This section identifies all the plants, insects, spiders, snakes and frogs that I have captured images of.

There are currently eleven categories that these images have been placed in so you can search them easier. Once this section has content added to it, you will be able to search or view each category's entries, or search the entire database by keyword. The following is the list of categories as well as a short sample from an entry in each.

Click on a category title to go to that section.

Reptiles and Amphibians

Do you think this is a Garter Snake? If you answered “Yes” then you are wrong. It is actually an Eastern Ribbon Snake. Yes, there are such things as Ribbon Snakes and no, it is not another name for a Garter Snake. Ribbon Snakes are longer and more slender than Garter Snakes and the stripes and scales are different. The easiest way to tell the difference is to approach one. If it flees for safety into water, it is a Ribbon Snake. If it flees for safety into grass, it is a Garter Snake. Garter Snakes can be found nearly anywhere, however, Ribbon Snakes are normally only found near water.

Mammals

Chipmunks are small, squirrel-like rodents of the genus “Tamias.” They are native to North America and Asia. “Tamias” is Greek for “storer,” a reference to their habit of collecting and storing food for winter use. The genus includes twenty-five recognized species, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in eastern North America, and the rest native to western North America. Chipmunks have an omnivorous (meat- and plant-eaters) diet consisting of grain, nuts, birds' eggs, small frogs, fungi, worms, insects, snails and sometimes, even small mammals like young mice. At the beginning of autumn, many species of Chipmunk begin to stockpile these goods in their burrows for winter. Others make small caches outside. Cheek pouches allow Chipmunks to carry multiple food items to their burrows for either storage or consumption.

Birds

The Pileated Woodpecker is a very large North American woodpecker that is quite common in its range. Their breeding habitat is forested areas with large trees across Canada, the eastern United States, and parts of the Pacific coast. They usually excavate large nests in the cavities of dead trees, and often excavate a new home each year, creating habitat for other large cavity nesters. This bird is usually a permanent resident in the area of its choice. These birds mainly eat insects (especially beetle larvae and carpenter ants) as well as fruits, berries and nuts. They often chip out large, rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects. Its drumming can be very loud, often sounding like someone striking a tree with a hammer. In April, the hole made by the male attracts a female for mating and raising their young. Once the brood is raised, the Pileated Woodpeckers abandon the hole and will not use it again the next year.

Interesting facts:

• The Pileated Woodpecker was the model for the cartoon character “Woody Woodpecker.”
• The roost of a Pileated Woodpecker usually has multiple entrance holes.
• The sound that a Pileated Woodpecker makes when boring a hole in a tree is so loud that it can be heard over long distances.
• Pileated Woodpeckers have been observed moving their eggs which have fallen off the nest to another site. This is a rare habit in other birds.

Insects

There are over 250 known species of Bumblebee, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also common in New Zealand and Tasmania. Bumblebees are social insects that are characterized by black and yellow body hairs, often in bands. However, some species have orange or red on their bodies, or may be entirely black. Like their relatives the Honey Bees, Bumblebees feed on nectar and gather pollen to feed their young. Like all bee tongues, the Bumblebee tongue is composed of many different mouthparts acting as a unit, specialised to suck up nectar via capillary action. When flying, the bee builds up an electrostatic charge and, as flowers are usually well grounded, pollen is attracted to the bee's pile when it lands. A Bumblebee does not have ears, and it is not known whether, or how, it could hear sound waves passing through the air; however, they can feel the vibration of sounds through wood and other materials.

Spiders

The spider species “Argiope Aurantia” is commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Writing Spider, Banana Spider or Corn Spider. It is common to southern Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the lower 48 of the United States. They have distinctive yellow and black markings on their abdomens and a mostly white cephalothorax. Males range from 5-9 mm (0.2-0.35 inches); females from 19-28 mm (0.7-1.1 inch). Like other members of Argiope they are considered harmless to humans. Garden Spiders often build webs in areas adjacent to open sunny fields where they stay concealed and protected from the wind. The spider can also be found along the eaves of houses and outbuildings or in any tall vegetation where they can securely stretch a web. The circular part of the female's web may reach 0.6 m (2 feet) in diameter. Webs are built at elevations from 0.6-2.4m (2-8 feet) off the ground. Female Garden Spiders tend to be somewhat local, often staying in one place throughout much of their lifetime. The web of the Garden Spider is distinctive; a circular shape, with a dense zigzag of silk, known as a stabilimentum, in the center. It is possible that it acts as camouflage for the spider lurking in the web's center, but it may also attract insect prey, or even warn birds and animals of the presence of the otherwise difficult-to-see web. Only those spiders that are diurnal (active during the day) construct stabilimenta in their webs. The female's web is substantially larger than the male's, who builds a small zig-zag web nearby. The spider occupies the center of the web, usually hanging head-down, waiting for prey to become ensnared in the web. In a daily ritual, the spider consumes the circular interior part of the web and then rebuilds it each morning with fresh, new silk. The Garden Spider keeps a clean, orderly web in comparison to the cluttered series of webs built and abandoned by groups of Golden Orb Spiders.

