Don't Step on a Crack....

 

This sidewalk crack observation was done outside my office building in Coquille, on 371 N. Adams St. My office is a the very end of a dead end street, and the road has not been well maintained. The street is very rough and the asphalt has huge cracks all through it. It's not a parking lot you would want to walk through in high heels, that's for sure. Fortunately, I am more often in tennis shoes or muck boots than heels at work these days.

 

The lighter colored pavement of the sidewalk looks like brushed concrete. The darker, pebbly stuff is very old and rugged asphalt.



Pretty sure these prickly little guys are some kind of thistle. Likely Sow thistle:

Not sure what this little guy is...it could possibly be Lady's Thumb (Persecaria maculosa), Husker red (Penstemon digitalis),  northern bugleweed (Lycopus uniflorus) , or taper leaf water horehound (Lycopus rubellus.)



This is Husker red. I think this is probably the one...

Another Day at the Beach

It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach in Bandon, and HOT, which is a rarity. I arrived at the Jetty around noon. There were several people perch fishing in the surf, and lots of agate hunters.

There was a slight haze to the air, though it is difficult to see it in the photos. It wasn't as thick as mist or fog...but it did affect visibility somewhat. I am not sure what causes that but I have experienced it before on the coast on warm sunny days.

The little blue specks on the rocks are actually tiny dried dead jellyfish. It was hard to get my phone to focus on them close up. They looked almost like part of the rock at first.

On the cliffs at the edge of the beach, the sand changes to large gravel and boulders and then to land; I photographed a scraggly willow trying to grow out of a rock bank.

Most of the slopes are covered in nasty, nasty gorse.

There was a variety of early successional species of algae, lichen, moss, and other small vegetation growing on this rock. I call this cave the "wind tunnel" because at times the air whips through there at incredible speeds. However, it was fairly calm on this day.

I tried to climb up a little ways to photograph this little ledge which features some slightly later successional species on it, but this was as close as I could get.

 

I looked for some decent tidepools, but the tide was too high. I will have to return at a very low tide to get some better examples. These were found just south of Face Rock.

I did not note any crabs or fish in these, although I thought there might have been some very small sea anemones hiding under the ledge. Unfortunately I did not have enough time between waves to take a very close inspection.

A female seagull was sitting on the sand in the middle of the beach. I thought maybe she was wounded; it seemed odd for a seagull to just nest down right in the middle of the beach like that especially with all of the people that were out that day. She stood up as I tried to approach, but this was as close as I could get. She did not fly away but I felt like I shouldn't harass the bird.

Digging for Clams at Charleston Bay

One of my favorite things to do in the spring is go clamming at Charleston Bay. This photo is taken looking out over the mudflats from the parking area. The best time to go is a minus tide, but on this day the low tide peaked at 1.9 ft,

 

3:19PM.



A close up view of some of the marshy vegetation seen in the foreground of the previous photo.

A closer view of the mud flats, looking towards the bridge.

  

We use a rake to find cockles in the small tidal stream that runs across the flats. You are allowed up to 20 clams a day; this can be 20 cockle shell clams, or up to 8 Gaper clams and 12 Cockles.

Danny is tired from raking clams.

Digging for Gapers is nearly impossible with Seth on my back! Gapers can be buried over 4 ft deep in the sand. A trick to finding them is to look for a nice little hole in the sand (about 3/4"-1" in diameter) and stick a long dowel or an arrow down into the hole. When you feel it hit something hard, you know you've struck a clam. Then you dig with your shovel, not right down the clam hole, but off to the side, to the approximate depth of the clam. Then you dig over sideways to catch it unawares. You wouldn't think these little buggers can move very quick but they can. Also, when using a shovel, dig carefully as you near the clam so as not to chop the necks off or crush their shells. I consider it a point of pride to extract my clams from their sandy lairs in one whole piece; but I still decapitate or smash one every now and then. It's an art form, really. Another tip: where there's one clam, there is usually another nearby :-)

One of my abandoned clam holes. As you can see, they fill up with water pretty fast which can make finding the clam harder because you can't see. Dig fast!

