Mossy little surprises

Happy Earth Day everyone! It's still pretty cold here, but I have been getting out the past few days and getting in touch with the earth and plants as much as possible. When there isn't much growing out there, it makes you pay even closer attention to what you can find.

And I had to pay some really close attention, because what was out there was tiny. I need to share another view of this moss, because it's just so fantastic. This is like a whole miniature landscape.

This next photo was taken inside a flower pot. I'm not sure what we're looking at in front of the moss here. I'll have to keep an eye on that and see what grows. But whatever we're looking at here is a whole lot smaller in real life. The little greenery here is sandwiched between a plastic water bottle and what I'd call a regular size rock. So yeah, pretty small! This little combination of growing something reminds me of an undersea plant or creature.

These next three are moss creatures in my mind. If you put tiny googly eyes on them, I think it would be a fun take on that Christopher Walken sketch on SNL. For those who don't remember, I found a bit of it set to music: Googly Walken

And these are so soft!

I love this little guy. Put him in a miniature trash can, and he's a mini Oscar the Grouch. The wheels in my mind are turning here... If I can find a tiny trash can, I might just transplant him into it. Or maybe just a small tin can could work.

These next pics again appear much larger than reality. It was one of those things where I didn't even know the details that were there until seeing my photos.

They're like miniature flower shapes, aren't they?

This lichen isn't moss but it seemed to fit with the other photos. It has that repetitive growth pattern. It's going to town on a tree here.

And you can't get more earthy than rocks. This rock was a fun find, because there are some fossil shapes on it.

It looks like a sea shell, doesn't it? And I really like how it looks on that weathered wood.

Back to the moss, I was doing some interesting reading about "Moss People". This is new to me: Moss People Wiki Page

This is worth a read, especially if you're into some German fairy folklore. I would normally have thought of this as more an Irish thing, so this was a surprise.

I hope you guys had a nice Earth Day and had a chance to get out there. I also hope you have better weather than we do! Would you believe it snowed here a little last night? Oh well, the moss seems happy. 😊

A Little Halloween Butterfly

There are some new butterflies in town! This spring I have been seeing a lot of these cute little orange and black critters.

They've flown around the flowers and around me. One even flew between my face and the book I was reading. So they're quite the "social butterflies". 😉

So obviously I've had ample opportunity to photograph them. I swear it feels like these insects are posing sometimes.

I had to find out exactly what I was photographing. After a little googling, I learned that this is the "Red Admiral Butterfly". That's not what I would have named them, but it is a cool name.

I learned that they like nettle and overripe fruit. The ones I saw seemed happy enough with regular old dandelions. The butterflies' Wikipedia pages states:

"It is known as an unusually people-friendly butterfly, often landing on and using humans as perches."

So how about that? Here I thought I had just run into some overly social ones. Maybe one of these days, a Red Admiral Butterfly will perch on my shoulder. 🦋

P.S. ~ What you've mostly been seeing here is the inside of their wings. The outside of their wings actually could pass for a dried leaf or dry dirt. Incognito!

A crow dropped by for a photo shoot today

As I've told a few of you, I love crows but usually find photographing them difficult. They have this way of appearing and looking cool when I don't have my camera with me. So I run inside and grab my camera, only to come out and find no crows. But today was different! I was outside and one flew down across the street and said its little crow hello of "Caw, Caw". I ran indoors and grabbed my camera, and guess what? The crow was still there!

So I made the most of it and took tons of photos. The crow nicely posed, cawed, and even had a snack.

Caw Caw!

Nice legs! They look so funny with the reflection, like he's wearing a pair of capris.

As I said before, this crow had a snack when he found a worm in the water. I realized as I took this pic that I'd never seen a crow eating before. I was surprised to see it acting like the many robins I've watched, listening for and pulling out a worm.

I like the reflection in this photo. It gives the illusion that this crow is in the middle of a tug of war over that worm.

After the crow had a snack, it flew up into a tree. So I followed it to take a few more shots. You can see how sharp the beak is here:

This last one isn't a crow, but I liked the photo so I thought I'd include it. Look at those eyes! It's a grackle, which you might remember from one of my previous blog posts: Getting to know the grackles. Wow, looking back at that old blog post reminded me of how intense a grackle's eyes can be!

