8 July

Forest light is a great provider of special effects.  Today it was this elegant fern shadow,


as well as the interplay of light, cedar, fern, and huckleberry.


The forest was quieter than it has been in past weeks.  Bird life was relatively muted.  The only new creature that we observed was very quiet.


Slugs haven't been much in evidence before now, and with the dry weather they're not likely to be so in the future.  Although few people would find a banana slug beautiful, they are part of the biodiversity of this forest, and merit mention.

This Douglas fir is host to a variety of fungus and mosses. 


Although birds didn't make their presence known this morning, it was apparent that a woodpecker had been busy on this stump. It must have been a home for insects in addition to the moss and a very young huckleberry at its top.  


The hardhack that borders the marsh is now in full bloom.


Its blossoms, viewed close-up, look almost furry.


Arrowsmith is almost completely bare of snow--such as remains won't last out the summer.  (The little black dot in the sky, at the left of centre, is a turkey vulture.  It's very clear if you enlarge the photo.)


The vegetation in the marsh is starting to look dry, 

but the marsh may yet prove an effective sponge, storing water against the drought.   

There was a flock of cedar waxwings hunting insects over the marsh.


They kept their distance, but were recognisable.

A lovely and very obliging common yellowthroat posed in a nearby alder.



The marsh is displaying a stand of water-hemlock, very beautiful, but among the most toxic plants in the province.


The water level in the marsh is sinking, leaving some wonderful mud, which looks very rich in decaying vegetation.


It brings to mind the refrain to the fine old Flanders and Swann "Hippopotamus Song."  

"Mud, mud, glorious mud, 

Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.

Follow me, follow, down to the hollow,

And there let us wallow, in Glorious mud!" *



Once more, let's hope that it helps offset the effects of the drought which seems inevitable.  

     

*From  https://genius.com/Flanders-and-swann-the-hippopotamus-song-lyrics 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

15 October

Image
  Sunday in the Wetlands and Forest.  A day of multitudinous  mushrooms and (to alliterate again) what my Dad used to call a "marsh hawk."  These days, more correctly, if not alliterative, a female northern harrier.   The forest has an abundance of mushrooms this year.  I'll pick some this coming Friday for the annual Arrowsmith Naturalists' Mushroom and Nature Festival, and try to include photos to show where my harvest was growing.  Hopefully, after the Festival, I'll be more able to identify what I'm photographing.   For now, a sampling: They grow in a variety of settings: This bracket fungus emerges from a dead, mossy alder. A stand of beautiful mushrooms emerging among oregon grape and trailing blackberry. A cluster of saprophytic* mushrooms emerging from a dead stump. Possibly staghorn jelly fungus? The spectacular and lethal fly amanita, or fly agaric, growing in kinnikinnik. * saprophytes: organisms that feed on a variety of dead organic matter. --- Me
Read more

26 November, 2 December

Image
  26 November A foggy morning in the Forest and Wetlands.  Odd, it was clear near the coast, but as we moved inland, the fog thickened.  Visibility in the Forest was limited, visibility in the Wetlands was -- like an impressionist painting--beautiful but less than informative. A raven accompanied us on our walk, commenting on our presence.   https://soundcloud.com/ebredberg33/parksville-11 I tried for a photo, but just got fog.    A very tall alder had fallen across the path. It was a bit strange to see;  often when trees fall there are signes of decay within the trunk, but this tree looked very sound throughout.  There had been a strong wind the week before, which must have brought the tree down. The fungus and moss growth continues:  The moss on the "muppet" log becomes increasingly shaggy. A showy polypore on a log  was accompanied by evidence of woodpecker work on the same log.   On reflection, this combination adds up--conks will grow on trees or logs with inner decay, a
Read more

17 March

Image
  Gradually, spring is making its way into the Forest and Wetlands.  The frogs were in full voice this morning, celebrating the change of the season.       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kEgrY6-12eF-hQS9O2krJc-B62u7uAg-/view?usp=sharing     It was, finally, a sunny morning, and the forest is becoming increasingly lush.  Skunk cabbage shoots are just appearing. A variety of mosses are emerging, some of which we hadn't seen before.  We'll hope for identification. We've only seen the moss below in one spot.  It seems uncommon for this area;  it will be worth monitoring its development as well as submitting it to iNaturalist. There were a couple of patches of birds-nest fungus among the mosses. I've observed the branches of this conifer before, thinking it was a western hemlock, but looking for the parent tree or cones to confirm my identification. Today I realised that it is actually an entire young tree, with the central trunk emerging from the fallen tree that is visib
Read more