Susannah 🍁

@wweeta.bsky.social

1433 Followers 433 Following

I photograph and write about the world I see around me here on Vancouver Island: the forests and hllls, things green and wet, the none- to multi-legged critters that scramble, ooze, and slither on our beaches, birds and the occasional beast.

A bright orange zucchini flower, fully open. Upright, with 5 large, rumpled, sharp-pointed petals. Green veins run up the back from the stem to the point of each petal. On the right, there's part of a leaf with jagged edges. On top, a harvestman (aka daddy long-legs) is sitting, waving its legs about. If you look closely, there are another two legs of a hidden harvestman in a fold of the leaf lower down. (Near the bottom of the flower.) Foreground and background; stems of the zucchini plant.
A jellyfish floating in shadowy water. It looks like an egg, freshly broken in the frying pan, still translucent. The centre is bright yellow, the precise yellow of a free-run chicken's egg; around it, the rest of the jellyfish is whitish. Lines in the water are the reflections of the stern of a boat. Cell-phone photo.
One hot-pink dahlia, facing left. The centre is pale yellow, with deep wine-red petals. Against a background (blurry) of azalea leaves.
Four bright yellow flowers on a twisty stem. This is a plant in the pea family; the flowers have two sections; round, upright petals, and below, two petals folded together. There are five oval leaves with a sharp point to each stem. And there's a "pea" pod forming below. Background; roadside weeds, some with bright red stems.
Several vanilla leaf plants, Achlys triphylla. Each one has three leaves, spread out from a central stalk. The leaves are deeply veined, triangular, with the outer side toothed. From one, two tall stems rise, bearing round, brown seeds. In the centre of the leaves of two of the plants, there are fallen seeds and fir needles. The plants are on the ground in deep woods, here surrounded by evergreen ferns, and their shadows.
A white slime mold with a faint bluish tinge growing on a log. A mass of clumps of short, smooth stalks (more like posts); each clump, seen separately, is like a little pom-pom or tuft. The log is well-rotted, falling apart, with areas tinted with green algae.
Side view of the front end of a June beetle. The armoured top (the head, the pronotum over the thorax, and the elytra, over the wings) is dark brown and black, with wide yellow stripes and yellowish hairs. Underneath, the beetle wears a furry coat of long, orange hairs. The legs are reddish, with hair near the body; the rest has curved teeth and hooks. She is a female, as seen by the ridged hockey-club antenna; males have huge, showy ones that fan out to detect female pheromones. In front, there are two small, beaded palps, She rests on a white bamboo towel.
A section of a large stone; the rock is patchy, with brown, whitish, and pale green markings. It is colonized by moss, probably fire moss, now dry and brown after a few days without rain. Lichens make squiggly lines in the open patches.
A bumblebee; Bombus sp., very fuzzy, with stripes in orange and yellow. Side view; he's foraging in a blackberry flower, one of three. These are Himalayan blackberries, Rubus armeniacus; the flowers are a pale pink, with five petals and many brown, pollen-bearing stamens. Two berries are forming; they're still small, hard, and bright green. The stems have sharp spines, some with red bases. Background; a leaf, and the bright greens and pink of the rest of the blackberry thicket, in sunlight.
An oval, green leaf with a red edge floats on the surface of a pond; the water is clear, but the bottom is dark brown. Under the edge of the leaf, where it catches the sunlight, a brown bug hangs head down; it's a backswimmer, with a long, smooth back, a small round head, and legs spread out into the water. It holds a water bubble, teardrop-shaped. A red spot at the bottom may be the reflection on the bubble of the bug's red eye. These bugs are predators, usually swimming belly-up, but also diving for submerged prey.
Three thimbleberries on their stalks. They're pink now; they will be deep red when they're ready to eat. Each one is like a little round cap formed of individual drupelets. The bracts surrounding each are like Ys, wide near the fruit, with long, narrow tips. The stems of the plant are red; the leaves more or less maple-leaf shaped, but softer. Background; dark forest.
