Winter Bird WalkAbouters brave the cold day

Sometimes, the thrill IS in the hunt. You may not find a lot but it's the camaraderie of the group that saves the day.

So it was for our Saturday Winter Bird WalkAbout. Our goal was to find birds that only spend their winters in the Tennessee Valley; their summers are spent elsewhere.

It was chilly, almost cold. On a walk east of the Visitor Center on the Will Skelton Greenway the only winter bird we managed to find was a single yellow-rumped warbler.

But even so, it was a good day.

The next Winter Bird WalkAbout will be Friday, December 23 at 2 PM. To sign up call 577-4717, ext. 110. 

Yellow-rumped warbler winter plumage

- Text by Stephen Lyn Bales. Warbler photo by Alan D. Wilson.

Fields of sunflowers in bloom near Ijams

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) 

Oh my gosh!

If you're into the color yellow. Then park your car at Ijams and walk east along the Will Skelton Greenway to Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area.

The 400-plus acre parcel is managed for wildlife by TWRA and they plant field after field after field of sunflowers.

All during the month of July these fields are a sea of vibrant, intoxicating yellow, enough to make painter Vincent van Gogh swoon because the Post-Impressionist artist loved that color, used it intensely. 

Vincent—if I may be so bold as to call him by his first name since we never actually met—painted numerous canvases of sunflowers while living in Provence in southern France in the late 1800s. And all of the sunflowers he painted originated in America. Once sunflower seeds were exported to Europe in the 16th century, the sunny yellow American flowers became very popular.

- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales

Box turtles out and about at the nature center

Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) live in the Ijams 275-acre sanctuary all year, but you seem more apt to encounter one at this time.

I found this one munching on Indian strawberries near the Will Skelton Greenway. 

It's also time for them to reproduce, so you're apt to see them venture into harm's way, crossing busy roads. 

Note: If you happen to encounter one in the street and there's a safe place for you to pull over, it's OK to help them on their way. But always take them to the side of the road they seem to want to go. Their slow but determined. And remember to wash your hands afterwards.

And no, you cannot turn them into pets. In Tennessee, that would be illegal. Not only are they a protected species at Ijams, but everywhere else in the state as well. 


- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales.