They’ve all been present around the Medicinal Herb Garden recently. Barred owls appear to have made campus or nearby woods their home, but the ravens are unusual in the city, where they are infrequent visitors, passing over from one rural area to the next and stopping briefly like the rest of the tourists who visit Seattle.
On September 30th, two ravens (Corvus corax) visited campus. One landed in a deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) near section B. That one is pictured here. The other one was on top of a Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) on the east side of Anderson Hall, along Rainier Vista. It flew off before I could take its picture.
Our current barred owl’s location is often betrayed by the chorus of bird alarm calls. Owls are not easily scared off so sometimes all parties just play it cool and casually monitor the situation.
“Crow, what crow?”
“Owl, what owl?”
Barred owls (Strix varia) are fairly tolerant of human presence but it’s good to respect their space. They don’t need any more stress in their lives. To take the pressure off spotted owls (Strix occidentalis), land managers have been shooting barred owls in Washington, Oregon and California. Alas, in the triage times of the 21st century, options are limited and tough decisions must be made. Had we preserved more old-growth forest, maybe the spotted owls would have been better able to coexist with the westward-migrating barred owls. Or maybe not. We’ll never know.
Small in size but with a large and bold spirit, the chickadees are at home in the thickets at the edges of the garden. I’ve been scolded many times for straying into their territory. I haven’t had one land on me yet, but they will land inches away if I’m near their food source.
Garden visitors sometimes ask why I don’t deadhead all of the perennials in autumn and winter. See the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) in the center of the picture? That’s part of the reason. It is eating the seeds of downy sunflower (Helianthus mollis) and Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum). There are a lot of birds that spend their winters here and the more there is to eat, the better off they are. And there are insects that live in the shelter of the dried plant matter. If you were to break off a few dead stalks of any herbaceous plant in the garden, and bring them inside where it’s warm, the little creatures that had taken refuge for the winter would soon come crawling out. Remove all those stalks and you remove them and or their eggs, pupae or larvae.
Chickadee surveying its vast store of seeds. Do the wee creatures a favor and save your garden cleanup until the new spring vegetation starts to emerge. And if the plants aren’t diseased, break up last season’s stalks and drop them in place to serve as mulch and habitat as they would in the natural world. If your neighbors are dubious, explain your reasoning and you might just win them over.
Though butterflies, with the exception of the western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) seem to be growing scarce here, despite my efforts to plant as many butterfly-friendly plants as feasible, in early October this red admiral stuck around in section D just long enough to be photographed.
No sign of any Lorquin’s admiral (Limenitis lorquini) butterflies this season but finally, on the third of October, a red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) appeared in section D and alit on one of the plant label stakes while I was collecting seeds. Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), a plant with a worldwide distribution similar to that of the butterfly, is the primary host plant for the red admiral caterpillar.
How much better can a tree look in October? This crepe myrtle (Lagerstoemia indica) has already flowered, and the flowers are pretty spectacular, but the fall colors in the leaves this year have stolen the show. We’re not zone 9 (yet) but we can grow some fine crepe myrtles up here. I’m starting to see them planted as street trees in Seattle and that is a good thing.
The turning leaves and mature seedheads of bowman’s root (Porteranthus trifoliatus) in section A
Obligatory fall color shot of the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina). Clear, cold weather in recent days has brought out bright colors.
A new bench in Cascara Circle is already getting a lot of use. Public benches are such a great civic amenity. There should be more of them throughout the city and on campus. They get used as soon as they are installed.
Paw paw trees (Asimina triloba) west of Cascara Circle. They should start flowering in the spring of 2020 or 2021.
It’s called the cactus apple (Opuntia engelmannii) but it hasn’t flowered yet so no fruit have appeared. Maybe next year.
Last of the second crop of figs (Ficus carica) in section B. These will not ripen but they will be consumed by something or other.
Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) foliage at the end of its season.
Fall colors on the path north of section B. The yellow shrub is a pomegranate (Punica granatum)and the leaves on the path are from the sugar maple (Acer saccharum).
The birds have been getting the seeds from pods on the western sweetshrub (Calycanthus occidentalis) in Cascara Circle, so I picked them just before they opened. Sorry, birds, those seeds are for our international seed exchange program.
Mature seedhead of desert mule’s ears (Wyethia scabra) in section D
Seeds of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia).
Most people don’t mess around with wild mushrooms. It’s easier to buy the cultivated mushrooms at the grocery store. And there is a much wider variety at the stores these days, not to mention wild-collected mushrooms. Morels, chanterelles, lobsters, porcini, hedgehogs and matsutakes can be found in season at the high-end groceries and farmers markets. Some skilled forager vetted those mushrooms and you can be pretty sure they are safe. But there are so many other edible mushrooms growing in the cities, out in the country and in the wilderness. However, there are still other mushrooms that aren’t particularly good to eat: some are foul and bitter and a few are extremely dangerous, even deadly. The death cap (Amanita phalloides) is a deadly one. It kills more people than any other mushroom. And it suddenly appeared in profusion on the edge of the Medicinal Herb Garden this October. So, here are some pictures. Take the time to familiarize yourself with them, especially if you are a casual forager. These European mushrooms are spreading on the west coast. Death caps can’t hurt you if you don’t eat them, so please observe the most important rule of mushroom picking: ‘When in doubt, throw it out’. Repeat: ‘When in doubt, throw it out’. Enough said.
Death cap (Amanita phalloides) first breaking through its universal veil…
…and a little later…
…and later still
On that happy note, enjoy your Samhain, Dia de los Muertos, Halloween or whatever else you do or don’t celebrate.
last October light
catches the raven’s feathers
in the setting sun
See you in the garden.