James River State Park Squirrels (10/13/2024)

“Wow, look at those branches swaying around. Oh, it is a squirrel.” We were sitting on the terrace/porch at a cabin in one of Virginia's State Parks. I sat on my rocking chair nurturing my beer, watching a squirrel run to the end of a branch, grabbing what I assume were acorns, scurrying from a branch at perilous heights to the bottom of the oak tree and after a few minutes speed back up to the end of the branch and repeat the process. It is early October and time to prepare for the onslaught of winter and store food.

We were spending a few days at James River State Park. A new one for us. We have really enjoyed every state park we spent time in and this wasn't an exception. Donna told me that this might be her favorite (a five star). I hate to assign favoritism to any state park in Virginia; however, this one definitely ranks up there. I need to update my list of Virginia State Parks one of these days.

Back to the squirrel, the reminded me that fall is rapidly approaching here in Virginia. The temperatures were in the low 70s during the day and low 40s at night. This time last year we already had colors on the leaves when we spent time in Natural Tunnel State Park in the mountains of SW Virginia. Here in the Piedmont we noticed a faint bleaching of some of the leaves, and the dropping of dried out leaves from some of the trees. My ex-colleague Doug who lives nearby in Lynchburg reported that this area was affected by a severe drought this summer, which may be the explanation of the dried out leaves raining down on us during sections of our hikes the past two days.

The squirrels also took me back to some research we did in the mid 1990s. I was working with a group that needed to restore 440 acres of wetlands just outside Indianapolis. The airport was expanding and they needed to mitigate for filling in some wetlands. We were restoring 400 acres of forested wetlands and 40 acres of emergent wetlands (swamps). As part of this effort, we needed to monitor the recruitment (invasion) of plants in our plantations. We planted some 16 different tree species in a random pattern. Recruitment patters we noticed were that species with heavy seeds (i.e. acorns) invaded closer to the boundary with natural woods or hedgerows. We assumed that these seeds either rolled in or were cashes stored (planted) by squirrels. Maybe the previous winter was mild, and the squirrels did not need all the stored food, or maybe they simply forgot where they buried those acorns. Lighter seed, like those from maples, appeared to have flown in and these plants dispersed further into our plots, while plants that were fruit baring were scatters throughout our plots. We noticed that the fruit baring species invaded mostly around the tallest seedlings that we had planted, or at least the ones that were growing the fastest. We surmised that fruit eating bird landed on the tallest plants and used these as lookout posts, in the mean time pooping out seeds from the fruit they consumed. Interesting to see how natural succession takes place.

This all came back to me watching that squirrel doing its job in securing a stash of food for the upcoming winter. Obviously, we had such a relaxing time at James River State Park that it allowed for these memories from long forgotten time flooded back into my head. Those were fine times and so are the present. Guess it is nice to be retired, slow down and remember the yesterdays. Interesting what a visit to a State Park does to you.

James River State Park is a "dark sky park" which means that on a cloudless evening the sky is amazing.  I tool this picture of the Milkyway with my Samsung telephone camera.

Mushrooms

Donna and the dogs at the Tey overlook.  There are some really good hikes in the park.  Day 1 we hiked just over 4 miles and day 2 we hiked more than 5 miles along the James River (picture below).  Evidence abounds that the river just retreated from a major flood stage, probably caused by hurricane Helene.