

Ended the first couple weeks back getting bitten by a small salamander. It was adorable! It seemed so angry!