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20 February

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  The tree that had been sawed down at the entrance to the Wetlands and Forest has now been cleared.  It looks as though it has been segmented for firewood. Winter is slow to take its leave of the Wetlands and Forest.  Today's visit was the coldest of the season.  There were traces of last night's snowfall, and in fact a very light snow fell as I walked in. A few showings of hair ice had appeared on fallen branches. At a guess, much of the night was too cold for this curious phenomenon to form, which needs temperatures just at the freezing level.  Beside the path, bracken was dusted with snow. The Marsh had a skim of ice over its exposed areas, with a dusting of snow. The water level posts, iced in, were well defined. There were at least 200 ducks in open water at the southeast end of the Marsh.  Most were mallards, dispersed along the reeds, but careful observation, and photo enlargement showed an assortment: ...mallards, American wigeon, green-winged teal...
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15 February

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  The Forest was still, after a cold night.  Frogsong was silenced, and the only audible bird on my arrival was a raven. At the trailhead, the light was filtered through high cloud.   The path to the Marsh was quieter than I can ever recall.  It had a fine stillness that matched the day's light--low in the southeast, and somehow gentle. The mosses were brilliant where unfiltered sunlight made its way through a clearing. By the time I reached the Marsh, the skies had cleared, and a recent snowfall was restoring Arrowsmith to winter splendour. The water level has risen, no doubt from the recent rainfall. To the southeast, open water invited waterfowl. A flock of about thirty mallards flew in from the north end of the Marsh.  Not all were visible in the distance, but it's clear that the winter waterfowl residence has been established. 
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3, 6 February

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  3 February An unusual mid-afternoon visit to the Forest and Wetlands, after a morning eye exam.  A lesson--birding doesn't really go very well with dilated pupils.  Notwithstanding which, it was a pleasant visit.   On approaching the trailhead to the Marsh, I detoured to check the Happy Cow Farm, just up the road.  Sure enough, there were abundant trumpeter swans.  They've been present since the end of October this year. The weather has warmed up to unseasonal levels, awakening the tree frogs.  They were very vocal--to paraphrase Tennyson, "In the springtime of the year, treefrogs' fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."  (Apologies, Lord Alfred.)  Unfortunately, I couldn't see any frogs in the forest.  They're tiny, and with impaired vision, although they were loud and abundant, they weren't visible.   They're awake and active,  but the chance that the weather will become cold again puts them at risk.  ...
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24 January

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 The past two weeks have included a pair of atmospheric rivers that included strong enough winds to make visits to forests dangerous, and alas, trouble with my truck.  This past weekend, I returned on an intermittently cloudy and rather chilly day. At the entrance to the Forest and Wetlands, a strange and rather disturbing sight greeted me.  A tree has been sawed down--clearly NOT another of the recent blow-downs. It remains lying across the open area at the entrance, for unaccountable reasons. This is clearly a recent event--it wasn't there when we led an introductory walk for a group from Nanaimo last week. Despite the worrisome start to the walk,  the beauty and diversity of the area showed forth.  A patch of sunlight gleamed through the shadowed forest. The recent cold weather has left patches of hair ice, a relatively uncommon phenomenon.  Although it looks organic, it's actually a by-product of a fungus,  Exidiopsis effusa, that "shapes the ice i...
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