Favoritos de gillydilly

Notes gratefully adapted from @mjpapay:
• truly astonishing, remarkably tall and distinctively free-standing
• stem non-woody annual growth from ground; no indication of any of last-season's growth discerned
• stem glabrous
• tendrils on upper half of stem
• inflorescences ± mid-stem
• habitat: mountain steep slope

Rescued the owl on Hwy 96 after it had been hit by a car and stunned.

Here it is perched on the back seat of my car and stayed there for the 21 mile drive to my house.

Turned over to rehab and it was released in 2 days.

Rhoda - resident female - first observed 5/28/17 laying eggs! 5/27/18 again, digging a nest that was raided the following night .. she was seen but not nesting in 2019,2020,2021. I now protect females with a wire goat fence hoop, pinned down with landscape staples.. this allows the female to leave when nest is complete and keeps raccoons and possums out. In the morning I replace the hoop with a smaller wire cage, pinned down and flagged. The smaller one allows the babies to hatch and leave when ready. The trail cam shows the raccoons did visit Rhoda and were foiled again!

More flowers from the Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina in May 2021.
Bearcorn, American cancer-root - Conopholis americana
There was a big patch of this parasitic plan--very impressive. Look closely and you can see that some of the flowers appear to be in "full bloom", that is, they have stamens visible. Wow. A small insect is present on one flower, perhaps a fly. I see a few references to possible pollination by bees.

Plants and critters from Weymouth Woods, Moore County, NC (USA).
Fox Squirrel - Sciurus niger (melanistic), subspecies:
Southern Fox Squirrel - Sciurus niger niger
I have seen both dark phase and "fox-colored" squirrels at Weymouth Woods. Eastern Gray Squirrels also occur. This squirrel was gnawing avidly on the upper surface of the branch it was perched on (shown in one frame).

This is, I think, a fox squirrel and not a melanistic Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). I was not close enough to judge the size in any way. Looking at images on the Internet, Fox Squirrels seem to have a more robust, less-tapered "snout" than Eastern Gray Squirrels. That matches the images here, to my eye. Other features I notice:

• Toes of this squirrel are quite robust (and more hairy?) compared to what I have seen in gray squirrels. Toe pads are quite prominent. (That would make sense for a Fox Squirrel, as they are more terrestrial than Gray Squirrels.)
• Ears appear to be shorter and more rounded than in Eastern Gray.
• Pelage coarse and shaggy.

Some of the putative distinctive features noted above are marked in one detail image. Most references just mention the size and pelage to differentiate from Eastern Gray Squirrel. One historical reference has helpful notes on other characters:
"A large, arboreal Squirrel of rather variable color pattern - much larger and heavier in build than the Eastern Gray Squirrels; pelage coarse and harsh; hands and feet large, soles naked; nose and ears always white."

• Anthony, Field Book of North American Mammals, 1928, p. 275 (BHL link)

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

This is the mass of the main body of the organism, exposed when the bark of the dead tree was shed, perhaps as the result of an animal grubbing for insect larvae.

Copperhead? I was out in the woods looking for spring ephemerals and didn't expect a snake yet to pop out of the leaf litter at this time of year. After startling each other, it quickly disappeared and I thought it would be best to leave it alone so this is the only picture I got.