She's a quick change artist: here are two photos, 3 days apart:
Last Sunday, Ma Nature was still wearing her winter outfit.
![]() |
Bare branches. |
And today, she's all decked out in yellow-green sequins.
Nature notes and photos from BC, Canada, mostly in the Lower Fraser Valley, Bella Coola, and Vancouver Island.
There's always a bend in the road. And I must explore until the road becomes too rough for my little car.
On a misty, occasionally rainy, early spring afternoon, I took this photo through the windshield.
![]() |
Unnamed road, going I don't know where. |
In December, in deep snow, I stood on a bridge crossing the Quinsam River, and took photos of beaver tracks. I decided I would go back in the summer to look for a beaver lodge. Well, summer's still a way off, but I'm glad I went back now, while the trees and understory are just bare twigs.
I found a small mound that will be hidden again once the salmonberries that top it leaf out, right where the tracks had entered a hole beside the bank. Is it a lodge?
![]() |
A small lodge. Or is it that the water's high? |
![]() |
As seen in December. With beaver tracks. |
![]() |
Dam loaded with fresh sticks. |
![]() |
Beaver country. From the second bridge, crossing a creek, not the Quinsam River. |
The last week of March: skunk cabbage season. I drove some 30 kilometres today, slowly, peering into bogs and beaver ponds and the edges of creeks, looking for them, not seeing any. Maybe it's a bit early, I thought. And then, when I'd given up and was nearly back home again, there they were, in a ditch at the side of the road.
![]() |
Skunk cabbage with immature flower spike. And the first leaves of a ditch parsley. |
![]() |
Closed bracts, and the beginnings of leaves. |
Three birds. On rocks. On a quiet beach.
The first, a yellow-legged gull. He stood there, watching me as I walked down the tide line. When I reached the edge of his comfort zone (unmarked, but he was definite about it), he removed himself to a more distant rock. And then another. When I approached too closely the third time, he flew off to sea, grumbling.
![]() |
Probably a mew gull. |
![]() |
He kept moving about, bending down to work on his dinner, rising to look right, then left, guarding his find. |
![]() |
Zooming as far as the camera would go. |
I posted a video of a great blue heron fishing to Facebook a couple of days ago. (I tried to load it here, and so far, Blogger refuses to touch it.) A friend commented that "Seeing it so close to the rocks reminds us how much they blend into the scenery."
So I looked through the photos I took, before I remembered to press the red button for a video, and found this:
![]() |
The heron, blending in. |
![]() |
Posing against the water, he stands out. But he's still rock-coloured. |
![]() |
He was catching gunnels. The tiny things on the rocks are periwinkle snails. |
![]() |
Those eyes! |
I loaded the video to YouTube, and then tried to bring it back here. Maybe Blogger can accept that. UPDATE; Yay! It worked. Click for a full-screen view.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hace dos dias subí un video a Facebook, de una garza pescando en la playa. (Lo quise subir aquí, pero el programa lo rechazó, no sé porque.) Una amiga comentó en Facebook, que al encontrarlas tan cerca de las rocas, vemos que bien se cosiguen desaparecer, formando parte del paisaje.
Busqué entre las fotos que saqué antes de recordar que podría presionar el botón rojo y sacar un video, y encontré estas.
Fotos:
Down another rabbit hole. I just wanted to find a species name for a skinny rockweed, and then ...
First, I found a new common name for them; pop weed. That brings back memories of my childhood entertainment on the beaches; popping the air bladders; as addictive as bubble-wrap. If I had known their purpose, would I have popped so many? Probably not.
![]() |
Small rockweed, Fucus distichus. Aka F. gardneri. |
![]() |
The holdfasts are on the rock under the sand. Also present; anemones, and a long, black ribbon worm. |
"... the Pacific F. distichus is far more common on our coasts than previously thought, and extremely phenotypically plastic; i.e., individuals take on a wide variety of forms depending on their habitat. These forms include short moss-like tufts ... , sparsely branched straps ... and even an upper intertidal undulate form ... that is indistinguishable from F. spiralis."
"The life cycle of Fucus and other fucoids is unique in the plant world in that it closely follows that of animals, where the 'vegetative' body directly produces eggs and sperm." And further down, the phrase, " ... sexuality in seaweeds ..."
![]() |
A young specimen; the tips are not inflated yet. |
The reproductive receptacles ... are swollen areas at the tips of fronds that have many flask-shaped cavities called conceptacles. These house the male and female reproductive structures known as antheridia ... and oogonia (containing 8 eggs). The eggs and sperm are liberated onto the surface of the receptacles and a pheromone (sex-attracting substance) is released by the eggs that attracts the sperm. Fertilization results in a zygote that forms a new Fucus adult. (Race Rocks)
Wikipedia adds: "During low tide, the swollen tips dry up squeezing out sperm and eggs which unite into a zygote during the next flood tide and settle onto a substratum."
![]() |
Dwarf rockweed, Pelvetiopsis limitata. |
Male and female organs can be found on the same seaweed and each female organ produces a single, functional egg cell. (Sanctuary Simon)
And the Fucus organ produces 8. That's per conceptacle. Each receptacle (the swollen tip) contains many of these conceptacles. And each Fucus bears many receptacles. I couldn't find an estimate of how many eggs are produced. The viable zygotes rapidly sink and adhere to the substrate within a few metres of the parent.
Oh, these rabbit holes! How they branch!
... reindeer venture into the intertidal in high Arctic regions to forage on Fucus when snow cover is too deep and/or rain-on-snow icing makes it difficult to obtain their normal diet of lichens (Hansen et al., 2019). (Frontiers in Marine Science)
Oh, and the sperm have eyespots. For steering towards the light.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Una preguntita me lleva a muchos lugares ... Nada más quería saber el nombre de una alga, y mira ...
En primer lugar, encontré un nombre común para estas algas que no había oído antes: "pop weed", o sea hierba que se revienta. Me trajo memorias de estar apachurrando estos globitos en la playa cuando era niña; un pasatiempo adictivo. Si hubiera sabido para que servían, ¿habría reventado tantos? Tal vez no.
Fotos # 1 a 3: Alga parda, Fucus distichus, también conocida como F. gardneri.
Una Fucus tiene tres partes: un pie que se adhiere a la roca, un talo aplanado, con una nervadura central, y las puntas divididas de las ramas se inflan, convirtiéndose en flotadores.
Hasta aquí voy bien. Pero veo muchas de estas algas en formas distintas. ¿Serán distintas especies, o diferentes formas de la misma? ¿Y esas muy delgadas; qué son?
Encontré una respuesta en el libro Pacific Seaweeds.
El F. distichus del Pacífico es mucho más común en nuestras costas que antes se creía, y es extremadamente plástico en lo que respeta a su fenotipo, es decir, que los individuos toman una variedad amplia de formas según el habitat en que se encuentran. Estas formas pueden ser montoncitos como de musgo, ... cintas con pocas ramas ... y hasta una forma de la zona intramareal superior ondulada casí idéntica a la de F. spiralis.
Bueno, entonces parece que son una sola especie.
Pero el párrafo siguiente me capturó.
"El ciclo de vida de Fucus y otros de esta familia es único entre el mundo de las plantas, en que sigue al de los animales, donde el cuerpo "vegetativo" produce directamente huevos y esperma." Un poco adelante se encuentra la frase, "la sexualidad de algas marinas".
Tuve que buscar en varios otros lugares para hallar una descripción más amplia.
Los receptáculos reproductivos ... son areas infladas en las puntas de las ramas que contienen muchas cavidades en forma de botella, llamadas conceptáculos. Aquí se hallan las estructuras hembras y masculinas, los anteridios y los oogonios (que contienen 8 huevos). Los huevos y el esperma se liberan en la superficie de los receptáculos, y los huevos emiten una feromona (una sustancia que atrae al sexo opuesto) que atrae al esperma. Al fertilizarse se produce un zigoto, que produce un nuevo Fucus adulto. (Race Rocks)
Añade Wikipedia: "Durante la marea baja, las puntas hinchadas se secan, y exprimen los huevos y el esperma, los cuales se unen para formar un zigoto durante la próxima marea alta y se establecen en un sustrato."
Bueno, parece que no hice tan mal apachurrando esos globitos. Adelantaba el proceso. ¿no?
Pero ¿y los otros, los delgados? Eran diferentes.
Foto #4: Pelvetiopsis limitata.
Resulta que no son Fucus. Los talos son largos y delgados, y no tienen la nervadura central.
Los órganos masculinos y femeninas se encuentran en el mismo individuo, y cada órgano femenino produce un solo huevo funcional. (Sanctuary Simon)
Y el órgano del Fucus produce 8. Eso es por cada conceptáculo. Y cada receptáculo (la parte inflada) contiene muchos de estos conceptáculos. Y cada Fucus lleva muchos de estos receptáculos. No pude encontrar un cálculo de cuantos huevos se producen. Los zigotos viables caen al sustrato y se adhieren allí dentro de unos cuantos metros de su progenitor.
Y siempre hay algo más para distraerme.
... los renos entran en la zona intramareal en las regiones altas del Ártico para comer el Fucus cuando la nieve es demasiado profundo y/o el hielo producido por la lluvia encima de la nieve hace difícil obtener su dieta normal de líquenes. (Frontiers in Marine Science)
Y más. Los espermas tienen manchas oculares. Para dirigirse hacia la luz.
