English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) pollen has been found in sites in Norway that date to the early Neolithic period, so it has been around for a very long time. It was introduced into North America from Europe and loves it here. It is a favorite of many butterflies, songbirds, and animals, and is pretty when it flowers like the one in the photo.
Last year I was walking through a forest clearing and almost stepped on a turtle. This year I did the same thing in almost the same spot and wondered if it was the same turtle. Last year it was spotless and looked as if it had come from the local Buff ‘N Shine and, as you can see in the photo, this one looked the same.
This snapping turtle was also very clean and I almost stepped on it as well. Luckily I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was as big as a soccer ball.
I went to visit my favorite lone tree one day but the girls were heading to their favorite stream for a drink. For some reason my being there was spooking them away from the stream, so I left. The white around their noses is really striking.
My favorite lone tree was still there the next time I paid a visit. Since it’s in a fenced in pasture and I can’t get near it I’ve been wondering what it was for years. Finally, after scanning the leaves with binoculars, I can see that it is some type of hickory tree. There are a lot of shagbark hickories in this area so it might be one of those. Unfortunately I can’t see the bark well enough to know for sure.
Pendulous sedge (Carex pendula) is living up to its name. It is also called weeping sedge and grows along stream and pond banks. The slightest breeze gets the dangling flower heads swaying, so getting a decent photo of it can be a challenge. It took several tries to get one that didn’t show movement.
There is an unusual evergreen tree with deep green, very long needles growing in a local park and this photo is of some new needles emerging. They look like a bundle of optical fibers. I’ve tried to identify this tree several times with no luck.
The largest of these mushrooms was barely the size of a pea. The crisscrossing “sticks” are pine needles. I think they are Mycena osmundicola. I can’t seem to find a common name for them.
This small funnel shaped mushroom grew at the very end of a twig no bigger than a pencil. I think it is one of the Clitocybe group ofmushrooms.
I thought this was a spotted tussock moth but the helpful folks at Bugguide.net tell me that it’s a hickory tussock moth (Lophocampa caryae.) Its beautiful wings reminded me of stained glass.
This viceroy butterfly seemed very hairy and I’ve never noticed that before. It wouldn’t let me get closer to see a little better and flew off after one step. I’m also seeing a lot of swallow tails this year but I don’t think I’ve seen a monarch in 2 years now.
Just imagine something so small it can crawl between the upper and lower surfaces of a leaf and eat the tissues. That’s what made this path in this sarsaparilla leaf; a leaf mining insect called Phytomyza aralivora, according to Bugguide.net. By reading about these leaf trails I’ve learned that leaf miners are very specific about the leaf they chew, so a sarsaparilla leaf miner probably won’t mine an oak leaf. I’ve also learned that their trails start out thin but then become wider as the insect grows, and that can be seen in the above photo.
Our recent spate of heat and high humidity has brought on many coral fungi. I think this orangey pink one is crown coral (Clavicorona pyxidata.)This is the first one I’ve seen growing on a birch log.
I found this white growth on a native azalea recently. It was about the size of a golf ball, and hard and heavy. Azalea Exobasidium gall is a leaf and flower gall that is caused by a fungus instead of an insect. It can cause swollen shoots, stem galls, witches’ brooms and red leaf spots, but more often than not it causes white galls like that seen in the above photo. The white color comes from the spores of the fungus, which are spread by wind and rain.
This dragonfly decided to take a break from hunting and pose for a picture. I think it’s an immature male 12 spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella,) but apparently immature males look much like females, so it could be a she. Since it doesn’t really matter to me I didn’t pursue the identification any further. Sometimes just enjoying something for what it is-for its beauty- can be more rewarding than finding out what makes it tick.
No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? ~Annie Dillard
Thanks for coming by.
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
DON’T STEP ON A TURTLE’S BACK….OR HIS SHELL WILL GO CCCRRAAACK!!!! or A SNAPPER WILL MAKE YOU WISH YOU HADN’T!!!! 😀
Reblogged this on Teacher as Transformer and commented:
The images provided are beautiful. Annie Dillard’s quote at the very end is appropriate. It tells us to sense more deeply and richly what we often take for granted or see fleetingly in a moment. When we ask why it is beautiful the extraordinary takes a place in our heart as more than something in a local landscape we pass by each day.
I liked seeing the turtles. I see so few around here and we don’t have the snappers at all. Those cows really have a hard life, up to their bellies in food!
Those cows are pampered pets, I think. They don’t seem to have it too rough.
Odd that you don’t have many turtles in Montana. In a way you’re lucky that you don’t have snappers. They eat just about anything, including baby ducks and geese. They’ve also been known to take a toe or two.
The line tree reflected in the water is beautiful no matter what it is. I love the dragonfly too, it isn’t often they stay still long enough for a photo in my experience so well done for capturing it. I can’t imagine finding turtles out in the woods here but the cows are a fairly regular sight although I’ve never seen any with white mouths like yours.
Thank you. I know what you mean about dragonflies. They don’t sit still for me either.
I think the turtles go into the woods to look for soft soil to dig a nest in. I can’t imagine why else they’d be there.
I tried to find out what kind of cows those were but didn’t have any luck. I like that touch of white.
My money was on elm, not hickory. 😦
I thought it was an elm at first too, but then I thought maybe oak.
I always associate turtles and tortoises with warm climates, I never thought you would have turtles that could survive your cold winters. So much survives your cold winter – it amazes me. Amelia
The aquatic turtles burrow down into the mud at the bottom of the pond and hibernate, taking in oxygen through their skin. Anything that lives in New England has to know how to survive what are sometimes extremely cold winters, from the insects up to people.
