It’s been an orchid and mushroom kind of week.
The cranefly orchids are in full bloom everywhere. If you’d like to see the little ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes tuberosa), they are currently on the American Tobacco Trail around mile marker 14 to 13.75.
As we were walking one evening, we noticed so many mushrooms that were torn apart. Some had bites taken out of them. Others had the tops removed and only the stem remained in the ground. We suspected that most animals eat mushrooms- from birds to squirrels and deer, never mind all the slugs, flies, ants and other insects we always see on them.
It started to rain as we were finishing our walk. We stopped to pull the umbrella out and a squirrel ran in front of us. We watched as it pulled apart a mushroom, ran up a tree, and had a few bites. I only managed to get one picture before the squirrel ran off, but you get the idea.
