Cottonwood Fruit

While these might look like clusters of small grapes, they are only immature cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) seed pods.  It appears some animal or bird has been feeding on them because most of the young pods, full of undeveloped seeds and probably a rich little meal, had been broken open and cleaned out. The seed pods were also broken off and laying on the ground, far below where they normally reside high up in the canopy.

A nice warming trend in the Bella Coola Valley continued today, just in time as the weekend approaches.  It wasn't really warm but quite pleasant most of the day.  Some areas of the valley had pretty good rain showers in the early evening from some of the cloud buildup, but they didn't last long.  A high temperature of 18 C made it all around good.  Grizzly