Hamilton Wetlands and Forest

 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...

  A gloriously sunny day in the Wetlands and Forest.  Despite bright sunlight it started out quite frosty, but the sun dispersed the cold and by the time we reached the Marsh, sitting in the sun on the dock was very pleasant. The change in the Forest from the darkness of past weeks to today's sun was striking. It has been a relatively mild season--the huckleberry is already starting to show its distinctive pink growth buds. The snow of last week has left the path, but the downed logs were still present.  They are, however, easier to navigate without snow. One of the downed trees is presenting an assortment of moss and lichens. I'm fairly sure (expert readers, please correct me) that the white scaly things are cladonia.  Not the lipstick cladonia, but possibly dragon cladonia, so-called because, as do dragons, it has scales.  The streams and ephemeral ponds in the Forest are filling and running vigorously. By the time we reached the Marsh, the frost at its south ...

  The east coast of central Vancouver Island rarely experiences heavy snowfall.  That has been particularly true this season, although  an accumulation is now building on Mount Arrowsmith and the Beaufort Range.   The coastal towns of Parksville and Qualicum Beach have received what the Weather Office now calls "wintry mix,"  unpleasant combinations of rain and ice, but there have been minimal accumulations of snow.   As the land rises in from the coast, there have been minor accumulations.  Hamilton Wetlands and Forest is 88m above sea level-- sufficiently high to have received a bit of snow in the past days.    Bundled up against the chilly weather, we made our way to the path through the forest.  The downed logs across the path remain, now coated with snow. I have legs that have left me wondering whether there might be Corgis in my ancestry.  Stepping over snow-coated logs becomes --um--well, perhaps I can just say that...