Ecology- MMG

[Bicycle7]

@theanimal:

It's cool to imagine creeks and rivers frozen over. I've never seen that with my own eyes.

With the garden beds free of snow, does this mark the start of the grow season for you? Do you already have plants growing inside or are you getting prepared to plant the beds?

I try my best to appreciate all 4 seasons where I live (still working on December and January in the PNW), I like the fact that every month is your favorite.

[theanimal]

The frozen waterways really open up the landscape. They are one of the main means of travel here during the summer and winter. The transitions also serve as poignant markers of the start and end of winter (freeze up and break up).

With the garden beds free of snow, does this mark the start of the grow season for you? Do you already have plants growing inside or are you getting prepared to plant the beds?

It's getting close! We have our seeds ready and are going to be getting the beds prepared this weekend. A moose stomped through about half of them last fall, so we will be filling in some of the holes and applying some organic matter.

We are still about two weeks away from when we normally plant. Nights are still regularly going below freezing and it even snowed for much of the day two days ago. The average date of last frost here is May 21 and we usually plant in accordance with that, but may try for earlier this year. It is not uncommon for there to be frosts into June. As such, most people around here wait until June 1 to begin planting. We choose to start earlier because the season is so short. If there is risk of frost, we cover our beds with tarps or plastic.

Some friends of ours are even more aggressive and will begin planting as soon as the snow is gone from their beds in the first week of May. As a result, they sometimes get caught by late cold bouts and snow storms that kill their starts. If that ends up happening, they're still able to get new seeds back into the ground before everyone else.

[mountainFrugal]

I started my alpine hut care taking gig so I will report on some observations.

There are Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels (Spermophilus lateralis) that hang out around the hut. They look like chipmunks, but are a bit larger and have a rounder face. A tourist asked if she could throw her organic trash in the composting toilet. I said no, you need to pack out your waste as the toilet was not designed for that. Then she asked if it would be a problem if she fed her apple core and other lunch scraps to the ground squirrels. I said no we do not want them to become friendly with humans. This was not the answer she was looking for. Not even 30 seconds later a ground squirrel jumped on her leg. She freaked out! With the smuggest smile I could muster (on top of my resting smug face), I looked over and said this is why we do not feed them. .

DW and I hiked up one day together to do some botanizing. There are many alpine flowers in bloom. We found an endemic species that only grows in 5 known areas after a tip from one of the other caretakers. It is late summer/fall up there already so things will be changing quickly over the next few weeks. We had a very early season cold front and storm over this past weekend. 6 inches of snow up high! I was not scheduled last weekend so I am interested to see how it has changed over 2 weeks on Friday.

What is going on in your part of the natural world forum members?

[delay]

Taking care of an alpine mountain hut sounds awesome! Life in the middle of nature with healthy natural water. Still it seems there's a lot of work to go with that: cooking, cleaning, serving drinks. I hope there is more than one caretaker.

What is going on in your part of the natural world forum members?

Over here in The Netherlands it's a sunny week with soft winds. The summer was mild, with only one day above 30C, and way more rain than usual. The trees and farmers both made good use of the rain and nature is prospering all around. Today's sea was calm and carried enormous tanker and container ships silently to their destination.

City geese multiplied to a large flock, and one day all disappeared except for one or two. Today I saw one sickly goose guarding a flock of 15 young. It seems unusually late in the year for young geese! I wonder what happened to all their earlier offspring.

[mountainFrugal]

Life in the middle of nature with healthy natural water. Still it seems there's a lot of work to go with that: cooking, cleaning, serving drinks. I hope there is more than one caretaker.

I would never take a job where I needed to do all of that! haha. I just need to make sure the composting toilet has woodchips and toilet paper, pick up trash and micro trash and occasionally sweep the hut. No visitors are supposed to stay in the hut (except emergencies), only camping in tents. I can hike/trail run around the property, talk with tourists, and generally have a presence there. Those are my only major responsibilities. No taking care of anyone. The shifts are just on the weekend and they have various supplies provided for the caretakers (fuel, stoves, pots/pans, additional tents, medical equipment etc.) for personal use. There is a spring right there for drinking water. After trail running I wash my face, have a snack and then paint and talk to tourists.

Thank you for sharing your local nature. I like the term "soft wind".

Anyone else?

[jennypenny]

We're at the point where my garden runs completely wild (especially without me tending it much this summer) and I love it. Today I found a huge cucumber on a previously undiscovered cucumber plant growing amongst the cherry tomatoes. We have noodle beans hanging down from the arched trellises and mint underfoot everywhere you walk. The herbs scent the entire garden, and now that the nights are cooler the dew makes it all glisten in the morning.

I also really enjoyed the Perseid meteor shower this year. It was a clear night and the meteors put on quite a show. I'm glad I've never outgrown the childish delight I feel when stargazing.

[mountainFrugal]

@jp sounds like good fun. The garden is a great place to observe nature. What sort of insects do you notice? Perseid is a fun and reliable meteor shower. Do you count the ones you see or just enjoy?

What about lurkers? What is going on in your neck of the woods lurker? Yes, I am talking to you and specifically calling you out to post something about what is going on with nature outside your window. A simple ask for reading this thread.

Also, what about other forum members? What does late summer/early fall or late winter/early spring (Southern Hemisphere) look like in your part of the world?

[Western Red Cedar]

I was in the Southern Hemisphere earlier this month. DW and I finally had the opportunity to see Sea Turtles in the wild during a snorkeling excursion. We saw about a dozen Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles in different areas near the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia. It was a bucket list item for DW. We had spent months in Central America 15 years ago trying to witness turtles hatching on the beach, with no luck.

The water there has stunning shades of blue, with variations in the color. Those variations result from the seagrass that the turtles feast on, which adds a dark hue to the human eye from the beach. The water was very buoyant, making it easy to float and snorkel. Unfortunately there was a lot of dead coral near most of the shores we visited, but swimming out quite a way from the shore we found large areas with healthy coral and the sea life that thrives there.

[jennypenny]

@mF -- We love observing the different types of birds that visit the garden. There are some long time inhabitants and some that only come for their preferred bounty when it's in season. I'm trying to learn more about insects as I learn more about soil health but unfortunately there have been few if any insects this year. I have plenty of pollinators, but none of the normal pests ... beetles, cabbage moths, etc.

I don't count or track much of anything anymore. It's a gift of getting older maybe that I can let all of that go -- tracking takes me out of the moment even though you would think it makes me more in tune with what's happening. So I take joy in the birds and the meteors and the buzzing of the pollinators, but I keep my frontal lobe out of it.

[guitarplayer]

The sun is just rising again the barley-scented vapour of the Strathclyde Whisky Distillery's chimney painting the clouds above with shades and colours.

The sound of gulls makes me think of the west shore - Clyde falls into the Firth of Clyde which then joins the Irish Sea to the south and the Atlantic to the north. It is with Clyde that the gulls travel all the way to town.

Good time of the day if you have a view of the east.

[mountainFrugal]

@jp - wisdom!

@guitarplayer - any idea what the gull species is?

[guitarplayer]

I can check it I have iNaturalist, or DW already id ed them.