November is wet in the Pacific Northwest. I was down on the mainland visiting with family last week, and while I went outside walking in the rain every day, I took my camera out one afternoon when the sun sort of broke through for a little while. Here are some moist scenes from a bottomland habitat in western Washington.
These lowlands were settled and logged by the end of the 19th c so stumps like the mossy one above are all that remains of the primeval forests. But creeks and bottomlands persist. It still rains a lot here, and this fall has been especially wet. In October this area had a record-breaking 10.03”, far more than the normal 3 ½”, and it has been raining steadily through November.
mushrooms abound
Under a board, a slug awakens when exposed to air. This Leopard Slug is one of the many invasive slug species that does well in our climate. Not sure whose egg mass that is, possibly the slug’s. Lots of eggs hidden away right now, awaiting spring.
The Daily Bucket is a place to note what you are seeing around you: animals, weather, meteorites, climate, soil, plants, waters. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
Small pond in second growth woods fills up.
Much of the surface is covered with a kind of duckweed. The leaves look much smaller than those of Lemna, the common duckweed. Possibly Wolffia?
Usually by this time of year aquatic and annual plants have died off, but our unusual weather this year has included much warmer temperatures during the fall. This month the high and low temps, with a few exceptions, have been several degrees above normal, and on few days more than 10ºF higher. It’s strange seeing all this bright green actively growing foliage in winter.
An old Red Alder (Alnus rubra) is covered with various lichens and mosses. Alders are pioneer trees, growing abundantly in damp areas where forests have been cleared — they are the most common deciduous tree in the maritime PNW. On their roots grow bacteria who fix atmospheric nitrogen, making the soil more fertile for vegetation.
Delicate bracket fungus fruiting bodies indicate this fallen branch is decomposing rapidly. Amongst the vivid green buttercup foliage are spent Horsetails and fallen leaves.
Coyote poop is furry at this time of year, animal prey being coyotes’ primary food. In summer and early fall their poop is full of seeds. Coyote numbers are about the same over the past half century based on my observations — mostly listening to them at night. Suburban development in the surrounding uplands doesn’t seem to have changed that.
The creek is fuller than full, flooding across the bottomland. An old beaver dam is barely visible on the right. The creekside vegetation was cleared some decades ago and invasive Reed Canarygrass moved in, along with other opportunistic nonnatives, clogging the creek bed.
However in the past few years I’ve been seeing more willows taking hold here; hopefully they will grow tall and densely enough to shade out the grass, returning the creek to the cooler flow salmon need. Fewer salmon have been seen here lately.
Overcast and cool in the Pacific Northwest this morning, more rain on the way.
Time for you to share what you’re seeing in your natural neighborhood . . .
"SPOTLIGHT ON GREEN NEWS & VIEWS" IS POSTED EVERY SATURDAY AT 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME AND WEDNESDAY AT 3:30 ON THE DAILY KOS FRONT PAGE. IT'S A GREAT WAY TO CATCH UP ON DIARIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED. BE SURE TO RECOMMEND AND COMMENT IN THE DIARY. |