On September 30, the Audubon NC team and a batch of enthusiastic volunteers completed the first survey of Elk Knob’s new tracts.  They had quite a productive day and as our biologist Curtis Smalling went through his notes it became clear that they added a lot of species to the park list! Curtis is still trying to get through a thorough ID vetting of some of the plants and other stuff, but right now the survey added at least four butterflies, two orthopterans (katydid and grasshopper), a couple of bees, several plants including the stiff gentians, three birds (Connecticut and Nashville Warbler as well as Pileated Woodpecker), lots of spiders, a crayfish, and many mushrooms species.

This is a project of our year-long volunteer initiative, TogetherGreen. If you'd like to volunteer for the next survey, contact Curtis at csmalling@audubon.org.