Keystone Species

It was 79 degrees!  It was an amazingly beautiful day as the humidity was only 39%.  I worked outside gathering up what I hope will be the last wood pile I will need.  I find the recently fallen trees, or ones that are about to fall and that is what I use...I don't cut a tree UNLESS it's a hazard, has grown in  a spot that it can not fit, or is so deformed it will be a hazard.  

  

Today I found a Longleaf Pine seedling as they just replanted the clear cut area..So I found a seedling laying in the road I brought it home and planted it! In about 100-150 yrs it will reach maturity!  Some can be 500 yrs old.  It's a Keystone Species...and native to SC  This means we could have Red Cockaded Woodpecker numbers increase as now as much as 40% of pines planted are Longleaf.  These are being planted for a cash crop so they won't be allowed to reach that ripe old age...anyway I planted that one and there's others growing here too.

I took a Sunday Drive to this spot:

Beaver is also a Keystone species for ecosystem development! I did find a scientific paper about the Beaver, it will take hours to read and even more for my under-educated brain to comprehend...but I'm going to try. To me it's only smart to want to increase the size of Riparian areas especially since so much wetland (286 Million acres) has been drained to increase farm acreage, build roads, and subdivisions! 

Can you imagine with a little work and a lot of planning Beaver could actually bring more water to the Deserts.  The Beaver was eradicated due to early settlers having a fur hat on their head.  There was no rules or regs on taking them same as the Buffalo.  Today, on private land they can be hunted year round and on public lands like this place there is a season of Oct 1 - Mar 1  So currently in season! The reintroduction of beaver was a success but not completely. 

I found this lodge! No Beaver around but another River Otter, (above photo) he was very camera shy...

               I hope there is a Beaver sleeping inside this lodge. 

When I was in Canada I saw Muskrat lodges, they have lots of mud in them and grasses and smaller twigs are not finely thatched like a beaver's work  is, it's like a lazy attempt to be like a beaver..lol But I also saw Muskrat out of the water and it's really a cool animal I saw them in Texas, Florida, and Colorado!

you can see the beaver habitat, and the lodge on the right upper before the tree line

I did not find the dam This is a beautiful wetland on the Singleton Creek in the  Wildlife Management area and a hunter could come here and shoot a Beaver in season...and an OTTER too! I found 3 kingfishers in this area, you can see the beaver pond is still somewhat intact maybe his dam is under the bridge I had no way to see under the bridge I was on.  Here is the opposite side.  It is flowing toward me, and then under the bridge, it heads on till it empties into the Wateree Lake.

red-headed woodpecker

There is another road I can take it winds down to where Singleton Creek flows into the Wateree Lake.  So next time I will explore that road. 

This is a huge WMA.  I would avoid it during main deer hunting season tho.  And I  wished for my sisters and their 4 x 4's and all wheel drive vehicles to  continue on the road with as you see it in the distance in that shot above.  I went in as far as the Kiosk which I forgot to get a photo of...I didn't sign in since I was not staying there was one other person in there he signed the log book and said he was hunting squirrel...can you imagine that?  It reminded me of some stories my Mom told us. 

Belted Kingfisher

My Mom's family used to go on hunting camp trips.  They would bring back turkey and squirrel, and camp by the river cooking and warmed by huge campfires.  They slept on a 'bed roll pallet" on the ground.   This game meat was used to feed the family.  The Appalachian women would gather star grass or peel shiny haw bark, which was a medicinal remedy for women who were prone to miscarry their babies  

It was the bark of the Black Haw tree with a shiny black color, known to the mountain people as "Shiny Haw." My mom spoke often of time spent with Grandmother Dovie, riding her horse Dixie down into the "hollers" to gather medicinal plants for trade with the "traveling store."

Anyone who can afford a vehicle to drive way back into these woods in 2020  does not need to kill a squirrel for food!  Even if you're homeless you can go to the Food Bank and get food free of charge.  My Mom's family would all crowd  into an old T-model with kids riding the running boards, or walking behind. 

What would turtles do without this Beaver Pond to live in? They need slow water and not the swift current of the creek.  I thought of Mom's camp trips while I watched this water slowly creep by.



... way on the other side of the pond a Great Blue Heron was also hunting...the beaver has created the perfect ecosystem...there is room for  Otter, Kingfisher, and Heron and they are finding food.  Snags provide perfect nesting cavities and  insects/worms for the Red Headed Woodpecker...and where there is small prey there must be a bird of prey to help keep that in check...

 

a red-tailed hawk

Shy River Otter swims back and forth

On the way I pass a few lake access points so I cruised down one, and found a Common Loon swimming around...that was fun, not a bird I see often. 

Spring is here in between we will have more cold snaps for sure..it will be interesting to see just how hot it will get this summer around the World. 

Don't forget to participate in the Backyard Bird Count coming up Feb 14-17.  All you do is keep a list of the birds you see in your backyard in a 15 minute time frame...Find out more by clicking the link. 

Till next week...I'm taking life  day by day. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.