Backyard and Beyond

It’s Lichen month at the NYC Ecoflora Challenge on iNaturalist.
Not a lichen. A dried-out old mushroom.
A fresh, glistening young mushroom.
Another new-to-me oak gall wasp: Callirhytis clavula in a white oak.
Chickadee landing on practically every old Phylloxera aphid gall on this shagbark hickory.

As an arboretum, Green-Wood is stuffed with trees, meaning you never know what you may run across.
For instance, Texas red oak, Quercus texana. Native range is Mississippi bottomlands down the Gulf Coast to Texas. A devil of a nomenclature/taxonomy puzzle: “Q. texana as currently described is synonymous with and formerly known as Q. nuttallii, Q. nuttallii var. cachensis, Q. rubra var. texana, Q. shumardii var. microcarpa and Q. shumardii var. texana. Unfortunately, nomenclature and common names for this tree have become considerably confused over time.” The memorial sign in Green-Wood gives it the common name of Nuttall’s Oak. Googling “Texas red oak” will also bring up Q. buckleyi. And so forth.
Oaks! Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Case in point: the tree was hosting this Horned Oak Gall Wasp, something I’ve only found on pin oaks (Q. palustris) otherwise.