On Thursday night at training, Phyllis noted that she had read the latest entry on the shagbark hickory treefall. She suggested that we see if we could salvage some twigs and take a good look - a regular shagbark (Carya ovata would be uncommon around here, and a southern shagbark (C. carolinae-septentrionalis aka C. ovata var australis) would be even rarer. In one sense it doesn’t matter - the tree *isn't* anymore. But in another sense it’s of historical value and although I never saw it produce fruits, if it did those fruits could easily be distributed downstream from its position close to Goulding Creek and result in progeny all along the creek.

Just to get everything in one place, the first post here was a little over three years ago - two photos of a portion of the tree while it was still intact Dec 2006. At the time I had, on the basis of leaves on the ground at that time, decided it was not a shagbark, but rather an old specimen of our odd shaggy white oaks. It was also at that time that I detailed the puffball emergences from the base of the tree.

A few months later, May 2007, I photographed the green leaves from the ground, and concluded that it was indeed a shagbark hickory. And then in Jul 2008 the tree fell.

I was able to salvage some twigs, and used Ron Lance “Woody Plants of the Southeastern US - A Winter Guide” to ascertain that it was a hickory. Glenn took a close look at the twig key and along with photos here and here determined that it was C. ovata and not the Southern Shagbark.

From USDA Plants, the county distribution map of shagbark hickory (the regular one). Shagbarks occur through the eastern US and into Canada, but they become uncommon by the time we’re in the south Piedmont of Georgia. In these distribution maps absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but the tree has been documented for Oglethorpe County (marked “O”) at least.

So that takes care of that, except that I’ll be watching out a little more closely in the immediate area, and especially along the mile of Goulding downstream, for possible progeny.

Now on to something completely different, except that it too is a followup to an occasional interest that has never really taken - fish!

Now and then I’ve fantasized about cataloging the small fish that live in the little feeder creek, SBS Creek, that runs through the long hollow. I’ve even tried netting some but they’re too fast for me. I’ve made some crude minnow traps but that came to nothing too.

I was particularly excited to photograph these very handsome spawning fish in April of 2008, rutting along a gravel bottom in Goulding Creek. Jeff, Phyllis’s husband, identified them a few days later as yellowfin shiner Notropis lutipinnis (another photo here). He was quite pleased with the find, noted that he’d observed the spawning himself, and wrote a column about it along with the photo for the Oglethorpe Echo.

So yesterday I idly photographed a few resting fish in SBS Creek. The images are poor but I do think I could do better. I’ve added a lot of contrast to get rid of the cloudiness so the colors are not necessarily true, but the two longitudinal blue lines on either side of the back are. The first group image is a clickable link to an enlargement. The fish themselves are only two or three inches long - I’ve never seen anything larger in SBS Creek.