Oooooh ... shiny!

I was looking for one final springtail, willing (or constrained) to pose for an action photo. With the snow and ice, my usual sources were no longer productive, so I checked out the birdhouse/feeder.

And got distracted by these beauties:

Miniature lamps, the size of a small grain of sand. Slime mold fruiting bodies on stalks.

White specks, under a strong lens, turned out to be cup fungi.

There is another slime on the wet wood, a few clumps of glassy spikes, visible to the naked eye only as a fuzzy white coating. The photos didn't turn out, and my battery is empty. I'll try to capture the spikes tomorrow.

(And now I need still another springtail; the one I found on the birdhouse is of a different species.)

Mobile home. Without a floor.

I've been too busy of late. A couple of weeks ago, after I checked the birdhouse for slime molds, I was in too much of a hurry to hang it back in its place on the wall. I just plunked it on a table outside my window, alongside a fake plant someone gave me and my little cement angel. I would hang it later, when I had time. Besides, it needs a new floor; no sense hanging it until I fix that.

Then I forgot about it.

Shady back yard, grey day, through double window. The view from my desk.

I looked up from my desk yesterday, and there, just a few feet from me, a chickadee was examining the birdhouse. He (she?) hopped inside, outside, back in, out, checked out the roof, went back inside and rooted around, then finally left to get a snack at the feeder.

Never take a photo at dusk from inside a lighted room.

I grabbed the camera and fired off a half-dozen shots, without waiting to set up the lighting. At least I got a record of the event.

"Hmmmm. And the sunflower seeds are just over there..."

I was out today, so I don't know if he came back. If he does, and decides to move in, I'm going to have to leave the table as is all summer. If not, I think I'd better get busy installing that floor.