I made it out early yesterday for my weekly gull nest survey. I’m going through the photos and will get an update out in the next day or two.

In the meantime, last Monday I happened to be passing by Boundary Bay and stopped off to find a curious plant I’d seen reported on iNaturalist. It’s a species of Cuscuta, colloquially known as dodder, a genus of parasitic plants with a cosmopolitan distribution.

Identifying Cuscuta to species is notoriously difficult and technical, however there’s good reason to believe the plant I spotted is Cuscuta pacifica given the salt marsh habitat it’s in, as well as the species of plant being parasitized (primarily Salicornia).

Cuscuta in flower

It’s my first time seeing this plant, and what a treat to find it in full flower.

Recently, I found myself contemplating a question: how long has it been since I’ve gone a day without a screen?

I can’t answer that easily. I suspect almost all of us would have to go back to before we all had cellphones. Even before that screens were still ubiquitous. Televisions and computers were everywhere.

At this point in history, it’s difficult to imagine the world without them. There’s that old adage about never being more than six feet away from a rat. I suspect that debunked claim now holds true for screens.

A screen was originally something to divide or conceal. Think of a folding screen used for privacy. A screen can also be a filter. It could be a screen on your window to keep out insects, or the process of screening prospective employees for a position.

It’s difficult to deny that our screens can act as a portal to community and connection (or a shimmering digital illusion of it?), but we need to keep in mind those older resonances of the word: how do the screens continue to divide, conceal, and filter?

That aside, let’s move on to the nests.

Cambie Nest

One of the three fledglings from Cambie Nest sitting in the curious way many young do. I call this the old man stage of their development. Their juvenile feathers have grown in, but they still retain awkward patches of their down around their heads.

I don’t have any preamble, I just want to get this update out!

Continental Nest

The chick at Continental Nest with both parents present. It was begging for food, but didn’t get any while I was watching.

I made it out this morning for my weekly gull nest survey. A few surprises, including a new nest location I’ve never seen before. I’ll try and have a post up in a day or two about it. Until then, here’s a collection of recent photos of some curious plants, slime moulds, fungi, and a wasp.

Monotropa uniflora

A recent tip from a friend got me out in search of Monotropa uniflora, also know as Ghost Pipe. These are some weirdo plants that have given up their chlorophyll and can no longer photosynthesize. Instead, they are mycoheterotrophic – they parasitize fungus to obtain the nutrients and energy they need to grow.