At the end of the day we had three different species of clams:

The large ones in the above photo are the Gaper Clams, also called a Horseneck Clam (Tresus nuttallii and Tresus capax):

either of two species of bivalve mollusks of the family Mactridae. An unusual fact about Gapers is that each one contains a tiny crab (sometimes a pair of crabs) with a translucent shell called a pea crab (Pinnixa faba). Once settled, mature females grow too large to leave and spend the rest of their lives in the clam. Males, which are markedly smaller, move from clam to clam throughout their lives. You will notice them scurry out as you clean your clams.

 

The clams with the ridged shells are called Cockles (Clinocardium nuttallii).The most common cockle found in Oregon is the "Heart cockle".

     This common name relates to its scientific name Clinocardium nuttallii. Translated from Latin this name means "Nutall's sloping heart". The species name "Nuttallii" comes from the person who first described the species. Thomas Nuttall was a well respected botanist, orinthologist, and explorer of the 19th century. While exploring the Pacific Northwest in an 1830s expedition, the heart cockle was among the specimens he collected and described.



Littleneck, Leukoma staminea

Littleneck clams are a much sought after clam. They are found in rocky or gravelly areas of high, stable salinity. These clams are often confused with Manila littleneck clams, a smaller related (but non-native) clam that is farmed in mariculture operations and is available on local markets. Only Coos, Yaquina, and Tillamook bays have populations. We only found 3.



Drawing from Nature

 

I did these nature sketches a few years ago in pen and ink on watercolor paper, then colored them with watercolor pencils. I have always meant to do more like these, but never found the time. It looks like now I will have the motivation I need to get back out into the field with my sketchbook. The method of pen and ink with watercolor pencils I found to be very handy for this type of sketching. I like it because you can add dry color to your sketch with the pencils, and then you can take water from your water bottle or from a nearby creek or pond and wet your brush to go over the color and create that watercolor painting effect. Or, if you don't want to get your paper wet while you're in the field, you can do it once you're back home.

 

 

For the pennyroyal, I actually kept a sample of the plant, pressed and dried it between the pages of my sketchbook, and then taped it to the page.

 

Fishing for Rainbows at Ben Irving reservoir

Late Saturday afternoon we took the family to Ben Irving reservoir for a little fishing. I was so busy reeling in trout and trading off holding the baby with my husband that I didn't have much time to photograph plants...However, I did capture a few of the more unusual ones that stood out to me.

We decided to fish at the back end of the lake, rather than at the more popular boat ramp. We parked outside a locked gated access road (at the dot marked "parking area" on the map) and hiked a short distance to our fishing hole (marked "excellent trout fishing!!").
 

 I hiked uphill the full length of the road to snap these photos of the main lake at the top. If you look at the map above, in this photo I am standing at the dot marked "Nice swimming and bass fishing area." We sometimes come here to swim in the summer when it's a bit warmer out. Just to my right (where you start to see the orange floaties along the opposite bank) the lake feeds into a concrete spillway, which empties into the small pond at the bottom.

 

Fishing was exceptional on this day...my husband and I and his oldest daughter, Jayden, were catching fish about as fast as we could cast out and reel back in again...they were biting almost as soon as bait hit the water. We were using a simple setup, just worms on a hook with a couple of small lead weights and a bobber about 3 ft up the line.

 

Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

 

The following excerpt is from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_trout):

 

"Oncorhynchus mykiss is a species of salmonid native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout (O. m. irideus) or Columbia River redband trout (O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to fresh water to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been introduced into the Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead.

Adult freshwater stream rainbow trout average between 1 and 5 lb (0.5 and 2.3 kg), while lake-dwelling and anadromous forms may reach 20 lb (9 kg). Coloration varies widely based on subspecies, forms and habitat. Adult fish are distinguished by a broad reddish stripe along the lateral line, from gills to the tail, which is most vivid in breeding males."

 

Seth kept calling the fish "Tabos," ?? Not sure where he got that from, but I guess he needed a word to describe what he was seeing and that one sounded right to him.

 

Catch of the day! We took these beauties home and baked them using a very simple recipe: My husband cleaned and filleted them while I gave Seth a bath, then we put them in a pan and drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with thyme and dill, stuffed with sliced onions and lemon, and sprinkled the outside with black pepper and salt. We baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (stopping at 10 minutes to add a little water to the pan) and served with chopped red potatoes seasoned with rosemary and long grain wild rice.

