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** Monday Nature Mystery
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12/16/24

We are pleased to announce the winner of our most recent Monday Nature Mystery, Emma Carolyn! (Please email your snail mail address and preference for a hat or tote bag to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Monday%20Nature%20Mystery%20Winner) )

Congratulations to Emma for identifying Witch’s Butter (Tremella mesenterica). According to Mushroom Appreciation ([link removed]) , T. mesenterica is parasitic on another fungi species — the genus Peniophora. The Peniophora are crust-like fungi that form on dead and dying logs and twigs. Some Peniophora are parasitic themselves, while most are saprobic, meaning that they just eat the decaying material but don’t cause the decay. Witch’s Butter is found on hardwoods in deciduous and mixed forests. It grows up to 3 inches across, 1-2 inches high, and features multiple lobes or a convoluted, wavy growth. The fungi are bright, deep yellow, or yellow-orange; sometimes, they are much lighter yellow, too. The fruiting bodies are slimy and look wet and greasy. If you poke them, they will jiggle and move.

Last Week's Mystery: Witch’s Butter (Tremella mesenterica). Photo: Judy Gallagher

Each Monday we’ll post a new photo and identify the previous week’s winner. They’ll receive an NVBA hat or tote bag.

Be sure to post your answer on our Facebook page @ ([link removed]) NVBirdAlliance ([link removed]) under the Monday Mystery post...do not reply to this email with your guess! We only accept entries from our Facebook page, not via email.

Please remember to write the common name, being mindful of hyphens, uppercase and lowercase letters and always include the Latin name in parentheses. To learn more about bird names click here ([link removed]) .

Who is this? Photo: Ruhikanta Meetei/Audubon Photography Awards

This week’s Mystery: Who is this?

Post your guess (please list both common name and Latin name) on our Facebook page @ ([link removed]) NVBirdAlliance ([link removed]) under this week's Monday Nature Mystery. Remember, we only accept entries from our Facebook page, not via email!

Good luck!

-Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

Please note that we only accept entries on our Facebook page where they are date- and time-stamped. Remember that, if you need to correct your entry, you should make a new posting instead of correcting the old one so that we get a correct time stamp for your correction. Winners are limited to one prize every 90 days, maximum 2 per person, but we are starting fresh since we have a new logo! If you have already won twice, feel free to play and try to win a hat or tote with our new logo on it.

Know someone who might enjoy our Monday Nature Mystery series? Forward this email on!
Enjoy the Monday Nature Mystery Series? Please consider supporting NVBA so we can continue to bring you educational (and fun!) programs like this.
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