3:00 snapshot #1412 Organisms high but especially low

[urbpan]

You'll forgive me if Beau the Masai giraffe appears in this journal rather frequently. He's a very photogenic character, and appears to be interested in what I'm doing whenever I stop to look at him.


Down in the wood chips: wine cap stropharia (Stropharia rugoso-annulata), by far the most common fleshy fungus on Franklin Park grounds. It's a European import that survives among the North Americans by colonizing only man-made environments such as mulch beds and gardens.


This is second or third time I've uncovered a giant grub while removing some well-rotten wood. It's hard to identify beetles in this life stage, but I'm guessing by size and habitat that this is a reddish-brown stag beetle larva.