20 July

 A morning visit to the Forest and Wetlands during the peak of summer.   The past week saw record-breaking heat throughout the Province, and weather warnings for the east coast of Vancouver Island (that would be right here).

The Forest certainly is showing the effects of drought and heat.


I'd ventured a guess that our mystery saplings might have been osoberry, and had thought to monitor their maturation.  Alas, they appear to have perished from the heat and drought.


Even the pathfinder is drying out.


The foamflower, which had been abundant this season, is now thinning out and fading.


The huckleberry seedlings are holding their own, nurtured by moss and stumps.


Presumably the moss helps retain moisture.

The woodpecker stump has finally succumbed, after the better part of a year of gradual pecking.  


We entertain visions of what was probably a pileated woodpecker landing on the stump, pecking, and --"SQUAWK!" the stump falling over as he worked at it.  After all this time it must have come as a shock.

Just for the record, here is a photo of the same stump taken last July.  Woodpeckers can be very effective at stump removal.


The huckleberries are ripening.  They remain tart, but tasty.


The Marsh looks dry, although there are still patches of open water.  We heard many little "eep--splashes" as we walked out on the dock.  Small frogs, but unfortunately probably just small bullfrogs.  One ravenous little frog leapt up repeatedly after the dragonflies hovering above the water.  He made strong efforts, but didn't seem to succeed.  

The bird population seems reduced, as it also is elsewhere in July.  We heard ravens, watched one bald eagle, and an altercation among three of what we think were juvenile raptors.





It wasn't clear whether this was a territorial dispute, or play among young birds.

The sun was hot on the dock.  We left after sitting for a while, and made out way back through the Forest.  The light left the foliage and stumps glowing.


There is supposed to be traces of rain in the coming week.  We'll hope for the best.

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...
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 ...
Read more

26 February

Image
  Spring is definitely approaching in the Wetlands and Forest, despite icy temperatures today.  There had been wild weather yesterday, and patches of hail remained. As we entered the forest, the light was a brilliant contrast to the darkness of the previous weeks. It struck and transfigured this huckleberry vine. My walking partner spotted and identified a rarity--hair ice emerging from downed alders.  Its occurence is linked with a specific fungus, lepidopsis effusa , which emits a chemical that enables strands of ice to emerge from downed wood at temperatures just below 0 C.  Here, its emergence is limited to fallen alder which has shed its bark.   This mossy stump is becoming a nursery for two little huckleberry  vines.   There were unmistakeable sounds of spring.  A pacific wren, still secretive, trilled its song, the first we've heard after the winter's chip notes.  Approaching the Marsh, we were greeted by an exuberant chorus ...
Read more