I photographed this muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) grape hanging from a vine alongside Piney Woods Church Road earlier this afternoon. And then I ate it.
Sep 022014
Sep 022014
I was thrilled to be able to get quite close to this Little Wood Satyyr (Megisto cymela) on my Piney Woods Church Road walk earlier this afternoon. I suspect its “beard” is what gives it the name of satyr, though I wasn’t able to find that in any of my field guides or favored websites. Along the way, I did find out that satyrs tend to fly close to the forest floor, travelling with a quick, bobbing motion and occasionally landing on low vegetation, like this grapevine leaf. Satyrs do not pollinate butterflies, but instead consume the sap of trees, as well as bits of dung, fermenting fruit, and rotting fungi.
Sep 012014
This image of water clinging to the tip of a leaf along Piney Woods Church Road (after an afternoon rain) reminds me for some reason of pour-offs out West: places where water flowing down a gully after a rainstorm drops abruptly down a vertical face into a canyon — a temporary waterfall, lasting only until the flow subsides again. At the base of this leaf the water pools and waits to fall down onto the waiting gravel far below.
Sep 012014
A fallen leaf, identity unknown but quite possibly sassafras, reposes on the bed of Piney Woods Church Road after a rainfall.
