Readers’ wildlife photos

Well, we’re down to two batches of photos, though fortunately I also have a few great videos from Tara Tanaka.

Today’s batch comes from Norm Gilinsky. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

In June, my wife and I visited our old stomping grounds on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound, a far northwest outpost of the contiguous 48. We lived there for several years and went back to visit friends and to enjoy the spring bounty. Here are some photographs from our adventure, taken with an iPhone 10. Our visit coincided with the summer solstice, so I included a photo taken at the annual Orcas Island Summer Solstice Parade. People do the craziest things when they are isolated on an island that can be reached only by boat or plane.

Orcas Island has a deer problem. They are so abundant (and so beloved) that they eat everything green. When we lived there, all our many trees were pruned from ground level up to about five feet in height. They all had flat bottoms because when the deer run out of forage on the forest floor, they start eating the trees. This is a Black-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a subspecies of the Mule Deer. The deer on the island are diminutive, probably about 2/3 the size of deer on the mainland:

In June, the spaces along trails and roads are alive with Candy Flowers (Claytonia sibirica). These tiny flowers are native to western North America and the Aleutian Islands:

Common Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Probably everyone knows this showy flower. It’s a biennial that puts out a low-growing rosette of leaves the first year and a tall spike of colorful flowers the second. On Orcas, the flowering stalk continues to produce new flowers all summer. When left to their own devices, Foxglove can spread widely, even to the point of invasiveness, but we always loved seeing them. It’s not native to North America but has become widely naturalized:

Here we have a large and healthy specimen of Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus). Like the Common Foxglove, this biennial puts out a rosette of leaves close to the ground during its first year. During the second year it sends up a tall stalk (up to six feet) with multiple “candles” of yellow flowers. It grows along roadsides and in disturbed areas and is widely distributed. This one is growing proudly on Orcas Island, but we had them on our property in rural Virginia as well:

Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor). This scrubby plant grows everywhere, but especially along roadsides, cliffs, and the shoreline. The flowers are bright billows of white when at their peak and become drab brown by fall. Ocean Spray is native to the Pacific Northwest:

An iconic tree along rocky coastlines in the Pacific Northwest, this is the Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). Its orange scaly bark is characteristic as are its leaves, which are somewhat sparse, which shows off the interesting branch pattern:

Another shot of the Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii), this time showing its typical presentation along the coastline:

Prunella vulgaris, or the Common Self-heal, is a North American native. It grows in scrubby areas along roadsides and is a good ground cover for those who don’t like to mow their lawns:

Beware the Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)! This plant is so common along roadsides that it would be a good candidate for the Orcas Island official plant. I don’t know if it’s a native or not. I am told that the plant is edible when cooked, but I’ve never met anyone brave enough to try it:

I debated leaving this out, as it’s well known, but the Sword Fern (probably Polystichum munitum) is common on the island. So, I left it in:

This shrubby bramble, the Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), produces delicious fruit. Look for it in late spring and grab the berries while they last! Another native:

The Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana) is a northwest native. It’s just slightly larger than the other pink native rose in the area, the Bald-hip rose (Rosa gymnocarpa). Note the robust thorns on the Nootka Rose:

The Bald-hip rose (Rosa gymnocarpa) is the other rose native to the area. The sepals fall off the hip early in the development of the flower, so the hip is characteristically “bald.” Note also how the thorns are thinner than those of the Nootka Rose, which is one way to tell the two species apart:

This unidentified creature made its appearance at the Orcas Island Solstice Parade. Our visit to Orcas Island coincided with the summer solstice so, naturally, there was a Summer Solstice Parade!: