Summer Surprises

The joys of summer fade with the approach of the autumn equinox. Summer is a time to revel in unexpected plants and animals on the Olympic Peninsula. Most unexpected this year has been the charismatic Red-footed Booby, captured in Steve Hampton’s photo essay here in the Rainshadow Journal: rainshadownorthwest.com/2024/09/02/port-townsends-red-footed-booby-a-messenger-from-the-future/ Less dramatic, but also surprising, was the day I hiked with a friend by the Elwha River, and we encountered a Western Toad. Having never before seen one actually swimming, we were delighted to see it leap into a small branch of the river, swim swiftly across, and then hide from us in the riverside plants.

Opalescent Squids – Left White, Right Brown

My favorite discovery in July was a live Opalescent Inshore Squid, only seen rarely by scuba divers. Previously I’d only found its eggs, once attached to a crab trap at the John Wayne Marina, and once washed ashore at North Beach. This Opalescent Squid was stranded by the shore of Indian Island on a -2.6 tide. It was very feisty, determined to escape, but entangled in the thick eelgrass. I was surprised to see it changing color in a fraction of a second, from brown to white and back again twice. Cephalopods, including octopuses and squid, use their chromatophores (here the orange dots near its fins) to change their color based on mood or the need to be camouflaged from me, perceived as its predator. The squid needn’t have worried; I left it there as the tide was safely coming in; and after this encounter, calamari no longer seem so appealing.

Opalescent Squid Eggs

Three days later, my husband and I were paddling our kayaks near Brinnon when a three-foot mass underwater caught my eye. What a surprising coincidence— Opalescent Squid eggs! Later at Pt. Whitney, female squid had laid clumps of more eggs close to shore, including these. They normally lay all their eggs at the same time, 30-150’ deep on sandy substrate where they can stick them onto something solid like a rock. Each stretchy 2” pod is not one egg, but a capsule with up to 300 eggs! I have read that mother squid can place these capsules in masses to create egg beds, some even covering acres of the ocean floor.

Margined Calligrapher

Walking among the glorious wildflowers in the Olympic Mountains, I’ve become fascinated by hoverflies, or flower flies. In June on Hurricane Hill, dozens of species hovered like miniature helicopters, then zeroed in on their preferred flowers. Flower flies are essential pollinators of agricultural crops and native wildflowers, and the larvae of some species eat aphids. I saw more in our Port Townsend garden in August. Grabbing my macro lens, I snuck in close to document the beauty of these tiny beneficial insects. Every day, I was surprised when different species of flower flies appeared. One day a Margined Calligrapher (Toxomerus marginatus), only 1/4” long, with a stunning pattern on its abdomen (and a great name), was pollinating yarrow, right near a Western Calligrapher (Toxomerus occidentalis). Same genus, different species, and both new to me.

Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee

Meet the Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee (Bombus mixtus), a frequent visitor to our garden. Native bees are such valued pollinators, I try to photograph as many species as possible around Port Townsend and in the Olympic Mountains. So far, I’ve added 23 species to the Washington Native Bee Society’s iNaturalist project. It’s fun to observe bumble bees, their furry bodies covered in pollen, with pollen sacs on the hind legs of some female worker bees. Using my macro lens, I was surprised to see exactly how bumble bees gather nectar on their long tongues. (In case you are interested, I wrote about local flies and bees three years ago: rainshadownorthwest.com/2021/09/04/insects-on-the-peninsula-part-2/)

Northern Red-legged Frog

Another joy of summer is listening to the frogs croaking. Their nightly symphony begins in April, and some frogs continue to croak loudly during summer and into the autumn. On my computer I searched “croaking frog sound,” attempting to determine the best definition. Instead, a list of hour-long YouTube videos and free “Frog Croak Sound Effects” appeared, in case you’d like to follow up. We are fortunate to enjoy adorable Northern Pacific Treefrogs of different hues— bright green, leopard, bronze— that bask on leaves of trees and shrubs in our garden. There aren’t as many of the larger Northern Red-legged Frog, which prefers to hide under the shrubs, so each encounter is a special surprise.

Rainbow Star

Every summer, two friends and I visit Salt Creek County Park, west of Port Angeles, where we wander for hours along Tongue Point during a minus tide. This summer I had to make the journey alone, and as always, found many surprising treasures in the tide pools, including this Rainbow Star. There are fewer sea stars these days. The past ten years of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome has affected over 20 species of sea stars along the Pacific Coast from Northern Baja to Alaska. Dr. Melissa Miner from U.C. Santa Cruz is the scientist leading the study of the syndrome, with participation by citizen scientists from the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. As the  website, marine.ucsc.edu/data-products/sea-star-wasting/, explains, “In subtidal habitats, the sunflower star is typically the first species to succumb, followed by the rainbow star.” If the oral disk, or center, of a sea star isn’t affected, its arms can grow back, and it can survive. I’ve found other sea stars regrowing a stubby arm. I was thrilled to find this Rainbow Star regrowing not one, but four arms! Its one long arm was about 6” long, and quite actively exploring a tide pool.

Virginia Rail

Kah Tai Lagoon is a favorite destination for Port Townsend’s birders. The local Admiralty Audubon chapter holds regular work parties there to remove invasive plants and plant bird-friendly native plants for the dozens of species that live there year-round and other species that use the lagoon as a stopover to refuel before migrating on in spring and fall. When I first joined Admiralty Audubon, I asked expert Ron Sykes, a birder who has been planting for birds at Kah Tai and observing them for decades, how I could see a Virginia Rail. He advised me to look along the shore every time I walk there. You never know when one will surprise you, and now with the Merlin app, you might even recognize one’s call. Thirteen years later, I’ve seen them just a handful of times, including this beautiful bird in July.

Elegant Rein Orchid

As summer comes to a close, the non-native grasses turn brown and yellow. One day I walked onto the ferry to Coupeville to photograph one hundred American White Pelicans across the street in the lagoon. Amid the dry weeds by the ferry terminal, I was surprised to find a tall, dewy fresh Elegant Rein Orchid (Platanthera elegans) in full bloom. The dry grasses surrounding the orchid’s inflorescence remind me of autumn harvests, and all the other wonders autumn brings as summer leaves us. Autumn light, autumn leaves, pears, pumpkins, chanterelles. Farewell for now to summer, and welcome autumn!

All photos by Wendy Feltham