Phenology (aka Natural Observations)

clicketyclack-
Yeah we pretty much have just made tea with the leaves. A tincture might work good too but I tend to keep things simple.

My wife is canning peaches this week. This is my nieces first time doing that. They canned huckleberry/saskatoon jam last week. I help here and there but she’d be pissed if she thought I was taking any credit for it :stuck_out_tongue:

saw some wild grapes last week, but couldn’t reach them

been eating some of the last blackberries in the area.

gathered some self-heal to tincture yesterday

Ate chanterells, angel wings, king bolete while out on TrollSplinter. Mushroom season has officially arrived on the Olympic peninsula! Also salal is in full swing out here, and the evergreen huckleberries are about to start getting ripe.

Yesterday in Skagit County I found Blackcaps for the first time, and a surprising amount of red huckleberries, and a little bit of Siberian Miner’s Lettuce on a walk with some friends who don’t know much about plants but want to learn.

I haven’t taken notice of this kind of stuff until recently, but here in New Zealand the Daffodils are sticking about 3-4 inches out of the ground, getting ready for Spring !

small observation, but hey, gotta start somewhere

Was up in the mountains yesterday and found Black Huckleberries for the first time (right before I saw my first wild bear!), and collected a bunch of Arnica.

woah sweet, was the bear close ?

i would have scared my tits off >.<

[quote=“anti_, post:108, topic:174”][quote author=clicketyclack link=topic=158.msg12142#msg12142 date=1220564903]
Was up in the mountains yesterday and found Black Huckleberries for the first time (right before I saw my first wild bear!), and collected a bunch of Arnica.
[/quote]

woah sweet, was the bear close ?

i would have scared my tits off >.<[/quote]

gosh, sorry for the long wait. it was pretty close, but it was running away from us, so not in the least scary, mostly just really exciting, especially since we had been told it was in the area, and were keeping our eyes peeled.

Mule deer rut is in full swing here judging by the smell and the huge neck on the buck I killed last week. A friend killed a whitetail buck the day before yesterday and it appeared to be in full rut too which is kind of early for the whitetails.
Whitefish are gathering in the deep pools here. I hope I can get time to fish before the water ices over on those pools.
Most the leaves are off the deciduous trees. The Tamarack needles are golden and beginning to fall off.
Snow in the high country. I was cutting wood in the snow on tuesday.

Full moon tonight!
At around 7 pm this evening I finished my shift at work and stepped outside. It was the first night I noticed the temp really dropping after sunset. Time to switch from the fall jacket to the winter one.

Been getting a lot of Madrone berries lately, as well as the bigger juicier berries from other introduced Arbutus species.

Pretty cold this morning. 25 below 0. Burning a lot of wood in the last week or so.

I’m so excited, i went to a “natural area” today that I had never visited, and the stinging nettles are starting to pop up out of the ground, should be a week or two before i can have nettle omelettes.

the bleeding hearts were coming up as well.

A number of things happening in the central Carolinas in some unseasonably warm weather. Tulip poplars started showing flowers about a week ago. Elderberries are budding. Pine cone formation seems to be closing in on the peak and they’re starting to drop. First flower I’ve seen along the ground was a lone Carolina Spring Beauty on the ground. The warm weather is ending, so I expect I won’t see much more for a few more weeks. But I’m already stoked about all the plants and mushrooms (!) I might encounter this spring.

man, we’re still in winter. although the days are getting longer and the sun stronger, it was still -24c this morning. it will be at least another month before there will be any ‘spring-like’ stuff happening. but, i’ll keep you posted.
(north peace bioregion 56n 118w, alberta) 8)

wheee!!! today i saw Indian Plum’s starting to spit out their new leaves, and the same for some red-flowering currants. a lot of the western redcedar’s and doug fir’s are getting some new green tips as well.

Stevens Point Wisconsin - Saw a pair of red breasted Grosbeaks yesterday; they are migrating back to breed here. Saw several flies before it snowed (thought the snow was over with). The chickadees sing their spring song. Collected bog labrador tea and made some delicious tea out of it. Waiting for the snow to melt…crows are getting really hyperactive now and I heard a couple of ravens (uncommon here) over the weekend while ice fishing. The ice was still 2 feet thick, so we still have over a month before ice-out.

Tons of manzanita flowers in the so. Cal. mountains recently. Some gooseberry flowers and poppies too. Oh, and lupines. And yucca flower stems. Bunches more on the way…

Salmonberries! :slight_smile: