Pictures of the week 5.20.13

Somewhere in North Cascades National Park summer 2005. I took this photo on the second day of a three day trip. 

Somewhere in North Cascades National Park. I took this photo on the second day of a three day trip. 

Somewhere in North Cascades National Park summer 2005. I took this photo on the second day of a two day trip. In less than an hour, the low clouds in the foreground rose and hid everything in a thick fog bank. That was the end of the photos for the trip.  

Red columbine (Aquilegia formosa). These flowers are about to open. In my mind's eye, I imagined these to be dragon's eggs waiting to hatch. 

Same place as above a few days later. I went and looked at these every day to make sure I would catch them just as they opened. 

Red columbines are (probably) our only native columbine west of the Cascades. They have been blooming for several weeks as of this writing. 

Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). I have noticed a large number of these edible mushrooms fruiting lately, probably due to the recent rains. I find these mushrooms almost any time of the year as long as it has been fairly wet, though they seem to fruit most heavily in the fall. I also find them most commonly on alder snags and logs though this clump is obviously on a birch log. Oyster mushrooms may actually be several different species that look very similar. All of the species are edible according to my reference material. On an interesting side note, I meet a guy once who did a study on a species of springtails that is closely related to oyster mushrooms. Apparently this species completely disappears unless there are oyster mushrooms fruiting. Oyster mushrooms were the only place this guy was able to find them. Springtails are tiny macroinvertebrates with tail-like, spring loaded appendages by which they spring around like tiddlywinks to escape predators.