When the rain stopped

 A couple more photos from Lake Hoomak. Just because I liked them.

Mist and reflections and a lone bufflehead drawing a V on still water.

Raindrops on branches.

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Dos más fotos del lago Hoomak, cuando no llovía. No más porque me gustan. Neblina, reflejos, un porrón coronado pintando lineas en agua tranquila, gotas de lluvia en ramas casi sin hojas.

Ruffles, pimples, bones in the forest.

It's always dark under the trees at Hoomak Lake. Even on bright, sunny days. The canopy overhead is dense, the hillside steep, casting a permanent shadow. On a wet winter day in the rain, the forest is so dim that colours are leached out. Only by the shore does green show up as green.  The camera has a trick that my eyes can't match; it turns on the flash.

It showed me these mosses and lichens on the trunks of red alder trees.

It looks like Tree ruffle liverwort, and an unidentified moss.

Impossible to identify

The longer view. Leaf lichens, tree barnacle, and the moss.

Zooming in on another tree. Baby leaf lichen, and bark barnacle.

The leaf lichen, I think, is what my guide book calls "hooded bone" and Wikipedia calls "monk's hood lichen", Hypogymna physodes. Or one of the common Hypogymna species, of which 17 are found in BC. E-Flora explains that these lichens are called bone lichens because of "... the hollow lobes of the species and the pale, often whitish, upper cortex."

The bark barnacle is another common lichen, growing mainly on alder trunks. It is a crust lichen, barely visible; what draws our attention, and gives it its name, are the round fruiting bodies, tiny blisters (another site calls them "pimples") with an open pore in the centre.

And on the ground beneath the trees, wherever the light reaches in, I see step moss.

Step moss, alder leaves, and a shiny leaf moss (upper right).

More step moss and alder leaves. With salal leaves; these are evergreen, always bright, always glossy.

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 Siempre está oscuro alrededor del lago Hoomak. Cuando el sol brilla, y más en el bosque invernal, en la lluvia. La cubierta forestal es densa, el terreno empinado, manteniendo todo en sombra. En un dia gris, es tan oscuro que los ojos casi no pueden distinguir los colores. Solamente en la orilla del lago entra suficiente luz para que lo verde se vea como verde. Pero mi cámara tiene un truco que no tienen mis ojos; el flash.

Y el flash me mostró estos líquenes y musgos en los troncos de alisos rojos.

Fotos:

1. Parece ser la hepática "fleco de árbol", Porella navicularis. Y un musgo sin identificar.
2. Musgos que no pude identificar.
3. Vista de una sección más larga del tronco, El musgo, y los líquenes Thelotrema lepadinum y Hypogymna physodes.
4. En otro aliso, un brote nuevo del líquen Hypogymna physodes, y el "bálano de corteza", Thelotrema lepadinum.

El líquen folioso, creo, es el que llaman "hueso con capuchón". Wikipedia le da el nombre de "capuchón de monje". O puede ser otro del mismo género, del cual hay 17 en esta provincia. E-Flora explica que se le ha dado el nombre de "hueso", porque, dice, "los lóbulos son huecos, y la corteza es pálida, casi blanco a veces".

El "bálano de corteza" es otro líquen muy común que crece principalmente en los troncos de los alisos. Es un líquen incrustante, apenas visible. Lo que salta a la vista son los cuerpos fructíforos; las ampollitas (granos, les llaman otros) que se abren por medio de un poro central.

Y en el suelo debajo de los árboles al mero borde del agua, donde le llega la luz, se halla el musgo "de escalera", Hylocomium splendens.

2 fotos: el musgo, con hojas de alder, y un musgo de hojas grandes en la parte superior a la derecha, y (segunda foto) hojas de salal, 

Tracking trees

On the ground under the trees at Lake Hoomak, I always see many of these large cones with the white markings.

Western white pine, Pinus monticola.

I have seen them nowhere else on the island. A sign beside the trail gave me a clue as to what to look for in the guides:

Trail sign, Hoomak Lake.

The relevant text says, "This area contains Douglas-fir, Western redcedar, Western white pine, Western hemlock, and red alder trees."

The cones of western white pine can grow up to 30 cm. long. This one was about half that.

