I’ve been seeing some fancy dogwood flowers this spring.
Meanwhile, on the home front, I’ll be getting this Wigandia tree cut way down after this winter’s storms tore it up. Seen heee three years ago covered in big umbels of purple flowers.
Dandelion, marsh marigold, Canadian lousewort, hognose snake caught by my nephew (and released unharmed).
Wow that snake’s a beauty!
What a gorgeous walk you took, Randy! Thanks for all the photos.
Our forsythias stopped blooming about 6 weeks ago, as would be somewhat expected, being this much further south.
Neat pictures. Hognosed snakes are pretty cool in their behavior as well.
I tracked that snake back down from a few weeks back. I now am pretty sure I know which log it is hiding in.
That’s how wide it can open its mouth to bite. That’s from the only bite I received from the rat snake.
I’m not sure which one it is. We have just under a dozen species in my county and many of them are so similar I just don’t worry about it. Plus you have many variations of them and ones that are normally spiraling will sometimes not and vice versa most likely due to hybridization.
But we have 8 species not counting hybrids or various odd variations that seem consistent. But none of them is that species. I’m thinking it’s most likely this one which is the one I named it as in inaturalist. Hoping someone else would join and clarify but orchids often go never commented on.
That’s also of they are the same species. When I saw them, all of them were mixed together in bunches with those two forms and many a combination of those forms. When I checked online, I seen multiple forms being mentioned as the same species. I could key it out. But I am too busy atm. Trees, ferns and lichens are getting my attention atm.
But I agree they are very lovely orchids. They look great growing with the yellow and gold colicroots with dashes of pinkish purple meadow beauties.
Sometime in the next few years I want to do a decent sized 20x20 sandy bog garden on my property and blend all the native bog flowers I show together. Decent amount of work involved in getting collecting permits though. I want seeds from 4 of the local bogs and not just by the online. Maybe I’ll skip closely to the edges and of a bunch of seeds stick to my pants and insist them off at home then so be it lol.
Brilliant seed collection strategy! I’m a natural at this, but normally gather large burrs that work deep into the fabric. And then me.
Sounds like my approach for getting black sand from the beach on Hawai’i: pouring the sand in my shoes into a vial after walking on the beach.
Tracy Sundew being lit up by the sun. Was a nice 94°f. Spent over 6 hours in same field.
Crimson Pitcher Plants. Lots of nice variations.
A mother becoming a mother on Mother’s Day lol. Saw the little one laying eggs. ( I think ).
Pictures from Spartanburg County during the spring migratory birdcount (also Global Big Day). We got 96 species, including late Common Raven and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Male Northern Parula
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Male Orchard Oriole
Common Raven
Male Tree Swallow
A dark bluet or bluish hairsteak
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
brown skink
That’s cool. I’ve been looking for the jacks in the wild for about 2-3 years now and I’ve not seen them. Hoping to find some thing year. Maybe I’ll hike a wetland woodland area this weekend if not working.
Amazing photos as always. Heartly encourage you to upload them to iNaturalist.
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