Signs of Spring

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

Signs of Spring
Pansies blooming, purple martins arriving, grass getting green, buds sprouting everywhere, temperatures warming, snakes slithering by—what?--snakes? No, that’s not one of most people’s favorite harbingers of spring. Warmer days call humans to come outdoors and snakes to slither out from under their napping places.

“Sssnakes” at Port Discover’s Afterschool Science on March 28, 2013

Last week Port Discover hosted an outreach program from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “Snakes” was the topic for the afterschool program attended by 45 students.

Our presenter brought several of her slithery friends with her and allowed the students to pet them and ask lots of questions. Her companions included a very impressive ball python, a common black rat snake, and a brown water snake which so many people mistake for a venomous water moccasin.

She told us that North Carolina has 35 species of snakes of which six are venomous. They are the eastern coral, copperhead, cottonmouth, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, timber rattlesnake and the pygmy rattlesnake.

Copperheads are found in all 100 NC counties and are responsible for 90 percent of the state’s venomous snakebites. They are edge dwellers and love ivy and the cover of rocks. They are less likely to slither away from humans than other snakes, and usually freeze in place. If you see one, the best thing to do is back away. Most snakebites happen when people are trying to kill the snake. In general, most snakes are just as afraid of you as you are of them.

My personal theory concerning wildlife is that I enjoy watching them from a distance. If they don’t bother me, I certainly won’t bother them. The problem with snakes is that they are silent and blend into their environment so well that you might come up on one without meaning to do so, thus startling both of you.

Last December in Queensland, Australia a little boy, age 3, found some eggs and wanted to keep them. His mother provided a container and let the child keep them in his room. A few days later, she found that the container was full of hatchlings of eastern brown snakes which are one of the most venomous snakes on Earth. She took the snakes to a sanctuary where they were released into the wild.

In Darwin, Australia, a daycare facility had to be closed because of an infestation of 23 baby pythons. Upon investigation, the mother and more babies were found hidden in the wall of the center. Stories like these help maintain the snake’s fearsome reputation.

Snakes are invaluable to humans because they help control such pests as rodents and insects. Scientific study is being done to discover other beneficial uses. Snake venom might be used to treat cancer and diabetes someday. The venom of the Black mamba effectively blocks pain in mice and may become an alternative to opiate drugs.

As with all wildlife, people should show respect for snakes and their place in the natural order, but keep a safe distance.
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One Man’s Dirt is Another Man’s Soil

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

One Man’s Dirt is Another Man’s Soil
When we were little girls, my sister loved to make fancy mud pies and decorate them with leaves, berries, and twigs. I wanted nothing to do with it. Yuk! Dirt is bad, right? You have to wash constantly to get rid of it—your hands, your nails, your feet, your windows, your food, and your clothes. The list is endless.

Dirt is bad unless you are a farmer, a gardener, a potter, a brick maker, an animal, an artist, or want a facial at your favorite spa. Even some medicines have been made with ingredients like clay.

Soil is the very foundation of life and is an energy giving force.

Early Native Americans believed that standing with bare feet or lying directly on the soil allowed them to think and feel more deeply. We are drawn to the earth when we dig for treasure, bury ourselves at the beach, and look for arrowheads.

Soil is the outer most layer of the earth’s crust. It is a mixture of minerals, organic materials plus air and water. As the organic material decays, it mixes with rock particles, minerals and water to form soil. The content of the soil depends on where it comes from on the earth and the make-up of the parent material.

Sandy soil is made up of minerals and rock and is gritty and has large spaces between the particles. Water flows easily through it. Clay soil drains poorly because it has extremely small particles with small space between them. It is older because it took many years for the rocks to break down. Silty soil has rich nutrients and allows for good drainage and excellent growing. Loamy soil is a combination of the other three types of soil. Because it holds water well, it is ideal for gardening.

The qualities of the soil in any given area determine its use. Farming cannot be done easily in clay, just as building on sand is not wise.

One spoonful of soil can support 5,000 species of bacteria. One acre of land can have five to ten tons of animal life. A one-quarter acre lawn might have 200 to 350 earthworms.

Soil is a non-renewable resource, which can be threatened by over-farming and pesticide use. It takes five hundred years to create one inch of topsoil.

A restaurant in Tokyo, Japan recently made the news by offering a dish costing $110 for those who want to experience the joy of literally eating dirt. Geophagy is the ancient practice of eating soil or soil-like substances such as chalk or clay. Chefs worldwide are experimenting with distilled soil to create an earthy foam to be used in their cooking.

You can have your soil tested through the NC Extension Service. Agents can instruct you about taking a sample. They will send it to Raleigh for testing and you can discuss the results with them to see how to improve your own soil for growing.
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Snow Today, Gone Tomorrow

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

SNOW TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
As I write this column, the “S” word is in the weather forecast, maybe. When I taught school, I always instructed my students to wear their pajamas wrong side out on the nights that snow was predicted to fall. Most teachers are as foolish as children are when it comes to the magical precipitation. A snow day off is like playing hooky with God’s permission.

Common adages about encouraging snow include placing a spoon under your pillow, leaving ice cubes on the porch, putting a white crayon in your freezer, shaking a snow globe while dancing, and flushing an ice cube down your toilet.

People in the South see snow differently than anywhere else in the country. Northerners think we are crazy when we hesitate to drive in it, stop all normal activities, and generally lose our minds over one inch of the white stuff.

On March 2, 1980, Elizabeth City and eastern North Carolina experienced blizzard conditions of winds over fifty miles an hour, extremely cold temperatures, and lots of snow. We received Willard Scott’s Golden Shovel Award for the most snow in the country that day. The official measurement was twenty-five inches with drifts up to 30 inches. Then two weeks later, it happened again.

That snowfall was an amazing experience. I stood on my front porch that night and heard the huge pine trees crack and drop their branches. The muffled, insulated sound of the wind was unforgettable. I happily hold onto that memory because it is unlikely to ever happen again. I think.

With the many popular old sayings about snow, there is usually some scientific truth. Some folks say, “It is too cold to snow.” Actually, snow starts falling at around 2 degrees Celsius and up to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Moisture content in the air is the main factor enabling snow. As the temperature falls dramatically, the moisture drops too, so there is little chance of snow.

Photo by Jessica Faulkingham

Northeastern NC has several mitigating factors when it comes to its snowfall. With so much water surrounding us and keeping us warmer, a barrier is formed that keeps us more likely to get rain than snow.

However, we also can experience what is called lake, bay, or ocean snows. These events happen when very cold winds move across long expanses of warm water. The water vapor is picked-up, freezes, and is deposited as snow.

Local news stations try their best to predict our weather, but it is difficult. They use the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) or “European model” located in Reading, England. They also use the Global Forecast System (GFS) model located in College Park, MD from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The European model is statistically more accurate primarily because it has a larger database.

By the way, the Farmer’s Almanac for 2013 has red flagged March 20-23 for a major storm along the Atlantic seaboard with wind and heavy precipitation. Get ready.
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