The scales on cones of white pines have no prickles and are often dotted with spots of white resin. (Native Plants PNW)

The cones can drip pitch in warm weather, warns that site. And on the tree, they hang downward, which probably explains the resin on the tips of the scales. It's hard, and firmly glued to the cone. I've tried to chip a piece off, without success.

But why don't I see them anywhere else? I decided to check their distribution on a map. I found one on DataBasin.

Well, that explains it.

Western white pine grows in the green areas. Campbell River, and the forests where I usually walk, are in the cream (sans WWP) area. The highways north, south, and west travel down valleys in the cream zone.

Next time I go to Gold River, I'll look for the cones; the highway there (off the bottom edge of this map section) passes through the green belt.

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Cada vez que sigo los senderos en el lago Hoomak, veo muchas de estas piñas grandes, las de las puntas de las escalas pintadas de blanco.

Foto: una piña del pino blanco occidental, Pinus monticola.

No las he visto en ningún otro sitio en la isla. Un letrero al lado del camino me orientó:

Foto: el letrero. Dice,

Especies de árbol

Un bosque casi siempre contiene más de una especie de árbol. Hay muchos factores que determinan cual especie de árbol crecerá en un sitio determinado: la humedad, los nutrientes, la temperatura, la cantidad de luz, la superficie disponible, y otras variables. Este sitio contiene abetos de Douglas, cedro rojo occidental, el pino blanco occidental, el pino hemlock, y el aliso rojo.

Las piñas de pino blanco occidental pueden alcanzar los 30 cm. Esta, la de la foto, medía más o menos la mitad.

Las escamas en los conos del pino blanco no tienen espinas, y muchas veces llevan manchas de resina blanca. (De Native Plants, PNW)

Del mismo sitio, veo lo siguiente: de los conos puede gotear brea en tiempo de calor. Y los conos cuelgan hacia abajo, así que la brea se acumula en las puntas de las escamas. Es muy dura y bien pegada a la piña. He tratado de despegar un pedazo, pero sin lograrlo.

Pero, ¿Porqué no las encuentro en ningún otro lugar? Decidí buscar un mapa que mostrara su distribución. Lo encontré en DataBasin.

Foto: el mapa. El pino blanco occidental crece en las zonas verdes. Y eso lo explica todo. Donde yo vivo, y donde camino en los bosques todo queda en la zona color crema.

Homeward bound

There's something about a lonely highway. It grabs me, draws me on and on and on ...

This is a photo taken through my windshield 5 minutes after sundown, lit only by the fog and my headlights.

Hwy 19, heading south from Lake Hoomak. 4:21 PM

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Algo tiene una carretera solitaria. Me toma presa, me obliga a seguirla. Y seguir ...

Esta es una foto sacada desde mi asiento atrás del volante, saliendo del lago Hoomak camino a casa, unos 5 minutos después de la puesta del sol, y con la única luz la de la neblina y los faros del coche.

Protected zone

Microclimates: the inside of a burnt-out stump is protected from wind, warmer, maybe drier than the outside. This little stump is on the hillside above Lake Hoomak.

Hollow stump, with moss, lichens, salal,and evergreen ferns.

On the outside of the stump, the lichen is a Cladonia species. On the inside a dust lichen, probably a Lepraria species, covers the burnt sections. Moss grows on the broken rim, where moisture collects.

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Un tocón de un arbolito, habiendo perdido el centro, crea varios microclimas: dentro, está protegido de los vientos, menos frio, más seco; afuera recibe el impacto de los vientos y la lluvia que estos vientos cargan. Este toconcito está en la ladera arriba del lago Hoomak.

En el exterior, lleva líquenes Cladonia. Adentro, un liquen de polvo, probablemente de una de las especies de Lepraria, cubre la parte quemada. Y el borde superior, donde se detiene el agua, sostiene musgos. Alrededor, hay helechos perennes y salal (Gaultheria shallon).

Western white pine cone

On the trail along the shore of Lake Hoomak, down there in the dark (and it is very dark under those trees) many long pine cones lie in the duff. They stand out, even in the dark, because of the white patches on the tips of the scales.

Western white pine, Pinus monticola.

These cones can be up to 30 cm. long. Most I found were about half that.

The white patches are resin. They are hard and dry, harder than the woody scales, drier than anything else in their surroundings.

Note: the camera's eye is better than mine. It sees the colours, even in the dark. To my eyes, the cones looked black until I carried one out into the daylight.