A group of black ants with long, white wings. There is also one pale cream-coloured ant, without wings, in the centre. It looks to be bigger than the black ones; maybe she's a queen. The winged ones will be males or females ready to swarm. On the underside of a grey rock.
A green-bodied dragonfly on a laminate kitchen floor, holding onto a corner of the white baseboard. The darner is seen from above, with wings spread out, fully visible. It has large, brown eyes, a blue face with a black spot in the centre. The long abdomen is, in this light, almost black. In sunlight, it's red, showing that this is a female or a youngster; males have a bright blue abdomen.
A small, brown bug; long, oval wing covers, big eyes, spindly legs. Wearing a pattern of dark and pale browns, with a prominent, yellow V at the front of the wing covers. Pictured on a fingertip.
A tiny yellow/orange fly, barely 2 or 3 mm. long. The body can be seen through the wings, which are twice the length of the abdomen they cover. The fly has big, round eyes with swirling colours, orange, green, navy blue. On a pale cream wall.
Branches of a raspberry bush, with many red berries, small and round. One has been harvested: only the hull is left. One, lower right, is a darker red, but still not quite ripe. The leaves, oval, sharp-toothed, ridged, grow in threes. Background; greens and browns of the evergreen forest.
A small squirrel in his forest environment. It has a white ring around the eye; otherwise, it's rusty-red, with a darker end to its tail. The underside of these squirrels is whitish. It is the only native squirrel to be found on Vancouver Island. Background; moss-covered logs. Underfoot: a well-rotted stump.
A tiny spider on a leaf. She's round, like a little roaming marble. Her abdomen is a pale yellow, hairy, with a brown stripe down the centre,, and 6 round black dots, three down each side. The cephalothorax is a greenish-brown colour, with a black line down the centre and thin black lines around the rim. Her pedipalps, in front, are thin; she's a female. She's missing one back leg.
A large plant with big, three-lobed, toothed leaves, and above on sturdy, green stalks, wide, slightly mounded umbels bearing many tiny, white flowers. Background; cedar branches.
Meandering, narrow trail through northern rainforest, overshadowed by evergreens; cedars, Douglas fir, pines. And hemmed in by native shrubs; salal, salmonberry, huckleberry. At ground level are banks of tiny twinflowers. Everything is green or brown, except those flowers.
A stem of goat's beard flowers. A long, green stem reaching from left to right of the photo. Smaller stems branch off; the individual flower spikes reach out from these. Each spike is packed with tiny, white flowers; the petals are only about 1 mm. long. At the left, in front of the goat's beard branch, is a cluster of thimblebery flowers, buds, and leaves. The flowers are white, papery; they have five rumpled petals, and a yellowish centre. The buds are round and reddish, leaves wide, lobed, crinkly. The goat's beard leaves are oval, toothed, and pointed; two can be seen at the bottom, and more are in the dark, in the background.
A pink rose held up against the sky. The centre is half hidden; some of the yellow pollen-bearing anthers are out in the sunlight, others are in the shade. It looks like there's also part of a spider's leg; the angled "knee". And maybe a glimpse of a fat spider belly. These roses are a favourite spot for crab spiders to hide and wait for unsuspecting prey.
A black jumping spider, facing off to the right. She's still watching me, though; she swivels those big eyes. 5 of her eyes are visible; the two big front eyes, with my camera's flash reflected in them. Then the two smaller side/front eyes, the farthest one blurry. Then one of the 2 small side eyes. She has 2 more on raised bumps at the back of the cephalothorax; she can watch me from everry angle. She has a crew-cut hairdo; black hairs standing straight up. She's in constant motion, mostly waving the pedipalps in front; one is more or less clearly visible; black with white specks, very hairy. Part of the fangs show up; shiny green. One leg is in focus; the rest is a blur. Phidippus johnsoni.
A messy group of tiny brown mushrooms in a blue-painted corner of a carport. The 5 mushrooms are old, some faded, one crumbly, and all entangled in old spider web. But they still stand erect; the tallest is just under 3 cm. tall. In front, there's another mushroom cap, larger, old and broken and completely wrapped in spider web. On the ledge on either side are remnants of spider meals; spider frass. One dead mosquito hangs overhead. The "floor" here is the top of a cement wall, and the walls above are wood; everything is painted blue. Between the wall and the base on the left, there's a gap; there's a spider in there, hiding. The web and frass is all her doing.
