16-31 May

 Robert Burns has always been one of my favourite poets, and one of his poems that is among my favourites included the all-too-often quoted line about "the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley."  This part month decidedly went agley--I did manage visits to the Forest and Estuary, but writing this blog was, alas, not an option.  Even so, it was beautiful and I managed some photos that give the sense of approaching summer.  


The path to the Marsh was lined with new flowers.

Foamflowers are now abundant, and will continue to bloom into the autumn.


The delicate white of thimbleberries herald the emergence of their seedy but tasty fruit.


Baldhip roses are in bloom, less fragrant than the other local Nootka rose, but lovely.  It seems as though there are more of them than in earlier years.


Summer fungi are emerging.  Many logs host oyster mushrooms.


Red alder, common in cleared and sunny areas, have a relatively short lifespan of about sixty years.  As they age, they develop a distinctive growth pattern of shoots emerging from low on their trunks, apparently in an attempt to bring more sunlight in for nourishment.


---One of our more distinguished botanists calls trees that show this growth pattern "elder alders."  There is something extra wonderful in deep  expertise that includes what seems like affectionate humour. --

We've been following the growth of a huckleberry bush on this stump for a couple of years.  


It has faced grave challenges, when a blow-down brought down several big trees around it, but, as the saying goes, "Nevertheless, she persisted."  Nature can do this.  Isn't it wonderful?

The warbler season begins early in May.  We had a visit from a very handsome Macgivray's warbler on one of our visits.



My walking colleague spotted his song, and tracked him into the forest.  Apparently Macgillivray, an ornitholgist in North-east Scotland,  was a valued colleague of Audubon who gave this warbler his name. 



Within the Marsh, the buckbean flowers have subsided, but the marsh cinquefoil are showing well. 


They smell a bit of decay and attract insects,  including bees.

At the fringes of the Marsh, a small stand of Saskatoon (or in the US, serviceberries) are showing a few fruit.  They are delicious in the interior of the Province, but seem to fall prey to bird species early in their ripening in this region.


The snowfall on Arrowsmith is disturbingly low.

I

It looks alarmingly as though we face another year of drought on the Island.





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