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En el sendero que circunda el Lago Hoomak, allí abajo en la oscuridad — y es muy oscuro debajo de los árboles — muchos conos largos de pino reposan en la bosta. Sobresaltan a la vista, aun en la oscuridad, por los parches blancos en las escalas.

Foto: cono de pino blanco occidental, Pinus monticola.

Estos conos pueden ser hasta de 30 cm. de largo. La mayor parte de los que encontré este dia eran más o menos la mitad. 

Los parches blancos son resina seca. Es dura y seca, más sólida que las escalas, que tienen la consistencia de madera blanda, y más seca que cualquier otra cosa alrededor.

Se ve que el ojo de la cámara es mejor que los mios. Ve los colores en la oscuridad. Para mis ojos, estos conos parecían negros hasta que llevé uno a donde entraba la luz del dia.

Another view of Hoomak Lake

The weather people promised us snow earlier this week. We got rain instead. Now they say it will be tomorrow.

I got impatient; couldn't wait. So I drove north, looking for snow. I found frost, in spots, but no snow. So much for taking things into my own hands.

I went as far as Hoomak Lake, just out of Woss. 120 km. from home, but as it works out on the map, only 20 km. to the north; the rest of the distance, as the crow flies, is to the west, to the interior of the island, where it should be colder.

But there was no snow; barely any even on the mountain peaks.

Hoomak Lake was still and dark when I arrived, at 3:30. The sun had dropped behind the mountains already, though sunset wasn't due for another three quarters of an hour.

View from the bottom of the stairs and the beginning of the trail.

Trees and mist on the far shore.

I'd been here several times before, once, three years ago, looking for snow, which I didn't find that time, either. Still, it's a pleasant drive, between evergreen walls and through drifting mists. Worth it, snow or no snow.

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Los meteorológicos nos prometieron nieve hace unos dias. Llovió. Ahora dicen que neverá mañana.

Se me acabó la paciencia. Tomé la carretera hacia el norte, buscando nieve. Encontré, en algunos sitios, escarcha. No había nieve. No se le fuerza la mano a la Sra. Naturaleza.

Llegué hasta el lago Hoomak, cerca de Woss, a 120 km. de la casa, pero viendo la mapa, solo 20 km hacia el norte; lo que resta del camino, a vuelo de pájaro (si es que algún pájaro alguna vez vuele en linea recta) va hacia el oeste, hacia el interior de la isla, donde debe hacer más frio.

Pero no había nieve, casi ni en las cimas de las montañas.

El lago Hoomak estaba quieta y oscura cuando llegué, a las 3:30 de la tarde. El sol ya se había ocultado tras las montañas, aunque la puesta del sol, sin montañas en medio, no sería hasta las 4:15.

Fotos: el lago desde el pie de las escaleras, y el principio de los senderos que dan vuelta al lago, y el lado opuesto del lago, con la neblina.

He estado en este sitio varias veces. Una vez, hace tres años, tambien vine buscando nieve sin encontrarla en esa ocasión tampoco. Pero de todas maneras es un paseo lindo, entre muros formados por los árboles, y pasando por neblinas flotantes. Vale la pena, con o sin nieve.

Layering

 In the rainforest, mosses cover everything like a green blanket. Not "moss". Mosses, plural. There are so many different species, so many forms!

Covering old logs on the hillside above Hoomak Lake, I noticed one that looked new to me.

Step moss, Hylocomium splendens.

It almost looks like two mosses occupying the same log. But look closely; the fern-like branches sprout from the middle of the central stem of the leafy branch below.

These are new sprouts; mature, they will be as leafy as the ones beneath. Every year, the moss adds a new step, each new sprout curving upward from the branch below, so that the age of the moss can be calculated by following a strand from the root up.

The sporophytes also arise from the central stem.

Many sporophytes here, maturing from orange to red.

Now that I look at them, I realize that I have seen these many times, but the new sprouts were farther along, and feathery, so they didn't attract attention.

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En el bosque pluvial, los musgos cubren todo, como una suave cobija verde. Musgos, plural. ¡Hay tantas formas y especies!

En la ladera del lago Hoomak, vi uno que me parecía nuevo. Hasta parecía que eran dos musgos creciendo en el mismo tronco. Pero visto de cerca, se ve que las ramitas que parecen helechos brotan del centro del tallo de las rama inferiores, que más bien parecen plumas.

