Little things alive at Dane Park
May. 5th, 2009 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It had been a while since we visited Dane Park, and we discovered lots of tiny life forms. It was delightful.

This wildflower appears to be a kind of bellwort, or Uvularia; I've never seen it before, which was very exciting.

I had no idea there were any blueberries at Dane, but I found quite a few. Here are some blueberry flowers not quite open.

And these are open and ready for business.

A fern unclenches.

This velvet mite is gigantic for a mite: bigger than the deer ticks we also found there. Velvet mites are harmless.

This jumping spider tried to convince me he wasn't harmless, but I knew better.

Harmless to us, but injurious to the ecosystem is this garlic mustard. All the understory you see here, right to the horizon, is the one species of invasive plant.

Alex found this small owl, decapitated and decomposing.

Bigger than a screech owl but much smaller than a barred owl, I couldn't identify it.

This wildflower appears to be a kind of bellwort, or Uvularia; I've never seen it before, which was very exciting.

I had no idea there were any blueberries at Dane, but I found quite a few. Here are some blueberry flowers not quite open.

And these are open and ready for business.

A fern unclenches.

This velvet mite is gigantic for a mite: bigger than the deer ticks we also found there. Velvet mites are harmless.

This jumping spider tried to convince me he wasn't harmless, but I knew better.

Harmless to us, but injurious to the ecosystem is this garlic mustard. All the understory you see here, right to the horizon, is the one species of invasive plant.

Alex found this small owl, decapitated and decomposing.

Bigger than a screech owl but much smaller than a barred owl, I couldn't identify it.