What Am I?

I saw an animal on my marsh and beach walk on Veterans' Day. See if you can figure out what it is from the clues...

I have a backbone, making me a vertebrate.

I am warm blooded.

I can fly very well, but am often seen walking very quickly.

I have feathers.

You already know that I am found either in the marsh or along the beach. It is the latter - the beach.

I am just a few (5 to 8) inches tall.

I hunt randomly for small animals, mostly crustaceans, that are buried in the sand.

As I hunt, I walk so fast that my little legs are almost a blur. If you humans could move your legs as fast, you could run 100 meters in just a few seconds.

I catch prey by stabbing my bill into the sand over and over. I usually hunt at the edge of the sand, since the wet sand is easier to get my bill into.

Figure it out yet?

Scroll down....




I am a sanderling, often called a sandpiper.

Veterans' Day Marsh and Beach Hike

I gave thanks often on Veterans' Day to the many people who have served our country over the centuries. Included in this group are my late step-father Stuart Silverman (WW II, Pacific Theater), my older brother Chris Ritter (Vietnam), and my nephew Kelly Rainbird (Iraq War).

I was at the beach, and decided to hike in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, giving me some more time on foot in my new hiking boots. I hiked a little on the trails and gravel roads through the marsh, and walked a mile or so each way down the beach. Along the way, I saw a deer, a rabbit, a great blue heron, and large flocks of tundra swans back from their arctic breeding season. I also heard a kingfisher's rattling cry, and saw a few other kinds of animals, but we will leave those for later.

Here are some photos from my hour and a half of walking. This one reminded me a bit of a natural Christmas wreath in the marsh, along with some cattails:

I left the marsh to head down this long walkway over the dunes to the beach:
Here is a view of the ocean just past the dunes:
I found this small whelk shell on the beach:
A herring gull flies over the waves:
Before leaving the beach, I took a shot of the beach down towards North Carolina, about 8 or 9 miles of pristine beach away.
I found this deer's backbone, skull, a mandible, and a bunch of ribs in the marsh. The other mandible and several leg bones were scattered about. It is hard to know how it died, but it was obvious that animals fed on the carcass and scattered its bones about.
A flock of tundra swans soars over Back Bay:
Sunset over the marsh and Back Bay. It was not as spectacular as the sunset last New Years Eve that I posted about here and wrote verse about here, but it was still a beautiful way to end my hike:

New Gloves

I am planning a backpacking trip soon, and I realized that I need a pair of gloves. I had a decent pair last winter until a bitterly cold day (yes, we have those on occasion) here in Ole Virginny when I ran into this homeless lady who was begging. She had a sign which said that she was out of luck and trying to get back home. I bought her a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and chatted with her for a few minutes. She was trying to get back to Maine and she looked so sad. I went back to my office and looked up a bunch of places where she might get help, then returned with the places and locations written down for her. I noticed that she didn't have any gloves, so I gave her mine. I figured I at least had a warm place to be that day, in my office. So now, I need new ones.

I found several pairs I liked at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports, but they were all for women. Maybe I am getting in touch with my feminine side? I don't know! I kept looking and found a good pair of men's gloves that I liked. They are waterproof, unlike the pair I gave away. They also have a pair of light liner gloves, which will do two things - create a dead air space and give me the ability to have some minimal warmth by taking off the outer layer if I have to do some task requiring dexterity.

As a footnote, a couple of months later, I ran into the same woman at the same spot. It was another fairly cold day, but nowhere as bad as the prior time. "Didn't you ever get to Maine?" I asked, a little incredulous. "Yes," she said, "But I came back to go to a funeral of a friend." I bought her a cookie this time. I noticed that her hands were bare, but didn't have gloves to give her this go around, as my hands were bare, too.

What Am I?

I had hoped to find this increasing rare animal on my hike in Lake Anna State Park last Sunday, because I have seen them near there. Over the years, I have seen more black bears on hikes than this shy and slow creature. So I decided to write about this animal anyway, since I could have seen one. I kept looking for one as I walked along, at any rate.

I have a backbone, like you.

I hibernate in the winter.

I am cold blooded, unlike you.

I am an omnivore, but eat more plant material than animal.

I have a pretty long life - averaging 50 years if I survive to adulthood - if I have enough undisturbed habitat.

Although there are things that would like to eat me, I don't have a lot of enemies in the natural world - once I am big enough. But in your world, cars and habitat destruction are mortal enemies, and something I have no defense against.

My ancestors were on our lovely green and blue planet 230 million years ago. That is before the dinosaurs and so long before humans that we won't even discuss it. I've been here at least five million years, by the way.

Most of you would have no desire to eat me, but if you ever do, watch out! I love mushrooms, including kinds that will kill you, and the toxins can linger in my flesh. What don't you eat a nice salad instead?

