More Dragonfly on Rock

 

I'm working on my dragonfly shots -- getting there. It helped that the sun was out and I could zoom in and take a shorter exposure also. Now I need to identify who this is.

Witches Broom

 

Sometimes whacked plants are (understandably) sickly, and their resprouts take a form called "witches broom." This is one of Multiflora Rose, pre re-whacking.

Multiflora Rose Re-sprouting

 

Plants I had whacked near the Nature Center's amphitheater were doing some resprouting, so today in 90F degree heat I whacked the resprouts. Most plants had bee killed, but unless resprouts are managed they will begin to take over again.

More Fungus

 

Fungus Again

 

Dragonflies Perched on a Rock by Willow Pond

 

It was fun to watch their hunting moves and territoriality.

Moss and Ferns

 

Dragonfly

 

Not a good shot, but it hints at the greens and blues of this Willow Pond dragonfly. Seems like this is a good year for them.

Working on Arlington's Natural Inventory

 

Greg Zell and John Parrish pore over maps and notes as they work on the inventory of Arlington County's natural resources. Rod Simmons is another key participant, but I blew the chance to get him in the picture. The inventory identifies Arlington's wildlife and plants and notable trees and natural areas. Greg deserves a lot of credit for making it happen.

Multiflora Rose Whacking

 

This area has just been whacked and a lot of Multiflora Rose chopped out.

Mushroom

 

Note the little nibbles from critters.

Slime Mold!

 

Believe it ot not, the bright yellow stuff is not paint, it's a slime mold!

Fungus on Rotting Log

 

Long Branch Sunset 2

 

Sunset Sycamore

 

Storm Damage 2

 

This huge White Oak snapped off at its base and fell on an 1890s Victorian in our neighborhood. The tree was about 5 feet in diameter. It was an amazing process to see crews work to remove the tree, culminating in 2 large cranes working in tandem lifting the main trunk off the house Thursday night, about 30 hours after the tree fell. Notice the worker up in the tree for scale.

Storm Damage

 

A powerful bow echo thunderstorm complex moved through just after 3 PM Wednesday Jun 4, 2008. Straight-line winds out of the west to southwest gusted at what I estimate to have been 85 mph plus. Many trees in the neighborhood were blown over, including these, and some trees were snapped off at the base, including 2 huge White Oaks. The nature center was without power from 3 PM Wednesday until 9 PM Saturday. A generator helped keep a few essential things running. It was a majoe job for the power crews to get the lines and a transformer cluster repaired.

Eastern Chipmunk

 

This Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) found a convenient perch on a grapevine to eat its find and keep an eye on me.

Eastern Comma

 

Spider (good) Perched on Winged Euonymus (bad)

 

Dragonfly by Willow Pond, on a Rock