It's National Bat Week!

Happy bat week!

Hundreds of tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) hibernate during the winter in the old Ruffner mines, but not in a group, these bats are accustomed to social distancing. Once common to the Eastern US, populations have drastically declined in recent years due to a deadly fungal disease, white-nose syndrome. The fungus invades the skin of hibernating bats and causes the bats to wake more frequently and rapidly use up their limited fat reserves. If the infected bats survive the winter, they may succumb to the disease later as their immune systems fight the fungus.

For bat week 2021, we are looking back to the winter of 2017, when two of the mines were closed and fit with bat-friendly gates to help combat the deadly fungus that causes the syndrome.

From Jamie Nobles, Ruffner Conservation Director:

We pushed for this project for several years, especially since the open mines on the mountain are hazardous to our visitors and important for bat hibernacula. With the gates in place, we were finally able to perform an official bat survey with partnering bat researchers. The survey demonstrated that the mines were a significant over-wintering site for hundreds of tricolored bats. We also found through swabbing samples of the bats that the fungus that causes the dreaded white-nose syndrome was also present in our mine and bats. Since that first winter bat survey, we have joined our state and federal agencies’ list of sites of significance for bat conservation and research. We’ve been able to repeat our winter surveys counting bats as well as host various research.

Most of this research has been based around finding solutions to white-nose syndrome which has devastated many bat species throughout the US. An opportunity presented itself last year and continues today for Ruffner Mountain as a site for Bat Conservation International (BCI) continent-wide acoustic phenology survey. We installed a mini bat-acoustic device to one of the gates to record bat calls and sounds. And starting this year, we’re working with additional researchers based out of Virginia Tech to continue sampling bats and the substrate for the fungus and monitoring the fungal disease over time.

Persimmon Facts and Folklore

October may bring the color orange and pumpkins to mind, but here on the mountain, it’s the small orange orbs dropping onto the trails and around the parking lot we think of this month.

The persimmon trees (Diospyros virginiana) have an abundance of fruit this year. If you’ve ever tried to pick and eat a persimmon before it’s completely ripe, you surely experienced mouth-puckering regret. They are astringent and bitter. But a squishy, wrinkly-skinned, ripe persimmon stolen from a yellow jacket is a delightfully sweet treat.

As the fruit drop to the ground, they become important food sources for possums, raccoons, bobcats, deer, coyotes, box turtles, squirrels, chipmunks, and more. You’ve probably seen a few piles of persimmon seed-laden animal scat (poop) out on the trails. Animals help disperse the seeds through the forest. As the seeds travel through an animal’s gut, the hard coating is acid scarified, improving germination success.

Persimmon folklore: If you split open a persimmon seed, you can examine the cotyledon, and depending on if it’s shaped like a fork, spoon or knife, it can forecast the weather. A fork equals a mild winter. A spoon means get ready to shovel some snow. If you find a knife, winter will be cutting cold. Looks like we have knives here!

October Blooms

October is a gorgeous month so far! These native plants are blooming in the limestone quarry. It’s stunning, but it’s about to get even better when the aromatic asters begin to flower.

Online Fall Plant Sale is LIVE!

Fall is here and the ideal time to plant!

Starting today, you can order native plants through our website and schedule your pick-up date between Tuesday, October 5th -  Saturday, October 9th after ordering.

Here's how it works:

Step 1: Select your plants, enter payment information, and checkout. You will be required to enter a shipping address; however, pickup is the only available option.

Step 2: Schedule your pick-up. Once your payment is complete, you will receive a confirmation email that includes a link to SignUp Genius in order to schedule your pick-up time (Don't forget to complete the form!)

Step 3: Pick up your plants during your selected pick-up time (See Step 2 above) at 1214 81st Street South, Birmingham, AL 35206  (Ruffner Mountain greenhouse near the Nature Center, don't worry - we'll have directional signage!)

Click the link below to start shopping!

2021 Fall Plant Sale Inventory

Click on the image below to view the full online fall native plant sale inventory list and start making your wish lists!

2021 Fall Plant Sale (Online Only)

SAVE THE DATES!

Spittlebugs

Have you ever noticed spittle blobs stuck to leaves or to the stems of plants? Spittlebugs are the nymphs or young forms of froghoppers (of the superfamily Cercopoidea). The nymphs make their protective homes by surrounding themselves with a frothy mass of little bubbles. They live in their bubble housing while they grow and molt, and they spend their time sucking plant fluids and continually making more spittle by pumping their abdomens and excreting bubbly urine. They drink a lot of sap, so the output is a lot of bubbles, and sometimes you’ll find several nymphs living together in one big spittle mass.

Gross or cool?

After their final molt, the adult froghoppers emerge from the spittle. The bugs continue to feed on sap, hopping and visiting their favorite plants.