An American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel.
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Toad
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Still More Mushrooms
Everyone loves the mushrooms, it seems. So here are some more. The weather has been very kind to mushrooms lately, and we found all these within a very small area. Father Pitt is not going to try to identify them, so if any readers happen to know their mushrooms, comments would be much appreciated.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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A Toadstool
Normally Father Pitt calls them “mushrooms,” but this one, fresh out of the ground, looked so much like a storybook toadstool that one expected to see a slightly grumpy fairy sitting under it. This is almost certainly the same species as the Russula mushrooms we featured earlier, since it grew in the same patch of shady lawn.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Bugs
These beautifully marked insects seem to be what entomologists call “true bugs,” and they bear a strong resemblance to milkweed bugs. But they are not identical, and Father Pitt would very much appreciate hearing from someone who can tell him exactly what these are. There were quite a few of them on a well-chewed hickory sapling in the Mount Lebanon woods.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Mushrooms
It has been good weather for mushrooms. These extraordinarily fugitive little mushrooms pop up overnight and are completely withered by afternoon. Father Pitt believes that they are Parasola plicatilis, but any mushroom-lover is invited to correct his identification.
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.
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Mushrooms
In spite of the difference in color, these two very decorative mushrooms appear to be the same species; they were both growing in the same shaded lawn in Mount Lebanon in the middle of June. They are almost certainly a species of Russula, and perhaps Russula emetica; but Father Pitt is not at all sure that the exact species can be identified from a photograph. Any mushroom expert is invited to correct his identification.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Ebony Jewelwing
Father Pitt is not an entomologist. He believes this damselfly to be a female Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata): note the spot on the upper end of the wing. But any entomologist or informed damselfly fan is invited to correct his identification—and to answer a question: do the red eyes indicate a young specimen?
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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A Fawn
The adorability meter just broke, shattered into atoms by readings it was never meant to handle. This little fawn was resting against a monument in the Rosemont, Mt. Hope, & Evergreen United Cemeteries. Deer love cemeteries, both because there is practically unlimited forage and because no one ever molests them there.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Babbling Brook
Here is a happy little stream in Mount Lebanon. It is very fashionable these days to take pictures of moving water with a slow shutter, so that the details around it are sharp but the water is blurred. Father Pitt just wanted you to know that he can do that, too, as you see; he normally avoids it because he thinks it is a cliché whose time should have passed about five years ago.Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.
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Storm Clouds
