Dee At 8 A.M.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

January 18, 2025

This is Earleaf Greenbrier

It's common in dry, deep sandy soil

Its leaves can vary in size and in shapes such as

Suborbicular or like a stretched out trefoil.

Location: Kissimmee Prairie State Park Preserve

Photo originally taken: October 20, 2018

Explanation: With plants especially, I don't post unless I can find a grown up to confirm my ID. In this case, I did not receive ID confirmation till 4 years after original posting.

Sources: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FR375

If you are reading and enjoying this blog, please consider supporting me on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/deeat8am, or purchase my current book, The Rhyming Guide to Florida Spiders (details at https://deeateightam.blogspot.com/p/rhyming-guide-to-florida-spiders-now.html). Thank you for being a reader and friend of Dee at 8 A.M.

Friday, January 17, 2025

January 17, 2025

I am an adult female Pileated Woodpecker

But you might be confused

You might say I'm "partially leucistic"

I say I'm highly improved!

I know I said I wasn't going to be posting any new photos, but David sent this magnificent photo he took today, and I couldn't wait to share it. Thanks as always to my favorite guest photographer, David Simpson.

Location: Brian Picolo Park

Sources: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucism

Thursday, January 16, 2025

January 16, 2025

This grass used to be called Bushy Bluestem

But scientists have broken it down into many species

The issue is that they retained the same name

Which makes it harder to learn and teach these.

Location: Kissimmee Prairie State Park Preserve

Photo originally taken: October 20, 2018

Explanation: I originally ID'd this as a Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) but it was renamed to Bushy Bluestem Species Complex (Complex Andropogon glomeratus) after a taxon change on July 27, 2022 that split the genus into multiple levels. On researching this, the confusing part is that the Complex retained the same name of Andropogon glomeratus.

Sources: https://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/lectures/104taxon.html

https://storyneedle.com/lumping-and-splitting-in-taxonomy

https://www.iaptglobal.org/icn

https://ab.pensoft.net/article/38075/

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

January 15, 2025

As some of you know, despite retiring from high tech, I have been approximately 10,000,000 times busier now. My latest pet project is being field trip coordinator for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into when I first signed up. Right now, we are exactly a week before the festival starts, then, a week after the festival, I will be headed to Costa Rica. I was thinking about pausing the blog for a month, but after 9 years of uninterrupted daily posts, I just couldn't do it.

But then I remembered a project I've had on the back burner for a while. You see, despite my self-delusions, it turns out, I am not infallible (I can hear your gasps of shock from here). Occasionally I have made some errors or accidental omissions on the blog. So, instead of getting out and taking photos, I have gone back through my iNaturalist submissions, and for the next few weeks will be posting some old photos that I either completely misidentified the first time around, or I did not have an ID for and forgot about. Enjoy this walk down memory lane. I will be back with new stuff from Costa Rica in February.

I am known as Mottled Shore Crab

Not Mangrove Tree, one difference is how we eat -

They like to eat Leaves fallen from trees

But I prefer algae or meat.

Photo originally published: October 4, 2019
https://deeateightam.blogspot.com/2019/10/october-4-2019.html

Explanation: This little guy was hanging out with Mangrove Tree Crabs, and I didn't realize that it was a completely different species until a few people on iNaturalist called me out on it.

Location: Jetty Park, Fort Pierce

Sources: https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/31132/31132.pdf