Monday, May 18, 2009

May. The forest changes dramatically from week to week. I can't quite keep up with it.

Cool today. Filtered sun. Today is Volcano Day: Mount Saint Helens erupted 29 years ago at 8:32 in the morning. No ash fell on the forest that day.

Photo: Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), Lady Fern (Athyrium felix-femina) and Enchanter's Nightshade (Circaea alpina)

PLANTS:
New growth on all of the forest's native conifers: Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock, Grand Fir.

Most of the the deciduous trees are completely leafed out: Vine Maple, Big-leaf Maple, Red Alder, Cottonwood. Western Dogwood in full bloom throughout the forest. Crabapple just budding. The willows have leafed out.

Salmonberry setting delicate green fruit. Osoberry fruit the size of small beans, dangling pale yellow. Thimbleberry beginning to bloom. Red Huckleberry continues to bloom. Heavy rains last week left many of its flowers on the forest floor. Evergreen Huckleberry leafing out, with blossoms on the most protected plants. Red Elderberry blossoms have faded, no fruit yet. The first Serviceberry flowers shine white against the darkening shade. Ocean Spray, Spirea, and Snowberry have yet to bloom.

Photo : Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) sepals, anthers and stamens.

Oregon Grape blossoms are gone, replaced by tiny green/yellow/red fruit. Salal flowering.

Honeysuckle throwing out robust new tendrils.

Bright yellow Large Geum flowers brush my calves as I walk by them. They have no fragrance. Fringecup flower stems are completely unfurled now, their clinging fragrance always a surprise. Like lilies with a low note of dirty socks. Starflower blooming, the old flowers pink, the new flowers white. They are hard to find, preferring the deeper shadows. Vanilla Leaf grows in a single protected niche between three Douglas Firs. Each year there are one or two more, but they have not thrown out flowers quite yet.

Photo left: Large Geum (Geum macrophyllum)
Photo right: Starflower (Trientalis latifolia)

Stinging Nettle flowers on plants that are waist high now in the brightest damp places. Fairy Lantern leafed out but no flowers yet. Enchanter's Nightshade is just beginning to show flower buds.

Dewberry sprawl wherever the landscape has been disturbed. There are more than I remember from years past. These are my favorite blackberry. I hope that they set fruit this year, and that I can find the fruit before the birds do.

Lady Fern predominate in the damp places. Bracken Fern stand waist high in some places, in other places the foragers have found them and there is nothing left except a bluntly cut off stem. Next year these will be smaller, having no leaves to gather energy this season. At some point they will disappear if they continue to be harvested in this way. New Sword Fern are everywhere, bright green. Wood Fern grace the stumps and fallen snags. DeerFern hide in the most protected parts of the forest, are just unfurling now. A few have thrown out fertile fronds. Licorice Fern has gone dormant. It will reappear in the late summer.

Photo: Lady Fern (Athyrium felix-femina)

There are mushrooms and slime molds and wonderful fungi, but I do not know their names.

BIRDS:
In the forest -
Bald Eagle present in both nests, Sharp-shinned Hawks copulating near their nest, Barred Owl and owlets, Anna's Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Winter Wren, Bewick's Wren, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Steller's Jay, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Spotted Towhee, Hutton's Vireo, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Western Tanager, Western Wood-Peewee.

ANIMALS:
Fresh Mountain Beaver and Townsend's Mole tunnels.

From a Barred Owl pellet, the pelvis of a Creeping Vole.

One Douglas squirrel, scolding.

Bumblebees.

The local millipede, Harpaphe haydeniana, black with yellow racing stripes.

Shiny black beetles, the size of the first joint of my index finger.

Earthworms.

Small pale white moths.

Gnats and tiny spiders. Spider silk glistens in the empty spaces.

All images copyright 2009, C. M Alexander.