Es que son nuevos. Ya maduros, tomarán la misma forma de las primeras ramas. El musgo en inglés lo llamamos "musgo escalónes", "Step moss".

Cada año se forma otro escalón de ramitas brotando de las del año anterior; hasta se puede saber la edad de una masa de musgo, contando los escalones.

Ahora que los miro con más cuidado, me doy cuenta que los he visto muchas veces, pero no cuando los brotes recientes eran nuevos, tomando forma de helechos.

Pinesaps!

Some are yellow, flowering in the spring. Some flower in late summer and are pink or red. They are never green.

I came across several clumps of pink stalks in the deep shade on the hillside.

Pinesap, Monotropa hypopitys, summer edition.

The flowers are white, shading to purplish, with four hairy petals and a long central column.

A closer look.

Pinesaps. Because they live under pines. (And feed off their sap? Indirectly, yes.)

They have no chlorophyll and don't convert sunlight to sugars. They get their nutrients third-hand, from the mushrooms that depend on the trees spreading their greenery far overhead.

Along the pathway I had seen several large mushrooms, broken and nibbled by slugs. These pinesaps are parasitic on the mushrooms. And the mushrooms live in a symbiotic relationship with the evergreens that do the work of reaching out to the sun.

The flowers start out bent over, and straighten up as they mature.

The plant consists of a perennial mass of roots which in season sends up a flower head; the pink stalk is considered to be a part of the flower raceme.

The fruits are round capsules, here pink, like the stems. (Flash used here.)

Ripe capsules. The stigma is yellow in new flowers, turning purple as it ripens.

The seed capsules dry to dark brown; I saw a few, but the photos were too dark to be useful.
One stalk had broken off: I brought it home, all rumpled and half dry, and looked at it under the microscope:

Dying flowers, one without petals, showing its ovary and stigma, and the stamens, already brown and dry. And hairy.

Two ripe seed capsules.

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Algunas de estas plantas son amarillas, y florecen en la primavera. Las que florecen más tarde, en el verano, son color de rosa. Nunca son verdes.

Encontré varios grupos, siempre en sombra, siempre cerca de unos hongos blancos, y siempre bajo pinos.

Las plantas no contienen clorofila, y no producen sus propias sustancias nutritivas. Son parásitos, que toman su alimento de los hongos, los cuales son simbiontes que dependen de los árboles que convierten la luz del sol a energía.

Se llaman, en inglés, Pinesap, o sea savia de pinos y son la única especie en su género. Salen de una masa perenne de raices, produciendo los tallos con flores en la temporada, desapareciendo bajo la tierra hasta el próximo año.

Los frutos son unas cápsulas redondas, rojizas, que, secas, se vuelven color de café oscuro.

Una rama estaba tirada en el suelo, rota. Me la traje a casa y la miré bajo el microscopio.

Does it look like a rattlesnake?

 The last time I visited Lake Hoomak was the middle of winter. Now, at the end of a cool summer, I found several unexpected plants, one of which I'd never seen before.

These two are orchids:

Rattlesnake plantain, Goodyera oblongifolia.

We call it a plantain, because it looks sort of like the common plantain that grows in our lawns and fields. But it's really an orchid. And other, similar orchids can be found here, but the basal rosette gives it away.

Basal rosettes of three orchids. Supposedly, the pattern looks like rattlesnake markings.

These were growing in the deepest, darkest part of the forest. They like the shade. (My camera didn't.)

In the clearing at the end of the trail, a number of Ladies' tresses, also a white orchid, dotted the grass.

Ladies' tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana.

The name, Ladies' tresses, was given to the orchid because it looks like braided hair, although it seems to me that it's more of a twist than a braid.

I've seen these in several places on the island, usually during a hot summer; then they were all taller plants than these. This year, maybe because of the weather, they were all small.

Small; under 6 inches tall.

One of the taller plants. Here the spiral arrangement of the flowers can be seen clearly.

These are both perennials, so I'll look for them again next year.

Next: one from the "Oddballs" section of my guide.

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La última vez que visité el lago Hoomak, era a medio invierno. Ahora, al fin de un verano algo fresco, encontré unas plantas interesantes.

Primero; dos orquídeas. La primera la llamamos "llantén víbora de cascabel". Porque, aunque no es un llantén (Plantago sp.) se parece al que crece en nuestros jardines. Pero es una orquídea.

