En Route to Tofino

We took advantage of a 3-day weekend in British Columbia to get out to Tofino over the last couple of days. I've been excited about getting the chance to explore more of Vancouver Island this month, and Tofino was near the top of my list. Not surprisingly, the drive out to the Pacific Coast was full of stunning sights, too. Our first stop of the day was at Cathedral Grove along Highway 4. While the giant trees were impressive, I was again turning my eyes to the minute:

Turns out just about the only photo I took of the trees themselves was this reflection shot!

Next up we stopped near Port Alberni at a little known side trail we read about called Hole in the Wall. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be well worth the stop. Not only for the hole in the wall itself, which was apparently blasted through the volcanic shale, but for all the other scenery:

The hole in the wall

Roger Creek runs by the wall of volcanic shale

Abstract black and white of the running creek

Old car abandoned in the woods --> Gets covered with graffiti --> Moss grows on it

Crazy lichen close-up

While it had been mostly overcast throughout the day, as we hit the stretch of highway between Port Alberni and the Pacific Ocean the clouds began to break, which made for some incredibly stunning lighting as we drove along the Kennedy River with snow-capped peaks towering overhead. We had to stop many times to get out the cameras. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Within 10 Feet

Today I decided to try and find as many species of all types that I could within 10 feet in any direction of the houseboat. I surveyed the area about once an hour between 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM, took some photos, discovered you can use binoculars quite well to look at deeper intertidal life, and spent some time with a stack of field guides. In total, I came up with about 40 species - here's how they broke down:

Birds

Glaucous-winged gull

Belted kingfisher

Rock pigeon

Pine siskin

Dark-eyed junco

Rock pigeon

Flowering plants

Licorice fern

Two unidentified tiny, weedy species

Licorice fern

Seaweeds

Bull kelp

Rockweed

Eelgrass

Sea cabbage

Seersucker kelp

At least one other type of kelp-like seaweed

At least one type of sea lettuce (Ulva spp.)

At least one type of brown tuft seaweed 

At least one type of filamentous red seaweed (of which there are about 60 local species that can only be distinguished microscopically)

Amazingly this shot shows almost all the different types of seaweed at once

Mosses 

Five species, including probably:

Juniper moss

Red bryum

Moss species

Lichens

At least four species, including potentially:

Xantharia sp.

Hypogymnia sp.

Lichen species

Arachnids

One type of orb spider

Invertebrates

Blue mussel

Acorn barnacle

California sea cucumber

Orange sea cucumber

Giant plumose anemone

Giant green anemone

Red-trumpet calcareous tubeworm

Ochre star

Monterey sea lemon (a type of nudibranch)

Graceful decorator crab

Kelp crab - perhaps Pugettia gracilis

Giant rock scallop

One shrimp species

One unknown crab-like species (see photo)

Giant plumose anemone

California sea cucumber

Two kelp crabs, possibly graceful kelp crabs (Pugettia gracilis)

The coolest find of the day, a small species with a big name that I hadn't noticed before - red-trumpet calcareous tubeworm

Another red-trumpet calcareous tubeworm - they ranged in color from all white to all red or any level of mixed banding between the two colors

The unknown crab-like species, about the size of a thumb nail. Any ideas??

And a last minute addition!

Mammals
Mink

Lots of Spring Walks, Lots of Spring Sightings

Last week Wednesday I got to check on the owlets again with my friend Katie (check out her blog for some awesome owl pics!). It's amazing how much they grew in just one week!

We watched them from a distance for about 10 minutes, and the cutest moment was when this little guy stretched, looking more like a slinky toy than a baby owl:

On Friday, a walk at the Friday Harbor Labs turned up my first singing olive-sided flycatcher (174) and also a western tanager (175) and another barred owl. A non-avian highlight was this very cooperative butterfly:

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at another friend's house. I enjoyed exploring around her yard, where in an hour I saw/heard about 20 bird species. Here's the view from her back porch:

One bird highlight were the pine siskins. They were loooovvvviiinng the thistle seed feeders:

But my favorite birds to watch were by far the two pairs of rufous hummingbirds, that showed no fear of me sitting right below the feeders. That allowed for some great photographic opportunities. Here's a male, just landing and holding onto the perch:

And here's a female hovering near the feeder, my favorite photo of the week:

While watching her feeders, I also saw my first black-headed grosbeak (176) of the year. We then went for a walk, and along her driveway was some striped coralroot (Corallorhiza striata), the first time I've seen this particular species of flowering plant that gets its nutrients not through photosynthesis but off fungi in the soil:

Nearby was the spotted coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata), the species I see more often:

On the walk, I heard several Wilson's warblers (177), as well as more olive-sided and Pacific-slope flycatchers, a mourning dove, and a band-tailed pigeon,  the latter two being more uncommon species here.

Sunday a hike near Roche Harbor gave me a chance to stop by the marina and see the purple martins (178) that are taking advantage of the nest boxes there. Finally, during a walk after work today, I heard my first Swainson's thrush (179) of the year. Meanwhile, Dave's been ticking away over in the UK, and despite my productive California trip in February sits only 7 species back in our year list competition!

Summer Solstice

Today's the longest day of the year! It's hard to believe that the first day of summer also means the days will start getting shorter. Hopefully that won't be noticeable for a while, because I love this getting dark at 10 PM thing.

Along with the solstice, we get some extreme tides, which makes for great tidepooling. Yesterday I did some climbing among the rocks at Lime Kiln Point State Park; here are a few photos of what I saw:

Acorn barnacle with limpets

Goose-neck barnacle, Pollicipes polymerus

Green anemone, Althopleura spp.

And talk about opposite modes of transportation....paddle-boarding really seems to be taking off here:

The water has undoubtedly been great for kayakers too:

 On my way back to the car, with the macro lens still on the camera, I had the chance to photograph some bumblebees:

The California poppies are in full bloom:

 I also noticed that some of the coastal manroot (also known as wild cucumber, Marah oreganus) was fruiting. I usually see the flowers, but hadn't ever really seen the fruit before. It's very bizarre looking:

This afternoon we went out to the west side and hung out in the sunshine for a couple hours, and towards the end of our time there some J-Pod whales came by. They didn't really end up going north, but rather heading offshore, where they seemed to be milling about and foraging. I thought this was a neat juxtaposition of two very different salmon hunters:

A mother and calf were circling and presumably catching and/or sharing a fish. After they finished and started moving on again, the calf did four big breaches:

It's a real treat to have the whales around on almost a daily basis! What a great way to kick off the official summer season....

A Macro Look at South Beach

After a stormy night last night, today dawned surprisingly calm and sunny. It was a perfect afternoon to go for a long walk at South Beach and play with the new macro lens. It was also a good opportunity to soak up some much-needed Vitamin D, because with last night's "fall back" it is now dark out at 5 PM! Ugh, needless to say, not my favorite day of the year. But at least the sun was out!

Here are some highlights from my photo excursion....

November flowers

Beach rocks through a jellyfish

Water droplet on a blade of grass

Leaflets on a rock

Close-up look at moss

Interesting-looking insect....ID, anyone?

Grass shadows on a rock with lichen growth

Burnt driftwood

Sun shining through beach pea leaves