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 ...