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A wild baby bear (3/23/24)A few years ago, I talked with a friend who works with a group tasked with protecting the black bear population in Arkansas. For several years they have surveyed the population by tagging select female bears with locator chips. This allows for seeking out the chipped female bears when they are hibernating in their dens and observing them and their babies...
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Another tiny spring flower (3/16/24)Shown here is a cluster of tiny flowers attached to a limb of an understory bush called the eastern spicebush. These little flowers are one of nature's earliest to bloom in spring. They often appear during cool weather before butterflies and bees begin to fly. These blossoms are easily mistaken for new leaves if not observed close up...
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Just another insect? (3/2/24)This is a tiny wasp called a sawfly. It cannot sting you. There are many kinds of sawflies in North America. I am not sure, but I think this one is called a black-headed ash sawfly. Sawflies are common even though you might not recognize what one is even if it sits on you. An adult is only about an inch long, and it will probably fly away quickly. The sawfly gets its name from the female's ability to cut a small gap in a tree leaf or a weed stem in which it lays its eggs...
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Too young for antlers (2/24/24)This might look like a domesticated cow to you, but it isn't. It is a young elk I guess to be 1 or 2 years old. Once eradicated from the Missouri landscape, elk have been successfully reestablished here in recent years. Today you can find wild elk in the counties of Shannon, Reynolds and Carter in Southeastern Missouri...
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Is this a walnut? (2/17/24)The quick answer is: no. It's a growth on a limb of an oak tree called a gall. It is made by a tiny wasp called a gall wasp. I found this gall on a dead limb on Sunday, Feb. 11. There was not an exit hole anywhere on the gall. I knew that the gall should have a small white grub inside, but I wondered if it would be alive since the limb was dead. So I cut the gall open to see...
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A honeybee in February (2/10/24)The morning of Sunday, Feb. 4, was pretty cool for a honeybee, with temperatures in the upper 30s. I was surprised to see this bee setting on the cold hood of my truck. It could crawl, but kept falling over and couldn't fly. There was no wind and the air temperature was rising. ...
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Cheering for spring (2/3/24)Many of us are longing for springtime by mid January. We want warmer weather and colorful spring flowers to be here already. The jonquil flower is in agreement. I took this photo Jan. 19, 2023, on a very cold morning after the nighttime temperature had dropped to 4 degrees. It had snowed a few days earlier. The green spears jutting out of the snow are jonquils. They begin to appear each January on south-facing hillsides in Southeast Missouri. The extreme cold does not damage or kill them...
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The solitary bobcat (1/27/24)The bobcat is a native North American animal. It looks like a domestic house cat in many ways, but the most obvious difference is its bobbed tail. Adult bobcats are about 4 feet long from nose to the tip of its tail. Bobcats are not often seen during daylight hours. ...
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Old house in the snow (1/20/24)This is a representation of a historic old house that stands on Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico. It is in a remote area of the refuge and seldom visited. My internet search for information on this old house turned up nothing. Information I gained from talking to individuals in and near Puxico revealed that the cabin was built by a family named Sweet on or around the year 1905...
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White oak acorns (1/13/24)I went for a short nature hike on Sunday, Jan. 7, hoping to find something interesting to photograph. After about 30 minutes of searching for something interesting, I sat down under a large white oak tree and enjoyed the scenery. As I was getting up to leave the tree, something red on the ground caught my eye. It was the root sprout of a white oak acorn. I carefully brushed back some leaves and found more acorns. Three of them were close together and gave me a descriptive photo opportunity...
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A blooming reminder (1/6/24)I decided to start the year with a beautiful photo I took in July. Let it be a reminder that even though our winter days may be quite colorless and often dreary and cold, within about 100 days wildflowers will begin to bloom again. The wildflowers pictured here are a purple coneflower, a black-eyed Susan and what I think may be a flower called common rose pink. These flowers were growing wild at the edge of a hayfield...
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Looking into the night sky? (12/30/23)Just what are you looking at here? Is it snowing? Are these some kind of special clouds in a night sky? Are they some kind of tiny underwater animal related to jellyfish? Actually, this is frost on my truck window one morning in mid December. I left my truck parked outside for the night. Calm wind, high humidity and early morning temperatures settling in at about 28 degrees Fahrenheit made a perfect setup for frost...
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Cardinal on a cold evening (12/23/23)I took this photo of a cardinal a few years ago. It was cold, and sleet was falling. Sometimes low-light situations can offer satisfactory opportunities if you are able to make manual adjustments to the settings on your camera. I focused my attention on the broken piece of wood and waited to see if a bird would land there. As sleet fell in earnest, this cardinal appeared in my camera's viewfinder. I hope you enjoy him...
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Yesterday's Christmas tree (12/16/23)When I was a kid during the 1960s, this tree was known as a Christmas tree. It is the native eastern red cedar. Although the eastern red cedar can grow to 50 feet tall, only the young cedars that were about right at 10 feet tall were called Christmas trees...
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Is this a beaver? (12/9/23)Well, it sure looks like it could be. But if you could see its skinny, long tail, you'd know it's not a beaver. This animal is much smaller than a beaver. It is a muskrat. An adult muskrat weighs about 2 pounds. An adult beaver typically weighs around 40 pounds...
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A holiday treat (12/2/23)Pecan trees grow wild throughout much of the southern United States where it is a native tree. The pecan tree has been traced to an origin about 8,000 years ago. Native Americans collected, cracked and ate the meat of the pecan tree nuts. Since becoming domesticated hundreds of years ago in North America, the pecan has taken on many different sizes and hardnesses of the nut's shell. ...
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The beautiful colors of autumn (11/22/23)This fall has proven to be a very good one for the colors we hope for, want, need and love. We are lucky in Southeast Missouri that there are so many different kinds of trees. Some trees such as sassafras and black gum display red leaves. Some such as cottonwood and sycamore display yellow. And others such as oaks and hickories can show off browns, yellows and shades of orange. They are just leaves, but when the sun brightens them up, it is wonderful...
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As he walks by (11/18/23)A close friend sent me this image of what most deer hunters dream of when they are deer hunting. But there are often reasons to not shoot. If the hunter would take the shot presented here, there is a very high probability that the result would be unwanted. There are too many limbs blocking vital organs of the deer. It would be better to let the deer walk until it enters an open space and stops...
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This bigmouth doesn't talk (11/4/23)The largemouth bass is native to North America. It can grow to a length of more than 25 inches and can weigh more than 20 pounds. It thrives in streams as well as impounded waters. The largemouth bass is a favorite target of many fishermen. This fish has a voracious appetite. ...
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Happy Halloween! (10/28/23)I took this photo a few weeks ago and saved it for Halloween. It might not make the newspaper on the exact date, but it will be close enough. This is an arrowhead spider. It is most often found in the woods. It makes a web by attaching its silken threads to at least three points and creating an orb web by going around and around. ...
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Apple time! (10/21/23)One of the world's best loved fruits is the apple. Apple trees originated in Asia and were first cultivated there about 1,000 years ago. From a humble beginning the apple tree has been developed over time so much so that today there are over 7,000 different kinds of them. Today apples are grown on most continents of the world...
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A bad dragonfly? (10/14/23)At first glance this photo might appear to be just an unfortunate monarch butterfly lying dead in the grass. A closer observation shows something going on that might make you unhappy. A green dragonfly is eating the butterfly. Most people love the beautiful monarch butterfly and know its story of migration and habitat concern. The dragonfly is less known. It is called the common green darner. The common green darner is a native North American insect. It, too, is a migratory insect...
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The pink ladybug (10/7/23)Your greatgrandmother probably had a garden. And she probably knew the tiny ladybug you see here. This is one of three variants of native North American ladybugs called pink ladybugs. This one is known as the 12-spotted lady beetle. It is widespread across most of the eastern half of the United States...
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An odd looking flower (9/30/23)This is a pretty little flower that is fairly common in Southeast Missouri. It may be found growing at the edges of a garden or flowerbed. It can establish itself, reseed and come up year after year. This flower is called a dayflower because the individual flowers usually last only one day...
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Wings out or wings folded (9/23/23)These two photos represent the same butterfly. As you look down upon its back with wings spread out, it is bright and glorious. The four white dots on the butterfly's front wings identify the butterfly as an American Lady. When the American Lady has its wings folded, it looks very different. ...
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Something to avoid (9/16/23)September and October are months when a special kind of danger could be lurking somewhere along any nature trail. I took this photo the morning of Sept. 10. The insects you see here are native ground nesting paper wasps called yellow jackets. If you happen to unknowingly come upon a nest of yellow jackets and get close enough to see them flying into and out of a hole in the ground, you are best advised to calmly turn around and walk slowly away as a deer would do. ...
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Did I visit the ocean? (9/9/23)From the looks of this picture you might think I've gone deep sea diving. That's not the case. I found this grand looking thing that looks like ocean coral growing in the woods right here in Southeast Missouri. This is a native fungus called crown-tipped coral mushroom. Its main function is to digest dead wood that lies underground, causing the wood to rot. Crown-tipped coral fungi can show up in the same spot in the woods for several years...
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What is an auricularia? (9/2/23)The brown thing on the stump is a kind of mushroom that has an odd name. Common names for this fungus are wood ear mushroom, Jews ear fungi and jelly ear. Its scientific name is auricularia. I found this cluster of jelly ear fungi Aug. 13, a day or so after a heavy thunderstorm and continued wet weather. During the summer, the best time to go looking for mushrooms is after a day or two of rain...
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When ants fly (8/26/23)For most of us, this insect is hard to understand. It is called a "cow killer", but it doesn't kill cows. It is called a "velvet ant", but it is not an ant. And to make things more difficult, this insect is a fast runner that likes to hide in leaf litter, grass or trash on the ground. It is hard to photograph or get a good look at...
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Is this a cricket? (8/19/23)Quick answer is ... yes! It's a Carolina leaf roller. It looks somewhat similar to a cave cricket (camel cricket), but it should not be mistaken for one. The Carolina leaf roller spends its life in trees. It is a nocturnal insect that is seldom seen. During the day this insect rolls a tree leaf around itself high in a tree, where it is safe from birds that would eat it...
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It's not a worm (8/12/23)If you don't know what kind of snake it is, don't touch it. Leave it alone. While turning over leaf litter on the forest floor on July 30, I saw this little snake crawling quickly away. I knew immediately what kind of snake it was. The western worm snake is a very small snake that looks a lot like an earthworm and also eats earthworms. ...
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What do ants eat? (8/5/23)Have you ever wondered why there are so many ants on Earth? That's a tough question to answer, but it could have something to do with their appetite. They thrive by eating almost anything you can think of that is plant- or animal-based. Here are some ant facts that may surprise you. ...
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A Missouri state symbol (7/29/23)The pawpaw tree was designated as the Missouri state fruit tree Aug. 28, 2019. The pawpaw is an understory tree native to Missouri. It's a safe bet to say the fruit of the pawpaw has been picked and eaten by the people of this land for hundreds of years. This made it a perfect choice to become Missouri's state fruit tree...
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A twist on fire and water (7/22/23)Soon after sunrise the morning of July 12, I checked on my garden. I found that dew had formed on most of the plants. Knowing that insects sometimes hesitate to fly when dew is on caused me to go slow and look for something a bit unusual. I found this firefly hanging onto a cucumber leaf with a dewdrop on the point of the leaf. Not often have I seen the underside of a firefly, and I don't recall ever seeing one this close to a drop of water...
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Ultimate cuteness (7/15/23)A lucky photographer sent me this image of a baby phoebe standing on a purple coneflower. Usually I feature one of my own photos and cuteness isn't necessarily what I'm after. But this wonderful image captured my nature-loving heart. Phoebes are notorious for building mud nests high on the sides of country homes. ...
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A risk of picking wild blackberries (7/8/23)I had been picking wild blueberries for about 45 minutes the morning of Sunday, July 2, when I noticed this tick crawling on my pant leg. After taking a few photos of it, I killed it. Ticks are common throughout much of North America. The tick I show here can be identified as an adult female dog tick by the white badge on the upper front of its body. ...
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Is this a hummingbird? (7/1/23)If you get the chance to visit a flower garden during the evening or early morning this time of year, be on the look for this little fellow. He is quite active, darting from flower to flower, looking very much like a small hummingbird. This is actually an insect. ...
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Is that a fish? (6/24/23)I walked the edge of a small pond Saturday, June 17, carrying a glass jar half full of clear water and a long handled minnow net. Of course I had a 6-year-old partner tagging along. He wanted to see and hold a "baby" salamander. We gave it our best try. He dipped up two, and I dipped up several...
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One of 35 million (6/17/23)This is a female ruby-throated hummingbird. The males of this species have beautiful, conspicuous red feathers on their throats. The females are much less flamboyant in their coloration. It is estimated that 35 million ruby-throated hummingbirds live in North America...
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'I love you just the way you are' (6/10/23)Would you kiss a toad? Probably not. But what about if he was just a little bit special? Would you then? The answer is still ... no. Don't kiss the toad, but don't harm it either. Scientific study has revealed that toads are special animals. Some of them carry chemicals on their skin potent enough to kill animals that bite them or eat them. Kissing a toad could possibly kill a human. Further scientific study has shown that these same chemicals are important in curing cancer in humans...
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The dark flower scarab beetle (6/3/23)There are so many different kinds of beetles in the world, you are bound to cross paths with one. The dark flower scarab could be one you have seen but never recognized. It looks similar to a June bug or maybe a Japanese beetle. The name of this insect can be misleading. ...
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A flower with a misleading name (5/27/23)I took a common shovel with a 4-foot-long handle and pushed the blade into the ground behind this cluster of flowers. The shovel blade provided a nice backdrop for the flowers, and it showed the flowers' approximate size. The blade of the shovel also cuts away background clutter and allows you to see the flowers better...
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He speaks many languages (5/20/23)This is the northern mockingbird. It is a native North American songbird that loves to sing songs performed by other songbirds. It just can't help itself. It has been estimated that a mockingbird can mimic as many as 100 different sounds. There was a time during the early 1800s that catching mockingbirds and selling them as pets on an illegal market could fetch as much as the equivalent of $1,000 in today's money...
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The beautiful golden currant (5/13/23)The golden currant is a Missouri native shrub that is quite wonderful in early springtime. It literally bursts forth with a profusion of yellow fragrant blossoms. I took this photo in mid-March. By July, the flowers will have turned into dark berries. Many birds, such as mockingbirds and robins, love the sweet fruits. The berries may also be eaten by humans...
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A relic of the past (5/6/23)Sometimes a trip to the woods reveals something not often seen. This is one of those somethings. It's an old hay mower from days long past. I remember as a child back in the early 1960s climbing up on such an iron seat and imagining I was mowing hay. Little did I know that I would never hold the reins to steer the mules that might pull it...
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Contrasts in flowers (4/29/23)I like taking photos that show contrasts. In this case, the five rounded petals of one flower contrast well with the numerous thin white petals of the other. There is also a nice effect of the contrasting colors of violet and yellow. One flower has a large round center seed head, while the other seems to have no visible center at all...
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She makes ice in the sky! (4/22/23)I was driving Saturday, April 15, southwest of Springfield, Missouri. Announcements kept alerting me on the radio that severe weather was close by. The weatherman was using words like "ping pong ball-size hail" and "golf ball-size hail." The dark sky indicated to me that the worst weather would be just to the north of where I was heading...
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Two favorites (4/15/23)Spring brings new life and many things to be happy about. Mother Nature provides many flowers and various kinds of mushrooms. The combinations and possibilities are numerous. I was quite delighted the evening of April 3 when I happened upon this small, yet wonderful scene...
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For the love of bluegill (4/8/23)This native fish has probably brought more happiness and excitement to more first-time fishermen than any other fish. The fish you see here is an adult female bluegill. My guess is that it is about 4 years old. Bluegill can live to be at least 10 years old and in good growing conditions can grow to 12 inches long. A bluegill over 10 inches long can be considered a "lunker"...
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Teeth of a whitetail (4/1/23)This past December I found a whitetail doe laying dead in a mown field not far from a county highway. It had been dead a few days, and coyotes, dogs or other carnivores had already been working it over. I rolled the deer over looking for a bullet hole. I found none. But what I did find wasn't much of a surprise. The upper bone on one hind leg was broken completely in two...
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Welcome to springtime (3/25/23)If you are like me, every spring you get anxious for temperatures to warm up and stay there. I want my nights to stop dipping below 32 degrees. I want the April woods to break out with wildflowers across the forest floor. The flower you see here is one that I look for every spring. It is a bright yellow like no other. The color and design on the leaves are similar to a trillium but are a distinctly different shape...
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Is that a red tick? (3/18/23)I was using a manual posthole digger on Monday, March 6, when I noticed something bright red in the dirt. It looked like a small tick and was certainly big enough to be one. Of course I grabbed my cellphone and took a few photos. The little red bug was moving very fast, and I allowed it to crawl away. Knowing that ticks have eight legs, I zoomed in on the image on my cellphone and confirmed that it had eight legs...
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Honeybee at work (3/11/23)A honeybee collects pollen from a pink flower the morning of Sunday, March 5. When springtime temperatures continue to reach 55 to 60 degrees (and above) for several days in a row, it triggers spring flowers to bloom. It was a chilly morning and the flowers on this Japanese quince bush were not blooming two days previous. I did not see but a few honeybees on this morning. But as you can see, this honeybee was collecting a lot of pollen...
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Herman Munster? (3/4/23)You just never know what (or who) you might find on a walk in the woods. This time it was a small cut-off pine tree that seemed to be impersonating Herman Munster. I like moments like this. Something that most hikers would pass by without notice, I spotted. You can find interesting human-like faces in nature if you look for them. This tendency to see the likeness of a human face or the likeness of an animal in an object (such as a cloud) is called pareidolia...
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Here's your sign (2/25/23)Every year about the middle of February, a small native tree called the American hazelnut tree takes it upon itself to ride like Paul Revere announcing quietly, "Spring is coming! Spring is coming!" The American hazelnut tree is one of the first plants in Southeast Missouri to flower each year. This spindly tree is more like a tall bush. It doesn't grow very tall, and it often forms a small thicket. This plant has both male and female flowers. A single plant can pollinate itself...
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How old is that tree? (2/18/23)You are looking at the stump cut of a Southeast Missouri tree called the tulip tree. Tulip trees are one of Missouri's fastest-growing timber trees. When tulip trees are left to stand and grow for several decades, they can grow into very large, valuable trees...
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Stay out of the brier patch (2/11/23)I do not often come upon a briar patch like the vines I am showing you here, but when I do I always avoid them. There are at least five kinds of greenbriers native to Southeast Missouri. This one is called bristly greenbrier. The bristly greenbrier is relatively common but not often encountered. ...
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The early bud catches the snow (2/4/23)These buds and leaves were sticking out of a snow-covered bush the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 25. Heavy, wet snowfall during the night broke down some trees and tree limbs in the Southeast Missouri area. Thousands of people were left to deal with a few days of no electric power...
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Is this a love bird? (1/28/23)Late winter coincides with the time of year when songbird numbers are at their lowest. Let's think about why that would be. We are a long way from last spring, when nests were being built and babies were being raised. The many months between that time and now always sees songbird numbers drop and then be replenished when the babies come in springtime...
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Something I didn't expect (1/21/23)It isn't unusual to find a few mushrooms during winter in Missouri. Some kinds of mushrooms will begin to grow when a week or so of days get to around 55 degrees or higher, with nighttime temperatures not dropping below about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. I accidentally happened upon this small mushroom Sunday, Jan. ...
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Little things in nature (1/14/23)When you are 2 years old, there are lots of interesting things in the world. In this case it's as simple as a drop of water. My inquisitive granddaughter joined me on a cool rainy afternoon recently. She was fascinated by tiny drops of water the rain had deposited on horizontal limbs close to the ground. Of course I was fascinated, too...
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Happy New Year! (1/7/23)The work of a woodpecker or two sends a message from the trunk of an old dead snag. They had chipped away on the tree hoping to find woodworms, ants or beetles to eat and inadvertently created a face. More likely than not a pileated woodpecker knocked away bark and chipped out the hole that looks like the mouth of a human-like face. It seems to be yelling "happy new year!" in the best way nature can...
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Can you say flash freeze? (12/31/22)Southeast Missouri experienced what local meteorologists called a "flash freeze" Dec. 22, 2022. Normally, the term flash freeze is used in the food industry where foods are frozen solid in a very short time. A fast-moving cold front pushed its way through the area, delivering rain followed quickly by plummeting temperatures and light snow. Overnight temperatures fell to below zero and persisted well into the next day...
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The Christmas goose (12/24/22)This is a common Canada goose. I photographed it a few years ago while visiting Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico, Missouri. The Canada goose is a native North American bird. It is considered to be a migratory bird, but some of these birds will take up year-round residence in places as far south and farther south than Southeast Missouri...
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What kind of creature is this? (12/17/22)Believe it or not, I photographed this creature on Dec. 11 near The Whistle Stop train depot in Jackson. It walked upright on two legs like a man, but it didn't do much talking. It seemed to be in a bad mood. We call this time of year the Christmas season. It is a time of both great seriousness and playful fun. What I have photographed here belongs on the side of fun. If you don't know "who" this is, ask a child. I've been told that children know...
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A mature whitetail buck (12/10/22)The adult buck whitetail deer is the biggest native wild animal that most people will ever see in the wilds of southeast Missouri. There are a few wild animals that can be bigger such as the elk that has been reestablished in recent years in parts of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties, and the black bear...
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They also eat frogs (12/3/22)Late November into December can be a difficult time to take nature photos as the autumn season transitions to winter. This is a photo I took a few years ago during October while visiting Duck Creek State Conservation Area near Puxico, Missouri. Pictured is a great white egret holding a frog in its beak...
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Something to do (11/26/22)Here is an idea that might interest you or a young one in your life. I dug sweet potatoes from my garden a few weeks ago. I saved part of the last plant and stuck it in a clear glass jar with water to see what would happen. This is very easy to do. It's educational for children to watch how the leaves grow, but especially to see the tiny white roots appear and grow. ...
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Snow flower (11/19/22)An early snow fell during the nighttime hours on Nov. 12. By noon the next day, temperatures had risen above freezing and the half-inch snowfall had mostly melted away. Opportunities to capture a photo like the one you see here are often fleeting. I got out early that morning and was delighted to see snow and no wind. ...
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A tall chimney (11/12/22)We've had a dry summer this year. Some streams have run dry because of it. Small ponds have also been affected by the drought. On Oct. 26, I took this photo of a crawdad chimney. Crawdads at ponds will often dig a hole on land near the water and push out balls of mud, one ball at a time, building what is called a crawdad chimney. ...
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A little cutie (11/5/22)On the scale of cuteness this little guy has to rate at or near the top of the list. This is a relatively common wild animal in the woodlands of Missouri. It is called the eastern chipmunk. You may have seen one sitting on a rock or log eating an acorn. You may have heard its persistent loud chirping sound that you thought was a bird. The eastern chipmunk will scamper quickly through autumn's fallen leaves and dart into the safety of its underground den...
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An October butterfly (10/22/22)One of our most beautiful butterflies is one that flies during summer into autumn. It is the small orange sulphur. This small butterfly is hard to photograph as it darts here and there, never sitting long in any one place. It is also very aware of your approach. And if you are lucky enough that one lands right beside you, it will offer you only fleeting opportunities to capture a photo with its wings spread out. Be willing to be generous with your time...
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Will this one sting you? (10/15/22)There are thousands of species of wasp across the world. In North America and subsequently Missouri, there are a great number of small wasps that are generally ignored by people. Those small wasps are, for the most part, too tiny to make a sting that can break your skin, and they are no threat to man...
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A plant called goldenrod (10/8/22)There are many kinds of goldenrods. Some are tall, reaching a height of 6 feet or more. Some are short, growing no more than 2 feet tall. Several are native to North America and Missouri. Many more have origins from across the world. To complicate things concerning the goldenrod plant, because of its elegant beauty, many cultivars have been developed. Some of these can become invasive in Southeast Missouri...
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Kudzu ... A huge mistake! (10/1/22)My research on kudzu revealed that this plant, which is native to Asia, was brought to the United States in the late 1800s to address soil erosion problems. Use of the plant was limited for several years, but after the Dust Bowl Days of the 1930s, the newly formed U.S. Soil Conservation Service began promoting the planting of kudzu. More than 500,000 acres in several southern states were soon planted to kudzu!...
