I dug into my pictures and came up with this: beach flotsam of an industrial sort. This is a close up of a massive log, which had been in use, perhaps for log booms. This metal insert has a 6 inch diameter. It is large. And all bent back by incredible forces.
End of the winter on the Southern Gulf Islands of BC…
Here is a shot of the Western Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), all dried up and curled up, in winter mode. New fronds are issuing form the ground. According to traditional teachings, in the spring, when no other food source was available, its roots were a food item for various First nations tribes of the West Coast of North America. Roasted and peeled, the roots were eaten… like potatoes, I guess.
I like its elegant lines.
I took that picture in downtown Toronto. When I looked out the window – from a fairly high floor – the contrast between building styles seemed too juicy to ignore.
Nature reveals itself in patterns, when you live on the windy West Coast… Since late December, I have noticed the return of the big birds. They are busy doing aerial acrobatics, there is a lot of high-pitched peeping (like Mike Tyson, eagles are big and mean-looking, but their “voice” is a high-pitched bell-like sound…). I presume these sounds and aerial displays are discussions over territory. There are quite a few bald eagles around Saturna.
Some birds – like the ravens – never leave the island, but bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) head for the salmon rivers of BC in the fall. During that season, those rivers are true all-you-can-eat buffets for eagles and other wildlife. For pictures of that, see my November post about Goldstream, near Victoria.
This set of pictures was taken from my deck, yesterday. First, an adult perched on that tree for almost 30 minutes in the early afternoon. Surveying the neighbourhood, trying to decide if anything edible might be around. Love those piercing yellow eyes, don’t you?
Then, four hours later, while fixing dinner, I spotted the next visitor to the same tree. An immature bald eagle. According to the bird books in my collection, immature eagles only acquire the full white feathers on the head and tail by their fifth year, less frequently when they are four years old… So Junior, below, was probably following mommy around.
I left my cooking to get my camera, and get some pictures of Junior too. It was getting dark, so they are a bit grainy.
The art of keeping warm in winter on these islands involves good insulation, and wood piles. My neighbours like to say that heating your house with wood keeps you warm three ways: first, cutting the wood, then stacking it, and finally transporting it to the fireplace or woodstove…
Simply stacking wood is an art in itself. Take a look.
And then, after you got all warm lugging the wood around, it warms you yet again, by the fireplace…
