Friday, August 13, 2021

Naturalist Curiosity

How do we love slime molds and fungi? 
Well, I assume not a lot of people like it.

I don't know why insects, slime mold, and fungi fascinate me. Maybe it is because they are part of such an incredibly small world that we never stop to look at.

White Tube Slime 
or
White Footed Slime
or
Honeycomb Coral Slime?

Take your pick. Hopefully I can go back out today and see if this grew at all and that might help ID it.
This slime mold [?] is smaller than a pencil lead.

Who am
I?


I don't know! There are possibilities, but none of the beetles I found while searching was this tiny. This insect is perched on one goldenrod blossom, that makes it very small.
More cool
slime molds



The penny is used to give the viewer an idea at the size of the cool white slimey stuff. It actually feels rather sticky. But its webs and details are so intriguing.

More cool
strange slime/fungi
white 'stuff'



Of course, this could be white footed slime which if it remains in a moist and warm place would develop into something identifiable. But the forecast looks dry for the next 7 to 8 days.
And then on to my favorites. The Dog Barf/Vomit or another name? Deer Barf! 
Or perhaps Scrambled Egg Slime.

Growing on my
mulch.
Harmless but strange!


Growing on a stump in the pasture.


My favorite fall insect. The Orb Weaver. She decided to set up in my Petunias and has been catching those awful Japanese Beetles that destroy my 4 O'Clocks!

Golden Orb Weaver
Garden


I like her, she is very productive. I've seen her wrap up about 2 of these beetles a day. I'm sure her 'kids' will love what she stored for them!

Lastly.
My only decent star trails/Perseids photo. I sat in the driveway yesterday morning and watched for a while before I decided to try and get a photo. There were 3 meteors that flashed through, but because I used LiveComp, the star trails sort of hide them. This was over my house which was Northwest and not the direction I was supposed to be looking.


And for those who 'see' things. I took a shot of a Teddy Bear cloud. I spent all morning trying to get that SD card to work. I lost it all by reformatting it. That is the first time in 10 years that happened to me. 

However to save the day, I took a terrible shot through the screen of a Duck while we were eating supper.

Ducky or
Bird 
in a wire Cage!


There.
I am off to find more curiosities in small places. 

I still am not allowed to do strenuous things. So I am ducking out of mowing and taking the afternoon to go explore a refurbished trail at KVR.
[Crossed Fingers...that is what I wish to do!]

8 comments:

  1. There are fascinating videos about smile mold "intelligent" and how they find food. They can navigate a maze searching for food, and researchers are baffled how they do it. ( well, not baffled, they have some ideas) Smile molds eat mushrooms after the mushrooms fruit..if no one is there to pick them. Natures way of cleaning up. It is nice to know someone else in the world is as nerdy as I am about nature.

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    1. Yes last year I was sent a link to the National Geographic site I think, regarding the slime mold that negatived mazes!
      Very cool stuff.

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  2. OH! I just realized we have that dog Barf slime mold in our mulch as well! I took its picture, but could not ID it or fit it into my story. But after seeing your pics, it looks just like it. What an awful name!

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  3. Nice shot of the night sky! I was out also no photos for me! I hope you get to go on your hike:)

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    1. I didn't, but that's how it goes!

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  4. That tube slime formation is interesting. I have seen white "dots" and occasionally other smudgy stuff on our old wood, but not close up. Glad you enjoyed and captured a nice variety of sky shows! Sorry about the photo card blip.

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    Replies
    1. I actually found so much more. Still sorting it out. I replaced the card, it was really old.

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