Seed swappers swap seeds, talk gardening

Ijams 18th Annual Seed Swap got everyone at Ijams talking about their gardening plans for the new year. And all of those new old varieties they wanted to try. Peg Beute's appearance on Live@5@4 was smashing. Just ask Russell. 


Also watch for Peg's Living Clean & Green's Winter Gardening series. The next: The Harvest is scheduled for Saturday, February 4 at 11 a.m.


Here's a hint: It does include lunch!

Cranes draw Ijams group to Hiwassee

Our WalkAbout trip to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge yesterday turned up several sandhill cranes plus a wonderful view of a playful dogfight between a bald eagle and a northern harrier.

The whooping cranes and rare Asian hooded crane that are spending their winter at the Meigs County refure managed to stay hidden all afternoon.

Despite what we did not see and the cold wind blowing in from the west, it was still a memorable outing.

- Text and photos by Stephen Lyn Bales

Bald eagle spotted at Ijams near river

On an early walk this morning, Ijams educator Sarah Brobst found a bald eagle perched above the boat dock downstream from the boardwalk. (This same dock is the best place to see prothonotary warblers in May and June.) 

In December and January, mated pairs of eagles begin courtship and the nesting process. Eggs are usually produced in February. 


A nesting pair has been reported the last several years on the lower Holston, upstream from Ijams. Wouldn't it be grand if a pair claims Ijams?


We'll keep you posted. You betcha. 


- By Stephen Lyn Bales

Ijams at Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge

It's that time!

Congratulations to the planners and producers of Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge. It's one week of nature and Smoky Mountain related programs, talks and field trips all free to the public.

For the seventh year in a row, Ijams Nature Center is involved with a display and presentations with five programs throughout the week.

Wednesday, January 11: 3 PM

Putting the Pigeon Back in Pigeon Forge: 

Tales of the Extinct Passenger Pigeon

Paul James

Thursday, January 12: 11 AM 

Identifying Local Birds of Prey

Stephen Lyn Bales

Thursday, January 12: 1 PM 

The Making of Audubon's The Birds of America

Stephen Lyn Bales

Friday, January 13: 9:30 AM 

Ijams Family Legacy in the Smokies

Paul James

Thursday, January 13: 1 PM 

Ghost Birds! The Historic Search for

the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Stephen Lyn Bales


Please, attend one or all! And stop by the Ijams booth to say hello.

Last scheduled program of 2011: Happy Holidays!

It was cold, two days before Christmas with just enough time to squeeze in one final WalkAbout before the holiday break.

Special thanks to all who came out for the bird walk along Will Skelton Greenway to the west.

Looking forward to other adventures in 2011!


- Happy Holidays: Stephen Lyn Bales

28th Annual Holiday Craft Party is Saturday

Logdeer welcome visitors to the nature center

Once upon a time—and indeed, many of us still remember it—most holiday decorations were made by the family.

Kids would sit around the kitchen table with mom crafting ornaments, wreaths and cards, family keepsakes that would last for years. It was also an excellent way to keep little hands busy (and little minds occupied) waiting for the day when the Big Guy "tarnished with ashes and soot" would somehow make his way down the chimney with a bound. How did he do that?

Unwrapping those heirlooms every December brought back a flood of memories of holidays past, that is if the mice hadn't eaten the strings of popcorn and cranberries.

Those days are alive and well at Ijams.

This Saturday, December 17, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. is our 28th Annual Holiday Craft Party.

Celebrate the holiday season with this recycled craft open house. Learn how to reuse common household items to make fun and festive gifts and decorations like candles, cards and ornaments. Creative keepsakes that will become family heirlooms. Cost: $2 for Ijams members, $5 for non-members. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register.


- Text and photos by Stephen Lyn Bales

The garland at the entrance to the Visitor Center is mostly boxwood from the original shrubs
planted by Alice Ijams over 60 years ago.

Surprisingly hard-to-find, logdeer seen at nature center

Ever-alert and hard-to-find woodland logdeers

Ijams does not often have deer. Although they are routinely seen at Forks of the River WMA due east of the nature center, the fleet and nimble hoofed-ones are rarely here, that is until this week when three woodland logdeer were spotted outside the Visitor Center. 


- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales.  

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.