Fungi and Molds

Polyporus Squamosus is an edible basidiomycete bracket fungus, with common names including “Dryad's Saddle” and “Pheasant's Back Mushroom.” This mushroom is commonly attached to dead logs or stumps at one point with a thick stem. Generally, the fruiting body is 8–30 cm (3–12 inches) across and up to 10 cm (4 inches) thick. The body can be yellow to brown and has “squamules” or scales on its upper side. They can be found alone, in clusters of two or three, or forming shelves. Young specimens are soft but toughen with age. It is particularly common on dead elm but is also found on living maple trees. This organism is common and widespread, being found east of the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States and over much of Europe. This fungus can grow to a noticeable size of up to 60 cm (2 feet) across and plays an important role in woodland ecosystems by decomposing wood, usually elm, but is occasionally a parasite on living trees. While Polyporus Squamosus is certainly not poisonous, it is generally not prized as an edible unless the specimens are very young and tender and this mushroom's smell resembles watermelon rind.

Mosses and Lichens

Ceratodon Purpureus is a dioecious moss with a color ranging from yellow-green to red. It is found worldwide, mainly in urban areas and next to roads on dry, sand soils. It can grow in a very wide variety of habitats, from polluted highway shoulders and mine tailings to areas recently denuded by wildfire to the bright slopes of Antarctica. Its common names include “Ceratodon Moss,” “Fire Moss,” and “Purple Horn Toothed Moss.” The short leaves are hairy and spread out with sufficient moisture. The spores can remain able to sprout for over 16 years.

Wildflowers and Weeds

Meadow Salsify Tragopogon Pratensis (also known as Showy Goat's-beard or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon ) is a biannual plant in the Asteraceae family, distributed across Europe and North America, commonly growing in fields (hence its name) and on roadsides. It flowers between June and October and its flowers have a diameter of 3–5 cm (1-2 inches). The root and buds are edible, and it has a milky latex. It is the only United Kingdom dandelion-type flower with grass-like leaves. The flower heads are up to 5 cm (2 inches) wide and only open in the morning sunshine, hence the “Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon” name.

Ferns and Grasses

The Ostrich Fern or Shuttlecock Fern (Matteuccia Struthiopteris) is a crown-forming, colony-forming fern, occurring in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. It grows from a completely vertical crown, favoring riverbanks and sandbars, but sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies, resistant to destruction by floodwaters. The fronds are dimorphic, with the deciduous green sterile fronds being almost vertical, 100-170 cm (3-5.5 feet) tall and 20-35 cm (8-14 inches) broad, long-tapering to the base but short-tapering to the tip, so that they resemble ostrich plumes, hence the name. The Ostrich Fern is a popular ornamental plant in gardens. While choosing a place of planting it should be taken into account that these ferns are very expansive and the leaves often lose their beauty throughout the summer, especially if not protected from wind and hail. The tightly wound immature fronds, called fiddleheads, are also used as a cooked vegetable, and are considered a delicacy, mainly in rural areas of northeastern North America.

Garden Plants

Crocus Vernus, also known as Spring Crocus is easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Plant corms about 2-3” deep and 3-4” apart in the fall. If planted in the lawn, foliage should be left unmowed until it yellows (about 6 weeks after bloom). This plant naturalizes well and goes dormant by late spring. Large Flowering Crocuses are among the most widely grown early spring bulbs (actually corms). Each corm produces several upright, cup-like, purple to white flowers with darker purple feathering or stripes on the outside. It blooms in early spring shortly after the Snowdrops (Galanthus) to a height of 10-15 cm (4-6 inches). Flowers close at night and open up in the morning, but usually remain closed on rainy or cloudy days. They don't have any serious insect or disease problems, however, squirrels, mice and other rodents can be a problem. Squirrels seem particularly adept at locating, digging up and eating newly planted corms.

Trees and Bushes

The Sugar Maple is one of the most important Canadian trees, being (with Black Maple ) the major source of sap for making maple syrup; Sugar Maple being regarded as slightly better. Many maples can be used as a sap source for maple syrup, but none of the others are considered as good as these two. The wood is one of the hardest and densest of the maples, and is prized for furniture and flooring. Bowling alleys and bowling pins are both commonly manufactured from Sugar Maple. Trees with wavy wood grain, which can occur in curly, quilted and “birdseye maple” form, are especially valued. It is also widely used in the manufacture of musical instruments, such as the members of the violin family (sides and back), guitars (neck), and drum shells. The Sugar Maple is a favorite street and garden tree, because it is easy to propagate and transplant, is fairly fast-growing, and has beautiful fall color. Deep well-drained loam is the best rooting medium, although Sugar Maple can grow well on sandy soil which does not become excessively dry.

This information and much more will be found in each entry and, in most cases, an entry may have several images associated with it.