Nature Notes from the North Woods – Part 2

Nature Notes from the North Woods – Part 2

After a few days in the Pittsburg, NH area (see the previous blog post for Pittsburg area photos: Part 1) we moved onto Bethel, ME. Since arriving on Friday evening, we’ve done a ton of hiking, including trails in Grafton Notch State Park and Evans Notch in the White Mountain National Forest. Some brief photo highlights from the last few days are below.

This was a common sight along the Blueberry Ridge Trail: multiple species of reindeer lichen (Cladonia sp.) nestled between the brilliant red leaves of low bush blueberry shrubs.
A Canada jay that came to check if we had any handouts. These birds are so habituated to hikers on the White Mountain trails that you need only hold out an empty hand and they’ll fly over and perch on your fingers expecting a snack.
Seed pods on a Rhodora shrub at the top of one of the mountains we hiked. To see a Rhodora in full bloom click here.
Have you ever noticed blue stained wood while hiking? Well, that’s the result of a blue green cup fungus. I see the blue staining often, but rarely do I encounter the cup-shaped fruiting bodies (pictured above). These were sharing a log with some wolf’s milk slime mold (the brown spheres).
Labrador tea is an evergreen shrub common to this area with a very fuzzy underside to its leaves.
Comments are closed.