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Six different species at the feeder this morning. The usual tufted titmouse and Carolina chickadee, with a pair of Cardinals wandering around underneath. Then the distinctive (comparatively) shape of a nuthatch got me to look with the binoculars: a red-breasted nuthatch. And a Carolina wren, an eastern phoebe, and a pair of goldfinches. Whee!
Yesterday i found a arrowhead!! I was digging up Star of Bethlehem so Carrie and the cats don't try eating it as grass, and noticed the symmetric chip of stone. I think it's the first arrowhead i have ever found. Using http://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/NorthCarolina_Bifurcated_Other.html, i think it's most like Culpepper or St Albans, both of which are Early Archaic, 8000 years before the present. Which is kind of ... awe inspiring. (I go to touch it again.)
Also, i was digging up Star of Bethlehem bulbs. *cough* I am unlikely to run out and eradicate it because it is not as problematic as similarly aggressively-spreading non-natives. There are certainly native spring ephemerals i would love to replace it with, but it's not outcompeting them, particularly. Since this was all plowed ground, naturally getting small, native species back that aren't wind or bird distributed takes a nice bit of luck. The ones i have found so far are Partridge berry (Mitchella repens) easily explained by birds, Spotted wintergreen ... maybe seed capsules were caught in a critter's fur and then brought here? Once one was here, it does spread by rhizomes and the spread throughout the woods makes sense. The most mysterious for me is Spring Beauty. I've found two small clusters so far. I can't imagine them being brought by ants this far from the creek. I suppose i can imagine the seeds in mud that deer tracked up the hill, falling, and then establishing the small colonies. One was on the septic field so it was less than 25 years since establishment. http://www.nomadseed.com/2016/11/spring-beauty-claytonia-virginica/
Mom care this week: a visit to the hospital, before she was moved. Helping dad pick a good nursing facility (which was disappointing, as the nearby one is awful). Calls to find out what Dad needed to take for mom. Newsletter emails. Medical appointment wrangling and logistic calculations: morning appointments with the worst area traffic between the rehab center in Raleigh and the hospital in Chapel Hill.
Tomorrow i will visit her after i check out a coworking location very close to the nursing home, with the idea that a midday drive is less likely to hit traffic, and working from Raleigh for four hours should be agreeable. Then i can visit mom in the early evening and drive home after traffic clears.
Yesterday i found a arrowhead!! I was digging up Star of Bethlehem so Carrie and the cats don't try eating it as grass, and noticed the symmetric chip of stone. I think it's the first arrowhead i have ever found. Using http://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/NorthCarolina_Bifurcated_Other.html, i think it's most like Culpepper or St Albans, both of which are Early Archaic, 8000 years before the present. Which is kind of ... awe inspiring. (I go to touch it again.)
Also, i was digging up Star of Bethlehem bulbs. *cough* I am unlikely to run out and eradicate it because it is not as problematic as similarly aggressively-spreading non-natives. There are certainly native spring ephemerals i would love to replace it with, but it's not outcompeting them, particularly. Since this was all plowed ground, naturally getting small, native species back that aren't wind or bird distributed takes a nice bit of luck. The ones i have found so far are Partridge berry (Mitchella repens) easily explained by birds, Spotted wintergreen ... maybe seed capsules were caught in a critter's fur and then brought here? Once one was here, it does spread by rhizomes and the spread throughout the woods makes sense. The most mysterious for me is Spring Beauty. I've found two small clusters so far. I can't imagine them being brought by ants this far from the creek. I suppose i can imagine the seeds in mud that deer tracked up the hill, falling, and then establishing the small colonies. One was on the septic field so it was less than 25 years since establishment. http://www.nomadseed.com/2016/11/spring-beauty-claytonia-virginica/
Mom care this week: a visit to the hospital, before she was moved. Helping dad pick a good nursing facility (which was disappointing, as the nearby one is awful). Calls to find out what Dad needed to take for mom. Newsletter emails. Medical appointment wrangling and logistic calculations: morning appointments with the worst area traffic between the rehab center in Raleigh and the hospital in Chapel Hill.
Tomorrow i will visit her after i check out a coworking location very close to the nursing home, with the idea that a midday drive is less likely to hit traffic, and working from Raleigh for four hours should be agreeable. Then i can visit mom in the early evening and drive home after traffic clears.
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