To celebrate New Year’s Day my friend Susan invited her friend Sarah and me to take a nice long walk on Pumpkin Loop in the Carolina North Forest. It was my first time on this trail in the dense pine forest. I remembered to wear my thermal leggings and enjoyed the brisk winter air, while the bright sunlight created sharp, dark winter shadows. We heard many birds and caught glimpses of a few of them.
I have read that squirrels eat pine cones. They use their teeth to peel away the scales on the cone in order to extract the seeds inside. I’ve never seen one doing it, but on this walk I spotted some evidence of the process left behind on a stone.
(thanks to Teri for the identification)
covered in moss and lichens,
resting on a bed of pine needles,
with some tiny mushrooms nearby
Leaving the loop trail, we then stopped to visit a labyrinth nestled into the woods.
Carolina North Forest has 750 acres of woodlands and countless trails. It would probably take a lifetime to explore all of them, but that means I will never run out of possibilities here!
A brisk walk in the wood is a great day to start the new year. 🙂
It was nice to see so many others doing the same thing that morning, and to exchange new year’s greetings with everyone. 🙂
I enjoyed walking with you today! That red cedar is lovely, and so is the cairn. I didn’t know that about squirrels eating the seeds from pine cones, but it makes sense (I’ve seen the leavings before but never knew what they were). How cool!
So glad you enjoyed walking with us, Debbie! Sometimes the woods down here seem like they are only made up of endless rows of pines standing on a carpet of pine needles, but on closer examination there are lots of other things to notice!
Beautiful forest and wonderful place to explore. I love your railroad tracks photo, I am ready to go for a walk down it! 🙂
I would have loved to walk down those tracks, Donna, but the “no trespassing” signs were warning enough to put an end to that idea! 🙂
Yep, I get that! Never know who’s out there protecting their land. 🙂
I’m guessing it belongs to the University of North Carolina, a 10 mile spur was used to deliver coal to its power plant, maybe State University Railroad. (If I’m reading maps correctly…)
Nice day to walk… there is so much to see in the woods!
At first glance the woods seem like nothing put tall pines but I’m getting used to spotting other things here and there!
A delightful way to start the new year with a walk in the woods and girlfriend chatter!
I haven’t had pine nuts in years! I learned of them when I lived in Colorado. Pine Nuts have all sorts of health benefits. I never thought about squirrels eating them.
Those leaves are definitely post oak. You found so much color on this walk Barbara. Beautiful photos!
I’ve never seen a labyrinth like that before. How wild to find one.
I hope that you found good healing and a bit of fun!
Oh my goodness, Teri, I didn’t make the connection between pine nuts and pine seeds until I read your comment. I remember we used to use pine nuts, which are actually seeds, to make pesto, back in our vegetarian days. Thanks for identifying the post oak for me. This labyrinth was the meander kind, an undivided path with no choices, just a spiral path leading to the center. I’ve never seen the maze kind before but would love the experience. It was a fun morning!
Your walk looks very peaceful Barbara – even the name of the trail, Pumpkin Loop, sounds nice. Some sun in Winter is always welcome, especially when it makes those long shadows. Yes, the squirrels love those pine cones, stripping the hard outer covering away to enjoy the pine nuts. I was at the store one day and saw pine nuts for sale … unbelievably expensive to use in cooking. The squirrels have no idea they are eating “high on the hog”. I’ve seen them eating the green pine cones too before they get the sticky resin on them. The little cairn is cute and perfectly posed on the piece of wood. No wonder some people can take a lot of pictures on the trails in your fair state … 750 acres of woodlands and countless trails sounds like the perfect way to spend time with friends just like you have done here.
I wonder how Pumpkin Loop got its name, I didn’t see any evidence of pumpkin patches deep in the woods there. I’ve never seen a squirrel eating the seeds from a pine cone before but maybe one day I will. We bought some millet at Wild Birds Unlimited to try attracting mourning doves to our garden, and to give a treat to the other ground feeders. Our squirrels must be very hungry, though, because they are eating the millet, too, and I understood that they don’t care for it unless there is little else to eat. Tim has started throwing walnuts for them out back again, but now the deer are coming for those, even though I read that they avoid walnuts because they might hurt their teeth on them. Seems like everyone is eating the wrong things!
