Week 3

Wednesday April 17
7:30-8:30 PM
Cloudy, rain seems imminent
60 degrees

TO SEE MY PLANT SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS, WHICH WERE ASSIGNED FOR THIS WEEK, GO TO "FIELD GUIDE TO THE PLANTS" TAB. BELOW ARE MY NORMAL WEEKLY PHENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTIONS:
The first thing I noticed as I walked into my observation spot today was that last week's mostly brown and green forest floor, was now plashed with yellow. I could see immediately that the flowers which had festooned the big-leaf maple trees last week, were now dropping out of the canopy like leaves in the fall. The strong winds and rain we had had earlier in the week probably also contributed to their demise.
Everywhere I looked, the flower clusters littered the ground. In one spot below my feet, I found 9 flower clusters in a square meter!

Big-leaf maple flowers littering the forest floor.

Looking up at the canopy, the big-leaf maple leaves are really beginning to expand into the size they were named for. There is already a lot less light reaching the forest floor. Surprisingly, some individual trees seem to leaf out earlier than others. I wonder why that is. Is the one that's leafing out now, taller and therefore accessing more direct sunlight?

Big-leaf maple leafing out.

The red-flowering currant next to my observation spot is starting to lose its flowers. That is, they are kind of drying up and starting to produce currants! You can already see the hairiness of the outside of the fruit that will persist even as they ripen later in the summer.

Red-flowering currant flowers this week.

Same red-flowering currant on week 1!

Is it just me, or do the skunk cabbage leaves seem to be getting bigger and leafier? I'm going to post a photo from this week and one from my first week as comparison.

Skunk cabbage week 3.

Skunk cabbage week 1.

With the big-leaf maple leaves beginning to fill out the canopy, flowering herbs on the forest floor are already peaking or going dormant. The Trillium are developing  a purple hue in their petals as they move towards dormancy. The Erythronium lily is now in its prime, further opened from last week. The yellow and purple violets I observed in the first week of the quarter are now completely gone, save for their leaves.

Trillium petals starting to turn purple as they decline for the season.

Erythronium lily in its full glory. How long will it last?

As is always the case so far, every time I come here, I notice something I hadn't noticed before. Right at my feet is a Saskatoon berry sapling (Amelanchier genus). Did I just notice it this week because it has leaves and is flowering now? I'm not sure. Saskatoon leaves are oval in shape with toothed edges--not as sharply toothed as say hazel nut, which has much bigger leaves this week than last. Saskatoon leaves also form rounded lobes near the petiole. The margins are entire closer to the base of the leaf. There are also young bracken ferns at my feet. How did I miss these last week? I need to go back and look at previous week's photos to see if they weren't there or if I just overlooked them [I just looked at my old photos. They were there and I missed them, or didn't write about them anyway]. I also seem to have overlooked snowberry at my site. It is fairly common in the understory, although not as common as the Indian plum which I have reported on previously.

Saskatoon (Amelanchier)

You might have noticed that this is my first post in the evening. The bird sounds were very different in the evening. Absent were the cries of the bald eagles. I did not even see these birds at all. But loud and conspicuous were the songs of Bewick's wrens, which I had hear before, but which had been overshadowed by the songs of so many other things. There were probably about 3 males singing back and forth to each other from separate territories in this part of the woods. Also singing in the area were song sparrows and a winter wren. Pine siskins and red breasted nuthatches passed through briefly and quietly too. But mainly the stage was dominated by the Bewick's wren this evening.

Under the plants tab, I will begin developing descriptions of plants at my site. You need to do 8 for this week in your journal. You might want to choose some that we have gone over in class, as preparation for your test coming up.

Here's the 1 sq. meter area below my feet. Look at how it has changed from week 1. I think I may have identified the unknown plant that is coming up in the plot (the one with the maple flower at its base here). I think it is goat's beard (Aruncus dioicus). We'll see as it gets bigger in the next few weeks.

TO SEE MY SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS, WHICH WERE ASSIGNED FOR THIS WEEK, GO TO "FIELD GUIDE TO THE PLANTS" TAB.