Dogs like water 2023-06-18

Turns out dogs like water.

[Arrow, Honeybun, Blondie, at water spigot 2023-06-18]
Arrow, Honeybun, Blondie, at water spigot 2023-06-18

Especially Arrow.

Here is a YouTube video playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk2OxkA4UvwDyXxn-2JbD8yV5vrShmCK

Facebook video version:
https://www.facebook.com/OkraParadiseFarms/posts/pfbid0LsEEoXSKQfFEztWjQcorn3g7d1nUPhGgiHmYBifQZhXmRMdQ52SNX5jzkEhVXHg5l

And some still pictures. Continue reading →

Cattle egrets 2023-06-04

These cattle egrets showed up as soon as I started mowing with the tractor.

[Walking, flying, group, cattle egrets, OPF 2023-06-04]
Walking, flying, group, cattle egrets, OPF 2023-06-04

They followed me around, eventually getting within two feet of the tractor, jockeying to snatch up bugs.

This is the best writeup I’ve found on the origin of Bubulcus ibis, which it now lives on six continents and is sometimes found in Antarctica.

Judy Lehmberg, CBS News, June 15, 2017, Nature up close: Cattle egrets, masters of emigration, Continue reading →

Bees in downed tree 2023-05-30

I could hear them well before we got there.

[Movie: Flying from downed tree (65M)]
Movie: Flying from downed tree (65M)

Video:
https://youtu.be/6cKzV1uZFto

These bees were probably living in that tree before it fell down.

Both the tree and the bees are still very much alive.

These are native bees, not imported honeybees.

-jsq

Swamp Rosemallow 2023-05-27

These usually start blooming in June, so it’s a little ahead.

[Halberdleaf rose-mallow]
Halberdleaf rose-mallow

It appears to be a Hibiscus laevis, halberdleaf rose-mallow or scarlet rose mallow.

Here are flowers from nearby plants a year ago, and a year before that.

-jsq

Staking a maypop 2023-05-07

Update 2023-05-30: Maypop fruit 2023-05-29.

This maypop is growing in an area we burned in January, and it had nothing to climb up on.

[Staking a maypop]
Staking a maypop

So Gretchen put in a stake for this Passiflora incarnata.

-jsq

Mushroom on log 2023-05-11

Two views of mushrooms on a log.

[Mushrooms on a log]
Mushrooms on a log

Anybody know what kind of mushroom this is?

It’s in a wet area near Redeye Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River.

Looks like Pleurotus ostreatus is the consensus. Apparently, “Cleaned mushrooms can be sautéed, stir-fried, braised, roasted, fried, or grilled. Use the mushrooms whole, sliced, or simply torn into appropriately sized pieces.”

-jsq

Arrow and the downed limb 2023-05-19

Arrow was bemused by this big sweetgum limb in the drive path, that Gretchen had noticed the day before.

[Limb, Arrow 2023-05-19]
Limb, Arrow 2023-05-19

She wanted to know what I was going to do about it?

Amusingly, it fell so it was supported like a pyramid by its own limbs.

I brought the tractor and a logging chain and dragged it away. Continue reading →