Asters and Friends

Tiny bumblebees and other pollinators have been taking full advantage of late blooming asters. 

My sister had a bumblebee nest by her front door this summer and we learned quite a lot about the creatures. They didn't bother anyone, but we did have to keep the dogs from snapping the spicy flies. 

At this late date, queen bumbles have left the nest to hibernate over the winter and their non-queen daughters are living out their last days in the fields, frequently sleeping on flowers when its too cold or dark for them to fly. 

In the spring, the queens that survive will build new nests and hope to get a new brood of daughters going to help them create a full and healthy colony before hatching some males and new queens to start the process all over again. 

The clouded sulphur butterflies take advantage of the late bloomers, too. The white female above blends in with the white asters. 

Asters are lovely enough all by themselves, but knowing the important part they play in the survival of late feeding pollinators and migrating butterflies makes them even more special. 

I caught this bumblebee lifting off and heading over to taste a different flower. 

I hope you enjoyed this little field trip as much as I did. :)

More Mushrooms on Monday?

Sulphur shelf or chicken of the woods are very tasty sauteed in butter, especially if you find them as brilliant and fresh as this batch was. 

Aren't they beautiful? That color isn't enhanced - they're really that bright. They're pretty hard to miss while walking through the forest. I noticed evidence of another bloom someone had already harvested - just orange remnants stuck to the side of a log. 

 

Interestingly, on the same big pine snag, about five feet lower and around the other side, a lacy group of aged turkey tail fungus filled the crevices in the bark. I thought the textures and colors were a nice juxtaposition. 

Another set of turkey tail growing on a fallen poplar tree, was a surprising color of green. It looked like that poplar was sprouting a whole new kind of leaf! 

I thought this colorful fellow, growing between the pieces of a rotting birch tree added a perfect touch to a picturesque forest floor vignette. 

This beauty was large and impressive, with an undulating cap and a lot of personality! 

Lots of fungus lately, right? It's what I've been seeing out in the woods! We'll have to see what I can locate for the next blog installment!  

Fungus for Friday?

 We got a little bit of rain, finally, and fall mushrooms decided to pop. 

Piper and I have been stopping to admire them as we wander out in the woods and fields. 

Well, I admire them, at least. I think Piper wonders what I find so fascinating. 

She likes to try and figure it out, even if it doesn't make sense to her. 

She does that a lot. When I stop to take a picture of something, she likes to try and understand why "the big dog" thinks its worth investigating. As a result, I get a lot of Piper photo bombs! 

There are places out in the woods that smell extremely mushroom-y and I stop and look around to see who is blooming. The colors, textures and edibility properties are all worth checking, from  my point of view. (No eating the mushroom above!)

This one was so interesting because it had lobed caps. Almost like petals of a flower. One of these days, I may have my reference books back and I'll be able to start looking things up again! 

In the meantime, I'll just enjoy looking and finding. 

There may be more mushrooms on Monday... I think I still have a few on the camera that need to be downloaded and prepared! I know at least one reader will enjoy that. :) 

Twenty Swans A-Swimming

I had to look up the collective noun for a group of swans. It's called a bevy. Isn't that just perfect? 

We definitely had a bevy of beauties out in front of my sister's house a couple days ago. We counted twenty in the group. 

They had found something particularly good to eat in the shallows and spent a long time bobbing and milling about before swimming north together. 

A few of them got ruffled feathers from time to time, but there weren't any major kerfuffles. 

One paddled along with its mate holding a foot out of the water. It must have been a restful pose, even though it looked like someone had misread the swan assembly instructions. 

 

And speaking of looking a little silly, there quite a few less graceful moments as they filled their gullets with whatever they were finding for snacks. 

 Obviously, it was a lot of fun to watch the activity. I must have taken a hundred pictures, at least, but I'm not cruel. I only subject you to a few that seemed interesting and maybe a little humorous. :) 

A Mysterious Apology!

I apologize for the delay in posting the solution to the mystery turtles. For some reason, Google (in it's infinitely dubious wisdom) changed a number of blog settings without notifying me. I was having trouble posting and all the responses from mystery lovers fell into a black hole. I think I have everything reset and working properly again. 

So, I'm also sorry I didn't respond to any of your mysterious puzzle answers - I wondered why nobody had said anything. (Thank you, BetsyLee, for notifying me of response difficulties via AQ mail. It put me on the right track to solving all the various issues -- I hope.)

Without further ado, here's the original picture: 

There are two fairly obvious turtles, but at least two others peeking out of the water.  There's also a possible fifth about a third down from the top on the left. 

 I've marked the ones I saw on this second picture. So, who did I miss? :)

 

A Tiny Turtle Teaser

Just in case it's time for another little mystery. Here's a teaser. I'll post the answer tomorrow, but this is one where I might be wrong.  You may do better than I did. :)

How many turtles can you find? I thought there were two to begin with and then... 

