Walnut Creek Watershed Coalition - WC2

Today, the Creek Keeper was honored to be invited to attend the Board Meeting of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District held at the Henry County Water Authority, Walnut Creek Waste Water Treatment Facility, about a mile from the home of WC2 on Walnut Creek.

It was a great meeting, we learned much, and look forward to contributing this valuable organization. You can learn more about their mission here:

Front Page - Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District The Metro Water District includes 15 counties and 92 cities. It is the only major metropolitan area in the country with more than 100 jurisdictions implementing a long-term comprehensive water management program that is required and enforced.

First and foremost at WC2, we are Natural Scientists. The Creek Keeper is a Biologist (B.S.) and Environmental Scientist (M.S.) and Georgia Master Naturalist.

We feel that us "brainly humans" are part of our natural ecosystems and have a responsibility to care for our planet and all of its inhabitants.

Hope you enjoy our tips how to live with nature and use nature to our mutual benefit.

WC2 Creek Keeper

Seriously! Who leaves a tiny hamburger on the beach? 🤔

That’s no burger, it’s a Red Hamburger Bean (Mucuna urens)! My wife’s keen eyes spotted it on Hunting Island, SC last week. This bean likely came from Central or South America where the Ox-eye Bean vine grows in wet tropical forests. Their seeds float in seawater and can be carried long distances by ocean currents. This red hamburger or ox-eye bean likely caught a ride up the North Equatorial and Florida Currents.

Eastern Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula getula) range across the Atlantic states from New Jersey down to northern Florida. They live in a wide variety of habitats across this range, including woodlands, fields, along streams and wetlands, and in suburban yards. Also called Chain Snakes by some folks, they’re a harmless, non-venomous constrictor that eats small mammals, lizards, birds, and snakes.

Unfortunately, some populations of Eastern Kingsnakes are declining in the Coastal Plain. Habitat loss and fire ants may play a role. Some people also collect them as pets. They can be a good pet snake; however, pet snakes should be obtained from a reputable breeder, not from the wild.

Eastern Kingsnakes are well-known for their immunity to venom and ability to eat snakes such as copperheads, rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths. See an example of this in the comments.

Photo by Seanin Og, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Some folks swear that “Cottonmouths” or “Water Moccasins” are common along Piedmont streams in their area. The reality is that Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) are not found in the vast majority of the Piedmont (i.e., above the Fall Line), with just a few exceptions of isolated populations (e.g., Wake County, NC). Cottonmouths are, however, widespread in the Coastal Plain.

Rather, what folks are generally seeing in the Piedmont is the widespread and abundant Northern or Common Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) pictured here. They’re easy to find sunning on rocks around ponds, lakes, and streams. If you get close to one, they almost always slither into the water and swim off to cover. They’re just as scared of you as you might be of them. Northern Watersnakes have lots of “attitude” if you grab them (I would too!🤣), but they’re NON-venomous and harmless to people, pets, and livestock. They primarily feed on fish and frogs.

More information is in the comments, including how to distinguish Cottonmouths from a Northern Watersnake and report a Cottonmouth sighting in your area on H**pMapper or the Carolina H**p Atlas.

We completed our quarterly Adopt-A-Road trash clean up today. Hurray! A new record low, only one large bag of trash!

On the local news you may have seen flooded roads due to "clogged drains". Do you know what is clogging the drains? Trash/litter that washes down the streets and can't get through gutter drain.

Litter isn't just unsitely, it can also be dangerous!

Thanks for not littering!

You can learn more about the Henry County Adopt-A-Road program. You get a free sign at both ends of the road section that is great for advertising your business, church, or other group.

Adopt-A-Road Henry County Adopt-A-Road Litter Control Program

The mouse in the garage with enormous eyes and white feet isn't a house mouse. She's a deer mouse — native, and the most common wild mammal in North America.

The house mouse is uniformly gray-brown with small eyes and a naked tail the same color on both sides. She's introduced, lives permanently in human structures, and chews wiring. She's the one that colonizes kitchens.

🌿 The deer mouse has large dark eyes, white belly, white feet, and a sharply bicolored tail — dark on top, white below. She lives outdoors in woodlands and fields. She enters garages and sheds in fall for warmth but doesn't move into the house.

She eats seeds, berries, insects, and fungi. She's a primary food source for owls, foxes, and snakes.

🐾 The one-second diagnostic:

- Large eyes + white feet + bicolored tail = deer mouse. Native.
- Small eyes + uniform gray + scaly uniform tail = house mouse. Introduced.

One safety note: in some regions, deer mice can carry hantavirus. Don't sweep or vacuum droppings — wet-clean with disinfectant and ventilate the space first.

Two mice. One native visitor, one permanent resident. The eyes tell you which 🌿

The fireflies are close. The emergence isn't random — it's triggered by a specific combination of soil temperature, humidity, and rain.

The larvae have been underground for a year or more. They need sustained warm soil — not one hot afternoon but multiple warm nights in a row — before they pupate and surface.

🌿 The trigger sequence:

Soil warmth — most eastern species need soil consistently in the mid-sixties before adults emerge. A week of warm nights does what a single warm day can't.

Rain followed by humid evenings — larvae live in moist soil and leaf litter. Moderate rain followed by warm humid dusk is the classic combination. Dry springs delay emergence. Waterlogged soil delays it too.

Timing — flashing starts roughly twenty to forty minutes after sunset, when the sky is dark enough for bioluminescence to register. In the mid-Atlantic, first flashes usually appear late May to early June. Further north, mid-June. Deep South, already active.

🐾 How to predict it:

- Watch for a stretch of warm nights after rain
- Step outside at dusk on a humid evening
- Look low — the first flash comes from the grass, not the air

After a year underground, it lasts about half a second 🌿

Thanks everyone that showed up for the GA EPD public hearing about the Equinix AT10X Data Center water discharge permit. We had an amazing group of citizens and EPD heard our voice loud and clear. Now we wait for an EPD decision document. We will keep you up to date. Involved citizens CAN make a difference! If you would like a copy of our science based technical objection document to this permit, please send us an email. [email protected]

We hope to see every one at the opening of the Butler's Bridge Park this Thursday at 10 a.m. 1550 Butler Bridge Road off North Ola Road.

Here is a map of the South River Canoe Trail!