The Brown season turns to....Lichen

The brown season is coming in strong. The last few cold nights of 24 degrees F have caused leaves to do sudden dumps.

The maple forest was incredible with spots of yellow where the maples dropped everything overnight. The oaks before the last cold days still had the brilliant red. I checked the leaves and the brilliant reds were Red Oaks. The dullish leaves were White Oaks.

Oaks in the distance before

two nights of 20 degree weather.

The green in the lower portion of the above photo is of those nasty Buckthorn Trees. They stay green well into late November.

A White Oak with a nekked Birch in front of it.

Yesterday in the late afternoon, I decided to take Charlie and just look for Lichen. Perhaps with a different subject to find, I'd feel better about the brown season.

What I did not know is that some Lichen actually prefer fall and winter. There is more moisture and it isn't as hot. Some Lichen go dormant in the cold weather. Either way, they are easier to find in the fall and spring without all of the other plants hiding them.

Lichen are super easy to find. This is a shot of a tree trunk on a trail and two different Lichens on the tree.

Some sort of Foliose Lichen with some 

sort of brown/blackish lichen or moss?

More Lichen.

I have no idea!
Found on a mossy rock.

Logs, logs...logs.
This seems to be a great place to find Lichen. See the arrow? That points to the place where I used my macro lens to shoot this lichen embedded in moss. 

I used a small pouch filled with soy husks as a tripod and set the camera to its very narrow 'focus' stack feature.

I'm not going to try and ID it, but just thought it was rather pretty and amazing that we can see something So Tiny!

Here it is in a larger photo. I just dig the colors.

It just looks like a crazy foreign world doesn't it?

I found some dried up orange fungi mixed in with some pretty greenish/bluish turquoise colored Lichen. The orange fungi is often called False Turkey Tail.

And I leave this blog with my favorite shot of a beautiful Yellow Lichen, which is rumored to be a Sunburst [common name] Lichen.

First my finger next to the multi colored Lichens...

Then The Happy Lichen.... isn't it cute? Look at the brilliant colors!

Like

Lichen

Buck Fever

What is the best way to get an old hunter excited? Show him trail cam photos of Big Big Bucks.

Suddenly he is leaning in close with his glasses on peering over your shoulder ooohhhhing and ahhhhhing and breathing heavy. 

No worries, it is an old hunter thing. Seeing Big antlers is like seeing an old Muscle Car. It makes them breath fast and the memory clicks back to that age when they were young and indestructible.

"I need someone to get that old deer stand out back." He says out loud. "Look at that. You can put it up on the Hickory tree." His mind is clicking and whirring. I think I can actually hear it.

Those days of old. He was a marksman and a sure shot. 

"Wow look at these guys! A 9 point non typical buck!"

The buck above has 5 pts on his left side and 4 pts on the other, the antlers are mismatched and unique.

I have a lot of photos of deer in this spot. This would not be a spot I thought I would find a lot of deer traffic. In the last 4 days had about 300 shots of Spike bucks, does, and fawns walking through and pausing to pose for the camera.

This includes, a skunk, raccoon, squirrels, rabbits, 'possum, coyotes, turkeys, and a huge surprise....

....A Pileated Woodpecker!

I keep wishing this camera shot in color, but for whatever reason it doesn't any more.

This Moutrie camera was really worth it. I've had it up in the woods since 2016. It just keeps on clicking.

My goal? I'd love to have a 'trophy photo' of one of these guys. One from my camera in hand. 

I don't dislike venison. Meat from deer hunting has always been an excellent addition to our freezer.

Meanwhile, I can enjoy seeing what happens in the forest when I am not around.

What I found terribly interesting is that the Moultrie records the pressure along with temp and time. I just noticed that the ones with the most activity has a pressure of 28.7ish inHg. 

So...

something I did not know but have learned by watching is obvious to some. The barometric pressure does have an influence on the movement of deer.

If you already knew this, just say Duh and smile. I knew that deer move before weather fronts, I just never thought about it.