Rainy Day South Loop Enchants with Eastern Box Turtles

Rain isn't exactly the weather that causes people to flock to a hiking opportunity, but there were three of us willing to take a chance on August 9th, hoping that the rain in the area would be light and scattered.  

We encountered drizzle as we began, but it only lasted minutes, cooling the air and creating a damp lushness in this little bit of wilderness at Marie Myers Park along the South Loop Trail of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness.    

Turtles clearly like the dampness and were moving around.  We encountered four of them during our hike and there were likely many more that we didn't see hidden in the vegetation.  I usually see Eastern Box Turtles in my yard, one at a time, throughout the year.  Seeing four of them within a short period of time gave me a unique opportunity to witness their variations in shape, color and patterns.

Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales, picked up the turtle briefly to determine if it was male or female.  Males generally have red eyes but that is not always an indicator. On the underside of the shell or plastron, you can feel whether the shell is concave or convex. Males have a concave shape to the lower two thirds of the plastron.  

The second turtle we encountered was young and did not withdraw his head into the shell but continued moving with his neck extended. Besides inexperience, young turtles do not have the capacity to close their shell tightly as adults do.

He was intently feeding on something which he continued to hold in his mouth as Stephen Lyn examined his plastron to again check for gender.

Eastern Box Turtles are believed to be declining and biologists are concerned because we do not have effective ways to count and track populations. Habitat loss and fragmentation, death by automobiles and human collection for pets are putting box turtle populations at risk.

Above, you get an idea of the lushness of the park environment. Portions of the trail follow a ridge where water runs down periodically. Along this portion of the trail we found large stands of jewel weed, a favorite plant of hummingbirds. Our third box turtle encounter is pictured, below.

At the end/entrance of one section of the trail their is a path cut through exotic bamboo.  This is an invasive species that sends runners underground and is very difficult to contain.  You can see how the bamboo blocks light and crowds out native plants as it grows thicker and matures.  It will continue to spread if not kept trimmed back, a task that generally takes a chain-saw.

Our fourth turtle, below, quickly retracted his head and hid under his shell.  The yellow patterns on his back were noticeably different from the previous turtles encountered with less yellow.

Eastern Box turtles are one of the few turtles that can actually close their shell tight. The upper one-third of the plastron is hinged, making this closure possible.  You can see the slant of the upper plastron and the hinged area in the image below.  The ability to completely close their shells means that box turtles have few successful predators--primarily raccoons, whose strength, dexterity and sharp teeth enable them to pry open the shell.  The broken edges on this turtle's front carapace lead one to suspect he has encountered a raccoon.  

Below, Stephen Lyn Bales, examines a box turtle to determine sex.  All of the turtles we encountered appeared to be males.  The Eastern Box Turtle is a species that has  temperature-dependent sex determination--that is, the sex of the hatchling is determined by the environmental temperature during a temperature-sensitive period that occurs while the embryo is developing gender characteristics.

Piece-by-Piece is the name of a series of hikes scheduled monthly by Ijams Nature Center, and led by Senior Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales.  These hikes traverse the South Loop of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness Trail in 2-3 mile sections and occur every second Saturday of the month.  We're casual hikers with no speed or endurance goals other than finishing the hike!  We're there to enjoy physical activity, nature, and get familiar with the South Loop trails so we can continue to enjoy them.   Come join us!

Blog posts on hiking the South Loop Trail
Blog posts on sea turtles
Stephen Lyn Bales--Nature Calling
Piece-by-Piece--Urban Wilderness South Loop
Knoxville's Urban Wilderness
Legacy Parks Foundation--Knoxville's Urban Wilderness hike descriptions with trail maps

Knoxville's Urban Wilderness South Loop Hike #5

Ijams Nature Center's Senior Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales, leads once a month hikes along the South Loop Trails of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness--1000 acres of parks, trails, forests and historic sites.  Routinely, rain or shine, we tackle about three miles of the south-loop trails in a "wilderness' that is found only a short distance from the center of downtown Knoxville in Tennessee.

Above, my June hiking companions.    

This portion of the South Loop takes you to Burnett Ridge, a high point in the Ross Marble Natural Area. Our morning was punctuated by cool breezes, lush shade and plenty of fauna and flora to draw questions and challenge identification.  

