All those aliases

So elegant in black and white!

Bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata. On waxberry flowers, Symphoricarpos albus.

Waxberry, aka snowberry, bearing both fruit and flowers.

This is one of the times I really appreciate the Latin names; this wasp (not a true hornet, despite the English name, really a yellowjacket, without the yellow jacket) goes by many common names, probably depending on where the namers met it first. I knew them, growing up, as Yellowjackets; on iNaturalist, it's a Bald-faced hornet (where "Bald" comes from "piebald, meaning white, not hairless); or it goes by Black Jacket, White-faced hornet, Bald-faced Aerial Yellowjacket (this, on BugGuide), White-tailed Hornet, and according to Wikipedia, Spruce wasp and Bull wasp. They all answer to Dolichovespula maculata.

The white berries, Symphocarpus albus, are commonly called Snowberries, maybe because of the colour and also because they stay on the bush all winter, or Waxberries; they do have a waxy feel. In some places, they go by the name of Ghostberry. The flowers are inconspicuous and don't give rise to another name, at least.

Same wasp, different clump of berries and buds.

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Tan elegante, esta avispa, vestida en negro con blanco.

1. Avispón de Cara Blanca, Dolichovespula maculata. Con flores de Symphocarpos albus.
2. Flores y bayas de S. albus.
3. La misma avispa, con otro racimo de flores y bayas.

Con especies como estas dos, que se encuentran en abundancia sobre una gran extensión del continente, el nombre científico adquiere importancia, porque se conocen por muchos distintos nombres. Esta avispa se conoce, en español, como la  Avispa de Cuerpo Largo, o el Avispón de Cara Blanca. En inglés (y traducciones directas como las que se encuentran en Wikipedia) es la avispa de Cola Blanca, el avispón de la chaqueta amarilla (y esta es una de las chaquetas amarillas, pero le falta la chaqueta amarilla) o la avispa del aire chaqueta amarilla (esto según BugGuide), la avispa abeto picea, o la avispa toro (estos dos últimos nombres en Wikipedia). Es una avispa, y un avispón a la vez. Los avispones pertenecen a una famila de avispas grandes. Dolichovespula maculata evita tanta confusión.

Estas avispas son las que hacen los nidos de papel del tamaño de una pelota de futbol.

El arbusto Symphoricarpos albus no tiene nombre común en español. Es una planta común de los bosques pluviales de Canadá y del norte de los Estados Unidos, y en inglés lleva los nombres de Baya de las Nieves, Baya de Cera, o Baya Fantasma, estos nombres a causa del color blanco de las bayas, su persistencia durante el invierno, y su textura como de cera. Las flores no llaman la atención, y por eso no han inspirado más nombres.

It pays to slow down

A forest in a raindrop ...

Snowberry, Ridge Trail, Elk Falls Prov. Park.

Zooming in and flipping.

Rainy day in Woodhus Slough

When it rains lightly, the colours are different. The greens are greener, the skies greyer, the reds and browns bluer. And my shoes are muddier.

In summer, a field. In winter, a pond, with mallards, geese, swans, and sometimes coots.

Corner where I sometimes see swans in mid-winter, swimming, sleeping, or rooting down in the muck, heads underwater.

Lichen on a tree trunk.

Waxberries, Symphoricarpos albus.

The white fruits look and feel like foamed wax, or sometimes like discarded styrofoam. They don't look appetizing, but the birds love them. Each berry contains two seeds, which the birds spread about.

When the leaves are gone, the lichen keeps the tree green. Ish.

Slough sedge, Carex obnupta. 

Birds of all type (waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds and game birds) eat the seeds of Slough Sedge in moderate amounts. ... Waterfowl nest in areas where sedges form a dense cluster. Amphibians lay their eggs at the base of these plants and the young are somewhat protected from predation.(NWPlants)

Lichen on branch against the sky.

And it's still raining. Ah, BC weather!

