Early Blooms on Yellow Island

Early February and what’s happening on Yellow? Are the flowers getting ready to bloom? Amazingly we have a couple species that have been blooming since last November. The strange fall weather that closely mimics spring weather definitely fooled two very different species.

Red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) was found in bloom in mid November. Because I don’t look for first bloom dates in November, the exact date is a mystery. Ribes is a shrub so it is easy to follow individual plants. Those that flowered in in November, perhaps 10% of those on the island, have lost their flowers now. But of those that didn’t bloom in 2015, the first bloom I noted this year was January 30. And here we are on February 13 with most of the individual plants showing some flowers. I always think of the rufous hummingbirds arriving to take advantage of the early currant blooms. However, this year the blooms are too early and the hummer taking advantage is an Anna’s hummingbird that over wintered on Yellow. (That is another first for Yellow Island.) 

Another very different species is blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parviflora). Likewise it bloomed in mid November and has stayed in bloom every since. Unlike Ribes that is a perennial, Collinsia is an annual and forms small blankets of flowers over the rocky areas. It’s a nice touch of color on grey winter days.

All northwesterners know winter is the rainy season. With all the rain, winter is also the greenest time of year with various mosses and licorice ferns adding numerous bright shades of green to the rocky outcrops. Add to the mosses the very healthy off white colored reindeer lichen and the multiple hues of the broadleaf sedum (Sedum spathulifolium) and the rocks atop Hummingbird Hill can be a photographer’s paradise.

Within a month or so the lilies that have already broken ground will start to bloom, tourists will start arriving, and the flowering season will begin exploding in earnest for another year. 

(Note the flowering currant and blue-eyed Mary photos are from previous years later in the season.)