I’d like to challenge Dan to identify this  fungus (?…maybe it’s not a fungus at all…) that I found protruding from the bark of a tree (I think a maple of some kind).

I don’t know what it is, but it looked cool, and it had a great view of the gorge at Letchworth State Park.

Last weekend, at George Metro Park, I found several small swarms of midges that, in all likelihood, had just emerged from the nearby Cuyahoga river.  The swarms were hovering around the park’s boardwalk, so I snapped a few photos of individuals that were resting on the boardwalk posts.  They were so small that it was difficult to hold the camera steady, but, from the picture to the left, you can see their thick, feather-like antenna (the effect is not motion blur).

Later, I came across the spider on the right hiding inside a small snow cavern, kind of like a spider igloo.  Although it was a relatively warm day (perhaps just above freezing), I thought the pressence of these two animals was interesting.

And here are some images of droplets forming on spider webs the same morning.

McGee Marsh was covered in fog the first time I went.  As the morning grew warmer, the moisture in the air began to accumulate on vegetation, among other things, and the droplets made for some cool looking pictures.  Here are some photographs I took on the condensation on leaves of various plants.

Collembola are an insect-like arthropod common just about everywhere.  In forest leaf litter, many species of collembola graze on fungus as the fungus decomposes leaves and sticks.  During the fall, some will come together in mass quantities to breed.  I caught one of these breeding events at Kent Bog and snapped this photograph.  Horny little buggers.