A long, straight-sided insect, seen from above. It's leaf-green, with detailed patterns head to tail; darker green patches with brown borders, brown lines and patches, a semicircle, green with dark spots around the inner edge, and up front, 4 darker brown spots, in pairs. On plain varnished wood.
A white Bacopa flower, as found, without specks nor breaks. It's a small flower, pure white, with 5 rounded petals, yellow anthers in the centre well. It forms a stark contrast with its hairy, rough leaves, and the bits of dead leaves and grass scattered across the leaves and the soil and pebbles. At the lower left, there's the end of a smooth, yellow leaf; a Creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummulatus.
Pink flowers on long stems. These were originally from Europe, and now can be found from BC to California; they've escaped, they're perennial, and can become invasive. These 3 stems have been bent down by rain, though they're now dry; the four-petalled flowers grow in clusters along the stems. Where the flowers have fallen, little stemlets hold a yellow tip, where the seeds will form. Not pictured; the sweet fragrance. Background; lawn, more pink clusters.
A flower and a bud of creeping buttercup, with leaves of lemon balm. The buttercups are beautiful, but invasive and as stubborn as a plant can be. The lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, is native to Europe, but grows now around the world. It will behave in a garden if kept cropped; the leaves are lemon-scented and make good tea.
A small, glossy crow on a stony beach. He has turned his head away from the wind, and it has ruffled his feathers, changing the usually sleek shape of his head. He's mostly black, with highlights in a deep, rich, chocolatey brown; dull dark grey feet and smooth, black bill. He stands on a light brown log end.
A cluster of pea-like flowers hanging from the tip of a vine, in vibrant colours: purple, magenta, red, and blue. Some of the flowers are completely open, others are buds or half opened. Leaves surrounding the cluster are rounded, attached to their vines in opposite pairs. Background; more green.
A young buck deer looking straight at the camera, as if posing to show off his new antlers. They're still short, shorter than his ears, with rounded tips, and covered with smooth "velvet". Background, blurry: urban street, shrubs, a car.
A brown gull in flight, at eye level. The gull is a youngster; adults are mostly white and grey. It's looking straight at me, checking to see if there are goodies on offer. The outstretched wings are bent halfway along, exposing the pattern on the wing tips, top and bottom. The gull has a black eye and a pale yellow beak with a black tip. Background; blurred, greyish rolling waves, surf, and a low island in the distance.
These algae are, in life, red. Dead, they turn white. This one has been ripped from its home and tossed up on a sandy beach by the waves. It is a branched, calcified alga; the branches are segmented, with each hard, inflexible segment separated from the next by a flexible "knee" (geniculum), so it looks like a tangled string of white beads, no two quite alike. The alga is intertwined by shreds of bright green sea lettuce, and strands of sargassum seaweed, showing one of its tiny brown ball floats. On wet, grey sand.
View of a wide bay with a small settlement on the far shore and the entrance to a strait leading north. Blue water, then low, evergreen-covered hills. Along the shore there are large rock cliffs, and on the left a half-dozen houses and some larger buildings by a marina. The hill on the left ends in a low point; there's a light there, marking the entrance to the strait. Blue sky , with a few white clouds.
A slow creek in deep shade, overhung by ferns and huge skunk cabbage leaves. A "spotlight" of sunlight reaches a deer fern and touches one of the large leaves. Another fern, on the left, is a bracken fern. The shallow creek bed is brown, but small blue patches reflect the bits of sky not hidden by trees overhead.
An almost-finished swallows' nest. It sits on a black PVC pipe leading into a building; wood construction, close under a slanted wood roof. The nest is made of lumps of mud mixed with twigs and blades of grass; the lower part is dry, a pale, greyish tan. The top walls of the nest are dark brown because the mud is still wet; it will dry to the same colour as the base. Still to be done; line the nest with feathers, lay the eggs.
