Today I was putzing around in my woods looking at some of the blueberry plants when the thought occurred to me that some of the early blueberries might be ripe by now. So I went to a small patch that always blooms early.
Ripe blueberry
Yup! Ate that one and two others. This little patch is at the base of a tree at the edge of the yard. It gets more sun than the ones growing in the woods, and I imagine that’s why it blooms and ripens earlier than its sylvan counterparts.
So that’s a plant.
Not far from the early blueberries I spotted a grasshopper of some sort.
Animal
I don’t know the species or the genus. I could look up the order I’m sure, but I just don’t have it in me tonight.
As I walked through the yard, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was this pickerel frog (Rana palustris).
Pickerel frog (Rana palustris)
This guy didn’t want anything to do with me, but I continued to chase him down anyhow. I suppose that makes me a paparazzi. For frogs. As I persisted in my efforts to capture his (or her) likeness, I would move the long grass out of the way, and as my hand approached, the frog would jump away. I finally approached with my camera instead of with my hand, and the frog didn’t seem to care about that. It’s as if it were saying, “Oh! You’re a photographer! You should have said so!”
I usually see one or two of these each year, so I’ve met my quota now. I will report this sighting on a site run by Fish & Game (they are interested in that sort of thing).
So now that I have given you a plant and two animals, we shall shoot for the middle ground – slime mold!
Slime mold!
This is a weird life form. Scientists used to classify it as a fungi, but unlike a fungi, it moves. It also seems to exhibit simple brainlike functions. For example, if you divide this stuff into multiple clumps (much as this one is divided into three already), the clumps will find one another again and recombine. And get this quote from Wikipedia:
Studies on Physarum have even shown an ability to learn and predict periodic unfavorable conditions in laboratory experiments.
Awesome!
Jomegat's Weblog 
June 15, 2012 at 12:56 am
That’s the greatest looking frog! Very nice suit he has.
I didn’t know that about slime mold. I wonder if it is plotting something.
June 15, 2012 at 9:05 am
I think it’s New Hampshire’s best-looking frog. It’s very similar to the leopard frog (those have round patches vs the rectangular patches of the pickerel frog), but they are pretty rare, and I have never seen one.
June 15, 2012 at 1:16 am
I have seen slime mold, one of these days I should set up and do a time lapse and see if I can detect any movement. That could be interesting. Your lucky to have blueberries growing right there, I love wild blueberries!
June 15, 2012 at 9:07 am
That sounds like a great idea (and I might have to steal it!) I have detected movement by checking on the slime mold the next day. But a time-lapse sounds so much more exciting!
June 15, 2012 at 8:24 am
There is so much we don’t know. I just found out that they’re using tradescantia at nuclear plants all over the world because of its ability to detect even tiny amounts of radiation. Its stamens turn bright pink!
So, I wouldn’t be surprised if slime molds were seen playing ring around the rosy.
June 15, 2012 at 9:08 am
Yeah, I read that yesterday too (while researching the dye-potential).
June 15, 2012 at 9:13 am
Hi, JT,
Your fuzzy stemmed sumac is not smooth sumac, which has smooth, hairless stems. I don’t know what other sumacs you might have in your neck of the woods, but what I can see in your photo is consistent with staghorn sumac.
Regards,
Carl
June 15, 2012 at 9:25 am
Hey, thanks Carl! I was pretty sure I had identified it as such a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t remember the distinguishing characteristics. Also… sumac grows so fast, this could have been a new one.
June 17, 2012 at 9:24 am
I like the diversity of your blog. I am also interested in all things nature, esp. the slow-moving things that are easy for an amateur to photograph! My dogs – and their great noses – help me find subjects to study and write about.
June 17, 2012 at 9:36 pm
I told my son yesterday that the reason I was a “mad botanist” instead of a “mad zoologist” is that plants can’t run away when I approach them with a camera. Oh – and “mad botanist” was his label.