Wetlands Tranquility

 

Red-winged blackbirds call

From their surrounding perches

Serenading me.

Fern Appreciation

I was trying to capture the otherworldliness of our unfurled ferns, when I noticed this beautiful crane fly enjoying them too! I suspect it's the common Tipula species, found throughout the world.  This fern looks as if it's covered in vernix.

The fern fronds look so ... convoluted, and hairy, very unlike what they turn out to be.

The tight coils are fascinating!

Goldthread

What an exquisitely delicate flower this is! Coptis trifolia (goldthread: because it has bold, yellow, threadlike roots) is tiny, and one mostly has to kneel down to appreciate them - the flowers are only ⅜" to ½" across, and the plant stands between 3 and 6" tall.

This stunning beauty looked even more spectacular with raindrops on its papery white sections.

Those golden yellow 'baubles' are actually the petals of this flower! The showy white bits that look petal-like are actually sepals, the part that contains the petals. The green and white stalks are the reproductive parts of the plant.

I hope you get to see and enjoy some soon - they don't bloom for long.

Spring's Release

Ferns are bursting forth

From their capsules and fronds,

Wrinkled and hairy

Muskrat Sign

I've been noticing dark and wet mud on the edge of our land at the lake interface that stands out from the dry brown leaves that are the norm. I knew I hadn't been lifting mud and leaves out of the lake, and leaving them along the edge ... so I knew we had an interloper in our midst ...

I've also been noticing a LOT of bare twigs and branches, stripped of bark, accumulating at the water's edge, so have deduced that both these signs must indicate muskrat activity in our cove. We spotted muskrats visiting way back at the beginning of March, but haven't seen much in the way of definitive activity since then. We've seen suspicious looking ripples, but haven't positively tied them to muskrat presence. 

I believe the muskrats must be excavating under the banks of our cove and are leaving the removed material along the banks. At the same time, they're leaving the remains of their meals to wash up on shore.

I'm so happy to welcome them back, and will continue keeping my eyes peeled for a positive ID.

Trillium Triad

It's spring, so here's an obligatory homage to this magnificent spring native in the lily family. Trilliums are well-named (literally meaning “three-parted lily), having a set of 3 leaves, 3 sepals and 3 petals on the flower.

The red trillium (Trillium erectum) is a little bashful about showing off its reproductive parts (they tend to face down towards the forest floor, hopefully not in shame!), so a little help was needed to show them off.

Its beautiful triad of green leaves also caught my eye in the dappled shade.

Emerald Emergence

I absolutely love the way new beech leaves emerge as emerald jewels in the moody wet skies of spring ... the leaves droop downwards from their bronze sheaths, like half-opened parasols. Every year I rave about them!

Shiny bronze leaf capsules sit atop the small new leaves, giving the appearance of tiny yellowish flowers amongst the green.

They are magnificent!

Scintillating Beetle

This is one of the beautifully iridescent wood boring beetles, called the golden buprestid beetle, or jewel beetle. It wouldn't stop moving and shimmering in the sun - I imagine it's the hummingbird of the beetle world!

I found this beauty amongst the grass blades at the base of our broken, weeping birch. These beetles use recently dead or dying trees to lay their eggs, so I'm wondering whether its presence is a sign that our birch's days are numbered.

It's in the same grouping as the invasive Emerald Ash Borer, so I needed to check it out. 

Eyes on Pincushions

This beautiful moss usually grows year round on tree branches in compact little cushions. I believe this is Ulota crispa, known commonly as the Crisped Pincushion, and native to eastern North America.

It's called an acrocarpus moss, where the reproductive capsules occur at the tip of upright stems that are raised above the moss bed. They present as brilliant green foci on tree bark that draws your eye to them in the woods.

Mosses are amazingly effective at sequestering carbon, and the dead lower stems serve as a moisture reservoir that can store a lot of water when available.

Purple Pupa

Oh spring is really here! Things are changing viridescently as temperatures warm and rain sprinkles down. Whilst lifting a layer of moss for transplanting a few days ago, I encountered this enormously fat pupa beneath.

It is apparently one of the Sphinx/Hawk moths, one of which we all know as the Hummingbird moth. It has been overwintering in the soil, waiting for spring, like all of us. I was very, very careful to rebury this critter. But ouch, I could have cut into it by not knowing or expecting it to be there. What hazards we impose on other creatures ...

Natural Designs

I think these bark markings are absolutely beautiful - I'd love this as a pattern on a wall in my home, or as a spectacular flooring in a bathroom.

How's this for a magnificent design? (Enormous tree downed in this year's devastating spring storm)

I love the way the milk I poured onto my oatmeal created patterns like a lichen on a tree! Fascinating!

Anemochory

Rafts of spent maples

Beautiful anemochores

Have become flotsam!

Okay, so what is anemochory? It's wind dispersal (anemo) of seeds. There's also hydrochory (by water), myrmecochory (by ants), ornithochory and more! See Seed dispersal syndrome

Violets are Here

My first violets, growing up between the slats of our stairs made of pressure treated wood.

I had long been aware that some plants easily colonize disturbed habitats like churned up roadsides, and gaps in sidewalks, but I only recently learned that there is a name for this kind of plant - they're called ruderal species.

The word ruderal originates from the Latin for rubble. My violets were growing on a substrate of crushed stone covered by wooden boards. Ruderal species can colonize any disturbed area, e.g. such as after an avalanche clears vegetation, or also in less than optimal soil conditions created by human disturbance, such as road-building. These hardy plants colonize an area and may be succeeded by other plant species later if conditions become favorable, but they are the pioneers, perfectly able to survive in impoverished situations. (It can also be the optimal situation for a non-native species to become established.)

Google created and suggested this stylized version: nice, not natural looking to me.

Bristly Ball

Look at this ball of bristles! It's reminiscent of a sea urchin, don't you think? It's the larval stage of the very pretty Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia), a North American native.

I love how each set of bristles radiates outwards from a central point. They're pretty robust and firm.

Cow Lily

I found this Spatterdock, or Cow Lily (Nuphar lutea), rhizome floating in the lake after our spring storm. It shows perfectly how the entire plant structure is composed. While out kayaking, we often find pieces of Spatterdock rhizomes that have been part of a muskrat meal, with no leaves or flower stalks connected to it. And then when we see the leaves and flowers, they're up at the surface, and the rhizomes are buried in sediment. This one has it all!

I kept the plant contained in lake water for a few days, and was pleased to see how it had developed a week later, with its leaves unfurling beautifully.

Nature's Geometry

A visual pondering on tree shadows, tree reflections, water's edge, flotsam line and flower line ...