Life on the Outer Coast

Saturday

The surface of the trail to the dock is covered with leaves. Most of the lower leaves are gone from the red alders , still some at the tops. The sitka alders have mostly lost their leaves on the island. Still some on the trees in the common, but on the east side of the lake they are all but gone.

Realizing that my commute is soon going to be in the dark, but I'll continue keeping track for as long as I can. This morning saw 2 common loons., 3 pelagic cormorants, 3 goldeneyes, a mew and a glaucous-winged gull.

Despite being warned about the extreme high tide, I mindlessly parked the skiff in my regular stall and found myself trapped when I wanted to go home. Some day I'll get my head out of outer space.

Ran into Chuck Johnstone at the book store. He asked about the pied-billed grebe, actually he asked if I agreed as to its identity. Amusing that anyone would ask me what I thought about the identification of a bird. I could at least tell him that I'd seen it and that I agreed with the call. He said he hadn't seen one for 28 years, so I should count myself fortunate to have seen it.

Found 4 buffleheads, several black-legged kittiwakes, long-tails and Thayers gulls in the channel. One Pacific loon in Mermaid cove. There were many ducks (Buffleheads and Scaups) in the lagoon by the water treatment plant, but I didn't take the time to look carefully. Seem to have been feeling lazy and uninspired. I think I need to go for a long hike instead of all of these short forays chasing birds. I need a little forest time.

Sunday

Seem to have survived last night's dance marathon. Removed the false eyelashes at 2am and woke up to sunshine at 10:30. Refilled the bird feeder after some much needed coffee. The birds were on it in few minutes, several chickadees, a junco and a skinny looking song sparrow. The song sparrow must have stuffed about 20 black sunflower seeds in its crop before flying away. Feeder watch starts on the 10th of November, so I need to get into the habit of regularly refilling both feeders.

Walked around the lake around noon (the coffee wasn't enough to counter the effects of a long night). No ducks in the lake, yesterdays Buffleheads moved off, but many golden-crowned kinglets, wrens, chickadees and song sparrows. The ruby-crowns and thrushes have thinned out considerably in the last month. Collected a few fungi on my walk, just as I was thinking that late fall is the time to turn a girl's heart back to bryophytes. The Isothecium stoloniferum is quite lush on the salmonberry and alder on the west side of the lake and is finally visible not that the leaves have fallen from the salmonberry. It was inspiring me to get back to my summer collections, but I brought home some fungi that need to be dealt with first.

A fungus that is easier to see now that the leaves have fallen is Xylaria hypoxylon (candlesnuff fungus). This saprophytic Ascomycete is very common on dead alders and salmonberries around the island. It is quite easy to recognize because of its thin antler-like appearance, with black stipe and white tips. It varies in the amount of branching of the fruiting body. Not sure about the distribution of this species in North America. Michael Kuo doesn't have a page for this fungus, but there is a nice photo on the following web site. http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Xylaria_hypoxylon.html

Also collected a small polypore from a treated 4 X 4 beside the trail. It looked alot like a Trametes versicolor, but had a very dark pore bearing surface. Under the dissecting scope the "dark pore layer" turned out to be short dark spines on a golden colored background. The inner surface of the fruiting body doesn't have any sign of a pore layer. The upper surface had concentric brownish color bands and was somewhat velvety or hairy. The hairs are easier to see with a handlens. Haven't gotten too far with its identification, it isn't turning up in any of the keys I usually turn to.

The last fungus I collected was a small Naematoloma or Pholiota. It's identification awaits a good spore print. It looks more like a Pholiota, but I seem to remember a species of Naematoloma that looks somwhat similar. Lactarius rufus and Craterellus tubaeformis are still fruiting.

There is a dead tree, really a snag about 25 ft tall that I walk by every day on my path to the dock that has three visible species of polypores fruiting. The Laetiporus conifericola was fruiting during the kayak building class. It fruited from the base of the tree to about the 6ft level. The remains of the fruiting body are still present as decomposing white brackets. Above the remains of the L. conifericola are two small fruiting bodies of Fomitopsis pinicola and a rather large (8 inch across) Ganoderma oreganese (varnished conk). Looking up the trunk there are visible insect galleries where the bark has fallen off. I would be interesting to keep track of several trees to see how many have multiple infections. I suspect that most do, but I haven't really kept track.

14 goldeneyes, 6 Thayers gulls and a double-crested cormorant on the way to town.

Felt compelled to add the photo that Deirdre sent from Boston. I believe that the building is Earth Sciences, the photo was taken after the first game of the series. Deirdre called from the roof of Fenway house at 12:30 her time, the celebration in the streets was quite audible over the phone.