A Sunday Meander, Chapter 2

 Here are some photos from the second half of my meander to the Greenville Y on Sunday.  I need a good night's sleep before providing the narrative to accompany them.  Fortunately, I took good notes.
Wednesday, 4/24: Last Sunday, and in the days since, I have noticed a large portion of the early bloomers are in the mustard family, Brassicaceae.  Here's another view of the Stout-beaked Toothwort, Cardamine pachystigma.  Note the elongated seed pods on the right, tyhpical of this family which includes radishes, mustard, broccoli, etc., the group known as the cruciferous vegetables.  In fact, the family name used to be Cruciferae.  4 petals look like a cross.

A couple of reminders of the sort of people I share the woods with.  As a species, I wonder if we will ever mature beyond our trash habits.  At a recent trash-collecting day at FRC, students collected nearly a half ton of trash in two hours.  Cause for celebration and awards - except for one thing: why was there a half ton of trash on campus in the first place?  I guess I'm a curmudgeon. 

Here's another view of some flat-backed millipedes.  Cannot identify the species.  I don;t have a millipede book.  They are fun to watch, though.  The wave motion produced by their legs is mesmerizing.  Probably very interesting physiology.

The Sow Bug, close relative of the Pill Bug, a terrestrial Crustacean.  These cannot roll into a tight sphere like the Pill Bugs.

A nice batch of termites, making new soil.  They do a lot of necessary work in the forests.

My first exciting sight when I got to the Greenville Y was this Fence Lizard.  He was curious and let me get pretty close for photos.  No telephoto here.  I got within three feet before he ran off.

The Elegant Rock Cress, another member of the mustard family, is blooming on the rocks by the Y.  Here a butterfly in the category called whites is coming in for a landing.  Most of the whites favor members of the mustard family, and every time I scared this one, it flew around a bit then always landed on another rock cress even though there were plenty of Lupines, Dandelions, and other blooming flowers all around us.

Here's a shot of the white landed on another Rock Cress. 

I caught this Robber Fly just as it was landing on another Rock Cress.

Lupines are plentiful at the Y now, and I liked the back lighting on this particular one.  They're attracting lots of different flying insects.  I'll visit this spot again soon.  Ran out of time on Sunday.

Bitter Brush, Purshia tridentata, is in the Rose Family. The top photo emphasizes the blossoms, then the next one emphasizes the leaves which resemble those of Sagebrush whose species name is also tridentata.  I wonder why.

I'll try to catch up tomorrow.  I've visited other places and taken more photos since last Sunday's trip.