Brad sent a few photos from Unalaska to torture me. Not sure yet about the identity of this lovely flower. Looks rather like a member of the Scrophulariaceae, but it doesn't quite fit in any of the taxa included in the Floras that I have around.
Counted Marbled murrelets Monday morning from 5:30 to 6:30. It was pouring and would not have been possible without an umbrella over the spotting scope. The binoculars were so fogged up that without constant cleaning, they were worthless. The data sheet was fairly worthless, next time I'm bringing my write-in-the-rain notebook or maybe even delaying a day. We did have a busy count: 5 in, 67 out; 19 in, 38 out; 24 in, 43 out; and 12 in, 42 out in the four periods. There were also a large number of rhinoceros auklets and murres.
A group of about 40 -80 small shorebirds wheeled around the count area, but I couldn't get a good look at them. They never settled in a spot and foggy binoculars didn't help. Later in the day, there were large flocks of red-necked phalaropes between Crescent harbor and Morne island. I suspect that it was the phalaropes that I was seeing off Whale park.
Paid off my dancing debt this afternoon with a walk up Indian river. We ate blueberries, salmonberries, violets and both Streptopus species. Jay wasn't impressed with the flavor of the blueberries, I guess they are sweeter in Montana. I'm hoping for some sweet blueberries from the muskegs this year.
Saw a number of Laccaria laccata, Lactarius spp and of course lots of small non-descript mushrooms. The Northwest key council has keys for Mycena and other painful taxa on the web, so I might have to quit avoiding them.
No comments:
Post a Comment