Gifts From the Woods

A rather large flock of bluejays has been hanging around the farm the last few days.  And although bluejays are not unusual for the farm, this number of them is.  Typically ground feeders, they have also been visiting our bird feeders like crazy.  They are fun to watch eat as they hold the sunflower seeds between their feet and hammer them open with their beaks.

If you don't have bluejays where you live... I will tell you, they are a rather large bird - measuring just shy of a foot from beak to tip of tail.  They are quite noisy, and can be aggressive towards other birds.  So, when a flock descends upon our feeders, like they did this past week, the other birds often get chased away.  Still, they are fun to watch.

Interestingly, although the bluejay looks blue in color, this is only an illusion, as their feathers are actually brown.  Unlike a cardinal whose feathers have a red pigment, the pigment that looks blue to us in a bluejay is actually a brown pigment.  We perceive this bird to be blue because of a scientific phenomenon called light scattering.

The more I learn about nature, the more fascinating it becomes!

Finding all of those morel mushrooms inspired us to walk our Hundred Acre Woods on Sunday to see if we could find any more.  A trip to the woods is always a favored activity for the dogs.  

Sadly, we found no more morel mushrooms, but did find a lot of other natural treasures.

If you have visited us for any length of time, then you will already know that I love mushroom hunting.  Yes, I forage for morels and a couple of other "safe" mushrooms.  The rest, however, I just enjoy finding, identifying and photographing.

This lumpy bracket fungus is often covered by a layer of algae as seen below.  These are rather large fungi that live for several years and are able to keep growing in the winter as well.  We marked their location in the woods so that we can keep tabs on their growth.

The jelly fungi have begun to make an emergence again...

We also found these newly-emerged platterful mushrooms:

Our neck of the woods has so much lichen in it.  Lichen is a combination typically between a fungi and algae.  It grows rampantly on many of the trees in the woods, and apparently does no harm to the tree.  Interestingly, hummingbirds often use lichen around the outside of their nest to camouflage it.

Strangely, we found what looked like a lightbulb screwed into an old rotting tree trunk.

Jack pulled it out so that we could dispose of it properly,

only to find what seemed like a perfect little mossy socket for the bulb.

For the first time ever, I found a deer antler shed.

Every spring, I hike the woods hoping to find these.  You might remember that I found an intact deer skull with antlers this winter.  However, finding an antler that was naturally shed in part of a buck's life cycle, was even more thrilling to me.

Wildflower season has arrived.  Every week, new specimens (old friends to me) will pop up from beneath the ever-warming soil.

 It is my hope, that if you are unable to get outside to enjoy nature yourself, that I can bring you photos and descriptions of this beauty so that you can also enjoy these miraculous works of nature.

Have a happy day!