My neighbor was feeding the millet seed to the birds last Winter and he got a lot of Sparrows and ground feeders like Juncos and Mourning Doves. He had a tray feeder and had it hanging from a shepherd’s hook, but the squirrels shimmied up the pole and sat in the feeder, even though he was giving them peanuts then. He quit feeding them peanuts after they buried them in his garden and dug up his plants. They still come around though. I didn’t know about the walnuts and the deer, but that makes sense – you don’t see them chomping on hard things, just plants/leaves/grass – even carrots aren’t hard. I have one more bag of walnuts for my little pals but it is not looking good for seeing them … we are getting some snow tonight and so tomorrow won’t work. I’ll try Friday morning as we’re getting 2-4 inches of snow late Friday into Saturday, then that big Siberian Polar Vortex is next week. This cold snap is bad enough, but I feel awful for the squirrels. In this brutal cold they likely won’t come out of their nest. I have not been there since last Thursday.
I have such mixed feeling about feeding these creatures. Now I’m worried that the millet is going to attract rodents. We already had a mouse in the attic and you know about the squirrels and the car wires. But if Tim keeps putting walnuts out for the squirrels I think I’ll get some carrots for the deer. Not sure about bird feeders. Tim put a birdbath on the deck and it is attracting birds, so maybe that’s the best thing to do, just give them water. I would love to see some mourning doves, though. Hope you and the squirrels manage to stay warm when the Polar Vortex descends upon you!
I know it is tempting to feed Fred walnuts as he really enjoyed them … it might not have been Fred that chewed the wires.
You said you bought the food at Wild Birds Unlimited – I follow our local WBU on Facebook as the owner used to be my HVAC guy ’til he got bad knees and he/wife bought a store. WBU sells seed that is recommended for patios as there is no seed chaff. I just looked on their site and this is it:
“No-Mess Blends feature seeds that have had their shells removed so only the meat of the seed is left. No hulls on the seeds makes for tidier feeding, since there’s no debris on the ground to clean up.”
I fed the birds for years and was lucky to never have had mice in the yard/elsewhere (thankfully as I’d be terrified of one in the house), but when a new neighbor moved in back of us, he left his dog out 24/7/365 and we got rats and I had to stop feeding and giving water to the birds as the pest control service put out rat bait. I felt badly and never resumed feeding them again.
The carrots would be safe and the birdbaths are really enjoyed all year around. I hope to get to the Park tomorrow morning – I remember I went last Friday (I thought it was last Thursday), the morning of the storm. Otherwise it will be another week until I get there.
Thank you for the “No-Mess Blends” tip! They sent us a coupon so maybe we’ll have a chance to go get some for our bird friends before the cold snap arrives today. We got some apples for the deer. Yesterday we even saw a crow eating the millet on the deck. Wish we had a heater for the birdbath.
That would be great – treats for them and no mess for you. Glad to help. 🙂 Those heated birdbaths are nice. A fellow blogger just showed a photo of hers and the sparrows splashing around. She has big windows in her house and has three cats and they watch the birds. They are all indoor cats so she quips it is “cat TV” for them.
We went and picked up a big bag of the no-mess blend yesterday. And joined the store’s club for discounts. I guess we’re committed now! 🙂 I used to have a cat who watched the birds on the deck outside of the sliding glass doors.
I hope it works out for you Barbara – no mess and you can watch the birds, especially the mourning dove you saw before. That club card is worthwhile for good discounts. I got it during the first part of the pandemic for their whole peanuts so I could feed the squirrels and not go into the stores once the Park opened up again as I ran out of my supply of people peanuts. Phil (owner) had just opened the store the year before so he offered to deliver to all his customers’ homes to drop off their purchases so they didn’t incur UPS fees if they ordered online. They have deals here for people with the club cards for free things sometimes too, unless it’s just Phil. Cats are fascinated and the birds know they can’t come after them. Have fun!
Your new year’s walk was much prettier than mine. Mine was damp, chilly and embanked in fog, but at least I went out. This January has been very cold for the most part.
Thanks for sharing your walk – I love your eye for details.
Thank you, Karma! Your “damp, chilly and embanked in fog” New England walk sounds lovely to me! I miss hearing the fog horns and the bouy bells sounding in the distance. It sounds like you’re getting even more snow and cold temps. A real winter! maybe?
It has been quite cold. Let me say that my heating bill is not doing well with this weather! Hasn’t been a ton of snow, not like when we were kids and it seemed like snow blanketed the ground all winter. We got a fluffy 4-5″ inches last night, and no big panics about the weather of course!
It’s been colder than average down here, too. Our normal January highs are 52F and we’ve only reached that a couple of times this month so far. My childhood memory of snow in New England is the same as yours. Remember the January thaw?! There was snow on the ground most of the time, making the January thaw remarkable. Our snow forts didn’t melt away a day after a storm.