More on Belleplain: I found a lot of white pine there. But since white pine is not native, obviously it was planted, and what we see today are some old ones and some offspring of the old ones. I also saw dogwood there, in some places, which surprised me. But maybe it's native. I'm not 100% sure on that. I also saw very little lichen there, but a lot of moss. Maybe it's because of there being very little open exposed ground. Up this way the lichen grows on everything that doesn't walk. It's amazing. I saw 2 interpretive signs for lichen, but no lichen to go with the signs, except for a little bit of the flat stuff on some tree trunks. Your rocky outcrops you saw sound great. Wow. As for birds, I've been wanting to tell you about the birds that live in the building I work in (6 days a week). They are barn swallows, and I think they're really cute, and cool. My co-workers just want to kill them. We have a window that's open 24/7 so that people can yell in anytime they need us to pump gas for them (long story- we have the only gas pumps on property). So the swallows sail through that window all day long, right past our heads or shoulders sometimes. I'm used to it. They also hang out in the girders up near the roof, and have nests up there. It angers my co-workers to no end, but I think it's kind of cool. But swallows are beneficial because they eat bugs, according to what I'm told. Anyway, I really enjoyed Belleplain, even though I wore myself out, and the bugs drove me nuts. But that's okay. When I feel a bit more energetic, maybe tomorrow, I'll re-size and post some pictures. I'm anxious to share. Barry --- On Fri, 7/24/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [ENTS] Re: Belleplain State Forest, NJ To: [email protected] Date: Friday, July 24, 2009, 7:00 PM Barry, I wish I had that day too (sans the insects...) I'm running around the city like crazy rescuing baby birds falling out of nests, so that's what I'm looking at. Plus making a funny video series on CP park benches to see if the complaint about pigeon poop on park benches is valid! So far, not! I'm really trying to find places where pigeons really are causing serious problems for people and I haven't found one yet. There were 2 pigeon 'squeakers' on my fire escape this morning! Squeakers are young birds who are on their first trips out of the nest and still squeaking away in order to get their parents to feed them! The mourning dove squeakers are so adorable. They look just a little bigger than adult sparrows! Lots of baby blue jays in CP. And baby robins and starlings and sparrows, of course. Oh, sorry! Back to trees... I am so discouraged with my tree id since getting back from Maine. I can identify nearly everything there now and then I walk through Central Park and get all confused - so many different species there and of course it's full of ornamental trees. But even the city street trees are hard for me. Sometimes I'll see signs and they'll be "Pear Tree" or "Japanese Pagoda" and I don't know those! It really bums me out. On dry outcrops along hilltops in Maine I saw lots of Jack Pine and red pine and some other one I can't remember. I wish I took more pictures. There was a rocky outcrop with jack pines, lowbush blueberries and sheeps laurel. And lichens over the granite. I just wanted to lie down there and curl up and never leave. I could hear the breeze blowing the aspens and birches and look down on the red spruce swaying slightly. Ravens were everywhere. I love them. And I love the songs of the thrushes. I feel that same passion for the rocky coast too. I think of those places as my 'natural habitat'. Do you know what I mean? I keep thinking you should make a book of your pine barrens explorations. If everybody contributed something ($), I'll bet it could be done. Sorry to digress so much, but thanks for sharing your day, Jenny -----Original Message----- From: Barry Caselli <[email protected]> To: ENTS <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Jul 24, 2009 9:32 pm Subject: [ENTS] Belleplain State Forest, NJ ENTS, Today I decided to take a ride after my usual short Friday at work, and drove down to Belleplain State Forest in Cape May and Cumberland Counties. I wanted to hike there. I've driven through a number of times but have never hiked there. The facts, figures and information on the forest are here: http://www.njparksandforests.org/parks/belle.html In many ways it consists of typical pine barrens habitats. But there are some differences. I found massive amounts of Sweet Pepper Bush in the low understory in one large area. That grows up here of course, but not in such unbeleivably huge numbers. I also found much more highbush blueberry and mountain laurel than I'm used to seeing. But maybe that's because the trails I hiked go through a lot of wet or damp forests. I'm not sure. On the trails I hiked I found the forest to be oak-dominant, and found no pine-dominant forests. That of course happens all over the pine barrens. So maybe I was just in the wrong place. I also found more spanish oak than I'm used to seeing, and no blackjack or post oak. That's not to say there isn't any down there. I just didn't see any. There is also quite a bit of willow oak there, though not in huge numbers. But that's normal. It is mostly in the southern parts of our pine barrens. I saw both species of highbush blueberry there, that I mentioned finding in Wharton State Forest in previous posts. Both are well over 8 feet tall. One has berries that are very blue, the color of the berries grown on our local farms. The other has berries that are much darker, closer to black. Twice I stopped and ate some. Yum! As for the hiking, I did too much, for what I'm used to. I hiked a portion of the North Shore Trail, so that was maybe a half mile. I then did most or all of the Goosekill Trail. The guide says that's .28 mile. I then did the nature trails. The guide says they amount to .89 mile. Then I did the Meisle Trail, which the guide says is .61 mile. I then went to the nature center and spent time in there. I then did the East Creek Trail, which amounts to 7.16 miles. Then I did the Meisle Trail again, and then walked on a road back to the park office where my truck was. About 3/4 of the way through this I was really starting to feel it. My feet, legs, back and neck were bothering me. Previous to that I felt fine. But there were also 3 things contributing to a less fun hike than I expected (It was still fun though.) Those are: --2 or 3 pine flies at a time, buzzing the top of my head, throughout most of the hike-- --Mosquitoes buzzing my ears throughout much of the hike-- --Hundreds of spider webs across the trail that stuck to my face, hair, beard, etc.-- But I dealt with it. That is the longest distance I've ever hiked, period. It was too much, as I say. But I'm feeling a lot better now. By tomorrow I'll feel almost back to normal. I probably took a couple hundred pictures with the digital camera. But I haven't looked at them yet on the computer. Oh, I almost forgot. There was virginia pine there, according to one of the interpretive signs on the nature trails. I also saw shortleaf pine. Both can be found more and more, the further south you go in the pine barrens, though the virginia pine is less common than the shortleaf pine. But I found an interpretive sign with a glaring error on it. I couldn't believe it. It was a sign describing Bracken, yet it was placed in the ground next to some wetland ferns (I'm not sure of the species) and there was a picture of those same ferns on the sign! Major mistake! I also stopped in my tracks at one point on the hike because there was a snake sunning in the trail, a snake I believe was probably a black rat snake. He was really cool, and was mostly motionless, just like the green snake I saw a couple weeks ago. Also, some of the pitch pines I saw were probably the same size as the monster at Estell Manor that is my personal record in measuring (6'10" CBH). Beautiful! What a day. I can't wait to look at my pictures. I will have to send some to the group, and maybe put some in an album on my Facebook page. (Hope everyone has gotten to see my latest album there.) Thanks, Barry A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. 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