snow

Honestly, I did not expect to have anything to write about today. The world is buried under snow that has been coming down all day. Yet just the act of getting outside into it meant that yet again the thoughts and writing just came.

Nicole Kurland sent me a copy of a digital pairing she made from one of my photos. Thank you, I appreciate being involved in someone's art.

Heavy snow, so nothing was moving today. Only a few crows and some deer tracks. There was definitely no salamanders. The internet said they prefer to be found in moist spots underground anytime above freezing in fir forests at high elevations (it also said mostly found in May-August). I learnt a lot flipping logs but no salamanders.

The snow density varied a lot, I was walking on an open golf course and at times the snow was thick enough to be a disorienting experience. Even though I knew where I was, I couldn't see five feet in front of me. Mental note: a compass is a good thing in winter.

The firs grow tall, but the soil at the top is pretty shallow. Unless the tree is on the edge of a grove, with room to spread those roots out, it will be at risk of toppling over. A toppled tree does open up new habitat for animal burrows though.

The area has had a lot of thinning done, but the whole forest needs to be constantly treated to reduce tree falls and fires. The fire season has just begun down in the lower elevations, at Cochiti.

I have no idea what these cases are. I think spider egg sacs?

There sure was a lot of them in these structures. I saw some in the tree stumps, but the insects clearly preferred to be inside.

I had always heard this stuff be called spanish moss, and it's not spanish, or moss. It is usually an indicator of clean air. A better name is beard lichen, no idea which species.

Evergreens are at risk for insect infestations. Trees like oaks use chemical tannins to prevent attack, pines use this sticky sap, or resin.

The evergreens are an old lineage of trees. The rely on wind to pollinate, and pine cones contain the seeds. Many trees on the edge of an open area will have a small kindergarten of saplings under their canopy.

One of the oddest things about this forest is the large number of elk carcass scattered all around. But at least this ribcage and vertebrae explain why the crows were around, and annoyed to see me.

This picture shows the size of the sleet. Big pellets like this indicate a lot of moisture that cooled slowly high in the atmosphere.

Usually the trees shed snow and prevent branches breaking. But this blue spruce seems to collect snow using the bristles on its short stubble branches.

This old log shows how well the wood protects seedlings on the ground from the cold. The rotten wood also sucks up the water which prevents ice from killing delicate growth.

Inaturalist identified this as green shield lichen, there is a lot of it on the tree trunks.

I had heard the lichen always grows on the same side of the tree. I didn't believe it. It seems they are found on the north east side of the tree, in this area at least.

Here is another one of the spider fibrous sacs.This one is wedged in the bark of a tree.

Some how, when a hole is made with a wood boring beetle larvae, they are not encased in resin, I think it's due to timing. The beetle larvae chew out of the nesting chamber and leave characteristic holes in the wood.

lichen species grow in large communities on the large tree trunks.

I wasn't sure why the crows were also out in this weather, maybe they were interested in the old elk skeleton? It gave a very cool Edgar Allen Poe feel to the day, in contrast to the happy picture at the beginning of this blog!