Banana and lemons

 Sometimes in the woods I meet deer. More often, it's slugs. Like this pretty youngster.

Pacific banana slug, Ariolimax columbianus, on a log end.

Good thing I stopped to look at him; on my way back to the trail, I saw these, that I had passed going the other way without noticing.

I think they may be the Wood Woolyfoot mushroom, Gymnopus peronatus. (Also known by a variety of scientific names.) I've never seen them before.

There was a fairly large gathering in the duff between the logs, all with that lemony fuzz at the base of the stalk.

The tallest of these was under 3 inches.

From my guide book:

"... this species is important in its ability to break down the upper 1.5" (4 cm) of leaf litter on the forest floor. The distinctive hairs on its stem makes it particularly easy to identify."

Thanks, little slug!

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A veces me encuentro con venados en el bosque. Pero con mucha más frecuencia, los animales que veo son las babosas.

Esta babosita, la babosa "plátano del Pacífico", Ariolimax columbianus, cruzaba el corte de un tronco. Bueno fue que me detuve a mirarla; en camino de vuelta al sendero, vi estos hongos, los cuales había pasado por alto antes.

Fotos: la babosa, y los hongos.

Los hongos son los "patas lanudas de madera," Gymnopus peronatus; también se conocen por una variedad de nombres científicos. Nunca los había visto antes.

En el suelo entre los troncos había bastantes. El más alto medía unos 6 cm.

Mi libro guía dice:

"... esta especie es importante por su habilidad de descomponer la capa superior (hasta 4 cm) de las hojas caídas en el suelo del bosque. Los pelos característicos en el tallos la hacen muy fácil de identificar."

¡Gracias, babosita!

Licorice, chocolate, banana. Not edible.

 A rainy evening is the best time to hunt for slugs. Or to find them when you're looking for something else. These turned up on my spider hunt.

The chocolate slug, aka licorice slug, chocolate arion. Arion rufus.

Same slug, hunkered down after I moved a leaf, exposing more of his orange striped fringe.

These slugs are an introduced species. Its colour can vary from yellow-brown to chocolate to black, when it looks identical to the black slug, Arion ater, different only internally. Black slugs, they say, are not present here on the island. So this next slug is probably a chocolate, too.

There's a hint of the orange foot.

Big polypore on ground. With two slugs.

This was taken after dark; the mushroom was just a darker patch on the ground. I didn't see the slugs until I looked at the photo. The one on the left is another chocolate slug; on the right there's a banana slug, Ariolimax columbianus.

I don't know why these slugs are named after food. Appetizing, right?

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Una tarde con lluvia es el mejor momento para buscar babosas. O para encontrarlas cuando buscas otra cosa. Estas aparecieron durante mi búsqueda de arañas.

La primera es la que llamamos la babosa de chocolate o de anis. Es una babosa importada desde Europa. Puede venir en colores desde amarillo/café a color chocolate, hasta un negro puro. Aquí se le puede notar los bordes del pie, de color anaranjado con rayas negras.

La babosa negra, una especie casi idéntica, por lo menos en cuanto se puede observar sin hacer cirugía, no se halla, dicen, aquí en la isla. Así que esta negra ha de ser una babosa de anís.

En la última foto, tomada después de anochecer, salen dos babosas, comiendo un hongo políporo. La de la izquierda es otra chocolate. A la derecha, una babosa "plátano", nativo y común aquí.

¿Porqé será que les llaman a estos animalitos por comidas, y además por comidas deliciosas? 

A couple of critters

Moving on from the rocks ...

In the woods, I found a green slug.

Pacific Banana slug, Ariolimax columbianus. The cones are hemlock.

Most of the slugs I see are either the black slugs, Chocolate Arion, or these Banana slugs. The Bananas are extremely variable; they can be yellow or black or green or coffee or coffee cream, mottled or patchy. They all have the central keel down the back.

I looked up the slugs on E-Fauna, just to refresh my memory: there are 26 species listed in BC; here on the island they are mostly Bananas or Chocolates. But I didn't know this: there are several species of Jumping slugs. Two of them can be found in the forests of Vancouver Island. I'll be looking for them now, And wondering about that jumping.

This next critter is easy to identify:

Harbour seal, trapped on land. On the platform above the rocks.

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Regresando de las rocas ...

En el bosque encontré una babosa verde. Es una de las babosas plátano, (Ariolimax columbianus). Estas babosas son muy variables. Pueden ser amarillas, negras, cafés, color crema, verdes como esta, con parches de amarillo y negro, con puntitos o rayas de varios colores. Algunas son muy grandes.