Most of my relatives live in water, but I live exclusively on land. I might often be near water, though.

People often will collect me as a pet if they find me. But if you do encounter me, please leave me in my native habitat.

Like knights of old, I have armor. Unlike knights of old, I stay away from horses and won't try to impale you with a sword. You would call my armor a shell.

There are four species of me, all in North America.

One of my close relatives (the wood turtle) who also lives on land, is partially protected by his armor, too. But if he is unlucky enough to be caught by a raccoon, the raccoon is likely to chew his legs and feet. Not me - I can fully protect myself by closing my shell tight like a box.

I close my shell with hinges on the bottom near the front and back.

Figure it out?

Look below....


I am a box turtle! (Photo taken in Dutch Gap Conservation Area in 2008)

Lake Anna State Park

After driving 870 miles from Northern Michigan over two days, I was feeling tired but in need of some exercise. So I decided on hiking a few miles at Lake Anna State Park, located about an hours drive from my home, and with 15 miles of trail to choose from. I hiked about 4.5 miles, making a loop out of the Turkey Run, Big Woods, Glenora, and Sawtooth Trails. It was a beautiful fall day, just cool enough for a long sleeved shirt but not so cool as to require a jacket. I saw wonderful fall colors on the way up and back, and on the hike. Our colors are peaking in Piedmont Virginia. They are not as gorgeous as say Northern New England or the Adirondacks, but still beautiful enough. I saw very little wildlife. Although I had hoped to find an animal that is increasingly rare and that lives in this area, I could not find any. I enjoyed my hike this afternoon, plus it gave me a chance to try my new boots under hiking conditions. Here is a view of the trees by the road at the start of my hike:
I saw a number of hikers, but even more horses and riders.
How about these interesting "double" trees? The second one is red cedars, and it is unusual I would think to find this condition among softwoods. Botanists - correct me if I am wrong.
There were lots of fall colors along these trails:
Part of the Big Woods Trail had views of this pretty Lake Anna cove:
I didn't see or hear any woodpeckers, but I did find their handiwork.
This smokehouse is all that remains from a large farm that used to occur here:
Mother Nature's finery:

What Am I?

See if you can guess another animal that I saw on my Big Run hike a few weeks ago. (Here is a link to my other mystery animal from that hike.)

I have a backbone, like you, making me a vertebrate.

I live on land and breath air just like you do. But I don't have lungs. Instead, I breath through my skin.

I have legs, like you do. But I have four legs, not two. And unlike you, I am poikilothermic, or cold blooded. So I can't regulate my temperature myself.

I am perhaps the most common vertebrate in the forest. But people rarely see me because I am always hiding under something so my skin stays moist. Otherwise, I would suffocate. I need it to be cool and moist where I live.

I reproduce by laying eggs. But unlike most of my closely related species, I lay eggs on land, not in water.

I eat very small invertebrates, as I am a small animal myself - just a few inches long.

I have congressional districting techniques named after me - well, kind of!

Have you figured it out yet?

Scroll down.....



I am a terrestrial salamander.

(I think this is a red-backed salamander, just the "lead" phase)

Oh, Deer!

This morning, I went to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge again for a short hike of maybe 3 miles. I bought a new pair of hiking boots last week and am trying to break them in prior to a more serious hike. This hike seemed like just the ticket. Unlike my hike here of two weeks ago, I saw a fair amount of wildlife: a garter snake, two aquatic turtles, an egret, lots of warblers, and two white-tailed deer. Here are a few photos, starting with cattails in the marsh.
Bald cypress cones high in a tree.
Catching a few rays in a small freshwater pond.
This shrub was covered with beautiful white flowers along the trail.
Ripe persimmons ready for the picking, if you can climb that high.
I am not sure what this flowering aquatic plant is, but it was very pretty.
Near my turn-around point, I saw these two deer. They were wary but never did run, eventually just trotting off as I walked past them.

My New Tent

My first time truly backpacking, I was 20 years old and alone in the wilds of Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. I'd hitchhiked for two days to get there after my car broke near Dayton, Ohio. I carried a ridiculously heavy pack, since everything I needed while hitching rides and camping were in it, but the one thing I didn't have was a tent. I slept on a groundcloth and as a result, I got chewed alive by mosquitoes at night, and soaked to the skin in heavy thunderstorms. Before I went on another trip, I bought a great tent that lasted decades until I made the mistake of loaning it to my son.

When I went backpacking up the Priest a year ago, I borrowed a friend's tent, and didn't much care for it. It was very difficult to get in and out of, and you could not sit up in it. So that made me realize that I wanted a tent with an entrance on the side, and more head room. After a lot of searching, I bought an Eastern Mountain Sports Velocity 1 last spring. The idea was that I would join a friend for a few days while he hiked the southern half of the Appalachian Trail. Then I developed bad plantar fasciitis, and he broke his ankle, which pretty well knocked those plans for a loop. So for five months, the tent has sat in my closet, unpacked.

