Day 94: It's been nine years since I first found Kidneys (Nephroma helveticum), and that was following a windstorm which dislodged them from somewhere in the forest canopy. They are not specifically noted for being a canopy lichen, although I have never known them to be anything but. I have found them in several locations, and always following gusty weather. Consequently, when I went for a short walk on Sunday in a spot where I had seen them previously, I was watching for them. I did not find any on the one-mile loop, but I did find the Life List lichen I mentioned in my previous post. That discovery took me home and back again with a fresh battery in the camera, and after I was done photographing the Hypogymnia, I turned around to leave and...well, whadda ya know! There were the Kidneys, just a few steps behind me. I had been so focused on the Hypogymnia that I'd failed to look around me. The ones in this location are smaller than those I found initially in 2016 and may in fact be a subspecies, but I do not know how to differentiate them.
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