Pair of ivory-bills find 'forever home' at Ijams

"Two stuffed and mounted ivory-billed woodpeckers (one a male and one a female) finally found a forever home as a part of Ijams Nature Center's lost species exhibit.

The amazing story of how they came to be donated involves a beautiful old picture frame, a lifelong friendship between two men who grew up together in Worcester County, Mass., two friends in a Knoxville book club, and a letter written by Ijams Director Paul James."

For the rest of the story, go the Birdlife column by Marcia Davis at ivory-bills' journey.


- Photo by Stephen Lyn Bales

Birthday parties are fun, especially if you are a butterfly

Flutter by. Flutter by. Even in early December you can find butterflies at Ijams. Especially if you plan a butterfly-themed Birthday Party with Kara.


This afternoon butterflies of all colors (and one yellow-and-black bumble bee boy) were seen flitting about all over the Visitor Center and Plaza. It was a delight to all who happened to be anywhere nearby. Summer is eternal in the hearts of the young.


Happy Birthday, Gryphon!


For more information about having your child's birthday at Ijams contact Kara Remington. 


- Text and photos by Stephen Lyn Bales

Winter Birds WalkAbout creeps into creeper

Surprisingly, the Ten Mile Creek Greenway through the heart of west Knoxville can be a good place to find birds. 


The Winter Birds WalkAbout today found several of interest including a sharp-shinned and red-shouldered hawk plus a few species only here in the winter: yellow-rumped warblers, dark-eyed juncos, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, white-throated sparrows and a lone brown creeper. But, creepers tend to always be alone at this time of the year. Creeping along, blending in, minding their own business.


Ijams WalkAbouts are scheduled on most Saturdays at parks and greenways around the county. For the next one, visit the Ijams online events calendar.


- Story by Stephen Lyn Bales

Welcome Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Technology Academy

Thanks to a generous grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, schools in Knox County can now participate in Ijams Nature Center field trips free of charge! 

This grant opens up outdoor learning to a wider audience of schools by providing scholarships and bus transportation to qualifying groups. Participating classes receive customized outreach programs in their classrooms prior to their visit, and then complete a curriculum-based set of activities at the nature center. Topics include Plants, Animal Adaptations, and Geology. 

A special thanks goes out to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for helping us to continue our legacy of quality outdoor learning opportunities for East Tennessee students.

- Story by Jennifer Roder

Ijams owl prowlers flush great horned

AS the sun slipped below the horizon to the west and cold air moved in from the river to the north, the Ijams owl prowlers set out to find those feathered, nocturnal wonders: hoot owls.


You can find five species of owl—Eastern screech, barred, great horned, barn and even migrating saw-whet—at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge in east Knox County, although the Northern saw-whet only passes through. (Locally, it nests in the higher elevations of the Smokies.) 


Our group heard two or three screech-owls along the road, but the real treat was flushing a great horned owl.  


Initially, it seemed to respond with a loud squawk from a distance when we played a tape of an eerie barn owl (If I were a vole, the mere scream of a barn owl would cause me to drop dead in my tracks!) but a recording of a great horned owl itself brought it closer to investigate our group huddled in the cold near a wooded ridge. But it continued to squawk not hoot at us. 

Eventually, the largest owl in our valley flew over us for a eyeball-to-eyeball look-see and perhaps noting we were no real threat, just a bunch of shivering, bundled humans with dreams of warm cocoa, it disappeared into the darkness never to be heard again. 

Great Horned Owl photo by Brendan Lally

Later I learned that young great horned owls do a lot of squawking and very little hooting.

Thanks to AmeriCorps members Katie and Zack for helping and to Nora, Justine and their Seven Islands friends for joining us.

- Story and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales.

WalkAbouters find winged buckeyes at Seven Islands

                                                                                                                                                                               

WalkAbouter Ruth holding a buckeye butterfly

You never know what you might find on a WalkAbout.

Last Saturday, we were looking for insects and spiders at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge in east Knox County. And even though it was November, it was sunny and warm, so we were lucky.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how many buckeye butterflies that were out and about. 

The common buckeye (How could anything as beautiful as a buckeye be labeled common?) feeds on nectar but also takes fluids from mud and damp sand. Males perch on bare ground or low plants, occasionally patrolling in search of females, but they are not territorial. Buckeyes have bold patterns of eyespots and white bars on their upper wing surface. Such a special thing! The populations of late fall, overwinter as adults, waiting until next spring to reproduce. 

