The ravine had been awesome as usual. And before I headed straight back to the car, I decided check out on top for a bit.
First, one more find from the ravine. They might be titmouse’s feathers. At least they were the right size.
What ever had the meal, it ate the bird on a bed of green moss.
First pond!
Many ponds are on the grasslands. The Soil Conservation Service (now the NRCS) built them to control erosion.
Along this stretch of my route were five ponds. They had built a berm in this area as well. When taking a photo, I look for a good angle for the max reflections. Love the reflections! 🙂
Among the grasses, you can find the Yellow Scale lichen (Psora icterica)!
Of course I see a face in this rock. with one green eye. LOL
The petrified wood had been discolored from the red clay loam.
A pretty rock that had veins. Perhaps a stone cold heart? LOL
Further along in the field, a rock covered with lichens. Both of the lichens are crustose. However, you may noticed that the one on the right has lobes similar to a foliose lichen. Crustose and foliose lichens sometimes will overlap in characteristics. For some reason, lichens do not pay much attention to humans categories. 😉
A closer look at the center of the lichen which is plastered on the rock. Furthermore, it would be hard to remove if not impossible to get a specimen for a herbarium.
This were the other lichens. The crustose lichens can penetrate the rock and would be hard to get specimens with out taking part of substrate. Aloo same is true of crustose lichens on other substrates like trees for example.
More examples of beautiful crustose lichens!
In fact, even the crustose lichens have many forms as shown here.
Additionally, the crustose lichens have many types of fruit bodies. If you look back at the above photos, you can see the fruiting bodies in the form of disks as well. These are just sticking out in the thallus, the brown centers.
Sometimes in neighboring fields you can see exotic animals. Moreover when I see a llama it reminds me of children’s book Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino (1997).
So a fine day was had exploring on February 13th. After all, it would be hard to not enjoy nature out at the grasslands!
Glad you were out on a calm day so you could get the reflections on the ponds. Interesting shark article.
😊
Beautiful lichen-filled post! So interesting!
Very nice reflections!
Thanks 😊
Beautiful lichens!!