July « 2017 « verdure
Raven Rock State Park
Saturday, July 1st, 2017

There are several hummingbird feeders in front of the visitor’s center at Raven Rock State Park. Both times we’ve visited, the feeders have been full of tiny, zipping, chattering birds.

hummingbird feeder

ruby

It was overcast all morning and had rained earlier, and many mushrooms were out.

mushrooms

There is a stairway down to the base of the park’s eponym at the bank of the Cape Fear River.

Raven Rock

It was drippingly humid along the river. There are turtles resting on the logs on the far bank.

Cape Fear River

butterfly

2017, North Carolina | No Comments |
Duke Forest – Korstian Division – New Hope Creek
Saturday, July 1st, 2017

There is only parking for a half dozen cars or so at the Concrete Bridge entrance to the Korstian Division of Duke Forest off of Mt Sinai Rd (35.999663, -79.023752). Walk along Concrete Bridge road/trail and then take the right onto Wooden Bridge road/trail to the promised wooden bridge over New Hope Creek. There’s a small trail on the east side of the bridge down to the creek. Along this delightfully green trail in early June we saw several toads and frogs, a salamander, mushrooms, snails, turtles and fish. The trail is easy to follow but brushing up against the grasses is unavoidable, and I got several bites.

toad

New Hope Creek

2017, North Carolina | No Comments |