The sky this morning was better than my camera could record. Our own eyes are much better.
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If that is someone’s idea of good design I prefer the original packaging.
Edited to add that Jeffrey Dalmer May have had the same aesthetic sense in his human rearrangements
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@SkovandOfMitaze , this article in BBC reminded me of your knowledge of native plants and fruits. I have tried, but never succeeded in growing pawpaws to fruit here (papaya in Africa, yes; but not pawpaw!)
The revival of a forgotten American fruit - BBC Travel
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I love this! It’s from this book:
which is a hilariously OCD riff on this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Things-Organized-Neatly-Arranging-Everyday/dp/0789331136/ref=pd_sbs_sccl_3/139-2787054-2674459?pd_rd_w=Io5mk&pf_rd_p=23e9c531-a4f3-4198-b456-2bff73f4055a&pf_rd_r=3692CY9RYZMQ0VPXWCD4&pd_rd_r=c03e0eab-3f99-40da-b003-0b2915879f61&pd_rd_wg=XhwVi&pd_rd_i=0789331136&psc=1 , as if that were possible.
Delightful visual humor that ends up taking the whole “tidying up” rage a bit too far.
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A lot of people struggle with pawpaws. The seeds seem to have to go through stratification and scarification. Even in alabama and florida with our native species. I’ve only tried twice and each time without peat moss
Because of the issues surrounding it and each time I have failed. I think next time I’ll just use the peat moss and probably also grab a few cuttings and root them.
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I think a photo I took today answered a question I had the other week – I was going to post photos I took of some scratchings and ask if there were any naturalists out there that could identify what might be making them, but I never got it done. Several are notable for having four parallel lines, so it likely wasn’t turkeys, besides which there were no other typical turkey tracks around.
Some of the scratchings first:
The likely suspect – Punxsutawney Phil:
I was going to try and see if I could get closer and take a “Live” photo of it, but he/she hightailed it at surprising speed and disappeared into a cavity under one of our ancient cottonwoods:
I’m curious if I’ve identified the scratcher correctly, and I’m also curious about its behavior. I have only ever seen one out in daylight once before, and once at night on our front step, presumably after bugs, and that’s over 48 years.
It’s been incredibly dry here with wildfires in the southwest part of the state (Nebraska) that made national news this week, and one small town, population ca. 1150, 75 miles from here that they evacuated for a while. So I wonder if the drought may help explain the behavior, maybe foraging above grade instead of below.
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I think a stingray was making these. I saw like three kd these holes in the bay today. Was working on fixing ( though it was more of a putting make up on, a deck and sea wall that a yacht crashed into. But I noticed a stingray following me. Was there for like three hours. As I moved down the pier it moved down the pier and would Keep facing me but never got within 10 feet. Was kind of weird. I’ll have to google it. But I would watch it swim to these divots and lay in them.
The water felt. I’ve though. It was 87°f weather.
Saw some birds I’ve never seen before too.
It’s also getting into early blackberry season which is great. I’ll save like $30 a month lol. I like picking pounds and pounds of blackberries and wild onions during the next month or two.
Out of curiosity what are y’all’s internet speeds? Mine is always slightly problematic but a friend came over today and was asking about streaming some movie and if I had 4d or something. I said probably not. So then they tried selecting the HD which is old I guess and finally they were like what is your speed and I said 2-3mpbs usually. They thought I was joking because they have 100 and I was like no…… I’m not anywhere near that and did not even know thst was available here. Then found out most people here have 20mpbs. Though they are in the town. My neighbor has 5 mpbs and it ended up i have the slowest and they asked how did I not realize it was so slow when I watched movies…. I was like this is just how it’s always looked…… I have never even bought a blueray before because I was not paying the extra for it. I guess it’s lucky I prefer reading , podcasts and older black and white films make up 50% of my movies xd.
Edited in.
Yep seems it was the stingray. I’ve seen these before but never put uvb thought into it.
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Thanks for more great photos,
I’ve only see rays in zoos. We were just at the Indianapolis zoo a few weeks ago, where they have a really nice touch tank with a few types of rays. I am fascinated at how observant and aware the rays are, and how they interact with/react to people, even the ones not reaching into the tank. In other displays, the huge aquariums, they are clearly checking out those things on the other side of the glass, and they aren’t shy about it.
So, how amazing to meet up with one out in the real world. Have have you encountered any before?
Regarding Internet, in rural MI, even just 5 or 6 miles from a a small city, the internet is ridiculous. I don’t know what speeds we are getting, but it’s lousy, and there seems to be more involved than just speeds. We have had, dsl, satilite, and 4g through T-mobile. Our corner of our Twp seems to be the Bramuda Triangle of reception. We were rejected as customers by a company with a tower close by (i can’t remember the name of the type of service), because our reception was so bad. It’s not like we are mountainous here, but we do have a few gentle hills. It’s not like we’re in a forest. This is farm land.
The idea of joining and paying for netflix or streaming music is a bad joke here.
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The birds are Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, like these ones that were at Sweetwater Wetland (Gainesville, FL) last June.
Along with a number of other things:
Google Maps is the location.
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There are a lot of dead zones where I am at as well. So much I bring actual maps wi the me often. I’ve been hiking for 3-4
Hours without signal before and then suddenly have a small window of signal and would try to find out where am I and what river am I never two.
I’ve seen sting rays a lot. They just never seemed so observant. I even purposely walked 200 feet to the other sides of the sea wall a couple of times and within 20 minutes I watched it swim towards me and settle down and watch me. I have never really interacted with them though. Mostly because they tend to swim away and secondly ever since the Irwin guy died I realized their tails can deeply puncture men and so I’m hesitant to be near one.
They blend in really well.
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Thanks!
Really great photos. Lots of neat wildlife in the Sandhill coastal plains.
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We saw about 40 species of birds there. Only 15 were passerines.
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Great photos. Our internet is awful also, living about.5 miles from town. We get maybe 3 mpbs connected with ATT through a cell mobile. Only other option is a radio link, which is worse, especially in high volume hours. Plus, both options are expensive.
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That’s essentially the same for where I am. I have the 3mpbs package which is the fastest I can get where I and and it’s never pushing above 2.3. But go down 1/4 of a mile and they have 5 and if you want one street down they have 50 mpbs. I think it’s because my street is weird. Then beginning of my street is one town and the other end that goes over a bridge and dead ends is the next town over. There is always weird debates over the street.
Give that one a whistle instead of a kazoo? ; - )
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More like a very squeaky, high pitched kazoo: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck - eBird (scroll down a bit for the sound recordings).
My favorite local bird is the brown thrasher, this area’s answer to the mocking birds I grew up with back east (did I grow up? 
).
We have both Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher pairs in our or adjoining yards at present. Gray Catbird (call sounds like an unhappy cat) and Yellow-breasted Chat are the “demented mimics”, i.e. random odd sounds, rather than precise mimicry.
Green Catbird calls are just weird Green Catbird - eBird (scroll down and listen to the second recording), but they’re closer related to crows (not very) than to mimic-thrushes. Wouldn’t that call on repeat make a great ringtone?
Lyrebirds and sturnids are also quite impressive mimics.
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We had a gray catbird come and entertain us during lockdown in 2020 and again last year. It would periodically flit up and tap solidly on the window, and I think it was seeing something in the reflection, but I don’t know what.
The downside was that it soiled the outside windowsill and then later the upper window from its feet dirtied in its own poo on the sill.
And speaking of lockdown, some will remember this:
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