Predatory fungus

An amazing fern-eating polypore:

Chomp.

Side view.

It's on a decaying stump, blanketed with dead leaves and moss, shaded by evergreen ferns. Which the polypore has latched onto. I tugged on it; it's as immovable as the fungus itself.

Top view. 

And the polypore, in turn, has become slug dinner. Chewed chunks, top centre, far left.

Jungle blanket

Anything that sits still in the rainforest ends up with a green quilt.

Moss on a burl.

I've been struggling to learn to identify the many mosses in our forests, with limited success. I think this may possibly be electrified cat's tail moss, Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. I could be wrong, of course.

Species name referring to the triangular leaves and the occasional three-rowed arrangement of the uppermost leaves of some stems. ... Commonly called the rough neck moss or shaggy moss because of the untidy leaves at the shoot tips. A whimsical name, electri­fied cat tail moss, has gained some popularity in British Columbia.
Distinguishing characteristics:
The very coarse, pale yellow-green plants with usually untidy divergent leaves of the main stem tip and upper branches, the strongly pleated, somewhat wrinkled leaves and the two strong midribs serve as useful characters. (E-Flora BC)

Zooming in.

Coarse moss: check.
Triangular, wrinkled, pleated leaves: check.
I couldn't get a clear view of a double midrib.
Divergent leaves at upper stem tip: check.
Yellow-green (spring green): check.
On logs, rocks, and here, a rotting burl: check.

But I still could be mistaken. Moss is as confusing as gulls or mushrooms.

Anonymous 'shroom

The mushrooms are up. This one was in the wetlands around the Oyster River.

Mushroom and mixed herbs.

Also present: salmonberry leaves, cleavers, moss (probably Oregon beaked moss, Kindbergia oregana), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), young reeds or rushes, and something with clasping leaves, unidentified. It's raining most days now, and everything is green and growing fast.

As usual, I paged through my mushroom book, and, again as usual, ended up with a couple of tentatively possibles, but probably not. Mushrooms resist being named.

This red chocolate is black

Black chocolate. Slimy black chocolate.

It's a slug; it has to be slimy.

Chocolate slug, aka red slug, Arion rufus, at Bear Creek Nature Park

But isn't it beautiful?

I didn't know this until I checked E-Fauna: these shiny black slugs are just one colour morph of the European Red slug. Sometimes they're light brown with a dark head and orange foot. Sometimes they're just pale brown without the keel. Or they may be chocolate brown. Or even orange. (Links go to E-Fauna photos.)

They may even be bright red, although E-Fauna doesn't have a photo of one, and I've never seen one. I've seen all the other colour morphs, without realizing they were all the same species. (Like cats or dogs, their coat colour is whatever turns up in the shake of the DNA.)

They're an exotic species: our only native BC species is the big banana slug. I see those mostly in the woods; the little Chocolate eats my garden flowers. And my lettuce any year I dare plant any.

Under the autumn maples

And fall is upon us. Under the trees at Bear Creek Nature Park (on the Oyster River) it rained steadily. A warm, dry, orange rain; maple leaves weaving a cozy blanket for the earth beneath.

The woods were glorious, if the ravens were not:

One, or maybe two ravens. Easier to hear than to see.

Down below, we walked in semi-dusk; above on oddly twisted trunks, the leaves blazed in the sunlight.

In spots, the sun filtered through to the ground. Here, a few dead branches, woodpecker-drilled bark, moss, lichen, trailing blackberry, and the maple leaves.

Maple tree out in the open.

And underneath that maple leaf blanket, a miniature flower:

Unidentified. White, bell-like flowers with pale lilac veins.

Oyster River crayfish

I spent a morning at the Bear Creek Nature Park with friends, visiting the fish hatchery on the Oyster River. The river here meanders, sprawls through a wetland, branches out into hatchery channels and side streams. It's mostly shallow and dark, even as the overhead greenery turns yellow and rains down. In a muddy pool, we found a crayfish.

Signal crayfish (also crawfish, crawdad), Pacifastacus leniusculus. Under about 6 inches of water, competing with the reflections from trees overhead.

There is only one native crayfish species in BC – the Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). This species can be identified by its uniform brownish coloration, white or light coloration of the claw joint, and the smooth surface of its carapace and claws compared to that of nonnative species. (Fishnbc)

They have a white to pale blue-green patch near the claw hinge [me: here it's blue-green], like the white flags that signalmen used for directing trains—hence the name. (Wikipedia)

This critter appeared to be about 3 inches long. (It's hard to be sure underwater because of the refraction.) We caught one in the Campbell River a few years ago; it was a bit bigger. They usually grow to about 3 1/2 inches, but can reach as much as 8 inches, given, I imagine, a healthy diet of leftovers and a long life. (Wikipedia) They can live as long as 20 years. Which I find amazing.