Catkin of Hazelnut
The catkins or male flowers of the Hazelnut are a golden yellow in contrast to the ruby red female flowers. When they open fully, little clouds of pollen can be seen exiting the catkins. If successfully pollinated the female flower will produce a nut in the fall. Hazelnuts are also known as filberts. And they are the stuff that Nutella is made from!
On Wednesday night we had an amphibian program and although the rains exited earlier in the day and we did not see a mass migration of Spotted salamanders, we did have a good night.
Six species of amphibians were seen by 30 visitors to Wahkeena. There were some Spotted Salamanders and we also saw quite a few Red-spotted Newts and larval Long-tailed Salamanders. The Wood Frogs were very noisy, as were the Peepers. We caught several pairs of Spring Peepers in amplexus. Amplexus is when the male frog grabs the female and rides "piggy back" so he can fertilize the eggs as the female releases them. We also saw two of the beavers swimming in the pond and heard and saw a Barred owl fly over our heads. So it was a good night,
By contrast, today was deathly quiet because of the return of cold temperatures. Except for the honking of Canada geese of course!
And when we are not building bridges to unite humans with nature, we are actually building bridges. As in foot bridges like the one below. |