Sylvan Heights Bird Park

This past Saturday, we headed to Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck with two other couples. We met at Justine’s house around 9 and then made our way east to the park, arriving a little before 11. All of us had pre-purchased our admission through Groupon or Living Social, so we checked in at the office upon arrival. Before we started on our tour, we saw some recent chicken eggs and hatchlings in the office building.

Two chicks had just hatched from their eggs and another one was working at it. There was a small hole in the egg and we could see him pecking at it, breaking his way out. Outside, we walked around the multinational exhibit, a large pond with many ducks, geese, and other waterfowl. Then we headed into the Landing Zone, the highlight of the tour. We bought some seed sticks and bags of duck food to feed the birds in here.

Flying around the enclosure were a number of budgerigar parakeets. All we had to do was hold up a seed stick and one or two would land on our hands and start eating the seeds. Sometimes, the birds were not in a sharing mood and one would chase the other one off and have the seed stick to herself.

Once the parakeets had cleaned off all the seed from the sticks, we headed to the other side of the exhibit where the American flamingos were standing in a shallow pool of water.

We bought some bags of duck pellets to feed the flamingos.

They seemed to be well fed as most weren’t interested in the food, but rather honking at each other and fighting to determine the pecking order of the flock. However, there were a few hungry flamingos more interested in food than with conflicts within the flock. Feeding these birds was quite an experience. I had seen flamingos plenty of times in the past, but this was the first time for an up-close encounter. Their curved beaks are lined with what looked like tiny little teeth, but I think they were for straining food out of shallow water. The birds also didn’t seem to like to eat dry food - they would either drop the food into the water or spit water into my hand before eating the pellets. Truly fascinating birds!

After we finished feeding the flamingos, we left the Landing Zone exhibit and continued touring the park. We walked past the South America exhibit, but most of these birds had been taken in from the cold. We walked around the far end of the park to the Beaver Pond Blind and Treehouse, but there wasn’t a lot to see here, so we continued back to the North America exhibit.

There were a lot of various ducks and geese here, as well as some beautiful cranes and geese.

One whooping crane was very interested in the GoPro camera and even tried to take a bite! The demoiselle cranes were especially beautiful with light grey-blue feathers and a plume of darker feathers running down their chests.

In the Eurasian birds exhibit, there were many different species of duck. The red-crested pochard were really cool looking, with big orange feathers on their heads, looking like some wild slicked-back hairdo.

Continuing on, we stopped at the flamingo exhibit to see the Chilean and lesser flamingos, and right past this exhibit was the Eurasian eagle-owls.

A pair of these owls were watching us intently, one with an angry look and the other looking more surprised. In the pheasant aviary, a male Indian peacock was in full display with his beautiful covert feathers up.

Unfortunately, behind the fence, it was tough to get a good picture. Next, we stopped to see the emu who got very excited by our presence. He seemed to take quite a liking to John! Continuing on, we stopped for a while at the exotic birds exhibits.

There were many beautiful and strange-looking birds here, including a helmeted curassow, burrowing owls, a red-wattled curassow, and a toco toucan.

Near the end of this exhibit, we stopped to see the laughing kookaburras. They didn’t seem to be in a singing mood, so Justine looked up their call on her phone and played it for them.

Once they heard it, they flew together from opposite sides of the cage and began singing their little hearts out. It was really exciting to watch them sing. And they had to be next to each other when they sang; I guess they didn't want to sing alone. Each time they started singing, they would fly over and perch next to each other, sing for a minute or so, then fly back apart.

Their songs are used to establish territory so perhaps when they heard the song from the phone, they thought some other birds were trying to encroach on their spot. We finished touring the area by checking out the Africa and Eurasia exhibits as we made our way back to the office.

The Abyssinian ground hornbill from Africa was a particularly fascinating looking bird.

It was all black with what looked like a broken horn on top of his beak and long eyelashes. A truly bizarre-looking creature!

We also saw more geese and ducks, including the beautiful Mandarin ducks, before heading back. From the park, we headed into Scotland Neck for lunch at La Casetta. It was right on Main Street and we parked in the middle of the street, between the two opposing lanes of traffic. After lunch, we started heading back. To break up the drive and get a little exercise, we stopped at Medoc Mountain State Park on the way home.

It was getting late and we didn’t have a lot of time, so we parked at the picnic area and hiked about 3 miles on the Bluff Loop Trail with nice views along Little Fishing Creek.

Once we finished, we started making our way back home.

Congaree Holiday Trip

This past Sunday on the Winter Solstice, we headed down to South Carolina for a holiday trip to Congaree National Park. Since it’s pretty much a great big swamp, winter is definitely the best time to visit. Today, the mosquito meter at the visitor center was 1 - All Clear; I would not want to visit when it’s at 6 - War Zone!