Two brown anemones, Metridium senile, just below the water line on a float under a dock. They are feeding, with their tentacles extended, some whitish, some brown; there's a bit of a reddish tint on one. They're joined by three limpets, one underwater, one at the water line, one above. The blue plastic float is stained brown under the water; there are hints of other creatures down there.
Four tall stems, with tiny flowers all reaching off to the left along the length of the stem. Each flower is a small, ridged cup on a stalk rising out of the main stem. The petals are tiny, feathery, pink or white, and turn back on the edge of the base cup. Background; roadside weeds, horsetails and grasses.
A rose and 2 buds on a Nootka rose bush, native to western Canada and US. It's pink, with a pinker centre, yellow-tipped stamens. The buds are deeper pink. The leaves are toothed, with a centre vein. On the end of a leaf just poking out beneath the rose, on the right, there's a small, black and white jumping spider.
Two sections of a mountain that's mostly bare rock, with evergreen trees trying to get a foothold. Here, a few climb the space between the rocks. Above, where the mountain levels out somewhat, the slope is covered with evergreen forest. Below the mountain, there's a flat river valley, at this time of year covered with bright green willows; the river meanders here around the roots of the willows. And in front, left and right, red alder trees at the side of the road, from where the photo was taken.
All that remains of the base of a branch on an old, well-rotted log. The wood is slivery, with a blue tinge, brown streaks; the wood fibers swirl around, in spots making little whirlpools. It's covered with tiny Cladonia lichens, palest green. The rest of the log has crumbled into a rich, chocolate-brown mass, and has collected needles from the evergreens overhead. Beneath the branch, there are bits of spider web.
Chocolatey-brown water meandering among grey rocks. The water is clear, but the creek bed is brown mud. A young tree, a red alder, leans over the water, casting round shadows on the water and a nearby rock. Below the tree, on the water, green reflections shimmer.
View of a still lake, surrounded by low, evergreen-clad hills. The sky, blue with a few wispy clouds, is pefectly reflected in the water below, as are the hills, which form a wavy line across the centre of the photo. On the right, part of the shoreline extends out into the water; it's stony, with a few skimpy shrubs. A few stones are in the water nearby.
A view from a hillside looking north over a narrow ocean channel. On either side are low (as far as the photo goes), evergreen-clad hills; in the distance straight ahead, the mountains look blue. The water is streaky; this is an area with strong tidal currents and eddies; a narrow strait, 750 metres wide. A couple of boats are heading north. Overhead, cottony clouds in a blue sky. In front, there's bare land, recently cleared; a few posts, a few trees at the shoreline, a bit of gravel road.
A fuzzy, crinkly moss in pale green, growing on grey and white rock. It's topped with a thick forest of vibrantly red stalks bearing sharp-tipped sporophytes, each with a green base and the long, red tip, mostly bent off at an angle from the base. Probably Ceratodon purpurea, known as Fire Moss, Red Roof moss, or Redshank.
Top view of a large, leggy spider. Hairy, solid-color brown legs, spread wide, body nicely patterned in grey, black, warm brown. Two of her eyes catch the light. She sits on her sheet web, holding a folded edge with her rear legs. The pattern of the plastic compost bin shows through the web.
A single, old, moldy boot, found on the shore of a wilderness lake. A leather boot, lace-up, without laces. A greenish grey mold is growing on the toe area. The boot sits on a rock on the stony shore; behind it, a tipped alder branch bears new spring leaves; there's some grass and other small weeds. Tie-in to Mother's Day: associated with Mom's maxim: "the long way 'round is more interesting."
In very blue, very clear water, waterlily leaves and three buds float on the surface. The plant in the centre has three leaves, one partially out of the frame. Underneath, the water is so clear that the stems and another leaf, still unfolded can be seen. Beneath, deeper under the surface, there are stems of growing swamp horsetail and a few stems of other aquatic plants, maybe bladderwort.