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Catfish eating a catfish (9/24/22)It is rare to capture a photo like this in any circumstance. It is descriptive, tells a story and is an image that I am sure many people would just as soon not see. But it is true to nature, and nature is what my feature is all about. The smaller fish is a channel catfish. ...
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A prehistoric beast? (9/17/22)This thing surprised me when I zoomed in on it with my camera. It looked like a strange prehistoric animal walking down an ice covered hillside with an iceberg in the distance. In reality this is a tiny insect that I believe is a kind of weevil. I searched for an image like it and discovered that there are more than 3,000 species of weevils in North America. ...
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An ambitious pollinator (9/10/22)The halo of yellow in this photo is a circle of very small flowers on top of a plant called a zinnia. When this common garden flower grows, it shoots up a stem that produces a beautiful flower at the highest point. A field of multicolored zinnias is a wonderful sight...
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A Missouri rainbow (9/3/22)The rainbow trout was first introduced into Missouri in the 1880s. The cold water of spring-fed south central Missouri streams was believed to be a perfect place to try to establish this fish that thrives in cold, clear water. In the years after 2000, Missouri developed two of its own strains of the rainbow trout, the Missouri Strain and Missouri Arlee Strain. ...
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A very tiny mushroom (8/27/22)I found this little mushroom the morning of Aug. 21. It was growing alone in a shady area near a pond. I found several kinds of mushrooms on this morning. But this one was the most interesting one to me. My research revealed that it is commonly known as a Japanese umbrella mushroom. This kind of mushroom is found in Japan, Europe and North America...
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An easy one to see (8/20/22)This is one of North America's easiest mushrooms to find. If you frequent the Missouri woods during summer, you have probably seen one of these big red mushrooms. It is an amanita. There are several kinds of amanita in the world. The most common one in Missouri is called fly amanita as well as fly agaric. It will most likely make you very sick if you eat one. My advice is do not eat it!...
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Are those flowers? (8/13/22)While walking a trail through a wooded area recently, I came upon a small area covered with a beautiful kind of grass. The sun lit up the grass nicely. My photo here does not show the leaves/blades of the grass. It shows the actual flower heads of a special kind of grass known by several common names: wood oats, Indian wood oats, wild oats, spangle grass and even fishing grass...
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The feather-legged fly (8/6/22)You may know this little fly if you are a gardener who raises squash or pumpkins. You may have seen the feather-legged fly and not realized it is good to have this fly in your garden. It is a parasitoid, which means it lays its eggs on insects such as squash bugs and stink bugs. When the feather-legged fly's eggs hatch, the larvae feeds upon and kills its host stink bug, squash bug or other plant-eating insects...
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Caught in a web (7/30/22)I found this juvenile five-lined skink inside a ground blind July 24. How this poor, unfortunate little lizard got tangled in a spider's web I do not know. I photographed it and watched it for about 15 minutes. It was helplessly caught. Nature is not always pleasant, but all critters must find their own way to survive. ...
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A tiny streak of blue (7/23/22)I held my hand about 6 inches on the opposite side of this beautiful little insect to show its size. This is a common blue damselfly. It is native throughout much of the United States. The common blue damselfly is often mistakenly called a dragonfly. The way the wings are held when at rest is the most notable distinguishing factor. A dragonfly's wings will extend perpendicular to its body when it sets. A common blue damselfly's wings will lie lengthwise above its long thin abdomen...
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Reading the evidence (7/16/22)You can probably identify the poison ivy in this photo. Poison ivy has three leaflets on each leaf stem. Some other plants have similar three leaflet leaf configurations. The clusters of little pea-sized green berries further and conclusively identify this plant as poison ivy...
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Is that a mouse? (7/9/22)You might see one of these little, fast-moving animals and think you just saw a mouse. But this little mammal isn't even related to the mouse. Mice are rodents, as are squirrels and rats. This is a shrew. Shrews are related to moles. There are more than 300 kinds of shrews the world over. ...
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A little orange butterfly (7/2/22)Here you see one of North America's small butterflies. Its range extends from parts of Mexico at the south, across most of the United States and deep into Canada. This is a pearl crescent butterfly. It has a wingspan of about 1 3/4 inch. The dark reddish brown, varying orange and parchment white patterns are similar yet different from one pearl crescent to another. The dots on the rear wings circled by orange and the brushed parchment fringes at the edges of the wings are constants...
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Baby! How small the toad (6/25/22)I took this photo June 18 while on a short hike around a local lake. A young girl had noticed several tiny "frogs" hopping on the damp shaded ground. In a short time she caught one and showed it to me. She had captured a baby toad. It could easily sit within the circumference of a dime. ...
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A black bluegill? (6/18/22)Can you guess why this bluegill is so dark? Do you think it is because the pond from which it came had muddy water? I caught this bluegill and several others June 12 in clear water. Only this 9-incher and one other the same size were black. Both were males. ...
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Baby soil centipedes (6/11/22)I found these little critters while preparing dirt to plant gourds along the garden fence. One orange/brown adult centipede and a clutch of probably 30 creamy white babies were hiding in a small space under a dirt clod about the size of my fist. The dirt clod crumbled. The adult quickly ran for cover. I quickly grabbed my cellphone as the babies began dispersing and got this photo of about half of them...
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Moving the family (6/4/22)This is a native deer mouse. The orange/brown flank on this mouse distinguishes it from its relative, the white-footed deer mouse. Both mice have white undersides and white feet, but the white-footed deer mouse is gray. I took this photo the morning of May 20. The deer mouse was moving its newborn babies to a new home. I only observed two babies and was lucky to see the mother mouse carrying the first one away behind a rock wall. She soon came back, and I was able to get a few quick photos...
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A Missouri state symbol (5/28/22)I was out scouting with a couple friends early on the morning of May 22, after heavy rain crossed Southeast Missouri the day before. We spotted this adult bullfrog in wet grass and approached it from three sides. I thought this would cause the frog to remain in place, and it did. One of my friends was able to very slowly stalk the bullfrog and catch it with his bare hands as I videoed the catch...
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Did you see a butterfly? (5/21/22)This bird surprised me May 15, while I was at Mingo Wildlife Refuge. It was flying here and there around my truck as I stopped momentarily to enjoy the scenery. I think the butterfly or grasshopper it was chasing must have gone under my truck. This bird is a great crested flycatcher. Suddenly, it flew up from the ground beside my truck and landed on the hood. I was ready with my cellphone...
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That's a green bug! (5/14/22)This bright green insect is called a six-spotted tiger beetle. It is native to North America. After wintering in the ground as a small gray larva, the six-spotted tiger beetle emerges in spring when the ground warms and wildflowers begin to bloom. This insect can run fast and fly fast. It is carnivorous and eats other insects, including ants...
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A red fox pup (5/7/22)I took this photo the late evening of April 30. The weather was stormy and a tornado watch had been issued for much of Southeast Missouri. I knew where a litter of red fox pups was hanging out, and after work I headed there. The wind was gusting to near 20 miles per hour, and I used the wind to my advantage. Wind concealed noise I made during my approach as well as help hide my slow movements by keeping leaves and bushes in near constant state of motion...
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Seeking Mrs. Three-toed (4/30/22)I captured this image Saturday morning, April 23. This is a fine color combination that came together nicely at the edge of my driveway. A native butterweed plant (which can grow quickly in spring to nearly 2 feet tall) had been knocked down by the push mower a few days earlier, but was not cut off. Wet weather allowed it to bloom...
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Who could you be ... you be? (4/23/22)This is a juvenile great horned owl estimated to be close to 2 months old. My biologist son took this photo April 12. Great horned owls, along with bald eagles, are the earliest of birds to lay their eggs in Southeast Missouri. Because they are large bodied birds, they are able to lay their eggs in February and still incubate them...
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Red or green (4/16/22)These are the springtime flowers of the red buckeye tree. It is native to Southeast Missouri woodlands. The leaves and blooms will come forth at the same time. The red of the blossoms and vibrant green of the leaves are opposites on the color wheel. This means they contrast one another very well. This little tree that grows to about 12 feet tall gets its "buckeye" name from its seeds that resemble a deer's eye...
