I don’t know about you, but I needed a distraction this week so I made this quiz. I hope you enjoy it.

What kind of snake is this?

A. It’s not a snake, it’s a legless lizard

B. Gardener snake

C. Garter snake

D. Lined Snake

E. Wet Banded Snake

.

What is a better name for the lined snake in the above photo?

A. Gerald

B. Stripy Snake

C. Hang on, is it spelled ‘Stripy’ or ‘Stripey’?

D. Both, apparently

E. Weird

What kind of plant is shown above?

A. False gromwell

B. Western marbleseed

C. Onosmodium molle

D. Onosmodium bejariense DC. ex A. DC. var. occidentale (Mack.) B.L. Turner

E. Good grief

F. All of the above, depending upon who you ask

.

What is a better name for the plant above that goes by all those names?

A. Phillipa

B. Tongueflower

C. It’s not a plant, it’s a legless lizard

D. Onosmodium bejariense DC. ex A. DC. var. occidentale (Mack.) B.F. Turner

E. Wait, isn’t that the same as one of the actual names?

F. Nope. How much time are you willing to waste finding the difference?

.

What species of plant is shown in the above photo?

A. Canada wildrye

B. Canada goldeneye

C. Green Foxtail

E. Foxtail Barley

F. Barely Foxtail

G. Foxy Oats

H. Isn’t goldeneye a duck?

I. Yes, and a plant and a James Bond movie

J. Good grief

K. Also, you skipped D

.

In many plant texts, foxtail barley (pictured above) is described as being found in many habitats, including roadsides, pastures, and ‘waste areas’. What are ‘waste areas’?

A. Dry wetlands

B. Flood-prone sites

C. Anywhere foxtail barley and other cool opportunistic plants are found

D. Dynamic and interesting ecological sites that we should stop denigrating with lazy nomenclature

.

We can all agree the answer to the above question is D, right?

A. Right

.

In the above photo, there are four insects. What is the total number of wings on those four insects? You can click on the photo to see a larger version of it.

A. 3

B. 12

C. 14

D. 8

E. 10

.

Isn’t it fun that only the plains lubber (grasshopper) in the above photo has two wings and all the others have four wings each?

A. Yes

.

Look at the above photo. What the heck??

A. No kidding

B. Whoa!

C. It sure is fuzzy

.

What is a better name for the Pearly Wood-Nymph Moth shown in the above photo?

A. Shaggy Dream-Haunter Moth

B. Gizmo

C. Sweetums

.

This grasshopper is really well camouflaged.

A. Wow

.

What is the most logical explanation for why this dead cicada is stuck to this barbed wire fence?

A. It was put there by a loggerhead shrike

B. It’s not a cicada, it’s a legless lizard

.

Wouldn’t it be appropriate to end this quiz with a photo of an actual legless lizard?

A. Yes

This is one of those seasons when it always feels we’re on a rollercoaster of temperatures. Within the last week and a half or so, we’ve had everything from sub-zero temperatures to 80 degrees F. I’ve done some photography at both ends of that range, including the frozen river shots I shared a week ago. Here are some more examples from both the cold and hot extremes. I’ll start with the cold end first.

The cottonwood leaves above were photographed when the temperature was hovering around 1 or 2 degrees F and it was nice and breezy to boot. I layered up and scampered down the banks to the frozen surface of Lincoln Creek here in town. I had fun tracking down a beaver lodge and dam while photographing leaves and other errata.

Below is a series of photos from Wednesday evening. I finished up what I needed to do for work by late afternoon and drove out to our family prairie to take advantage of the 80 degree temperatures. I didn’t get as many photos as I was hoping for, but had a lot of fun wandering around anyway. I spent a lot of time along the edge of the pond, where I watched bullfrogs, spiders, water boatmen, flies, and some tiny beetle-like insects I couldn’t ever get near enough to identify. The light was a little too harsh for photography until it got pretty close to the horizon, at which point it sent me some gorgeous golden color to work with.