Though not rare I’ve only seen it a few times in the last several years of hiking. It’s one of the two greenbriers native to alabama with reddish, orangish berries. It’s the sarsaparilla vine. The rhizomes of this species can be dried and used to make a sort of root beer flavored drink.
It ticks all the boxes for a Brown Thrasher for me, but yeah, fluffed up so a little plump. I don’t know how to use this system to tag paraleptopecten directly…
Growing up “out west” on the northern Pacific Coast I experienced the sad lack of any mimid except the Grey Catbird. The Brown Thrasher was among the top birds on my “hit list” after I moved to Saskatchewan. There it became my nemesis bird for nearly a year, resisting all attempts at location! Finally managed to see the rusty back of one flying between two dense bushes on the riverbank. After that the curse was broken and I encountered these crazy singers more often–love your description Dale! Sometimes they were even so obliging to sit still enough on a bush to get one’s binocs on them…
My recent obsession with redwoods led me to learn that a tree named Hyperion is apparently the tallest known coastal redwood. I just came across this drone flight video up and back down the trunk of what they say is the tallest. Which one this tree might be, I don’t know. But pretty awe inspiring regardless.
On his website he provided this information, so not the most authoritative source possible.
Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens , is the only living species of the genus Sequoia. Common names include coast redwood and California redwood, but this redwood is also indigenous to southern Oregon. The botanical or scientific name is Sequoia sempervirens. It is accurate to call them “Sequoia” because “giant sequoia” is a common name reserved for Sequoiadendron giganteum, and only the coast forest holds the real Sequoia genus naturally established.
Coast redwood is evergreen and monoecious, forming male and female reproductive parts on one tree. Pollination occurs mostly during winter. Apparently seeds from coast redwoods over 250 yrs. old are more viable than seeds from young redwood trees. It is the tallest species, exceeding 380 to 386 feet and over 29 ft. diameter. Maximum age can exceed 2500 years and there is one estimated over 4000 years.
I used a (true-color mylar) solar filter that I made for our birding telescope for the 2017 eclipse. It still had to be on one of the lower brightness settings.
Thanks. It was on the North Country Trail near White Cloud, Michigan, yesterday. I was amazed at the mix of deep reds and bright yellows, against the black trunk. I like to walk there with my kids and dog.
