Energizing the Spring

 

Sunrise, Halibut Point

Lengthening spring days, rising temperatures, and abundant sunshine promote the resurgence of organic life.

Royal Ferns unfurling

Dormant plants grow again. Seedlings germinate. The botanic world converts sunlight into useful forms of energy that sustain all living things.

Trout lily

Plants specialize, in part, according to the availability of sunlight. Many woodland species flower in early spring before the leafing tree canopy shades their source of energy.

Bumblebee nectaring in Staghorn Sumac flowers

Those growing in open conditions tend to be later-blooming, more floriferous, and to present greater food sources to animals.

Floating duckweed 

Algae and duckweed photosynthesize rapidly in warming aqueous environments.

Mallard

Cormorant fishing in the quarry

Their bounty sustains fish and waterfowl in Halibut Point's ponds. They anchor a food chain that extends all the way up to humans.

Goldfinch foraging among Red Oak flowers 

Succulent new growth in the treetops sets off a race for nutrition between the needs of the plant and opportunistic creatures like this Goldfinch.

Capsules of the Black Cherry Leaf Gall Mite

Multitudes of insects thrive on sugars an starches from these leafy production factories.

Blueberry Stem Gall Wasp

Many insects lay eggs that cause the host plant to develop galls forming protective shelters where the nymphs have a steady food source while they develop.

March fly on blueberry blossom
Note the violated petal.

Others short-circuit the mutually beneficial nectar-for-pollination exchange by drilling a hole through the base of a petal to steal nectar directly from the floral reservoir, rather than working its way through pistils and stamens.

Black-throated Green Warbler eating fly

A great variety of birds fuel their energetic lifestyle by consuming plant-dependent insects.

Grackle with dragonfly

Occasionally they are able to catch even fast-flying insects.

Long-tailed weasel taking captured bird to feed to its young

Some birds fall prey to predatory hunters fulfilling their own survival requirements.

Trapped insect

Web-weaving spiders make elaborate traps for their portion of the harvest.

Red-tailed Hawk carrying away a rodent

Raptors concentrate their bulk and prowess at the upper end of the aerial world's energy conversion equation.

Sunset

As light dims the energy-gathering functions cease, though cell-building processes for both plants and animals continue through the hours of darkness. All through the day and night those energies derived from the sun continue to be re-distributed in the diverse species of life.