#crawdad

Saw a HUGE crawfish today wielding a rolled up leaf like a newspaper. The fact that salamander larvae were all around him just made him look like a big grumpy guy saying, "Get off my property, you pesky kids!" X'D

We’ve been driving up into the mountains so much the last couple of weeks that we hadn’t wandered the wetlands trail that is less than a mile away from where we are staying for a bit. Some things had changed, the water was thicker with lily pads and new flowers were showing, and some things were the same, old flowers, but more abundant.

Water hemlock, pretty but deadly, the most toxic plant in North America, it’s best not to even touch it in case the sap accidentally enters your bloodstream through eyes, mouth, or cuts in the skin.

The lily pads have gotten so thick it is difficult to tell that there is even water out there in some places! The one I got close enough to identify was spatterdock (yellow pond lily), the birds that we saw flitting around over the water were most red wing blackbirds, one of my favorites.

Foxglove beardtongue, red clover, and Deptford pinks

Crawdad (local name for crayfish, a freshwater crustacean, all of us outdoorsy kids grow up trying to catch them in creeks) chimney and two golden harvestman on a poke leaf

Spatterdock, sallow sedge, and bankclimber (freshwater mussel) shell

Submitted for classification by @gh0st-0110