Teri and I decided to hike the short Turks Cap Trail in the park to see how it had weathered the hurricane. Overall it was in pretty good shape, but a couple of areas were flooded from recent rains and we couldn't walk it all.
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| Column Stinkhorn |
We did come across a group of interesting fungi that had an unpleasant smell. There were about a dozen of these growing up out of the some wood chips, some as long as six inches.
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| Column Stinkhorn |
Once we returned to the trailer we identified the fungi as Column Stinkhorn. These apparently start out as separate columns that eventually fuse at the top. And like other Stinkhorn Fungi, they stink!! The inside of the columns are covered with a smelly brown slime which contains spores. The smell attract insects that then carry the spores off to different locations.
During our walk we heard lots of Gray Catbirds. They get their name from the "mewing" sounds that they make. We hear them constantly, but don't see them very often. This one perched long enough for some pictures.
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| Gray Catbird |
We were also treated to a flyover by two Whooping Cranes. They were pretty far away but I did get a picture of one with it's "landing gear" down. Those are some long legs!
Mark
May be an incidence where my very weak sense of smell would be beneficial...
ReplyDeleteThat could be an advantage in this case!
DeleteNice flyover. I hope you stayed warm out there. Did anyone show up for your walk?
ReplyDeleteWe had 34 degrees and 15 mph wind this morning, and (thankfully) no one decided to come out for a bird walk! The rest of the week looks better.
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