Mystery plants, berries, mosquitoes, and more

Today I was out again doing a rare plant survey. Almost immediately out of the truck we were assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes. They didn't care how much bug spray or how strong it was. I did bring my fashionable head net, which helped a bit. I'm sad to say my arms and neck took the brunt of the assault. Thankfully later in the heat of the afternoon, they tapered off for a bit and I could take off my head net. But I will remember this site not for the mosquitoes, but rather for the extremely large and juicy blueberries. There were also black huckleberries (also yum), blackberries, dewberries (which I think I ate but I'm not sure what happens during a berry feeding frenzy), and black blueberries. Yup. There's something called a black highbush blueberry. I didn't totally key out the shrub, but I know it exists so I'm pretty sure I ate some of them. Here's a pic of some of those large and juicy blueberries...not the black blueberries though.

Above is a mystery non-plant. It was growing all over the boulders and I'm not sure if it's a lichen or fungus. It sure was cool looking though.

We stumbled upon this lady box turtle chowing down on some fungus. It was a bit awkward and I felt like we were intruding on her private gorging so we quickly moved on.

Last there were a ton of cool fungus out. These are one of the few pics that came out mostly focused.

Just another week

I had only one small field outing this week. My boss accompanied me in the beginning to fill me in on the details of the situation and where to focus my efforts. As we stared at a small babbling stream, he remarked that it looked good for this particular type of rare dragonfly and proceeded to describe it to me and its behavior. Sure enough one flew in and then another. Two males and they started to spar. This is not my pic since I never got that close or have that good of a camera. My boss was so excited that he went back to his car and got his video recorder. I went about and did my work.

I did see a nice tiger swallowtail butterfly. It was so still that I thought it was dead until it flapped its wings.

Found this cool bright red mold or fungus. Thankfully I was all done before it got too hot. I am also thankful that I was completely in the shade. Between the heat wave and my allergies, I'm happy that this week was mostly inside. My throat was all scratchy and I was unusally tired for a bunch of days until I checked the pollen counts. When I saw that grasses were out, which is a trigger for me, it all made sense. Now I've upped my allergy meds and am feeling much better.

Once I got home, I decided to work on the mousecapade situation. I installed another pest-o-cator, which is an electronic pest deterrant, and vacuumed up their presents. I was on a roll and since I was already dirty from my field work, I decided to investigate the other basement communal hallway. Almost immediately I noticed mouse baits. They were all over and in each corner even before I got into the real hallway. They looked pretty new and I then remembered the termite pest control truck I saw last week. I was alarmed at the prospect of termites, but now I know it was for the mice. The most crazy thing about this is why they didn't put baits in my hallway. It is the same building and the mice can get anywhere. I doubt there is some sort of impenetrable cinder block barrier separating the two halves of the building. I am not looking forward to the result of this poison. It's a slow and painful death and the remains will surely begin to smell throughout the building. I caught 23 mice and that's probably just the tip of the iceberg. I just hope the pest-o-cator keeps them out of my area.