Hay varias orquídeas parecidas por el rumbo; éste se conoce por las hojas basales, que bien dicho, están pintadas con diseños parecidos a las pieles de la víbora de cascabel.

La segunda orquídea tiene en nombre en inglés de "Trenzas de dama" por la manera en que están ordenandas las flores, en espiral alrededor del tallo.

Las he visto en varias partes de la isla, en otros veranos, más calurosos; las plantas eran mucho más altos; crecen hasta los 50 cm, pero éstos apenas llegaban a 20, a lo máximo.

En el post siguiente, subiré una planta que se halla en la sección de mi guía que se titula "Bichos Raros".

Creek crossings

 Just a few bridges from the Lake Hoomak trails. Wet bridges over shallow creeks.

Plank bridge, with handrails, yet!

The creek. The water is clear, but brown.

No handrails here. Log bridge, slippery.

Small bridge to cross a sometimes creek.

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Unos puentes de los senderos alrededor del lago Hoomak. Y un riachuelo; el agua es muy clara, pero de color de café.

A walk in the dark

 I've been on the move a lot this week. Under a blazing sun, I returned to the wharf to look at critters under the floats. I went to see cliff faces beside Upper Campbell Lake below cotton-puff clouds. And in the pouring rain, I drove north to Hoomak Lake, and walked down sodden trails under dripping, gloomy trees.

I've been sorting and processing photos in no particular order, as the whim strikes. These are from the Hoomak Lake trails.

(I've been here before, in January of 2019. Posts here, here, here, here, and here.)

It stopped raining as I parked, but the sky was grey, the ground slippery, and raindrops, delayed by the branches overhead, gathered and dropped, making plopping noises.

First viewpoint over the lake. Rainy day lighting. 4:30 PM.

It was dark under the trees; the only light came from far, far overhead, through the leafy, needled canopy, or from narrow gaps in the vegetation along the shore. But where there was light, it was all very green.

Creek near the shore. Brown, rusty water.

The trails branch off; last time I took the "Short Trail". This time, I went down the long trail until I found another leg, going uphill and back. Longer than the short trail, but quite a bit shorter than the other.

Part way up the hill, I came across this sign:

The sign as I found it. With the lighting as the camera saw it. Facing the "lighter" part of the forest and the shore beyond.

I straightened the photo and cleaned it up a bit to make it easier to read. And this is the lighting as the automatic photoshop program thought it should be. Not how I saw it on site.

"Forest Vegetation" sign

Text: Forest Vegetaion:

While it may seem quite light in the forest around you, (because our eyes adjust) part of this forest is actually too dark for many plants to live in. Notice the densely vegetated area ahead of you. When trees die, fall down or are cut down, they create openings that let in more sunlight and allow more vegetation to grow. The area behind you (no photo) contains very little vegetation by comparison. This is because tree crowns and branches are blocking out a large amount of sunlight. As a result, few plants are able to survive in this darker environment.

And of course, it was much darker this afternoon, because of the clouds overhead.

These little cardboard signs have been added since I was here last. Most are nailed to trees. This one had fallen, and ended up propped soggily in a rotting stump.

This trail went uphill, back down, back up, across several bridges and many informative signs, and finally joined the old Short Trail and went back to the parking lot. I'll post bridge photos tomorrow, some plants next.

Looking straight up from the hillside.

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Esta semana he estado en muchas partes. Bajo un sol abrasador, fui otra vez al muelle para mirar las criaturas que viven bajo los flotadores. Fui a ver las grandes rocas que bordean el Lago Upper Campbell, bajo un cielo de nubes de algodón. Y fui al norte, al Lago Hoomak en una tormenta de lluvia, llegando al estacionamiento justo a tiempo para caminar en una pausa de la lluvia.

He visitado este lago anteriormente, en enero del año pasado. Arriba hay enlaces a lo que escribí entonces.

Era una tarde muy oscura, sobre todo bajo los árboles. Árboles mojados, todavía dejando caer grandes gotas de la lluvia retenida. El suelo estaba empapado y algo resbaloso. La única luz venía de muy arriba, o entre ramas, del lago.

Hay muchos senderos aquí. La última vez tomé el "Corto". Esta vez empecé en el sendero "Largo", pero luego vi otro que subía el cerro y lo seguí.

