3:00 snapshot #1411 plus bonus Stone Zoo mushrooms

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3:00 snapshot #1412 Organisms high but especially low

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.

3:00 snapshot #1413

It's that time of year, where even my denial of the fact of autumn must fall away like so many beautiful sugar maple leaves.


One of the supposed advantages of using honey locust for street trees is their tiny leaflets easily blow away, not accumulating on the sidewalk. Um. Sure is pretty though.


Another day, another group of wine caps. The "rough ring" that they are named for (rugosoannulata) has fallen off each of these mushrooms. Never rely on only one field marking for identification, they say.