Bog Flowers

Four Pink Flowers 

Swamp Pink Arethusa bulbosa

A visit to a sphagnum bog this week could give you a surprise.  There are often beautiful flowers in bloom now in that habitat.  Shown above is Swamp Pink (Dragon's-Mouth), a small but beautiful orchid.  It stands 12 to 25 cm tall (5-10 inches) and does not produce its single leaf until after flowering is finished.  It is a beautiful deep magenta color.  The three erect 'fingers' standing upward are really sepals.  The pink hood covers the blotched, crested lip.  A close look at this small gem reveals its beauty.  

Pink Lady's-Slipper Cypripedium acaule

Pink Lady's-Slipper Cypripedium acaule

The Pink Lady's-Slipper (Moccasin-Flower) is a fairly common orchid in bloom now in acid woodlands and bogs.  Pink is the most common color but in the Fredericton area white ones are common.  It grows 12 to 35 cm high (5-15 inches).  It has 2 stemless basal leaves giving rise to another one of its names, Stemless Lady's-Slipper.  As you can see, the 3 sepals on this plant are green, unlike the Swamp Pink where they look like petals.  The lip of this flower is 2 to 5 cm long (1-2 in), bigger than the Swamp Pink flower.

Bog Laurel Kalmia polifolia

Bog Laurel (Pale Laurel) grows in sphagnum bogs.  Its pink colour is very pale and its flower is shallow dish-shaped.  Its leaves are dark green and elliptical.  The stem is woody and it grows 15 to 60 cm (6 to 24 inches) high.  The anthers are a burgundy colour and when an insect lands on the flower, the stamens fold around it, holding it in place.  This forces the insect to struggle to free itself and in the process it picks up pollen from the anthers.  The stamens then straighten out, getting ready for the next insect.

 Rhodora is a common bushy flower this time of year growing in bogs, peaty lowlands, and barrens.

Rhodora Rhododendron canadense

Its flower is large and showy with a 3-lobed upper lip, 2 narrow petals below and fully exposed stamens and pistils.  This flower is very common in New Brunswick and can be seen along roadsides.   It grows 30 to 90 cm high (1 to 3 ft).  The leaves are light green and oval-shaped.  

Nature is full of beauty and wonder.  Taking time to explore is very worthwhile this time of year.  

Rails

More Often Heard Than Seen

Virginia Rail

Rails are secretive birds of marshes.  The are chicken-like with short, rounded wings and long legs and toes.  They hide in the vegetation by running through the cattails or swimming rather than flying. They give away their presence often by vocalizing.  

I visited a local marsh recently with friends and we heard the "kid-dik kid-dik" of a Virginia Rail.  Soon others were answering.  It is frustrating that you know that interesting bird is in the reeds but you cannot see it.  Fortunately it showed itself for a short time, enough for me to get a picture.  

The Virginia stands about 23 cm (9 in) high and has a rusty breast, barred black-and-white flanks, a streaked back, white undertail coverts, reddish legs and a gray face.  Its beak is long and reddish.  It is one of our most common rails.

Sora

The Sora is also a common rail.  It is smaller than the Virginia Rail, about 19-25 cm (7-10 in) high.  It is found in our marshes and makes one of our most common bird calls around the marsh, a loud descending whinny-like sound.  

The Sora is easy to identify because of its short yellow beak.  It has a plump body mostly brown on the upper parts and wings with heavily barred flanks.  The sides of the head and neck are gray and the face is black.  

Clapper Rail

The Clapper Rail, although listed as 'casual' in our "Birds of New Brunswick: An annotated List", would be considered rare here.  Its preferred habitat is coastal salt marshes.  It is a bigger rail than the Virginia, standing about 35-40 cm tall (14-16 in).  Its loud, harsh chattering voice gives its presence away but it is very secretive and hard to see.  Its voice sounds like someone clapping, hence its name.  It can be distinguished from the Virginia Rail by its larger size, its voice and its cheeks are brownish gray and its beak is a little less red.   Location helps in identification, the Virginia preferring inland marshes and the Clapper, coastal marshes.  

The next time you take a walk near a marsh or paddle your kayak through one, take note of the sounds.  Perhaps you can identify a New Brunswick rail.

Platform Feeders

Feeding Birds Off the Ground

Baltimore Orioles Feeding on Raised Feeder

 There are many benefits to feeding birds on raised platforms.  Shown above are a male and a female Baltimore Oriole with a female Red-winged Blackbird in the background.  The orioles are attracted to the oranges and the Red-wing is waiting to  feed on the black-oil sunflower seeds on the tray.  

