20 May

 A Saturday visit to the Forest and Marsh.  After a hot week, the forest felt a bit cooler.  Mosquito spray was a good idea.

A hemlock hosted a generous collection of cat-tail moss.

We've been puzzling over surveying tape on this branch, stuck in the earth in the midst of an approximate circle of trees that are marked with numbers one through six.  

There have been various speculations about the purpose of these markers, but so far nothing definitive has presented itself.  One of those things that need to be monitored...

A resilient young alder is growing  from a stump that has broken off at about ten feet up.  

The foliage is increasingly lush.  Soon the ocean spray will bloom.

The false lily of the valley is blossoming.

Although they are seldom visible, woodpecker work is evident.

Out at the marsh, there are now so many dragonflies that it has become impossible not to photograph them.  These are only a sample of the species we saw--now the challenge will be to identify them.

There were mysterious tracks across the path.

They don't seem like claw marks (there are too many of them), and look as though they may have been mechanical. They didn't seem to continue into the foliage.  Where they led, there was no evident damage to growth.

The snow is rapidly leaving Mt. Arrowsmith.

It looks as though we may face a dry summer yet again.  It is good that the marsh is here--it holds water even in times of drought.