Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Eyes on you

On the occasion of a new engine on my boat, I needed to run a shakedown cruise to make sure everything was working right before heading into the Gulf for red snapper season.

I decided to head to One Mile Creek in the lower Mobile Tensaw Delta. It's about six miles from the boat ramp, and, as the name implies, the creek is about a mile long. But what a mile!

One Mile is unique in that it straddles several habitat types in the Delta, and sits right at the transition, where the open meadows of the lower swamp give way to the forests of the upper swamp.

Follow along with me and I'll show you what I saw.

As for the bird above, it is a baby yellow-crowned night heron, about five weeks after it hatched out of its egg. Despite a thoroughly goofy looking face when seen head on, night herons are quite rakish birds, with a sharp profile and exquisite coloration. We'll see more of this fellow and his siblings in a minute. But we are going to begin our trip up One Mile at the mouth, where our native lotus have just popped up and are poised to bloom.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Pads, blooms coming soon

This the scene at the mouth of One Mile Creek on the Tensaw river. The lotus buds are just about to start popping in earnest. The first few have opened up, but give it another couple weeks to see the real show, when the riverbanks are covered in acres of giant butter yellow blossoms, each the size of a salad plate.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Made in the shade

Meanwhile, a micro-ecosystem emerges among the lotus pads, many of which stand about two feet above the water, creating a sort of forest among the pads and stalks. This little tree frog was tucked up under a lotus pad, hiding from the sun. Interesting thing about this picture, the tree frog is at least 60 feet from the nearest land. To make it so far offshore, he'd have to hop from pad to pad and swim across numerous chunks of open water between pads. A treacherous journey for such a tasty looking morsel.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Suction cups

The little pads on the tree frogs toes look like suction cups, but they are actually far more complicated when seen under a microscope. Each pad consists of numerous tiny pillars tipped with soft flesh the consistency of silicone. Those pillars, when coupled with mucous secreted by the frog, form a sort of glue that enables the frog to stick to most anything, from glass to lotus stalks.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Snailing away

This snail was skating on a layer of water across the surface of a lotus pad. I was blown away by the beauty of his tiny shell. The snail was about the size of a marble, but look at the intricate and perfect pattern on his shell. Marvelous.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Water drops

Water poured on top of a lotus pad beads up. The pads are hydrophyllic, and resist water better than any Gore-tex.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Ditch

Just inside the mouth of One Mile, you encounter this ditch running off to the east. It's about a foot and a half deep and penetrates the swamp for a quarter mile. Gators, frogs, birds, and dragons were abundant along the vegetation.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Pickerel Weed

Illuminated by the afternoon sun, pickerel weed casts a lavender glow next to the muddy water of the ditch.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Squadron

Four dragons rest atop Roseau cane stalks leftover from last year.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Wandering glider

I believe this is a wandering glider, a spectacular rusty colored dragonfly. They are also referred to as the Globe glider due to their famously long migrations. They are common the world over, and on some remote islands are the only species of dragonfly present.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Water primrose

Back in One Mile now, after our brief excursion up the ditch. The water primrose is in bloom, with a wasp crawling around inside the cup. The primrose bloom has just begun, and will last for several months. This plant belongs to the Ludwigia family, and has relatives the world over, including in the Amazon. For the next couple of months, this floating plant will expand its reach, creating big rafts of vibrant green vegetation and lemon yellow flowers. In some places, they will choke the creeks with so much vegetation, you can't pass through in a boat.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Blood suckers

This blue dasher was sitting on a water primrose leaf. He appears to have a couple of hitchhikers. You can see one on the upper surface of the wing on the right, and the underside of the wing on the left. Even dragonflies suffer from parasites.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

What are you looking at?

Here's Mom. That was her child we saw in the first photo, and her chicks appear in the next several images. The yellow-crowned night heron is a serious looking bird in profile. But straight on? It looks more ridiculous than an ostrich. Night herons, as their name implies, use those large eyes to prowl shorelines and the fforest floor at night, hunting crawfish, frogs and minnows.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

A young yellow crowned night heron

This bird hatched out of its egg about three weeks ago. I've been watching the lovely pale blue eggs since three were laid in this nest in late April. Their growth rate has been astounding.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Over the water

Every night heron nest I've ever seen was built over water. I'm sure it provides good protection from land-based predators, but that first flight better go well. And if it doesn't, the herons better hope there is not a gator nearby!

