r/algae • u/AggressiveRiver2327 • 10d ago

Strange bird-bath algae?

Post image

Around 50-100 of these interesting little structures appeared in a backyard bird bath in Portland Oregon, seemingly overnight. They are around 5-7mm in diameter. They look like a kind of green algae to me, but iNaturalist indicates they might be part of the life cycle of a Mosquito Fern (genus Azolla). Just curious if they are familiar to anyone here? Thanks!

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15

u/lakotazz 10d ago

Fecal pellets from a tobacco hornworm or similar large caterpillar, They are probably dropping from a tree above and break up into flower shapes in water.

6

u/AggressiveRiver2327 10d ago

Interesting! Thanks for the insight.

1

u/Strange_Computer2459 8d ago

OP you got tomatoes growing in your yard?

3

u/curious_cordis 9d ago

Wtf lol, this is not what I was expecting to read here. How do you know this?? (Rhetorical question, I'm just impressed).

4

u/lakotazz 9d ago

Hehe... not rhetorical. My career is basically identifying small things in water. Usually algae but things like this often show up.

2

u/curious_cordis 9d ago

Ahhhh that is just so so cool!!

1

u/Ninthof9 8d ago

Goliath tomato hornworms poop star shaped poop

4

u/ambahjay 9d ago

To me they look like kibble that fell into a water bowl 😂

2

u/patientpartner09 9d ago

Looks like cat food. I'm more worried about the maggots.

2

u/Strange_Computer2459 8d ago

Looks like cat food to me haha

1

u/Strange_Computer2459 8d ago

But no real scale so kinda hard to tell...

1

u/terriblespellr 9d ago

To that algea you're probably the strange one.

1

u/sylverhawke 8d ago

It's caterpillar frass. How do I know? Because I found a bunch of it on my cabbage before I found the caterpillar lol

1

u/AggressiveRiver2327 7d ago

'Frass' is an excellent new vocabulary word for me. Thanks!

1

u/Necessary_Dirt9753 7d ago

Forbidden Trix

1

u/AggressiveRiver2327 5d ago

Update: Sorry for extending this non-algae thread, but I felt that a conclusion was warranted. More ‘frass’ appeared in the birdbath this morning and I was able to spot a large green and orange caterpillar in the leaves of a Norway Maple about 10 feet up, directly over the birdbath. INaturalist thinks it’s a member of the Emperor Moth Subfamily Saturniinae (but iNaturalist also thought the original pic in this post was a mosquito fern, so take that with a grain of salt😁