Today started still and foggy, but at least it’s not raining. The past week has been less than optimal for migrants. Odds and ends have been showing up, but not much. This morning I turned my attention to the great array of lichens here at Whitefish Point.
The trees are literally dripping with moisture laden lichens of many species.
Every tree seems to share numerous species, but also have one or two you don’t find somewhere else. All-in-all there are probably 30 species that I can quickly identify to genus.
From the deck where I watch migrants I can look out and lee a large array of lichens in the nearby trees, and an additional 6 or 7 on the ground.
The rocks at the harbor have their own set of lichens growing on them. There are probably seven species in this photo.
But my attention in not only drawn to the lichens, but also flowering plants. On the left the pussy willow buds are now open flowers shedding pollen. And the trailing arbutus (on the right) is starting to flower.
I’ll but spending some time working on the finer points of lichen identification. Even after all of these years there are a lot of lichens that I need help with in differentiating species within a genus.
But as the temperatures start to warm more spiders and insects are appearing. I believe that this is a furrow orbwever. But now on to the exciting news in the south.
The great cicada emergence of 2024 has begun. I am hoping to make a trip to Illinois to see the tail end of Brood XIII (17-year cicada) and the start of Brood XIX (13-year cicada). The simultaneous emergence of these two broods has not occured since around 1802-3.
More later…
Michael's Place 