I saw some tiny holes on the branch of a Bur oak. Branch was about 1 inch in diameter. I started exploring with a razor blade expecting to find bark beetles, but instead found a wasp! It was not alive. ruler is in millimeters.
Starting in mid August, I’ve watched my Tithonia go from normal looking to mostly smaller, lighter, and having a deformed centers. Curiosity got the best of me and I got a lab test done. Aster yellows was confirmed by PCR. No eriophyid mites. Second picture shows normal flower compared to symptomatic.
Third picture is the flower used for PCR.
Since I have an affinity for microbes, I'm just going to watch the symptoms for a while. I don't see any leafhoppers on it anymore and growing seasons almost over here.
Flock of about 40, munching fruit like there's no tomorrow.
Pair bonding with what appeared to be tree buds.
I haven't seen the species in this county in about two years! This one is in my yard!!!! First time I've seen it in my yard!!! This is the 11th (maybe 12th) species of bumble I photographed in my average suburban yard.
My first sighting of the year! There were four!
There was a pod of Northern Bottlenose Whales in Garelochhead for a few weeks, unfortunately none of the pod survived.
Double dipping Ask A Bumble Bee and Backyard Bumble Bee
Double dipping Ask A Bumble Bee and Backyard Bumble Bee
Double dipping Ask A Bumble Bee and Backyard Bumble Bee
Powerline area at rum River. I also saw a black and gold, but didn't get a picture.
Powerline area at rum River. I also saw a black and gold, but didn't get a picture.
This containment pond area in a Roseville business park was filled with auricomus visiting Monarda - easily over 20. This was the largest one of them.
There were at least three, maybe four.
Near a declining oak but closer to a spot where a crabapple had been removed two years earlier...also woods nearby with various dead and dying trees. I didn't find any more in the woods, but the woods were covered with garlic mustard.
On cultivated Quercus stellata
There have been a lot of glossy ibis this year. Earlier in February, my mother counted 14 and another day 21 in this pond.
I was standing at the shore and it flew in from the other side of the lake, landing almost next to me! There is a nesting pair.
This bird was pretty far away from me. I've only seen reddish egret twice, but the size seemed like the reddish egrets I saw on Merritt Island (larger than a little blue, but smaller than a great blue heron). It's feeding behavior seemed more like a little blue heron (stalking slowly rather than feeding in a very active way). I have more pictures, but many are fuzzy. The bird was in and out of the shadows of the mangroves so the lighting is either too dark or too much glare.
I counted 25, but couldn't fit them all in the picture.
These were growing at the edge of a river. I took the picture from a kayak. They were much smaller than tree crinum.
These were abundant in the area.
This observation is for the orange fungus. The fruiting structures were very dry when I took the photo.. The spores are from a tape mount. I measured one spore at about 15 µm long by 5 µm wide.
I think the pinker ones are just a younger stage of the whiter ones, but I could be wrong. They were very close together. Two days after a rain. I let a Dry on a glass slide. I couldn't see a spore print but there were some spores on the slide unless those are contaminants.
cap is about 15mm in diameter.
Cap 22mm diameter. about 4cm tall.
Possibly one of the same individuals seen on Saturday. They are so uncommon here, I want to photograph every observation.