Sonoran bumblebee spreading pollen in my okra
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There aren’t any in my county at all and never have been. Also no anurans, or gray squirrels, or skunks, or …
At least, based on official records, there haven’t.
I wonder whether, without looking at the image titles you would guess the name of the animal?
Taken at Dudley Zoo
Richard
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Marvelous!
That drift wood is exquisite!
And the ocean!
I’m a Great Lakes girl, myself. Unsalted, no sharks.
But Big Water! I so miss it, when I’m not here. Breezy in the pines here in the middle of the state help me pretend I’m up north hearing the lake on a calm day. But it isn’t the same.
And we haven’t been to any of our big three (Huron, Michigan or Superior) or one of their magnificent forests in over a year. I feel deprived.
There are some good small water and woods in the area. I need to make some day trips.
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Darn! I saw the file name before your question. Isn’t it cool?!
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I thought so.
With no snow around it merges into the rocks that it would inhabbit.
Richard
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Neat photos, @RichardG ! Thank you.
I just finished listening to “The Inklings,” about CS Lewis and his friends. The author observed how Lewis, his brother Warnie, and Tolkien would go on strolls together. Tolkien, who was very science and detail minded, annoyed the other two a bit, as he kept on slowing down to examine and identify various plants and animals. I wonder if most of us would be Tolkiens or Lewises; I guess it depends on the situation!
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I live in rural Michigan, surrounded by farms, where we have many white-tail deer as neighbors. We have a few acres, so they live and move on our property and are often in the yard. We get a very good look. The seasonal change in their color is less dramatic, but obvious. In the winter their coats have a good deal more dark grey or black in them, and they blend in perfectly with the defoliated tree trunks, fallen foliage and even the wet ground, when the snow melts a bit.
In the summer their coats are much redder. And bizarrely, they blend in perfectly with the green that surrounds them and the crops like wheat, as it dries.
I’ve always had fun at the optometrist’s flipping through his color-blindness test book, and see in that why the deer color, even in contrast, works so well as camouflage. I am not color blind, but that 29 dot below exhibits the phenomenon I think I see with the deer.
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Although skin tone variation is a classic example of natural Selection, I find it points more towards God as the deviation is just so “convenient”. And to be able to switch it on and off…
remarkable
Richard
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The difference in shading patterns also break up the image. I find it difficult to see them at times until they move.
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So that square looking plant in my previous post is a species of nailwort. It’s the erect nailwort. Though looks like out of 9-11 species in my state on three are native and found in my county. Here are some pics from yesterday morning. The late summer flowers are beginning to really kick up.
The green lynx spider. One of the species where it can spit venom at you.
Ants got one. I wonder if they caught it or found its corpse later. Also first time seeing two boletus mushrooms growing into one another and merging.
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I suspect they found the corpse later. A live monarch would be able to fly away long before it was overpowered, unless it feel into a swarm on the ground perhaps.
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A few miscellaneous shots…
A tidal pool in Rockport, MA – I like the colors
A hawk visiting our backyard fence. I’m not sure what kind. Young Cooper’s?
Not a great composition, photographically speaking, but I had to hurry since my wife was going to plant it in the garden. It’s a speedwell.
The coast of Maine, where we had a lab retreat. I missed the first day but drove up early enough the next day to catch the morning mist.
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Yes, juvenile Cooper’s hawk, given the large, flat head.
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I like the interaction of the far left pair of birds in the last picture – looks kind of like some interactions here.
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Yes, @glipsnort and distinct well defined dark belly streaks, fairly robust legs. The tail seems rounded rather than squared, but its a bit hard to see that feature from this angle…
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You would think it would be able too. But I’ve not seen to many dead just clinging. I was thinking more along the line that it was damaged already somehow. Perhaps damaged wings. Was stung by a wasp and dying and so landed to rest and so on.
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A paper on dodder that is really good for keying some of them out.
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