Today, we have mushrooms.

According to my recently purchased mushroom guide, they appear to be a (rather small troup of) troup crumblecaps. The mushroom guide (Peterson's), which is obsessed with what you can or cannot eat, says that no one has ever evaluated these for edibility, as they're just too small to be worth it. It's probably right-- they max out at a cap diameter of about 1.5cm, and the stem is barely thicker than a standard sewing needle.

Newcombs, the definitive wildflower guide for the northeastern US, is arranged by flower shape, followed by flower color. (Convenient when you're identifying a roadside plant in bloom, not so much for "wait, what is this that's coming up in my garden?") The mushroom guide is arranged by method of spore distribution (gills, no gills, exploding puffball-style) followed by what color the spore print is. This means that to identify a mushroom, you need to pick one, and do this:

Also, I have no reason to believe that anyone else in the neighborhood has seen the baby wrens. But I have photographic evidence that they exist:
One baby wren:

Two baby wrens:

FOUR baby wrens:

...and somebody in slightly better focus:

I am starting to consider the advantages of those 18x optical zoom pocket cameras. Someday.

According to my recently purchased mushroom guide, they appear to be a (rather small troup of) troup crumblecaps. The mushroom guide (Peterson's), which is obsessed with what you can or cannot eat, says that no one has ever evaluated these for edibility, as they're just too small to be worth it. It's probably right-- they max out at a cap diameter of about 1.5cm, and the stem is barely thicker than a standard sewing needle.

Newcombs, the definitive wildflower guide for the northeastern US, is arranged by flower shape, followed by flower color. (Convenient when you're identifying a roadside plant in bloom, not so much for "wait, what is this that's coming up in my garden?") The mushroom guide is arranged by method of spore distribution (gills, no gills, exploding puffball-style) followed by what color the spore print is. This means that to identify a mushroom, you need to pick one, and do this:

Also, I have no reason to believe that anyone else in the neighborhood has seen the baby wrens. But I have photographic evidence that they exist:
One baby wren:

Two baby wrens:

FOUR baby wrens:

...and somebody in slightly better focus:

I am starting to consider the advantages of those 18x optical zoom pocket cameras. Someday.
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Date: 2012-05-04 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-07 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-04 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-04 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-09 02:18 pm (UTC)I love your teensy wee parasols.