Our hot dry weather continues, and the more visible stones there are in the Ashuelot River the lower the water. This is normal in the in late July and August, but it has been this way since May, and that isn’t normal. Or maybe it’s the new normal.
Despite the low water levels I’m seeing a lot of dragonflies, like this 12 spotted skimmer. Males are sometimes called 10 spotted skimmers, but apparently it depends on whether you count the white spots or brown spots. Only males have white spots between the brown. I’ve read that mature males seldom perch, but this one returned to its twig again and again.
I’m not sure about the identity of this dragonfly, but it might be a dusky club tail. There is a similar dragonfly called the ashy club tail though, and I’ve read that care needs to be taken in identification of the two. Since I have no field guides that are very helpful for dragonflies I’ll leave it up to those more knowledgeable than I to make an identification, if they care to. Males of both species have blue gray eyes and very similar markings and colorblindness keeps me from seeing any obvious differences.
The widow skimmer is another common dragonfly with brown and white wing patches, but only males have the white markings. One day it seemed like hundreds of them flew at a local pond and that is a good thing, because they eat mosquitoes.
I’m not sure what was going on here; either an ant and a spider were fighting or an ant was carrying a big striped egg. Whatever was going on it was all taking place on a Queen Anne’s lace flower head.
There have been times when butterflies literally landed at my feet on various trails but so far this year I can’t get near them. This one did sit still for more than a few seconds though, so I was able to get a poor shot of it. I think it’s a white admiral.
I saw these strange little pencil eraser size brown things on a log recently. They were small enough so I had to use my camera to see the details and when I did I realized they were the chocolate tube slime mold (Stemenitis) that I had been hoping to see for a very long time.
Chocolate tube slime molds get their common name from their long brown sporangia, which stand at the top of thin black, horsehair like stalks. They typically grow in clusters on rotting wood and are found on every continent on earth except Antarctica. They are also called “pipe cleaner slime molds” or “tree hair.” There are thought to be about 18 species which can only be accurately identified with a microscope. Some can be quite long and look like sea anemones, but these examples were short; about a half inch long. They start life as a white plasmodial mass before becoming a cluster of small yellow bumps, and they in turn grow into what you see here.
Once its spores have been released the chocolate tube slime mold kind of melts away, and this is what is left.
I saw a good example of scrambled egg slime mold (Fuligo septica) on another log. This common slime mold grows in full sun on logs, wood mulch or wood chips and is easily seen because it can get quite large. It also produces the largest spore producing structure of any known slime mold. At the stage shown the slime mold has formed a crust and before long it will darken in color and begin to release its spores.
Porcupine sedge (Carex hystericina) is blossoming. This common sedge is also called bottlebrush sedge and I usually find it on the shores of ponds or in wet ditches.
The flowers of porcupine sedge are so small they are almost microscopic, but you can see them here. They are the whitish wisps that appear at the ends of the spiky protrusions, which are called perigynia. Waterfowl and other birds love its seeds.
Another sedge that was flowering recently was this bladder sedge (Carex intumescens.) The wispy white flowers look like those on porcupine sedge but these are larger and easier to see. This is another sedge I find on pond edges and wet places. I thinks it’s one of the prettier sedges.
I think anyone who has spent much time on a riverbank or pond shore has seen brown wooly sedge (Scirpus cyperinus,) but I can’t remember ever seeing it flowering before like it’s doing here. It is also called cotton grass bulrush, I’d guess because of the cottony look of its many white flowers. This is a big, clumping sedge with three foot tall flower spikes but the flowers are so small I couldn’t even get a useable photo of them. In time these tiny flowers become even fuzzier and look more cottony than they do in this photo.
I hope everyone takes the time to look at grasses because some can be quite beautiful when they flower. The latest one I saw blossoming was this Timothy grass (Phleum pretense.) This well-known grass was brought to North America by early settlers and was first found in New Hampshire in 1711 by John Hurd. A farmer named Timothy Hanson began promoting cultivation of it as a hay crop about 1720 and the grass has carried his name ever since.
