This Big Leaf Maple is covering the ground at her feet so that critters great and small have a place to overwinter and so that plants who thrive with her shade can have the winter sun for growth.
Photo Sunday: Heading into Winter (11/24/24)
This Big Leaf Maple is covering the ground at her feet so that critters great and small have a place to overwinter and so that plants who thrive with her shade can have the winter sun for growth.
BEAUTIFUL!
Eloquent Kate;
similarly, ( but less eloquent), the first big swells have begun to tear through our luxuriant summer kelp beds. The first floating kelp patties are borne offshore by winds and currents to spread their gametes and symboints afar.
The kelp washed shoreward is distributed to nurture myriad niches. Shredded kelp fronds are swept across the reefs where monkey-faced eels and abalone shelter hidden, waiting. Clouds of shredded kelp churn in the surf sheltering young rockfish, perch and smelt.
Whole kelp plants that anchored their holdfasts to loose rocks (sometimes jade) get tossed to the beach and layered with sand to ferment in the sun , supporting another rich environment of feasting beasties from kelp flies and beach hoppers for the sand pipers and surf perch…and so on.
Your very own New England..check out song by Cheryl Wheeler- When Fall Comes To New England..Im on NW shores of Marin & its very much like East coast..by the way- New Hampshire has former rail tracks cleared for hiking and peddle bikes..with gorgeous forest leading into Maine..then one can jump an overnight ferry out of Portland to southern Nova Scotia for more dirt bagging..then up onto Prince Edward Isle for pleasures..just wait till things thaw..🎄