Today’s photos come from young Jamie Blilie, who is not so young any more—he’s 16 (but still our youngest contributor). The indented captions and IDs are Jamie’s, though I’ve added the Latin binomials and links.
Red Breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber). I saw this one multiple times from our house, probably lives in the area. It always flew into this Douglas Fir,(Pseudotsuga menziesii), usually in the morning and evening.
I believe this is a Yellow-pine Chipmunk (Neotamias amoenus), but it also could be a Townsend’s chipmunk (Neotamias townsendii). If this helps anyone identify this, the photo was taken on Stagman Ridge, at the base of Mt. Adams (Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA). Lots of dead trees and greenery.
I believe this is a Western Yellow-Bellied Racer (Coluber constrictor mormon. It spooked me when I was going back to the house.
Most likely a ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). This grouse was walking in the middle of the road as we were going back to the house. It seem bothered by our car, or by me taking photos of it.
Don’t know what these are, but they looked pretty. [Dad says: Horsetails, Equisetum sp.]
Nice set of pictures Jamie
Very good! That snake has strikingly large eyes.
Love these! Nice picture of the horsetails!
Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing them. Love the horsetails!
I love horsetails too. A few grew in my backyard near the house, and I’m encouraging the patch to grow by mowing down grass and other competitors.
Thanks Jamie, nice pictures!
Nice photos! I especially love the colors in the top photo of the Breasted Sapsucker.
Thanks!
Very nice variety. What state are you in? The snake would be in the West?
Horsetail ferns, indeed. They look like asparagus when they first poke out of the ground in early spring.
Some fun facts on horsetails from wikipedia.
They are not really ferns even though I’ve always heard them called that. Probably because they reproduce by spores.
The are a “living fossil”, a member of the Equisetaceae family which goes back to the carboniferous period, I think.
The spacing of the nodes along the shoot supposedly inspired John Napier to invent logarithms.
Here he is last year in Key West:
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/PandJ-Family/Travel/Key_West_Apr-2019/P/P4050926.jpg
Eating lunch in Key West. Camera always in hand — even in a restaurant (this one was right on the beach).
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/PandJ-Family/Travel/Key_West_Apr-2019/P2/IMG_3149.jpg
Terrific contribution to RWP. The snake is my favorite.
This was supposed to be a stand alone comment; don’t know how the comment ended up here, but just as well.
I can’t help but notice the simple enjoyment of eating in a restaurant with a glass of wine…the people in the background…when will that happen again? sigh…
Chicory, one of the sweetest shades of blue I know and one of the (many) pleasures of summer is waiting for it.
Thank you for the shots.
Agreed. It’s a sublime blue, like cornflowers.
This is the environment on Stagman Ridge (Mt. Adams) where the chipmunk photo was taken. A relatively recent forest fire site (these were taken in 2019; I think the fire was either 2015 or 2012):
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/PandJ-Family/White%20Salmon/2019/Photos/P7030492.jpg
Good work, Jamie! I really like the contrast of the sapsucker against the fir bark. The horsetails look like a pine forest!