flora
Plants
Spring Flowers
After recent rains, it was nice to see some blue sky this morning. The clouds put up a fight throughout the day, with occasional sprinkles from some of the bigger clouds, but overall the trend was towards clearing. It was chilly this morning, and snow had fallen down to 3000 feet or below on the … Read more
Golden Algae (Chromophyton rosanoffii)
Back in 2007, my brother and I noticed a mysterious golden sheen under a stump along Mosquito Cove trail. Some years later, the mystery was resolved, but until this week I had still not observed the golden sheen again. A couple of days ago while hiking Mosquito Cove trail with my kids, I checked under … Read more
Bioluminescent Firewood
Two unremarkable chunks of split cedar destined for a fire But look again – something strange is going on. It’s not photoshop tricks, just a long exposure in a dark room with a bit of fill flash I recently was offered a chance to see some glowing firewood a friend of a friend had noticed … Read more
Bryophytes and Birds
Today was the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, and I spent some time today doing a little birding. This morning I kept track of what I was seeing while on a walk through Totem Park, then this afternoon I spent some time ranging a bit further along the road system specifically looking … Read more
Licorice Fern on Elderberry
Licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza) is commonly found as an epiphyte (I think of it mostly on red alder and elderberry, but now that I think about it, I’m not sure it doesn’t occur on other trees and shrubs as well). So I was not surprised to see a bunch growing on an elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) … Read more