Francis Marion Ocean Reserve

On February 21, 2019, we walked through part of the Francis Marion National Forest. The weather this day was warm and very sunny with a little bit of a breeze. Along the trail I identified many Greenbriers and even Star Moss which I thought I had found at the Dixie Plantation. On top of two fallen logs, there were a couple of funguses, False Turkey Tail and Dyrad's Saddle. They both looked fairly similar with a round shape, irregular edges and grew off the log in the same way. The False Turkey Tail had interesting colors, I can see where it got its name from. Under the logs was a Horned Passalus Beetle which made a very weird noise and had a hard exoskeleton. Another interesting observation along the trail was an Airplant which really just looked like a ball of hay. There were many beautiful Oak Trees with Spanish Moss and some had Resurrection Ferns. Near an Oak Tree, I identified a Water Oak. At the edge of a creek we observed a Great Egret which I tried to capture with my phone through binoculars. A few minutes later, a small Alligator appeared near the Great Egret. I tried to get a photo but it was hard to distinguish the gator from the water and only the top of his head was above the water. Away from the water in the woods, I observed a lot more 'random' things. I spotted an Oriental False Hawksbeard, a Yellow Jessamine, a Gallberry bush, and a couple of Pineland Daisies. I thought this was interesting because most of them were single or there were only a couple in a small area. The woods were full of Longleaf Pines. At one point, above us were a group of birds flying above the tree line. We observed one to be a Bald Eagle and the others seemed to be vultures. I think this was my favorite part because I had never seen a Bald Eagle freely flying so closely and it was interesting to see it interacting with vultures.

Publicado el 01 de marzo de 2019 a las 08:09 PM por landsb