Ijams thanks Rikki Hall for leading the WalkAbout.

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

And Happy Birthday Ruthie! Nine-years-old is a very good thing to be. 

- Story and text by Stephen Lyn Bales

The nature center goes to the dogs, but in a good way

A warm and fuzzy, wet-nosed thank you goes to all who attended our first Dog Days Event last Saturday. The turnout was great and the friendly, tail-wagging dogs managed their human companions within park guidelines. 


Ijams is really excited about our new partnership with PooPrints, a green initiative helping improve local air and water quality to create a cleaner and greener community.


Watch for other Dog Days events in the future, and ask us about a special Ijams membership for your canine partner. 


- Story and photos by Stephen Lyn Bales

Ijams welcomes new snake to our education staff

Ijams has a new program animal: a young captive-bred corn snake.

We've had it about two months and because of the hands-on care of our vet, Dr. Louise Conrad, it has about tripled in length.  It's a healthy eater.

Once known as red rat snakes, the name "corn snake" is a holdover from Southern farmers who often found the colorful snakes in their corn cribs, eating the mice that ate the corn. A good thing. The farmers would rather have the snakes than the mice. 

The new snake has already been used in a couple of outreach programs.

Welcome to the staff.

- Story and text by Stephen Lyn Bales.

Jack-O'-Lantern appears in time for all hallows' eve

Jack O'Lantern mushroom 

Just in time for the spooky holiday, educator Sabrina DeVault discovered a Jack O'Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius by some, Omphalotus illudens by others) growing at the Homesite.

As the name suggests, this jack-o'-lantern is an orange- to yellow-gill mushroom that to an untrained eye appears similar to some chanterelles, and is most notable for its bioluminescent properties, perhaps a by-product of its metabolism. A fresh cut specimen is said to glow eerily in a dark room. Something I've yet to test. However, unlike the chanterelle, the Jack o'Lantern mushroom is indeed poisonous.

So witchy-poos and goblins and headless horsemen alike, you better watch out.


Boo! Trick or treat.

Warm and cozy

Ijams Quarry canoe trip: it's like déjà vu all over again

Canoeists on Ijams Quarry Lake

Anyone for jelly babies? Well, actually they are not babies but full-grown adults.

I expected we'd see herons and turtles on our canoe trip on Ijams Quarry Lake this morning, but I didn't believe we'd find the rare freshwater jellyfish that appear occasionally. Afterall, we found them on last month's canoe trip and even that seemed late in the season to me. The medusas' appearances called "blooms" are sporadic and unpredictable from year to year. It usually happens during the hot weather of the late summer months, or a least that's what I believed.

Yet, even on a cool morning in mid-October we found them. 


Freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbyi) are not native to North America. They first appeared in the lake at Ijams in 1997.  Since then, I've always thought they were rare, yet on two canoe trips in a row, we have found them.

The small bell-shaped jellies—about the diameter of a U.S. penny in their hydromedusa stage—are virtually transparent and as wispy as the Smoky Mountains' smoke. 

They look like bubbles, bobbing up and down, undulating underwater; one of the most ephemeral lifeforms I've ever seen or written about. Here one minute and gone the next, and surprise, surprise, they were here again this morning. 
What did Yogi say, "It's like déjà vu all over again."


The next guided canoe trip of the quarry lake is scheduled for Saturday, November 12 at 10:30 a.m. To register for it call 577-4717, ext. 119. 


- Story and text by Stephen Lyn Bales.

Canoe Trip Group

Thanks to the Mind's Eye group for bell-witching our party

Mind's Eye Society Knoxville Chapter
Left to right Raven Darqhart, Mars Schultz, David Hargis, Louise Conrad and Chris Thorton

Special thanks to the Mind's Eye Society Knoxville Chapter for participating in our Haunted Lantern Tour of the Ijams Quarries: Mead's and Ross Marble two weeks ago.

The local group told the story of the Bell Witch—Tennessee's most famous haunting—at the Keyhole at Ross Marble just after darkness flowed into the abandoned quarry pit. (Not the best place to be after the sun sets.) I've been told if you mention the witch in an appropriate place, she will appear.

Did she?

I can't say for fear that mentioning her name again will make her manifest herself in my office.

- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales.