Today was my last day as an employee of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division after eleven and a half years serving at Arrowhead Environmental Education Center as a halftime Storyteller/Naturalist. It had been quite a run. I have loved it. Here are way too many pictures from this day.
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| I put on one of my DNR shirts for selfie before leaving home. |
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| And after turning in my shirts and other Arrowhead belongings I took another selfie and then took a valedictory walk around these 350 beautiful acres. |
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| I first walked up the gravel road past the fishing pond and the big lake to the beaver ruin where I have taken a hundred groups of school kids during the last decade plus. (Panoramic view but seen enlarged.) |
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| This is a panoramic view of the big beaver dam that made the wetland we have observed all these years. It has been built, washed out, rebuilt, torn out by the DNR, rebuilt etc., etc., many times. (Panoramic view but seen enlarged.) |
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| The boardwalk across one cove of the four-acre lake always provides great photographic possibilities. |
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| This is a panoramic view from the shelter on the boardwalk. Enlarge it to get a realistic view. |
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| A view of the lake from the dam and through cattails. |
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Doug Elliott's Scat Rap Chorus: It starts with an “s” and it ends with a “t”It comes out of you and comes out of me I know what you’re thinking, you can call it that But let’s be scientific and call it scat. Verses: You’re walking through the woods and your nose goes “ooooo” Must be some critter’s scat’s near you It may seem gross but it’s okay They ain’t got no place to flush it away. Down the trail something’s lying on the ground Nature’s tootsie roll all long ad brown Don’t wrinkle your nose, don’t lose your lunch Break it apart, you might learn a bunch Don’t use your fingers, use a stick Keep it sanitary now that’s the trick If you wanna find out what animals eat Take a good look at what they excrete Stuck in the scat are all kinds of clues Parts of the food their bodies can’t use Like bones and fur (2x) Hard berries and seeds (2x) Crawfish shells, ouch! (2x) Grass fibers and weeds (2x) Possum up in a ‘simmon tree Eating all the ‘simmons he could see Backed his butt into the weeds His scat was nothing but ‘simmon seeds Down by the creek on a hollow log Scat full of berries and bones of a frog Late last night he was out with the moon Wading in the creek it was Mr. Raccoon You’re driving your car by a woods or a field Scat goes splat on your windshield It’s full of seeds, all purple and white You just got bombed by a bird in flight Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold Scat on the trail two minutes old Two minutes old, is this a joke? No, it’s still warm, look at it smoke Cat scat, rat scat, bat scat, too All god’s chillum do scat a lot, too Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold Scat in the woodlot nine days old Nine days old, how can you tell? Getting kinda dry and not much smell Dog doo, frog doo, hog doo, too All god’s chillum do a doodley do Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold Scat in a cave 1000 years old 1000 years old, could that be right? Sure that’s no jive: petrified copralite Mole scat, vole scat, bear scat more There’s so darn many kinds of spoor Sneaking through the woods be quiet now, shish! Take a quiet step – something goes squish Don’t put it in your mouth, it ain’t delish Let’s put some in a Petri dish Look through a microscope, what do you see? Microscopic organisms 1, 2, 3 Bacillus, streptococcus, and E. coli They eat scat and then they die Don’t you worry, no need to cry They ain’t that different from you and I If you want to know who was out and around Take a long hard look at the scat on the ground It tells us what they eat, tells us who they are That’s what we know about scat so far. |
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| The many old fisheries ponds -- now used not for fish but to give a way-station to migrating waterfowl -- are beautiful in the fall. |
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| How many times have I had kindergartners "loosen their lips" to learn how to say "Blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-blahb-Loblolly" for Georgia's most common tree species, and ... |
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| ... to identify it by the spiraled, three-piece clusters of needles? |
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| Me and a big Loblolly. |
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| The beavers have been busy in little Lovejoy Creek. |
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| The Sweet Gum's star-shaped leaves turn a few at a time to purple and red. |
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| And weedy asters put on a show. |
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| Hairy Poison Ivy vines. How many times have I lead chants of "Toxico!" ("Toxico!") Dendron! (Dendron!) Radicans! (Radicans!) Toxicodendron radocans! (Toxicodendron radocans! and then sang a bit of the old rock and roll Poison Ivy song. I don't like to go overboard with identification of plants but this is one anyone who visits the woods in Georgia ought to know, and it gives an opportunity to talk about why scientists like to use "specific" names. (Your Poison Oak might be my Poison Ivy!) |
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| The beavers have been busy. |
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| Pine cones close and open as the humidity increases and lessens. This protects the seeds and allows their release when they are most likely to find the right conditions to take root. |
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| This short deck onto one of the small ponds is a very different setting since the southern section of the property was clear-cut a couple of years ago. And now a fallen limb obstructs it. |
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| As a naturalist here these last eleven and a half years I have needed to stay aware of the flora and fauna of the place, so your Georgia tax dollars (a very paltry few of them trust me!) have actually paid me, once a month or so to take a solitary walk of an hour or so in this beauty |
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| The Air Force guys from Dobbins Air Force Base do training flights over Arrowhead often, and it seemed like a fitting farewell as they flew over as I got ready to drive away. |
