Yesterday's hike-a-bout with the Labs was all kinds of interesting. You may recall it was cooler. So much, that I wore a flannel shirt and didn't get hot until the very end of my slow stroll. It lasted about 45 minutes, much to this guys dismay:
Tank waiting, again
I hauled my camera, altho I didn't expect to see anything interesting. I figured all the wild critters would be in hiding, sleeping in the fresh cool air. Mmmmm, it felt so good to not have thick air!! Birds were chirping away, but our trees are so full it is rare to actually see one.
Jameson & Tank did pretty good with my frequent ooh's and aah's, stopping to take photos with my camera and my phone.
??
??
I've concluded I stink at identifying wild thangs. I checked the amazing wildflower resource Val shared with me, and searched google image for the two white flowers above. Many look similar, but foliage doesn't match up. My gardener brain said the top flower resembles baby's breath (it is not) and the second one looks like anemone foliage (it is not). No doubt they are common flowers. They could be flowering weeds, and not official WI wild flowers. We have a lot of white phlox blooming too.
Anywho, onto the rest of yesterday's walk - and - I am not even going to try to ID the rest of my finds!! You are welcome ~ ha haa!!
medium sized feather
a very large smashed egg
At first I thought perhaps the above was a smashed mushroom, but there are what looked like shattered shell edge pieces. No, I didn't touch it or spend too much time investigating. I didn't want to labs to slurp up whatever it is, or was. Bleh!!
only saw one winged wonder
We entered the pines and got the crap scared out of us (okay, just me) no less than three times. Enormous pterodactyl sized turkey BURST from the tops of the pines! I tried to get photos, but ~ ya, let's just say I wasn't holding my camera still. I was determined to fire away the third time, annnnd when they surprised me yet again my camera had fallen asleep. Sigh. It was a sizable flock, and all I could think of was I was glad I wasn't trail riding! The turkey are loud squawker's and fly overhead outta nowhere. They can be mean when they want to, but I had my trusty guard dogs with me. Tank would hide behind me, but I think Jameson would come to my rescue.
The rest of our hike was quieter entertainment. I found more 'shrooms:
ordinary small mushrooms popped up in many places
I oooh'ed and ahhh'ed over these minuscule mushrooms
If you look closely, there are pink even tinier mushrooms growing to the left of the lowest white delicate mushroom. I didn't even see the pinky's, until I processed the photo. The white ones are very delicate looking. They have a thin single stem, with a cool design for an umbrella top. Apparently for stylish tiny woodland fairies to take cover from the rain.
I instantly thought of Val, when I saw this disgusting glob of who knows what?!! Ha ha, sorry but it's true. It looks like someone forgot their brains. I decided it was a glob of some kind of fungus, after all it was growing among mushrooms.
closeup with my iphone
caught an ant enjoying the weird delicacy
As I rounded the corner out of the main pine trail, there was Tank. Patiently waiting. Shown above. We continued with our hike, saw more of the wildflowers and ordinary mushrooms. These days, instead of crossing the tall hay fields we walk around the field borders on mowed paths (thanks Brad!) Tinkerbell hopped off the parked hay equipment and joined us on the last leg of our hike.
newer trail between the arena's
(Tank, Tinkerbell and Jameson)
We took the path towards the back of our indoor. It still looks the same. Piles of fines, dumpster and even a portapotty that no one uses. It continues to get cleaned regularly (what a waste of resources). Looks like it will remain until the builders finish up. We are now looking at end of July, maybe even August. I hope sooner than later. I am more than ready for Brad to be done endlessly working, and move on. I want to ride my horse!!
Tinkerbell was done walking with us.
She plopped down and hung out in the middle of our desert.
Our weather is suppose to continue to be pleasant through the weekend. I plan to enjoy more hikes among nature. However, before I completely bore you guys with my many observations ~ my next post will be more horse related. Y'all have a wonderful weekend!!
10 comments:
A flannel shirt sounds dreamy! We had low temps this morning, so that putting on jeans and boots didn't seem like torture. Do you have the app, Picture This? You take a photo, and then run it through the app, and it gives you the identification. If you're out of range, it will save it until you are in range, and then you can add it to your files to look back on later.
I'm going to take a photo of your photo and see what it says....
The brains said Bondarzewiaceae in the Fungi family. Taking a photo of your photo, however, distorted the top, and I think it misidentified it.
I'll try another...
The third flower photo came up as Wild Carrot, also known as Queen Anne's Lace, Bishop's Lace, Bird's Nest, Bee's Nest.
But taking photos off of my computer distorts the detail.
No, I do not have Picture This. I really need to add it to my phone. You are so right, that last flower pic is Queen Annes Lace. I should have recognized it, it's very common. Not sure if the fungi ID is correct, but either way the app did better than I did!
Thanks for your help. No flannel wearing on todays walk. I wore a tank and my thinnest LS button down and was a sweaty mess when I got back. Complete with a hitchhiker (tick) that I found crawling up my leg. I will only hike in the woods wearing long pants. It got flushed before it bit me. Hopefully he didn't bring company!
Oh no! Dreaded ticks. My nephew has been obsessed with ticks. Last weekend, he asked me a million questions about them.
Kids are so funny at the non-stop question stage. Interesting thing to be obsessed about.
It's great that you can have satisfying hikes on your own property. Every season will bring different things.
Tinkerbell is a gorgeous kitty!
Love the dogs and Tinkerbell coming with you on your hikes. Those turkeys can be annoying and loud. I once was walking and had a gang of turkeys and crows blocking my path forward. They were like two gangs having a fight and neither was giving way. Luckily, I was on a road and a car came and scattered them. I wasn't walking through the fight. That fungi looks like brains. Everything else was pretty.
Interesting. I wonder who would have won, crow vs turkey? We have both of them hanging around our pines lately. I wouldn't want to be in the middle either.
Very cool things found. The tiny mushrooms are the Parasola plicatis or Little Japanese Umbrellas. I found ones too that I haven't uploaded yet! That was Thursday last week.
:)
Hedge Parsley it likely the plant with the white flowers. Very close to the Queen Anne's Lace?
And you did an excellent job with the flowering spurge photo as you caught the leaves below.
I was able to spend hours chilling out and reading through my son's Audubon books. I think I might order the field guides I was looking at as they are full of great info.
I also saw that dragonfly thingy in Kenosha! I will have to see if my entomologist kids can help me ID it!
:)
How on earth do you remember those botanical names (and spell them) Val?!! The pattern on the umbrella mushrooms is so detailed. Thanks for your help with ID. I stumbled across a recommended botanical book, you might be interested. Will email related info.
copy and paste for the difficult names...but I also write them down on a slip of sticky notes... I take that slip and put the date/time/place/ and any notes about the conditions it grew in on the tiny note and put it in any of my books. I'll have to take a photo of my crazy note taking ways and send it to you!
Yes I love ID books and am looking at two Audubon books that I really loved looking at this weekend.
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