Today I’m going to gather the few singletons, doubletons, and tripletons sent in by readers. Although I like sets of photos of ten to a dozen or so, I do appreciate a good single wildlife photo. Here are some from diverse (I mean by that “different”) readers. Their captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Do sent in your photos, please; we’re running low again.
First, fungi by Alexandra Moffat:
White tree mushroom, Tremella fuciformis (?), New Hampshire hardwoods. When sunlit, an eye-catching white beacon in the woods. Not sure of the ID, an awful lot of similar fungi!!! Huge fungi year around here.
From Ken Phelps, who calls this a “Roswell pear”.
Friends on Gabriola Island, just off Nanaimo, gave me a few pears last weekend. The Gulf Islands have an underlying vibe of getting-a-bit-geriatric woo, so it’s entirely possible that a Grey got waylaid in a New Mexican harmonic convergence and accidentally popped out here. Or something.
From Christopher Moss, “Apple Thief”.
I was just thinking my Russets are ripe enough to pick this weekend, when I see those scoundrels have got there first!
And from Joe McClain in Williamsburg, Virginia:
We had a mother Procyon lotor give birth to quadruplets here in the Blue Ridge of Virginia. My daughter once saw them walking, all in a line, at dusk. She involuntarily exclaimed at the cuteness of it all. The mother stopped abruptly to look at her, starting a chain reaction of raccoon-bumping. These creatures soon found our peach trees. So we named the mother Peaches and the babies Pitt, Fuzz, Pie and Cobbler. The one photo is of Pitt, Fuzz and Pie regaling themselves upon our peach crop. Cobbler separated from the rest of the family rather early and I think that is him or her on the deck of my office. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the family, but it’s a tough world around here for raccoons, with foxes, coyotes, dogs and cars taking their toll and farmers resenting attacks on chickens, etc.
Then there is a praying mantis on the siding near my beer cooler. Don’t know species.
And a stunned Sitta carolinensis. This white-breasted nuthatch hit the window of my office. I went out and picked it up, folding its wings back. He seemed just a bit dazed, so I put him down on the deck. After a minute of looking around, he hopped a couple times, then flew off.
Nice photos! And glad the nuthatch survived. We get far too many birdstrikes on our windows too. Many don’t make it.
Phone home, Grey.
A lovely selection – thanks all!
I love the tiny smile of the Grey in the pear. Maybe THIS is why the Doctor is so adamant that one should NEVER eat pears!
The mantis looks to be a European mantis nymph. One can see a black marking at the base of the front leg, and that is a useful field marker to ID them. Its more typically a black and white bulls-eye, but not always.
Thanks, Mark. I was wondering if there was an easy field mark.