Summit Path

Just to close the week off, here's another from near the summit of Mount Douglas showing the pathway that leads to the top. Here we are looking southeast. Today's photo and those of the last two days were all taken with a Takumar 17mm fisheye lens that is about 50 years old.

Second Spring 3

A little further along the trail I was surpised to see such a vigorous clump as this so early in the season. We had a bumper year for mushrooms two years ago - maybe this year too.

Second Spring 2

While it's a bit early for mushroom season here I had good luck wandering around in Mount Douglas Park yesterday afternoon. Here's one of the biggest ones I saw, this one about four inches across the cap.

Christmas Hill (Continued)

Fern mentioned yesterday that Christmas Hill has lots of good views over Greater Victoria. Here's one looking northeast. That hump on the left is Mount Douglas (Pkols). Despite the woodsy look, what we are looking at here is mostly residential - Victoria is a very well-treed city.

Thoughtful Fly

During mushroom season I always end up lying down on the ground in the forest and tuning in to tiny things I don't ordinarily notice. This is not your ordinary summertime, buzzy, bothersome fly. This fly sat peacefully on the mushroom while I got my camera in place and in focus and didn't move a muscle when the shutter clicked.

Reflections

One thing I learned when writing fiction is that what the writer does is merely to help the reader imagine the tale. You give the reader only enough clues to enable him or her to create images and feelings inside himself. I am beginning to think that photography is like that as well - the image should suggest a greater reality that the viewer creates in his mind using the clues you give him. It's one of the reasons that reflections are a popular photographic subject. Here on the cap of this tiny mushroom you can see reflected the giant maple trees that loomed overhead. The tiny reflection lets you create that towering forest in your mind.

Mushroom Season 3

I mentioned earlier this month that mushrooms were starting to pop up in the woods now that our dry summer weather has finished. Last week when I went out to Mount Douglas Park I photographed over seven different kinds of mushroom in just one small area. Above is one of them.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep...."

Of course, in his famous poem Robert Frost was describing woods on a winter's evening. But the woods are often lovely, dark and deep during summertime too. These lovely little wildflowers are called Foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata).

Cordova Bay

This is Cordova Bay Beach, a large bay on the eastern side of the island about 20 minutes from Victoria. On the right of the above photo can be seen one of the sandy San Juan Islands. Below, looking in the opposite direction we can see the northern side of Mount Douglas (Pkols), beyond which lies the city of Victoria.

Western Wood Pewee (Contopus sordidulus)

I watched this little predator, a Western Wood Pewee (Contopus sordidulus), at work for about an hour on the weekend. The twig he is perched on is on the very top of a snag on the summit of Mount Douglas (Pkols). He sits there and watches for flying insects and as soon as he sees one he dives and snaps it up. Then he comes back and sits on this perch and watches for the next snack.

Bald Eagle

One of the exciting aspects of birdwatching is that you never know what you are going to see when you set out with your binoculars and/or camera. I went out to Pkols (Mount Douglas) yesterday hoping to see a hawk or two. They like to cruise the thermals rising from the mountainside. Turkey Buzzards are usually circling also. And often, there are a few Bald Eagles. I saw one of these swooping by quite low but then he disappeared to the other side of the summit. Later I wandered over to that side of the mountain and there he was, peacefully perched overlooking the Saanich Peninsula. He sat quietly for nearly a half an hour as I crept closer.

Mount Baker

In the winter it's too cold for me but as the temperatures rise here I head for the summit of Mount Douglas, a favorite spot to sit and wait for birds. I have seen birds while sitting on my favorite rock there that I have not seen anywhere else in this area. When I was up there a few days ago there were surprisingly few birds visible but Mount Baker was looking as majestic as usual. And when I lowered the camera down a few inches I was rewarded with the Raven below who was also enjoying the view.