We have some beautiful low tides coming up, but they're going to arrive here after dark. (Sunset these days falls around 7::30 PM.) I followed the tide as it started out in the late afternoon, and found anemones, feeding happily, then closing down as the water disappeared.
![]() |
Window into a tide pool. |
![]() |
Still underwater, still waving those tentacles. |
"Although the green colour present in some specimens is produced by the animals themselves, this process can only occur when the unicellular symbiotic alga Chorella is residing in their tissues." (Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest)
![]() |
Very pink. The column is always covered by rows of tubercules, seen here as pale green bumps. |
![]() |
Edge zone; open tentacles on the right, closing, closed out of water. |
![]() |
And when the water is gone, they turn into yellowish donuts with cherry filling. |
"Aunque el color verde presente en algunos de estos animales es producidos por los mismos, este proceso solo puede operar cuando la alga simbiótica unicelular reside en sus tejidos." (Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest)
Mallard males celebrate St. Pat's Day all year long.
![]() |
Does he know he's beautiful? |
![]() |
The females are dressed to blend in to their surroundings. They have work to do, families to raise. |
![]() |
A more subtle beauty is hers. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Los patos ánades machos celebran el dia de San Patricio todo el año, llevando siempre el color verde. Las hembras llevan colores más sobrios que les sirven de camuflaje, pues ellas tienen la responsabilidad de criar su familia.
Se pregunta: ¿Saben ellos que son bellos?
The bird blind at Tyee Spit sits on its own mini-island, separated from the Spit by a narrow channel. On the more protected end, ducks, mostly mallards, sometimes wigeons, nap in the afternoons half-hidden among the scruffy grasses that cover the island. When I arrived the other day, the tide was lower than I've ever seen it there, and the island was now accessible on foot, if you didn't mind a bit of mud.
A few mallards were standing on the exposed slope, where they normally upend themselves nibbling on underwater grass.
![]() |
"Where did our water go?" |
![]() |
Orderly queue, with monitors. |
![]() |
A pair, greeting the water. |
![]() |
Three females, taking turns. |
![]() |
Another. |
![]() |
Tap, then lift. |
![]() |
Going places. |
Stiff and sore from too much squinting at the computer screen, too cold (maybe too lazy), once I got outside, to face a long walk in the woods or on the windy shore, I chose instead to drive around in circles, south, north, east, looking for birds to watch from the car.
Like these:
![]() |
Cormorants on a float |
![]() |
No birds. |
![]() |
A crow eating my cat food crumbs, quietly. |
![]() |
Gull, being quiet. Between screeches. |
![]() |
Mallard female, Tyee Spit, showing off her so-blue speculum. |
![]() |
The first pussywillows I've seen this spring. Begging to be petted! |
Now that's a big bird! A bird with metre-long toes stomping through the woods, one of the Sasquatch's domestic fowls! Cower! Hide!
![]() |
Heron, maybe? |
(He visto estas raices antes, hace 6 años. Han cambiado bastante en ese tiempo; entonces más bien parecían un cuerpo humano sin cabeza.)
Snowdrops. The first of the spring flowers in my garden plots.
![]() |
Galanthus nivalis. In Spanish, they're called "winter bells", Campanillas de invierno. |
On Baikie Island the restoration project continues. Along the water's edge, someone has been cutting down little alders; evergreen saplings in black plastic pots wait to be planted in in the newly-cleared space. On one of the downed alders, I found this crop of yellowish, flattish mushrooms covering most of its underside. (I rolled it over to get this photo.) I couldn't find any on any of the other trees, standing or cut, in the vicinity.
![]() |
Alder trunk with mushrooms, sapsucker pits, and a pale green dust lichen. |
Busqué entre los árboles alrededor, en pie o tumbados, y no hubo más que este árbol con hongos.
Foto: el hongo, el tronco del aliso con pocitos hechos por chupasavias, y un poco de liquen de polvo, de un verde claro.
Y ¿porqué — le pregunté — escogiste este árbol y no tocaste ningún otro? No me respondió.
When all else is grey and brown, when even the evergreens' colours are muted under a grey sky, the tiny Cladonia lichens keep their springtime green. These have colonized an ancient, age-blackened, sunburnt log at Baikie Island.
![]() |
Cladonia spp. arise from tiny scales (squamules). The "clubs" are the reproductive stage. |
![]() |
Growing through, ignoring, dead leaves and sticks, recent snow. A few have red fertile tips. |
![]() |
More dead stuff and snow. Nothing stops the lichen! |