On my first "nature walk" of the day, the sight of a rotting beaver carcass spoiled my mood for photography. I did carry my camera for another mile or so, but I didn't see anything that I wanted to photograph. So, I headed back to the FRC campus where I thought I'd see whether the early violets were blooming yet. On the way down Golden Eagle Avenue I decided to crawl around in the grass a bit and see if any of the tiny wildflowers like Whitlow Grass and Dead Nettle were blooming. Then I spotted a Convergent Ladybird Beetle doing a "high wire" act on the top of a blade of grass. After a ....
little more exploring, I found another, and ...
still another. They had clearly found each other. Finally, I spotted some Henbit Dead Nettle blooming. I love that name.
I finally moved on and hiked the lower tier of the FRC nature trail from the parking lot to the upper campus. Sure enough, the first violets of the season were blooming.
Viola sheltonii, I believe. I'll have to review my violet archives and my field guides as there will be many other species of violets blooming soon. At least four species of which are yellow. I saw some other interesting things along the trail, but I'll save those for my next post.
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