Spring 2013

Photo of the week. Somewhere in the Upper Skagit River in North Cascades National Park. Do you know where this is?

Same place as above in the early evening. It took one and a half days to get here, during which I fell about 20 feet and suffered a concussion (I assume because there was no doctor there to diagnose me). 

Skunk cabbage, Lysichiton americanum. One of the first flowers of spring, brightening wetlands.

Oval-leaved blueberry, Vaccinium ovalifolium. This is the bush near the trail where I walk the dog.

Oval-leaved blueberry, Vaccinium ovalifolium. This is the more common flower coloration that I have observed.

Salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis.

Osoberry or Indian plum, Oemleria cerasiformis.

Trillium, Trillium ovatum. New bloom.

Trillium, Trillium ovatum. Old bloom. The petals of this species turn pink to purple after pollination and soon before falling off. There are some Trillium species whose flowers are deep red to purple at first bloom. 

I had been going to write about this earlier but a number of projects postponed it and, as usual, spring happened before I knew it.

I’m sure everyone has their own personal measure of when spring has arrived. For me the seasons were never really linked to any calendar date. Before I was aware spring officially arrived around the 21^st of March I always considered spring to be when everything started greening up and the air started smelling like growing plants. This is usually a several weeks after the 21^st of March and even later in cold years here. Like many, I am sure, I keep an eager eye out for the first signs of spring.

There are some blue violets that seem to be associated with old homesteads that may bloom as early as February, about the same time as snowdrops and the catkins of the hazelnut trees around the house are open by the middle of February most years. None of these plants are native, that is, they did not occur here before European contact so they might not necessarily be in synch with plants that have existed here for thousands of years.

Willows bloom late in February most years and are done flowering well before they leaf out. Pussy willows (catkins) are one of my earliest harbingers of spring along with skunk cabbage which brightens wetlands first thing in the year.

Another of the first native plants that I see blooming is an oval-leaved blueberry Vaccinium ovalifolium that blooms by the trail where I walk the dog. The leaves of this species pop out at the same time as the urn shaped flowers. Most of the oval-leaved blueberry that I see have showy pink blossoms. This particular bush has white flowers with darker pink centers and I love it because it seems a little more elegant. This species blooms at the end of February or early March or even later, depending on elevation. Green berries are already beginning to swell on the bush by the trail.

Other early blooming native plants are osoberries and salmonberries. Nettles may begin growing early in March but won’t bloom until much later. These seem to be “hotter” or to sting more painfully when they are just getting started on their growth for the year.

One major sign of spring that goes back to my childhood is the blooming of Trilliums (Trillium ovatum). Our common name for these was “wild Easter lily” because they usually begin blooming around Easter on most years. Though they are not true Easter lilies, they are in the lily family.

Bird activity has ramped up. I’ve been hearing woodpeckers hammering on sounding boards or stovepipes or mailboxes and I’ve been hearing varied thrushes for two or three weeks now. Two Canada geese showed up in our pasture last week. I think these may be the same ones that have been hanging out in our pastures for the last several years in the spring. I haven’t heard ruffed grouse drumming yet though.

Red-legged frogs breed in ponds as early as late February or early March. This year I saw dozens of them crossing the road on warmer nights in early March in order to get to breeding ponds. The Pacific tree frogs are very vocal right now. Only the males of this small species sing. On the warmer, often rainy nights, their chirping chorus creates a pleasant racket in the spring air.