Earth Explorations

I'm attempting the Runners World Summer Run Streak, running a mile a day between Memorial Day and 4th of July. So far, so good. On yesterday's run I encountered this fine critter, so of course I stopped to take a picture for iNaturalist. Like my reading, I want my running to be enjoyable and that means I stop and photograph the turtle.  

I have dubbed this summer the Summer of Read More, Run More.  For Read More, my read more goal is to read 5 books by Labor Day. I know for some people that's a Tuesday, but I've been slacking on my reading of late. Reading 5 books is an appropriate level of challenge, I will stretch without overreaching. I want  Read More to be a growing experience, but a fun growing experience and not one where I am grinding through books with a clenched jaw and set brow. If the book I read is particularly enjoyable, I will share it here via what I post on Goodreads . I'm off to a good Read More start: my first entry is below. My Run More goal is to run at least a mile a day from Memorial Day to Independence Day. I'm giving myself permission to skip the days I'm in the Badlands for a class. I know from prior experience that the best laid running plans can be disrupted with proximity to bison. Any days I have to skip, I'll make up by extending the deadline so I complete 35 day...

I got to spend some time on the Standing Butte bison ranch the other day. The ranch mangers don't treat their land or bison with pesticides because the pesticides take out the beneficial bugs along with the not-so-beneficial. This means the ranch has a healthy population of dung beetles (genus Canthon ). I find dung beetle butts as cute as bee butts. Also, that plant in the bottom center is scarlet globemallow, the first wildflower I learned to ID.

 More fun with dip netting this evening. The first two photos are of the same mayfly, the dorsal (back) and ventral views. Note the abdominal gills. The third photo is of a damselfly which looks like a mayfly but does not have gills. Ironically, mayflies and damselflies look similar as nymphs but nothing alike in the adult stage while it's just the opposite for dragonflies and damselflies, different as nymphs but similar as adults. Nature is funny that way.

Sunsets are hard to improve upon. Photos of sunsets, however, can be made more interesting by including a foreground detail.  Open the whole post for the sunset-with-foreground vs sunset-only view.  

I took my macro kit* to a local pond to see what I could see.  I saw a Bladder Snail attach itself to a Damselfly, for one thing. The Damselfly was not happy about it. You can ID a Bladder Snail (also called Pouch Snails or Lunged Snails) by the orientation of its opening when you look at the snail with the pointy top of the whorl up. If you draw a line from the top point down through the middle of the snail, the opening will be on the left or right of the line. When the opening is on the left, it's a Bladder Snail (family Physidae). I returned the snail and the damselfly to the water after photographing. I think I managed to loosen the snail from the damselfly in doing so. I am learning phone macrophotography as part of a crowdsourced science project I'm piloting with a group of fine folks. The goal is to document the aquatic critters of South Dakota's lakes and streams using iNaturalist as the data platform. It's TBD if enough quality photos, i.e. photos that are good...

  My mother encouraging me in my earliest nature adventures. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Thanks for all the love and support over the years.