Airdale Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 (edited) My wife was down checking out the flow in our creek this afternoon and noticed this deposit of something she didn't recognize at the base of a large old fir tree. Linda said it has a crystalline look and you can see the bluish tinge in part of it. She wears a size seven shoe. Anyone know what this is? Edited March 28, 2018 by Airdale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted March 28, 2018 Admin Share Posted March 28, 2018 http://cues.cfans.umn.edu/old/Web/073BalsamTwigAphid.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Not trying to be wise but I would say to look up. Could be white sap splatter from not a small broken, or partially broken, branch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdale Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 I think Norse has the right of it. We've been up here for nearly a dozen years and haven't seen anything like it before, even though a great deal of time in the warm months is spent in the creek bottom. Just keeping the Braddock at bay can be a full time job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbone Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 unicorn scat...obviously 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCBFr Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 nah, Seen it, is it rainbow in color. Thinking Ancient Alien crop circle splatter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfjewel Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 What about current alien nose drippings? Give those Grays a Kleenex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Ha! I know, huh. Don't think it's as interesting as angel hair though- a substance I've known about since early 2011: http://www.nicap.org/articles/AngelHair_IUR_v26No03.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWWASAS Posted March 29, 2018 BFF Patron Share Posted March 29, 2018 I am guessing the temperature is below freezing given the boots in the picture and what looks to be ice crystals on the boots. If so the patch could be frost heaving. I see that in my area when the temperatures get above freezing for a short time during the day and at night the temperature is below freezing. Like the pictures it is often in a patch of deep pine or fur needles. The ice crystals get in a cycle where they freeze and expand at night, partially melt during the day, and freeze again at night. If this cycle happens often enough, then you see the piles of crystals pushed up where there is a source of water underneath. That source seems to be the needles themselves who retain the water like a sponge. The needles act as a insulator also and separate the patch from the warmer dirt below. But I have seen the same thing in mud on a smaller scale. I have seen similar picture taken on Mars which seemed to have the scientists puzzled for a while. Sometimes when you are my age you have experienced things much younger people have never seen. That applies to NASA scientists too I guess. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveedoe Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 maybe jelly rot fungus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdale Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 It wouldn't be frost, SW, the photo was taken at 1622 on a sunny afternoon and while it may have been slightly below freezing during the night, it would have been for a short period. Daytime temps have been in the mid forties to mid fifties; the coldest temp in the last 24 hours was 35 F and at 1407 it is 52 F as I type this. We still have several inches of snow cover even with the warming temps as we had over two feet built up. Linda had to walk over 200' through the snow in the back yard to get down to the creek. The sample was at the base of a large fir in an overgrown portion of the creek ravine that we've only begun to clear, so there would have been little snow build up, and what there was has already melted off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmknight Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 Just a stab in the dark, but ... do you have aircraft that fly over your property? The substance LOOKS like ice crystals, but it has that bluish tinge to it. I'm thinking leaked liquid from an airplane sewage tank. It freezes at high altitudes and falls. The blue colour could be from the disinfectant that's used in the storage tanks. There may be more around the property, if that's the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted March 31, 2018 Share Posted March 31, 2018 What's amazing to me is I was researching a bit more on 'angel hair' this morning and thought it might be the result of that kind of aircraft residue. In my searches I came across that very thing about the blue disinfectant. Great minds........etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWWASAS Posted March 31, 2018 BFF Patron Share Posted March 31, 2018 CM you could have nailed it. You can get enormous chunks of ice build up on airplanes when a dump valve leaks. That lav water is colored blue. Blue water dripping is a hazard of doing walk arounds between airline flights. I recall someone having a chunk fall off an airplane come through their roof and land on their bed. Yuck! At altitude it would freeze well below zero and retain that temperature for a while after falling off. Normally the chunks fall off when the airplane descends into warmer air. I have seen instances in nature where some sort of endothermic organic chemical process was going on where a rotting log was frost covered when the air temperature was above freezing. Endothermic chemical reactions adsorb heat rather than create it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted April 8, 2018 Admin Share Posted April 8, 2018 It’s aphids. They secrete a bluish whitish wax all over their bodies. There are different sub species that attack different kinds of trees. I’ve seen this before as well. Along with twisted needles and a brownish substance clumping the needles. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/NEWS/woollyaphid-news.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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