@dandelion@dresden.network
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dandelion

@dandelion@dresden.network

IT Professional by day, biologist at heart. Staff to cats.

Interested in interactions and patterns wherever they are found. Will stop for flowers at the roadside. Also love speculative fiction.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

dandelion, to wildlife
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Chance encounter in the forest yesterday: a raccoon family.

Mama raccoon is nearby observing the situation.

dandelion, to random
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It's Wren Time! Dozens of migrating wrens are flitting around in our wetland. I'm glad I decided to pay more attention to LBBs* - these little guys have a big attitude (the tiny Eurasian Wren is even called "Zaunkönig" in German - "King of the Fence"). It also turned out that they belonged to three different species.

*Little Brown Birds

Marsh Wren perching in dry marsh grass. Its colors contrast a bit more boldly. There are flat rusty patches on its shoulders and back, mixed with speckled areas. The cap and eye streak are also more pronounced.
House Wren singing on a branch. It has a more delicate pattern without strong contrasts. They also prefer the shrubbier parts of the marsh and the woodlands

dandelion, to random
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dandelion, to random
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The American Elderberry bushes (Sambucus canadensis) are laden with enormous, lacy clusters of tiny white flowers. Some parts of this species are toxic, but the berries are a wildlife favorite and are traditionally used for jams and jellies.

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dandelion, to random
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Wild pollinators contribute an estimated $1.5 billion to the US economy each year. Honeybees are generalists with a large range and easy to keep at scale. They are not always very efficient at pollinating though - a gap filled by wild species if they can find living spaces nearby.

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/food-environment/2023/underappreciated-benefits-wild-bees

dandelion, to Birds
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Like a spirit at dusk - a Great Egret lands on a fallen tree.

dandelion, to random
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Indoor mall at the Old Market in Omaha, NE

Thank you @KarenStrickholm for reminding me of this place!

dandelion, to random
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Eine Hummel zum #InsektenSamstag...

#Insects #Pollinators #Bumblebees #Invertebrates

dandelion, to random
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Zum #InsektenSamstag heute zwei Schwalbenschwänze, die unser Feuchtgebiet besuchen...

#Insects #Invertebrates #Butterflies #Pollinators

Papilio glaucus, Östlicher Tiger-Schwalbenschwanz, auf einer Seidrnpflanzenblüte.

dandelion, to random
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dandelion, to Birds
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When these two show up in our backyard, it must be fall!

A dark gray bird with a light colored beak and a cream colored belly sits on a branch among yellow-green fall foliage. Dark-eyed Juncos are true Winter guests around here.

dandelion, to random
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Another familiar albeit unwelcome sight in North American woodlands: Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). This European native crowds out understory plants, and the phytochemicals released from its roots disrupt the associations plants form with mycorrhizal fungi. In many states it is therefore considered a noxious weed that needs to be eradicated.

A small patch of blooming garlic mustard catches the sunlight in an otherwise dark forest.

dandelion, to wildflowers
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Forest find: Fire-on-the-Mountain or Painted Leaf (Euphorbia cyathophora), a relative of the Poinsettia, enjoys the dappled sun where the canopy is thin.

dandelion, to random
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Zum einen wichtigen Bestäuber der späten Blütenpracht: der Goldruten-Soldatenkäfer (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) auf dem Blütenstand einer Goldrute. Er zieht zwar angeblich gelbe Arten vor, ist aber hier auf fast allen Blüten zu finden.

dandelion, to random
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dandelion, to random
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White Wild Indigo (Babtisia alba) stands out in the prairie, its inflorescences towering over the green. Like other legumes, this species forms symbioses with soil bacteria that turn inert nitrogen from the air into nutrients for their host plants. They live in small root nodules and help improve the soil over time.

A more distant view of a flowering cluster of Wild Indigo in an otherwise flowerless prairie - dappling the fresh green with white.

dandelion, to random
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Zum ein paar Besucher goldgelber Sommerblüten. In Nordamerika gibt es etwa 4000 Bienen- und gut viermal so viele Wespenarten. Da lasse ich mich immer überraschen!

