Bellingham WA
Pacific Northwest
After an unseasonably warm spell in early January many plants “thought” spring was just around the corner and decided to start budding. Boy were they surprised in mid January (as were we) when the temperatures plummeted to single digits and a stiff northly gale blew for several days. Many local small creeks and streams totally froze over and others almost did like the one below.
Chuckanut Creek all iced over, about one mile from where it flows into Bellingham Bay. This is the most iced up that I have seen here.
The frigidity showed itself as well on Bellingham Bay with a nice spray of Sea Smoke. And in the background, the Canadian Cascade Range jutting up crystal clear, all coated in white.
Sea Smoke on the bay. Sea smoke occurs when very cold air blows over a body of water that is relatively warmer. As the light wind of cold air sweeps in, it cools the layer of warm air immediately above the water, which makes the air dip below the dew point and condenses. It is essentially fog. (This is a little blurry as it was too cold to get out or to roll down the car window.)
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The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns spinning around us — Phenology!
We invite you to note what you are seeing and experiencing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Nature is Big.
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Brrr! Not only did the early starters stop budding and greening, existing leaves were burned and many plants all over town died. The cold temps and the high winds were a double whammy for anything green or that hoped to become so.
English ivy in our backyard. Most plants were like this and worse.
Salal, one of our favorite native northwest plants that support our yard and provides understory in the woods was badly burned. We’ve clipped the dead leaves and branches and will nurse the plants back to their normal lush greenery with their berries that the birds love later in the summer.
This winter might or might not have been our coldest weather but in my 54 years here it did the most damage to plants. This damage was probably due to the frigid temperature along with the intense winds. We survived it well enough, fortunately there was very little snow so we could get to the store and anywhere else we needed to go but mostly we hunkered down until it blew over. Which it did.
Then came the warmer temps with heavy rains in the lowlands and snow melt in the mountains that pushed the Nooksack River to flood level. While we appreciated the warmer temps, the resultant torrent tearing down the Nooksack river basin overflowed in some places and washed out and under cut many mature trees along the banks.
Here are some photos that show what too much rapid melt off coupled with rain does to the river banks. The next two photos are from along one of my favorite river walks at Horseshoe Bend of the Nooksack.
A log jam from the recent washout having been collected from old logs and newly downed trees upstream.
One of newly downed trees undercut and toppled across the river.
These riparian trees are critical for cooling the river waters for salmon, especially with the warming summers that are upon us. Their loss will be felt by the fish his summer. Our various volunteer conservation organizations have been planting more riparian trees for shade for years now. Although we plant thousands per year the critical years are now and it will take many years for new ones to mature into their canopies and provide effective cooling shade for the fish.
The high water mark was sort of a boon to some of our ducklings. Here is one from a group of Barrow’s Golden eye that found their way up river about 40 miles and into the mountains to forage in an over-flowing Kendall Creek. This creek is typically just a small tributary that flows into the Nooksack just about 100 yards away. At this point it was about 20 feet across while it is usually five to 10 feet.
Barrows Goldeneye cruising where there is usually grass along the creek.
Nonetheless, spring did arrive and not just on the calendar. Now is time to try to put the pieces back together, trim the dead leaves and branches, replant those that have died and get ready for summer.
Also, now is the time to take a walk in the woods to enjoy nature’s harbingers of spring. Along with the Trillium shown at the top, a few other plants are reliable indicators that spring is here for good.
Several of the regular signs that spring has sprung at last are shown below:
- One of first of the season is Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus), wherever even a small pool of seepage or a left over puddle appears,
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Western Skunk Cabbage, similar to Eastern Skunk Cabbage in form (Symplocarpus foetidus) but the eastern version has a purple hood.
The lovely Pacific Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra formosa) make a wonderful ground cover in the forest or in one’s yard,
Pacific Bleeding Heart is a beauty that we look forward to with its exquisite pink flowers and its lacy leaves.
Another perennial is Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) which is to be avoided, unless you like to make tea out of them. Apparently it is a rich source of antioxidants and offers other health related benefits.
Stinging nettles hovering over a small plant of just unfolding fiddle heads. I have observed people picking nettles, with gloves of course, assumedly for tea. I believe they lose their sting when cooked. There is also a non-stinging variety around here too.
Fern fiddle heads, ( en.wikipedia.org/... also begin popping up about now. These too are edible and some are found in cuisines around the world.
Center are sword fern fiddle heads. These a apparently not the best edibles. In the background are some bleeding hearts and more nettles.
I’ll end this Bucket as I opened it with one of my very favorite flowers, the Trillium.
These trillium are showing signs of age as you will note that one has turned pink and the other two are looking pinkish as they do before fading.
So Spring has arrived again after a sluggish start. Our world is green again and we even had some sunny skies. I can’t wait until after the 4th of July when summer arrives in the PNW. It too is slow around here.
What’s newly green in your part of the world?
And, a question I often ask about this time of year — What did you do on EARTH DAY, 2024? Please share with us your activities in support of Mother Earth.
