With all the rain and warm weather of late, the woods have taken on the look of a mossy green rainforest.
Except for the thin ice that films the back bays of the river, these rocky promontories look about the same as they would in mid-autumn.
Mountain streams that would normally be dry by now are running as full as in springtime. This waterfall can be seen from the road that runs over Mount MacGregor.
This tumbling torrent was bounding down a mountainside along Spier Falls Road.
Many different mosses are thriving in the damp woods, where they share the leaf litter with such lichens as this many-tentacled one, a variety I haven't seen before. I'm sure I've been told the scientific names of these two mosses, one furry, one ferny, but I confess that I have forgotten them.
I do remember the name of this liverwort, though: Bazzania trilobata. My photo doesn't show it, but each leaf of this leafy liverwort has three lobes, as its Latin name describes.
There were even some fresh-looking mushrooms in the woods today. I don't know the name of these little tree fungi, but I thought their winter-white color looked very pretty against the red bark of their fallen limb, backed by the green moss that adorned the log lying behind -- Christmas colors!
I wonder if this sturdy toothed tree fungus will keep its vivid orange throughout the winter. It certainly stood out as a flash of bright color in the dim woods.
What a pretty clump of Poverty Oat Grass (Danthonia spicata), with blades as curly and colorful as the ribbons on a Christmas package.
As shiny red and green as any holly, Partridgeberry carpets the forest floor with Christmas colors.
I found this cocoon lashed to a Black Tupelo twig and wondered what kind of caterpillar created it. It was nearly four inches long, so perhaps this is the cocoon of a Cecropia moth, a very big and beautiful moth that, if all goes well, will emerge in the spring. I'll be keeping my eye on it as the winter progresses.