 

This flowering plant had very sticky leaves and was growing abundantly all over the hillside. I think it is most likely Lupinus polycarpus (small flower, or field lupine), I could not find a lot of information on this plant other than that it likes dry substrate and open areas.

 

I've always thought Mosses are really cool…like tiny little forests on a micro scale. The green part that we always see and call “moss” is actually the gametophyte generation. It possesses one copy of DNA which produces gametes: sperm and egg. When it rains, the sperm swims through the film of water which the moss collects to reach an egg in the tip of one of the green mosses. After fertilization of the egg, a new plant grows into the sporophyte generation (that's the red filaments in the picture above), which has two copies of DNA and produces spores. The spores then spread about and germinate to grow into new carpets of green moss.

 

This shrub caught my eye because I could tell from the leaves that it was a member of the rose family (rosaceae). Roses always have a similar leaf to them, usually with serrated edges and generally arranged spirally, but have an opposite arrangement in some species. They can be simple or pinnately compound (either odd- or even-pinnate). This reminded me of Pacific Silverleaf, which I often see growing in pastures on the coast, but the silverleaf is a creeping vine and this was clearly more of a small shrub. As you can see, it had some nasty thorns to it as well.

 

I did not know what this was until I had a chance to do some searching on the internet. I believe I found it here at Hansens Northwest Plants database: http://www.nwplants.com/business/catalog/ros_pis.html

If I am correct, then this is Clustered Rose (Rosa pisocarpa A. Gray), also known as Swamp Rose or Pea Fruit Rose. It's not in bloom yet but these strange little spiny dried seed clusters are likely the remains of the fruit from last season, which, if I am correct, should soon look like this:

 



 

     According to Hansen's, Clustered Rose is:

 

"A beautiful native rose that has several clustered instead of solitary pink flowers. It blooms from May-July and often for a second time in fall. The leaflets are sharply pointed and have hints of blue, while the branches are long and arch gracefully. They are armed with vicious thorns, providing birds and small wildlife a safe haven from predators.A riparian species, the Clustered Rose loves moist, even waterlogged, soils and will grow well in a wet garden where other roses would fail. It is found along the Pacific Coast to the Cascade Mountains, USDA zones 7-8. This is a superior variety for crafters and lovers of rosehip jelly as the yield of rosehips are immense! Save some for the birds, though!"

This rose was certainly growing in a swampy area where I found it, just to the west of the spillway on a steep slope. The ground around it was very wetland-y, and there appeared to be many small drainages trickling down the hill to the little pond below. I noted sedges and rushes but did not photograph them as they are a common sight to me and I was trying to focus on plants that I do not see as much in my everyday life. I will have to return as we get further into the warmer season and look for rosebuds. If my ID is correct then this plant should be beginning to bloom in another month or so.

Historical / Cultural uses:

The Cluster Rose was commonly used as a medicine. Women used infusions of the bark after birthing and leaves were placed in moccasins to prevent fungal infections [Turner, Ethnobotany. p.267].

 

Edible and Medicinal Uses: The Cluster Rose can be used as a food source and vitamin supplement, although great care must taken at the identification and preparation stages.

Do not over-harvest: make sure to leave an adequate supply of plant material for wildlife to feed on and for the plant to set seed for the next generation of plants. Rosehips are best gathered in the late fall, after a frost, which softens them and increases the sugar content. These can be used to make jams, jellies, teas and syrups.

 

Propagation Techniques: The seeds of the mature Cluster Rose can be collected and sown outdoors in the fall. Germination is slow, often taking two years. Scarification (nicking the seed with a knife or rubbing them with a nail file or sand paper) and stratification (packing seeds in a bag of moist peat moss in the freezer for two or three weeks) are two methods that can speed germination.

Semi-ripe cuttings can be taken in July, although these may take as long as a year to become established. The cuttings may be more successful if soaked in a tea made from the leaves [Howarth and Keanne]. By far the easiest way to propagate wild roses is to gently dig up the suckers and transplant.