La otra babosa que veo seguido por aquí es la babosa chocolate, que es de un negro absoluto. Pero miré la lista que tiene E-Fauna; ahí hay 26 especies de babosa en la provincia. Esto no lo sabía; hay varias babosas que se llaman saltarinas. Dos se pueden encontrar en los bosques de la isla. Voy a mantener los ojos abiertos; ojalá encuentre una. Pero no me imagino como una babosa puede saltar.

También había otro animal, este en la plataforma arriba de las rocas. Una foca común, hecha en madera, así que no le importa estar fuera del agua.

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.

Spotty

Banana slug, out enjoying the damp weather.

Near Gold River. It has been raining off and on, and the stones are wet.

Banana slugs come in yellow, like a ripe banana, in spots like an over-ripe one, or all black like a mushy banana. The name suits them, no matter what colour they are.

Road to nowhere

On the map, the highway north to the tip of Vancouver Island is a single, wavy line, with a few side roads, at Woss (pop. 200), Sayward (311), Brown's Bay. Zoom in further, and pale lines appear: logging roads, mostly, or roads to camp or picnic sites. These are private roads, gravel or mud; they do not turn blue when you try to move Google's little observer to them. Many have warning signs: watch for logging trucks, which always have the right of way, even if there's no passing lane; head for the ditch, or the bush.

On the ground, however, roads into the bush multiply. Some are little more than a two-rutted path, with weeds growing in the ruts. Some have been carved out and gravelled. Most have no indication of where they lead, or who made them. On Google, they're dark or light lines among the hills, becoming invisible where the trees close in.

I follow one or two on each trip north. Some peter out after a couple of turns, ending up abruptly at undisturbed bush. Some go on and on and on, winding up hill and down; when the road becomes too rough for my little car, even at a crawl, I find a wider spot, and turn back. Once, I found a tiny lake, with a house on the far side; the road would have reached it, but I needed a 4x4 truck.

Some seem completely meaningless. A nicely gravelled entrance, a road leading down a hill for 50 yards or so, then a few swipes with earth-moving equipment, and nothing more. Why? Someone prospecting for building sites, this far from nowhere? Hopeful handloggers? I can't imagine.

At one of these, I stopped and hiked to the end of the cleared "road", too rugged for my car. There was a hill, a creek, some plastic trash (why is this always present, even out here?), a few mounds of debris, as if a backhoe had been scraping out a construction site until the order came through; "You're in the wrong spot, go home, contract cancelled." Or something to that effect.

Ma Nature's contracts are never cancelled. She was hard at work, re-populating the site.

Lichen on a log. There's always lichen.

Assorted lichen (the "big" pillars are Cladonia), and moss.

Haircap moss and lichen.

Eastern eyebright, Euphrasia nemorosa. I found these near Nimpkish Lake in July but wasn't sure of the species. This, I identified by the size of the flowers, counting the grass stalks as more than 1 mm across. E. nemorosa's flowers are from 5-10 mm long.

Bird's foot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus.

And there are always slugs. Banana slug, watching my camera.

Ouch!

Just looking at this slug crossing a metal dock makes my skin squirm.

Banana slug, Lake Roberts.

I think he was lost: there's nothing for a slug to eat on that dock.

The competition. And a banana slug recipe

I went looking for mushrooms and found slugs looking for dinner. Chef's special: mushrooms on the stalk, with fresh rain dressing.

Black slug, Arion ater.

Everywhere I went yesterday, there were black slugs, all dressed in blue-black finery, partying in the wet moss and mud.

If you encounter one and are feeling bold, poke it gently. It will tighten into a ball and start wobbling side to side, very slowly. It is one of nature's most inexplicable and strangely mesmerizing performances, worth watching if you have a lot of time to kill. (E-fauna, article by Hugh Griffith)

I didn't know that, or I'd have been poking slugs until dark. Next time.

Banana slug, Ariolimax columbianus. Our native slug.

This was a small specimen, in a hurry to leave while I tromped around him, trying to find firm footing on a wet slope. I like the striped border of his foot.

Another banana slug, in a spotted coat, eating a mushroom.

Banana slugs, like the bananas they're named for, can be any colour from green to yellow to spotty brown to black. They are the most commonly met slugs in this area, and can grow up to 25 cm (10 inches) long, like the big cooking bananas (plantains) in the produce section at the store.  And yes, you can cook and eat a banana slug.

I had the slugs with ketchup and they were oh-so-good. I was very surprised. The texture was like a cross between mushrooms and calamari. It was hard to pick out a specific “slug” flavor; they tasted deep-fried, oily, and subtle. (From a recipe for Deep Fried Banana Slugs.)

Interesting, but I think I'll stick to the plant variety.

The slugs were eating mushrooms at Echo Lake.

Mushrooms tomorrow, some not even chewed yet!