Considering the Flowers...

Sometimes, you just have to stop and smell the roses...

And admire the colors,

And the beauty of petals unfurling. 

Then there's the smile-inducing oxeye daisy, 

Along with its cousins that were blooming in great profusion. 

The purple coneflowers were in full display mode beside my sister's stairway,  

And a marsh mallow voluntarily adorned the boat launch where Piper likes to get a drink or take a dip for a break to cool off on our walks. 

Yarrow blossomed along the trail, 

And St. John's Wort spread a little sunshine through the fields where Piper likes to romp.

The flowers of the field are, indeed, something marvelous to consider. 

Little Things with Wings

Bees, butterflies, dragonflies and other little winged wonders can be real day brighteners. 

I don't know what kind of pollinator is on the black-eyed Susan above, but it was an earnest little fuzz buzzer that caught my eye.  

I've been cheering for mosquito-eating dragonflies since I was a small child. They not only have the most delicate and intricate wings, they're the most amazing aerial acrobats. They hover, fly backward, forward, dart, dive and actually eat their prey while hanging in the air. 

I love the way sunlight makes the wings glitter and the veins are like stained glass leading around the colorful panes of transparent wing. 

Piper and I saw this newly emerged monarch butterfly as we were finishing up an afternoon walk. It was so vibrant in its new colors and completely undamaged by any encounters with the world. I'm sure it will be well traveled by the time it finishes its migration flight, but no less majestic for that. 

We took a Jeep ride (old 1966 vintage), complete with windshield down and no doors, of course, on the family property to celebrate my brother's birthday. We stopped to admire some giant swallowtail butterflies in the thistle patch. 

They hardly ever stop fluttering and it's really hard to get a good picture.  I did manage to get a couple clear shots out of the dozens I took - most were blurry to one degree or another. The patterns on these butterflies are beautiful. The tiny teardrops on the ends of the tails and the colorful orange and blue markings at the base of its abdomen are striking details in an already intricate series of wing markings. 
 

Mushrooms on Monday

There hasn't been a post for my fungus fancying friends lately, so I thought it was about time to address the situation. 

Of course, I have absolutely none of my reference books, so I haven't looked any of them up, although I did think the ones above looked like inverted hooped skirts. Perhaps mushrooms a la Marilyn Monroe's billowing dress. :)

These impressive specimens had forced their way through the leaves and pine needles, looking like freshly made canopies to shelter wee folk. I'm pretty sure Piper and I disturbed the end of the night's dancing and reveling. 

 They definitely looked enchanted. And enchanting. 

This brilliant scarlet beauty fairly glowed against the backdrop of browns and greens. It was the only one of its kind, which seemed fitting for one so striking. 

Sail Away

I thought this was pretty cool. It sailed by as I was returning from my morning walk with Piper and it's not something a person sees very often.

I believe it's one of the Maritime Academy's training ships. So, the crew is learning the ropes (literally) of sailing a tall ship. Just an interesting Saturday morning sight. 

Trail Cam Thursday

I posted a bunch of trail camera captures of whitetail deer families earlier. So, I thought it might be fun to show who else has been caught roaming around in the woods. 

We have some bears. Above is a fairly large boar and I'd rather not meet him while out walking Piper! They usually only wander by the cameras at night, so we get pictures of glowing eyes and silhouettes, but sometimes they're ambling back home in the early morning sun. 

This younger, adolescent age black bear passed the same tree its larger relation walked by in the earlier picture. It's a popular critter crossing (which is why we put the camera there). A small pond sits just beyond the bear and it drains into a little creek that runs through a culvert under the two track trail, so lots of beasties come by for a drink, or use the road to keep their feet dry. 
  

There are also some beautiful bobcats roaming about the woods as well. We sometimes get an early morning picture, but this is the more typical capture. 

This is my personal favorite of this batch, though. This sandhill crane walked past this same camera in the same direction almost every single day to have his portrait taken. We started laughing every time he showed up in the camera roll. :)
 

Can You See It?

It's not really a mystery post, but it's a little hard to spot. If he hadn't moved, I probably would have missed seeing him altogether. He took a step and gave away his location. 

Who is he?  He's an American Woodcock, also known in my area as a timberdoodle. 

Everybody piled into the jeep (old 1966 vintage model with the windshield down and no doors) and took a ride on the family property for my brother's birthday and got lucky enough to see another woodcock. I was able to get better pictures of this one. 

Having green grass as a backdrop, instead of more dry leaves really helps with the contrast and visibility. 

Watching these guys bob along as they walk is such a treat (that's how I know he is a male). Also, if you ever have the chance to go out on a spring night and watch their spiral mating flights, it's an experience not to be missed! You can sneak up closer and closer when they're high in the sky and then watch them do their courtship dance in the dusk after they land. As I said, if you have the chance, do it! :)