Leaf Litter

Last October I blogged about the importance of leaving the leaves where they fall, rather than raking them up. Less yard work is a good thing, but the main reason is the life that takes advantage of the leaves. And this year we left the leaves.

But I did not expect this.

Most of the life that takes advantage of the leaves are small invertebrates. This is not that. A much larger vertebrate. Visible just above center in the image above.

Here I've made it bit more obvious where to look. It is amazing how well this creature has evolved to blend in with the leaf litter. These images are of the same bird I bogged about here. I took these shots (actually one shot processed three times) with my iPhone as we were getting in the car to go to Rancocas.

It is a Woodcock (click the image to bigafy). A bird of the forest floor. So it is no surprise how well it blends in with what one finds on said floor. Leaves.