Four Canada geese on very blue water, slightly ruffled. The geese are all facing left. Their bodies are warm brown and pale brown, darker at the top, with the edges of the feathers outlined in beige. They have white breasts, mostly underwater, long, black necks, black heads and beaks, with a white patch under the chin up to behind the eye. On the right are a few sparsely-leafed willow branches.
Against a backdrop of evergreen-clad peaks, a row of red alder trees glow in the sunlight. The leaves at this time of year are almost yellow. The hills are on the southern shore of Buttle Lake, in the centre of Vancouver Island. Blue sky with the edge of a white cloud.
A crow stands on top of a sign, bending down as if to read the text. Which says, DO NOT CUT OR REMOVE WOOD OR ROCKS FROM FORESHORE STABILIZATION WORKS. (Logo; mountains) BRITISH COLUMBIA. The design above, a circle with the negating inclined line over two pictures; the top shows a chainsaw. The bottom one is a mystery; some logs, something else unrecognizable. Don't cut it, anyhow. Smaller text is unreadable.
A black, long-legged spider, nicely posed on a bluish beach stone. And surrounded by other beach stones, many-coloured, no two alike, but all smoothed and rounded by years of weathering. The larger one with blotches and seams of bluish white quartz at top right may be a Dallasite stone, exclusive to Vancouver Island.
A bright orange, shiny wet "thing" like a flattish lump with warts on top, projecting tubes or tentacles at the sides, a mass of leafy stuff in front. It's the front end of an Orange Sea Cucumber, Cucumaria miniata, projecting out from beneath a rock in the low intertidal zone. The projections at the sides are the tube feet. In front are the extremely branched tentacles around the mouth, at the moment semi-retracted. The rest of the animal is a paler, soft-looking, almost shapeless blob.
A smallish, wet, barnacled rock standing in a few centimetres of water on a stony seashore. It's covered in dripping wet seaweeds: green sea lettuce, and a dark brown blade alga. On the side, small kelp blades hang down; a curved stipe connected to the rock with no visible holdfast, and then narrow, yellowish-brown blades that hang down with the ends in the water.
A view over a sandy beach at low tide on Vancouver Island, looking across the water of Georgia Strait at the long range of snow-clad mountain peaks on the BC mainland, with a low line of islands at their feet. Blue sky, with wispy clouds above. There are a couple of people on the beach, a distant boat near the far shore, and at the far left, barely visible, two people in kayaks, red and white.
Three Pacific oysters in a row between rocks. They're positioned with the opening end upwards, showing the zig-zag "lip". As the oyster grows, it lays down another coat on the shell; the undulating lines of these layers can be seen on the topside of the shell, the side facing us. On the rocks there are tiny barnacles, and some encrusting algae.
Hanging from a barnacle- and algae-coated rock at low tide are 5 plumose anemones, Metridium senile. Three still have their mouths in the water, and their tentacles spread out, still catching dinner. Two are almost completely shut down, their tentacles retracted, since they no longer could reach the water. The one in the centre is annoyed. These anemones, when irritated or threatened, produce acontia, threadlike extensions full of stinging cells, nematocysts. They can be seen here just above the mouth area. A predator or a neighbouring anemone of an "enemy" species may be near, maybe hiding under the rock. Beneath: sand under a few centimetres of water.
In a gap between three beach rocks, a tiny (up to 5.7 cm) shore crab challenges intruders, including humans. He's standing on his back legs, back flat against one rock, with his pincers (chelipeds) held high, ready to take you on. The three rocks; one greenish grey, smooth, one grainy, blue-grey, one dark grey with cream intrusions, lie in the upper intertidal zone on the crab's beach. On the far right, there's a small periwinkle shell, probably containing a young hermit crab.
Roadside "weed". Small, 5-petalled flowers, white with lilac stripes, each flower on its own stem. 8 flowers here, and several buds. Stem leaves are small; many round basal leaves form the background.
Terminal clusters (2) of flowers. Spiraea douglasii. They're left on the shrub over winter, and are now deep brown. (They start out deep pink.) Long, narrow, compact clusters on bare stems. This year's leaves haven't appeared yet. Background; greens and browns and light areas (dead tree trunks, barkless) of a wetland and beaver pond.