This kind of Auricularia Wood Ear Fungi is a combination of suede-like exterior and a smooth, inky, human skin-like interior. When it’s dead, it’s brittle and shriveled. Like a used, frozen Kleenex tissue.

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A balled & burlapped White Oak/Quercus alba sapling, from a nursery in Millstone, New Jersey, was waiting to be planted in Green-Wood recently. I noticed that the tree was hosting some galls: Acraspis pezomachoides, by the look of them. As with the galls on Swamp White Oaks/Q. bicolor planted on the street, this is undoubtedly…

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A collection of large hardwood trunks cut down in Green-Wood have been laid out by the Dell Water. The fungi are doing their stuff on them. Crystal Brain/Myxarium nucleatum Diatrype Gilled Polypore/Trametes betulina Other Trametes And, under the bark of Beech/Fagus, are the curvy paths of beetle larvae…

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I added 211 new species to my iNaturalist tally this year, even if I can’t be quite sure of species-level ID in every case. Above are two of them: a scale insect that may be Oystershell Scale/Lepidosaphes ulmi and one of their predators, a Chilocorus genus twice-stabbed lady beetle. Ah, but which one? iNat’s robot…

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A Merlin landed. I hauled up the camera to my eye and read the Battery Exhausted sign. Quickly loading the spare, I got off a few pictures and then glanced away. When I looked back up: This female American Kestrel was up there. No sign of the Merlin. This Kestrel really does rule around the…

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In the cones of Baldcypress/Taxodium distichum this time of year, you can find an orange sap.

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I think it’s awfully sporting of the local Common Ravens to announce themselves as they fly. by. But then, we go way back (well, at least until 2015).

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Taxodium leaves afloat.

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