Above, Ijams Senior Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales holds an Eastern Box Turtle, a common reptile found in many suburban areas, as well as, woods .  Their primary predators are racoons.  This one was walking across the trail as we approached.

The Urban Wilderness trails are marked with the stylized arrow, below, and many trail segments are marked with difficulty levels (chiefly keyed for bikers but useful for everyone) and directional arrows to help orientation where trails divide.  The trails are receiving upgrades and changes, so having a map is a good idea.  The most recent map was updated March, 2014.

Below, hikers round a curve on the last mile of our hike.

 Rasberry plants were in their fruit producing stage...  
and Butterfly Weed was growing in the middle of a kiln waste area, clearly enjoying the alkaline soil along with the cedars.

At the beginning and near the end of our hike, we came across the below species of centipede, the first being the red variety, this one, the yellow.  As a defense, these herbivores curl up in a ball and release a fruity fragrance.  I was told this yellow one smelled of almonds, while the other one, mimicked strawberries.  I was satisfied to accept everyone's word for it.  I'm an established non-buggy person, content to leave them alone!

Below, our hiking group, again, with Stephen Lyn Bales, front.  Eric Johnson, Ijams Volunteer hike leader, third from right.  I'm behind the camera this time.

This was the fifth of our monthly hikes.  Our first hike in February can be found here.  Below, our March hiking group.

Our hike last month took us through the Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area along Hyatt's Way, a thoroughly pleasant hike that included a bit of rain and our youngest hiker thus far!

Photo credit:  Stephen Lyn Bales

Piece-by-Piece--Hiking the South Loop
Stephen Lyn Bales--Nature Calling
Knoxville's Urban Wilderness
Ijams Nature Center

Piece-by-Piece--Hiking Knoxville's Urban Wilderness Trail

Piece-by-Piece is the name of a series of hikes scheduled monthly by Ijams Nature Center, and led by naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales.  These hikes will traverse the South Loop of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness Trail in 2-3 mile sections.  

Saturday, Feb 8th included the Ross Marble Quarry Natural Area, an area of natural limestone deposits, quarried by the Ross Marble Company beginning in 1881.  The area is an interesting combination of large quarried limestone block, some stacked into towering walls, and nature's gradual reclaiming of the area.  The marble produced here was not true marble but a crystalline limestone that polished easily and had an attractive pinkish-gray appearance.  It became known as Tennessee Marble and has been highly favored for use in buildings and monuments in Tennessee, New York and Washington. DC.

Above, an area of slag deposits, the "ashes" created from a lime kiln used to convert broken chunks of limestone into agricultural lime powder.  As the slag area is reclaimed by nature, it supports cedars that favor its alkaline quality.  

As we reached the trail end in the Hayworth Hollow area, we were surrounded by towering stacks of limestone rock.  Large chunks of limestone that were not used for marble were stacked into these enormous walls. The reddish coloration seen in some of the blocks is caused by iron oxide which leaves a rust-like stain.

A system of caves runs under the limestone deposits in this area and provides habitat for the endangered Berry Cave Salamander (Gyrinophylus gulolineatus).  Several species of bats are also known to roost in these caves which are gated to protect wildlife.

Lyn, a master naturalist, turned over some leaves in the pond to demonstrate how you can generally find salamanders and recognize salamander eggs during breeding season.  A talented story teller and author of two books and numerous articles, he shared some tales of frogs and salamanders from his years growing up in the Smoky Mountains.

Further down the trail we explored the Keyhole "wall" at the Ross Marble Quarry, below.  At the top of the wall you can see railing that was installed to offer a safe crossing as you continue on the trail. 

The limestone desposits that included the prized industrial grade limestone sold as Tennessee marble in the area are part of the underlying Holston Formation that passes through the 300-acre Ijams property.  

You can walk through the keyhole to explore the other side.  The images immediately above and below were taken at a different time of year and show the proportional size of the keyhole feature.

On our return to the trail head, we hiked along the ridge with a distant view of the Smokies on one side and blocks of limestone on the other.  

Links and Resources:

Tennessee Marble
Ijams Nature Center
Stephen Lyn Bales--Nature Calling
Marble Quarry Map
Piece-by-Piece--Urban Wilderness South Loop
Knoxville's Urban Wilderness
Legacy Parks Foundation--Knoxville's Urban Wilderness hike descriptions with trail maps
More about geological features of the area:  Ottosee shale to Lenoir limestone