Baikie Island in the sunshine

On a rainy afternoon last January, I discovered Baikie Island, a half-reclaimed piece of formerly industrial land, still littered with rusting metal, assorted construction material, greasy wood. A releafing project was underway, and a couple of paths were gravelled. The birds were settling in. I promised to come back when the sun was shining.

I was almost too late. The fall rains have set in, and they've not been gentle; it's no time for walking in the rain with a camera.

But we had two sunny days this week; I hurried down to Baikie Island right away.

Yellow and brown grasshopper, (Melanoplus bivittatus) waiting for me at the entrance.

People have been hard at work this summer. The old construction material has been hauled away, even to the rusting steel embedded in the mud at the island's tip. There are new signs, and the blackberry canes trying to close the paths have been cut back. Trails, as yet unofficial, but well marked and cleared, lead to lookout points along the river bank. There are a few benches facing the water.

Now, at the turn of the seasons, a few flowers are still blooming; as long as there are sunny days and insects to pollinate them, it's worth the effort.

Some sort of pea flower, growing at the edge of the water. About 6 inches high.

A mint, possibly field mint, Mentha arvensis. At the edge of a soggy grassland.

And one wild rose, the last on the shrub.

But it's fall; time to get the seeds finished and ready to go.

Common California aster, Aster chilensis. Violet ray flowers with yellow disk flowers. At river's edge.

Most of them have gone to seed. I like the way the dying petals curl up into tight rings. Here, they're brown; in the photo above, they're purple.

Fat, red rose hips.

Snowberry. Most of these will stay on the shrub over the winter.

More snowberries. Aka waxberry. Other berries feel solid, or at least full; these are soft and dry to the touch, as if they were mostly air.

"One Stl'atl'imx story indentifies the berries as 'the saskatoon berries of the people in the Land of the Dead.'" (Plants of Coastal BC)

The old mill pond, with Canada geese. (Two groups.)

The first trail completed leads straight down from the bridge to the tip of Blaikie Island. A second trail leads from the parking lot, around the pond, and up the banks of the river as far as the highway to the north.

I can't resist a trail going somewhere new.

Here, the trees close in, creating welcome shade after a long walk on a sunny day.

Big maple leaf, caught on its way down.

Coming in closer. The light shows the needles behind the leaf.

Big maple "airplanes", almost ready to fly.

Fuzzy little shelf fungi on a dying tree.

Long pine needles. Western white pine? Needles, I think, in clumps of 5, about 4 inches long.

Map from the parking lot kiosk. I walked from the tip to the NCC Channel. Ill have to go back, next sunny day.

Unanswered questions at the Nicomekl Bridge

As we so often do on our way to Crescent Beach, we stopped at the last little bridge that crosses the Nicomekl River. The water, as usual, was smooth, unhurried.

Looking downstream. South Delta farms on the north bank, each with their dock and a boat or two.

It's an odd little bridge; solid cement, crossing a span 50 metres long, one-lane, with a narrow walkway along one side, and with tall, thick cement walls enclosing it, so that from the shore, only the roofs of the cars are visible. As we drive up to it, we get a quick flash of glossy water, then the walls shut everything out; there are no gaps. I always wonder about it; why such a strong bridge, for one car at a time; why those walls, where there is no danger of flooding, or even of strong wind?

Just a couple hundred metres upstream, the King George highway crosses the river, too; three lanes of traffic, this being the main route into White Rock, on two bridges, these supported by wooden pilings, and edged with rickety-looking green railings. Something seems cross-wired.

King George highway bridge, with flock of ducks.

Moss garden on the bridge wall.

Past the bridge, we took a short path down to water's edge. There's never much to see down there; green water, green bush, the grey cliff of the bridge support, sprayed with grafitti. This time, there were waxberries, too.

Wax (or snow) berries, and evergreen blackberries, long past their prime.

Shining in the dark green shade.

I was told, as a kid, not to taste these berries; they were poisonous, people said. I never tested them, even though I did taste most other plants. But the whiteness seemed unnatural; they reminded me of soggy pills. The birds eat them, though, and some of the natives used them as a stomach remedy.

Someday I'll sample one.

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