After the rain

Finally after three days of non stop drizzle and rain the sky cleared, and I felt like I had just been released from some sort of military water torture…drip, drip, drip. I was anxious to get outside even thought it was only in the upper 40’s and should have been much warmer this time of year. About half of the trees are still green so this cold weather seems really odd. I decided to go to the nearby Blue Ridge Tract just a little further up the ridge from my home.

After all that rain everything was still dripping and the mosses were just having a ball. They were bright green and sprouting seed capsules like crazy. I found three different ones right off the bat. I’m still working on their identification.

Atrichum angustatum

These little cup lichens seemed to be heralding the sunny day ahead.

This carpet of foliose lichen was especially lush.

About mid-way down the hill toward the wetland area there is a tree that fell across the path and has now been cut so the path is clear. That dead tree always delivers with interesting things. One year it sported Oyster Mushrooms and today I found a jelly mold

and some turkey tail fungi (Trameltes versicolor). I read online that these leathery polypores have a substance called Polysaccharide-K which is used as an immune system booster in the treatment of cancer in some European countries, as well as China and Japan. Imagine that! Perhaps the cure to cancer is found right here in the Appalachian Mountains. If we don’t stop blowing off the mountain tops for coal we may never know.

I really liked the way the sun shone through theses turkey tails when I looked at it from the bottom.

I pulled a little of the bark off and found two teeny tiny snails and this small flat beetle.

Flat Bark Beetle (Adelina pallida)

When I reached the wetland area it was quiet until I flushed a small flock of White Throated Sparrows. They were the first I had seen this year. Most of the ferns have turned orange and yellow but the Christmas ferns are still a dark green.

Up in the meadow I found some nice thistle, and another burr type plant that was determined to stick to me as I took photos.

Most of the milkweed had dispersed their seeds but there were still a few reluctant to let go.

I was surprised to see this one thistle plant still in flower. They belong to the Family Asteraceae and are spiny to protect against herbivorous animals from munching on them.

At the base of a nearby stump I found these eggs. I think they are snake eggs but I am not certain. They were soft and rubbery after all the rain.

Leaving the meadow I searched for birds nests because I had found them in this one spot before and sure enough there was one. This year I think it was a Cardinal nest; in the past the nest was smaller and more compact. It is a prime spot next to the meadow and hidden safely in the multi-flora rose.

Usually on the way back to the car I don’t see many new things but this white blotch on a small stem really popped out at me. Moving closer to investigate I saw that it was wooly aphids. The white stuff is really wax that the aphids make to shield them from predators as well as keeping them moist and warm.

Some people say to me, “How do you find these things?” Well, my answer is that we all see odd things but most people don’t bother to investigate them. It is so easy to just walk on by and not stop to look. But if you do you are most certain to be rewarded with something you have never seen before, even if it is a bit yucky.

See others adventures at My World Tuesday.