Encontré un letrero que habla de la oscuridad del bosque y sus resultados.

Cuando no hay suficiente luz, hay poca vegetación. Los árboles aquí, muy cerca el uno del otro, corta la luz. Hacia el lago, hay más plantas; en el cerro, pocas plantas pueden vivir.

El caminito subía y bajaba y volvía a subir. Cruzó un puente tras otro; hay muchos pequeños riachuelos en este bosque lluvioso. Mañana subiré fotos de puentes, y luego algunas plantas interesantes que hallé.

End of the trail

Two more photos from the Hoomak Lake trail:

Tree remains in the lake. With lichen.

And this:

Why, people? Just why?

A mere hundred or so steps from the end of the trail and a trash bin, someone tossed this bottle as far into the forest as they could. I had to stumble and crawl over logs and moss to retrieve it and take it to the bins.

Why? It wasn't carelessness; that was a purposeful toss. At least it wasn't plastic, but still ...

Signs along the trail

On the Hoomak Lake trail, I found the interpretive signs interesting. I"ll include a few among my photos of the sights along the trail.

Sunlight on the top of a mossy log in a patch of salal.

Brief history of the site.

Legend: Reforestation History
Welcome to the Hoomak Lake trail. This site was logged in 1959 and slash burned in 1960. Since there was inadequate natural forest regeneration, Douglas-fir seedlings were planted in 1968-8-69. A white pine blister rust infestation had destroyed much of the natural young western white pine trees. In 1984, the site was juvenile spaced and pruned. ...

"... slash burned in 1960." After a site is logged off, the remaining broken timber and branches become a fire hazard, so the slash is piled and burned as prevention. The cleaned area then is colonized by fireweed, which provides shelter for early tree seedlings.

The white pine blister rust is similar to the (probable) rust I found on the Ridge Trail a few weeks ago. It can spread rapidly through a forest, killing the trees.

Western White Pine cone.

These cones can grow up to 30 cm. (12 inches) long. I don't know what those white patches are; they were hard and dry, and firmly attached to the cone.

Tree species on this site.

Partial legend, written in 2000: This area contains Douglas-fir, western redcedar, western white pine, western hemlock, and red alder trees.

Ferns growing on a well-rotted log. The duff is mostly pine or hemlock needles, dead ferns, and a few alder leaves.

Forest Succession

Legend (again, written in 2000):
An old forest will most often contain trees of various ages and sizes - from young to old, short to tall. Some species, such as western hemlock and western red cedar, can grow in low light conditions. Douglas-fir, on the other hand cannot survive under the shaded canopy of the tall trees.
Notice the different levels of tree heights in the forest around you. (Note: I craned my neck here. The Douglas firs are 'way up there in the sunlight.) The biggest and tallest trees in sight are Douglas-fir trees. They are the original or "pioneer" species, growing natural or planted before the ground was shaded by other vegetation. Pioneer species are the first species to grow back on a disturbed site.
Around you are numerous short, little western hemlock trees. They will eventually grow taller and take over from the pioneer species, ultimately being the tree species that exists on this site - the "climax" species - until the next disturbance. This process is called forest succession.

The "little" western hemlocks from 20 years ago are now tall, thin trees.

Once established, saplings in full light may have an average growth rate of 50–120 cm (20–47 in) (rarely 140 cm, 55 in) annually. (Wikipedia)

20 inches a year for 20 years: 400 inches or 34 feet, plus their year 2000 height; the trees are now nearly a third grown.

I didn't know this:

Sunscald

So Douglas fir that grew up in shady woods can get sunburnt. I can relate.

Legend: The damage on the Douglas-fir beside you is called sunscald. When such a thin-barked young tree is suddenly exposed to intense direct solar radiation, the high temperature can kill live tissue (cambium) below the bark. In this instance, juvenile spacing ... created openings that allowed sunshine into the previously shaded young forest.
... Trees that have grown up exposed to direct sun have usually developed a thicker, insulating bark.

White patches on trunk.

This is the tree that was beside the sign. Whether it is the one the sign referred to, or that one has long turned into duff, I can't tell.

Mushrooms on fallen tree.

These mushrooms were soft, jelly-like, from white to tan to pinkish. The leaves on the ground around them are red alder.

Something else I didn't know, tomorrow.