Swamp

A reminder to everyone to please send your favorite SwampVid to your least favorite elected official, in the hopes of encouraging them to stop trying to burn the planet down. Thank you.

A very orange baby roughskin newt (Taricha granulosa) is walking over a compact tuft of green moss on a rain-wet grey rock. The baby newt's eye gleams gold on its top half, and black beneath. The baby's orange body is partially transparent as it is backlit by the low winter sun, so various innards show as black blobs inside the newt's abdomen. In other newts this life stage is called an eft, but none of my guidebooks use this term for roughskin newts, I wonder why?

A baby roughskin newt on moss; an old photo. One of many moved off the road over the years, as they migrate from natal ponds to the winter forest to forage. Somewhere I have a video of this little one's climb from my hand up the rock to this summit.
#moss #bryology #newt #taricha #herps

They're mostly a problem in wet woodlands in June and July. Didn't see much of them though until 3 years ago. Climate change is a monster.

Powerful, incessant, biting insects, they make you not care about mosquitoes. You should definitely plant an entire forest of witch-hazel "just in case".

An anhinga perched at the top of a tree looking like a cormorant with a weird head.

The anhinga, species name, Anhinga anhinga....anhinga... anhinga anhinga anhinga? It's a swamp bird that's confusing for out-of-towners to spell, all right? They don't have nostrils, which makes it easier to not drown when diving underwater for fish. #birds #anhinga #wildlife

Small yellow blossoms in a state of dormancy growing along the stem of witch-hazel.

Unique and unquestionably adorable, a much-needed simple pleasure in the dead of winter.

In the summer, when grown in a yard, once mature they make an ideal shaded reading spot. Growing naturally in a swamp, their low understory canopy serves as a safe refuge when being chased by deer flies.

Yes, you do. H. virginiana, our native northeastern species, actually produces their pollen in the fall. The cheery yellow blossoms you see along the stems in winter are their ovaries resting in a state dormancy, already pollinated but pausing on fertilization until they thaw out in the spring.

They've been covered in yellow blossoms all winter long.

Trees reflect in the swamp water. There might be an alligator pretending to not exist.

Please allow the dazzlingly beautiful reflections of the blackwater swamp soothe your soul. So calm. Extremely peaceful. #naturesky #wildlife #wetlands

Internet: It’s time to stop perpetuating the tiresome falsehood that dandelions are the earliest source of pollen. Go outside.

Please show more newt though.

Moss with sporophytes and reindeer lichen growing in leaf litter. Acceptable detail in photo.

Look at what this old phone that's mostly an error message and has been soaked a few countless times can still do.

....Sometimes.
#mossy #naturesky

A woodland swamp buried under snow.

Don’t worry, the swamp wasn’t sold off in favor of a megaswamp, it’s just dead.

A large body of water surrounded by deciduous trees mostly without leaves in winter but covered in spanish moss making them look like woolly swamp monsters. Their reflections are seen over the water.

Southerners might mistake a northern swamp for a puddle while northerners might mistake a southern swamp for a lake. #naturesky #wetlands

An improvement over the house sparrow, house finch, european starling playlist of the north that lasts approximately 40 years every single year.

Ok, ok, fine - Small “teaser” for what’s in the works.
#swamps #naturevideos #sounds

Spanish moss dangles gracefully off grove of trees.

Pfffft, show-off.
#naturesky #wetlands #epiphytes

An egret stands in the center of blackwater swamp. Trees in the background reflecting in the water.

Swamp scenery. #naturephotography #wetlands #birds

An alligator's giant head poking out of swamp water.

Side view of alligator head.

Should the swamp call this one a crocodile just to give internet people the pleasure of correcting it? #gators #wildlife #swamps

Landscape of silhouetted trees against a clear starry night sky.

Another swampy night. #naturephotography #starrynight #wetlands

Hope everyone enjoys the new website and finds it informative.

Give it a couple weeks.

Sun setting over an expansive megaswamp.

Sunset swamp #naturesky #wetlands

Sooo shnuffly!

Also too old for technology and posting random links and not knowing what caused it.

Was hoping to run into you some day.

Unfortunately the swamp has gotten full of itself and the southern SwampVid(s) will therefore not see the light of day until the swamp either hits 1000 followers somewhere, OR it figures out how to delete Tiktok (not the account, but the actual website).

Yes, you all, it’s an armadillo, excellent ID skills. Am not actually that uneducated, just being a silly northerner. It’s cute.

(note: tone = facetious)

What kind of weird swamp creature is this? #naturesky #wildlife #cute

A southern swamp at night. Pine and cypress silhouette against a starry night sky.

Magic #swamps #naturesky #stars