Found a beautiful male wood turtle in the road yesterday. Male wood turtles are identified by thier concave plastron (underside).

Panther Gorge is remote, stunningly beautiful, seemingly primeval and humbling. One has to explore it to understand the full depth of its beauty with its talus caves, drainages and hanging moss. You have to descend between the vertical cliffs of Little Haystack and Marcy to feel the power of the area. It doesn’t take long to feel completely alone: isolated. To then climb Marcy’s East Face and explore it from all sides cannot completely be described. If anywhere is my home away from home, this is it.

Dr. Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch, presented a day of instruction at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, including the tagging of Monarch Butterflies. Anyone sighting any Monarchs please post your sightings here and also on my Facebook page called Save the Monarchs, my local effort to encourage the planting of milkweed and butterfly gardens.

This giant pale orange Sulphur Shelf mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus, also known as Chicken of the Woods) really stood out amongst the lush summer vegetation. The entire fruiting body was at least three feet wide. These are edible, but as I'm not a mushroom expert and this one looked past its prime, I did not sample it.

Did some exploring where Tupper Lake narrows back into the Raquette River at its north end. Climbed up on a nice rocky outcrop and was happy to find wild blueberries clinging to a tiny bit of soil in a crack in the rock. I noticed I was not the only one snacking in this spot, with evidence that something (river otter? raccoon?) had been snacking on mussels nearby. Also paddled by some pond lily (Nymphaea odorata). Much to see on Adirondack waterways this time of year.

Intro/Thoughts
I topped Santanoni’s East (Twin) Slide on Monday, August 5th. While scanning to the east something seemed amiss in the panorama. Two white scars, partially hidden behind one of Dix’ western ridges, painted what looked like the side of the southern ridge (between the Beckhorn and Hough). I pushed it to the back of my mind at first. The next day, I grew curious and scanned a few photos from trip reports on the forum. Comparing June and July photos from Hough confirmed that Dix had a new slide added to its already extensive collection. Time to explore!

This subspecies of the imperial moth caterpillar is unlike many of its relatives as it is dark green instead of bright green and has no hair. It has noticeable white spines around its body and facial horns which droop over the front and back ends of the caterpillar. This subspecies is seen in this area and often isn't noted in identification guides, instead favoring the hairy and different colored varieties.

The ebony jewelwing is a damselfly commonly seen in in the vegetation by streams. The males are notable for their totally black wings and bright blue-green iridescent bodies. The female is black, but maintains the black wings and has a small white spot on the very tip of them.

Every night we hear katydids outside our house. They look similar to grasshoppers, but are more closely related to the cricket.