Turkey Vultures

Turkey vultures are cool birds!

Landing on the rocky rim of the quarry, and skipping up the very edge, a group of turkey vultures outstretches their wings to absorb the heat of the sun. The radiant heat from the limestone and the direct rays of the sun produce solar power for the birds, and as their bodies warm, they’ll take off in search of their next meal.

In-flight, the wings form a dihedral, they overextend, and the birds teeter-totter as they soar and circle up through the thermals.

Turkey vultures have bald redheads, black bodies, and 6-foot wingspans with long, fingered wingtips. They have a keen sense of smell that directs them to the freshly dead.

Vultures don’t kill prey. They scavenge for the dead and then pick bones clean with their powerful beaks. The bald head serves a purpose. Rotting carrion would stick to a feathered head, but not to the bare-naked skin of the turkey vulture’s head. These amazing birds provide an important service to us. They clean up dead animals, and in doing so, they help prevent the spread of pollution and disease.

Pick Up The Poop

We get it. We all love to hike with our dogs.

When we decide to head out the door for a hike, we go to the bathroom one last time, put the dog in the car, and drive over to the mountain for a hike. Fido, however, didn’t realize he needed to do anything but jump in the car, and by the time you get to the trailhead to start your hike, the dog has got to go... you know.... number two.

Please follow “leave no trace” trail etiquette and pick up the poo and dispose of it properly. Dog poop degrades slowly, and although it does break down on its own after a long time, it may contain bacteria and parasites that do not disappear on their own. Dog poop may threaten native wildlife, and it can also threaten other dogs and humans.

So please use the baggies provided, pick up the poo, and hike it out to the trash receptacles. Plastic bags left behind are just gross litter and somebody’s got to clean that up. 

Spring Ephemerals

Spring wildflowers are coming up fast!

A Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) flower rises from the curled leaf, and petals begin to drop before the leaf completely unfolds. You may find clumps of bloodroot on the north slopes of the mountain. These ephemerals don’t last long!

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Rue-anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) is a native woodland plant and one of the first wildflowers to bloom in the spring.

Rue-anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) is one of our most numerous ephemeral wildflowers on the mountain. The trail behind the nature center passes through a large colony, and other patches of trout lilies can be found on the southern limestone slopes. Brown-mottled leaves give the plant its common name, as they resemble the markings of brook trout. Especially on warm and sunny days, nodding yellow flowers open, and petals bend backward to reveal yellow to brown stamens.

Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum)

Spotted Salamander Sighting

It is salamander breeding time!

We‘re excited to find gelatinous egg masses, and suspecting the eggs are those of the spotted salamander, we sent the photo to Megan Gibbons, Professor of Biology at BSC. We see Megan and her students on the mountain during salamander breeding season and at the Friends of Shades Creek Salamander Festival at the Homewood Forest Preserve.

Megan confirmed, “These are spotted salamander egg masses. Some of them are clear and others are opaque (determined by the genetics of the mother). The individual embryos that look white are not viable; they are either infected by fungus, were frozen, or maybe just not fertilized. The others all look great!”

Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) live in moist forest burrows — beneath leaves, soil, or decaying logs. They come out once a year to mate and lay their eggs in vernal pools, seasonal wetlands that dry up in the summer. 

As you hike the mountain, you’ve surely noticed several depressions and pits not far from the trails. These pits are leftover from the surface mining of iron ore. Around 10 years ago, Ruffner conservationists lined a few of the mining relic pits with flexible pond liners, essentially turning them into breeding habitats for salamanders and frogs. The addition of the liners allows the vernal pools more time to hold water, but the pools are still shallow enough to dry up before allowing fish to establish. Given the chance, fish would be ferocious predators of egg masses, so these vernal pools are most important for supporting amphibian life cycles. Photo of spotted salamander by Vitaly Charny 

Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana)

The next time you take a hike after a good rain, look for lush clumps and cloaks of dark green resurrection fern on trunks and limbs of living and dead trees.

Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana) is a native perennial. Epiphytic in habit, the fern grows on trees and other plants but not as a parasite. The fern also grows on rocks and other structures (epipetric). The fern has long creeping rhizomes that adhere to its host perch, and fronds reproduce by spores. In dry weather, the small and scaly fronds curl up, turn brown, and appear to be dead.

With rain or fog, they unfurl, turn green, and spring back to life. Hence their name: Resurrection fern.

Ruffner Mountain Volunteer - Gottfried Kibelka

Gottfried Kibelka, aka The Privet Warrior, enjoys exploring the wilds of Birmingham, learning about Alabama’s amazing plant diversity, and doing his part in protecting the environment.

He gives back to his community by stoutheartedly slaying invasive species and bestowing the forests back to the regeneration of native plants. He has worked hard along with volunteers to rid the area surrounding crusher #2 of the beastly privet thickets, and the place is looking great. Gottfried’s photos illustrate the progress as well as his best methods for eradicating privet. As a reminder, this section of the mountain is designated for conservation and restoration therefore it is not located on the trail map or open to the public.

Gottfried offers this advice for privet removal:

Cut the privet as close to the ground as feasible and spray the stump surface with a 25% glyphosate solution as soon as possible (less than 1 minute). Don’t cut in rain or when temperatures are below 40 degrees to ensure translocation of the herbicide into the root system.

Check out the Facebook page for Volunteer Preserve Rangers Birmingham — a group of enthusiasts that are committed to helping Ruffner Mountain, Turkey Creek, and Moss Rock Preserves. If you would like to volunteer, please email Jamie Nobles, Conservation Director at jamie@ruffnermountain.org

Let’s discuss MORE Invasive Species, Shall We?

Continuing the theme of invading exotic plants you might find on the mountain, a few more stand out: periwinkle, Italian arum, monkey grass, leatherleaf mahonia, thorny olive, winter honeysuckle, and Japanese honeysuckle.

Jamie Nobles, Conservation Director, describes invasive plants as species that are not naturally occurring (non-native) that also have uncontrollable characteristics (dominate a landscape). They typically grow rapidly and out-compete native species, oftentimes creating major disturbance and harm to the environment. Ruffner Mountain has several invasive species within the preserve, and over the years, we (Jamie, staff, and the volunteer team) have worked to eradicate and reduce their effects on the mountain. Among these efforts, we have made a dent in some areas but there are more to go.

We have 3 aspects to our adaptive invasive plant management plan:

1.) Education — We try to help people learn how to identify invasive plants and better understand why invasive species are a problem.

2.) Monitoring — We take notes on where invasive plants occur and prioritize areas to be worked on. Homeowners can also do this as well to better understand their landscape and environment. Then they can make plans to eradicate invasive plants.

3.) Removal — The best method for eradication is to remove the entire plant, digging up or pulling up the plant from its roots. Some plants have extensive root systems and are large and difficult to remove or we may not want to remove the soil. In these cases, we often use herbicide to assist. The typical applications are foliar spraying, basal spraying, "cut and treat", and stem/root injections. If herbicide is needed, we prefer the cut and treat application for most of our woody invasive species. When done correctly, this method reduces overspray (potential to kill/harm unintended plants), uses less herbicide than foliar spray, and is very effective in eradicating the individual plant. We also use other forms of removal to temporarily reduce the spread of some invasive plants like removing seeds, fruit, flowers or mowing annuals prior to seed production.

For more information about the identification, control, and eradication of invasive plants, Jamie suggests going to https://www.invasive.org/ where you can find the Invasive Plant Atlas and as well as local information from the Alabama Invasive Plant Council.