Category: plants

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 12, 2026 • 8:15 am

Voilà: my last batch of photos, this time a small selection from Norm Gilinsky, including two species we have in Botany Pond.  Norm’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

All of these photos were taken with an ordinary iPhone on June 1 on the eastern shore of Lake Washington just east of Seattle.

Extravaganza:

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the poikilotherms have come back to life, finding homoiotherms by their sides. This picture, and the others, are from the Kirkland side (east side) of Lake Washington. Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) living the lush life:

Red-eared Sliders close-up:

Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans), ebullient in the late spring warmth. Red-eared Sliders have driven our Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) almost to the brink of extinction, but we love them nonetheless:

Afternoon snooze:

We came across this sleepy bunch of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) just off a walking path in the Lake Washington nearshore wetland. People were gawking at them and photographing them, but they didn’t care. Maybe they even liked the attention:

Lounging Cottontails:

June 1 was a warm one in western Washington this year, and these Eastern Cottontail bunnies (Sylvilagus floridanus) were taking dust baths and lounging. Living life to the max.

Nootka Rose:

One of our native roses (Rosa nutkana). As with all the life form in this set, this Nootka was all puffed up at its showy best:

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 8, 2026 • 8:15 am

Well, this is the last batch of photos I have, and it’s very sad to run out. How far this Ozymandias has decayed!

But today we have lovely flower photos from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

The last two batches of pictures I sent you consisted mostly of images in which a brown earth tone color predominated, so I thought I’d change the pace with a softer and more delicate palette this time.

These pictures were taken in the first few months of the year while taking short walks around the neighborhood in South Austin.

The first pictures are of a blossoming tree, the Mexican Plum (Prunis mexicana). Taking pictures of a tree’s flowers is a different experience from photographing ground  flowers, because it’s more immersive and you feel like you’re stepping into another world. I could live in this world forever!

Mexican Ruella (Ruellia simplex) not only has a beautiful flower, but is a sturdy plant that can survive both drought and flood conditions.

I’d always thought of the beauty below as a Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina), but a search for the Latin name informed me that it is now to be referred to as the *Wandering Dude. The common assumption was that the name referred to Israelites wandering the desert and/or Jews displaced due to persecution, but there was also a 13th century myth of a Jewish man who heckled Jesus while he carried his cross on his way to crucifixion and was then condemned to wander the desert till the second coming. The name “Wandering Jew” is now considered bad because the story of Jesus’ alleged heckler was used to justify anti-Semitism. I had never even heard of the heckler story, so the name seemed benign to me and if anything seemed sympathetic, and the flower seemed like a reminder that even the displaced and wandering can produce beauty. Every Jewish person I’ve mention this to has been surprised and said that they never found the original name offensive. My question is, did the name change protect Jews, or did the Dude culturally appropriate the Jew? Or could the Dude be Jewish? I wonder if we need to consult the Cohen brothers? Whatever you call it, the flowers sure are pretty!

[JAC: I never found the name or the term offensive. In fact, in college I formed a group called “The Wandering Jews,” a group that accepted weird people but did nothing other than that.]

The last flowers are from another tree, the Texas mountain laurel (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum), a hardy plant that smells as good as it looks. Another world I could live in forever!:

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 4, 2026 • 8:15 am

Reader Mark Joseph, inspired by my post on leucistic Australian ducks, went in an example and some other photos. Mark’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Your post this morning coincidentally arrived as did this photo from a person in our birdwatching group; it’s a leucistic house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus):

And, to give you a small set instead of a singleton, here are a couple of my feeble efforts, all taken with an iPhone in suburban southwestern Michigan. Hopefully, you can use them. I know even less about flowers and insects than I do about birds, so all identifications are courtesy of Gemini.

A zinnia (This specific variety is likely a Zinnia elegans, such as the ‘Canary Bird’ or ‘Benary’s Giant Yellow’ cultivar”) with a bumblebee (“specifically consistent with the Common Eastern Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens). I have enjoyed taking photos of flowers and insects together:

Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe, sometimes classified as Centaurea maculosa). Unfortunately, it is invasive:

A crabapple tree and a closeup.  This closeup helps narrow it down to a Sargent Crabapple (Malus sargentii) or a Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata).

Sargent Crabapple (Malus sargentii) or a Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata):

This is a Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) or a Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus).These two species look nearly identical from a distance and are the two most common bats found roosting on residential brick walls across North America.

Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys).When we first moved here and I decided to take some pictures, I got all excited because I was able to get a really good picture. Then I found out it was a stink bug, and invasive to boot. So, not a new species of peacock. But, it’s one of the things evolution has produced. Order Hemiptera, the “true bugs.”

A Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus), commonly known as a Shaggy Mane or Lawyer’s Wig. The next day the cap is just black goo, and the day after, nothing is left but the stem:

Readers’ wildlife photos

June 2, 2026 • 8:15 am

Do send in your photos if you have good one; we are missing many regulars, though I won’t drop names.

But today we have some plant photos by Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions and IDs are indented, and, as always, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them:

Here are some pictures of a mushroom that isn’t conventionally attractive, but is interesting nonetheless. This Hairy Hexagonia ( Hexagoia hydnoides) has been growing on the stump of a Hackberry tree (Celtis occidentalis) in my front yard for some time now.

This mushroom has no stem and hardens over time. I tapped on it, and it appears to have the density of balsa wood.  The underside has striped bands and you can see the small cylindrical spores.

Before it hardened, the mushroom was soft enough for blades of grass to grow through, and poke out the top:

The cap is convex and in addition to being banded like the underside, is covered with small hairs:

This closeup makes the hairs look wet, but they are dry and brittle:

Another closeup gives the impression of a hilly, arid landscape:

The impulse to anthropomorphize must really run deep, because when I look at this picture of two Hairy Hexagonia caps touching I think of courtship and a gentle reaching out!:

I use the app Seek by iNaturalist to identify species, and the next mushroom shows the limits of relying on that app. These popped up on the ground next to the Hairy Hexagonia during a rainy spell. Unlike the Hexagonia, they lasted only a few days. iNaturalist consistently gave me two different answers depending on the vantage point I used when talking pictures. The choices it gave me were Pale Brittlestem (Candolleomyces candolleanus) and Coprinopsis strossmayer, for which I could find only the Latin name, but no common name. Of the two, I’d pick Pale Brittlestem because an image search shows mushrooms that look more like the ones I saw, but it serves a reminder that any identification made thru an app is provisional.

Anyway, I thought the gills on these two looked cool, so I accentuated them a little:

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 26, 2026 • 8:30 am

News is pretty scant as it’s just the same-old same-old, but I have a few stray wildlife photos to exhibit today. I’m all out of photos excerpt for these, so please send in your good wildlife snaps. In all the photos below, readers’ captions are indented and, as always, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

First, from Scott Ritchie, his favorite photograph of Australia’s golden-shouldered parrot (Psephotellus chrysopterygius), an endangered species and the world’s only parrot that lives in termite mounds.

Bob Jochums sent two photos of Barred owls (Strix varia) taken outside Atlanta, Georgia.

A family “portrait” (minus Papa) on the “veranda” of the nest box.

An earlier photo of Mama leaving the nest box to get a little time to herself … or to hunt for food or nuzzle with Papa.

From Claudia Baker:

Red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), picking at the rail fence along the front of my property, in Eastern Ontario,  in July 2023. I have never seen one around here before, so was quite excited to get pictures of it. Can’t tell if it’s male or female, as the sexes are similar. It is the only eastern woodpecker with an entire head that is red. Their range is East of the Rockies from southern Canada to the Gulf states. They apparently will hide foot in crevices of wood and return for it later, so maybe this is what it was doing. In any case, it dug around in this rail fence for awhile, long enough for me to get several pictures.

It will hide insects and seeds in cracks in wood, under bark, in fenceposts, and under roof shingles. Grasshoppers are regularly stored alive, but wedged into crevices so tightly that they cannot escape. It has many nicknames, including half-a-shirt, jellycoat, flag bird and the flying checker-board. I read that the Red-headed woodpecker was the “spark bird” (bird that starts a person’s interest in birds) of legendary ornithologist Alexander Wilson in the 1700s.

I did not know that there are worms in my rail fencing. Or maybe this worm was hidden by this gorgeous bird earlier and it came to claim its lunch.
Red-headed woodpeckers are fierce defenders of their territory. They may remove the eggs of other species from nest and nest boxes, destroy other birds’ nests and even enter duck nest boxes and puncture the duck eggs. (!)  Quite mean for so beautiful a bird!

I have not seen another since this one in 2023. The oldest Red-headed woodpecker on record was banded in 1926 in Michigan and lived to be at least 9 years, 11 months old.

My friend Cate, to her surprise and wonder, found white leucistic squirrels (a genetic variant of the Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis) living around her summer house in Michigan. There are several more photos in this thread, including the famous white squirrels of Olney, Illinois. which are albinos.

From Peggy Mason in Canada (see location at bottom):

These harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) were lying around on the rocks of Poise Island in Porpoise Bay in Sechelt, BC, Canada. There were five of them. They ranged from silvery white (the smallest, a baby I think) to black with some white markings.

