Clear and frosty overnight with temperatures into the 50s during the day. Light to moderate winds.
After my call this morning, I finished gathering up my paperwork to take down for the tax person to file my taxes. Fortunately, I didn’t have a wait, so I had plenty of afternoon left when I was done.
I checked the channel, where I saw some gulls, but nothing unusual.
I walked old airport road in case a Lapland Longspur or other migrant might be around. I did not notice any song birds. Scaups, Buffleheads, and Mallards were on the lagoon.
I spent more time out at Starrigavan. I walked up to the hike-in campsite area.
One of the sites had good sunlight that was inviting, and I stopped to relax on the moss and at the picnic table.
While there, a Red-breasted Sapsucker showed up, as did chickadees.
Something moving on a tree caught my attention, and got my first look at a forest bristletail for this year.
I looked for springtails on the dead trees where I have found them previously. Perhaps it was too dry to today, as I did not find any.
This evening I went out to the quarry road muskeg with my UV lights.
I noticed two different Sphagnum species that showed up a bit with the UV light.
Sphaerophorus lichens were quite bright with a pale blue-ish color. Hypogymnia and Platismatia (I think) showed up more yellow.
I also saw bright orange in the cracks of dead wood on a pine tree. I couldn’t see anything that looked different under white light. At first I wondered if it might just be the wood where it was less exposed, but slicing off the surface didn’t reveal any orange. It did reveal some pale lavender (under the UV light, but not the white light), which I think might be fungal hyphae.
I may try to go again later in the year, as I had the impression that maybe new growth of some of the mosses will show up under the UV light. I think I would also like to take more care trying for some photos. Warmer temperatures would be preferable for that activity.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