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Flowers in a treetop (4/9/22)Spring is a glorious time. Woodland wildflowers begin to take their turns blooming. From low growing spring beauty and Dutchman's breeches to the bushes of red buckeyes and fragrant sumac, wonderful new life is breathed into the forest. Most of us though haven't seen too many close up flower buds of the tall trees in the Southeast Missouri woods. ...
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A beautiful salamander (4/2/22)This little fellow is a natural beauty. It is called spotted salamander as well as yellow-spotted salamander. I found this one in the woods under leaf litter near a small pond. The spotted salamander can grow to a length of close to 10 inches and live 20 years or more. This one is about 6 inches long. Because its skin is slick and will dry out easily, this salamander spends most of its life underground out of sight. It eats worms, spiders and other woodland insects...
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A signal for disaster (3/26/22)You may not be able to see the water in this photo, but it is there. I could see water running in this roadside ditch and hear the water as it fell into the hole. This is a sinkhole. A sinkhole is caused by water seeping downwardly through porous soil on a regular basis. ...
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Snow and flower (3/19/22)I took this photo Saturday morning after a late winter snowfall. The purple flowers sticking out of the snow belong to a wildflower called dead nettle. It is native to Europe and Asia, but has become naturalized throughout much of North America. The dead nettle is related to a much taller plant called the stinging nettle. ...
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First wasp of spring? (3/12/22)This little fellow is about one inch long in body length and has two antennas that are equally as long. It is common in Southeast Missouri but not often seen or recognized for what it is. This is a kind of wasp called an ichneumon (pronounce it itch-new-mon)...
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A sideways icicle (3/5/22)A late winter ice storm is a common freezing rain occurrence in Southeast Missouri. Every year doesn't have one, but at least a couple per decade can be expected. The level of severity is different with each one. The freezing rain builds up ice on everything it touches. In the woods it can become serious enough that limbs will break, and sometimes the ice will take down large trees...
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My three suns? (2/26/22)I took this photo at 4:48 p.m. Feb. 20. The sun is between what I will call two false suns. They are light refractions caused by the setting sun and ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. These brightly shining "secondary suns" are commonly called sun dogs. ...
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A little brown bat (2/19/22)You probably wouldn't expect to see a little brown bat in February unless you went inside a cave. Bats are usually seen flying in the shadowy, early morning, dimming light before sundown and during overcast days with poor visibility. Little brown bats fly when they are searching for flying insects. Insects don't fly when temperatures are below freezing. This is one reason why bats in Southeast Missouri have evolved to not fly during cold winter days...
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Jumping ducks (2/12/22)PUXICO, Mo. -- Be prepared to spend time walking, waiting and hoping the ducks will cooperate. Dress appropriately for the cold and don't lose confidence. On this morning, I took several second-rate photos of ducks before I finally got this one. These mallards were swimming in the thick, flooded grass. ...
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Cold-weather casualty (2/5/22)These are the remains of an armadillo I found in the woods last Sunday. It was half-covered with leaves. There are 10 or more different kinds of armadillos spread across South and Central America. The only one found in the United States is called the nine-banded armadillo...
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Inside the millipede (1/29/22)Archeologists have dated the millipede to have existed at least as far back as 400 million years during a time called the Silurian Period. Fossil remains from that time show that millipedes of that day were more than 6 feet long. Whether they could kill and eat small dinosaurs is anybody's guess...
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Frost on a window (1/22/22)This frost formation was on the outside of my truck window the early morning of Jan. 11. Rain a day or two earlier caused there to be enough humidity in the air to produce this frost. Air temperatures must go below freezing and there should be no wind in order for this kind of frost to form. It is anybody's guess which direction the little ice crystals will go and what kind of fancy designs they will make...
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Is it just a hole in the ground? (1/15/22)It's mid January. It's cold outside. Where have the animals gone? Holes in the ground are very important for the survival of much of our wildlife. This photo might make you think of a black bear because they are known to hibernate in caves and holes in the ground during winter. But there are a lot of animals that take shelter in holes in the ground during cold winter days and nights. Can you think of some?...
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Red bud ... red bird (1/8/22)Who doesn't like a bright red cardinal on a cold, snowy day? This bird is a native North American songbird. It is a male northern cardinal. The female northern cardinal is not bright red. The seed pods hanging from the limbs look like dried up pea pods. ...
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A reward of a frosty morning (1/1/22)It is a thrill to go out on a frosty morning and look for small things with frost on them. Frost will form on most plants and some mushrooms when nights are calm and temperatures fall below the freezing mark. Frost will melt away quickly when sunshine hits it or air temperatures rise above freezing. It is important to go outside early because most often frost will be gone by 8:30 or 9 a.m...
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Merry Christmas! (12/25/21)Whitetail deer are beautiful wild animals. They provide a thrill especially for children at or near Christmas time. Although it is widely reported that Rudolph and the other deer that pull Santa's sleigh are reindeer, whitetail deer are the only kind of deer to inhabit Southeast Missouri...
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A flower associated with Jesus (12/18/21)Scouting the early morning frost Dec. 12, I found what I was looking for. It took me about an hour to find a native flower blooming in the frost. This flower is called the common blue violet. It is a North America native wildflower that blooms profusely during springtime. In Southeast Missouri, it is possible to find this flower blooming during winter. The frost is a bonus...
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Sad end for a box turtle (12/11/21)A summer storm two years ago produced strong winds that uprooted two large trees. The trees fell down close together. I don't know exactly why the box turtle ended up wedged between the logs, where it apparently turned itself upside down and starved to death...
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When you need to hide (12/4/21)A deer hunter will probably know what this is, but do you? It's called a ground blind. A ground blind can be made of nearly anything from a permanent small building with a stove to a camouflage plastic tent like the one here. Photographers, birdwatchers, deer hunters and nature lovers all can enjoy time in a ground blind...
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The blessed days of autumn (11/27/21)A ray of morning sunlight glanced off a tree limb and reached toward me as I held the camera at just the right angle. Autumn is a beautiful time to embrace the woods. The colors of the leaves can give a hint to what kind of autumn tree you might be looking at. ...
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What is a frost flower? (11/20/21)A frost flower is not truly frost nor is it a flower. The ribbons of ice form from sap slowly freezing as it oozes from a living plant during a period of freezing temperatures. The night of Nov. 6 was calm. A cold front brought light rain a day earlier making everything wet. Nighttime temperatures fell to a few degrees below freezing. Lingering moisture on low-lying plants turned to frost, alerting me to the possibility that I could find a frost flower...
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How to touch a bullfrog (11/6/21)Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes crossed Southeast Missouri the evening and night of Oct. 24. The next morning was windy and cool with temperatures in the upper 40s. While walking on this morning, I was surprised to see a big bullfrog sitting out in the open on a pond levee...
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A fat green worm (10/16/21)This plump bright green worm is one of the stages in the life of a Polyphemus moth. It's a native North American moth that has a wingspan wider than the Luna moth. I took this photo in the waning days of September. The worm is about 3 inches long and shaped similar to a nice big pecan. ...
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The flamboyant queen of insects? (10/9/21)This photo (taken by my daughter) is of an American native praying mantis. Its scientific name is stagmomantis. That name is easy to say if broken into three syllables -- stag-mo-mantis. There are several kinds of mantises native to North America. A few widely distributed invasive mantises come from China and Europe...
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Don't handle this one (10/2/21)This is a yellow-bellied water snake. Southern Missouri swamplands are a good place to find this snake. It lives on small fish, frogs and crawdads. If you happen upon a yellow-bellied water snake, be sure it is what you think it is. It can look quite like a cottonmouth. The cottonmouth is venomous. The yellow-belly is non-venomous and considered harmless, although if cornered and aggravated it will bite you...
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Baby catfish (9/25/21)Who knew a baby catfish could be so cute! The one to the left is being shy. The one to the right is being inquisitive. I wonder what the one in the middle might be saying if it could talk. These fish are fingerling channel catfish. They are about 6 inches long. Channel catfish are raised in ponds on fish farms. They are sold to people who have ponds and small lakes on their property...
