Day 18.248: Downeast nature (miscellany)

Birds dominated my nature photography (with honorable mention to mammals) but here are a few other natural things.

Northern pearly-eye

Quite beautiful in all their brownness

The most spectacular display of pitcher plants on the bog trail at West Quoddy Head

Many of them were in flower - the flowers tower over the rest of the plant...

...and have a remarkable structure

Fly agaric

Bluemink

Hickory tussock moth - it was suspended by an invisible thread at about head-height on the trail. I assume descending from its infant feeding grounds to find a place to transform. For a bit of fun, you can check out this video of a similar encounter from 15 years ago with a disco soundtrack)

American toad

There were so many of these wolf spiders in among the stones (there are two in this picture and maybe more hidden beneath the stones). We've seen them on other beaches too and just discovered they are called - appropriately enough - stone spiders.

Beard lichen

Wild sarsaparilla

Tawny grisette (what a lovely name - tawny little gray)

Blue-bead lily (very appropriate, the beads ranged from this dark blueberry color to bright blue)

Mourning cloak (I just discovered it's the same butterfly known as Camberwell beauty in the UK)

Viceroy (funny how easy it is to tell this isn't a monarch by the way it flies, but you could easily be fooled by a photo like this)

Dyer's polyphore