At the suggestion of Wanderin Weeta, I thought I'd see whether I could get a positive ID on this large mushroom to see whether it is edible, or at least try the "rub a bit on the lip and wait 15 minutes" experiment. The top of the cap was positively slimey, and was pecked with small holes, so appetizing this was not. Curiosity got the best of me, and I hoped to at least determine the edibilitiy of this for next year.
As can be seen on the underside, the stem has been rotted/eaten away. It's surprising it was standing at all.
As noted yesterday, this bolete has pores on the underside, rather than gills.
A cross section of the pores, which really are long tubes.
One of the identifying traits of mushrooms are scabers, or protrusions from the stem. Not sure if these protrude enough to be called scabers though.
As I started poking the mushroom apart, I noticed quite a few of the critters responsible for the numerous holes I found
A tiny centipede, no more than a couple centimetres in length.
A springtail (?)
Some kind of maggot.
A larger centipede...not sure if a mature form of the smaller white one, or a different species.
Seeing all these critters claiming this fungus as their home (as well as the tunnel laden cap) kinda turned me off to the idea of even tasting it. I'll try to pick one out next year a little earlier in the season to try my taste test.
The patch of mulch behind our building has surprised us over the last week with some large, burger-sized mushrooms. A little past their prime today, I noticed that these have pores on their underside, rather than the more common gills. They look like a type of
Some unidentified mushrooms
A few weeks ago, we went to the Apple Festival held at UBC. To fruit, apples need cross pollination with a different apple variety. The easiest way to ensure this is to plant two next to each other. Thus, we got two. We finally got around to planting them today - an Orenco (taller) and a Honeycrisp. Let's hope the gardener for our complex doesn't get overzealous on weeding and can tell what's intentionally planted.
While we're appreciative of all the greenery in our complex, many of the parking spots are under trees. Needles inevitably get trapped in the gutters of the car, and we've got two small evergreens making the best of the moist environment in the trunk gutter of D's car.
The animals on this planet that have successfully taken over the planet in the last few thousand years had, in part, a stiff skeletal frame to thank for that. An internal bony structure frees us from the resource-intensive process of growing and shedding an exoskeleton, yet provides enough rigidity for us to leverage our muscles for strength and speed.
We humans have a natural tendency to identify most closely with other vertebrates - they are the animals closest to us in size, having behaviours that we are most familiar with. During the hike, we encountered many species for the first time, but it was the vertebrates that I was most excited to see.
Tides bring in a constant source of food the Western Sandpiper. They flirted with the waves that could knock them flat on their backs, but were also their lifeline for bringing in their food.
Sea otter tracks. One moonless night, long after the sun had set, I could make out the bouncing gait of a sea otter trotting through our campsite.
On our second beach day, a black bear foraged along the beach.
In the city, a bear-human encounter usually means the bear will either require relocation or extermination. A mandatory orientation session run by the Parks Board reminded all hikers that are the visitors. I was happy to see that animals were capable of living as animals without having to apologize for doing so. At each campsite, we were required to make use of locked metal bins within which any food we had would be stored. If those were full, then we'd hang our food up in a tree. Only by doing so could we keep animals such as bears from associated humans with a free meal.
Sea lions, lazing about on an island about 200 metres away.
For me, the highlight was seeing grey whales. But once we saw them, we couldn't not see them. Every few hours or so, another one would swim by. Occasionally, I'd see a few swimming in opposite directions, and could only imagine the conversation they'd have while passing each other (cue the whale talk from Finding Nemo)
Grey whales migrate from Alaska to California or Mexico in the mid to late summer, staying close to the shallows where food is plentiful. As benthic feeders, they sift for amphipods (the orange crustacean in the Spineless post) and other crustaceans from the muddy bottom.
The exhalations of the whales were loud enough that we'd be able to hear them above the din of the everpounding surf while in our tents.
I saw this egg case washed up on the beach; I recognized it as an egg case of either a shark or a skate. I've only seen one of these one other time in the wild (in California) so this was a treat. It was long dried, but I opened it up anyways; it was empty, so either this "mermaid's purse" was without an embryo, or the baby skate had already slipped out (once dried, it's difficult to determine whether there was an exit point). On further research, it seems like it belongs to a longnose skate.
An Osprey, hovering in the incoming winds, diving down into the surf periodically.
At the crab pier, I saw thousands of shiner perch hanging out, waiting for the crab entrails that would inevitably get thrown in.
Here's a video I made of all the wildlife we encountered.
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