Resinous Polypore, Maybe?

Treebeard has been keeping an eye on this whopper of a 'shroom the past couple of days. Currently, it measures 49 cm across, 24 cm deep. (you can divide by 2.54 if you want to convert to inches...)
It is growing near the base of a dead sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua).


From a distance for a little perspective.


From a bit closer to appreciate the fact that it has absorbed the fence.


And finally, right along the edge to note the ooze.

Something's up with either my monitor or with Hello because these pictures were much sharper before I loaded 'em on the blog. Curious.

Crazy Dog

Wonder what she's thinking...


...she's thinking, "I'd like to eat some dirt."


Yep, she's a crazy dog.

Note: T. Beth tells me there is a name for this practice. Seems my dog indulges in geophagy. Let 'em eat dirt!!

In Your Eye

Despite appearances to the contrary, I was neither drunk nor on drugs (at least not the kind you're thinking of) when I took this picture of my eye. I was sitting in my car waiting for my pupils to return to normal size after a visit to the eye doctor. Said eye doctor will be performing PRK surgery on one of my eyes in a couple of weeks...not this eye, the left one. He spent two hours on a pre-surgery evaluation. You will be happy to know that I have healthy eyes and he has great confidence in a positive outcome for me with this procedure. It is always good to have someone with great confidence manning the laser that is going to vaporize part of your cornea...don't you think? ;) 

You Otter Be In Pictures

Look who was looking at me this morning. There were two, but the other was too fast for me. After snapping a couple of pictures I just sat back and enjoyed the show. The otters were playing in the bubbles and catching the occassional fish, but mainly they seemed to be just enjoying a mild November morning.

Mushroom maze.

Mind If I Come In?

By rights, I should be posting this on SwampStuff since it happened in the work swamp. But it's early and I forgot to tell 'Hello' to change blogs...

Most of the time hunting hounds are wary and hard to catch. Not this fellow, he came right into the office yesterday morning. He's young and inexperienced and he was tired after being out all night. Despite the fact that he's wearing a radio collar, his owner hadn't been able to locate him. Luckily the dog's regular collar had a tag with the owner's name and phone number. Good thing, too. I don't need another dog right now ;)




It's tough being a dog...

Ah-oooo

A leaf from one of my favorite trees, the sycamore (Platanus occidentalis).

Bear Scat

While it is commonplace to find bear scat at my work swamp, it is less common to find it at Treebeard's work swamp (aka, the home swamp). So we have been quite pleased to have found scat the past two weekends. Last Sunday we found some along a trail several hundred yards behind the house. Yesterday found we two separate, uh, piles along a trail about a mile from the house.


A pretty pile of poo to start your Monday :) This one had a variety of seeds in it. Some were from Smilax, some from devil's walking stick (Aralia spinosa), some from black gum (Nyssa biflora), and some we couldn't identify.


We're not sure what kind of seeds these are, but whatever they are the bear seemed to like the fruit they were in.


At first I thought this scat had hair in it - bear are not adverse to eating carrion. But upon closer examination, the "hair" turned out to be loads of tiny fungi. Anybody know a good mycologist?

On a Warm November Morning

A couple of things I wanted to share from this morning's walk:



Sunny Sunday morning.


A young eastern fence lizard soaking up some rays.


Leaves on the water.


Just because I liked the way they looked.


Yellow-legged meadowhawk, female

As a courtesy to SquirrleyMojo, I have left out the photos of the bear scat we found on our walk. It did have some pretty interesting fungi growing on it though -- maybe I'll post that tomorrow ;)

Virgin Cypress, Revisited

Virgin cypress, way up in the swamp. This tree is estimated to be over 1000 years old and is over 28 feet in circumference.

I paid it a visit back in June and revisited it yesterday. Even though this isn't my work swamp, I got to go along so I could get pictures of the rangers measuring this tree. It may very well be the largest cypress in NC now...

Swamp Chicken

Cypress knees come in some pretty odd shapes and sizes. The knee pictured above happens to be one of my favorites. It reminds me of a chicken :)

Love a Spider

There are spiders just about everywhere you look this time of year. Their gossamer fills the air and delights the eye -- but it also aggravates the face :) I couldn't get a picture of the silk floating by so I settled for a couple of shots of one of my favorite spiders.


A marbled orb-weaver, Araneus marmoreus, tucked away in her maple leaf shelter.


Another weaver, hard at work repairing her web.

November Cat

Imperial moth caterpillar - Eacles imperialis. This cat was about 3 inches (~8 cm) long and quite plump. Before long it should be headed to an underground cell to spend the winter as a pupa.


Now that's a face with personality

Fall

Even though it's November, there is still plenty of green in the woods here. Things are beginning to change though. I noticed a marked increase in autumn color toward the end of last week. It won't last long, of course. Soon the leaves will fall, allowing the bare branches of winter to offer up their own particular beauty.


But meanwhile, poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) provides a bright spot. Despite its tendency to make most people itch, it is an attractive plant in spring, summer, and fall.


The pond is showing some color. Autumn offers a more subtle palette here, but it is still pretty.


Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) are interesting trees. They are deciduous conifers, dropping all their needles each fall. I find the russet shades of these trees quite attractive.

