I’ve seen trillium in our yard twice, I think. So lovely!
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Wow ,that’s really interesting! Thank you 
I’m trying to picture the shared morphology.
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I didn’t realize that either. If it is a blueberry relative then it is an agapetes relative too.
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Phlox is the only close relative. Other than that, the level of relationship is on par with chickadees and grackles, say.
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I like that. Reminds me of this one
which I found on Flickr and included in a gallery of gold foliage here
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A rainbow developed earlier today despite it being fairly dark out.
Today , about a hour ago or so, I had a weird conversation that just popped up in the store. Was looking at some mushrooms and this dude next to me said that he really likes mushrooms too and probably eats 50lbs of mushrooms a year which is probably 10-15x as much as me.
I was thinking he was just talking and so I said I definitely eat more than that. He then said on average Americans eat 3-5lbs of mushrooms a year but think they eat way more. I felt like he was trying to argue with me or was doing some kind of prank or something. So I said that I sometimes eat 10lbs of mushrooms a week. That it’s pretty common for me to do that. He looked at me like I was lying and so I told him I have thousands of pics on my phone and started showing him. Then he started talking about how he’s surprised I can find anywhere that this place ( south Alabama ) is not known for mushrooms. I told him I have no idea, but I know there is enough I could eat pounds a day everyday all year if I really wanted. He then said basics like, “ well best luck I got to go “ and left.
It was a weird interaction. I was getting annoyed during it but afterwards thought it was funny. I’ve never had someone get mad because I potentially eat more mushrooms than them lol.
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He had probably just submitted something to the Guiness book, or to a bookie for that matter!
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“Just” my eye!
Just gorgeous. Just stunning!
Your work is beautiful.
Sigh. “Another diamond.”
(Venus to Hades, The Adventures of the Baron von Münchhausen, (1988))
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Here ya’ go Mi 
(The title is somewhat misleading, as is not atypical in popular scientific journalism.):
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Unofficial Cleveland County spring migratory birdcount was today ("we decided to go birding for 12 hours in the county, in other words). We got 92 species (so far, may get something nocturnal in a bit here).
Sunrise with Vultures
Heiligenschein
Spotted Sandpiper
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel) blooms
A very popular rock
A new county record! (just like every other Anuran, as the official county list is blank, as it is for Orthoptera)
“Elimia” catenaria leaving trackways in the riverbed
An herbaceous plant of some ilk
Adder’s-tongue Fern
Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
More new county records! (the lepidopteran list is also rather sparse)
Swallowtails probably are on the list. Not sure which this is.
Junior Eastern Wood-Pewee
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Google wants to call it a wild geranium:
And of the two swallowtails it resembles the spicebush more because of the prominent single row of spots?
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Both of those are plausible. I haven’t looked at our field guides yet.
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Nice job with the count! I like the photo of the spotted sandpiper on the dewy grass in the early morning—very atmospheric. I went to twitch a Ross’s goose and a Gray Flycatcher for my provincial list last week. It’s great to see the migrants back here up north, but wow, you have juvenile peewees already??!
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For others of us unfamiliar with the term 
:
@klw: How far did you twitch? (Can you use it that way? ; - )
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Yes; we had Canada Goose, Mallard, swallows, Eastern Kingbird, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, Starling, and Brown Thrasher also confirmed for breeding (nest building, young around, etc.). It may partly be the unusually warm weather we had in February and earlier March.
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I did add one species (offhand, at least) for the neighborhood this time: a pair of Swainson’s Thrushes in one of the vacant lots near our house.
Relatedly, I got our first record for the neighborhood and my first picture of Wood Thrush early last month:
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Thanks. I initially did a focus stack of that leaf picture, but having everything in focus was less than satisfactory – too busy.
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