Ink Caps - Coprinopsis atramentaria

My family and I started seeing these mushrooms after we received a load of mulch for the yard.  We would notice them after a rainy night while having breakfast.  Later in the day, they would totally disappear.  Coprinopsis atramentaria is found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere but occasionally in Australia.  It is commonly found where dead wood is buried.

Photographed in my yard on August 14, 2017.

Links:
Wiki - Coprinopsis atramentaria

Queen Anne's Lace - Daucus carota

Queen Anne's Lace always fascinated me as a small child.  They were tall and strong and oh so detailed.  Of course, I wasn't allowed to bring them in the house because of my mother's hay fever but I loved to watch all the busy insects that would be drawn to them.  I loved their fancy shapes, fancier than any needlework I could do as a child or even now.

Daucus carota called Wild Carrot in other places is an introduced species in the United States.  It is native to Europe and southwest Asia.  It is in the family of Apiaceae which includes parsley, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, and celery.

These pictures were taken on July 29, 2017.

Daucus carota is considered both a beneficial companion plant and a noxious weed depending on the circumstances.   It has been shown to boost tomato plant production when planted nearby and provide a microclimate when planted with lettuces to keep them cool and moist.  It is considered a pest in pastures and the seeds remain in the viable in the soil for 2 to 5 years.

Links:
Wiki - Daucus carota
Go Botany - Daucus carota

A little early but...

Stumbled upon two woollybear caterpillars last week,  They were in the grass and weeds near my house and were a little smallish.

woolybear caterpillars - Marina Kobasiuk

woolybear caterpillar - Marina Kobasiuk

I usually don"t see them until later in the summer or early in the Autumn.  They mature into the isabella tiger moth.

Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren - Pyrrharctia isabella – Isabella Tiger Moth

Links:

Wiki - Pyrrharctia_isabella
Forecasting the Winter Using Woollybear Caterpillars

Contrasts of the Season

We noted the death of a couple of Canada Geese down at Patersquash Creek.  The bodies were still lying on the ice when I took this picture.  By now the ice has melted back and the carcasses will have sink into the water to decompose and feed the shellfish and baitfish and continue through the food chain.

Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

• Hamlet: Act I, scene 2, line 72 - W. Shakespear

Then we drove around to Section 1 Marina and I took this video.   Please forgive my lame video photography and altering skills.

The winter diving ducks were feeding on something that was under the ice.

Fast Forward...One Year

For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there;
Sap cheque'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where. - Shakespear, Sonnet 5.

When the cold of winter comes
Starless night will cover day
In the veiling of the sun
We will walk in bitter rain 

But in dreams
I can hear your name
And in dreams
We will meet again 

When the seas and mountains fall
And we come, to end of days
In the dark I hear a call
Calling me there,
I will go there
And back again

It has been a bitter cold three weeks.  I apologize for my year-long hiatus.  I hope to be more diligent in the future.

Happy New Year!

New Years Nature

Happy New Years!

Here is an interesting little story.

New Years morning my husband and I rose early and took our little boat out for a drive.  He had been trying to get out to see the seals sunning themselves by Moriches Inlet for a couple of weeks but every time we were available the weather would not cooperate.  So we bundled up and told some friends so they would know what we were up to.  It was very lovely and clear.  It was a little chilly but we've been out in colder weather on the boat.  On our ride from Patersquash Creek to the inlet we saw quite a few winter ducks but they were all quite nervous and wouldn't let us get too close.  I guess the hunters shooting at them every morning has made an impression.  We only saw two other boats with a total of 3 people during our whole ride.  Unfortunately we didn't see any seals.  The scenery was stark and beautiful though and Michael had a good time so it wasn't a wasted trip.

Looking West while we traveled East through the Narrows Bay

Mastic Beach along Riviera east of Marina 1

The west rocky entrance to the Moriches Inlet

Duck Hunter Blind Near  Patersquash Creek

Much later that day Michael was out in the yard puttering around as dusk fell when he came running in and demanded that I and our daughter come out quickly to see something and bring the binoculars ( which I luckily never put away from our seal hunt).  When we got out onto the back porch he pointed out a large owl at the top of a tall tree on the next street behind us.  It was hooting.  One quick look even without the binoculars and I could tell by the size and shape it was a Great Horned Owl.  As we were watching it and oohing and aahing, to the west of our property an even larger owl swooped into another tree and started to hoot.  With the binoculars I could see it had a white neck and was a Great Horned Owl and was probably larger than the first owl.  The two birds hooted back and forth for a minute or two and then they both flew off to the north east toward Patersquash Creek.  It was all very dramatic.

Picture Borrowed from
: http://www.wildlifesouth.com/Featured/2011/Great_Horned_Owl.html

Learn More:

1. Owl Pages: Great Horned Owl

2. Cornell Lab  Ornithology - Great Horned Owl

3. International Owl Center

4.  Seals in Moriches Bay

The land and its uses - Part I

facing east, the remnants of the bulkheaded area, Michael walking
 along where the beach would have stood  

facing east from the beach you can see the other side of section 1
across the water

When I was a child growing up on McKinley Drive in the '70's it was a very common occurrence for my family and I to walk or bike down to various portions of the water front.  One spot that we frequented because of its proximity to our home was the end of Jefferson Drive.  When I was a child there was at least 20 - 30 more feet of land there sticking out into the Narrows Bay than there is now. The very end had a three sided bulk headed section on the east and on the west was a sandy beach with a swing set and the remains of a gazebo.  When the fleas got too bad my father would walk down with us and our dog and toss the Lab/Irish Setter mix into the bay at the deep end of the bulk head.  We would then run around to the sandy beach calling for our dog to swim to us.  After a walk home and a bath in the yard our dog was feeling a lot less itchy.

facing north east toward the old Keenans property
at the end of Beaver Drive

map of the area in at the end of Jefferson Drive, Mastic Beach

The other feature found at the end of Jefferson Drive were the mud flats.  When I was a a child I had no idea why this land was barren and so much different that all the rest that I knew.  It was a place for dirt bikes and BB Guns and never going alone.

what the mud flats look like now

What I didn't know was that that land had been used as a dredging spoils deposit area.  Dredge spoils are the mud and silt that fill up the waterways. This makes it difficult for boats to navigate in the channel through the Narrows Bay and the entrances into the creeks and marinas nearby. The mud and silt need to be dug out and put somewhere else.  In large harbors and bays an out of the way place in the water is usually chosen to deposit the dug up material so that navigation is improved where necessary and the materials moved do not get in the way.  In the Narrows Bay, at the south end of Mastic Beach, there is not enough room in the bay to just shift the spoils off to the side when dredging.  The spoils need to be moved to an on land/ upland site so that they can be dewatered (dried out some) and then brought to their final resting place.  Sometimes, the dredge spoils are not moved to a second site and can be left in the first place they were deposited.

to be continued next time....