I came across this green, wavering cushion which is around 25 mm (1 in) in diameter in my birdbath. The water is crystal clear, but here was this thing quite happily growing there. I don’t know what it is. It might be an alga of some kind, or it could be be something from outer space which hitched a ride on a meteorite. Just hope I don’t get any ‘pod people’ growing in the flowerbeds …
Interesting! Your bird bath has become a petri dish!
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I believe it has, Dwight 🙂 I keep an eye out for anything interesting.
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It is an amazing capture!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Whatever it is, it’s quite lovely. It reminds me of the sea lettuce that grows around our jetty rocks. It’s much smaller, of course, but the ‘leaves’ look quite similar.
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Green algae came to mind intially, and your thoughts and comparisons to sea lettuce, which we have here too, is intersting.
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My first thought – before reading your commentary – was that this could be one of those outer space pictures that we have the opportunity to marvel at from time to time, only to discover it is in your bird bath! Whatever it is, it looks both delicate and pretty.
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Thank you, Anne. Sorry it wasn’t more cosmic 🙂
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Never trust birds that take a bath, you never know what they will leave behind ……
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You are right there.
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Be on the watch for pods (lol!). Whatever it is, it is pretty.
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I sure will, lol! Thank you, Sandy 🙂
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That is curious. Keep a close watch, Pete 😏
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…or look out your window to find it covering your yard, your house…😁
Very delicate, and a pretty shade of green, too.
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Yikes! 🙂 … like the Martian red weed … but green algae lol! Thank you, Ellen!
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Prehistoric life right there in your bird bath! 🙂
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I’m shocked you don’t know what it is!
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It’s one of those marked for the x-files 🙂
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Exciting, interesting and also, a little fun. Even though I don’t know what I’m looking at, I like what I see 😀
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Thank you, Anita 🙂 This one got the better of me … and will probably remain a mystery.
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With the help of iNaturalist I think it’s a fungus in the Genus Gibellula. Here’s something that looks a bit similar although not in water. Here’s a bunch of pages to scroll through. My first thought was an algae also then fungus came to mind. The Genus may be off but a Cordyceps family member which seems possible. One species parasitizes spiders.
In a related topic, this past year we had to stop putting out water in our bird bath and bird feeders were advised to stop using as there was a disease being spread that was killing birds via those.. As far as I know it is still a mystery.
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Many thanks, Steve! This is like something froma B-movie sci-fi horror flick! It could well be a fungi as you suggest, for a few day later the things had dissolved, and what appeared to be a cast bird seed was in it’s place, perhaps from where the ‘thing’ spawned. But the underwater part is a puzzle. Great links!
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