This 'n' That

I've been so busy with the Field Ecology Summer Regional Governor's School, that I haven't taken any time for a blog post. But things have been accumulating, so here goes...

Today one of my favorite wildflowers, Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), started popping up in our woods. As in the past, when Indian Pipe comes out, there are many patches that emerge simultaneously.

Two days ago there was a lot of moisture in the early morning air, ...

... and there was a rare morning rainbow in the southwestern sky.

The moisture put tiny pearls of dew on spiderwebs. This web has clearly seen better days!

The pine trees were particularly heavily coated with spiderwebs. I'm pretty sure these are webs of the basilica orb weaver spider (Mecynogea lemniscata). We've seen egg sacks of these spiders in Virginia Pines we have cut for Christmas trees.

Back in May, carpenter bees had made holes in the post that holds our wildlife camera. This week it appears that a pileated woodpecker found the contents (bee larvae?) of at least one hole a tasty treat. Given how the woodpeckers have attacked our gatepost, we may soon have to find a different post for the camera. (It's on this post because the tree it was originally on blew down several years ago.)

And finally, it continues to be a good year for snakes.  Last month Lon saw this good-sized timber rattlesnake near our woodsheds. Earlier this week we found two snake skins in the woodshed while moving firewood to our deck.

They're a bit blurry, but you can clearly see the triangular head (left) and rattles (right).