Since I was in the dunes I figured I’d explore them before I headed inland to the higher succession woods. While being nowhere near as dramatic in scale as some of the other dunes I’ve been to, it was vastly superior in habitat diversity. While passing along some early succession dunes I found in low areas between dunes sudden rich pockets of wet woods and temporally flooded grassland.
As I approached the wooded pocket I couldn’t help but think about how trees really aren’t just colorful in the fall. Here I found wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) and False Soloman’s Seal (Smilacina stellata) in bloom.
This area was small and before long I found myself in a shallowly flooded area. Despite the low water level the vegetation had a very distinct character apart from that of the surrounding dunes. Clearly this area gets inundated fairly frequently for a whole different community to develop. Unfortunately, as much as I pride myself on my plant knowledge, it was a community that I am unfamiliar with and hence could not identify most the biota present. Again I lack the knowledge, but I’m taking the educated guess that I was looking at what is called panne habitat, a rare type of inter-dunal shallow wetland.
Regardless of my having basically no knowledge about what I was looking at, it still didn’t stop me from marveling at the subdued beauty of it. I can’t really describe how this quiet, short, red-hued habitat nestled between dunes gave a…well…secure and peaceful feeling. I also managed to accidentally scare up a Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) which actually was a first time sighting for me, or life bird.To Be Continued
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