Overcast with rain much of the day (with a break in the afternoon). Temperatures in the 40s. Snow level down below 2500 feet.
After meeting with some folks at the Backdoor first thing this morning, I checked the channel and Swan Lake. Plenty of gulls at the channel, but none that stood out as unusual. Swan Lake was quiet, with only a few wigeons and mallards.
The rain discouraged me from taking any photos, and I had plans to get out this afternoon with Paul and Matt (who is visiting from Anchorage).
The rain had stopped by the time I picked them up to head out to Herring Cove.
Paul wanted to see the filmy fern (Hymenophyllum wrightii) where I had found some last year. I wanted to check for volcanic ash along the road cuts. Matt was happy to poke around and see whatever.
I did find some ash beyond Sawmill Creek. One exposure looked basically intact. My tools and skills weren’t up to the sculpting I’ve observed from others, but I was able to dig down and find the glacial till below.
Another ash exposure looked reworked to me. I’m not sure if that might have been when the originally built the road, or much closer to the time it was originally deposited. Given the mix of rocks and such, I suspect the latter.
Since I had already pulled over for ash, we also looked at rock outcrops along the road. I was reminded that it would be worth spending a little more time looking at these. It’s easy to prioritize other places or just forget.
Once around the corner going into Herring Cove, the soil embankments there did not seem to have ash. There was vegetation growing on most of them. This stood out in part because ash doesn’t typically have vegetation growing on it in the way I was seeing here.
One part of the bank was less vegetated. I climbed up and could see material that didn’t have any sign of ash. It was mixed material from very fine silt to fist sized cobbles.
Later on the outing, I checked where a tree had fallen and it appeared there was only a thin layer of organic soil on top of mostly good-sized rocks. I can’t really draw any conclusions from what I found there. Paul pointed out a bit of ash that looked quite re-worked. I did photograph that for reference.
I’ll update my tracking ash exposures page soon with what I observed today.
I remembered where I had found the fern on a stump not too far off the road. I didn’t re-find it right away. Perhaps due to being earlier in the season, it was smaller than I remember finding before. Paul found some first, then I found another couple of small patches.
We spent the rest of our time poking around the hillside in an area I had gone by, but not spent any time looking.
I continue to be curious about the amount of wood cutting that’s happened. In some cases it looks like cedars were intentionally harvested (some may have been dead, others not – I have no idea if the harvest was permitted). In other places, it seems a bit more random.
Paul found a different looking moss at the base of a cedar. I thought of one he had found on Prince of Wales Island two years ago (where he said it was common).I didn’t remember the name, but it turned out to be the right moss. I was a little surprised it came to mind at all, but it was a nice find. The species is more typically associated with calcareous geology and had not previously been reported from Baranof Island.
It was a new species for me. I checked at the bases of other cedars nearby and found one more patch. It bears a very superficial resemblance to Pseudisothecium cardottii, a very common moss on cedars. It’s possible I’ve previously overlooked it when I just assumed I was only seeing the common moss and didn’t take a closer look as I walked by.
We made one last stop on the way home. Matt and Paul both had not previously observed at least one of the moths I had seen yesterday at the park. They were all there again today, so they both picked up additional species.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
