Winter Walk, Discovery Park

When you first enter the woods, there's a feeling of hush. Even the colors are quiet.

Then the details pop out. The underbrush is full of song sparrows. Most of them are giving simple chirps, but every so often one of them lets loose a barrage of notes and chuckles. Breeding season is coming.

At the pond, yellow-rumped warblers, flutter from willow to willow, peck and squeak. Their nickname is one of my favorite pieces of birder slang: butterbutts.

On the north beach a group of lesser scaup rest and preen.

When a dog appears on the trail, they take to the water.

But then a pair of sea lions swim by...

...so they head back to the beach.

The bluff has some fresh landslide scars.

Buds are bursting on the Indian Plum.

A pileated woodpecker methodically rips up a log, plucking out fat pearly grubs.

What a beauty.

Blooming in Discovery Park

Indian plum is coming into bloom. I don't think it is early, despite the bizarrely warm weather lately. That's the thing about spring around here: it happens over about six months starting at the winter solstice.

From the meadow. I think these are hazelnut catkins.

Oo. Pretty. All orange and brain-shaped.

I think that has to be hardwood bark, so this is witch's butter, or Tremella mesenterica.

Indian plum bud burst, Discovery Park

Most Indian Plum buds were furled in tight little cones, but there were a couple of plants that were enticingly further along. Looks like winter might end after all.



Down by the beach, there were the first pussy willows.

Berry season

It's now the time of year when a walk in the woods is seldom far from a juicy snack. Among the delicacies coming into season at Discovery Park:

Thimbleberry


Red huckleberry


Trailing blackberry (my favorite)


Indian plum, a fruit I like more and more. It tastes kind of like a cucumbery watermelon, but sweet, and so purple it stains your fingers.


Red elderberries. I've never tried these. You have to cook them before you eat them. Otherwise they cause nausea.


Black raspberry. These are edible, though I've never tried them. Someone likes them, though.