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A dining table for a squirrel (9/18/21)A man went into the woods with his chainsaw and cut down a tree. He took away the tree to make firewood or maybe sold the tree trunk as a log to be made into furniture. But he left the part of the tree that is now called a stump. In this case the stump has become a dining table for a squirrel. ...
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This could kill you! (9/11/21)Let this be another reminder to not be out in the woods during a storm. Last Saturday, Sept. 4, a series of thunderstorms crossed over Southeast Missouri delivering heavy rain and strong wind gusts to some areas. The dead limb you see in my photo fell from the sprawling soft maple in the near background. The dead limb came crashing from the tree and was driven several inches into the ground like a post. You can be glad you were not standing there...
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Can you guess? (9/4/21)Is this a flower? Is this a cookie? Could this be a special kind of pancake with white icing? It might look like I went diving into the depths of the ocean to find some strange electric coral, but I didn't. I stayed right here in Southeast Missouri...
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Find the egg (8/28/21)This is an eastern rat snake. A large adult one can reach about 7 feet long. This one is close to 4 feet long. The eastern rat snake is a skinny snake that can get into holes where rats go. Rats and mice are a major component of its diet. Have you found the egg yet? It's inside the snake about halfway back. This snake has very carefully and slowly swallowed a chicken egg. Bird eggs are also on the menu of the eastern rat snake...
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What all has this tree seen? (8/21/21)I was in Jefferson City the morning of Aug. 10 to attend the celebration in recognition of the founding of Missouri in 1821 as the 24th state to join the United States of America. alking the grounds around the State Capitol, I noticed this tree growing next to a sidewalk. It is a native sweet-gum tree. Although hard to tell the age of this tree from my photo, I guess it to be around 90 years old...
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Brush hog hazard (8/14/21)You gotta love the country life. It's not as boring as some might say. Even brush hogging has the potential to make an interesting memory. Every summer I do some brush hogging around my small property to keep the place looking halfway respectable. Because a doe whitetail deer hangs around and raises a fawn every year, I usually wait until around the last of July to brush hog. I don't want to run over a fawn, and I don't want to eliminate the safety of cover for a fawn...
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An albino fern? (8/7/21)The fern I have photographed here is called a bracken. Bracken is an alternative word for the word fern. The bracken has a particular leaf configuration dissimilar to other ferns. That being said, there are many different kinds of brackens spread worldwide...
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Gone in a day (7/31/21)This cluster of mushrooms was growing at the base of a rotting tree stump. A good place to look for mushrooms is in the woods on rotting logs, stumps and dead limbs. Commonly called feltscale inky caps, these native mushrooms are evident in June and July in the eastern United States. Although a cluster like this one may exist for a few days before "melting" away, individual specimens will last only about one day...
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A soldier eats a blackberry (7/24/21)Summertime is the time to look for wild blackberries. Starting in mid-July and extending for about a month, native wild blackberries ripen in Southeast Missouri. Wild blackberries are borne on long, thorny, woody stems. When ripe, these blackberries are sweet and edible...
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A flower with oak leaves (7/17/21)The oak leaf hydrangea is a native flower that grows in the southeast quadrant of the United States. It is an unusual wildflower in that it is quite large in many ways. The clusters of white flowers can grow to 18 inches long or longer. The leaves look like the leaves of a red oak tree, except that they are much larger and can grow to at least 12 inches across the leaf. And the plant itself can grow eight feet tall and have an eight-foot spread...
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Their names do not imply yellow (7/10/21)The brown eyed susan and the red legged buprestis by their names do not make you think of yellow. But when the insect and flower are combined in a photo, yellow rules the day. The red legged buprestis is a wood-boring insect native to Eastern U.SA. It is a member of the jewel beetles. It is known to bore in the dead wood of certain kinds of deciduous trees such as oaks, maples and elm...
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Ant beats tiger beetle (7/3/21)I spotted two small insects battling on a rock. At first the gray insect was dragging the red ant. They moved very fast as I snapped several out-of-focus photos with my cellphone. Soon I identified the gray insect as a predatory tiger beetle. Ants are fierce predators, too. I didn't know which one would win this fight, but I was somewhat surprised when the ant suddenly got ahold of the tiger beetle's eye, giving me this photo...
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Coneflower at sunset (6/26/21)A few weeks ago I was surprised to find this lone purple coneflower blooming at the edge of a weedy field. Trees line the field to the east so I went back in the late evening to get this shot. I used my cellphone camera and shot the photo staring into the setting sun using a flash...
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The beetle with a voice (6/12/21)The insect you see here is called a horned passalus beetle. It is a member of a family of beetles called Bess beetles. This beetle is pretty large as an adult being about 1 1/2 inches long. It is very strong and is capable of putting a weight 50 times heavier than its own weight. It spend its whole life inside or very near a dead rotting stump or log...
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The red poppy story (6/5/21)National Poppy Day is celebrated each year on the Friday before Memorial Day. Shortly after World War I ended, an American military officer noticed thousands of red poppies growing among rows of small wooden crosses lining what was a battlefield in Belgium. ...
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Head of a crappie (5/29/21)This is a photo of the head of a fish called a crappie. Crappie are regarded by many freshwater fishermen as the best tasting fish of all. In Southeast Missouri crappie fishing is usually done from a boat. Because crappie are prolific breeders, they can overpopulate a small farm pond in only a few years. ...
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Oh to bee red! (5/22/21)Sometimes all you have to do is step outside. I took this photo two weeks ago in my yard. It was a cool morning with a light breeze. The sun was shining bright, reflecting off the south side of the house, making it warm enough for this wood bee to be active, albeit a bit slow...
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A hungry muskrat (5/15/21)Two weeks ago I made a trip to Mingo Wildlife Refuge near Puxico, Missouri. One of the most interesting things I saw was the activity of the muskrat pictured here. Swamp maple trees along a stream had gone to seed, and thousands of their seeds were floating on the water surface. These seeds are a high energy food source to herbivores such as muskrats...
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Do not disturb (5/8/21)A walk in the Southeast Missouri woods during April can be full of surprises. Patches of beautiful wildflowers are enough to please any wandering soul, but there is more to discover. April 26 was a cool, windy day. It was not a good day to focus a camera on flowers that move in the wind. I was looking for a springtime surprise and I got one...
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From green to purple (5/1/21)The flowers pictured here are from the native paw paw tree. I found dozens of paw paw trees sporting hundreds of blooms in a Scott County woodlot April 12. This image shows two blossoms on the same limb. The green one is beginning to burst open and will turn purple like the other one that is a few days older...
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A hummingbird favorite (4/24/21)This is a wildflower called Columbine. Its flower is said to resemble an eagle's claw, but I think it resembles a jester's cap. The Columbine plant is toxic to animals, and deer will not eat it. Usually a single plant will grow about 2 feet tall, but it can be taller. It can be found growing in shade or semi-shade in forested areas or glades. I have found Columbine plants hanging from cracks in limestone cliffs, where many other plants can't grow...
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An inquisitive spring flower (4/3/21)The Dutchman's Breeches is one of the most unusual spring flowers to be found in Southeast Missouri. Each white flower has an opening at the bottom surrounded by yellow curls. The top of the flower looks like the legs of pantaloons stretching outwardly as if hanging from a clothesline...
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Beginning the spring thing (3/27/21)This photo shows the early leaf excitement of a red buckeye tree. In the burst of green leaves at upper right is a light whitish green cluster of flower buds. Temperatures well into the 60s and 70s within the next 10 days or so will have these little buds turning to red flowers...
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Won't go hungry tonight (3/20/21)As the recent February snow piled up and extremely cold air poured into Southeast Missouri, non-hibernating wild animals were hard pressed to find food. Shown here is a native gray squirrel that found a walnut. I had braved the cold on this afternoon and so did the squirrel. I saw it drop the walnut from a dead snag tree with a hole in it. The squirrel was cold enough and hungry enough it ignored me and climbed down for the nut...
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The early butterfly (3/13/21)Mourning cloak is a strange name for anything, but that is what this butterfly is called. It is also sometimes called the grand surprise butterfly. A surprise is what I got Sunday morning, March 7, when I saw this butterfly flying. The temperature was barely 60 degrees...