Outside Today

I loaded 34 pictures into my tray on Picassa and then clicked on 'Collage'. Picassa used the first 17 pictures to create this picture grid.

One of the boats that passed by my office window this week, headed south. Wonder where they will stop next...

Frustrated...

...and not with Blogger this time. No, it's Earthlink that has me pulling my hair out. I haven't had reliable service since Wednesday and am seriously considering changing to another ISP.
Guess I better post this quickly...never know when Earthlink is gonna hang up on me :(

Sing a Song of Joy

If you're so inclined, I suggest you crack open a bottle of your favorite brew (ours is Xingu)...


and join us as we get happy...

The reason for our joy? A new camera! I'm back in business after nearly a month and Treebeard no longer has to share the Olympus.

Of course, not everyone in the family is thrilled...


Bullet, interrupted by the flash during his bath, remains quite indifferent, if not a trifle peeved...

On Today's Hike

Here a frog (Acris gryllus)



there a frog (Acris gryllus, again)



everywhere a frog (Hyla cinerea)

Mystery Solved...

Have you ever looked high and low for that note you knew was there the day before? It was right there, next to the computer, you know for a fact it was. And then another note on another scrap of paper goes missing...again, you know it was right there by the computer.
Scraps of paper have been going missing for a while now but Treebeard and I have just chalked it up to forgetfulness...one of us must have moved the notes 'cuz they're just not there anymore. Today we discovered the truth...

...a Mouse took them!! I kid you not, this mouse made off with whole sheets of paper, Hershey's Kisses wrappers, dog hair, cat hair, my hair...

How do we know this?? Treebeard was cleaning out the nether regions of the woodstove in preparation for the winter and there, tucked way in the back behind the blower, was the evidence - a mouse nest constructed lovingly of our missing notes. A quick search under the bookcase next to the computer revealed even more evidence - chewed paper waiting for another midnight run by the mousie.

Well Mousie, the jig is up! Your nest has been destroyed and if we catch you, you're snake food.


The evidence from under the bookcase. Dastardly mousekin.

Yesterday, outside my office window, I watched a flock of yellow-rumped warblers (aka "Butter Butts") munching out on poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) berries. I was a little surprised to see them eating the berries this early in the season because there are still plenty of insects out there for them.

Another tasty treat for the butter butts...berries of the wax myrtle, Myrica cerifera.

As other plants drop their leaves, the cranefly orchids (Tipularia discolor) send theirs up. These purple-backed leaves will take advantage of the open canopy and capture the light of the winter sun to carry on photosynthesis.

We often find sign of black bear on our property. This is one of several trees that show claw marks from climbing bears.

A shot of the "driveway" - looks a little Star Trek-esque due to the motion of the canoe.

Winterberry - Ilex verticillata - one of the shrubs along my "driveway"

Saprophytes on Parade

I had fully intended to add text to yesterday's pictures immediately after posting them, but I got sidetracked and this is the first chance I've had to get back to the computer.

Mr. Swamp and I own some property along a nearby creek. Unfortunately, the property is only accessible by water at the moment (wish us luck with the adjacent landowners!) and the water has to be high enough for us to get our canoe down the creek. The previous weekend's 7+ inch rainfall provided the water we needed so we loaded up the boat and headed to our real backyard. Mr. Swamp, who shall henceforth be known as Treebeard, was gracious enough to loan me the Olympus so I could take a few pictures. He is the sweetest thing :)

One = Pinesap, a.k.a False Beechdrops (Monotropa hypopithys) and is considered a saprophyte of pine or oak woods. If you look at the leaf litter around the plants you will notice beech leaves...go figure. [Indian Pipe looks somewhat similar to Pinesap and is easily mistaken for it]

Two = a gilled bracket fungus, not sure of the exact ID and Treebeard has absconded with the mushroom guide (don't worry, I will get it back!).

Three = one of the coral fungi, again not sure of the ID due to the sticky-fingered Treebeard!!

one

two

three

This is either a musk turtle hatchling or a mud turtle hatchling...either way, it's a cute little critter.

Compromise

No, the camera didn't magically begin to work again, this is just a shot from my files. I got tired of not posting so I dug out something from last October. Sadly, I can't offer you the common or scientific name for this particular fungus. Guess I never bothered to key it out. Sorry.

We just returned from a trip to Charlotte. While it was nice to visit with family, I can say with all my heart that there is no place like home. City life isn't for me; too many people, too many cars, too much noise, too much light at night, simply too much everything. But then again, that Thai food sure was tasty... :-) 

Sight Unseen

I did not realize how unhappy being camera-less could make me. Despite my most sincere apologies and even after following the camera's demands (see SquirrleyMojo's comment under the last post), the Panasonic is still refusing to function properly. Seems I have no choice but to ship it off to be repaired. Who knows when I'll get it back???

Meanwhile, I am seeing things (no, not that way!) and I want you to see them too. Frustrating.
Of course a new camera is out of the question this month. We try never to buy anything that we can't pay for outright and all of my "disposable" income is earmarked for other uses at the moment. Drat! Must we be so financially responsible?!? Oh well...perhaps I can pry the Olympus away from Mr. Swamp now and then...