I’ve seen many of these Fly Amanita mushrooms growing along the trails here on Cape Cod. They can be yellow or orange and are about 6″ tall with an umbrella-shaped cap with flakey white warts. They grow in the woods and pastures.
Watch out! These Fly Amanita are deadly poisonous, so don’t go near them!
I haven’t seen a Box Turtle in our yard since the very beginning of summer. Yesterday this Box Turtle sauntered all the way across our back yard into the woods. I wonder if he was looking for a place to hibernate for the winter.
Prior to hibernation, box turtles tend to move further into the woods, where they dig a chamber for overwintering. Eastern box turtles hibernate at depth of about 10 centimeters and frequently stay within .5 from their summer habitat.
If you hike the Silver Spring Trail along the river at the Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary, you will see beautiful pink Water-Willow wildflowers all along the sides of the river. They are so pretty.
Water-Willows are a native, aquatic shrub with magenta flowers whose 5 petals grow in whorls where the bright green leaves join the stems. The flowers are small, 1/2-1″ while the plants grow to be 3-9 feet.
I saw these vibrant pink wildflowers flowers a couple of weeks ago. They were spectacular! Have you ever seen a Water-Willow?
It was fun to take a drive down to Nauset Beach in Orleans yesterday and see the huge waves. The wind has been howling and and the rain has been heavy but the beach is always pretty… sun, clouds, rain, storm, wind. It always takes your breath away.
It’s supposed to be windy for the next couple of days, so take a ride down to Nauset Beach and enjoy!
This beautiful Great Horned Owl must love our little bird bath in our yard here on Cape Cod. He still comes most mornings right after dawn. It’s almost as if he times it so the motion detector won’t go off when he flies in.
I thought he had flown away until I looked up in the tall White Pine tree and he was sunning himself and drying his feathers. I’ve been taking the photographs through the window so I won’t disturb him.
Magnificent bird, don’t you think? Love his horned ears!
