You Say Jessamine, I Say Jasmine

I've always heard it called jasmine in the South that I've lived in. This is one of the domesticated cultivars but it is a native plant. The flowers are quite poisonous and deliciously fragrant. This was taken just a few minutes ago in the soft morning light.

Coal Mine Exploration

Our little pipistrelle bat was still hanging out  in the mine when we went back with headlamps today. We went past where the mine forks, with the right fork being more of a room with wood posts jammed between the floor and ceiling. Several had failed so we decided that wasn't the way to go. We stayed on the main shaft (horizontal) and found a rail structure made of wood. This surprised us but we've since done research and found pictures of wood wheeled carts and wood rails used in European mines in the 1700's and early 1800's. We're thinking this mine is pre civil war but more work needs to be done to set any date. It could be much later and more indicative of the poverty in East TN after the civil war than anything else. I would appreciate any info anyone might have on this.

We noticed that little needle like crystals were on the wood in places. We found them on pieces of coal as well. Any idea as to what they could be? My Google-foo isn't working on them so far.

Today's Walk

It was too nice to stay near the house today so we took a little walk. We wound up going along the old coal mining shelf and followed it past where the flat (ish) part ends. There is an old trail cut that is way too steep for any motorized coal hauler so we're thinking this is old enough to be for mules and donkeys. We were surprised to find a mine that went under one of the rock cliffs. It is about 5 feet high and goes further back than I was willing to go without a head lamp.

Yes, that is a bat. "That's an eastern pipistrelle/tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus)" reports Dr. Brian Carver of Tennessee Tech. I had no idea such a beastie existed, but I'm proud to have his home in a protected area. This shot gives us a clues as to its name, "tricolored".

We found several new patches of bloodroot. It is now officially spring.

Dealing With Invasive Species

We've been working on trapping this sow for a month now. By getting her when we did we took another dozen pigs out of the loop. They are incredibly destructive and displace other native wildlife. This one went over 300 lbs and was well fed. The bad news is that the game camera shows several more. We are thinking of switching to corral traps so that we can catch several at a time.

Thomas and Martin did the hard work.

Sharp Shinned Hawk

One of the downsides to living in a house with lots of glass is that birds think they can fly through it. After cringing for a number of years as the little beauties crashed and mostly died, I studied on how to stop them. We have spectacular views here but that doesn't give me the right to kill things just so I can see the cliffs from my couch. What I settled on has worked extremely well.

 There are all sorts of commercial coverings for windows that purport to scare birds away from the glass. They are expensive to do a lot of windows. What I did was identify which windows were the worst and hang window screen on the outside of them. The views are only slightly diminished and we've had zero fatalities on the protected windows. Unfortunately the birds will sometimes, though rarely, fly into one of the remaining areas of exposed glass.

 We were sitting at the breakfast table when a very loud thunk startled us. "That's a dead one," I said. Running outside there was a pigeon sized bird lying upside down and motionless on the deck. I picked it up, it was limp and had one eye open and the other closed. Then we saw it was breathing very shallow breaths. We took it to the sunny side of the deck and laid it in a flowerpot as gently as we could so the dogs wouldn't get it. (We are catless here) We thought we were holding a Merlin (Now that I read more, the yellow eye is the giveaway this is a sharp shinned hawk) but that, while it probably wouldn't make it, we should give it every chance. After a half hour there was no change but we left it and went about our morning chores in the yard.

 At some point my son came out and said, "That hawk got up and flew off!" He went a few yards to a limb down below the deck and then flew around the house into a tree. I knew that this doesn't necessarily mean they will live but it gave us hope. Just now, a day later, it flew up to the house and landed in a hickory tree, eying the goldfinches on the feeder. Then it flew strongly away. I covered the offending glass with screen as the hawk lay in the flower pot. It is either a juvenile or a female, I'm not enough of a birder to know. I can't tell you how happy I felt when it landed in the hickory tree just now.