paul_norwood's Favorites

Previous game camera trigger of a goshawk 30 minutes before, bookended by marten triggers. Then some drama! A goshawk appears from the left, lands briefly, and then lifts off again to meet a second goshawk in a brief tussle in the air. The birds are within view of the camera over the course of 35 seconds, with one eventually flying off with the other remaining on the ground, slightly off-camera to the lower right. Exciting observation! @caiwatha

Five well-defined rays with a broad, often swollen disc. Aboral surface smooth with tightly-packed plates covered with granules; marginal plates conspicuous and rounded. Pink-orange or pinkish. To 42 cm across. Has been observed feeding on anemones and tubeworms. The common name refers to the peculiar gunpowder-like smell of specimens when taken out of the water.

Acanthophiobolus helicosporus (Berk, & Br.) Walker: On dead overwintered stems of Equisetum sp. (developed in moist chamber). Arachnoid (cobweb-like) colony. Ascomata develop on superficial mycelium and on substrate surface, globose (200µm dia) with short papillate neck, pale brown peridium (text. Angularis), spines around ostiole dark brown and septate, up to 200µm long, short spines around 30 µm long also present; paraphyses not observed; asci 170-250x10µm; spores hyaline, filiform up to 160x2µm, multiseptate? (difficult to determine), slightly swollen pale area (empty cell??) at apex, helically coiled in the ascus. Reference - Walker, J. 1980. Gaeumannomyces , Linocarpon, Ophiobolus and several other genera of scolicospored Ascomycetes and Phialophora condial states, with a note on hyphopodia. Mycotaxon 11: 1-129. Ellis and Ellis, 1997 (enlarged edition original 1985), Microfungi on Land Plants 868 pp.

Large clusters attached to bedrock and boulders below 20 m depth. Each tunicate is about 10 cm tall. The white "rings" visible in the second image are colonies of the hydroid Bythotiara huntsmani which live in the incurrent siphon of the tunicate.