3:00 snapshot #1845: Sunday

Carlisle and Jim--yes that's right, for the next 10 days we're a 4 dog household! I'm taking it as a household/marriage stress test.


No bugs to photograph, so I'll test the new camera on some snowflakes on the picnic table.

Camera test: H20, Kingdom Plantae

With no insects to get close to, I have to test the macro ability of the new camera on other things. Can you identify this plant from this hirsute leaf, and its water-repelling ability?







( Make your guess, then click here! )

Camera test: lichenized fungi

Here again I'm testing the camera's macro ability--these are lichens and mosses growing on the surface of a storm drain. I'll have to assume here that the mosses started it, and then the lichen fungi found the moss covered metal to be close enough to earth to colonize. My field guide doesn't have a section on lichens growing on steel. These are probably Cladonia sp., but again I'd love input from the real experts.


This crustose lichen on smooth tree bark is probably something in Lecidela, Lecidea, or Porpidea.

3:00 snapshot #1846: Monday

Me and the manager of the zoo gift shop.