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A Southeast Missouri waterfall (3/6/21)Heavy rain the night of Feb. 27 left everything in the woods wet and muddy. But more than that, every gully in the hills was pouring water. As the rain was slowing during the morning, I knew the little waterfalls would last for only a few hours. I believe the little waterfalls are among the most beautiful of the least things photographed in Southeast Missouri. ...
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Survivor of the cold (2/27/21)The morning I took this photo the temperature was 6 degrees above zero. During the night, it had fallen to -2 degrees. I found a starling laying in the snow frozen to death, and I wondered why more little birds had not suffered the same fate. How their tiny toes keep from freezing solid is a marvel of nature...
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Signature of February (2/20/21)Snow can make the difference when it comes to a good winter photo or an average one. A woodland ridge top will often offer a nice photo opportunity. On Feb. 14, the sunrise temperature was 4 degrees above zero in my neighborhood of Southeast Missouri. I was able to get this photo before the predicted heavy snow arrived...
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What do you see? (2/13/21)Last Saturday evening, it snowed into the night. The next morning it had stopped snowing and about 2 inches of snow lay on the ground. The temperature was about 12 degrees, and the sun was rising, when I went looking for something to photograph. I followed fox tracks across a pond levee and down the slope to the overflow pipe. ...
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Eagle or hawk? (2/6/21)Birds of prey are often difficult to distinguish from one another. Red-tailed hawks are probably the most commonly seen hawk in Southeast Missouri. They regularly sit on road signs and high line poles. They tend to frequent grassy roadsides, where they search for mice...
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You can't judge a tree by its cover (1/30/21)Last week a wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Department sent me this image of a white oak tree. He told me the tree had a 24-inch trunk diameter, was about 15 feet tall and was hollow from the top down. Last July a team charged with documenting black bears in Arkansas live trapped a small, 100-pound female and put a locator collar on it. Winter is the best time to go into the woods with a locator device to see where the bears are spending their winter...
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A true survivor (1/23/21)What you see here is symbiotic living organism called lichen. Symbiotic means it is actually two or more organisms living in close relationship beneficial to both. There are many kinds of lichen living in nearly every ecosystem on Earth. The lichen I photographed here is a combination of an algae and a small fungus. ...
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A goose of another color (1/16/21)A few weeks ago I received a cellphone message from someone who regularly reads my newspaper feature. He told me he and his wife own a small pond where they have seen a strange-looking bird they think is called an Egyptian goose. That seemed odd to me, but I was definitely interested...
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An acorn shell dressed in ice (1/2/21)A frosty morning can be a good time to head outdoors in search of things dressed in ice crystals. A few days ago, a cold night provided me the frosty morning I was hoping for. Small. simple things become special with little spikes of ice sticking off of them. In this case, I discovered the shell of a small acorn sitting on a log where a squirrel or maybe a blue jay had left it after eating the acorn...
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A cute little winter visitor (12/26/20)We often think of sparrows as small brown birds that like to aggressively take over bird houses made for wrens, bluebirds and purple martins. But there are other kinds of sparrows in the wilds of Southeast Missouri. In this photo I took the afternoon of Dec. 20, you can see the intricate detail of the various shades of brown on the feathers of this bird. It is a white-throated sparrow...
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True and false (12/12/20)Turkey tail mushrooms are tricky for a novice like me to identify. I see them in the woods often and find them interesting to look at, but have never taken time to learn about them. Even after researching information on turkey tail mushrooms, I remain a novice...
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A fern like no other (12/5/20)I was fortunate to find this small colony of strange looking plants Nov. 23. They were the dominant plant in an area the general shape of a circle about 12 feet across. Dark purplish to black beads decorated stems, many of which stuck up nearly 3 feet into the air. The jagged yellow-brown leaves you see here are from this same plant...
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There's a cricket in the woods (11/28/20)I took this photo Nov. 9 in a "feathered area" where short, thick brush transitioned into tall timber along a hillside. A substantial stand of buckbrush (also called coralberry) covered an area about the size of a basketball court. I walked carefully into the coralberry patch expecting to jump a rabbit...
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How saaweeeet the owl! (11/21/20)This little owl is a marvel of nature. It is a common native owl in Southeast Missouri, but it is rarely seen. It is a creature of the woods and a creature of the night. This is the northern saw-whet owl. It preys mostly upon animals such as deer mice, flying squirrels and small birds...
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The girdling root (11/14/20)This photo shows a tree root that is growing above ground and is wrapping around the base of a tree. This is not a normal occurrence for trees. Usually a tree will grow a girdling root or roots after improper planting by humans. When planting a small sapling. ...
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A time for discovering nature (11/7/20)Autumn was made for little children. It's a time for walking in the woods. A time for collecting acorns and hickory nuts enough to fill your pockets. It's a time for discovering big yellow leaves and small snail shells. It's a time to touch the softness of green moss covering a patch of ground...
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Complex beauty in a simple leaf (10/31/20)Autumn leaves seem to be crying out for attention. If they could talk they might say, "Look at me! I've waited all summer to show you how beautiful I can be!" I had a wide range of autumn choices for my column this week. Migrating birds, buck deer, fall mushrooms, last-of-the-year flowers and insects all would be good subjects. But I chose a single leaf from a dogwood tree. It is at once simple, complex and beautiful...
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What is all that orange stuff? (10/24/20)Have you seen any jack-o-lanterns yet? Was it a carved pumpkin? Well, there is another kind of jack-o-lantern. It is the jack-o-lantern mushroom. It grows from wood in the forest, often surrounding an old tree stump. The jack-o-lantern mushroom can be found during autumn in Southeast Missouri. It grows in easily seen clusters that can be up to a couple feet across. It looks like several orange pancakes piled one on another. This mushroom is not edible...
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Some other colors of fall (10/17/20)This is an early morning photo of a bumblebee on a purplish blue flower. Bright sunshine was striking a small patch of flowers. Light fog as well as a dark hillside aided in making a favorable background for this photo. Photographing a bee on a cool morning of about 50 degrees is easier than when the morning is warm with temperatures above 70 degrees. ...
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How hairy the fly (10/10/20)A few weeks ago, I photographed this fly as it sat on the roof of my wife's car. The morning sun was shining brightly. As I zoomed the camera lens closer and closer, the hairs on the fly came into good focus. This is a beneficial insect known as a tachinid fly. It helps control other insects that damage garden plants, and I have seen them on flowers playing the part of pollinator. Tachinid flies exist in the outdoors and are seldom seen inside a house...
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Unusual berry clusters (10/3/20)Several years ago when I first saw this plant with its brilliant clusters of purple berries, it amazed me. Every few inches up and down each branch are eye-catching berries. The wavy green leaves complement and brighten the scene even more. This native plant is called American beautyberry. ...
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The frog wants to dance (9/26/20)This is a gray tree frog. It is a master of camouflage. I caught it as it sat on my front porch railing. It must have thought it was hidden like it usually is. I put this little tree frog inside a glass fishbowl in order to photograph it showing the beautiful yellow/orange colored undersides of its legs and feet. ...
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Something red in the woods (9/19/20)September is the beginning of a transition time in the Southeast Missouri woods. Summer is coming to an end. Daytime high temperatures are getting more comfortable. And something bright red has made its appearance in the woods. I found this beautiful plant in the forest surrounded by ferns. It has had a good year in a safe spot as the red seed cluster attests. This plant is called a green dragon. It is a close relative of a similar plant called the Jack-in-the-pulpit...
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The yellow and the blue (9/12/20)Here I show you two flowers that you may easily find at this time of year. The yellow flower is a common evening primrose. The common evening primrose can grow to about 6 feet tall. It is sometimes called the "sun drop," because of its brilliant yellow flowers...
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The alligator snapping turtle (9/5/20)You may consider yourself lucky and honored if you get to see one of these turtles in the wilds of Missouri. Two major reasons make this so. One, the male alligator snapper spends nearly all of its time under water, and the female only comes out for a short time in spring to lay eggs. Two, the alligator snapper is listed as an endangered species in Missouri...
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A berry of August (8/29/20)I took this photo Aug. 19. What you see here are the green berries of a plant called polkberry, polkweed or polk sallet. When the berries ripen, they will be dark purple. This is a common native shrub that dies back to the ground each autumn. The root system stays alive, and the following spring the upper stalks regrow...
