Behind my parents property there is a large moss bog. This is the first time I have found Sphagnum down there--it is mostly Hylocomium splendens, Kindbergia oregana and Rhizomnium glabrescens. And I found TWO small patches!
This was a turkey vulture that was circling out in one of our fields in monroe. A cow had given birth which always attracts some turkey vultures.
young scrawny coyote catching mice in silage chop
Young Pine growing in standing water of Blackman Lake, right on the shoreline.
Beautiful Maple filling out in Ferguson Park in Snohomish. Although this is a public park it is full of nicely sized native trees like BL Maples, Western Red Cedars, Western Hemlocks, etc.
There were two of these ducks associating with a fairly large group of Mallards. I have never seen a duck like this and I can't seem to identify it. They were larger than the Mallards and had darker bodies with white chest feathers. Could it be a domesticated or a hybrid duck?
A picture showing the moss bog. You can clearly see the western skunk cabbage, demonstrating the moist substrate.
Moss covers everything beyond this short barrier of debris. It is not a Sphagnum bog, but definitely still a moss bog. When you shove a large stick straight down into the moss, it will easily go as deep as 10 feet and be soaking wet when you pull the stick back out. There are also pockets where the moss sinks under water.
Morning snow prohibited me from driving 2 hours south on I-5 to go on a class field trip, so I made a little field trip of my own instead! I drove down in elevation about 300ft so that I might be able to survey bryophytes without digging them up from snow cover, and was successful.
Bunk Foss Road in Snohomish, WA has a beautiful clay ravine, and the moss just loves it here. There is a creek snaking along the side of the road, accompanied by many of the native species in this riparian area (Salmonberry, Sword Fern, Maple, etc). I was only able to determine one moss by name (Polytrichum) as my identification skills by sight are still developing.
Perhaps someone can help me ID these bryophytes!
Everyday I pass by this little moss growing along the steps up to the porch. The mosses lining the cinder-blocks flourish quite well, as water constantly drips down from the roof onto them. I believe this little fella is Dicranum.
Watching my cats lazily indulge in their scratching post, I noticed a liverwort (yes, a liverwort!) growing on the base of it in the carpet! It is accompanied by a little moss, but it was too inconspicuous to determine its name.