We left Raleigh around 7 and made it to the park around 10:30 and soon got started on our hike. Behind the visitor center, we got on the boardwalk trail and turned left at the first intersection to hike the boardwalk loop in the clockwise direction. Due to an ice storm last year, part of the elevated boardwalk was closed so we turned right onto Sims Trail south through the forest. This trail is not blazed, but runs along an old gravel road and was easy to follow. At the south end of the trail, there were some beautiful sloughs with water tupelo and bald cypress.

Though you wouldn't know from looking at it, this area is actually not a swamp, because it's not always flooded. When the Congaree River floods, the area is inundated with water, but eventually, it flows back out to the river through small guts as the water level of the river goes down. Past the sloughs, we turned left on the boardwalk and followed it to the end at the closed Elevated Boardwalk Trail.

Although most of the elevated boardwalk was closed, a short section that leads to an overlook on Weston Lake was still open, so we were able to go out there for views of the oxbow lake.

There was Spanish moss hanging from trees along the shore making for a beautiful scene. From here, we got on Weston Lake Loop Trail and hiked along the edge of Weston Lake and through more sloughs and even saw some dwarf palmetto growing along the trail.

It seemed strange to see palms in the winter! We crossed one footbridge at the end of Weston Lake Loop Trail and on the next, turned right to get on Oakridge Trail, heading deeper into the forest. This trail runs between Cedar Creek and Congaree River with many small guts for floodwaters to drain back into the river.

There were several footbridges only this trail, and at the second, we stopped for quick lunch and then continued on. In about a mile, we came to the next footbridge and turned left to get on River Trail. Shortly after getting on this trail, we met up with John and some friends who had camped here the night before. There were very few other people in the park and yet we managed to run into our friends deep in the woods. John took us on a quick detour off the trail to see where they had camped - and a champion cherrybark oak.

It was a really big tree. John had a measuring tape and we measured the circumference to be 25 feet 4 inches at approximately four feet off the ground.

We got some pictures with the champion, then headed back to the trail. John and his group were heading back, so we said good-bye, and continued on the River Trail. In about a mile, the trail split to form a loop and we headed left, eventually reaching Congaree River. There were a few places to head out to the bank for a view of the river, but the best spot was about 2 miles from the split, where we were able to go out onto the sandbar in the river.

The water level was low enough that we were able to go out into the river, nearly to the middle on the sandbar. After a few minutes here, we started heading back as it was getting late and the sun would be setting soon.

At the start of River Trail, we crossed the footbridge and finished Oakridge Trail at Wise Lake. We then followed Weston Lake Loop Trail back to the boardwalk. Along the way, we saw a couple feral pigs just off the trail. It looked like a mother and two piglets, though they were difficult to see amidst the vegetation.

Then we got back on the boardwalk and finished our hike up back at the visitor center, enjoying one last walk through the beautiful sloughs of bald cypress and water tupelo. Leaving the park, we headed into Sumter and had Mexican for dinner at Yucatan. Unfortunately, they don’t serve alcohol on Sundays so no beer with our fajitas.

Then we went to Swan Lake & Iris Gardens for the Fantasy of Lights.

The display included more than a million Christmas lights.

We walked around here for a while getting pictures of the lights before heading home.

Rod's Umstead Ruins Hike 2014

Saturday was Rod’s annual Umstead Ruins Hike in William B. Umstead State Park. We started from the Reedy Creek entrance and Rod gave us a little history of the park before we set off on Company Mill Trail. We stopped in about a half-mile at a big pile of rocks right alongside the trail. These piles were made of rocks cleared from the land for farming.

A lot of the labor came from children who moved rocks after school. Farming was difficult in the rocky land and everyone needed to help out. The poor soil for farming was one of the reasons that the federal government purchased the land to convert into a park.

From here, we continued on the trail to the ruins of the Company Mill, where we met Joe Grissom and his son. Joe was born and lived in what is now the park until age 8 when the federal government purchased the land as part of the New Deal. Company Mill was built in 1810 and was used to mill wheat and corn. Originally called Page Mill, it became a center of social activity for the community. The mill was washed out in a flood and all that remains are the ruins of the dam and the millstone. The millstone was discovered in the river and lifted out by helicopter. A helicopter was also used to place the footbridge over Crabtree Creek right upstream. Next, we got off trail and headed up a short ways to old magazine that was used to store explosives.

The thick stone walls would absorb much of the blast if they were to accidentally detonate. From here, we headed to the old homestead where Joe was born and lived the first eight years of his life. There wasn’t much left of the homestead, but we could see an old, dying walnut tree near where his house had been. He used to eat walnuts as a boy. When the tree was healthy, it secreted juglone to poison other trees and the land around it was clear. Now, the tree was dying and plants were growing in around it. Our next stop was Camp Craggy, an old boy scout camp.