This one looks really focused on something. I'm glad that "something" wasn't me! Grackles mean business.

So, have you guys been doing any birdwatching now that spring is here? I'd be interested to hear about the kinds of birds you've been seeing. The bird species seem to vary a lot depending on where you are and which ones are migrating through.

A little Halloween bird

At least that's what I thought when I saw its colors. This is actually a Baltimore Oriole. Have you guys seen these?

I was lucky enough to see two Baltimore Orioles in a week's time, and they're not exactly something I see every day! They must migrate through our area around this time of year.

I was also lucky that these birds stuck around long enough for me to get some photos of them, although it was a challenge. They were both hopping around high in the trees.

Baltimore Orioles have a really pretty song, if you're lucky enough to hear it.

You can hear it now actually, with the help of The Old Farmer's Almanac web site:

Baltimore Oriole Calls

A little closer

So pay close attention to the tops of the trees and you might just see some of these birds! I read that it's pretty common for them to be way up high. I've also heard that you can attract these birds with pieces of orange or jelly. They seem to like sweets and fruit.

Here is a very detailed schedule of their migration:

When you could plan to see orioles 

A surprise forest find

I have something new to share with you guys! At least it's new to me. Do you recognize what this is?

My mom and I were taking a walk in a local park which is surrounded by forest area.

We noticed quite a few trees were down, probably because of the extreme winds we've been having lately. There was one in the center of the trees that was charred looking. Mom suggested that maybe lightning took it down and I wanted to see if I could find any proof of that.

I didn't find any signs of lightning striking the tree, which I assume would be a burnt area on the ground or some sort of crack in the bark. The problem with the tree appeared to be some diseased funky stuff that made it darker.

The forest floor was wet and muddy. I carefully tried to walk on the dry leaves and watch my step. While I was carefully looking at the ground, I spotted something red under one of the leaves.

Not knowing what it was, I took a stick and flicked the leaves off it. After clearing away the leaves, I still wasn't sure what I was looking at.

It appeared to be growing out of the dead trees that were lying on the ground. I thought it might be some sort of fungus. I started poking around other groups of leaves on other fallen trees and found more of these.

Some of them looked like a grapefruit peel.

This one looked like a little tea cup, which fits with one of the names these sometimes go by: scarlet elf cup.

Neither of us had even seen this fungus before, maybe because it likes to hide under the leaves. I did a little research online for images of "red fungus" and not all of those results were pleasant! But after a little scanning, I found what I was looking for.

Its fancy scientific name is Sarcoscypha coccinea. It also goes by some cuter names like scarlet elf cup and scarlet elf cap. Turns out, we saw it where we could expect to - on the forest floor, growing on damp, decaying wood. It was also usual for it to be hiding under old leaves.

Something cool I learned about the scarlet elf cup is that it was used by some Native American tribes, like the Oneida to stop bleeding. They'd first grind the fungus into a powder before applying it to the wound. Isn't it interesting that something so bright red would be used to stop blood? Don't you wonder how early people knew how to do these things? I also learned that in Scarborough, England these little elf caps make decorative additions to centerpieces. I tried to find a photo of one of those, but didn't manage to.

One more piece of trivia about the scarlet elf cap, is that when it lets loose its spores, it makes an actual "poof" sound. Wouldn't that be something to witness?

Do your recognize what this is? It's a magnolia bud. They're very fuzzy and remind me of a rabbit's foot.

I was excited to see a few signs of spring, like this iris.

And this daffodil. It really did feel like spring had arrived that day with the 70° weather.

Does anyone know what this is? I don't...

I liked the way the pine trees were framing the rest of the woods, kind of like a curtain. There are always plenty of pine cones to be found under here.

I know this one is a bit blurry, but it's the only pic I managed to get of this giant bird. I think it was a hawk. 

There were a few more birds to see, like this pair of geese.

Also some adorable ducks.

The sun was really catching this one's colors. Do you see the female next to him? I didn't until I really focused in with my camera. She blended right in with her surroundings.

Hope you enjoyed these glimpses of early spring here, and keep your eyes open if you take a walk in the woods. You might just see some little scarlet elf caps hiding under the leaves!