Sept. 8, 2013 - Misc. Photos-3
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One of the moths attracted to our porch light this summer was this Common Lytrosis. The wood-grained appearance of its wings makes it a master of camouflage. Most moths are active at night and then find a place to rest during the day. This one perches on the trunk of a tree and even lines up the pattern in its wings with the bark of the tree. You can imagine how hard it would be to spot this moth. Its caterpillar is also well hidden because it looks like a thin twig.
Whenever I leave the porch light on to attract moths, I also seem to attract several of these Gray Tree Frogs. I wouldn’t be surprised if these frogs are responsible for the disappearance of some of the moths. The frogs have sticky pads on their feet and therefore have no trouble climbing right up the side of the house. True to its name, this one is gray but can change its color to green to match its surroundings.
I found this mushroom growing at the base of a large spruce tree on our property. The mushroom is huge: about two feet across. I looked through our mushroom book and it appears to be a Lacquered Polypore. Notice several leaves that appear to be on top of the mushroom. The stems of these leaves go right through the mushroom; it must have grown around them.
MushroomLacqueredPolyporeGanodermalucidumtsugaeDunningLakeBovey20130808
The juvenile loon that hatched at our lake this year is now fully grown. It’s the same size as the adults and has replaced all of its down with feathers. This is the way it will look throughout the winter. It’s quite good at diving and, I think, is catching a lot of its own food now. I haven’t seen it try to fly yet but that will have to start soon.
Meanwhile, the adult loons have started molting into their winter plumage. The black feathers on the head are the first to be replaced. Eventually this adult bird will look much like the juvenile in the last photo. It will look like that all winter and then molt back into its beautiful black and white plumage in spring. I’ve never noticed this before, but there is a pink area at the base of the bill on this loon.
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