Favoritos de gallus3524

I saw some tiny holes on the branch of a Bur oak. Branch was about 1 inch in diameter. I started exploring with a razor blade expecting to find bark beetles, but instead found a wasp! It was not alive. ruler is in millimeters.

Starting in mid August, I’ve watched my Tithonia go from normal looking to mostly smaller, lighter, and having a deformed centers. Curiosity got the best of me and I got a lab test done. Aster yellows was confirmed by PCR. No eriophyid mites. Second picture shows normal flower compared to symptomatic.
Third picture is the flower used for PCR.
Since I have an affinity for microbes, I'm just going to watch the symptoms for a while. I don't see any leafhoppers on it anymore and growing seasons almost over here.

I haven't seen the species in this county in about two years! This one is in my yard!!!! First time I've seen it in my yard!!! This is the 11th (maybe 12th) species of bumble I photographed in my average suburban yard.

Near a declining oak but closer to a spot where a crabapple had been removed two years earlier...also woods nearby with various dead and dying trees. I didn't find any more in the woods, but the woods were covered with garlic mustard.

This bird was pretty far away from me. I've only seen reddish egret twice, but the size seemed like the reddish egrets I saw on Merritt Island (larger than a little blue, but smaller than a great blue heron). It's feeding behavior seemed more like a little blue heron (stalking slowly rather than feeding in a very active way). I have more pictures, but many are fuzzy. The bird was in and out of the shadows of the mangroves so the lighting is either too dark or too much glare.