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A beautiful non-native plant (8/22/20)This photo shows the beautiful flowers and flower buds of a hybridized non-native shrub. It is a kind of hibiscus called Rose of Sharon. The name is confusing because it is not a rose. This plant can grow into a small tree reaching maybe 15 feet tall. ...
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Two necessities of summer (8/15/20)Some things we just have to have or it just ain't summer. Summer can't be summer in Southeast Missouri without thunderstorms, temperatures reaching into the 90s and watermelons. Katydids singing at night, fields of tasseling corn and spotted baby fawns are also things of summer. And so are bees and sunflowers...
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Our big white flower of summer (8/8/20)You may have been seeing these big white flowers along county highways for the past few weeks. They are native to much of the southeastern United States. They bloom from about mid-July into autumn. This plant is a kind of hibiscus called rose mallow. It is sometimes called swamp rose mallow because it thrives close to water. It likes places of full sunshine along stream banks, ponds and wetland areas with few trees...
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Dainty but not helpless (8/1/20)This little insect is a marvel of the insect world. It has left fossil evidence proving that it was thriving on Earth during the time of dinosaurs at least 300 million years ago. As a nymph living underwater, it eats mosquito larvae and other tiny aquatic life. As an adult flying insect, it continues to feed on mosquitoes, catching them and other tiny insects in flight...
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The one they call the ghost (7/25/20)This is a trail camera photo of a whitetail deer buck in velvet. This deer is probably between five and seven years old. Where he lives, I do not have the liberty of saying. Bucks drop their antlers each year during winter and grow new ones back the following spring and summer. The velvet is thin and fuzzy. Within the velvet are blood veins that carry nutrients to the growing antler/bone structure. The dense fuzzy velvet also provides an element of protection from blood-sucking insects...
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The bird is a fisherman (7/18/20)Temperatures were in the 90s recently when I made an afternoon trip to Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. I was hoping to see a baby whitetail deer, but they must have been quietly lying still in the shade somewhere. The refuge was very quiet on this day. It was as if the wild animals were mimicking people staying home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I did see a few turkey vultures, a few raccoons and a brood of six young wood ducks trailing their mother through lily pad-covered water...
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Now that's a big frog! (7/11/20)Recently, I was sent this fantastic photo of a little boy and a big frog. The look on his face tells it all. Pure delight! His mother told me she was driving him to his day care center while on her way to her job. She saw the huge frog at the side of the road and thought of saving it just like so many people would save a turtle. ...
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A rarely seen songbird (7/4/20)This is a small songbird native to the eastern third of the United States and a portion of southeastern Canada. This very precious bird is the wood thrush. It looks very similar to two other native songbirds, the hermit thrush and the oven bird. The hermit thrush has dark speckles only on the upper front part of its breast. And the oven bird has dark broken lines on its chest. The oven bird also has two shades of brown on top of its head...
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A heart design on his nose! (6/27/20)The face you are looking at belongs to a male red ear slider. The red ear slider is a water turtle native to North America. It is probably the most prevalent water turtle in Southeast Missouri. It can be found almost anywhere there is water -- rivers, streams, lakes, swamps and farm ponds...
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Why name it cottonwood? (6/20/20)I took this photo June 11. It shows the seed pods of a cottonwood tree bursting with what looks like cotton. In the mass of fluff are tiny seeds that are dispersed by the wind. Cottonwood trees naturally grow in wet areas along riverbanks, lakes and ponds. This tree can grow to 100 feet tall. Its wood is soft, rots easily and is not a good choice for use in constructing buildings. The wood is often used for making pallets...
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Not really a fly (6/13/20)June is a good month to look for fireflies. The best time to see them is after the sun goes down. The male firefly will be flying around flashing his light from time to time. The female will usually be sitting on the ground, in the grass or on a weed. She waits for a male to fly close by and flash his light. She will flash back at him if she sees his flash. It is his choice to land beside her if he is feeling romantic...
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A beautiful summer wildflower (6/6/20)Shown here is a beautiful white flowering native North American wildflower called "foxglove beardtongue." It is also called "digitalis," a Latin word meaning glove-like. The unopened flower buds are said to resemble individual fingers of a glove. This flower has been widely used as a beautification plant along roadsides in much of the eastern United States. It is an easy-to-grow perennial plant that can blanket an area when established...
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This is why it's called mayapple (5/30/20)I took this photo at the edge of a wood lot on May 24. The mayapple plant is one of the earliest native woodland wildflowers to appear in springtime. It grows quickly to a height of from about a foot to maybe 20 inches tall. A mayapple with only a single umbrella-like leaf will not bloom or produce a fruit...
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The Missouri flag is blue! (5/23/20)I dropped a neutral washed-out background into this photo to accentuate the beautiful colors and intricate details of this flower. At lower right is a spent flower on the same stem. It is already going to seed. This is a native wild iris known as the Missouri blue flag. It is also called the southern blue flag. I took this photo the morning of May 16. This iris will bloom for a short time during May and June. Individual flowers will bloom for one or two days and then begin to wither...
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The blackberry patch (5/16/20)This photo is from May 6. The white flowering plants are wild blackberries. What you see here is a blackberry patch. This one is relatively small. It covers an area about 20 feet wide by 35 feet long. It is sandwiched between a grassy area and new-growth timber...
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Carolina tractor wrens? (5/9/20)A pair of Carolina wrens have built a nest in the same place in my tractor for the past five years. Each spring they raise a brood of baby wrens. When I need to use the tractor, I check to see if the nest is there. Before I start the tractor I remove the nest and set it aside close by...
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A zebra in Missouri (5/2/20)This butterfly is called a zebra swallowtail. It has markings reminiscent of a zebra. In Southeast Missouri the zebra swallowtail is less common than many other kinds of butterflies such as the tiger swallowtail or pipe-vine butterfly. The tail at the end of each of its wings is about an inch long...
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Complementary flowers (4/25/20)Springtime is flower time, and there are many different kinds and colors. I took this photo March 31. The complementary colors caught my attention. The purple flowers are American violets. The yellow flowers are native dandelions. These two can be found blooming together in your yard, especially if you live in a country setting. Look for them before you mow your lawn for the first time in spring...
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Two of the best (4/18/20)If I had to choose two small trees to line a driveway or beautify a park, I would choose the native white flowering dogwood and the native redbud. These trees are both fringe trees in the wild. They don't grow more than about 30 feet tall and are usually found at the edge of the woods. Neither tree is considered valuable for lumber...
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High in a cottonwood tree (4/11/20)March 29 found me photographing catkins of a cottonwood tree. A magnificent clear blue sky made a perfect backdrop to highlight the yellow-green female catkins along the far reaches of a limb. Spaced at short intervals along the outer limbs of the tree, these female catkins grow to about 5 inches long. Each catkin may have between 30 to 50 round seed pods growing along a single stem. Within each seed pod several seeds are growing...
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The king of spring (4/4/20)Sunday morning, March 29, broke windy with bright sunshine. It was a perfect time for snakes to be out basking. While planting a new hedge, I heard a rattle in the leaves that sounded similar to the rattle of a rattlesnake. It was a native speckled king snake. His rounded nose, round eye pupil and black body with yellow speckles let me know instantly he was a king snake...
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Getting airborne (3/28/20)This little bird is called a titmouse. It is native to the eastern third of the United States. I photographed this one March 18 as it jumped from a small outer limb of a non-native ornamental Japanese quince bush. The titmouse was once called titmose, but many years ago everyday folks changed the last syllable in the word to mouse. Presumably, the word titmouse is easier to remember than the word titmose...
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An extra leaf? (3/21/20)I found this little plant March 15 growing on a west-facing hillside in the woods. It is a springtime woodland wildflower native to North America called a trillium. There are many kinds and colors of North American trilliums. The one most common in Southeast Missouri has a purple bloom...
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Dead man's fingers (2/29/20)This is a colony of black fungus I found in early February. I had seen these a few times in past years, but did not know what they were called. Doing a Google search on black fungus, I discovered they are called dead man's fingers. These were growing on top of a rotting oak log which was lying partly covered in water. Moss was also growing on the log. The tallest of these fingers were about 2 3/4 inches tall. These little mushrooms are NOT good to eat...