This is the silvery white baby:

This is the very black one:

Here is the silvery white baby, possibly with its mother. That is what I thought – basically from their proximity and size difference – although I received no confirmatory data one way or the other on this:

Bonus pictures are a beautiful bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), a juvenile judging by its coloring and some pretty pink flowers on Poise Island.:

And Peggy’s location:

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 25, 2026 • 8:15 am

Presumably you have put together a bunch of good wildlife photos this long weekend. Well, we need ’em, so please send them in. Thanks!

Today’s batch comes from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas, who sends us photos of seeds and seed pods. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

I’ve got some seeds and seed pods for you today. The pictures of seed pods were taken on a walk around the block last January before the plants were in bloom:

Crape Myrtle (Lagersrtoemia ‘Natchez’) is usually known by its extravagant frilly, petticoat-like flowers, but here are the rustic seed pods. (1&2) They are not as flamboyant as the flower, but attractive in their own right.

The pointed tips of the Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) pods make them a good companion to the rest of the plant with it’s stiff, aggressively pointed leaves. (3) The seeds in these pods are just starting to get exposed.

Unlike the Crepe Myrtle and the Red Yucca, the pods of the Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) hang down from the branch. They make me think of some ancient bells. The smooth polished look of the seeds contrasts nicely with the rough hewn, weathered look of the pod casing:

The next two examples come straight from the grocery store.

Here are a few seeds from a Red Delicious apple (Malus domestica). Their host was delicious!:

These Cantaloupe Melon (Cucumis melo) seeds (first photo below) made me think of textbook illustrations I saw of cell division when I was in school, so I did some digital daydreaming in the multiverse called Photoshop and played around until this emerged. I call it “Kaleidoscopic Mitosis” (second photo below):

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 18, 2026 • 8:15 am

Today we have some plant photo sent in by Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can click on his photos to enlarge them.  I have left the numbering of the photos to identify them since there is only one species.

I recently transplanted some Common onions (Allium cepa), and was thrilled to see them starting to bloom, but soon learned that a blooming (or bolting) onion has stopped growing the bulb and has put it’s energy into seed production. I guess that makes these onions food for the eyes rather than the stomach.

Prior to blooming, the stem (1) develops a bulge, and as the bulge gets larger it becomes translucent and you can see the umbel, or flower cluster starting to show thru (2). This made me think of the old Jiffy Pop popcorn pans!. Sometimes the flowers emerge with the petals closed (3 &4) and sometimes they seem to emerge in full bloom (5).

Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4:

Photo 5:

I don’t know what the deal is with this little yellow flower (6), but I thought it looked pretty. Here is a flower prior to blooming (7), and another that is a little further along (8). The blooming flower reveals the fruit capsule (9).

Photo 6:

Photo 7:

Photo 8:

Photo 9:

No sooner do the stamens emerge to attract pollinators than spiders lay out their silk in order to trap and feast upon the unsuspecting pollinators (10). Here is the inflorescence in full glory (11).

Photo 10:’

Photo 11:

These plants have a deep emotional significance for me, since they are transplanted from the garden of a dear friend who passed away recently. I’ve never gardened before, but I started this garden in his honor and as a way to continue the spirit of his friendship. I hope you will indulge me in a tribute to my friend.

Ron Akin was a one of a kind human being (Homo sapiens) who was a free spirited cosmic cowboy, Texas hippie, and an old fashioned Southern gentleman. He dropped out of the naval academy in Annapolis to spend years hitchhiking around the country, picking fruit, performing odd jobs and starting Just For Fun parades in various locations. The parade he started in San Marcos, TX just celebrated its 49th year, and was held in his honor. He also played bass with garage band par excellence, The Callous Taoboys. I met Ron at The Dell ‘Arte School of Mime and Comedy in Blue Lake, California in 1982, and after that we spent five freewheeling summers performing as clowns at the Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels, TX. We remained friends for the rest of his life, and I used to visit him at his home in the country where he had a garden full of onions, garlic, and all sorts of peppers. We’d spend days smoking the harvest from his garden on his grill, as well as all sorts of meats, and sit on the porch until late at night stuffing our faces and enjoying life. I never met a more free spirited, true-to-himself human being.

Here is Ron as The FreeDumb Fairy (alter ego of the lowly janitor Freiheit Gazoontite) at Schlitterbahn, participating in the Just for Fun parade, and down home on the porch. You can also see his prodigious onion harvest!:

Ron:

I call my new garden a friendship garden, though I have to admit that it feels a little lonely right now. Hopefully the onions will be the bridge to new friendship.