1 May

 

We returned for our weekly visit to the Wetlands and Forest on a day of mixed cloud and sun,  and breezy.  As we had anticipated, there was a substantial amount of new growth, including some vegetation that had not yet put in an appearance last week.

The abundant sword fern is now joined by new growth of bracken fern,

which looks quite different from the new, almost serpentine, growth of sword fern.

The vanilla leaf is now prolific.  

It will continue to grow, and spread, and in a few weeks, will have delicate white blooms.  

False lily of the valley is appearing among the growth on the forest floor.

Not yet prolific, the pathfinder is beginning to show itself in patches,

so-called because the underside of the leaves is light coloured and the top a vivid green.  If a person walks through a patch of it, the light side of the leaves appear, tracking the path through the vegetation.

The skunk cabbage is flourishing. 

 Inedible, its leaves were used to wrap and store food by the First Nations.  The people of the Kootenay nation shaped a drinking cup from the leaves.  By all accounts, the strong scent of the leaves did not transfer itself to food that was wrapped in it.  

The Oregon grape is beginning to show its blossoms.

The red-breasted sapsucker continues to tend young on its snag.

She seems a very reliable presence when we visit the forest, although when we told a visiting photographer about her, unfortunately, she must have moved on briefly.  He said he'd sit and wait...

The area had more visitors than we had seen before, people walking dogs, taking photos, birding.  A small boy enthusiastically told us all about seeing a family of raccoons, with babies, in the woods last spring- a possible future naturalist?

The marsh is "greening up" and in the distance, the snow is starting to leave Mount Arrowsmith.

Perhaps because of the increase in visitors, and a dog who'd taken a swim in the marsh, there was no frog serenade this morning.  

Another possible damper on the frog enthusiasm was sunning himself on the dock.

At a guess, he was still a bit cold--he didn't seem to react to the number of us walking past him on the dock.  If you consider that the planks are about ten inches across, this is a good sized garter snake, and quite hefty.  The marsh has to be a great home for such a creature, with an abundance of tasty prey.  

As predicted last week, the bog bean had grown and bloomed profusely.

There was a solitary swan at the south end of the wetlands.  It was too distant for an exact identification.

This photo, and reports of incidence of avian visitors to this area, suggest that it is indeed a trumpeter swan.  

The hardhack is just starting to show leaf buds.

A twinberry honeysuckle is coming into bloom at the edge of the marsh.

There is always so much to see here.  Tracking seasonal change in such a rich environment is exciting.  What will next week bring?  Will the snake still be around the dock?  What will the hardhack look like in a week?  Will new plant species emerge?  New birds?  Tune in next week.