Nature Diary
Notes from the field, essays, and observations.
Sonoma hills
The hills near Petaluma, California are crowned with live oaks:
The site is Helen Putnam Park outside of Petaluma. Last week the hills were green and filled with wildflowers. Later in the year the grasses are brown and the oaks are the only green thing visible. The oak that’s the last image in this set is a favorite tree I’ve photographed before in different light. The hole in the trunk and the intricate curving branches give it a unique shape.
Wood poppies, Trout lily, and Bluebells
Flowers from the northeast woods:
The bluebells started opening last weekend along with many wood poppies and Trout lilies. For the wood poppies, I used a wide angle lens to give a sense of what a whole forest glade of them looks like.
White spring flowers
Lots of wildflowers were blooming last weekend, this is a selection of white blooms:
In the left column. from the top, Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), Wood anemone or Wood windflower (Anemone quinquefolia). and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). Wood anemone is a forest flower in most descriptions, but I seem to find it in open settings, nestled under woody shrubs that haven’t leafed out yet.
It hasn’t been a good spring for bloodroot, I’ve seen very little. Almost all the bluebells are still buds, I should see some in full bloom soon. The Wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) in my backyard garden is starting to bloom along with lots of violets. My blue-eyed grass patch hasn’t set buds yet, but I expect to see them soon. Despite the cold and frost warnings here, it’s really spring now.
Bloodroot
A bloodroot bloom from last weekend:
This is from a location fairly close to where I live. It’s a spot I’ve been visiting for a .number of years. Finding the first bloodroot there is a “it’s really spring” moment. I wanted to find an open flower, but it was a cloudy day, and bloodroot stays closed until there’s sun. Something about this flower intrigued me. I could see the yellow of the anthers through the petals, like a hint of sun through clouds. A trick of the lighting from above, I suppose. There should be a few more by now, with some sun I’ll get my wish of finding an open one.
Opening
A couple of flowers just starting to open:
On the left, Pasque Flower and on the right, the first bloodroot I’ve seen this season. The petals of both flowers were mostly closed, leaving had only a small opening at the top for me to peer through. I used a high magnification lens to capture a few another and stigma details.
The Pasque flower petals are a dark purplish color, but the edges at the top were whitish. I was pleased to see that the out-of-focus petals made a hazy frame for the anthers. The bloodroot opening was tinier, with the warm yellow anthers and stigma visible through the opening in the white petals.
A few flowers
One new arrival:
The first bluebells (Mertensia virginica), more hepatica, and the ubiquitous early bittercress, perhaps a native species (and maybe not!). The tiny bluebell buds may be open by now, this was from last week. Spring has had a brief setback here. There was a storm that brought freezing weather, snow, and sleet. Happily not that much snow.
When winter was winter
A collection of ice crystal images:
I love really cold weather (from 17 deg F to 0 deg F) for the beauty it brings: crystalline ice in many different forms. And I love getting out in it, at least for the first hour or so before the cold gets the better of me.
All of these images were taken at a brook near where I live, over a period of more than ten years. When the brook freezes over, ice forms flow patterns or straight lines and polygons. Sometimes I’m lucky to capture snowflakes as they fall on the steam surface. When the ice melts and refreezes, gaps form, and crystals form along the edges. At temperatures around 15 deg F., crystalline star-like shapes form on the surface and at the edges of leaves. At even colder temperatures (0-8 deg F.), fern or tree-like crystals grow on branches near the stream or on snowbanks next to the stream. These crystals look like snowflakes, but they took crystalline form on the ground. This past winter, the cold never lasted long enough for the stream to freeze over. And although it did get down to less that 10 degrees F. once, I wasn’t able to find the crystalline shapes you see here. Maybe next winter!
Three views of a spring flower
My first of the year look at hepatica:
The common name is hepatica, the old genus name, now classified as Anemone acutiloba. I tried different angles and magnifications as I waited for the wind to subside. Just one was flowering, it looked like it had just opened. There were other flowers in this cluster not quite ready to open.
From a wet day
A few wet things I saw after the rain fell:
I don’t know if what you’re seeing in the first image is a second moss capsule in the same drop or (probably) another capsule in the background, magnified by the lens of the drop. The pair of moss capsules in the second image are glistening. The last image is broomsedge bluestem. Despite the name, it’s not a sedge, it’s a grass – the looping curves caught my eye.
Buttercups and snowdrops
The first flowers of the year, the usual early ones, all nonnative:
Last weekend at Acton Arboretum I saw the flowers above: winter aconite, snowdrops, and Adonis vernalis. On the same visit, I saw hellebore and a few crocuses. My yard crocuses haven’t started yet. I had hopes I’d see hepatica as well, but it’s still early.
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