Cool Nature Photos

kenmbz · May 1, 2022

Billrog said:
View attachment 744207
View attachment 744209
Not sure about the first one but I think the second one is a wolf spider web.

2nd one looks like a tent spider (orb). Very cool looking.

ArlyA · May 5, 2022

Question??!??!! Every spring we see these tunnels something made in the dirt, just below the snow. There was a few feet of snow here not long ago. We see mounds of mud here and there as well. My boot is a size 12 so this is not a small mammal. Who makes them? This is in the UP of MI.

MossRoad · May 5, 2022

I don't think it would be moles. They go down below the frost line in winter to continue to chase earthworms.

Could it be collapsed freeze thawed mole tunnels? Or melt water channel? Does it run downhill?

MossRoad · May 5, 2022

I'd suspect voles or mice.

MossRoad · May 5, 2022

MossRoad · May 5, 2022

Doing some spring cleanup and the wife found the left mandible of a woodchuck in a flowerbed.

Bill Guenthner · May 6, 2022

MossRoad said:
The wife and I took a hike last Saturday along an old canal/spillway area about 30 miles SW of us. We walked the east half of it a few weeks ago. So we walked the west half this time. There's a series of dams and spillways that they used to power several mills and hydroelectric stations. The mills are long gone. The hydro buildings are still standing. This one was last used in the 70's, I believe. The electric company donated it and the spillway land to that county park system. Kind of an interesting area. Very easy walking, as it's all flat along the spillways.

Dam
View attachment 743440

Old mill foundation
View attachment 743442

May apples. Must be morel mushroom season.
View attachment 743443

Spillway to a hydro station
View attachment 743444

A couple looks through the windows
View attachment 743445 View attachment 743446

The backside
View attachment 743447

I hate mayapples, can't mow them down fast enough.

Bill Guenthner · May 6, 2022

MossRoad said:
Doing some spring cleanup and the wife found the left mandible of a woodchuck in a flowerbed.

View attachment 744820

We find a lot of racoon, I think. We find mostly the lower jaws but this one stayed in one spot and I glued it together.

MossRoad · May 6, 2022

Bill Guenthner said:
I hate mayapples, can't mow them down fast enough.

I have fond memories of them. There was a small triangular patch of them in a part of my parent's yard. My mom kept a wren house on a small tree there. It was a little log cabin made out of maybe 3/8" square sticks. Each spring she'd clean out the wren house before the mayapples came up. Then we'd hang it back up. To this day, I keep a wren house and every time I see mayapples, I think of my mom.