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A Return to Haw River in May, 2024

We arrived back in NC from our six months stay in SW FL the end of April.  Early Spring nature happenings are long finished but there are many interesting ecological  events in process.  The river itself at a low base flow level can be very serene and beautiful.  Yet rainfall in the watershed can turn the river into a raging torrent.  Indeed on Jan. 10, 2024, an enormous height of 24.18 feet was recorded several miles upstream from us at Haw River, NC.  This resulted in an overflow into the floodplain which can be seen now three months later as flood debris along our river bank trail (note brownish sticks accumulated on the left side of trail).  
Various interesting plants seen were numerous bright red fruits of mock strawberry, Potentilla, an invasive non-native which brightens up the lawn and provides food for wildlife.  This is an excellent example of the advantages of allowing your “lawn” to go wild with native and non-native plants that do well under occasional mowing but are far more useful to wildlife than grass.  In the forest floodplain understory I always enjoy seeing another plant with bright red fruit, the uncommon native green dragon, an arum with poisonous oxalate crystals throughout its tissues.  The water leaf Hydrophyllum is another floodplain inhabitant which is common here but rare elsewhere.  Gray’s sedge also is partial to the floodplain here and has become a favored plant used for ornamental purposes in landscaping.  Finally one of my favorite ferns is growing widely in our moist shady uplands- the rattlesnake fern.  It must have an association with root mycorrhizal fungi and most strangely the mitochondria of this widespread primitive fern have been found to contain genes from a flowering plant, possibly mistletoe (  https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/12/7/a-fern-with-flower-genes-an-odd-case-of-horizontal-gene-transfer ).  
One of the most amazing natural events occurring at this time (early May, 2024) is the emergence of millions of periodical 13 year cicadas of the XIX brood.  I have encountered the larvae of this bug in the ground whenever I dig a hole but you fail to realize how abundant they really are until they emerge.  The ground is perforated with their escape holes, the larvae crawl up every available object, the back splits and the adult emerges.  The adults do not feed but mate and the females lay eggs in twigs, splitting them and causing damage. The singing of the males is very loud and the overall experience astounding ( https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/periodical-cicadas ).  How this strategy of minimizing predation by occasional long term emergence evolved is hard to fathom.  
While walking along our riverside trails I encountered what appeared to be a bumblebee sitting on a leaf.  On closer inspection I could see that it was a fantastic bumblebee mimic that actually is a fly.  This robber fly is a predator on other insects and sallies out from a perch to catch prey.  It is thus vulnerable to predation itself mainly from birds which presumably avoid it due to its remarkable resemblance to a bumblebee which can sting viciously. On the same trail I noticed a dragonfly sitting on the ground which was a species I had not seen before, a Septima clubtail.  This species had been thought to be quite rare but is now known from a number of sites including this stretch of the Haw River, from which its larvae presumably emerged ( https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/odes/a/accounts.php?id=16 ).  
This time of year I see quite a few large black rat snakes, which are imposing but rarely bite when picked up.  They are terrestrial /arboreal predators and in my experience seem to be quite partial to birds as prey.  They can climb up a rather smooth tree trunk and bird nests are at great danger if they are not built in a secure area.  All bird boxes need to be protected by a baffle.  How you respond to such magnificent predators reveals your philosophy about wildlife management- do you remove/relocate/kill predators or let nature take its course?
The primary lizards which I see this time of year are skinks, of which there can be three species, which are hard to distinguish if not in hand.  But most likely these are 5 lined skinks, Eumeces fasciatus, which show quite a lot of color variation with age and sex.  Juveniles have a bright blue tail, females lose the blue color, and adult males have a very bright red head in breeding season.  Strangely enough in local folklore skinks are considered “scorpions” and quite poisonous.  Their bite is not venomous but there is some evidence that there is toxicity if the lizard is eaten.  Certainly the bright blue tail of the juveniles hints at a warning coloration plus direction of predatory strike to the tail which can be broken off and wiggle to distract a predator.
Spring is of course breeding season for many birds and I found a cardinal nest in one of our rose bushes.  Male cardinals are very bright red and seem to flaunt their distinctive coloration and fight among themselves for territory.  Females are fairly drab which suits their need for camouflage when they sit on the nest.  I took photos of the three beautifully mottled eggs and the resulting babies after hatching.  It is interesting that there are two large black rat snakes foraging quite near to this nest and they have not found it apparently.
The wonders of nature just keep on coming in May with the marvels of summer yet to appear.  So enjoy the sounds and sights while they last since soon enough summer will set in along with a considerable decline in bird song.  But then we can look forward to summer flowers and the flying flowers aka butterflies in large numbers.