Sitka Nature

A couple of days ago, Rowan found what I took to be a slime mold growing on the end of a cut log. I took the following picture of a part of it:

I did not have my macro flash and it was located in a rather shaded part of the park, so I was unable to get a good photo of it. “No problem,” I thought. I’ll just come back and get another picture later.

So I went back today with my macro flash to get a better picture. What I found was completely different. Here is the photo I got today:

It appears that a millipede or something was eating on it. There was another one on a separate glob of it. This change occured in less than 48 hours.

Slime molds seem like pretty interesting oraganisms. I would like to find out more. Maybe someone who happens across this entry can shed some light on what was going on with this.

Rowan and I went a couple of different places today. We stopped by Swan Lake briefly to take a look. We also took a walk through the park.

Weather: It was overcast for most of the day, with a very light rain that fell for a time. When we were at the park there was a pretty good breeze out of the Southeast. The sun broke through a little bit in the in the evening, and the winds had calmed.

Birds: There were at least a couple of Northern Shovelers at Swan Lake. I also saw Mallards with ducklings. There was at least one Tree Swallow that appeared to be gathering nesting materials.

Totem Park estuary was pretty quiet, but there were a few gulls out on the beach.

Flora: When riding up to the house, I noticed a strong slightly sour smell. I looked up in the direction of the wind and saw the Red Elderberry bush in bloom. I had forgotten that elderberry had such a smell.

The upper intertidal beach plants continue to grow. There was the start of flower buds on what I think is a milkwort.

I revisited the slime mold to take a picture of it, but it had changed dramatically since I last saw it.

Invertebrates: I was able to observe a spider with a web at our porch carry a fly back up to where it could be consumed later.

At the park I saw a number of pill bugs (aka potato bugs, sow bugs, or roley-poleys). The first one that caught my eye was about 5 feet up on the trunk of a Red Alder tree. The others were in a log along the very upper part of the beach. There many of them crawling about and crammed into nooks in the rotting log.