A Festival Of Ephemerals
May 13th, 2016
Three days later, now at the east end of South March Conservation Forest, and things were coming back to life. Black-Throated Green Warblers were chanting "zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee" from the treetops, Least Flycatchers were chebeking, and this Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was singing his melodious song, famously described by Roger Tory Peterson as "like a robin that has taken voice lessons":
Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are one of the characteristic breeders of South March. In fact, I don't know of anywhere else in the Ottawa area that has as many of them in summer, not even in Gatineau Park.
But the stars of the day were the spring ephemerals--those short-lived wildflowers that blossom in the woods in early spring, before the trees steal their sunlight. There is something primeval about ephemerals. They are true natives of eastern North America (unlike many of the familiar flowers that spring up on our roadsides and in our lawns), adapted to this land as it once was: covered by forest. I get excited to see them in spring, almost as much as I thrill to the return of warblers, tanagers and grosbeaks.
South March Forest was a festival of spring ephemerals that day. Trout lilies, spring beauties, bloodroot, hepatica, red trilliums, white trilliums just starting to unfurl. And this one, a wildflower I'd never seen before:
1680x1050 wallpaper
My Peterson's flower guide told me it was Dutchman's Breeches. There was just one sunny slope where I found them, growing in abundance amidst hepatica, spring beauty, and a lone red trillium. Nectaring insects were all over that slope, and the dutchman's breeches was especially popular with bumblebees, including handsome Tricolored Bumblebees. I later learned from Wikipedia that this flower is specially adapted for feeding by bumblebees, and dependent on them for pollinaton.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Red Trillium
Hepatica
Trout Lily
May 13th, 2016
Three days later, now at the east end of South March Conservation Forest, and things were coming back to life. Black-Throated Green Warblers were chanting "zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee" from the treetops, Least Flycatchers were chebeking, and this Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was singing his melodious song, famously described by Roger Tory Peterson as "like a robin that has taken voice lessons":
Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are one of the characteristic breeders of South March. In fact, I don't know of anywhere else in the Ottawa area that has as many of them in summer, not even in Gatineau Park.
But the stars of the day were the spring ephemerals--those short-lived wildflowers that blossom in the woods in early spring, before the trees steal their sunlight. There is something primeval about ephemerals. They are true natives of eastern North America (unlike many of the familiar flowers that spring up on our roadsides and in our lawns), adapted to this land as it once was: covered by forest. I get excited to see them in spring, almost as much as I thrill to the return of warblers, tanagers and grosbeaks.
South March Forest was a festival of spring ephemerals that day. Trout lilies, spring beauties, bloodroot, hepatica, red trilliums, white trilliums just starting to unfurl. And this one, a wildflower I'd never seen before:
1680x1050 wallpaper
My Peterson's flower guide told me it was Dutchman's Breeches. There was just one sunny slope where I found them, growing in abundance amidst hepatica, spring beauty, and a lone red trillium. Nectaring insects were all over that slope, and the dutchman's breeches was especially popular with bumblebees, including handsome Tricolored Bumblebees. I later learned from Wikipedia that this flower is specially adapted for feeding by bumblebees, and dependent on them for pollinaton.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Red Trillium
Hepatica
Trout Lily
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Mike
May 13th, 2016 at 8:07 am
Great lighting... whenever I've seen red trillium, they were in the shade, so the red didn't look as vivid.
mustangsallie
May 13th, 2016 at 10:26 am
Birds, flowers, bumblebees............Spring has sprung. Great shots!