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Sanguivorous terrestrial leech. Diagnosis of M. niarchosorum from Borda 2006 (American Museum Novitates): Dorsum with dark brown background, wide beige medial chain-link band, each link with darker field at center, approximately 5 annuli per link. Medial chain becomes continuous light field bordered with dark brown to black paramedial lines in posterior series. Paramedial dorsal light brown diamond-shaped patches at approximately the same position of every other chain-link of medial band.

I've been photographing this minute (1/2") Hexatomini for almost 20 years at Cedar Bog. Previous discussions have led to a possible ID as Hexatoma Albitarsis. Several sightings today.

Previous observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88273567
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51841205
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84762884

Cattle Egret
with Barn Swallow it has caught
Dry Tortugas, Florida
1 May 1988

Cattle Egrets are a species known to wander. They made it to the U.S. on their own in the early 1950s and are now a common species all over the Americas. I once found a dead Cattle Egret on a rocky beach in Antarctica. There are no insects on Antarctica, so that particular Cattle Egret just wandered too far. Such might be said for Florida's Dry Tortugas. They are called "dry" for good reason. There is no fresh water. Birds that end up there and are too tired to move on, simply die. It is a daily task of employees at Fort Jefferson to walk around and pick up and discard the Cattle Egret carcasses before they open the fort to the birdwatchers each spring day. On this day my group watched a starving Cattle Egret (there are few large insects for the egrets to feed on) grab a Barn Swallow. It certainly made for a strange scene!

This mouse has built a nest in an old bluebird nest box nailed to the trunk of a hickory 5’ from the ground in a goat pasture. The nest is made of moss and lined with goat fur, and contains a cache of hickory nuts. The hole in the nest was made by a second mouse which leapt out of the nest when I opened the door. It landed unhurt and ran off. I have often found multiple mice sharing a winter nest.