I don’t know anything about them. I assume they are native. Sometimes there are thousands of them and several species croaking and it can be loud. Especially kayaking at night in the delta or hiking along a river looking forward moths. I really like them.
I know we have several very similar species and I don’t know them yet.
And making others work by eating out, ordering in or doing casual (as opposed to necessary) commerce. But we digress.
For y’all that celebrate it hope y’all have a good thanksgiving. Mine was spent hiking. Now headed home.
If that first photo is of a sputum sample I’d urge you to see your doctor double quick. (Algae of some sort?)
I’m not sure which I’m more jealous of, that you have lizards about, that you can get such good photos of them or that you catch them. Well done. My stepson used to catch them with a lasso on the end of a thin stick as taught by his grandfather. But to catch one by hand would be pretty impressive.
We had a visitor today but I didn’t get too good a photo of him or her. When I went outside to bring the dogs up, a rather large hawk fluttered up to the top of low arbor. Having not brought my phone with me I scooted up the stairs for it and, fearing it might fly off if I tried to go back down to get the shot, I took it from the upstairs deck at a distance of about 50 feet. I knew to rest it on the railing but it is still pretty fuzzed up from enlarging. I’d thought it might have caught a rat or squirrel but when looked later I didn’t see any leftovers. My wife managed to get out there to see it too. It took off after a little hummingbird got in its face. Anyone have any idea what kind of hawk it might be?
On a walk earlier in the week my wife got this photo of a Monarch on a Buddleia I’m growing in the hell strip between the strip and the sidewalk.
I took this short video about a week ago on a tall Mexican Sunflower relative, Tithonia boliviensis. This sunflower grows about as big as a small tree. I have it growing on a small ledge down the bank of the creek in order to get the flowers closer to eye level. The trunks beyond its yellow sunflowers belong to blue elderberry, Sambucus caeruleum. The sunflowers are bee and butterfly attractors par excellent. The elderberry are used by many birds. I don’t know what the smaller butterfly might be at the start of the video. It doesn’t sit like most skippers thought it is about that big. The butterfly at the end is a Monarch of course.
A red-shouldered hawk would be my guess.
It’s the edible orange jelly fungi.
The lizard is a male green anole. It’s actually easy to catch them. I stick a grasshopper on the tip of my tongue and fasten it with spider silk. I lay near the lizards on my size and open my tongue. I squint my eyes and as the lizard draws near I slowly withdraw my tongue further and further back in. Then when it gets about half way in my mouth I close my lips shut on it. Then grab it. Works well. But in seriousness I think catching a lizard with a stick lasso is more
Impressive than catching them by hand. I often find them because I spend so much time looking over plants for insects that half the time I can just poke my hand out and they will hop onto them.
I do like living where there are tons of lizards. Byproduct of it still being 77°f today.
I took you seriously until your disclaimer. 
I would definitely never do that xd. But it makes a funny creepy visual lol. Was trying to create a scenario where Mark would not be jealous.
Some very small, and often overlooked , but very beautiful creations.
The mushroom is most likely the Indigo Milkcap. “Lactarius indigo“. An edible species. Though I’ll have to go home and key it out making sure. It’s the first time I’ve seen them and will be the first time I’ve eaten them. If it is them.
The second is a Lycopodiopsida. I believe it’s the “Palhinhaea cernua“.
So far my hike is going well.
I haven’t posted a photo since the beginning of this awesome thread started by Randy. I recently took the time to catch up with months worth of photos. To the contributors, thank you. Your photos really capture the beauty of God’s creation.
I like to take my Canon PowerShot with me on drives, though I just use it on auto. I’m an impatient photographer.
I live on the northwest corner of an apartment building near the edge of Lake Ontario, so I can’t really miss some of the amazing cloud formations and sunsets. This sunset is from yesterday.
That sky!
Here is one my friend Kathleen just sent me from a train bound for Oregon yesterday. It doesn’t have those incredible high clouds but it has its own charms.
Wow. Never saw an ant hill made from grass. Maybe that’s a cold weather adaption?
We only got into the mid sixties in the warmest part of the day today. But the sun was up and I ended up taking off layers. Looking forward to getting some precipitation though. The garden needs it to perk up.
Cute little Mediterranean house gecko that came in with the Christmas decorations. It is chilly, so moving slow and easy to catch and put back in the garage.
Stacks of wood , not used for burning, can turn into a great home for reptiles to help overwinter in. They can create micro habitats when placed in the right spot, especially as they are decomposing.
From my hike yesterday. It’s hard to to tell from the pic, mostly because it’s not that high, but I was 14 feet up roughly. Was hiking throughout a pine and oak savanna that eventually led to bottomlands.
#2 and #5 … wow! Almost look like coral and a sea slug.
The fungi is one of the Clavaria or Ramaria. I don’t know enough about those species to ID them.
I’m not sure what the caterpillar is but I believe it’s the Isa textula “Crowned Slug Moth”.
I assumed by looking at it, and it turned out that it’s good guessed it , because supposedly it’s stings are quite painful and is itchy for hours.
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