2) Their bones are solid. While that allows them to dive in water very effectively, it makes taking off very challenging. I worked in the Experimental Lakes Area in Canada (a little north of Lake Superior) for 3 summers, and once I saw a loon make three loops around a lake (after it became airborne) before it had enough elevation to clear the trees surrounding the small lake.
4) Dogwood.
5) Damselflies can fold their wings, but dragonflies cannot. Your picture is of a Calopterigid, so you were probably near a stream, as damselflies are not strong fliers like dragonflies, and the other families of damselflies are lake/marsh dwellers.
6) True.
7) Fatwood.
9) Lady slipper. I love spring ephemerals!
10) Lichen
11) The toxicity is due to alkaloids from its host plant, the milkweed. We have desert milkweeds out here in Arizona, and they are eaten by monarchs and milkweed bugs, which are bright red and black, warning coloration (aposematism) just like monarchs.
12) Pitcher plants. I think carnivorous bog plants are cool! They are capturing insects not for energy, but for nutrients! Pitcher plants are also found in rain forests, which are also very low in soil nutrients. Bog plants suffer low nutrient availability because their defining plant, sphagnum moss, releases hydrogen ions as part of its metabolism, preventing bacteria from thriving and breaking down organic matter to release the nitrogen and phosphorus bound there.
13) Red squirrels.
15) Shelf fungus.