red-banded hairstreak.
Tiny mushrooms
Wildflowers at Burke Lake
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Not so long ago I put up some pics from Lake Frank. Rock Creek Regional Park is pretty much just across the road, and leads to Lake Needwood. I went up there a second time to have a look at the Rock Creek end of things.  The namesake Rock Creek There were deer all over the place, so I took a few pics.  White-tailed deer. One of many.  White-tailed deer. Number two of many.  A bumblebee in flight  Louisiana waterthrush near the creek  And a Louisiana waterthrush singing its hear out  A skunk cabbage-filled swamp along the trail And just to make this post as complex as possible, I am including a camoflage animal shot. Can you find it and name it? Answer photo is at the bottom of this post.   Yellow violet, a seeming contradiction  Some pretty fungi that I am unfamiliar with  Next up in the frog zone are the pickerel frogs, which are very common this time of year along the streams  Red-bellied cooter at Lake Needwood  Red-tailed hawk, with two blue-gray gnatcatchers behind it. The gnats were attracted to the hawk and the gnatcatchers were eating them. And now, if you have read this far, it is quiz time. A bird and a feather. What species do you think these are (from).  Great pic of a bird, but can you name it?  Might be harder or easier, but here is a distinctive feather. Name the bird As no one has taken a stab at this feather, I will tell you it is from a northern flicker. And, since you have been waiting, here is the close-up of the camoflage animal.  Another white-tailed deer Melrose Caverns still has more interesting things, even after two postings about it. Well, don't all caves? True, but the variety of stuff in Melrose is somewhat amazing given that you can see most all this stuff rather easily in a single trip. Granted I did about six trips into the cave to get all these photos. The cave is a graffiti wonder. And a lot of it is historical stuff. Lots of Civil War stuff but also things like a Mason's drawing apparently done by one or more of the Harrisons for whom Harrisonburg, VA is named. I'll get a photo of that next time I get there, as it is complicated and hard to light and I was in the middle of helping with a TV news bit when I learned about it. Speaking of the news item, it is here and you can watch the video: http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/Conservation-Group-Restores-Melrose-Caverns-246857161.html And while others are documenting all the art/graffiti, here are a few examples. 
While lots of this stuff is engraved, there actually are a couple of honest petroglyphs. This one is of a face, and I find it looks like the standard shot of George Washington available back in the day. Most of the soldiers who visited the cave were Union, and there is a pictograph of Abe Lincoln in the cave, so some credence to my interpretation. Your opinion may vary.
An undated old bit, interesting that a woman was noted, as few women went caving back in then.
And just a small section of a calcite column that has loads of historical graffiti. Note that the date 1862 shows up at least twice. Folks are working on who all these people are.
And while the cave is full of this kind of stuff, on to another interesting bit. Roots. Toward the back end of the cave it is quite close to the surface, and a number of tree roots have made it into the cave. 
Roots popping out of the ceiling, which otherwise seems like solid rock.
A root that has entered the cave via the center of a broken stalactite. Very cool!
And a root with Mycorrhyzae, a fungus (species unknown here) that has a mutualistic association with the tree. The fungus lives off the root, while providing the tree with nutrients. Amazing to see this in the open as normally one would have to dig up some roots for such a photo.
Those were the two big bits that needed added to really cover Melrose Caverns. But there is more, and I will finish with a set of photos of this, that, and the other thing. 
This is some ceiling crud. But I found it unique in the cave. Too high to get a close look. Really looks like a bit of iron or copper exposed, but also could be something quite different... residue from a historic bat hibernaculum cluster. I am leaning toward the bat answer, but this needs studied.
There is life in the cave beyond the hibernating bats. This is a blind millipede, only about 1 centimeter long. I don't know the biology of the cave, so could be a juvenile surface species or a truly cave-adapted blind millipede.
And two passage shots. I wasn't taking passage shots for the most part, but always nice to get a bit of what the cave looks like. 
For the most part, the cave is walking trunk passage with lots of formations.
But a few places require one to get real small. This kid is over five feet tall, but can "walk" through a passage two feet high with his yoga-like abilities.
And finally, I end with a bat, given that by profession I am a bat biologist and generally don't put enough bats on this blog. It is a tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). This bat has been proposed for endangered species status but failed it's first attempt. Formerly quite common, as a species it has succumbed to White-Nose Syndrome (a fungus that kills bats during hibernation) in big numbers. Time will tell how this bat fares over the long run. 
Tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavans) hibernating in Melrose Caverns.
Couple of things rattling around today. No rhyme or reason, just some things that might be interesting. First up, a caving video made in Helictite Cave, near Burnsville, VA. This is a pretty spectacular video of an ongoing cave dig, and was just posted by Zeb Lilly. http://vimeo.com/83864997 And then there is this video about Smokey Mountain salamanders that is quite well done for school kids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNe6W54bLkA This article about what seems like a massive scam related to bat protections in the UK is worth a look on the bat front. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9827052/Holy-bat-protection-Thats-cost-me-10000.html Last link for today. If you enjoy my macro invertebrate shots, and can handle macro invertebrate feeding pics, then this guy Nicky Bay has some pics you ought to have a look at. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/bug-meal-photos/?viewall=true And a pic for today.  In Sarawak, Borneo, a large snail (Berta brookei) eating a very small mushroom. I have no idea why, but on my computer you MUST click the photo to see it clearly. Mostly I am interested in animals. But plants and fungi at the FCRE can be interesting...to a point. A couple pics of such.  Bracket fungi of some sort.  Really funky-looking stuff.  These fungi are pretty common, quite attractive, and hard to photograph well.  A plant wiith a neat-looking cup. And that's all I have on that for now. So next up is a more interesting exercise. You have thirty seconds to figure out what this is...  mystery blob So do you have it figured out? I'll give you another moment. This lump is... Another planthopper (two more obvious ones have been posted recently). This is one furry critter, and is facing right. An eye can just barely be seen at full size. So, after that, time to see some millipedes, more obvious than the previous.  A large, common millipede at the FCRE. But the keen eye will notice that millipede poop is also present.  Possibly the same species of millipede, but with pale colors. It is also pooping as it goes. But if you look really, really close you will see a great number of mites on the legs. A while back I published a pic of a bee looking out of the nest. And to continue that bit, I have found more similar pics.  Wasps at the entrance to their nest.  Here the young wasps are again peeking out, but likely they will fly off soon. And now just a few more pics  I don't yet have the name for this one.  Planthoppers R us  Sloths are omnipresent on the FCRE property, but mostly three-toed sloths like this one. And to finish tonight.  A beautiful harvestman spider.  This photo was taken in a cave in Virginia. The entrance is a sinking stream, and much detritus washes in, and this fungus was growing on a log just into the dark zone.
IR photos of badgers. I really need a better trailcam, but at least here is a badger pic.
Another fungus pic for Don to ID. YES! He has given an ID on the last pic, but I haven't had time to update it.
 mountain of fungi A stump full of mushrooms. I expect an ID update from Don soon. And a pic of Daelivannet.  Lots of rain and lake level is high  Mushrooms in a livestock field Every fall in Norway, the masses head out to harvest mushrooms. Not so much this variety, which I have no idea what they are. They kinda look edible, but without much knowledge and experience, it is best to leave such things to the experts. I prefer to just take a picture of them and call it all good.
UPDATE 10/09/2012: Blog reader Don has provided more details on these mushrooms. They are Shaggy Ink Cap mushrooms (Coprinus comatus), and are in fact edible. Thanks Don! |
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