7 December

 Early morning drizzle gave way to fine sunlight this morning.


It seems that this is the season for shows of fungi and of light.

Mosses glowing in the sunlight is not unusual in the Forest, but today's  seemed exceptionally radiant.



The remaining foliage joined the display.


The fungi continue to present with biodiversity.  The single fairy finger appeared with what I'm taking as winter oysters.  Although fairy fingers emerge from fallen wood, this is the first time I've seen it emerge from a live tree, along with moss and little white growth that could be fruiting bodies of a slime mold.


 A very strange fungus has appeared, which looks almost like a poached egg.  I've yet to find an identification for it.


It could be an orange jelly fungus with some kind of white mold forming on it...Fungi do grow on other fungi at times, it seems.

Another oddity is these pinkish fungi--possibly starting to decompose.  

There seems to be no limit to the oddities that can emerge among fungi.  

The warm weather is bringing out early foliage.



Things seemed more predictable out at the Marsh, although a large garter snake was taking advantage of late sunshine.


It seems late in the season for him, but it has been a very mild season so far.  

A couple of Douglas squirrels were also out enjoying the day.  This one looks to have been nibbling a fir cone.  Cute little critter, isn't he?


The warm weather has yet to clear the snow off the mountains beyond the Marsh.


The rise in the Marsh itself reflects the snowmelt.


A pair of buffleheads were barely visible at the east end of the Marsh.


As we left, a flight of mallards flew over, but we didn't see them land.

Along the path out of the Forest, we recognised (barely) the old woodpecker stump, now contributing its decomposition to the soil.


Its change since last Marsh is striking.


The Forest and Wetlands are always generous in providing new material to teach us.  


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