Found the head waters!

Found the head waters!

 Today, we went back to find the head waters of this unnamed creek we had been exploring for the last few weeks. You know, the same one in “up a creek” post, but ran out of time to continue that day. Success today! Barely got going and came across several of these beautiful Lecanora species…

Ferns under the scope

Ferns under the scope

I spent most of my day looking at spores under the scope. I did not know what I was going to see or what I was looking at half the time. Thank goodness for Google! Purple cliff-brake spores (Pellaea atropurpurea) are the roundish things to the right side of the photo. This is at 400x. …

Montague County drive about

Montague County drive about

 Had to get a drive-about before the rain…fingers crossed! Rough-winged swallows were our first stop along the side of the road.  We also had first of season American kestrels.  Other birds of the day were Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, doves, Loggerhead Shrikes, roadrunner, red-shouldered hawk, vultures, White-eyed vireo and one mad-at-us Carolina wren.  Then…