predicting worms as the season turns

Only three more days of hot, uncomfortable weather and our temperatures will drop down into the low 60s for the foreseeable future!  We've still been hiking every few days, but I noticed something interesting yesterday.  It was a close, humid morning with heavy dew, and we were absolutely assaulted by mosquitoes.  One of my favorite books is Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, and it brought to mind a passage where one of the protagonists stumbles through clouds of mosquitoes, being bitten repeatedly, feeling the poison of the diseases they carried enter her body.  Now I can say:  me too!  I was really surprised at their number, considering the lateness of the season.  I did some research, though, and determined that a nice stretch of wet weather, followed by a hot spell, can actually cause them to mature more quickly.  That's exactly what we've had, so it's weather tailored to their success.  Mosquito weather!  Thankfully, they go dormant at around 50 degrees, so they won't be an issue much longer.

Despite the fact that I was unable to stand still for very long to photograph, I was able to capture some interesting things.  I love the pattern on this tree.

These grooves in the wood are caused by burrowing insects, like bark beetles. I think it's so pretty.

Who do you think left this little package in our path?

Deer scat is fairly recognizable, but that's the only wild animal scat I know by heart.  However, there are lots of clues here.  The size and shape (small, narrow), the color (dark), and the obvious contents (seeds) give plenty of information.  Taking into consideration the seed-eating animals that live in this area (coyote, possum, fox, raccoon), I was able to determine that this is raccoon scat.

I'm seeing a lot more caterpillars now as well.  This brown-bordered owlet caterpillar has clearly been feeding on this plant, gathering energy for the next stage of its life cycle.

I've seen both the striped and yellow woolly bear caterpillars, too.

The dew was so heavy that it almost flattened the hairs on the yellow one!

I've heard a lot about these caterpillars being able to predict the weather, that you could tell by the width of the stripes on the striped woolly bear how hard the winter was going to be (the wider the center stripe, the tougher the winter).  There's actually a woolly bear festival in Ohio, where they have a parade, caterpillar races (!!), and a winter predictor caterpillar in the spirit of Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog.  It's all good fun, but truthfully, the width of the center stripes just shows how long the caterpillar has been eating.  The more it has eaten, the wider the stripe.

I've seen the usual mushrooms...

...but this was a new one for me.

Its unusual shaggy shape made it easy to identify:  a bearded tooth lion's mane fungus, a culinary delicacy!  They tend to grow out of oak or beech trees, and their presence indicates heart rot, or rot at the tree center.  Those who collect them note their location, because they return to the same spot year after year.  I'm still not confident enough to eat foraged mushrooms, but this one is considered fairly safe, since no poisonous mushroom has this distinctive shape.  If you aren't sure but love the taste, you can actually order a grow kit online!

Seasonal berries are now fairly bright red...

...and patches of colorful leaves are seen more frequently.

You can still find late-season flowers, though!

It's a great time to be outside.

Have a great week!