I determined to return to the area I call The Stronghold, in the northern Pascagoula WMA, to stake out the area around the sweet gum that I photographed on my last hike, and to survey the swamp and bottomland forest in the vicinity, to see if there were any other trees with similar work upon them. I hoped to arrive earlier than I did on my last visit, so as to be on the trail with the sunrise, and to be in place for a two-hour stakeout no later than 7:30 a.m.
A line of strong storms moved through south Mississippi in the afternoon hours the previous day, but had pushed on through towards Alabama by early evening. I arrived at the trailhead a little after 6 a.m. The sky was overcast, with no wind and very high humidity: light mist hung in the air for the duration of my stay, fogging my camera lens and making some photographs less clear than I would have liked. Adding to the usual gangs of mosquitoes were numerous deer flies, usually not so prevalent in the swamps and bottoms (they are murderous in the pine uplands here), and I applied as much 100% DEET as I could.
I arrived back at the sweet gum around 7:45 with little adventure, and after taking a few more photographs of the tree, I settled in for a two-hour stakeout.
Birds were somewhat less active than on my last visit, and woodpeckers even less so. I only heard one Pileated woodpecker during my entire stay, though I saw and heard several Red-bellied's (RBWO). Before staking out the area around the gum, I made a quick expedition westward, over a beaver dam and through some open bottomland dominated by oak and sweet gum. I was not able to get far before a deep, wide slough blocked my progress. There I made the following recording of some blue jays making some interesting calls:
I heard no woodpecker knocks during my stakeout, only distant drumming. A RBWO fed nearby for several minutes before moving off. After two hours I rose, and performed a series of SK's and DK's upon the exposed sapwood of the sweet gum, using a "bully horn" (a water buffalo horn sold as a dog chew toy); all I succeeded in attracting was a RBWO, possibly the one that had been in my area earlier.
Another line of storms were heading into south Mississippi. I determined to explore the bottomland in the vicinity, and struck out on an eastward path, towards a crossroads dominated by a weird-looking red oak I call Devil's Fork.
My survey yielded no trees with suggestive scaling, and my only encounters of note were two fat raccoons and a lone wild turkey. After an hour and a half hike, I came out onto the trail again, and returned to my truck.
The leaf-out is making it extremely difficult to spot woodpecker scaling.
My brother Brian and I visited the area on 6 May. That trip report will be up soon.
A line of strong storms moved through south Mississippi in the afternoon hours the previous day, but had pushed on through towards Alabama by early evening. I arrived at the trailhead a little after 6 a.m. The sky was overcast, with no wind and very high humidity: light mist hung in the air for the duration of my stay, fogging my camera lens and making some photographs less clear than I would have liked. Adding to the usual gangs of mosquitoes were numerous deer flies, usually not so prevalent in the swamps and bottoms (they are murderous in the pine uplands here), and I applied as much 100% DEET as I could.
Sentinel: A lone white ibis stands guard atop a baldcypress snag near a slough crossing along Hollow Man Road.
Woodpecker work on a dead limb on a live sweet gum along the trail.
View from the trail of the sweet gum I spotted on my last visit.
Pine snag in the vicinity of the sweet gum, upon which I had an intriguing but ultimately inconclusive sighting on my last visit.
I arrived back at the sweet gum around 7:45 with little adventure, and after taking a few more photographs of the tree, I settled in for a two-hour stakeout.
Birds were somewhat less active than on my last visit, and woodpeckers even less so. I only heard one Pileated woodpecker during my entire stay, though I saw and heard several Red-bellied's (RBWO). Before staking out the area around the gum, I made a quick expedition westward, over a beaver dam and through some open bottomland dominated by oak and sweet gum. I was not able to get far before a deep, wide slough blocked my progress. There I made the following recording of some blue jays making some interesting calls:
I heard no woodpecker knocks during my stakeout, only distant drumming. A RBWO fed nearby for several minutes before moving off. After two hours I rose, and performed a series of SK's and DK's upon the exposed sapwood of the sweet gum, using a "bully horn" (a water buffalo horn sold as a dog chew toy); all I succeeded in attracting was a RBWO, possibly the one that had been in my area earlier.
Another line of storms were heading into south Mississippi. I determined to explore the bottomland in the vicinity, and struck out on an eastward path, towards a crossroads dominated by a weird-looking red oak I call Devil's Fork.
Screen capture of my approximate location on the trail to Devil's Fork.
Turkey vulture atop a snag along the trail to Devil's Fork.
From Devil's Fork I turned northward, and after a couple of hundred yards I left the trail altogether and headed westward, into the bottomland. The going was difficult enough, but made more so due to the extensive flooded areas, forcing me into directions I did not want to go in. Sweet gum is a dominant tree in the normally drier areas.
Dead snag.
Medium-sized cavity in a sweet gum.
The leaf-out is making it extremely difficult to spot woodpecker scaling.
My brother Brian and I visited the area on 6 May. That trip report will be up soon.
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