Meeting+2011+May+5

**Field trip to Turnipseed Preserve with County Commissioners scheduled.** **7AM Departure of van from Jordan Hall at NCSU; will return by about 9:30.**
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**


 * Attendance Notes**

Attending: Connors, Hess, Steelman, Snow, Lobsinger, Ramsey, Perlmutter, Blank, Hammerbacher, Sig Hutchinson (Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee (OSAPAC), TLC Board of Directors), Joe Bryan (Wake County Commissioner), Bo Howes (TLC), Jon Scott (TLC), Danny Kadis (TLC Board of Directors), Dale Threat-Taylor (Wake County Soil & Water Conservation, TLC Board of Directors), Chris Moorman (NCSU), Carlyle Teague (OSAPAC, Soil and Water), Wilson Laney (OSAPAC, US Fish & Wildlife Service), Stan Latta (OSAPAC)

Hi everyone.

Great trip this morning to Turnipseed- Sundial Lupine, Sandwort and Carolina Pink were all in bloom; we enjoyed a beautiful male Prothonotary Warbler singing in full sunlight; Chris Moorman picked out numerous birds by song including: Lousiana Waterthrush, Northern Parula Warbler and Scarlet Tanager; had a coverboard encounter with a plastic snake, read a few poems. Lots of fun with a good group of people.

For those who attended, please note: even though it was chilly I picked up a few ticks.

After everyone left I travelled to the Pleasant’s Road meadow side of the park to see if I could locate (without GPS) any of our Lupine seedlings from last year’s seeding. Wasn’t easy but I finally discovered one of our planting patches and counted over two dozen Lupine plants, some with multiples of leaves- so they’re becoming established over there. Whoopee! Would be nice to actually GPS all 7 plots and see how well last year’s planting really did.

Also checked the one remaining tin cover board at that site- two large Black Racer and a good-sized Mole Kingsnake (a first sighting for the park!). Too bad I didn’t have the group in tow- those live ones beat a plastic snake any day.

John Connors @ NC Museum of Natural Sciences

All:

I wrote the latest version of the Wake County natural area inventory (2003), and the only rare species or other features on the Natural Heritage Program “radar” in that SE portion of Wake County was an occurrence of the Special Concern least brook lamprey (Lampetra aepyptera), in Marks Creek! So, when I heard that Wake County (with help from Triangle Land Conservancy, etc.) was interested in buying land in that area, I was a bit surprised. The reason was mainly – there was still a rather large land base there that was not developed, and that hopefully one day this part of SE Wake and adjacent Johnston could become the “Umstead of the East”, if I recall Sig saying in the newspapers.

So, slowly a few tracts were acquired, mainly along Marks Creek, and I was along on one or two such trips, still not seeing much of interest in terms of rare features. But, lo and behold, someone found the Federally Endangered Michaux’s sumac (Rhux michauxii) on a tract, though this population seems to have a bit of Rhus copallina “blood” and might not be “pure” michauxii. Then, some sizable rock outcrops were discovered, hardly 100 feet north of Turnipseed Road! I was surprised that I didn’t see them on aerial photos, or at least had too many other outcrops in northeast Wake and east Wake to look at in my inventory. Several Watch List plants are there, at least the Carolina pink (Silene caroliniana). And, a rare stand (for the Piedmont) of the severely declining sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis) has been found. (I’ve since been to the site to see these features, including a patch of locally rare beaked hazelnut [Corylus cornuta] at the edge of one of the flatrocks.)

So – look what happens when 1) tracts are added to form a sizable site, and 2) biologists pour over the tracts and uncover all sorts of goodies, including the hard-to-find mole kingsnake a few days ago. Keep up the good work!

Harry LeGrand <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Harry LeGrand, Vertebrate Zoologist <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">North Carolina Natural Heritage Program <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">NCDENR Office of Conservation, Planning, & Community Affairs

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Thanks to everyone for such a great outing! John really did a great job interpreting the site and what a beautiful day. I put some pictures I took on TLC’s facebook and flickr pages. You can access these by holding down control and clicking on the icons below my signature. Or you can get to the flikr site at <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">__ [] __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">You will see a turnipseed walk link <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">**<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Leigh Ann Hammerbacher **