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Various species of bats covered in dew during hibernation

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Photos from April 2nd and 3rd.

Seeing the little flowers on the shrubs at school is so nice! I also saw these really neat looking berries I'd never seen before. Also the pollen in Virginia is god awful - send help.

IDs:

1. Indian hawthorn (pink flowers! I see a lot of white ones, but the pink was a nice surprise)

2. Japanese fatsia

3. Brown thrasher (very camouflaged!) in leaves

4. pollen on the ground after a big rain storm 🫠

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I got to go on my first birding field trip with my university's birding club this morning!

Notable sightings:

Blue headed vireo

Northern Parula (heard only)

This specific lil guy (Yellow-rumpedwarbler) with a POWER STANCE lol

picture is kinda ass bc its on my phone zoomed in like 20x but it makes it even funnier imo lollll

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I found a ton of little splitgill mushrooms on a tree near the water the other day! There were also LOTS of snails 🐌

IDs:

1. Splitgill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune)

2. Marsh periwinkle snails (Littoraria irrorata)

3. Male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

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There was a fat little American Robin in my tree the other day 🥰

Plant ID: Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Bird ID: American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

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This plant may be considered a weed by some, but they've always been one of my favorite parts of spring!

Plant ID: purple dead nettle (Lamium purpureum)

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I suddenly found myself hyperfixated on nature last week. So, I'm starting a new blog to dump all of my identifications and learnings! I've taken a particular interest in fungi, trees, and birds, so I expect I'll be posting quite a bit about that. Here's to growing closer to the world around me!

pictures in this post:

1. A baby plant growing inside of an Eastern redbud in my front yard! (Cercis canadensis)

2. Some neat lichens (unsure of specifics, but there's a mix of crustose and foliose) on a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)

3. A branch of leaves of a Hidcote St. John's Wort shrub (Hypericum hidcoteense)