Well, that changed today. I am planning on a three day backpacking trip next month. Hopefully, it won't be as cold as a year ago. And I figured I'd better learn how to put the tent up under dry and sunny conditions so that I might have a chance getting it set up if it is dark and/or raining. So I took the tent out on the patio, and spent a good half hour learning how to set it up. Then I took it all down, packed it up, and set it up again. This time, it only took about six minutes, not counting staking down the tent (the stakes are not going to go into a concrete patio real well). I think I will like this tent. It is light weight, about two pounds 14 oz. I also bought the "footprint," which adds a few ounces but will extend the life of the tent. It is not nearly as roomy as my pink tent that I slept in for two nights during the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, but it doesn't need to be.

Why get just a one person tent? Well, it saves a couple of pounds, and even if I go camping with a friend, it is more comfortable to sleep in your own tent. Two people in a two person tent - roughly 6.5 by 4 feet - have to be two very friendly people. My wife is as likely to join me on a backpacking trip as I am to wear a pink dress to work and spray paint "My Boss is an Idiot" all over my workplace. In fact, she is even less likely to go backpacking. So a one person tent should fit the bill.

Here are some photos as I set it up, starting with a picture of the "foot print" on the patio and everything else still bundled up.
The pole system is really cool. It is one assembly, all shock-corded together. There are little balls at the end of each pole that snap into an assembly at each corner of the tent. And there are things on the tent that snap on to various parts of the poles to make the tent open up. It is very easy, once you learn how it works.
Here is the tent set up without the fly. If there was a zero percent chance of rain at night, and it was a warm night, this would not be a bad way to sleep.
All set up and showing the side entrance with the vestibule pulled back.
View with the rain fly on and pulled out as well as I could without staking it down.
Inside view towards my feet.

What Am I?

Let's see if you can guess this animal that I saw during my hike last Saturday to Big Run in Shenandoah National Park. Scroll down slowly to uncover the clues.

Like you, I have a backbone.

I am cold blooded, unlike you.

I am a carnivore, 100%. Keep your nasty salad, give me a delicious, fat, wriggling earthworm!

I almost always only eat live prey, and I swallow it whole, alive, and struggling.

If you don't know a lot about me, you may fear me.

I have no legs at all, but can move around, swim, and even climb just fine without them.

Yell as loud as you like, but I cannot hear you.

I am not poisonous, but grab me, and I may bite you. I will certainly release an awful smelling (and tasting) musk.

I give birth to live young, but I am no mammal. You probably already figured that out, though.

I have a variety of color patterns to my skin, but I am most commonly thought of as having yellowish stripes.

Have you figured it out yet?I am a garter snake!

Big Run Circuit Hike

My second hike last Saturday in Shenandoah National Park was a 5.8 mile circuit hike in the Big Run watershed. It could not have been more different than my earlier hike up Turk Mountain the same day. It did not have the dramatic views of the mountaintop vistas, but it did have solitude in a beautiful forest that is rapidly changing to autumn. I hoped to see bear, but was disappointed. In fact, I saw very little wildlife: a downy woodpecker, a warbler of some kind, and two aquatic salamanders, as well as a couple of other animals that I will talk about in later posts.

For most of the hike, I saw only two people - a couple I passed descending towards the stream. I saw a few others on the ridge hike out of the watershed, and then a number of hikers and backpackers on the Appalachian Trail over the last mile. Here is a map of the route, as well as an elevation profile. The first part of the hike is a steady decline into the watershed, the middle third is a moderate climb back out - gaining 600 feet in the first mile after the stream - and the final part is ridge hiking with minor up and downs.Near the start of the hike, there is an overlook on the Skyline Drive where one can see much of the Big Run watershed, where I will be descending into shortly.
This hike goes through lovely forest, and is very tranquil and soothing.
Mother Nature likes to change the carpets and her decorating scheme this time every year:
Big Run may not look like much, but it was tricky to cross without getting my feet wet. Without my hiking stick - and trekking poles would have been better - I think wet boots would have been the result. I ate lunch here, my typical PB&J:
At this point, I've gained 1,000 feet or so from my luncheon spot at Big Run, and started to get some partial views again.
I think this is sassafras, decked out in orange for Halloween.
The last mile or so of the hike is on the Appalachian Trail, as I passed by this dramatic rocky area.
Here is my final vista of the hike, the eastern view from the Doyle River Overlook on the Skyline Drive as the Appalachian Trail passes by. My beautiful hike is nearly over.