flora

Plants

Signs of Spring

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Wintery weather has returned for much of the past of week or so. Snow fell early this week and changed to cold rain for the last couple of days (today accompanied by a stiff SE wind reminiscent of a fall blow). Despite such conditions (which make spring seem so far away), there have been some … Read more

Getting Behind

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Orange disc fungus – an ascomycete, I think – but beyond that I have no idea I’ve been trying to keep up with photos this year, and until the last week or so, I’ve done pretty well, but between a couple of high photo count days (one from a boat birding trip, the other some … Read more

Colorful Sunrise, Sunny Day

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Sunrise

I was up for the 8am sunrise this morning – was nice to see some good color in the morning sky. The day turned out to be quite pleasant – sunny with little wind (in town, anyway) and temperatures in the 40s. As one person I walked by said to me – “it’s the first unofficial day of spring.” Of course there’s almost certainly going to be plenty more cold/wet weather before winter completely gives up its hold, but days like today feel like a bit of a gift – the trick is not being disappointed when they don’t continue.

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Purple Monkey Flower (Mimulus lewisii)

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Purple Monkey Flower (Mimulus lewisii) Purple Monkey Flower (Mimulus lewisii) is a plant with showy pink flowers that ranges from California to British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, over into the Rocky Mountains. I was excited to see this plant for the first time back in 2008 when I was doing some work in the Blue … Read more

Fungus and Murre

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Rowan with a Shelf Fungus

Rowan was impressed with the size of this fungus

The kids and I took a short walk through Totem Park hoping to pick up a Red-breasted Sapsucker for count week, but were unsuccessful in that regard. We did hear a Red-tailed Hawk call, so that more than made up for the miss on the sapsucker. We also found a fairly large Ganoderma growing on a hemlock.

A little later I watched a Common Murre that seemed strangely lethargic in Crecent Harbor. There were another two at the mouth of the harbor, one of which I watched climb up on a rock – though when I walked out on the breakwater, it slid back into the water and swam off. I am wondering if perhaps there’s something going on with the murres around here.

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