A Day on Cook's Trail...

William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, birding and nature photography blog documenting the wonders of God’s creation. -- Psalms 86:8-10 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

Two toad stool white mushrooms along side the hiking trail at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, Georgia.

Beginning of Cook's Trail as it leaves Sandy Creek Nature Center toward Sandy Creek Park.

​A few cool mornings had left the impression we were turning the corner of the dog days of Georgia summer to the cooler fall season. But the passing of Hurricane Isaac gave us another big dose of humidity. Nonetheless, we hiked. 

My daughter and I opted for the four-mile Cook’s Trail that runs between Sandy Creek Park and Nature Center in our hometown of Athens, Georgia. Though we set off early, the humidity had already peaked. Fifty-five percent humidity is just a statement of fact. But what was 55% humidity? The reality was a breezeless, sub-tropical, stifling wet blanket of air causing stickiness even between the fingers! Within a quarter mile my shirt was soaked and my mind was wondering how Georgia was settled in a time before air conditioning. 

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​But on we pushed, happy to be outdoors. On the trail under the Highway 441 overpass there was the usual stampede of raccoon, opossum and deer tracks in the mud. They must gather each evening for real southern hoe-down. The tracks overlap so much, tracks on top of tracks, that getting a clean plaster cast is nearly impossible. 

We traveled on, following Cook’s Trail along Sandy Creek peering at every branch and log over the creek for basking reptiles. “What is that?!” , Amanda shouted, a quarter mile in, pointing toward the creek. The water was running clear, so the giant Snapper could be easily seen. A Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)… a very big one at that! He was about as large as a stuffed school backpack; his carapace being every bit of 18 inches. He was lumbering downstream in the clear shallows. We followed until he disappeared into a deeper, darker pool in the elbow of the creek.

White mushrooms along side the hiking trail at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, Georgia.

​Passing on, and passing a not-so-timid squirrel, we came to another opening in the privet lined creek. As I approached the bank, a snake’s tail stirred a cloud of silt in the creek as he plunged off the bank below my feet. Knowing that the snake couldn’t hold his breath forever, we waited patiently. Sure enough, in a few minutes he stretched up from the mud like a long eel emerging from a coral reef until he broke the surface for a breath. He was totally attuned to our presence and barely sat a moment for a photograph. Off he sped in a blur of chocolate silt. 

Red-bellied Watersnake Nerodia erythrogaster under water at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, Georgia. Commonly known as the plain-bellied water snake or plainbelly water snake, is a familiar species of mostly aquatic, nonvenomous, colubrid snake in the southeast United States.

As an added bonus to our 4 mile hike along Cook’s Trail, we took the one mile Oxbow Loop to see who stirred in the lily-pad-filled pond. On the marsh was a the usual Great Blue Heron. Also, alongside a Wood Duck hen was a visiting Little Blue Heron (immature white color phase) fishing stealthily over the water; his bright white plumage conspicuously dotted against the deep greens on the pond. 

The next two miles were hastily walked to meet up for a picnic with the rest of the family at the park. Besides some very large mushrooms, a busy Hairy Woodpecker, and a curious deer, the rest of the hike was passed without notable critter sightings. But this was a still quite a list of wildlife observations for one afternoon: 

• Common Snapping Turtle
• Redbellied watersnake
• Northern Cardinals
• Killdeer
• Great Blue Heron
• Little Blue Heron
• Wood Duck
• Pond Sliders
• Whitetailed Deer
• Raccoon scat
• Black Vultures
• A hawk's keeeeeer
• Downy Woodpecker
• Toads