First up is a fleshy, leafy lichen on a bed of rock and moss. My best guess on an ID would be this is a Felt Lichen – Peltigera polydactylon. I’ve tamed it down some but it’s still a pretty wild guess. My only ‘research’ was looking at far too many photos trying to find a match.

Lichen Wallpaper Large Lichen photos are linked to a 1024 x 768 sized image Lichen Thumbnails are linked to 1680 x 1050 wide screen image The light colored odd shaped growths are another mystery to me. New growth? Reproductive tomfoolery? Mutant terrestrial rock kelp?

Long past their season these Orange Mock Oysters wintered over in fine shape. Wish I had found them in the fall when they were fresh. They might have smelled then. Orange Mock Oysters grow on both hardwood and conifers but the odd thing about them is they don’t smell when growing on conifers. I’ve found them growing on hemlock and couldn’t detect a hint of any odor. Today’s find was on an old dead birch but if they had any odor it was freeze dried out. One other note: they’re supposed to taste worst than they smell.

Orange Mock Oyster – Phyllotopsis nidulans

Mock Oyster Wallpaper – 1024 x 768

The If I don’t use them now I’ll never use them category

Ice Quake

Huge slabs of river ice have cracked and buckled along the shoreline while performing their own version of the plate tectonics shuffle.

The camera can’t catch what the eye sees in this photo.

Lower left – Ice Slab Middle – Submerged Ice Shelf Top – Last Night’s Ice

The rippled ice shelf is about 4 inches under the surface of the water. Ya got to believe me. It was a lot cooler than it looks here.

• Desktop Wallpaper , Lichens and Moss , Mushrooms , Wildlife
• Comments(7)

7 Responses

1. Ratty Says:
   March 9th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

   I love ice quakes! They’re fun to watch when they happen, and they’re even more fun to feel and hear, from a safe distance of course.

2. cindee Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 2:09 am

   What beautiful pictures(-: I have never seen an ice quake…thanks for sharing!!!

3. miss m Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 9:06 am

   I believe ya !
   Nice pics, Thx for the WP !

4. rainfield Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 10:41 am

   I think I can confirm that you are now fully recovered from hibernation, and give me signals to see more mushrooms on my trails.

5. Kelly@LifeOutOfDoors Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 10:52 pm

   What great photos! The ice quake scares me – I will continue to stay away from walking on frozen lakes. But those lichen pictures are so great – are you going to submit them for the gardens gone wild photo contest? Looks like they might fit the bill. Thanks for visiting my site! Kelly

6. Town Mouse Says:
   March 10th, 2010 at 11:34 pm

   Great photos! Love the mock oyster, but not quite willing to give up the frog I downloaded a while ago.

7. Lisa Says:
   March 11th, 2010 at 4:54 am

   I like lichen! And moss, and ice….

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