Today was not a repeat of yesterday's good sunbathing weather. It had cooled to the high 50's, and the area was blanketed by clouds. Looking southeast across the Bay to Taylor's Island, the sky fairly glowers.
Looking north, it didn't look a whole lot better. The Bay was a bit choppy, but not horrible.
We met Joel and Red on time. Red found this nice stinky fish to pull out of the surf. Fortunately, he was persuaded from making a meal out of it.
There were a few of these beetles washed up on the beach. This one was battered, but still crawling. What amazing colors!
Salsify, or Goat's Beard (
Tragopogon sp., probably
dubius).
Some kind of Milkweed (
Asclepias) that is quite common on the dunes.
Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers.
The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit.
While editing the picture above, I accidentally hit the "threshhold" control in GIMP. I kind of liked the effect. I played with it for a minutes, and decided to keep this one....
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