So true about id’ing creatures. Sometimes it is enough just to present it on a blog and then back off, I think. The coral fungi is so very pretty. Dave
Not to mention how long identification can take sometimes. I like coral fungi too. Soon it will be everywhere for a time.
What absolutely brilliant photographs. Left on their own , one may shuffle them around and they would come up with their own story. I wonder though whether these self dictated stories could the perspective of how things occurred to you in your wanderings.
Shakti
Thank you Shakti. I don’t have any plan or mission when I go into the forest. If I see something that strikes me as beautiful or interesting I take a few photos of it and then often have to research it so I can explain what it is I’ve seen. The azalea leaf gall is a good example of what I mean-I had never seen one before. In these “things I’ve seen posts” the photos are taken hours or sometimes weeks apart and really have nothing to do with each other. I put them together into a post but I think each one could stand on its own with its own story to tell, as you have pointed out.
It would be great if someday we could go for a hike and swap observations! You find such interesting plants and places that I seem to miss.
I’ve had that same thought Jerry. Just think what a bug guy, a bird guy, and a plant guy could do with a blog as a team!
I can remember as a child running into snapping turtles all the time. I spend most of my childhood days in the wood, creek or swamp hunting snakes, turtles, bull frogs, etc. He sure is a big one Allen! Love all your pictures, great shots as usual. Happy 4th weekend 🙂
Thanks Michael. It sounds like you and I grew up in the same forest. I used to do those same things.
We have what I thought was a damselfly take up residence in our garden that has those same wing markings. Now I’m wondering if it is a small dragonfly.
There is an easy way to tell. I think someone told me that damselflies fold their wings and dragonflies don’t.
Then it must be a drangonfly.
Reblogged this on Writing Out Loud and commented:
This site is always worth a reblog. Just in case you missed it. Priceless.
[…] Things I’ve Seen. […]
I haven’t seen any fungus of note here yet but after our recent rain I will try again. As always you are an inspiration.
Thank you. Rain, warmth and a little humidity usually gets them started.
A really enjoyable post to read and a truely wonderful set of photos to look at.
Thank you Clare. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
I love knowing more about my natural world so I find your posts and superb photos to be so enjoyable…Keep posting.
Thank you Charlie. I have no plans to quit just yet.
I can totally see why that lone tree is your fave. I love any kind of refection shot and seeing its image in the water was definitely a great catch.
Hope your 4th of July weekend is going well! 🙂
Thank you. With so much forest here lone trees are hard to find!
Several years back (before digital) we were hiking in Killarney Provincial Park http://www.ontarioparks.com/park/killarney and were treated to orange, pink, and brilliant white coral fungi. At that time I didn’t have a camera with me that was capable of capturing their image.
Some are quite small and aren’t easy to get into any kind of photo.
I do enjoy your quotes, they fit the blog so well.
Thank you Susan. Sometimes I have to search and search for them, but this time there it was.
The turtles are interesting. I have seen more than usual this year and was wondering if it is the weather or something else that is causing this. Gorgeous shots as usual and a “gentle” education along the way!
Thanks Martha. I think these two were looking for a place to lay their eggs. They were quite far from any water.
Beautiful shots, as always. It’s nice to see that you are seeing butterflies. I too am in search of Monarchs, but also have come up empty-handed. I think that you are correct that the Twelve-spotted Skimmer is an immature male. Although the coloration of immature males for this species (and many other dragonflies) is similar to that of the females, you can often tell from the “terminal appendages” at the tip of the abdomen. In this case they seem to be longish, which is usually a sign of a male. (The male uses these claspers to grab and hold the female’s head during mating).
Thanks Mike. The lack of monarchs is disheartening. I keep hoping they’ll make a comeback and reappear. Thanks for the lesson on dragonfly anatomy and telling me what to watch for. I’m glad that I made the correct identification without having to bother the folks at bug guide again.
Lovely and educational as always. Thank you for the effort you put into each post. I saw one single Monarch butterfly last year and haven’t seen any this year. Sad state of affairs.
Thank you Judy. It is sad to realize that we might be seeing the disappearance of monarch butterflies. I’ve read that the problem is their winter habitat in Mexico being destroyed, so no amount of milkweed here is going to fix that.
I wouldn’t want to step on a snapping turtle, even with boots on! They can certainly be nasty. I’m back in FL, visiting my dad. The other day I finally got to see a gopher tortoise in the wild. The leaf miner must be very tiny.
I agree, I would want to step on one either. It’s amazing how well they blend in to their surroundings though.
The gopher tortoise sounds different. It must be a digger.
Enjoy Florida! It must be hot.
I am wondering if your mystery pine is a Japanese Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata). I also have a question about the Carex pendula. This is listed as a European grass, of which our northeastern version is fringed sedge, (Carex crinita). Might that be your grass? At any rate, I’m glad you posted it, as I’ve seen this grass in our local swamp and wondered what it is. You gave me the key to figuring it out.
Thank you Kate. I think you’re right about the Japanese umbrella pine. Thanks for the correct identification.
When I was taking photos and studying the sedge I was convinced that these were the invasive pendulous variety, but now I can’t remember what exactly it was that had me convinced. At any rate I should have mentioned the native variety as an alternative in the post. I’m also going to have to go back and take another look at them.
The quest to identify things we see is very rewarding, you take some really beautiful photographs, I always enjoy your journeys.
Thank you Julie. It is interesting to learn more about the things we see, but sometimes I like to get away from the books and just enjoy. I’m glad you’re enjoying these posts.