I am looking at many moths in our barn these days. This is one of the larger ones. I think it is a sphinx moth of some kind but I do not have a proper ID yet. Any help would be appreciated.
I have a bug zapper in the barn to help cut down the number of insects pestering the goats and donkey. Unfortunately it also attracts and kills many small moths. The larger moths cannot get through the screen so are safe but that mean that we often have more moths in the barn during the daylight hours. I found this one early this morning on the gravel floor of the barn. It's common name is "Virgin Tiger Moth."
It's rare that I find any slime moulds and never have I found two in two days before. Well, actually Fleur-Ange found this one but it was on our front lawn.
The photo was taken through a microscope at 20 x.
This slime mould is "common" on lawns according to the literature. It looks like someone spilled grey ashes on the grass.
According to my mushroom book, slime moulds move like an animal but reproduce like a fungus so they are hard to classify in the regular scheme of classifications.
(Beorge Barron's Mushrooms of Ontario.)
If you are looking for some, have a look at a rain soaked, well rotted log.
I used new software to stitch together four or five iPhone photos to make this image. Water levels are low in northern Ontario due to lack of snow last winter. I've not seen this little water below the dam before.
This is the Smooth Rock Falls dam across the Mattagami River. Smooth Rock Falls is the home town of Fleur-Ange.
Sorry, no close up this time. The wind was blowing and I did not want to get down in the poison ivy patch with all the moving leaves. Like many other plants, the ivy is blooming early this year. I almost missed it.
I quite liked the shape of the fence repair at RBG's Arboretum so I took the photo and then erased the fence and vegetation. The repairs were made with the plastic tabs that are used for closing garbage bags at times or for attaching cables to bicycles or timing chips to shoes in road races.
Part of spring time rituals down by the Grand River. Turtles come up to the rail trail and lay eggs and then raccoons dig them up and eat them. I wonder how many turtle nests go unfound.
