What is THAT?!

As I was working in the yard today, I discovered this sap stuff coming out of a tree where a branch had been removed. I have no clue what this tree is. I doubt it’s a maple, it gets white flowers in the early spring. But what the heck is this gooey stuff? (BTW I took this first shot with one of my macro extension tubes.)

Is it an alien?

A low-lying branch had started to break off a few years ago, so we cut the rest of it off with the chain saw. That explains the look of this area of the tree.

The area of the tree where the sap is coming out of.

It rained really hard yesterday, so maybe that has something to do with this? I don’t know, doesn’t seem like water. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s a good sign. I have wondered for the past couple of years if this tree is diseased because of this weird stuff I have found on the leaves before. If I see that this year, I’ll be sure to post a picture of that.

Here is another alien-looking thing. This is moss that is growing on top of the wood hutch that we have our trashcans in. It’s on the cedar shingle roof part. (I took these two shots with a macro extension tube.)

Alien-looking moss.

Seriously, it almost looks like miniature aliens could live here.

More of the moss.

I’m guessing there are all sorts of varieties of moss. Might be interesting to learn about that sometime.