365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
The Sundews Of Lake St. Clair
Day 254: Much to my frustration, the connection of weather, work schedule and household obligations hadn't happened in a manner which would allow me to get out in the kayak to visit my "kids" at Lake St. Clair. Yesterday, all the parts came together and I declared it "Me Day." I got to the lake about 8 and set out across its still surface, travelling around the Horn and down the Inside Passage to the site. A hundred yards out, it was obvious that they were doing well as evidenced by the amount of red I could see, but up close, the scene was even more surprising. I have never seen them as thick and lush! Many of their disks were speckled with small, easily digestible insects, but one colony had joined forces to snare a dragonfly for their mutual larder. I had been afraid that I'd missed the blooming season, but that fear was dispelled by the presence of inflorescences still in varying stages of development. Only one was close to opening. Ironically, I found it difficult to get good pictures, unable to isolate selected individuals from the mass.
After patrolling the two logs which constitute "Jack's Lot," I set a new course for Sundew Island, the raft on which I had originally discovered Lake St. Clair's Drosera population. Several years ago, it came free of its moorings and had drifted to a less-than-optimal location in a shady cove. Its Sundews had not been happy with the change, and I kept hoping that a storm would carry them to a better port. They say that you should be careful with wishes: Sundew Island has gone missing again. I could find no trace of it despite a survey of three of the lake's four arms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment