Friday was the last day this season for the park project. I'm hoping that there is a little funding to do a bit more on the garden, as it isn't even vaguely complete and I should have more plants to do the necessary improvements. The lupine and valerian seedlings are growing well in the greenhouse. The lupine already has recognizable leaves. No sign yet of Dodecatheon, Sorbus or Anemone sprouts. Spent my last few work hours struggling over a list of photo recommendations. Not many easy choices and no doubt the person who does the layout work on the signs will use different ones anyway.
On Saturday my intended short trip to town for dance class and a brief trip to UAS was thwarted by an extremely high tide (11.8'). A person with a tall cabin who needs to exit under the ramp should know to check the tide book during the fall and winter. Looking at the tide book, there will be a few tides to avoid this fall; there are 5 tides equal or greater than 11.8' beginning on the 25th of October, another set beginning on the 22nd of November and the last big ones of the year beginning on the 23rd of December.
Ended the day singing pseudo opera in the parking lot..."ravioli, spagetti, zamboni" Was inspired by the Juneau Lyric Opera's performance of "Tosca" (or maybe by cartoons). I 'm happy to report that they did a very nice job, great playing and singing. I regret not having done my part in dressing appropriately, no tiara, gloves or fur. Operas must be the ultimate form of musicals. Where else but the opera would people be entertained by a soprano singing " Ti soffoca il sangue?" or "Muori dannato, muori, muori, muori".
Sunday afternoon was inspired to seek birds in Aleutkina, Camp Coogan and No Thorofare bays. Not too exciting, but it is always nice to try. There were skiffs coming out of every bay as we were going in, so I'm not too surprised by the dearth of ducks. Did see one Horned Grebe in Camp Coogan along with Glaucous winged and Thayer's gulls. No Herring gulls that I could identify. There are 10 floathouses in Camp Coogan and Bird's Nest bay, not sure how many are occupied year round, but it looks more like a rural suburb than a bay.
Went ashore in No Thorofare for a brief look for mushrooms. The Hydnum repandum were gone, but did find several Lactarius deliciosus var. olivaceosordidus. Several of them were growing at the very edge of the highest tide line in the little cove. It is a very gentle transition between forest and beach at that spot, but I was still surprised to see the fungi so close to the water line. This subspecies has very scant orange-red (muddy) latex that stains the flesh green. I haven't seen one without a mixture of green and orange regardless of size or age. They must bruise while growing through the duff layer. They look like carrots that have come above the soil line and developed chlorophyll. The Mushroom expert site has a good discussion of the species and each subspecies. http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lactarius_deliciosus.html
Made me a little homesick for Oregon when I read that the type locality of our common form is Pacific City, Oregon. Did have alot of fun hunting mushrooms in the forests on the north coast in the past. The biggest boletes I've ever seen.
Also found the yellow stemmed peppery bolete (C. piperatoides) at the forest edge on the channel side under hemlock.
The majority of the alcids I saw were common murres (2 marbled murrelets and about 18 murres). Didn't see a murrelet on my commute this week. I'm wondering where all the murrelets and auklets I was seeing in August went.
The birding was a little slow at home as well. The garden sparrows also seem to have wandered off (the hawk perhaps?). There were chickadees and a junco eating at the feeder, a winter wren was singing and several varied thrush in the alders on the island this afternoon.
Finally planted the garlic today. Hideously late, but hopefully the garlic and the weather will be forgiving.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27
Unexpectedly sunny, it was rather cool in the morning, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. There was a dusting of new snow on the Sisters and Bear Mtn. I guess I finally have to give up on poppies for this year.
The Edgecumbe class started a practice run of the DNA extraction procedure. One group worked on Gentiana douglasiana and Trichophorum caespitosum. The other group on Cornus suecica and Carex pluriflora. I had hoped to have Coptis trifoliata and Triantha glutinosa in the run as well, but for some reason the students preparing those roots didn’t freeze any. Guess I need to watch more carefully. Live and learn. Fortunately it was a practice run and it is relatively easy to get more roots. We used a relatively simple procedure, NaOH, 10 minute incubation at 90C, followed by HCL and HCL + Tris and another 10 minute incubation at 90C. The last step is a brief centrifugation and dilution in a buffer.
The sunny day provided a nice window for re-sampling the plants. It was a pleasnat change heading outside without the driving rain. We wanted to have a set of samples that we could be reasonably sure wasn't misidentified or mislabeled. The lack of variety of frozen samples was another good motivator.
This time we collected Triantha glutinosa, Coptis trifoliata, Rubus chamaemorus, Kalmia polifolia, Ledum groenlandicum, Carex livida, Carex pluriflora, Trichophorum caespitosum, Empetrum nigrum, Cornus suecica, Vacciniium caespitosum, Gentiana douglasiana, and Sanguisorba menziesii. The easiest to collect were Carex livida and Trichophorum, they both have abundant root systems. The Gentian was a pest because of the senescent plants and the Ericaceae because of the long woody rhizomes and few fine roots. Sanguisorba has large taproots that are between 5 and 8 inches deep in the muskeg. The most effective way to obtain them was to remove a cylinder of soil about 5 inches in diameter and soak the excess soil off. It seemed a little destructive, but at least we got a good sample instead of killing the plant and not obtaining the sample.
The variety of root systems that occur in the muskeg is kind of interesting. The plants with a lot of xeric adaptations, e.g. narrow leaves with waxy cuticles don’t have much in the way of fine roots, while those that lack any visible water loss adaptations have the most abundant fine roots. . Doesn’t seem like much of a surprise, but I hadn’t dug up a lot of muskeg plants before this fall. The Ericaceae do have some fine roots, but not much in comparison with some of the sedges or ephemeral herbs. I’m still wondering if the winter conditions are controlling factor for the evergreen herbs and shrubs. The lack of consistant snow and frozen soil would seriously limit water uptake in the winter. Not a problem for plants like Gentiana or Drosera, but seems like it would be an issue for the Ericaceae.
The Cornus and Rubus were providing some nice red fall color and the golden brown sedges make a nice background.
Back down to the car by noon. Dropped the samples off in the refrigerator and went over to Alice island to eat my lunch and look for birds. I’ve been looking for the mourning doves off and on for the last week, but haven’t seen them. There are still a lot of robins, juncos and a nice mixture of sparrows. One lone Cackling Goose was hanging out in the center island. Found some nice Capsella bursa-pastoris in fruit in one of the lots. I always liked that name. I’m fairly certain that it is my favorite weedy crucifer, probably because it is easy to identify.
From there drove out Blue Lake Rd to collect some plants for the park. I should have more than enough alders if people stop trying to kill them. Stopped at the waterfall just past the turn to the campground. Found a bit of summer still hanging on. Geranium erianthum, Aquilegia formosa, Sanguisorba canadensis, Claytonia sibirica and Campanula rotundifolia were still blooming. The Sanguisorba was especially nice. Also found an interesting variety of plants including Saxifraga ferruginea, S. mertensiana, Romanozoffia sitchensis, Adiantum aleuticum and Urtica dioica. I climbed up the creek for a ways looking for small plants in vulnerable positions to collect. Vulnerable in that they were partially washed out or in small gravel. Collected several Aruncus, a few Sanguisorba and Geranium from the slopes. Also brought back a few Erigeron from the road side. Collected some Ribes bracteosum fruit for seed from this site.
Decided to plant all of this batch of plants in the area in the upper parking lot because of the number of weeds in the collection area. There are already so many weeds in that site, that a few more won't matter. I hope to move some of the plants in the late spring to the lower beds. I would like the slope above the curved walk to eventually look like a meadow. The Harbor-Gavan trail was inspiring. Not sure if I can pull it off, maybe with alot of time, luck and patience. Finished up this round of the garden project by going over the lower beds one last time for weeds, I had hoped to put seaweed on the beds, but that idea didn’t get a good reception.
I was happy that Geoff agreed with the spruce grouse call. He thought that it was a new bird for the park (at least in the records). I do wonder how many grouse are out wandering, it was a total fluke to see that one. I probably ought to sit still more often.
Saw the petrel on my way home tonight (didn’t see it on the morning commute). It flew along with me in the bow light for a short distance.
Unexpectedly sunny, it was rather cool in the morning, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. There was a dusting of new snow on the Sisters and Bear Mtn. I guess I finally have to give up on poppies for this year.
The Edgecumbe class started a practice run of the DNA extraction procedure. One group worked on Gentiana douglasiana and Trichophorum caespitosum. The other group on Cornus suecica and Carex pluriflora. I had hoped to have Coptis trifoliata and Triantha glutinosa in the run as well, but for some reason the students preparing those roots didn’t freeze any. Guess I need to watch more carefully. Live and learn. Fortunately it was a practice run and it is relatively easy to get more roots. We used a relatively simple procedure, NaOH, 10 minute incubation at 90C, followed by HCL and HCL + Tris and another 10 minute incubation at 90C. The last step is a brief centrifugation and dilution in a buffer.
The sunny day provided a nice window for re-sampling the plants. It was a pleasnat change heading outside without the driving rain. We wanted to have a set of samples that we could be reasonably sure wasn't misidentified or mislabeled. The lack of variety of frozen samples was another good motivator.
This time we collected Triantha glutinosa, Coptis trifoliata, Rubus chamaemorus, Kalmia polifolia, Ledum groenlandicum, Carex livida, Carex pluriflora, Trichophorum caespitosum, Empetrum nigrum, Cornus suecica, Vacciniium caespitosum, Gentiana douglasiana, and Sanguisorba menziesii. The easiest to collect were Carex livida and Trichophorum, they both have abundant root systems. The Gentian was a pest because of the senescent plants and the Ericaceae because of the long woody rhizomes and few fine roots. Sanguisorba has large taproots that are between 5 and 8 inches deep in the muskeg. The most effective way to obtain them was to remove a cylinder of soil about 5 inches in diameter and soak the excess soil off. It seemed a little destructive, but at least we got a good sample instead of killing the plant and not obtaining the sample.
The variety of root systems that occur in the muskeg is kind of interesting. The plants with a lot of xeric adaptations, e.g. narrow leaves with waxy cuticles don’t have much in the way of fine roots, while those that lack any visible water loss adaptations have the most abundant fine roots. . Doesn’t seem like much of a surprise, but I hadn’t dug up a lot of muskeg plants before this fall. The Ericaceae do have some fine roots, but not much in comparison with some of the sedges or ephemeral herbs. I’m still wondering if the winter conditions are controlling factor for the evergreen herbs and shrubs. The lack of consistant snow and frozen soil would seriously limit water uptake in the winter. Not a problem for plants like Gentiana or Drosera, but seems like it would be an issue for the Ericaceae.
The Cornus and Rubus were providing some nice red fall color and the golden brown sedges make a nice background.
Back down to the car by noon. Dropped the samples off in the refrigerator and went over to Alice island to eat my lunch and look for birds. I’ve been looking for the mourning doves off and on for the last week, but haven’t seen them. There are still a lot of robins, juncos and a nice mixture of sparrows. One lone Cackling Goose was hanging out in the center island. Found some nice Capsella bursa-pastoris in fruit in one of the lots. I always liked that name. I’m fairly certain that it is my favorite weedy crucifer, probably because it is easy to identify.
From there drove out Blue Lake Rd to collect some plants for the park. I should have more than enough alders if people stop trying to kill them. Stopped at the waterfall just past the turn to the campground. Found a bit of summer still hanging on. Geranium erianthum, Aquilegia formosa, Sanguisorba canadensis, Claytonia sibirica and Campanula rotundifolia were still blooming. The Sanguisorba was especially nice. Also found an interesting variety of plants including Saxifraga ferruginea, S. mertensiana, Romanozoffia sitchensis, Adiantum aleuticum and Urtica dioica. I climbed up the creek for a ways looking for small plants in vulnerable positions to collect. Vulnerable in that they were partially washed out or in small gravel. Collected several Aruncus, a few Sanguisorba and Geranium from the slopes. Also brought back a few Erigeron from the road side. Collected some Ribes bracteosum fruit for seed from this site.
Decided to plant all of this batch of plants in the area in the upper parking lot because of the number of weeds in the collection area. There are already so many weeds in that site, that a few more won't matter. I hope to move some of the plants in the late spring to the lower beds. I would like the slope above the curved walk to eventually look like a meadow. The Harbor-Gavan trail was inspiring. Not sure if I can pull it off, maybe with alot of time, luck and patience. Finished up this round of the garden project by going over the lower beds one last time for weeds, I had hoped to put seaweed on the beds, but that idea didn’t get a good reception.
I was happy that Geoff agreed with the spruce grouse call. He thought that it was a new bird for the park (at least in the records). I do wonder how many grouse are out wandering, it was a total fluke to see that one. I probably ought to sit still more often.
Saw the petrel on my way home tonight (didn’t see it on the morning commute). It flew along with me in the bow light for a short distance.
Friday, September 28, 2007
September 25 & 26
The weather was rather wet, sometimes extremely so. Divided these two days between going over the stained root slides at Mt. Edgecumbe and planting alders in the park.
A synopsis of what we found so far in the roots: good indications of typical VA mycorrhizae in Coptis trifoliata, Cornus suecica and Triantha glutinosa; dark septate hyphae in all species we looked at including Trichophorum, Carex livida, C. pluriflora, Empetrum nigrum, Rubus chamaemorus, Kalmia polifolia (had vesicles as well) and Vaccinium oxycoccus. In several there was a second (or third) type of hyphae that picked up the ink stain, was generally wider than the dark septate type and lacked septa. The smaller roots of Drosera and Gentiana were unfortunately lost. I need to show people how to drain test tubes without losing the contents.
Switched to planting small alders instead of large ones. The smaller ones are easier for me to dig up and more difficult for people to pull out. Must not want to bend over too far. Planted about 5 salmonberries and 2 elderberries in the site. I wanted to plant more, but haven't found easy candidates for transplanting.
Walked down to the river mouth after planting on Tuesday. The river was very high & muddy looking from all of the rain. Found Pintails, one shoveler, mallards, widgeons and green winged teal. Still searching for the slaty-backed gull.
Geoff Smith reported seeing an odd gull that sounds like the dark naped gulls I saw yesterday on my commute. He suggested a Sabines. The ones I saw could have been winter Sabines, but I couldn't swear to it.
On Wednesday, saw a few fork-tailed petrels on my way to town.
The weather was rather wet, sometimes extremely so. Divided these two days between going over the stained root slides at Mt. Edgecumbe and planting alders in the park.
A synopsis of what we found so far in the roots: good indications of typical VA mycorrhizae in Coptis trifoliata, Cornus suecica and Triantha glutinosa; dark septate hyphae in all species we looked at including Trichophorum, Carex livida, C. pluriflora, Empetrum nigrum, Rubus chamaemorus, Kalmia polifolia (had vesicles as well) and Vaccinium oxycoccus. In several there was a second (or third) type of hyphae that picked up the ink stain, was generally wider than the dark septate type and lacked septa. The smaller roots of Drosera and Gentiana were unfortunately lost. I need to show people how to drain test tubes without losing the contents.
Switched to planting small alders instead of large ones. The smaller ones are easier for me to dig up and more difficult for people to pull out. Must not want to bend over too far. Planted about 5 salmonberries and 2 elderberries in the site. I wanted to plant more, but haven't found easy candidates for transplanting.
Walked down to the river mouth after planting on Tuesday. The river was very high & muddy looking from all of the rain. Found Pintails, one shoveler, mallards, widgeons and green winged teal. Still searching for the slaty-backed gull.
Geoff Smith reported seeing an odd gull that sounds like the dark naped gulls I saw yesterday on my commute. He suggested a Sabines. The ones I saw could have been winter Sabines, but I couldn't swear to it.
On Wednesday, saw a few fork-tailed petrels on my way to town.
Monday, September 24, 2007
An often intensely rainy day, a fine day to spend the afternoon at the movie theater watching an entertaining musical. Why do I always watch them, if I don't really like musicals? Cognitive dissonance?
On the way to the movie, I made a quick stop at the lake to look for the reported cackling goose. I couldn't remember what such a bird was...the National Geographic bird book in the car didn't use the name. Seeing it confirmed my suspicions about it being a type of Canada. Always more to learn. Too bad I didn't look at the ducks. I'll have to take a bit more time tomorrow.
The path home had a higher concentration than usual of black-legged Kittiwakes. Two had very dark patches on the backs of their heads. It's been about couple of weeks without any marbled murrelets (maybe just one or two total).
A mink was scampering down the boardwalk between Litmans and the house, it cleared off as soon as it heard my approach. At least one Golden-crowned sparrow survived the sharp-shin hawk. It was in the garden when I arrived home.
Jan delivered a CD of the bird photos, I am posting the clearest of the lot. I'm feeling better about calling it a grouse. I suppose it could be an escapee, so I should ask around about people's pets.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday was a fitting last day of summer. It was sunny, warm & cool all at once and I spent most of the day outdoors.
The birds were rather active in the garden in the morning. Watched a sapsucker pounding away at a Mtn. Ash behind the house. I'm guessing that it was a juvenile because the red didn't extend far on the chest and the color of the head wasn't quite as bright as I expect to see. Heard about a "blue bird", a probable Steller's Jay in the garden about an hour after it was seen. Haven't seen a jay in the garden before ( I guess I still haven't). Glad it was a jay, I might be in jail now if it was an actual Bluebird. There were ruby crowns, golden crowned, fox and song sparrows, juncos, chickadees, varied and hermit thrushes in the vegetable beds and shrubs.
Still hoping for the nuthatches, but none yet. A pair golden-crowns showed up at last, so perhaps the nuthatches aren't far behind. The song sparrows are still singing away.
Walked through the park to dance class again, this time with my binoculars, but without enough time to make use of them. Was able to make use of them after class when I walked back to the park to direct runners for the boys race. I was standing in the entrance to the Battlefield site across from the path to the battle walk (beach) talking to Jan when a large chicken-like bird wandered across the path to the beach. At first I thought that it was likely to be a stray chicken, but that idea didn't last long. It was a rather dark bird, with distinct barring, a white v-like shape in the neck area and featherless feet. I didn't see a distinct red eyebrow. I would like to call it a Spruce grouse, but am uncomfortable making the call. I really haven't seen enough grouse and ptarmigan to feel comfortable telling them apart when I'm not looking at a breeding male. Especially since I read that ptarmigan tend to lose the feathers on their feet in the summer. This bird held its tail a bit fanned out at times, but it wasn't like the big tail of a displaying male bird.
We did watch it eat huckleberries from the lower branches of the bushes. It was a little wary, but let me get within a few feet before it would wander off. If I held still for a minute or two, it would come closer again. I followed it along the edge of the path until the race started. The boys went by rather quickly, and the bird didn't go far, so it was easy to find. Jan took a film of it with her video camera and I'm hoping that she can capture an image or two that will help positively identify it. The cell phone isn't really cut out to take photos of dark birds in dark woods, (it was good amusement though). I lost the bird on the boys' second run by, mostly because of being distracted by an obviously injured runner. It was somewhere near the domestic apple tree in the woods between the trail and the beach.
After that surprise sighting, I was not as excited about the harlequins near the mouth of the river as I should have been. I had seen three harlequin at Halibut Pt. Rec a couple of weeks ago, but still should have marked their return in larger numbers with a bit more gratitude. They were probably the small ducks I was squinting at on Friday afternoon without binoculars?
Spent the rest of the day in the garden digging potatoes and cleaning up some of the vegetable beds. I also covered the carrots and remaining brussels sprouts with reemay since a deer had been snacking on the garden again. I did buy my hunting license today in hope of eating rose fed deer. It had mostly stayed out 0f the garden this summer, so I was getting a little complacent. The potato harvest was pretty good, I didn't weigh them, but the weight of the box exceeded my ability to carry it. The carrots seemed to have done well, despite a slow start and the few we ate for dinner tasted wonderful. I was hoping to get the garlic planted, but didn't quite get to it.
Sunday
I had a little time in the garden before heading in to Jojo's baby shower. Spent it digging salmonberry, huckleberry and elderberry for the park. The newly dug potato and brocoli beds attracted several fox sparrows, soon the song and golden-crowns joined them. The fox sparrows didn't seem at all worried about me digging about 10 ft away from them, but the other two species were a little more nervous. Mostly we were enjoying the harvest in our own ways, me and some sparrows digging in the beds and others on the posts and a few in the vine maple. I was looking down, when I heard a very frantic sounding flush of birds flying next to me. I thought that someone was walking into the garden, but when I looked up I saw the tail of a hawk chasing one or more birds into the bushes just past me. I should have realized that the reaction of the birds was a little big for a person to be the cause. I ran to get the camera and when I returned, the hawk who must have been perched in the crab apple, flew toward me and up behind the wood shed. Perhaps I should have been a little slower in my movements? Maybe even had the camera ready? Actually I'm feeling lucky just to have seen the whole event.
I'm pretty satisfied with calling it a sharp-shin because of the size, the extreme contrast of the banding in its tail, shape of the wings and the lightness of its face. The merlins I've seen seemed much darker than this bird. I couldn't find any sign of a successful hunt, but the sparrows were much warier. I just heard low "are you there" type of calls afterward.
The birds were rather active in the garden in the morning. Watched a sapsucker pounding away at a Mtn. Ash behind the house. I'm guessing that it was a juvenile because the red didn't extend far on the chest and the color of the head wasn't quite as bright as I expect to see. Heard about a "blue bird", a probable Steller's Jay in the garden about an hour after it was seen. Haven't seen a jay in the garden before ( I guess I still haven't). Glad it was a jay, I might be in jail now if it was an actual Bluebird. There were ruby crowns, golden crowned, fox and song sparrows, juncos, chickadees, varied and hermit thrushes in the vegetable beds and shrubs.
Still hoping for the nuthatches, but none yet. A pair golden-crowns showed up at last, so perhaps the nuthatches aren't far behind. The song sparrows are still singing away.
Walked through the park to dance class again, this time with my binoculars, but without enough time to make use of them. Was able to make use of them after class when I walked back to the park to direct runners for the boys race. I was standing in the entrance to the Battlefield site across from the path to the battle walk (beach) talking to Jan when a large chicken-like bird wandered across the path to the beach. At first I thought that it was likely to be a stray chicken, but that idea didn't last long. It was a rather dark bird, with distinct barring, a white v-like shape in the neck area and featherless feet. I didn't see a distinct red eyebrow. I would like to call it a Spruce grouse, but am uncomfortable making the call. I really haven't seen enough grouse and ptarmigan to feel comfortable telling them apart when I'm not looking at a breeding male. Especially since I read that ptarmigan tend to lose the feathers on their feet in the summer. This bird held its tail a bit fanned out at times, but it wasn't like the big tail of a displaying male bird.
We did watch it eat huckleberries from the lower branches of the bushes. It was a little wary, but let me get within a few feet before it would wander off. If I held still for a minute or two, it would come closer again. I followed it along the edge of the path until the race started. The boys went by rather quickly, and the bird didn't go far, so it was easy to find. Jan took a film of it with her video camera and I'm hoping that she can capture an image or two that will help positively identify it. The cell phone isn't really cut out to take photos of dark birds in dark woods, (it was good amusement though). I lost the bird on the boys' second run by, mostly because of being distracted by an obviously injured runner. It was somewhere near the domestic apple tree in the woods between the trail and the beach.
After that surprise sighting, I was not as excited about the harlequins near the mouth of the river as I should have been. I had seen three harlequin at Halibut Pt. Rec a couple of weeks ago, but still should have marked their return in larger numbers with a bit more gratitude. They were probably the small ducks I was squinting at on Friday afternoon without binoculars?
Spent the rest of the day in the garden digging potatoes and cleaning up some of the vegetable beds. I also covered the carrots and remaining brussels sprouts with reemay since a deer had been snacking on the garden again. I did buy my hunting license today in hope of eating rose fed deer. It had mostly stayed out 0f the garden this summer, so I was getting a little complacent. The potato harvest was pretty good, I didn't weigh them, but the weight of the box exceeded my ability to carry it. The carrots seemed to have done well, despite a slow start and the few we ate for dinner tasted wonderful. I was hoping to get the garlic planted, but didn't quite get to it.
Sunday
I had a little time in the garden before heading in to Jojo's baby shower. Spent it digging salmonberry, huckleberry and elderberry for the park. The newly dug potato and brocoli beds attracted several fox sparrows, soon the song and golden-crowns joined them. The fox sparrows didn't seem at all worried about me digging about 10 ft away from them, but the other two species were a little more nervous. Mostly we were enjoying the harvest in our own ways, me and some sparrows digging in the beds and others on the posts and a few in the vine maple. I was looking down, when I heard a very frantic sounding flush of birds flying next to me. I thought that someone was walking into the garden, but when I looked up I saw the tail of a hawk chasing one or more birds into the bushes just past me. I should have realized that the reaction of the birds was a little big for a person to be the cause. I ran to get the camera and when I returned, the hawk who must have been perched in the crab apple, flew toward me and up behind the wood shed. Perhaps I should have been a little slower in my movements? Maybe even had the camera ready? Actually I'm feeling lucky just to have seen the whole event.
I'm pretty satisfied with calling it a sharp-shin because of the size, the extreme contrast of the banding in its tail, shape of the wings and the lightness of its face. The merlins I've seen seemed much darker than this bird. I couldn't find any sign of a successful hunt, but the sparrows were much warier. I just heard low "are you there" type of calls afterward.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
September 20-22
The weather that we have had the last few days has been conducive to getting back to some writing projects. I caught up with grading, re-writing lab procedures and finished the long put off kayak/birding paragraphs that I promised Marge. Also finished the muskeg research proposal so that we can ask for a small amount of SCS financial support.
Went over to Alice Island Wednesday and Thursday, the first day just to escape my window-less office and the second because Jan called and reported a pair of mourning doves in the area. The road is paved around the gravel loop and the lots are seeded with grass, but many of the trees were spared. There were two nice maples and a birch near Mermaid cove that I hadn't noticed before or didn't remember. I hope that they go slow building the houses, but it is probably a vain hope. There were abundant robins, juncos and sparrows (song, fox, and lincoln's) eating the grass seed. I didn't see the mourning doves, but I didn't have time to look until 2 hours after she called. On my way back to my office I found several black legged kittiwakes among the gulls in the channel. This might be described as procrastination, but it seemed to be time to start watching the channel again.
On Thursday Marisa, Asa and I went up to the first muskeg along the Indian River trail to collect fresh soil for the bioassay and to re-collect pond water for the Archaea search. I collected soil from the rhizosphere from two distinct areas; a swale area with Carex livida, C. pluriflora, Gentiana douglasiana and Drosera and the other from a hummock with Empetrum, Vaccinium vitis-idaea and a small Pinus. The hummock soil was full of what looked like ectomycorrhizal roots, but I haven't had a chance to look at them closely. Asa was doing rather well until he wandered a little too close to a muskeg pond, he went swimming, but managed to get himself out. There is something terribly compelling about ponds (kind of like bandsaws). I remember jumping into a few when I was little, but I suspect its actually the unstable nature of the sphagnum dominated edges that sucks small people into the ponds around here. Collected some roots from G. douglasiana and Rubus chamaemorus. It isn't the best time of year for this activity. The stems are soft enough on the Gentian that it is a delicate job to keep the roots and stem attached to eachother when cleaning up the sample. The cloudberry was alot easier to keep together, but I don't think I collected an adequate amount of fine roots. The mushrooms seem to be slacking off a little with the dropping temperature.
On Friday set up the bioassay with the Edgecumbe class. The task took substantially longer than the 80 minute class period. We used a two-fold dilution series out to the 7th dilution with 5 replicates of each soil sample. We started with 50g of test soil and 50g of sterile soil, fortunately the students had started weighing the autoclaved soil on Thursday, so were able to get through the mixing and weighing of the dilution series. Marisa and I stayed until noon to finish potting up the dilutions and planting the seeds. The MPN procedure for detecting VA mycorrhizae that we had planned to use, called for the seeds to be planted in a cylinder shaped area of the soil dilution surrounded by 300 g of sterile soil. The idea was that the roots would be surrounded by the inoculum, get infected and then grow into the rest of the soil. At some point we realized that we didn't have enough soil to complete the procedure as planned, so we used a dixie cup (instead of a coffeee size cup) as a planting pot. I plan on allowing the seedlings to grow in the smaller cup until they have occupied the complete soil volume then transplanting them into the larger soil volume. Hopefully, this modification will work reasonably well. Used wheat seed as a test plant, I would prefer to have onion seed, but I didn't realize that I was starting this project this fall, so couldn't plan ahead. I borrowed the multi-tier light stand from UAS so the seedlings should get adequate light. Now it's time to cross my fingers.
After that fun, drove out to the benchlands road to dig alders for the park. Finding adequate numbers was not a problem. Salix sitchensis was also abundant a little further down the road. I am reluctant to plant willow in the old picnic area as there aren't any in that area, so I planted them in the upper parking lot. Only found one sad looking salmonberry to transplant. After planting this load, I think it will take one more session of alder securing to fill the paths approaching the old picnic area. Still looking for easy salmonberry and elderberry.
Walked down to the river mouth after planting, unfortunately without my binoculars. It was a little difficult to distinguish the types of ducks, so didn't stay too long.
The weather that we have had the last few days has been conducive to getting back to some writing projects. I caught up with grading, re-writing lab procedures and finished the long put off kayak/birding paragraphs that I promised Marge. Also finished the muskeg research proposal so that we can ask for a small amount of SCS financial support.
Went over to Alice Island Wednesday and Thursday, the first day just to escape my window-less office and the second because Jan called and reported a pair of mourning doves in the area. The road is paved around the gravel loop and the lots are seeded with grass, but many of the trees were spared. There were two nice maples and a birch near Mermaid cove that I hadn't noticed before or didn't remember. I hope that they go slow building the houses, but it is probably a vain hope. There were abundant robins, juncos and sparrows (song, fox, and lincoln's) eating the grass seed. I didn't see the mourning doves, but I didn't have time to look until 2 hours after she called. On my way back to my office I found several black legged kittiwakes among the gulls in the channel. This might be described as procrastination, but it seemed to be time to start watching the channel again.
On Thursday Marisa, Asa and I went up to the first muskeg along the Indian River trail to collect fresh soil for the bioassay and to re-collect pond water for the Archaea search. I collected soil from the rhizosphere from two distinct areas; a swale area with Carex livida, C. pluriflora, Gentiana douglasiana and Drosera and the other from a hummock with Empetrum, Vaccinium vitis-idaea and a small Pinus. The hummock soil was full of what looked like ectomycorrhizal roots, but I haven't had a chance to look at them closely. Asa was doing rather well until he wandered a little too close to a muskeg pond, he went swimming, but managed to get himself out. There is something terribly compelling about ponds (kind of like bandsaws). I remember jumping into a few when I was little, but I suspect its actually the unstable nature of the sphagnum dominated edges that sucks small people into the ponds around here. Collected some roots from G. douglasiana and Rubus chamaemorus. It isn't the best time of year for this activity. The stems are soft enough on the Gentian that it is a delicate job to keep the roots and stem attached to eachother when cleaning up the sample. The cloudberry was alot easier to keep together, but I don't think I collected an adequate amount of fine roots. The mushrooms seem to be slacking off a little with the dropping temperature.
On Friday set up the bioassay with the Edgecumbe class. The task took substantially longer than the 80 minute class period. We used a two-fold dilution series out to the 7th dilution with 5 replicates of each soil sample. We started with 50g of test soil and 50g of sterile soil, fortunately the students had started weighing the autoclaved soil on Thursday, so were able to get through the mixing and weighing of the dilution series. Marisa and I stayed until noon to finish potting up the dilutions and planting the seeds. The MPN procedure for detecting VA mycorrhizae that we had planned to use, called for the seeds to be planted in a cylinder shaped area of the soil dilution surrounded by 300 g of sterile soil. The idea was that the roots would be surrounded by the inoculum, get infected and then grow into the rest of the soil. At some point we realized that we didn't have enough soil to complete the procedure as planned, so we used a dixie cup (instead of a coffeee size cup) as a planting pot. I plan on allowing the seedlings to grow in the smaller cup until they have occupied the complete soil volume then transplanting them into the larger soil volume. Hopefully, this modification will work reasonably well. Used wheat seed as a test plant, I would prefer to have onion seed, but I didn't realize that I was starting this project this fall, so couldn't plan ahead. I borrowed the multi-tier light stand from UAS so the seedlings should get adequate light. Now it's time to cross my fingers.
After that fun, drove out to the benchlands road to dig alders for the park. Finding adequate numbers was not a problem. Salix sitchensis was also abundant a little further down the road. I am reluctant to plant willow in the old picnic area as there aren't any in that area, so I planted them in the upper parking lot. Only found one sad looking salmonberry to transplant. After planting this load, I think it will take one more session of alder securing to fill the paths approaching the old picnic area. Still looking for easy salmonberry and elderberry.
Walked down to the river mouth after planting, unfortunately without my binoculars. It was a little difficult to distinguish the types of ducks, so didn't stay too long.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday September 18
Was able to stay home for a couple 0f hours in the morning and enjoy the birds in the garden. Went out to try for a better photo of the lilies and of some other late bloomers, when several chickadees landed in the vine maple next to me. Took my first clear photo of a bird. It's certainly not brillant, but at least it's mostly in focus.
No tricks either, the sky really was that blue and the vine maple leaves that orange. During a year when that particular tree's leaves turns orange it happens in August. Also in the garden were several Varied Thrush, juncos, ruby-crowned kinglets, song and fox sparrows.
Moved another load of alders from Scott and Patty's garden to the park. Unfortunately I've taken all the easy ones so I'll have to find another spot. There were two or three Steller's Jays in their neighborhood both days that I was digging. I've never seen one on Galankin, interesting that they haven't ventured over.
Stopped at Swan lake again to see if any other out of the ordinary birds have joined the greater white-fronted geese, no joy there. I do like the look of the geese though and managed to produce a passable drawing of the top half of one in drawing class.
Class produced a couple of bits of random drawing wisdom: vertical lines in nature really are vertical and some drawings are not worth trying to fix. Nice to have been given permission to abandon some of mine.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Sunday & MondayThe weather was decidedly rainy and windy and I ventured forth only to walk around the lake on Sunday. Most of the passerines were hunkered down out of the wind, but did see winter wrens, chickadees, song & fox sparrows and varied thrushes. I was impressed with the wind resilance of the stems of the stargazer lilies in the garden, most of the flowers have acquired a decided lean to the north, but the lilies have remained mostly upright. Deirdre planted the lily bulbs about 5 years ago and they have done well. The whole plant is about 5ft tall and each flower is between 4 and 6 inches in diameter. The fragrance is quite nice and if you like pink, the color is satisfying.
Much friendlier weather on Monday, the walk to the dock was serenaded by a song sparrow and a winter wren. Also chased many varied thrush through the alders.
With the Edgecumbe class cleared and stained the roots we had collected in the muskeg. I need to collect more gentian roots, the samples were on the light side, so I froze all for pcr detection of mycorrhizae.
Proceeded from the high school to Swan Lake to visit with the greater white-fronted geese. They were reasonably tolerant of my presence. I forgot or maybe never noticed before how intensely orange their feet are. The pattern of their feathers on their backs would make a good subject for drawing class homework (homework for statistics was alot less painful). Didn't have any tools so I'll need to find a photo.
Two of the younger mallards were doing a head bobbing ritual? Not exactly sure what that was about, but it went on for several minutes.
Carried on to Scott and Patty's house to dig alders for planting in the park. Dug enough to completely fill the trunk of the car, not that they actually fit in the trunk. I drove very slowly with the trunk open, alder tops out, to the park. Didn't lose any. Not sure how well they will survive, as I've never transplanted alder. I suspect that they are rather tough.
Between digging and planting I had an appointment to redeem a gift certificate for a massage that I received for Christmas. Very nice. Nothing like subdued lighting, gentle music and someone massaging your body with warm oil. Sounds overly erotic? Not if it is therapeutic massage and the goal is to work the kinks out of your muscles... I had a few to work out, ouch. The overall effect was rather relaxing and I could barely focus when I left the room. Unfortunately, I felt like I needed to plant the alders before they dried out and probably put a few kinks back in.
I'd like to find some Sambucus and Ribes for the park, planting a monoculture of Alnus in the former picnic site doesn't sound that great.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday & Saturday
Worked with Marty Johnson's class sorting the plants and soil for staining, spore counts and PCR work. Gold thread really is a good name for Coptis. Trichophorum has roots that look the most like what one expects roots to look like. They are long, white, somewhat branched with root hairs. Carex livida is somewhat similar, but Carex pluriflora roots are heavy duty rhizomatous things. Didn't get a look at the other roots, the samplers had only collected three of each plant and were done rather quickly, so didn't need my help.
Ran into Jeff Farvour at the Backdoor and he took me out to show me a mushroom he wanted identified. It was out Sawmill Crk Rd, a driveway just past the round house then up behind Barkhau's wood shop. Definitely not a place I'd casually wander. The forest looked like relatively new growth, not sure who cut the area or when, but it looked like a high-graded area, not a clear cut. I thought he was taking me to a site with Black or Blue chanterelles, not so, but it turned out to be something just as unusual. The mushrooms were truely impressive. There were 5 clusters of mushrooms. Each cluster was about 8" to 1.5ft in diameter and about 8 to 12 inches high. Gomphus kauffmanii (or Turbinellus kauffmanii) has a tan to brown cap with large scales. The ridges are much shallower than in the Chanterelles. The overall shape of one of the fungi is somewhat like a horn of plenty, although not all of them had such a pronounced curve in the stem. I've seen photos of this fungus from Medveje Hatchery area, but hadn't seen one myself. Gomphus is reportedly mycorrhizal.
Once again Mushroomexpert.com has a good discussion of this genus. The linked dissertation has ample taxonomic information. T. kauffmanii is on page 57.
Giachini, A. J. (2004). Systematics, phylogeny, and ecology of Gomphus sensu lato. Doctoral dissertation, Oregon State University
http://tede.ibict.br/tde_arquivos/1/TDE-2005-03-28T07:32:29Z-112/Publico/2_AdmirJGiachini_cap3_cap4.pdf
Spent the afternoon walking up to the first bridge on the Indian River trail with the elderhostel group. Well, 5 of them went with me to the bridge, the rest turned back not too much before it. Mary had stepped in a way that tweaked her bum knee, so reluctantly she turned back and the rest with her. I enjoyed spending more time with her. It will be interesting to hear how she puts her dispersal stories together in a presentation. Sent the folks back with golden chanterelles to try. Not sure that they realize how rare a handout that is. They are so abundant this year that I'm not too worried about hoarding them.
Brought back a Russula to torture myself with, actually started out with two species, but the lavender capped ones seem to be rather fragile and it didn't survive.
The surviving species keys to Russula emetica (it has in other years too). It has a fully red cap that is peelable most of the way across. The flesh under the pellicle is pink and smells like fruit. The spore print is white as is the stem. There isn't any bruising reaction in the flesh. This description matches R. emetica quite well, except it seems that this species is only supposed to occur in sphagnum bogs. Not exactly where I found it. So I'll leave this as R. emetica with the understanding that it is probably something else...
The last mystery that I dealt with tonight was the thick polypore that I collected last Saturday at Starrigavan. This one finally keyed out to Boletopsis subsquamosa group. I'm glad that Arora uses group. The cap is dark brownish-grey, wavy margined and about 4 inches in diameter. The pore layer started out white, but bruised brown. This polypore has a rather thick fleshy stalk which is the same color as the cap. The warty spores are what puts this comfortably in this genus. Apparently it is edible, but it doesn't look that appealing to me. Haven't found much yet about its ecology, but it seems to be ectomycorrhizal.
Spent most of the day catching up with chores, but did walk to dance Saturday morning despite the wild weather. One yellow warbler, one flicker near the park. Didn't quite have time to look at the mouth on the way to class and the rain was a bit intense after class.
Last nights storm brought in the first big rafts of loose macrocytis of the season, no petrels yet.
Worked with Marty Johnson's class sorting the plants and soil for staining, spore counts and PCR work. Gold thread really is a good name for Coptis. Trichophorum has roots that look the most like what one expects roots to look like. They are long, white, somewhat branched with root hairs. Carex livida is somewhat similar, but Carex pluriflora roots are heavy duty rhizomatous things. Didn't get a look at the other roots, the samplers had only collected three of each plant and were done rather quickly, so didn't need my help.
Ran into Jeff Farvour at the Backdoor and he took me out to show me a mushroom he wanted identified. It was out Sawmill Crk Rd, a driveway just past the round house then up behind Barkhau's wood shop. Definitely not a place I'd casually wander. The forest looked like relatively new growth, not sure who cut the area or when, but it looked like a high-graded area, not a clear cut. I thought he was taking me to a site with Black or Blue chanterelles, not so, but it turned out to be something just as unusual. The mushrooms were truely impressive. There were 5 clusters of mushrooms. Each cluster was about 8" to 1.5ft in diameter and about 8 to 12 inches high. Gomphus kauffmanii (or Turbinellus kauffmanii) has a tan to brown cap with large scales. The ridges are much shallower than in the Chanterelles. The overall shape of one of the fungi is somewhat like a horn of plenty, although not all of them had such a pronounced curve in the stem. I've seen photos of this fungus from Medveje Hatchery area, but hadn't seen one myself. Gomphus is reportedly mycorrhizal.
Once again Mushroomexpert.com has a good discussion of this genus. The linked dissertation has ample taxonomic information. T. kauffmanii is on page 57.
Giachini, A. J. (2004). Systematics, phylogeny, and ecology of Gomphus sensu lato. Doctoral dissertation, Oregon State University
http://tede.ibict.br/tde_arquivos/1/TDE-2005-03-28T07:32:29Z-112/Publico/2_AdmirJGiachini_cap3_cap4.pdf
Spent the afternoon walking up to the first bridge on the Indian River trail with the elderhostel group. Well, 5 of them went with me to the bridge, the rest turned back not too much before it. Mary had stepped in a way that tweaked her bum knee, so reluctantly she turned back and the rest with her. I enjoyed spending more time with her. It will be interesting to hear how she puts her dispersal stories together in a presentation. Sent the folks back with golden chanterelles to try. Not sure that they realize how rare a handout that is. They are so abundant this year that I'm not too worried about hoarding them.
Brought back a Russula to torture myself with, actually started out with two species, but the lavender capped ones seem to be rather fragile and it didn't survive.
The surviving species keys to Russula emetica (it has in other years too). It has a fully red cap that is peelable most of the way across. The flesh under the pellicle is pink and smells like fruit. The spore print is white as is the stem. There isn't any bruising reaction in the flesh. This description matches R. emetica quite well, except it seems that this species is only supposed to occur in sphagnum bogs. Not exactly where I found it. So I'll leave this as R. emetica with the understanding that it is probably something else...
The last mystery that I dealt with tonight was the thick polypore that I collected last Saturday at Starrigavan. This one finally keyed out to Boletopsis subsquamosa group. I'm glad that Arora uses group. The cap is dark brownish-grey, wavy margined and about 4 inches in diameter. The pore layer started out white, but bruised brown. This polypore has a rather thick fleshy stalk which is the same color as the cap. The warty spores are what puts this comfortably in this genus. Apparently it is edible, but it doesn't look that appealing to me. Haven't found much yet about its ecology, but it seems to be ectomycorrhizal.
Spent most of the day catching up with chores, but did walk to dance Saturday morning despite the wild weather. One yellow warbler, one flicker near the park. Didn't quite have time to look at the mouth on the way to class and the rain was a bit intense after class.
Last nights storm brought in the first big rafts of loose macrocytis of the season, no petrels yet.
Friday, September 14, 2007
September 13th
Sunny
Went up the Indian river trail to the first muskeg with Marty Johnson's High School class to collect root, soil and water samples. We decided to limit ourselves to three projects; plants with possible VAM mycorrhizae, looking for laccase gene in swales, hummocks, ecotone and forest soils and a survey of archaea. The laccase gene (involved in lignin degradation) shows up in many ectomycorrhizal fungi. Is this just a carry-over from a former saprophytic life style or do these fungi obtain nutrients from their vascular plant hosts and from lignin degradation? Not sure if anyone has shown that the gene is expressed in a fungus with an active mycorrhizal connection. Always more questions.
The mycorrhizal study groups collected Carex plurifolia, Trichophorum caespitosum, Drosera rotundifolia, Triantha glutinosa and Cornus suecica. The class didn't quite have enough time to finish the collecting, so Marisa and I finished up. I collected Gentiana douglasiana, Coptis trifoliata and Carex livida as back-ups and because I'm just as curious about the mycorrhizal status of those plants. Lots of Juncos in the muskeg and thrushes flying over.
In the forest we collected some soil from the top of a barkless log that was still sound and some of the cuboidal lignin for additional samples to look for laccase activity.
After putting our samples in the refrigerator, I went out to Starrigavan to collect more mushroom samples for the evening class. Walked around the Mosquito cove trail then down the Estuary trail to the campground. Despite the heavy mushroom harvesting over the weekend, there was ample numbers of samples to collect for keying practice. Found an especially nice example of an Amanita vaginata still contained in its universal veil and a pseudo chanterelle. Couldn't resist crawling under the Hemlock tree for the rest of the Hydnums.
Also found an attractive bleeding Mycena, M. haematopus. It has a maroon cast to the brown cap and stem color, "bleeds" reddish-brown when picked and grows on decaying wood. Each sporocarp is about 4 to 5 inches tall, so are a little larger than the average LBM.
Birds weren't terribly intriguing, but I suspect that they felt the same way about me.
My afternoon collecting run also took me out to the Blue Lake campground for Clitocybe dilatata and to St. Peter's church for several Leccinum The species is most likely rotundifoliae, but I didn't test it with FeSO4. When I first came to town several people told me that they collected and ate the Clitocybe which they assumed was Lypophyllum decastes. This always made me a little nervous because the Clitocybe is reported to be poisonous. I couldn't ever bring myself to try it out and had a hard time convincing them to be cautious. It would be interesting to get a definitive answer on whether or not it contains muscarine, but it isn't a high priority.
A Boletus mirabilis, Plogiotis helvelloides, and a very old Lycoperdon were the highlights of what were brought in by students. Unfortunately, the Hygrophorus didn't make it back.
Sunny
Went up the Indian river trail to the first muskeg with Marty Johnson's High School class to collect root, soil and water samples. We decided to limit ourselves to three projects; plants with possible VAM mycorrhizae, looking for laccase gene in swales, hummocks, ecotone and forest soils and a survey of archaea. The laccase gene (involved in lignin degradation) shows up in many ectomycorrhizal fungi. Is this just a carry-over from a former saprophytic life style or do these fungi obtain nutrients from their vascular plant hosts and from lignin degradation? Not sure if anyone has shown that the gene is expressed in a fungus with an active mycorrhizal connection. Always more questions.
The mycorrhizal study groups collected Carex plurifolia, Trichophorum caespitosum, Drosera rotundifolia, Triantha glutinosa and Cornus suecica. The class didn't quite have enough time to finish the collecting, so Marisa and I finished up. I collected Gentiana douglasiana, Coptis trifoliata and Carex livida as back-ups and because I'm just as curious about the mycorrhizal status of those plants. Lots of Juncos in the muskeg and thrushes flying over.
In the forest we collected some soil from the top of a barkless log that was still sound and some of the cuboidal lignin for additional samples to look for laccase activity.
After putting our samples in the refrigerator, I went out to Starrigavan to collect more mushroom samples for the evening class. Walked around the Mosquito cove trail then down the Estuary trail to the campground. Despite the heavy mushroom harvesting over the weekend, there was ample numbers of samples to collect for keying practice. Found an especially nice example of an Amanita vaginata still contained in its universal veil and a pseudo chanterelle. Couldn't resist crawling under the Hemlock tree for the rest of the Hydnums.
Also found an attractive bleeding Mycena, M. haematopus. It has a maroon cast to the brown cap and stem color, "bleeds" reddish-brown when picked and grows on decaying wood. Each sporocarp is about 4 to 5 inches tall, so are a little larger than the average LBM.
Birds weren't terribly intriguing, but I suspect that they felt the same way about me.
My afternoon collecting run also took me out to the Blue Lake campground for Clitocybe dilatata and to St. Peter's church for several Leccinum The species is most likely rotundifoliae, but I didn't test it with FeSO4. When I first came to town several people told me that they collected and ate the Clitocybe which they assumed was Lypophyllum decastes. This always made me a little nervous because the Clitocybe is reported to be poisonous. I couldn't ever bring myself to try it out and had a hard time convincing them to be cautious. It would be interesting to get a definitive answer on whether or not it contains muscarine, but it isn't a high priority.
A Boletus mirabilis, Plogiotis helvelloides, and a very old Lycoperdon were the highlights of what were brought in by students. Unfortunately, the Hygrophorus didn't make it back.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
September 12
Another sunny day. Spent the day (9am to 6pm) with the elderhostel group. We started the day trying out geocaching at Starrigavan. It went fairly well, in that we had fun wandering around looking at plants, fish and birds with the GPS units. Unfortunately, the cache wasn't located despite determined searching. I know that we were in the right grove of trees, perhaps the age of the eyes is an important factor or maybe more interest. I was seriously distracted by the Hydnum repandums that I was finding under the trees. Some of the largest ones that I ever found were under the roots of one of the trees. I had wriggle my upper body under the roots to reach them, but it was worth the effort. I'll have to look again without the distractions. I wondered if I should have pre-located it, but I doubt if it would have been very satisfying having me tell them where it was. I did send them home with the mushrooms so they did get a better treasure than anything that would have been found in the cache.
We also walked around the muskeg trail and had a picnic on the beach below the campground. The shore birds were absent, but the group was happy with herons, kingfishers, gulls (herring, glaucous-winged, and thayers) and ravens. We did find chickadees along the trail which made one gentlemen very happy.
Mary did run the experiment to determine if Triantha absorbs nutrients from insects stuck on the sticky stems. She fed wingless fruit-flies labeled (N15) glutamate. She doesn't have the results yet, the plant parts are still in the freezer. I'm hoping that she has the results before her March visit.
We found one of the starch-slime and embedded seeds of the Skunk cabbage fruit structures. I have to admit that I hadn't noticed it before. She wasn't able to find any effect of the slime on germination of the seeds. Apparently the birds were happy to eat the seeds with our without the slime around. So why the slime? I'm not convinced that there is a why for everything, at least not that directly, the reason could be because of some chemical/structural holdover. Evolution can only work with what is already there.
After lunch I chased the report of a mushroom on the Mosquito cove trail. Didn't find anything unusual and had to run back to catch the group before they left for Harbor Mtn. Haven't run through the woods for a while, it is kind of fun, but not too good for seeing anything. It was more fun running down hillslopes than along a trail, but I did need to get back.
Harbor Mtn wasn't on the original schedule, but it was too nice of a day to pass up. I drove four people up and Mary took two trips to bring the rest. My four went up the trail and along the ridge a little way. They were inspired by an Australian couple to climb the highest overlook. Not sure that Karen would approve, but it was their idea. A very nice view, but I still prefer the boulder fields. We did find two Gentiana platypetala blooming along the trail. After I got those four back, another couple wanted to see the view from the ridge, so back I went. I did see a small flock of Golden-crowned sparrows below the trail.
Another sunny day. Spent the day (9am to 6pm) with the elderhostel group. We started the day trying out geocaching at Starrigavan. It went fairly well, in that we had fun wandering around looking at plants, fish and birds with the GPS units. Unfortunately, the cache wasn't located despite determined searching. I know that we were in the right grove of trees, perhaps the age of the eyes is an important factor or maybe more interest. I was seriously distracted by the Hydnum repandums that I was finding under the trees. Some of the largest ones that I ever found were under the roots of one of the trees. I had wriggle my upper body under the roots to reach them, but it was worth the effort. I'll have to look again without the distractions. I wondered if I should have pre-located it, but I doubt if it would have been very satisfying having me tell them where it was. I did send them home with the mushrooms so they did get a better treasure than anything that would have been found in the cache.
We also walked around the muskeg trail and had a picnic on the beach below the campground. The shore birds were absent, but the group was happy with herons, kingfishers, gulls (herring, glaucous-winged, and thayers) and ravens. We did find chickadees along the trail which made one gentlemen very happy.
Mary did run the experiment to determine if Triantha absorbs nutrients from insects stuck on the sticky stems. She fed wingless fruit-flies labeled (N15) glutamate. She doesn't have the results yet, the plant parts are still in the freezer. I'm hoping that she has the results before her March visit.
We found one of the starch-slime and embedded seeds of the Skunk cabbage fruit structures. I have to admit that I hadn't noticed it before. She wasn't able to find any effect of the slime on germination of the seeds. Apparently the birds were happy to eat the seeds with our without the slime around. So why the slime? I'm not convinced that there is a why for everything, at least not that directly, the reason could be because of some chemical/structural holdover. Evolution can only work with what is already there.
After lunch I chased the report of a mushroom on the Mosquito cove trail. Didn't find anything unusual and had to run back to catch the group before they left for Harbor Mtn. Haven't run through the woods for a while, it is kind of fun, but not too good for seeing anything. It was more fun running down hillslopes than along a trail, but I did need to get back.
Harbor Mtn wasn't on the original schedule, but it was too nice of a day to pass up. I drove four people up and Mary took two trips to bring the rest. My four went up the trail and along the ridge a little way. They were inspired by an Australian couple to climb the highest overlook. Not sure that Karen would approve, but it was their idea. A very nice view, but I still prefer the boulder fields. We did find two Gentiana platypetala blooming along the trail. After I got those four back, another couple wanted to see the view from the ridge, so back I went. I did see a small flock of Golden-crowned sparrows below the trail.
I knew that this week was going to be busy, but I didn't quite realize the extent of "busy". Monday seemed calm enough until I went home and found a message about buying tickets immediately or losing the grant money. After a rather frantic night and morning, managed to spend the grant money and be reimbursed for my purchases. Purchased tickets for Mary Willson, Kevin White, Alexia Stevens, Jonathon Goff and two tickets for John Hudson. I suppose that I should be grateful for the adrenaline rush and the motivation to complete a tedious task.
Tuesday
Gave a lecture and led a walk through Totem park with an elderhostel group. I need to remember to update some names and check some spellings, perhaps also not to babble so much. I'll blame the crazed night before the lecture for any lapses. We saw a nice array of gulls, widgeons, and a kingfisher. After their early morning intertidal walk and morning lectures, the group was rather done in. The chums and pinks in the river were a definate hit.
Was inspired by some photos to straighten out the Saxifrages in my mind (again). It seems to be the scapose ones that I can get tangled. The term scapose is bad enough, for some reason I perpetually tangle that one up as well.
The interpretation of the leaf base is rather important for identification. Some cuneate leaf bases look alot like petioles, especially those of S. lyalli.
Cordate leaf base:
Saxifraga mertensiana: broadly rounded lobes with 3 teeth each
S. nelsoniana: no teeth on the lobed leaves with stamens that may or may not be clavate.
Cuneate leaf base: any slightly broadened petiole-looking thing counts
S. lyalli: clavate filaments, inflorescence is stipitate glandular and often more than 10 flowers per inflorescence.
S. ferruginea: filaments linear, sepals reflexed. leaves are rather strap-shaped.
The species with cauline leaves seem to a little more straightforward. I was surprised by the S. eschscholtzii find on Bear Mtn. I checked the records for this species through the online database from the UAF and UBC herbariums and couldn't find a record from our area. Mary Stensvold has it listed as extreme north in rocky alpine areas. She didn't know of any collections from southeast. I'm anxious to talk to Brad when he returns to see if it is a new record for our area. Definately makes me antsy to climb more mountains.
Tuesday
Gave a lecture and led a walk through Totem park with an elderhostel group. I need to remember to update some names and check some spellings, perhaps also not to babble so much. I'll blame the crazed night before the lecture for any lapses. We saw a nice array of gulls, widgeons, and a kingfisher. After their early morning intertidal walk and morning lectures, the group was rather done in. The chums and pinks in the river were a definate hit.
Was inspired by some photos to straighten out the Saxifrages in my mind (again). It seems to be the scapose ones that I can get tangled. The term scapose is bad enough, for some reason I perpetually tangle that one up as well.
The interpretation of the leaf base is rather important for identification. Some cuneate leaf bases look alot like petioles, especially those of S. lyalli.
Cordate leaf base:
Saxifraga mertensiana: broadly rounded lobes with 3 teeth each
S. nelsoniana: no teeth on the lobed leaves with stamens that may or may not be clavate.
Cuneate leaf base: any slightly broadened petiole-looking thing counts
S. lyalli: clavate filaments, inflorescence is stipitate glandular and often more than 10 flowers per inflorescence.
S. ferruginea: filaments linear, sepals reflexed. leaves are rather strap-shaped.
The species with cauline leaves seem to a little more straightforward. I was surprised by the S. eschscholtzii find on Bear Mtn. I checked the records for this species through the online database from the UAF and UBC herbariums and couldn't find a record from our area. Mary Stensvold has it listed as extreme north in rocky alpine areas. She didn't know of any collections from southeast. I'm anxious to talk to Brad when he returns to see if it is a new record for our area. Definately makes me antsy to climb more mountains.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Saturday
Met the Mushroom ID. class at the Mosquito Cove trail head this morning. I periodically wander to another spot, but Starrigavan is still one of the best for variety of fungi. The weather was not spectacular, but the collecting was very good. It must have rained for the entire 5 hours, but I was comfortable in my rain gear. The temperature was cooler, it was the first time since last spring that I wore a turtle neck and hat all day. At least the long underwear hasn't made an appearance. Maybe I have been here too long, I honestly didn't notice the weather until the class insisted on having the show-and-tell discussion under the picnic shelter.
The list of fungi: Cantharellus cibarius, Craterellus neotubaeformis (winter chanterelle), Clavariadelphus caespitosus, Clavulina sp, Ramaria sp., `two Cortinarius spp (the very slimey, purple stemed one and the somewhat fibrillose orange one), Hydnum repandum, Hydnellum suaveolens, Pseudohydum gelatinosum, Naematoloma sp, Collybia acervata, Amanita pantherina, A. vaginata, Helvella lacunosa, Helvella sp (it left with a student), Coprinus atramentarius, Lactarius deliciosus, L. rufus, L. lignyotus, and the Lactarius that is orange with a zonate pattern and white latex, the usual suspects in the Russulas, Hygrophorus sp (bright red cap and stem, not previously found), Laccaria laccata, Pleurocybella porrigens, Tricholomopsis rutilans, Cystoderma sp, Inocybe spp, Rozites caperata, Chroogomphus tomentosus, Chalciporus piperatoides (formerly Boletus, PNW key council includes this although Arora doesn't),Ganoderma tsugae, Nidula candida, Scutellinia scutellata, Elaphomyces muriatus, Rhytisma arbuti (tar spot on Menziesia) and an large, fleshy Polyporus that I haven't seen before. There were of course many Mycenas and little brown mushrooms left behind in the forest.
Hopefully most of the unidentified will be dealt with this week. I'm sure that I omitted some species that went home with people.
Most remarkable is the number of Chroogomphus tomentosus found this year, usually they are an unusual creature. Equally remarkable is the lack of A. muscaria.
On Friday I treated the Sorbus sitchensis seeds with sulfuric acid. It was a bit of a mess. I had almost enough 1N acid to cover the seeds, but had to add a little straight sulfuric acid. It reacted noticably, but not dangerously. Glad I had the safety googles, gloves and apron...The mess came when it was time to pour off the acid. I decided that tongs should be used to tip the beaker, the other hand could then administer the baking soda. There was enough liquid that I decided to use the baking soda liberally (in the sink) before rinsing with water. I did remember the high school chemistry mantra "pour the acid in the water if you want to sing your alma mater". The bubbling and sizzling went on for awhile before I gingerly started rinsing the sink with water. Meanwhile, I did rinse the seeds several times. I'm glad that there weren't witnesses, it looked more than a little crazy. The acid treatment seperated the fruit into what looked like individual seeds. I planted the seeds in the newly empty vegetable bed below the strawberries. We'll see.
The lupines I planted last Monday were starting to germinate today (Sunday). I'll plant the rest of the lupine seed out in the park this week.
I did go up to the near muskeg on the Indian River trail this afternoon when the sun came out. Brought home some Hydnum repandum for dinner. Found a very dark Amanita vaginata under a stump across from the first Icmadophila stump. The cap was the color of rootbeer and the stem had a brown wash over the white. I found one that wasn't quite as dark another closer to the beginning of the trail. Also walked through the east side of Totem park, found a handful of Chroogomphus tomentosus in the old Boletus spot. Looked like widgeons near the mouth of the river, but I had grabbed the submerged binoculars which didn't focus too well.
Robins, Varied thrushes, Hermit thrush parent and juvenile, song and fox sparrow in the garden.
Met the Mushroom ID. class at the Mosquito Cove trail head this morning. I periodically wander to another spot, but Starrigavan is still one of the best for variety of fungi. The weather was not spectacular, but the collecting was very good. It must have rained for the entire 5 hours, but I was comfortable in my rain gear. The temperature was cooler, it was the first time since last spring that I wore a turtle neck and hat all day. At least the long underwear hasn't made an appearance. Maybe I have been here too long, I honestly didn't notice the weather until the class insisted on having the show-and-tell discussion under the picnic shelter.
The list of fungi: Cantharellus cibarius, Craterellus neotubaeformis (winter chanterelle), Clavariadelphus caespitosus, Clavulina sp, Ramaria sp., `two Cortinarius spp (the very slimey, purple stemed one and the somewhat fibrillose orange one), Hydnum repandum, Hydnellum suaveolens, Pseudohydum gelatinosum, Naematoloma sp, Collybia acervata, Amanita pantherina, A. vaginata, Helvella lacunosa, Helvella sp (it left with a student), Coprinus atramentarius, Lactarius deliciosus, L. rufus, L. lignyotus, and the Lactarius that is orange with a zonate pattern and white latex, the usual suspects in the Russulas, Hygrophorus sp (bright red cap and stem, not previously found), Laccaria laccata, Pleurocybella porrigens, Tricholomopsis rutilans, Cystoderma sp, Inocybe spp, Rozites caperata, Chroogomphus tomentosus, Chalciporus piperatoides (formerly Boletus, PNW key council includes this although Arora doesn't),Ganoderma tsugae, Nidula candida, Scutellinia scutellata, Elaphomyces muriatus, Rhytisma arbuti (tar spot on Menziesia) and an large, fleshy Polyporus that I haven't seen before. There were of course many Mycenas and little brown mushrooms left behind in the forest.
Hopefully most of the unidentified will be dealt with this week. I'm sure that I omitted some species that went home with people.
Most remarkable is the number of Chroogomphus tomentosus found this year, usually they are an unusual creature. Equally remarkable is the lack of A. muscaria.
On Friday I treated the Sorbus sitchensis seeds with sulfuric acid. It was a bit of a mess. I had almost enough 1N acid to cover the seeds, but had to add a little straight sulfuric acid. It reacted noticably, but not dangerously. Glad I had the safety googles, gloves and apron...The mess came when it was time to pour off the acid. I decided that tongs should be used to tip the beaker, the other hand could then administer the baking soda. There was enough liquid that I decided to use the baking soda liberally (in the sink) before rinsing with water. I did remember the high school chemistry mantra "pour the acid in the water if you want to sing your alma mater". The bubbling and sizzling went on for awhile before I gingerly started rinsing the sink with water. Meanwhile, I did rinse the seeds several times. I'm glad that there weren't witnesses, it looked more than a little crazy. The acid treatment seperated the fruit into what looked like individual seeds. I planted the seeds in the newly empty vegetable bed below the strawberries. We'll see.
The lupines I planted last Monday were starting to germinate today (Sunday). I'll plant the rest of the lupine seed out in the park this week.
I did go up to the near muskeg on the Indian River trail this afternoon when the sun came out. Brought home some Hydnum repandum for dinner. Found a very dark Amanita vaginata under a stump across from the first Icmadophila stump. The cap was the color of rootbeer and the stem had a brown wash over the white. I found one that wasn't quite as dark another closer to the beginning of the trail. Also walked through the east side of Totem park, found a handful of Chroogomphus tomentosus in the old Boletus spot. Looked like widgeons near the mouth of the river, but I had grabbed the submerged binoculars which didn't focus too well.
Robins, Varied thrushes, Hermit thrush parent and juvenile, song and fox sparrow in the garden.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Thursday
Spent my day either gathering mushrooms in rather heavy rain or in meetings. In Totem park gathered (for class) Cantharellus cibarius, C. infundibuliformis, Hydnum repandum, Amanita pantherina and a bolete that I haven't keyed to species. It's one I've seen before, but never felt very confident about its identification.
Was given a Cantharellus cinerus at lunch to use in class. It's a species that I don't find very often and was very happy to show it last night. It is distinctive because of its black color and because it grows singly, not in clumps like Polyozellus multiplex.
Ran out to Starrigavan after lunch and walked through the campground and down the beach side of the Mosquito cove trail. Found a nice variety including Hydnellum suaveolens, Chroogomphus tomentosus, Laccaria laccata, lots of Lactarius, Russula, Ramaria, and Helvella lacunosa. Hydnellum suaveolans has a stem with blue-black flesh instead of the orange to rusty brown flesh found in H. caeruleum. The specimens spent the night in my office dropping spores and filling the area with a strong and pleasantly odd smell. Coumarin and p-anisaldehyde are the chemicals responsible for the odor.
Looked for the stilts again, found black turnstones instead. The surprise was a probable juvenile Sandhill crane. It was in the grassy area near the small creek on the water side of the campground. It was useful that there was a great blue heron nearby for comparison. The lack of the red on the head was troublesome, but when the two birds flew I felt more confident. The crane's neck was held much straighter than the heron's. I called Marge to see if she had seen one that morning and to talk over the characteristics. She hadn't seen one, but was helpful in lending some confidence.
Stopped by HP rec for Lycoperdon, found Amanita panterina instead. Besides the abundant gulls, crows and ravens there were 4 Harlequin just off the beach.
Spent my day either gathering mushrooms in rather heavy rain or in meetings. In Totem park gathered (for class) Cantharellus cibarius, C. infundibuliformis, Hydnum repandum, Amanita pantherina and a bolete that I haven't keyed to species. It's one I've seen before, but never felt very confident about its identification.
Was given a Cantharellus cinerus at lunch to use in class. It's a species that I don't find very often and was very happy to show it last night. It is distinctive because of its black color and because it grows singly, not in clumps like Polyozellus multiplex.
Ran out to Starrigavan after lunch and walked through the campground and down the beach side of the Mosquito cove trail. Found a nice variety including Hydnellum suaveolens, Chroogomphus tomentosus, Laccaria laccata, lots of Lactarius, Russula, Ramaria, and Helvella lacunosa. Hydnellum suaveolans has a stem with blue-black flesh instead of the orange to rusty brown flesh found in H. caeruleum. The specimens spent the night in my office dropping spores and filling the area with a strong and pleasantly odd smell. Coumarin and p-anisaldehyde are the chemicals responsible for the odor.
Looked for the stilts again, found black turnstones instead. The surprise was a probable juvenile Sandhill crane. It was in the grassy area near the small creek on the water side of the campground. It was useful that there was a great blue heron nearby for comparison. The lack of the red on the head was troublesome, but when the two birds flew I felt more confident. The crane's neck was held much straighter than the heron's. I called Marge to see if she had seen one that morning and to talk over the characteristics. She hadn't seen one, but was helpful in lending some confidence.
Stopped by HP rec for Lycoperdon, found Amanita panterina instead. Besides the abundant gulls, crows and ravens there were 4 Harlequin just off the beach.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Monday, September 3
Another great day to climb a mountain, but since that wasn't going to happen, decided that kayaking was a good substitute. Definately not as botanically interesting, but enjoyable.
Paddled to Bamdoroshni island to pick up Jeanne (she and Jeff took the double) and proceeded around the airport. Saw three phalaropes, several murres, rhinoceros auklets, marbled murrelets, cormorants, mew, glaucous winged and bonapartes gulls on the water and 2 canada geese flying over (saw one at the park last week). A few turnstones were near the gazebo.
Had a seal swim along with me for a few minutes and some curious sea lions.
The skin on the new kayak (may be named phalarope) is so thin that it almost tickles when I paddle over kelp.
Planted some of the seeds I had collected last week. I surface sowed Hiericium triste, Lupine, Dodecatheon pulchellum, and Anemone on a mixture of purchased sphagnum peat and beach sand. I sprinkled a very small amount of the mixture over the top, watered, and covered the flats with the plastic covers I scrounged from the house off Etolin. For now I'll keep the trays in the greenhouse, later I'll dig them into the vegetable beds.
Spent some time cleaning the Mountain Ash seed I collected from Marge's house. Popping the seeds is rather labor intensive. I'm considering treating half the seed with HCl before planting them. There intended sowing site is an empty bed in the vegetable garden where they won't be disturbed. Cold stratification is mentioned in Krukebergs book, but it seems that a little acid wouldn't hurt.
Lincoln's sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow warblers in addition to the ususal robins, varied thrushes, juncos, and chickadees in the garden.
Wednesday:
wandered out to Starrigavan in the morning to look for the stilt sandpiper. No luck, did find turnstones and surfbirds. Attempted to conjure a stilt out of the crowd of shorebirds (even got Marge and Tedin out of their car again), but alas wanting to see isn't seeing. It was raining rather hard...
I've also been looking for petrels the last few days on my commute since the weather has been windy & rainy. None yet
Another great day to climb a mountain, but since that wasn't going to happen, decided that kayaking was a good substitute. Definately not as botanically interesting, but enjoyable.
Paddled to Bamdoroshni island to pick up Jeanne (she and Jeff took the double) and proceeded around the airport. Saw three phalaropes, several murres, rhinoceros auklets, marbled murrelets, cormorants, mew, glaucous winged and bonapartes gulls on the water and 2 canada geese flying over (saw one at the park last week). A few turnstones were near the gazebo.
Had a seal swim along with me for a few minutes and some curious sea lions.
The skin on the new kayak (may be named phalarope) is so thin that it almost tickles when I paddle over kelp.
Planted some of the seeds I had collected last week. I surface sowed Hiericium triste, Lupine, Dodecatheon pulchellum, and Anemone on a mixture of purchased sphagnum peat and beach sand. I sprinkled a very small amount of the mixture over the top, watered, and covered the flats with the plastic covers I scrounged from the house off Etolin. For now I'll keep the trays in the greenhouse, later I'll dig them into the vegetable beds.
Spent some time cleaning the Mountain Ash seed I collected from Marge's house. Popping the seeds is rather labor intensive. I'm considering treating half the seed with HCl before planting them. There intended sowing site is an empty bed in the vegetable garden where they won't be disturbed. Cold stratification is mentioned in Krukebergs book, but it seems that a little acid wouldn't hurt.
Lincoln's sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow warblers in addition to the ususal robins, varied thrushes, juncos, and chickadees in the garden.
Wednesday:
wandered out to Starrigavan in the morning to look for the stilt sandpiper. No luck, did find turnstones and surfbirds. Attempted to conjure a stilt out of the crowd of shorebirds (even got Marge and Tedin out of their car again), but alas wanting to see isn't seeing. It was raining rather hard...
I've also been looking for petrels the last few days on my commute since the weather has been windy & rainy. None yet
Sunday, September 02, 2007
My Bear Mtn hiking partners elected to go to Starrigavan ridge for an overnight adventure which I wasn't up for, so I went back up to the berry patch on the Harbor-Gavan trail. It didn't take much effort to convince Steve and MB to come along.
The picking site may deserve the designation of "The Platonic Ideal of a Blueberry Patch". Since that shouldn't really be attainable in this earthly world, I guess it will just have to be the next best thing. Picked another 2 quarts or so of early blueberries. Today there were several people along the trail, but only one group was in the favored patch. I checked all of the V. caespitosum in my immediate area and didn't see any sign of fruit. Not sure if it doesn't flower often or just not this year.
Still a few Aconitum blooming, the Erigeron and Senecio still look quite nice, but the Gentiana is starting to fade.
The leaves of Chamerion angustifolium (someday I'll remember the new name without looking it up) had turned red. The slopes below the trail were dotted with them, it looked rather nice.
Once again I had to be dragged off the slopes, not sure what it is about me that I always want to stay out longer even when I'm tired and hungry. I was accused of being an "adventure junkie" this week, but I don't think that is the issue. There is just so much out there to explore and always one more hill to climb or corner to turn. Maybe it is not really believing that I'll ever get to go back again. Once I've decided to head in, it's fine, but I'm always reluctant to make the decision to leave where ever I am.
Had to drop the van off at the airport after we got back to town. Found some Spiraea douglasii along the road. Not sure absolutely how to tell that species from an escaped domestic variety, but it looked right.
Ate some golden chanterelles for dinner that I was given in exchange for identifying them yesterday evening. Seems like it is a good year for them. I've been asked to identify a few batches and have heard about a few more. The ones growing on the island are coming along nicely, they should be ready to pick next week. There has been a steady supply of Amanita pantherina and A. vaginata. I haven't seen any A. muscaria on my travels, but I haven't checked the most reliable spot.
A multitude of robins, varied thrushes, chickadees, song sparrows and a Sapsucker in the garden this morning. Keep hoping for a nuthatch, but no luck. A large flock of ducks flew over late this evening, it was too dark to tell what they were.
The picking site may deserve the designation of "The Platonic Ideal of a Blueberry Patch". Since that shouldn't really be attainable in this earthly world, I guess it will just have to be the next best thing. Picked another 2 quarts or so of early blueberries. Today there were several people along the trail, but only one group was in the favored patch. I checked all of the V. caespitosum in my immediate area and didn't see any sign of fruit. Not sure if it doesn't flower often or just not this year.
Still a few Aconitum blooming, the Erigeron and Senecio still look quite nice, but the Gentiana is starting to fade.
The leaves of Chamerion angustifolium (someday I'll remember the new name without looking it up) had turned red. The slopes below the trail were dotted with them, it looked rather nice.
Once again I had to be dragged off the slopes, not sure what it is about me that I always want to stay out longer even when I'm tired and hungry. I was accused of being an "adventure junkie" this week, but I don't think that is the issue. There is just so much out there to explore and always one more hill to climb or corner to turn. Maybe it is not really believing that I'll ever get to go back again. Once I've decided to head in, it's fine, but I'm always reluctant to make the decision to leave where ever I am.
Had to drop the van off at the airport after we got back to town. Found some Spiraea douglasii along the road. Not sure absolutely how to tell that species from an escaped domestic variety, but it looked right.
Ate some golden chanterelles for dinner that I was given in exchange for identifying them yesterday evening. Seems like it is a good year for them. I've been asked to identify a few batches and have heard about a few more. The ones growing on the island are coming along nicely, they should be ready to pick next week. There has been a steady supply of Amanita pantherina and A. vaginata. I haven't seen any A. muscaria on my travels, but I haven't checked the most reliable spot.
A multitude of robins, varied thrushes, chickadees, song sparrows and a Sapsucker in the garden this morning. Keep hoping for a nuthatch, but no luck. A large flock of ducks flew over late this evening, it was too dark to tell what they were.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Thursday
Ryan and Melissa found two purple urchins at Shelikof on Wednesday. Not enough for much of a population study, but enough for a physiological study. I believe that they are hoping a local diver or two will send them more samples.
This morning, Aaron, Melissa, Ryan and I headed to a bay on the southwest side of Middle Island to collect shrimp for Aaron and crabs for Ryan.
The intertidal had an abundance of kelp crabs, decorator crabs, black clawed crab (Lophopanopeus bellus) and porcellanid crab (Petrolisthes eriomerus?) under the rocks just above the water line.
Found Hydnum repandum and assorted Russulas in the forest above the beach. The big treat was finding Goodyera oblongifolia! I saw approximately 12 individuals in my brief search. There was also a nice population of Listera caurina. This beach also has a small bit of Spruce/Calamagrostis nutkatensis community that is more common on the outer coast.
The beach further south on the island where Aaron originally wanted to go is accessible by traversing the narrow band of forest. It looks like a great place to explore with a kayak. I could see a probable way in with a skiff, but a kayak would be a bit more comfortable.
We sampled shrimp from the eelgrass and macrocystis beds in the bay. Caught a pile of them (too small to count easily in the jar) with each pass. What I thought were small jelly fish on the blades of eelgrass turned out to be Hooded Nudibranchs (Melibe lionina). I've been seeing it every morning on the eelgrass by the dock this week. According to the Monterey online field guide they feed by extending their hood and closing it when prey lands in the hood. Sounds a little like a fly trap. They are most noticable when congregating during spawning.
On the way home I decided to believe the chart and follow the clear path between the Parker and Apple islands instead of the more convoluted path around Kasiana. Saw two common loons, 10 tufted puffins, around 50 marbled murrelets, many rhinoceros auklets and a few common murres on the route.
Ryan and Melissa found two purple urchins at Shelikof on Wednesday. Not enough for much of a population study, but enough for a physiological study. I believe that they are hoping a local diver or two will send them more samples.
This morning, Aaron, Melissa, Ryan and I headed to a bay on the southwest side of Middle Island to collect shrimp for Aaron and crabs for Ryan.
The intertidal had an abundance of kelp crabs, decorator crabs, black clawed crab (Lophopanopeus bellus) and porcellanid crab (Petrolisthes eriomerus?) under the rocks just above the water line.
Found Hydnum repandum and assorted Russulas in the forest above the beach. The big treat was finding Goodyera oblongifolia! I saw approximately 12 individuals in my brief search. There was also a nice population of Listera caurina. This beach also has a small bit of Spruce/Calamagrostis nutkatensis community that is more common on the outer coast.
The beach further south on the island where Aaron originally wanted to go is accessible by traversing the narrow band of forest. It looks like a great place to explore with a kayak. I could see a probable way in with a skiff, but a kayak would be a bit more comfortable.
We sampled shrimp from the eelgrass and macrocystis beds in the bay. Caught a pile of them (too small to count easily in the jar) with each pass. What I thought were small jelly fish on the blades of eelgrass turned out to be Hooded Nudibranchs (Melibe lionina). I've been seeing it every morning on the eelgrass by the dock this week. According to the Monterey online field guide they feed by extending their hood and closing it when prey lands in the hood. Sounds a little like a fly trap. They are most noticable when congregating during spawning.
On the way home I decided to believe the chart and follow the clear path between the Parker and Apple islands instead of the more convoluted path around Kasiana. Saw two common loons, 10 tufted puffins, around 50 marbled murrelets, many rhinoceros auklets and a few common murres on the route.
Tuesday
Took Aaron, Melissa and Ryan out to Three Entrance Bay for another search for Purple Anemones. The weather wasn't quite as friendly as yesterday's adventure. There was a small craft advisory for the outside and the wind was as advertised. Eastern Channel was unpleasant, but okay. Once around Cape Burnnof the water was calm. One urchin prospecting idea from Monday was to try to pull up a Macrocystis to grab the urchins from the bottom. It was a rather hopeless task, the kelp stalks stretch, and do anything but break off near the base. The last time I was here I had four children under ten in the skiff ready for a nice morning playing in the sand and building shore crab zoos. I guess its been a few years.
Things looked much the same, except the presence of Trifolium in the upper beach areas. The Pedicularis verticillata seems to be holding its own at this point. I'll have to add this spot to my list of beaches needing some volunteer invasive plant removal.
We spent a couple of hours on the outside of the island searching for urchins and gathering chitons, mussels and miscellaneous other invertebrates for study. What struck me was the color of the rock. There was a beautiful, in not gaudy mixture of pink coralline algae, orange and green sponges. The low intertidal was very dissected with deep cuts and deep pools that made it a little challenging to get around. Alaria marginata and Katharina tunicata were both particularly abundant at this site.
Found one fragrant Campanula rotundifolia still blooming. Collected seed from Dodecatheon pulchellum and Vicia gigantea. The Empetrum was quite thick and luxurious on the rocks above the intertidal on both the west and east side of the island. Not much in the way of mushrooms and didsn't find any Pseudocyphellaria anomola.
No purple urchins were found, but we did find a few old spines in the shell beach.
The wind was building to the point where we could feel it on the west side of the island, so we headed back to town. Took some nice spray over the bow beating our way down the channel.
Saw one Tufted puffin at the cape, one humpback and lots of marauding sea otters.
Took Aaron, Melissa and Ryan out to Three Entrance Bay for another search for Purple Anemones. The weather wasn't quite as friendly as yesterday's adventure. There was a small craft advisory for the outside and the wind was as advertised. Eastern Channel was unpleasant, but okay. Once around Cape Burnnof the water was calm. One urchin prospecting idea from Monday was to try to pull up a Macrocystis to grab the urchins from the bottom. It was a rather hopeless task, the kelp stalks stretch, and do anything but break off near the base. The last time I was here I had four children under ten in the skiff ready for a nice morning playing in the sand and building shore crab zoos. I guess its been a few years.
Things looked much the same, except the presence of Trifolium in the upper beach areas. The Pedicularis verticillata seems to be holding its own at this point. I'll have to add this spot to my list of beaches needing some volunteer invasive plant removal.
We spent a couple of hours on the outside of the island searching for urchins and gathering chitons, mussels and miscellaneous other invertebrates for study. What struck me was the color of the rock. There was a beautiful, in not gaudy mixture of pink coralline algae, orange and green sponges. The low intertidal was very dissected with deep cuts and deep pools that made it a little challenging to get around. Alaria marginata and Katharina tunicata were both particularly abundant at this site.
Found one fragrant Campanula rotundifolia still blooming. Collected seed from Dodecatheon pulchellum and Vicia gigantea. The Empetrum was quite thick and luxurious on the rocks above the intertidal on both the west and east side of the island. Not much in the way of mushrooms and didsn't find any Pseudocyphellaria anomola.
No purple urchins were found, but we did find a few old spines in the shell beach.
The wind was building to the point where we could feel it on the west side of the island, so we headed back to town. Took some nice spray over the bow beating our way down the channel.
Saw one Tufted puffin at the cape, one humpback and lots of marauding sea otters.
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