Friday, June 3, 2011

Does this make my head look fat ?



  
  
What a magical time of year it is.  We have slid gently from the delightful, constant rainy, soggy season into the stimulating eat-you-alive black fly season.  


In an effort to combat the latter I have resorted to wearing some very fetching head gear when I travel into bug front lines.



 Not everyone can wear mosquito netting and still look this sexy tramping around in the muck looking for Spring Peepers.


Amy-Lynn and I went to a pretty spot near the Shearwater Flyer Trail which is a part of the Trans Canada Trail system.  


Amy-Lynn catches tadpoles.


It quite soggy there.  Prime bug breeding grounds.


Water pours into my boot print.
We explored the area.    I prattled on as we walked.  Amy-Lynn pointed out interesting plants.  


Wild Rhododendron
Suddenly we both came to a halt when I, displaying the advantages of posessing raging ADD, shouted "Venus Fly Trap!".  I'd spotted the small carnivorous plant on the ground at our feet.  It was a plant that I didn't think could possibly be there.

Click for a better view of the sticky droplets.
Turns out I was half right.   It wasn't a Venus Fly Trap, but it was a carnivorous plant. Thanks to Mr. Google I now know that sundew plants are common across Canada, which surprises me as I've never seen them before.   The leaves are covered in red hair-like tentacles each of which produces a clear, sweet, sticky droplet  which contains digestive enzymes.  When an insect lands on a sun dew, the tentacles contract, trapping it against the leaf.  The enzymes digest the unfortunate insect and the leaf absorbs the nutrients.  Yum. 

 

I want to go back again to see if we can find any salamander eggs or fry.  In the mean time we are happy with the results of our tadpole hunt.



9 comments:

  1. Such a fetching look for you! And you pull it off so well!
    If we weren't cousins, I'd swear I'd been cloned!!
    Does that even make sense?? I don't care!
    I too swathed myself in netting in Yellowknife too many years ago to count. One must do what one must do to preserve the important body fluid levels.
    ITC-1

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  2. Dear ITC. Thankfully the bodily fluids are intact. Love.

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  3. Sybil....your outfit TOTALLY MATCHES MY IRIS+FERNS that I am about to paint. I should really just put you in the painting standing there coordinated!! Love your post and the photos too.
    Flora

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  4. Flora, your paintings are lovely. Don't mess with perfection. ;-)

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  5. Sybil, I think net hats are the new black. So very much on trent. You look fabulous!! Why don't the fly eaten plant eat the black flies?? What am I letting myself in for here. Shall I be eaten alive in August? Can I come with you and AL next time you go for a nature walk? Pleeeese! It's hot and dry here in the UK. Garden's looking like a dried flower arrangement.....

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  6. A few typos in my comment. On trent should read on TREND, and eaten should read EATING. Helps to know I'm not quite perfect though doesn't it xxxx

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  7. Someone will undoubtedly sport a bug hat at the next royal wedding!

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  8. Gosh MargaretJ (blushing), I'm a fashionista ?

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  9. Lynne, the bugs will be fewer in August but no guarantees in the department. I'm afraid when in buggy areas I wear a repellant containing deet.
    Usually the breezes keep them away. August will be lovely here. Most of the snow will be gone by then ;-)

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