Field Fragments: Late June 2026
First wild blackberries, rain video, and more...
The highlight of this week was carving out a full Saturday to paddle…in the rain. I thought I’d planned ahead with all the food and water and spare batteries I’d need, but didn’t realize that if I used my poncho to protect the electronics I’d end up running out of dry fabric for cleaning lenses!
Despite having to put the cameras away eventually, there’s nothing like a steady stream of water to anchor me in my own skin. Eating the first wild dewberries and blackberries of the year plus harvesting the first chanterelles was also a plus.
New thing I learned this week: Yellow False Foxgloves (Aureolaria spp.) are in the Broomrape family (along with Bearcorn). And, like the other members of that family, they’re parasitic on the roots of other plants (in their case, they steal water and nutrients from oak trees).
In the photos above, the yellow flowers on the left is Aureolaria, which was beside a lovely Russula mushroom, which is the same type of fungus the Box Turtle is chowing down on in the middle picture. The photo on the right is an American Snout Fly on Jewelweed, added just because I liked the yellow-yellow-yellow lineup.
Sensory feature: Did you know that if you scoop a drowning Luna Moth out of the water, her feet will cling to you with the sharp tenacity of beetle legs? (In the video, she’s hidden in the niche she crawled to after I offered her a spot on dry land.)