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Peach fuzz

You can tell these guys are still a week or two away from flying by the remnants of their downy chick feathers. Night herons are short legged herons, and usually hunt by clinging to reeds at the water's edge.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Eyes on you

Despite a thouroughly goofy looking face when seen head on, night herons are quite rakish birds, with a sharp profile and exquisite coloration.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Damsel and lubber

A familiar bluet damselfly (yes, familiar is part of its common name) clings to a cattail next to a lubber grasshopper, just coming out of a metamorphosis. That explains the cinnamon brown coloration. When his new shell hardens, this hopper will be black as night, like his millions of cousins hopping around Alabama right now.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Swamp hibiscus

Just upstream from the night herons, the billowing petals of our native swamp hibiscus flutter in the wind like fairy petticoats hung out to dry in the morning sun. The petals are around the size of a softball. We have multiple hibiscus species in the state, including the giant rose mallow, with pink flowers perhaps twice the size of these, and dainty species with flowers perhaps an inch and a half long. They bloom in abundance in our coastal marshes.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Bullseye

A closer view of the swamp mallow hibiscus. This one was blooming along One Mile Creek in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. That crimson ring in the center serves as an eye catching target for the big pollinators the hibiscus hopes to lure in. Flowers in this family are also known as "comfort root" though I'm not sure what medicinal purpose they have.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Three in the nest

We have moved upstream now, to the spot where the woods close in over the creek. I refer to this area as "the jungle" because ferns, vines and bushes loom close overhead as you creep through the narrowing waterway.

I'm not sure who these brown speckled eggs belong to, but they were in a willow tree hanging over the water. Good protection from a variety of predators, but that first flight better work or the young birds will end up getting wet.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Fishing spider

The cream colored racing stripe on this guy mark his as a fishing spider. As their name implies, fishing spiders hunt on, in and even under the water. This spider is in its typical hunting pose, legs spread wide, using the surface tension to stand and walk on water. But the fishing spider has another trick. They can go underwater, encasing themselves in a silvery bubble of air. There, they are able to hunt aquatic insects, tadpoles, and even small fish. Most of the time we see them, they are hunting on the surface like this. When they detect the tiny ripples coming from an insect struggling in the water, the spider will race across the surface and subdue its prey.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Gambusia

Mosquito fish, members of the guppy family, are ubiquitous in our swampy waters year round. Prolific breeders, females birth new batches of babies as frequently as monthly. Their babies are born live, rather than from eggs.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Buttonbush

The flowers of the buttonbush, which is really more of a tree, look like Christmas tree ornaments from the sixties, or perhaps a version of the Soviet-era Sputnik satellite. They have a delicate scent, which comes from the hundreds of tiny flowers that make up one of these blooming balls.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Buttonbush close up

Here you can see the tiny flowers that make up a buttonbush "button." They've never looked like buttons to me, though I suppose I'd love a coat with buttons like that!

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

The Leather Flower

The leather flower, a member of the clematis family, is one of my all time favorite flowers. Its vines drape over trees and shrubs in the forest's understory, and it has a most delicate and unusual scent. Then there's the gorgeous lavender flower, like a fairy bell waiting to be rung.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Swamp leather flower

This lovely native is not quite in its glory, but you can see its seed pod here. The flowers are members of the clematis family of flowering vines.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

A wasp wanders in

This wasp came in to nectar at the hundreds of tiny flowers on each ball of the buttonbush. He worked them over meticulously, hitting a dozen before moving on to another bush.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Red wasp

Speaking of wasps, these red paper wasps are common in our swamps, where they often nest on the underside of big palmetto fronds. These are the same wasps you'll find nesting under the eaves of your home. You can recognize them from the rust and yellow stripes on the abdomen, black wings and the tightly pinched waist. The other telltale for identifying a wasp versus a bee is the lack of body hair. Bees are quite hairy, but wasps are almost totally hairless. This is a male. You can tell because he lacks a stinger. This one was pollinating these grasses.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Damselfy

This damselfly is resting on the tattooed finger of a damsel visiting the Delta.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Ashes to ashes

A swamp ash hanging over the ripples surface of One Mile Creek is about to drop thousands of seeds. Ash trees are hardwoods. In fact, that's what all of the early and most coveted Fender guitars are made out of, Southern swamp ash.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Old Blue Eyes

The giant blue eyes of the blue dasher can see almost every direction. The dashers are big dragonflies, with a wing span of about five inches. But they are tiny compared to prehistoric dragonflies, which had wing spans of up to two feet. Every dragonfly you've ever seen was at least a year old. Eggs laid in the summer will hatch out after numerous metamorphosi underwater as they grow. Ultimately, they will crawl up out of the the water on a reed or stick. There, their nymphal husk splits open down the back, almost like a zipper being unzipped, and they slowly extricate themselves from it. Over the course of an hour or so, they unfurl their magnificent wings, which have been growing inside their underwater shell. The wings must dry in the sun for a few hours, the delicate cellophane-like membrane hardening until it is strong enough for flight. Then, they become the ferocious airborne predators of the summer sky.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Horse fly

This giant black horsefly, also known as a mourning fly for its all black costume, landed on the boat. The mourning fly is well over an inch long, dwarfing every other fly you might see around here. And they bite. Rumor is that it hurts.

That's One Mile Creek. Perhaps someday we'll take a ride up there together. Until then, go outside, even though it is hot. For a nature lover, summertime in Alabama is impossible to beat.