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JW: Such a great boardwalk, Rudy, that moves back into the, uh, shadows of the forest.
And all maintained, of course, by the state of Tennessee as a State Park. Fifty-six thousand
acres, over all, of recreation area between the Refuge and the State Park. And it's a
wonderful opportunity for folks in this area and from around the country.
RM: Well, it's a great place to walk slowly, too, because, as we saw back there, there
are a lot of things happening. I couldn't help but see this motion over here as we walked
in - look at the Fox Squirrel up in the Water Elm right there! (JW: Oh, yeah! Now different
from the Grey Squirrel, of course?) Oh yeah, well look at-you can even see the underside
on that, look at the orange! (JW: Uh-huh!) Look at the orange under there, and that,
as you said, Fox-like tail, real thick tail, boy, loving that Water Elm fruit! We've seen
a lot of animals feeding on that! And, again, not very much afraid of us, it's used to people
that come up and down this boardwalk. Oh that's a neat animal, isn't it? Heh-heh-heh! Picking
it up, playing with it, eating it with those front, uh, front paws! (JW: Very healthy animal,
too.) Ooh, yeah, Fox Squirrel's really are pretty common here, but that's a nice one,
very, very healthy obviously! I see something else, look at, getting a meal, right down
along the side here, Common Grackle, shiny, look at that iridescence on it! And it looks
like it's looking - and-it-l-look at the Crayfish! It got a Crayfish there! (JW: Oh yeah! What
a great . . .) I think the Crayfish was already dead, but it's crushing it, look, it's swallowing
it whole! (JW: What a great scene, though!) Oh yeah. Now they're . . . (JW: And that iridescence
is beautiful!) They're scavengers - they come along here and find a lot of animals that
sort of float into these shallow areas. Speaking of floating, look down here below us. Here's
one of those plants. It's an uncommon one that you see in places just like this and
nowhere else. (JW: What's it called?) Feather Foil is one of the common names, and you see
that the, uh, stems there sort-of buoy that plant up. And you can see some leaves on it,
too. Tiny little flowers on it, typical of these areas. And, again, it looks like this
is dominated by, uh, by Cypresses and - oh my goodness, look at that brilliant bird in
the Cypress, right there, Jim, Prothonotary Warbler, male, (JW: Oh, yeah.) we saw one
at the nest back there, here's one in all of it's splendor. A brilliant yellow bird
in such a dark forest, but that's exactly where it's found! And it's a migrant, it stays
here, and, as we saw, nests here. Ooh, that's pretty, ooh-ohh, that's pretty, oh, wow!
JW: Blue-gray wings with that gold, bright gold color!
RM: Beautiful, beautiful animal. There're a lot of things to see here, and, again, we're
at a place now where we can start to see, uh, the fact that the tree that dominates
here - we've already looked at - look over on the side, the Cypresses, Bald Cypress taking
over, living in deeper water here. And that is an interesting conifer, isn't it?
JW: It is, and-and, it comes up with these Cypress knees, they're called, (RM: Hehe-heh-heh!)
and I don't know, do you know the actual purpose?
RM: Well, the argument is that they're for gas exchange. That's never been proven, but
there they are, sticking up above the water and looking like old knobby knees, so, you
know, the common name, uh, Cypress knees, modified roots. Now, modifications - look
at the pile of material there. (JW: Beaver-cut material!) No question that the, uh, Beaver
is doing work in here. No doubt about that, piling it up for a lodge. And look, using
one of the rotted out, old, uh trees there right next to it. Oh, that's nice. So many
animals and plants, now, pick this kind of situation. Some of them like it back here,
and then others - look at the lake spread in front of us, here - like it out on that
open water. And I see some turtles getting up on the log there, some of them are already
up, others around it, look at those! (JW: Maybe some of the Cooters?) Probably, uh,
probably one or two, uh, different varieties of Cooters. Uh, all the hard-shelled turtles
in this part of the United States are called, uh, Cooters, oftentime. And I also see - look
at the, look at the, uh, the-the tree down below it there - Soft-shelled turtle on it,
flat as a pancake down there, Soft-shelled Turtle. (JW: Is-is it really a . . .) Just
flattened in the sunlight. ( . . soft shell on it?) Heh-heh, you can take the end of that
sharp edge of the shell and just bend it right up, no problem at all, it's very, very soft,
very, very flexible. And a lot of people out there, looks like, going by in fishing boats,
so we get a little bit of sound of motors as we're here. Doesn't seem to bother the
animals, doesn't seem to bother the turtles, although I'm sure the turtles are aware of
what's going on.
JW: One of the Crappie Fishing capitals of the United States, right here.
RM: Yeah. Wonderful place.