I’m in the Pacific Northwest for a nature journaling adventure.
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sprouting
sharp bits
So it turns out that rose thorns are actually prickles.
Schistocerca
I noticed some teensy grasshoppers on the basil plant, and learned they are first-instar nymphs of a Schistocerca species, commonly called bird grasshoppers, many of which swarm as locusts. It’s probably the Gray Bird Grasshopper, Schistocerca nitens; I have observed adults here in the yard.
olive bread
phyllotaxy
exoskeletons
At first we thought it was a dead tarantula, high and dry on a rock. The others hiked on ahead while I stopped to examine it more closely. All the parts were hollow and feather light, in fact they started blowing away in the slight breeze once I poked at them. Pretty sure I was looking at a recent molt. The pedipalps are especially cool. I brought them home with me 😁
Sambucus mexicana
I thought I was familiar with elderberry’s thin, soft leaves, so it was a real surprise to feel the thick, leathery leaves on this shrub. I don’t know if this is an outlier, or I have simply been unobservant till now. More data needed.
sycamore
I spent the weekend camping with folks from our nature journal club, and it fed my soul.
ceramic gecko
Another of Ma’s tchotchkes.
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