An inquisitive old fart with a camera
It’s fascinating walking our normal dog walk route and noticing the changes – and anomalies – since the fires. Here the plastic part of a broom – in a burned area – is neither charred nor melted, while the wooden handle – extending into an unburned area – is completely burned.
I guess it’s possible someone moved it since the fire two days ago, but we’ve seen no one the last few days, nor any signs of activity other than firefighting in a very few places.
Beach. Uruguay. Of course.
Beach. Uruguay. Fisherman catches fish too small. Doesn’t think, “I’ll throw them back, so they can get bigger.” No, leaves them to die and rot on the sand.
Monday’s fire persists, but only in a few stumps and with no apparent further danger of spreading.
11 June 2016: This afternoon, walking a slightly different route than normal, I spotted a pine tree starting over — lots of trees were lost to fire several years ago. You have to wonder how much of the existing root system feeds this. Or did it sprout from seed in the rotting trunk? I’ll have to look more closely.
5 May 2017: Pine trees don’t regrow from stumps, unlike eucalyptus trees. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at this. Apparently a pine cone sprouted inside the rotting stump. How it fares as the stump continues to rot will be interesting to watch!
3-½ years later, our hopes of seeing the root structure ended. The rotting host stump burned, consuming the roots of the young tree, now four meters tall.
The dogs were understandably confused yesterday when they encountered something never before seen on the dog walk.
By the end of the walk, we looked back and saw that the brush fire had reached the trees. We were not at all sure we’d have any trees remaining the next morning.
But somehow the fire died down, leaving charred trunks and smoldering stumps today.
The “Boo!” bear stump had already degraded seriously since my photo of it almost three years ago. Not much left of it now.
Some stumps were still aflame. This one has burned underground (note the crater)
Other stumps burned completely, above and below ground, leaving holes.
And strangely, many of the paths we followed were untouched.
Here’s a sapling that was burned in half, but note that the very flammable pine needles nearby were untouched. All in all, very few trees were destroyed.
An ant colony revealed to have been built around branches of a bush.
Overall, a quite surreal experience.
Little house in the garden, Atlántida, Uruguay
In previous years, we thought it was a comedreja (possum) eating our avocados. Nope – this year it’s birds. As you can see they’re doing a fine job. I must say, though, unlike some other birds, they are very thorough. Nothing goes to waste.
So I guess if the birds are happy, I am as well.
