Carolina Nature Tours

07/08/2025

Found all sorts of cool treasures on Cat Gap loop in Pisgah National Forest earlier this week! Most exciting were the Three Birds Orchids! Also found Doll’s Eyes fruit, tons of mushrooms including this cool looking Shaggy Stem Bolete, Yellow Fringed Orchid, Pinesap, Calostoma cinnabarinum, and Appalachian Bunchflower in bloom. It was a wet day to be on the trail, but sometimes you find the coolest stuff on these days! Thanks to my rain or shine hiking buddy for joining me!

24/07/2025

Here are some of the wildflowers we should see on next week’s Wetland Flora walk at Jackson Park: Swamp Rose Mallow, Swamp Milkweed, Meadow Beauty, Ironweed, Cardinal Flower and Pickerel W**d. Just did some scouting today and there is lots in bloom and more coming soon! So many dragonflies too.

22/07/2025

Summer is orchid season! Just finished a great (but steamy) hike in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness between Caesar’s Head and Jones Gap State Parks in South Carolina. We hiked primarily on Jones Gap trail and saw 2 waterfalls and 4 orchids: Yellow Fringed Orchid, , Crane Fly Orchid, , Small Green Wood Orchid and Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, . Lots of landslides and downed trees, no doubt from Helene last September, but the trail was in good shape.

19/07/2025

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens, is one of our most abundant and frequently encountered native orchids. The beautiful leaves can be enjoyed year round, but the stalk of white flowers can only be found mid-summer. I felt fortunate to come across this patch in bloom on our hike in DuPont last week!

18/07/2025

Visited one of our favorite spots yesterday: Cedar Rock Mountain in DuPont State Recreational Forest. This granitic dome has fantastic views and is always full of fascinating plants!

One of my favorites is Curtiss’ Milkwort, ( referred to as “Button-Rosy on i-naturalist… I haven’t heard of that. Also, Senega curtissii)

Also found a Sassafrass with 4-loved leaves. Are you familiar with the “football,” “mitten,” and “ghost?” Well these ghosts had extra arms!

At one point Kevin was standing on a nearly perfect circle of clean rock, while the rock around it was all dark. I have to assign that there was a Selaginella mat her that was washed away during Helene last September. This happens periodically and is the reason these domes stay open and don’t turn into forests.

17/07/2025

A few photos from our Tuesday trip to Sam K**b meadow:
Wild Bergamot
A member of the mint family unrelated to the true citrus bergamot, but with a similar “orangey” scent.

Dense Blazing Star
Insects love this stunning member of the aster family and it is great in pollinators gardens!

Fireweed
This species has a circumpolar distribution, so it can be found in Alaska, Northern Europe and Asia as well as high elevations and northern latitudes in eastern North America

Filmy Angelica
The nectar of this carrot family member causes many pollinators to become intoxicated!

02/07/2025

It’s summer time and we are dreaming of the beach. This month’s beachy bird is the Piping Plover. There are small numbers of Piping Plovers that nest on the coast of North Carolina and we have a few records of Piping Plovers here in the mountains split between Spring and Fall migration. Fun fact from Audubon NC: North Carolina is the only state where Piping Plovers are found as both breeding and wintering birds – meaning they inhabit the coast year-round!

These small insanely cute little shorebirds are dear to our hearts. Jennie worked with Piping Plovers as a shorebird monitor on Cape Cod while working for Massachusetts Audubon as well as the National Park Service.

Piping Plovers are dune specialists, making small scrape nests in the sand. As you can imagine this is pretty popular real estate in the summer, frequently bringing these birds into conflict with humans. As a result the Piping Plover has been protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1986.

Looking for Piping Plovers at the beach can be tricky. When walking along an isolated beach, look for movement where the dunes meet the beach. Adults have a thin black “collar” and a sand-colored back which perfectly matches their surroundings. They have an orange bill with a black tip, and orange legs. The black forehead stripe stands out from the white patch above the bill. In the nonbreeding months the black parts turn gray and the bill all black. Keep an eye out for these birds next time you are at the beach. They exhibit the classic plover foraging behavior: Run, Run, Run, Stop!

28/06/2025

I had forgotten about this close relative of Striped Wintergreen, so it was a lovely surprise to find on our family vacation on Cape Cod. Chimaphila umbellata, commonly known as Prince’s Pine or Pipsissewa is rare in NC whereas Chimaphila maculata, aka Striped or Spotted Wintergreen is frequently encountered (plenty of Striped Wintergreen in Massachusetts too). Both are members of the Heath Family as well as the Pyrola subfamily (formerly family). What a treat to find on my walk in the woods!

13/06/2025

11/06/2025

What’s blooming in your pollinator garden? I’m currently enjoying this beautiful Swamp Milkweed, ! My Common Milkweed and Butterfly W**d have buds and will be coming soon!

01/06/2025

Happy June! Our bird of the month is the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. It's one of those species that everyone loves to find on a walk. The old timers used to call the Yellow-billed Cuckoo the "Rain Crow," because they thought a sighting would bring the rain.
Keep reading in our June newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/0ab3919c6bc1/september-with-carolina-nature-tours-6749158

Photos by Kevin Arthur Burke