Back in January I talked about watching for the signs of spring that you really would like to see in the depths of winter. Hazelnut trees were one of those signs. The male catkins start to grow and change colour in the depths of winter when you would think it's not possible for much to be happening. By this time of year, maybe a little bit later on a 'normal' Bella Coola winter, they flower or pollinate. The trees are striking because the pale yellow colour is right out of place for this time of year, but it is a definite sign that things are on the move and the great spring rush to flower, pollinate, grow and just get on with the season is not far away.
I also mentioned that I would try and get a picture of the female flowers on the Hazelnut tree. No easy task, you practically have to have a magnifying glass to see them, but if you examine the ends of some of the buds closely, they are there. The one in this photo is not more than 2 mm across...so it's very tiny, but if successfully pollinated will produce a nice hazelnut--which the Stellar's Jays will usually get before us.
What a spectacular day in Bella Coola, too bad we weren't hosting that snowboard event that went off in the fog at the Olympics, we had clear blue skies, morning frost, no wind and a high of 10 C. Not bad for our neck of the woods. I checked the Cathedral Point weather station (Burke Channel) and they had pretty steady outflow winds in the 40 + km/hr range - with some gusts up to 54 km/hr, but no sign of east wind in these parts. Grizzly
On the other hand ...
22 hours ago
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