Saturday

The male bringing a snack for the female.

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Bushy Beard Lichen growing on a tree in my yard. A member of the genus Usnea, a greenish fruticose (bushy, branched) lichen with a tangled mass of threads and disk-shaped holdfasts. The word "fruticose" is a technical term meaning "shrubby," and many fruticose lichens, such as the one below, do indeed look like miniature shrubs an inch or so high. Notice the cuplike items at the end of many of the lichen's branches. These are the reproductive cups, which are fungal in nature. Lichens occurs in both the Arctic and the tropics, where they are eaten by wild animals or collected as fodder.

Brown Thrasher is the state bird of Georgia. This one was busy building a nest all day with its mate in the bush behind it. Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

"Short Tail"