Timothy grass flowers from June until September and is noted for its cold and drought resistance. It’s an excellent hay crop for horses. Each tall flower head is filled with tiny florets, each one with three purple stamens and two wispy white stigmas. The flower heads often look purple when they are flowering.
An oak tree came up in deep shade and decided it didn’t need to photosynthesize, since it never saw any sunshine. It might grow on but I doubt it will last long unless an older tree falls and opens up a hole in the canopy.
You see lots of photos of the fuzzy red berries of staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) but you never see the flowers that the berries come from, so I like to show them now and then. The big green flower heads were just coming into bloom when I took this photo.
The small, yellow-green, five petaled, fuzzy flowers will never win any prizes at a flower show but they’re interesting and always remind me of poison ivy flowers, even though they aren’t poisonous.
Many people forage for and eat (or drink) the fuzzy red berries of staghorn sumac just as Native Americans did. This year there will be plenty because, as this photo shows, the birds have hardly touched them. I’ve read that the berries “yield a fine claret colored spice that is deliciously tart and clean tasting.” I’ve heard they taste like lemon, and I know that a drink that could easily pass for lemonade can be made with them. They are said to be very high in vitamins C and A. In Europe a different sumac, Rhus coriraria, is used in much the same way. Why the birds don’t eat the berries like they do in other parts of the country is a mystery to me.
Sarsaparilla plants are interesting at all times of year. In spring their leaves appear in threes at the top of thin stalks and quickly turn to shiny bronze. In summer they display patterns made by leaf miners, and in late summer when I don’t want to think about fall yet they are among the first leaves in the understory to turn yellow. I have a hard time imagining an insect so small it can eat its way between the top and bottom surfaces of a leaf but the patterns they make can be interesting.
I was mowing one afternoon quite far from any shelter when these clouds decided that a 20 minute, torrential downpour would be fun. Luckily I found a place where I could stay relatively dry and when the storm broke mare’s tail clouds formed as I watched. Mare’s tails are a type of cirrus cloud known as cirrus uncinus, which means “curly hooks” in Latin. When they appear with altocumulus clouds they often mean that a storm is brewing. I should have been paying attention to their message before the rainstorm.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~Henry David Thoreau
Thanks for stopping in.
As I have said before – these ‘things I’ve seen’ posts are my favourite! So many wonderful ‘things’ this time. Just a quick comment as I am so far behind!
Thank you Clare. I hope things calm down for you soon!
Thank you, Allen.
I loved the photos of the river, the dragonflies, and the clouds, not that the shots of the flowers were bad, they weren’t quite as artistic as the others. I also loved the chocolate tube slime mold, it seems that the wonders of nature never cease. Now that we’ve gotten some rain, I’m going to keep my eyes open in hopes of seeing it here.
Thanks Jerry! I wouldn’t be surprised if you had slime molds all over the place there. It’s still too dry here to see many, but they say we have lots of rain coming next week so that might change.
I so love your work, thank you for sharing! Can you remind us what kind of camera you are using?
Thank you Deb.
For macros I use an Olympus Stylus TG-870. They call it a war camera and it could certainly go through one with ease. It’s everything proof.
For landscapes and everything else I use a Canon SX40 HS. It’s a “bridge camera,” meaning it acts as a bridge between a DSLR and a point and shoot. It has done a great job but it’s getting old so it’ll most likely be retiring soon.
always wonderful!
Thanks Chris!
Powdered Sumac is a common spice and garnish in Middle Eastern cooking. Adds a nice tart touch.
Thanks, I’ve heard that but I’ve never tried it.
Wonderful post as always, I learn a lot from every post. I grew up in Africa & seeing dragonflies dip into the water ( for a split second) was a familar sight… I didn’t know they ate mosquitoes. This must have been a plentiful diet for them in Africa!
I love the quote, and I think you help us all to see such an array of plant life.
Thanks very much. I’ve never seen a dragonfly eat a mosquito but I’ve read that they do. I have seen them dip in the water as you describe and I think this is how they lay their eggs.
Growing up in Africa must have been fantastic!
The chocolate tube slime mold is astonishing. The clouds were delightful and I hope that the rain did a little good.