Next to the camp was a pond that served as a local swimming hole, even having a diving platform. Joe told us how the camp was used for recreation by the community when scouts weren’t camping there. We also saw a ceremonial stone circle with openings in the cardinal directions. From here, we continued on the old road to another homesite with the remains of an old car.

In years past, we had seen an old Champion spark plugs sign at this site. Rod said it was missing when he was here recently, but when we arrived at the site, it was back. Next we headed to the ruins of an old tobacco barn.

All that was left were the stone pits where fire would cure the tobacco. Joe remembered the barn from his childhood - it was only up one year before it burned down. Curing tobacco required careful monitoring of the temperature or it would catch fire. From here, we continued to Reedy Creek Multi-Use Trail and turned right, going a short ways then heading back into the woods to see the ruins at the Teal homesite.

Only the remains of the of the walls were still here and a tree had recently crashed down on those. The Teals had the only home in the community with a basement. Mrs. Teal was an older lady and as children, Joe and his sister thought she might be a witch. One day after school, she summoned the children and offered them some apple pie and milk. After that, Joe and his sister changed their minds and thought she was a nice lady. We then crossed back across Reedy Creek Trail and headed back in the woods to the see the big pluton rock, which looks out of place in the middle of the woods.

Then, we headed back to the multi-use trail and continued to Company Mill Trail and stopped at a pile of rocks that was another old homesite. We followed Company Mill Trail to the bridge over Sycamore Creek on Graylyn Trail and stopped here from lunch. After lunch, we continued up Graylyn Trail along the power lines and ducked into the woods on the left at the big pine tree. There were many glass bottles on the ground here, so we had to watch our footing. Rod brought us to the ruins of the log cabin theater. It was built by Genevieve Woodson, a local schoolteacher and had attracted the attention of folks at UNC in Chapel Hill. We then crossed Graylyn Trail and went through the power line clearing to another old homesite. This one looked more like junk than historical like the others. And the stuff looked too new to have dated from before the park’s creation. This area is one that was more recently added to the park. We bushwhacked through the woods a little further and came to another homesite in which the most of the ruins had been crushed by fallen tree.

Although the home was barely visible under the fallen tree, there were some interesting old artifacts here, including a wheel, a lawnmower, a tank, and part of a tractor.

From here, we bushwhacked north a bit and stopped at an old cemetery with some barbed wire around the plot. Rod pointed out that this was a poor family’s cemetery with small grave markers and little upkeep. Then we continued to Graylyn Trail and stopped at the King cemetery - the rich family’s cemetery. With nice gravestones and a well-manicured plot, it was easy to see the difference in affluence. At this point, we turned around and started heading back on Graylyn Trail. Near the power lines, we headed into the woods along an old road and came to another magazine, this one made of brick, on a ridgeline above Sycamore Creek and Trail.

Then we hiked the rest of Graylyn Trail and found another homesite right at the intersection with Reedy Creek Trail. Then we headed south on Reedy Creek Trail to Cedar Ridge and headed into the woods here to see the ruins of the CCC Headquarters. The CCC were responsible for the labor involved in constructing the roads, dams, trails, shelters, and other facilities in the park during the New Deal era. Finally, we continued on Reedy Creek Trail to one more site. The old Camp Crabtree was just off the trail to the east before crossing Crabtree Creek. This camp was originally built for workers constructing the park, but was mostly abandoned when the US entered World War II. British sailors, while their ships were undergoing repair in the Norfolk area used the camp during the war. There are a couple of old foundations here as well as a big water tank.

After that, we got back on the trail and headed back to the parking lot after a very enjoyable and informative hike.

Devil's Marbleyard

Sandy had to be back at work on Saturday, so we left Pennsylvania Friday morning. Given holiday traffic, we decided to avoid I-95 and take I-81 south instead. It would add a little distance but potentially save a lot of hassle if I-95 was backed up. We stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts before hitting the road. Although there was much snow in the ground still in Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, as we headed further south, it got lighter and lighter and soon was only visible high up on mountain peaks. Near Natural Bridge, we got off the highway and headed towards the James River Face Wilderness in Jefferson National Forest. We were planning a hike to Devil’s Marbleyard to break up the long drive. The small parking area for Belfast Trail was full so we had to park a little further down the road and hike back to the trailhead. It was a little over a mile heading upstream along Belfast Creek to Devil’s Marbleyard. Although there was no snow on the ground when we started, there was quite a bit by the time we reached the boulder field.

Fortunately, the exposed boulders had received enough sunlight that there was no snow here.

We got off the trail and scrambled around on the rocks for a few minutes before making our way back. Along the hike up, the elevation gain had kept us warm. But once out on the exposed rocks, it was quite chilly with the wind blowing.

Once we got too cold, we started making our way back and finished up the drive home.