Melissa and I went the quarry road to the intersection with the Cross Trail and looked around a bit. After she left I wandered around the valley a bit more, making it as far up as the bench muskeg along the trail.
Weather: Overcast and warm. Little rain, with some breeze.
Birds: There were a lot of young Robins and Varied Thrushes in the scrubby area along the cross trail between Indian River Trail and the Quarry Road.
A Lincoln’s Sparrow seemed to get curious (or possibly upset) about me when I was taking pictures along the Quarry Road. It flew to a tree close to me and chipped at me. Even after I stood up, it didn’t move too far off, and still kept chipping.
Quite a few Ravens were up in the quarry area vocalizing a lot. There were also a couple of juvenile eagles up there, and at least some of the time the ravens seemed to be giving the eagles a hard time.
I heard a Pacific-slope Flycatcher and heard/saw a Steller’s Jay in the muskeg below the quarry.
Flora: The cloudberries are about at their peak. I picked 2 or 3 quarts of them, and left plenty in the muskeg.
The Early and Alaska Blueberries are ripe, but Bog Blueberries are still green.
Swamp Gentian is blooming, though perhaps not quite at its peak. Also blooming in or near the muskegs were Twin Flowers, Common Burnet, and Menzies’ Burnet.
I saw a juniper growing near the Cross Trail. I’m sure I’ve walked by it before, but for some reason I never noticed it until today.
There is a small white slime mold that seems to be especially common this year. I forgot to mention seeing it several places along Verstovia trail recently. I noticed it a few times today along Indian River trail. It looks like clusters of short white tubes.
Other Notes: The Common Burnet flowers, though not showy, seem to attract a lot of insects, especially yellow-jackets (which, other than on these flowers, I hardly ever see).
There were lots of small moths that, at least superficially, looked like the same species in the bench muskeg. Everywhere I moved, they were flying up in front of me. I was focused on picking berries, so I didn’t take a picture.