Thank you. The rain got the lawns through another day but it’s been dry since.
I always enjoy your posts, as you point out common plants that I pass and wonder what they are, so thank you!
You’re welcome Eliza. I hope you’ll find them!
Fantastic blog, as usual.
You often mention your colorblindness. For someone as keenly observant as you, I wonder how your world might change with a new found ability to see a fuller color spectrum
Are you aware of the new optical lenses that allow the color blind to see colors?
https://enchroma.com/
I hear that when people first experience this, it is like turning the lights on for the first time!
It would be interesting to hear about or observe
a first experience of seeing colors you never experienced before!
Thank you Kenneth, for the link. I see the prices have come down on those glasses. I’d love to try them but they still seem a little high priced to me.
It’s very hard to explain colorblindness to those who have never experienced it. I can see all the colors that you can (I think) but it’s more like certain shades of colors that I can’t see. People have asked “It’s right there, can’t you see it?” while pointing to a cardinal but I’ve still never been able to see one. On the other hand I can spot the tiny red berries on a bunchberry plant from yards away. Is it because I know bunchberry plants have red berries? I can’t answer that but I would like to try those glasses one day to see what I’ve been missing. I’d be happy just to be able to see a cardinal!
If and when I do you can bet that I’ll do a blog post about it. That would be helpful for a lot of people, I think. Meanwhile I use a freeware program called “What Color?” when I get stuck on the colors in photos.
Thanks again!
As usual I read your post with fascination. The chocolate slime mold is very attractive. Now I will look closer for them.
Thanks Montucky. They’re small but they grow in groups so that makes it a little easier. Check old logs that have lost their bark. That’s where a lot of slime molds like to live.
Dry in Maine, too, and I have been regularly watering the gardens. But after that dreadful heatwave, the temperatures have been delightful. Wonderful quotation. So much to see!
Thank you Laurie. They say Monday and Tuesday will be unbearable again here but better 2 days than a week of it!
I’m going to have to trek out looking for various slime molds now. Thanks for inspiring us to look more closely at what is around us.
You’re welcome Virginia, and thank you. Slime molds are well worth the effort because some of them are really beautiful, and all are interesting. We really need rain to coax them out though and so far we haven’t had much.
Lots to like in this post. I always love it when you train your lens on a slime mold. You are truly the Master of Macro.
But that cluster of bright white oak leaves is the prize-winner for me this time. What a curiosity.
Thanks.
Thank you Judy. I just like showing people what they’re probably missing and I think slime molds are probably at the top of that list. I wish it would rain so I’d see more.
That little oak seedling was a curiosity. I hope it makes it!
Lots of cool images and interesting information, including some wonderful dragonfly shots. I wish I could help with identifying your clubtail, but I think that it is one of the species that is tough to identify, even for experts. We don’t have Dusky Clubtails, but have a a species, the Ashy Clubtail, that looks a lot like the Lancet (and like your clubtail). I was also particularly intrigued by the leaf miner patterns on the sasparilla leaf.
Thank you Mike. I did what I could on Google with that dragonfly but it seems hard to find much information on. I do know that it was very open to having its photo taken, and let me walk right up to it.
It’s hard to imagine what something small enough to crawl between the surfaces of a leaf would look like!
I don’t know if you use Facebook, but there is a Facebook group called Northeast Odonata that has some real dragonfly experts. I sometimes ask them when I have trouble identifying a species.
Thanks Mike. No, I don’t use Facebook but I could for something as valuable as that.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
Thanks for the information about the dragonflies
You’re welcome John, and thank you.
Hot, dry weather continues here too. That butterfly: if that one’s white, what does a red admiral look like?
Sorry to hear that you’re having the same weather Cynthia. Hopefully it will change soon!
That butterfly is a perfect example of why I don’t “do” insects. The full name of it is apparently the “white admiral / red spotted purple,” even though it has very little white on it. I don’t even want to know what a red admiral looks like, but I hope it has at least some red on it.
Haha!
That’s another good quote. Glad you were able to take shelter from the rain, those clouds are amazing.
Thank you Susan. We haven’t had many clouds this summer but I like them too, now and then.