gillydilly's Favorites

Update to caption:
Cut-leaved Toothwort - Cardamine concatenata
NOT Slender Toothwort - Cardamine angustata.
With pollinating bee, Andrena species (adjacent observation).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/203852156

Dwarf Trillium (Carolina Least Trillium) - Trillium pusillum
Location: Wake County, North Carolina
References

• North Carolina Native Plants Society www.ncwildflower.org/plants/t/trillium_pusillum/trillium_...
• Radford et al., Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (UNC Press 1968), p. 292 ("rare")
• Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (UNC Herbarium, 2020), pp. 204 (key), 206 (I think this falls under Weakley's Trillium pusillum Michaux var. 4, perhaps to be split out in the future, proposed name Trillium carolinianum.)

A very late day look at a skittish Eastern Pine Elfin on Pyxidanthera barubulata. When I tried to improve my angle, the butterfly flew.

Thankful to get an ID image. My first look at a Pine Elfin in the NC Sandhills Game Land.

Eagles breed at several sites on reservoirs not too far away, and I had seen one at our neighborhood lake a few weeks ago. Today three (1 adult, 2 subadults) appeared over my street, soaring, diving, and calling--a first for my immediate yard area. Spotted while walking the dog, I ran back inside and got my camera with telephoto. I snagged a couple of shots when they came out from behind the trees. The neighborhood squirrels were having a fit, all giving alarm calls for about an hour.

I need more practice with birds in flight, but these are my first-ever photos of wild eagles, so I'm a bit ecstatic. I'm old enough that I remember when they were very rare in the lower 48, so this is a pretty big deal for me.
Calling this "juvenile" in iNaturalist, but that may not be strictly correct.

Eagles breed at several sites on reservoirs not too far away, and I had seen one at our neighborhood lake a few weeks ago. Today three (1 adult, 2 subadults) appeared over my street, soaring, diving, and calling--a first for my immediate yard area. Spotted while walking the dog, I ran back inside and got my camera with telephoto. I snagged a couple of shots when they came out from behind the trees. The neighborhood squirrels were having a fit, all giving alarm calls for about an hour.

I need more practice with birds in flight, but these are my first-ever photos of wild eagles, so I'm a bit ecstatic. I'm old enough that I remember when they were very rare in the lower 48, so this is a pretty big deal for me.

For the Fenugreek Stalkball (Phleogena faginea) the day before, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/198263628
The first & last photos use natural daylight, the middle photos with a 365nm UV light to show fluorescence
Host tree: Boxelder (Acer negundo), this side trunk no longer alive but still attached to the main, living, trunk

On a rock cascade of a seasonal stream. Even at this moist time of year, the water did not flower over this moss. Such an event must be infrequent at best, which surprises me very much, as I am accustomed to seeing Fontinalis in situations where it is submerged and must be so for much of the time, given the locations in which it has been found.

Oysters attach to each other by using small hair-like appendages, byssal threads; clusters range from a few, to massive amounts that cover large surface areas, a protection from predation, as most predators cannot walk over the masses of sharp edges... others, such as birds and crabs, find it much more difficult to open shells with so many attached, and these oyster beds benefit water quality, as oysters get food by filtering it from the water, trapping food particles as well as nutrients, suspended sediments, & chemical contaminants; an oyster can filter 10-15 gallons of water a day, so water clarity increases as it passes over a feeding reef

Plant nearly 2 meters tall, a weed in a garden bed, not planted. Thousands of seeds rain down on everything, resulting in many generally unwelcome seedlings (last two photos, taken about six months later).