Thursday, November 21, 2013

A Rainy Stroll

Several days of intermittent rain have produced a lot of activity in the forest along my driveway.  It was hard to pick a few favorite photos from that 30-minute stroll, but here are three for openers.  I've been nursing a cold, so I took a break from the challenge of drawing treehoppers which I started the night before.  I'm looking forward to more drawing. 
The above photo is of a small branch of Douglas-fir that had fallen onto the branch of a Black Oak I was examining.  I was impressed how healthy the resident crop of lichens looked.  Actually, I wonder if the bright green ones might be liverworts.  Click on this photo for a detailed look.  It's easy for me to imagine being a small insect and seeing this cluster as my private forest.
Within 10 feet of the driveway pavement I found at least a dozen species of fungi.  The one in the above photo was one of the prettiest.  It vaguely resembles the Giant Sawtooth, but I'm not great at identifying Fungi.  Haven't checked the field guides yet, but will do. Photos like this one, as well as recent ones on my friend Spencer's blog at Spencer Dykstra Photography, give me a new appreciation of the color brown. 
Our cat, Radar, usually follows me on these walks.  It's amazing how he'll stand still at my side when I'm down on all fours to get close-up photos of various ground-dwellers.

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