Mycelium

Some mushrooms pop up and seem qute happy as individuals (right) but other seem to prefer to erupt in clusters (above and below).However, chances are that the clusters are all from one mycelium just like a plant can bear many flowers. The mushrooms that we see above the ground are the fruiting bodies of large underground networks known as mycelia. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about mycelia: Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in soil and on or within many other substrates. A typical single spore germinates into a homokaryotic mycelium, which cannot reproduce sexually; when two compatible homokaryotic mycelia join and form a dikaryotic mycelium, that mycelium may form fruiting bodies such as mushrooms. A mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or it may be extensive: Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it.Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions. —Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running[1] It is through the mycelium that a fungus absorbs nutrients from its environment. It does this in a two-stage process. First, the hyphae secrete enzymes onto or into the food source, which break down biological polymers into smaller units such as monomers. These monomers are then absorbed into the mycelium by facilitated diffusion and active transport. Mycelium is vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for their role in the decomposition of plant material. They contribute to the organic fraction of soil, and their growth releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. The mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi increases the efficiency of water and nutrient absorption of most plants and confers resistance to some plant pathogens. Mycelium is an important food source for many soil invertebrates.

Recycling

When I see something like this I realize that these mushrooms are fungi's version of what used to be a tree. All it needs is a spore and some water and a stump to make something completely new and different. Now that's recycling!

Colorful Fungi

Above is the first mushroom I spied on my walk around Thetis Lake Park earlier this week and its extraordinary color was only a hint of the wide mycological palette I have experienced over the last few days. Had anyone told me I would be seeing blue or maroon mushrooms this week I would have doubted them. But here's proof. The hobbity mushroom below was photographed in Mount Douglas Park (Pkols).

Bumper Crop 2

This photo, taken from our ramble yesterday through the woods on Pkols (Mount Douglas), shows some of the wealth of fungi that are exploding out of the ground here right now. Not only are these mushrooms numerous, they are BIG. I have mentioned before that fall is like another spring here with the new growth of ferns, mosses and lichens and that autumn's mushrooms are analogous to spring's wildflowers but I've never seen such an extraordinary number and variety of mushrooms before - I've seen at least fifteen different kinds in the last few days. Today I plan to check out Swan Lake since it is quite a different habitat and may exhibit a few more species to add to my collection.

Landscape 4 - Garry Oak

Last week we looked at one of our most distinctive trees, the Arbutus. Here's our other most distinctive tree, the Garry Oak, pictured in a fairly typical environment on the summit of Pkols (aka Mount Douglas). As you can see, we've had a long string of hot dry days that have turned all of spring's green grass to gold.

Landscape 3 - Arbutus

Garry Oaks are probably the most distinctive tree in our local landscape but the wonderfully colored Arbutus are also very characteristic and often found in the same environment as the oaks. Arbutus don't lose their leaves seasonally. Instead they shed their bark so that their living trunks are this wonderful shade of red. This landscape is the view from the summit of Pkols (aka Mount Douglas) looking southeast.

Landscape 2 - "Views"

This is a classic landscape meme - the view. It always involves getting up on some eminence so as to be able to overlook the landscape. We instinctively like views - our eyes apparently relax when they are not required to focus on nearby objects. However, aesthetically it is hard to do much with a view. It seems the best approach is to make sure there is something in the foreground that gives the viewer a place to stand. The view above is from the summit of Pkols (aka Mount Douglas) looking northwest. That's the Saanich peninsula on the left and the San Juan Islands on the right.

Landscape 1

In my recent forays into the wilder parts of Victoria in search of birds to photograph I always find myself captivated by the scenery though I often ignore it. However, lately I've been appreciating it a bit more and trying to explore landscape photography - in particular, the landscapes we have around here which are unique to this general area. What we are looking at in the above photo, for example, is a fairly typical Garry Oak Ecosystem scene. Wherever Victoria has not been built or paved over, this kind of landscape (or remnants of it) can be found. This photo was taken on the summit of Pkols (formerly known as Mount Douglas).