Sunday, July 12, 2009

Red Hills Stream


This is from an outing last week in the north Monroe County (Alabama) Red Hills with Bill Finch (pictured above) of The Nature Conservancy, Jodie Smithem of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and USFWS volunteer Garrett Lloyd. Bill showed us this tributary to Beaver Creek that has cut a 30-foot sheer bank into the Eocene-age Tallahatta/Hatchetigbee sedimentary deposits, exposing large rounded boulder-like concretions. Some are still protruding from the bank, and others are in the stream bed. The vertical bank supports a diversity of ferns, liverworts, mosses, and both local species of Hydrangea. The following clip contains three still images and a brief video of this gorgeous spot.



2 comments:

Margaret said...

Love it! Did you see any Phaeognathus?

Margaret

Gator said...

Yes! Saw 3 in 10 minutes. Many additional burrows. It's a tract that hopefully will soon be protected.