Zwei Wespen auf einen Sonnenblumenblüten - eine schlanke schwarz-gelbe und eine kleine blass-rosafarbene.
Eine schlanke schwarze Welpe, mit gelb-gestreiften Hinterleib auf Goldrute.
Zwei sich paarende schwarze Wespen mit faden-dünner Taille auf gelben Korbblütlen.

dandelion, to random
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The drought and drying up of the lake also brings a little hope: Even after over a decade, some of the lotus seeds in the ground are still ready to germinate. The beautiful stands of American Lotus were destroyed by Asian Carp introduced into the lake when the river flooded in 2011. If this round of drought can eradicate the carp, the lotus may even make a comeback.

dandelion, to random
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Hlauuma, Taos Pueblo

dandelion, to random
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It's mulberry time!

Most Mulberry trees here are White Mulberries, introduced to North America in a failed attempt to farm silkworms. They provide an attractive buffet for a host of critters. I encountered a Pileated Woodpecker snacking them straight from the tree. Snapping turtles like them, too.

Head shot of a snapping turtle munching mulberries that have fallen on the ground
Fresh mulberries on gray sandy ground. The berries are so deep purple that they appear black.

dandelion, to climate
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Now that our lake has completely dried up, the beaver family living here had to move on... They leave a large den with multiple entrances behind and a network of channels worn into the lakebed.

View across the dried up lakebed - to get are still moister depressions and channels following the paths the beavers used to take.

dandelion,
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@mcg There are other bodies of water within a few miles (although the nearest is already occupied by another beaver family). I'm also worried about all the turtles that lost the mud they normally hibernate in (without enough water nearby the ground will freeze quite deeply). It really is very depressing. The lake took two years to dry out... I suspect this will be part of the new normal 😔

dandelion, to spiders
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White-banded Crab Spiders (Misumenoides formosipes) lurk in flowers and snatch unwary critters trying to snack on nectar. Females can reversibly change their color to optimize camouflage (not as quickly as cuttlefish or chameleons though). They like to appear white with some green or even bold red on white or purple blossoms and a perfectly matched golden yellow on flowers like goldenrod.

A white and purple crab spider huddling in a leaf, its pattern breaking up its outline into a zigzag. It is feeding on a Cabbage White butterfly.
A yellow crab spider with greenish markings on its cephalothorax is consuming the stinkbug it caught lurking in the flowers of a Horseweed plant
A male crab spider with a yellowish abdomen and brown cephalothorax/legs is perching on the top of a leaf, its front legs spread wide in a threatening pose.As is typical with spiders, it is much smaller than the females and also can't change color.

dandelion, to Birds
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Yelling or yawning?

dandelion,
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@thepoliticalcat 😂

jaybaeta, to movies
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I had the privilege yesterday of handling various snakes, including a ground boa (shown below) and slug-eating snake. This was after several spitting species from around Indonesia, which were being sunbathed (and were very unhappy about it).

I should have the footage up soon, but am still deciding if I should go back and get more before publishing.

Close-up of a spitting cobra, facing slightly to the right of the camera.
Screenshot of a spitting cobra in the process of spraying venom at a shoe. It's a close-up and we see the back of the hood.

dandelion,
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@jaybaeta I grew up in an area with only one species venomous snake, and even where I live now there are only a few, easy to recognize species you'd have to go searching for to meet them. It's so much easier not to grow up afraid of snakes under those circumstances. In your situation the danger is much more real - respect!

dandelion, to random
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Beavers have been busy in our wetland. What was once a small stream is now a series of ponds at varying levels of water. With the tall grasses flattened down by the recent snow, details of their activity become visible: The edge of the pond is lined with a low but very long dam of mud and grass clots, raising the waterline by half a foot above the adjacent meadow.

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