Witness

We have stayed close to home this past week, keeping our walking to the familiar boardwalk and the trails of the Rotary Friendship Park. My husband and I walked every day between the raindrops, dressed for colder spring weather while summer stands waiting around the corner.

The beauty of nature does not escape us as we walk the familiar trails which have plants sprouting, growing and blooming on the forest floor. 

Patches of plants such as wild Lily of the Valley 

and bunchberry make us stop to look.

Meanwhile, some apple trees are in bloom still 

and juniper also known as larch or tamarack, has its needles again and is looking particularly pretty. 

The animals are tending their young these days and over the last month we’ve watched a family of foxes with four kits, play in the distance. Now down to three kits, the young foxes venture further from home and play with each other while the parents hunt. This one posed nicely one day, the fuzzy fur showing its youth.

In the salt marsh one day, we watched as the mother fox hunted among the bulrushes, stealthily searching for unsuspecting birds or their eggs. This area is home to a female Black duck who is a great mother to her five ducklings. She is on guard as the ducklings feed. 

This momma definitely has her ducks in a row. 

This 10 second  idea shows the ducklings keeping up with her. Here

Lupins are beginning to bloom now and will do so for the next few weeks. The first we’ve seen this year had a slug feasting on it.

Earlier that same day, we had seen a Song Sparrow with a slug in its beak, probably food for its young. 

Meanwhile, the salt marsh is recovering slowly from the damage from sub tropical storm Fiona as bulrushes are growing again after a slow start. The local Great Blue Heron enjoys the setting as much as we enjoy its company. 

Belted Kingfishers fish in the stream and along the shoreline, occasionally landing in a place where we can watch their activity.

The circle of life is evident all around us as we walk the trails. We are privileged to be its witnesses.

Reaching for the sun

They reach for the sun along the pathways and trails, in the meadows, around rivers and ponds and along the seashore, anywhere they can get a root hold. A variety of colours, they give their best to creation, from seeds to plants, blooms, pollen and eggs. They colour our paths and brighten our days.

Wildflowers don’t need human prompting, they manage on their own just fine. Seeds, carried on the wind, by birds or other animals, sprout and reach into the soil. Before long, voilà! The leaves and showy blooms are reaching for the sun again.

Sometimes they stick with their own kind. 

What looks like one bloom per plant, such as bunchberry, 

or numerous clone-like blooms like yarrow are worth a look.

Various colours catch the eye, such as the yellow of St. John’s wort with the tiny stripes on its buds which look to be painted there.

The pink and white of bindweed is always a nice surprise as it climbs its way up and around shrubs. This may please onlookers but not the plant it climbs. 

One notices a white plant among the bushes but the details of this male Tall Meadow rue with the lemon anthers and white stamens are beautiful on closer look.

Blue Flag iris is always a nice addition to the banks of a wetland.

Even seed heads, such as this one of Yellow Goat’s beard, which resembles dandelion seeds, makes us stop for a look.

Pinks and white of Dame’s rockets fill the ditches and pathways. The natural beauty of the wild roses, rockets and clover along this section of trail by the sea is a seasonal treat.

And the most spectacular of all is the riot of colour when a variety of wildflowers share a space such as here

or here,

or here.

Mother Nature is an excellent gardener.