Have you ever wondered what might happen if the super market closed, the local produce dried up, and there was no place to buy that food or medicine you need to survive? You should have met Patti Donnellan, the Naturalist for Guntersville State Park, during her first two exciting speaking engagements July 6 and July 13. There are many beautiful little flowers growing in our own backyard that we could use for medicine and/or food. We had so many plants that we could not identify, but now, we can identify over twenty (20) of them, at our place.

Among the many things I did not have answers for, were:

1. What flower do you think the Native Americans used for a laxative?

2. What flower tastes like radishes?

3. What is a May-Apple?

4. Did you know that Napoleon had a special flower for his wife?

5. What is our State Wild Flower?

The third study on July 20th was about butterflies. Things like, which ones are useful and which ones are not; what flowers, that you could plant, do they like? And a dozen more things we never think about as we watch them flitting from bloom to bloom, from flower to flower, from plant to plant.

1. Did you know that the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is the state butterfly?

2. Did you know that the color changes from male to female?

3. Do they really carry pollen from flower to flower?

4. How can you tell a butterfly from a moth?

On July 27, the final in her series of talks, she told us about birds. The slides were excellent, and the information enlightening, at least to me, a total bird novice.

These are some of the things discussed:

1. Did you know the state bird is the Northern Flicker?

2. Which birds are here most of the time?

3. Why are the males generally more colorful than the females?

4. Do they have individual songs?

5. What can we do to help preserve them?

6. What is “bird conjunctivitis?”

Patti comes to us from Ohio. She grew up and attended grade school, middle school, and high school there, and then furthered her education at the Pennsylvania State University for a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. She loved the study of birds (ornithology) best, and she has saved several injured ones. We were fortunate when she accepted the position of Naturalist at our Lake Guntersville State Park.

She loves her work with the wildlife here; she leads hikes through the various trails of the park; and, she has taken the “Adventure Trail” that continues on in the Cathedral Cavern cave, where the regular tour ends.

Her household companions consist of her puppy, a white German Shepard named Sibley which is 15 months old; three cats, two of which are brother and sister, Seam and Shasta, a pair of 6 year olds, then there is Jager, a 14-year-old feline and Fin Sola, a lonesome goldfish, who escaped the grinding teeth of an opossum.

She would like to meet you soon at the park, take the time, and get acquainted.