Raised platform feeders keep the birds off the ground where they are vulnerable to  predators.  Cats can easily prey on them and they are more likely to be taken by hawks while on the ground.  Platform feeders keep the seed confined and reduce wastage if they are built with a lip around them.  One must, however, clean the trays periodically to prevent exposure to spoiled feed.

Crow Feeder with a Visitor

Shown above is our crow feeder.  It is about 1.5 metres off the ground with a heavy base so it will not tip over.  It has a 5 cm. lip around the edge so seed and other feed stuffs do not blow off in the wind.  This feeder was designed to feed table scraps to the crows.  I put out left-over meat scraps, stale bread, cakes, etc. as well as regular mixed bird seed.  It is very successful for feeding crows.  They wait daily for their breakfast!  Other visitors to this feeder include ravens, ring-billed gulls, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, cowbirds, mourning doves, blue jays and, of course, we get the occasional surprise, like this red fox which made a few visits.  

It took the crows quite awhile to learn to use the feeder, but once they realized they could trust us and this new 'apparatus', it has been a great success.  The reason I designed it in the beginning was because I wanted to give left-overs to the crows without putting them on the ground for dogs to get into.  Dogs have never raided this feeder.  They cannot get up to it and it was a surprise that the fox could jump up on it.

Trilliums

Our Four Species of Trilliums

Painted Trillium Trillium undulatum

New Brunswick has four species of Trilliums.  They are in full bloom now and worth finding in order to enjoy their beauty.  Trilliums are in the Lily Family and are spring flowers growing in woodlands, especially hardwoods.  Their leaves are in a single whorl of 3 and the single flowers are large.  Everything comes in 3s with trilliums; 3 petals, 3 sepals, 3 leaves.

Nodding Trillium Trillium cernuum

Nodding Trillium Trillium cernuum

The Nodding Trillium grows 6-20" high and hides its flower by suspending it under the leaves.  It 'nods' beneath the leaves.  The flower is white with pink anthers.  The petals are curved backward at the tips.  It likes rich deciduous woods and floodplains.  It is also called Birthroot because native people once used the root to assist in childbirth.

Purple Trillium Trillium erectum

The Purple Trillium is probably our most common trillium.  It is found in hardwood forests and grows 6-20" high.  Its beautiful purple colour is good to look at but don't try to smell this one; it has a foul odour.  That explains why it is sometimes called Stinking Benjamin.  

White Trillium Trillium grandiflorum

White Trillium Trillium grandiflorum

The White Trillium is our largest and rarest trillium.  It is the provincial flower of Ontario and occurs here in only one or two known places.  It grows 12-20" high.  Its flower is 2-4" wide and is very showy.  The white flower turns pink with age.  It is easy to distinguish from the Nodding Trillium which also has a white flower because the White Trillium's flower is upright and much larger. It also has yellow stamens, differing from the pink anthers of the Nodding Trillium.  The White Trillium is sometimes called the Large-flowered Trillium.

Bell Forest Field Trip

Acadian Forest Rich in Rare Plants

Purple Trillium Trillium erectum

Bell Forest Preserve is a 50-hectare conservation site owned by the Meduxnekeag River Authority.  It was purchased through public and private funding and preserves our best known surviving example of Acadian Forest habitat.  It contains many rare plants, some not found anywhere else in the province and some found nowhere else east of Quebec, including Maine.  It was my privilege to visit this site recently.  This posting showcases some of the plants we found.

Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis

Dutchman's-breeches Dicentra cucullaria

Bloodroot and Dutchman's-breeches are common in rich soils under hardwoods.  There were also many violets.  Pictured below is the Yellow Violet.  Its leaves and flowers grow from the same stem.

Smooth Yellow Violet Viola pubescens

American Dog Violet Viola conspera

Marsh Blue Violet Viola cucullata

The Marsh Blue Violet is our provincial flower and is also called the Purple Violet.  In the photo above it is spotted with water droplets. 

Wild Ginger Asarum canadense

Wild Ginger Asarum canadense

Wild Ginger is also found in Bell Forest, though only sparsely.  It has a heart-shaped leaf and its brownish-purple flower is on the ground.  It is pollenated by ants.  The root of this plant smells and tastes like ginger.  

Kidney-leaf Buttercup Ranunculus abortivus

Kidney-leaf Buttercup Ranunculus abortivus

This buttercup is fairly common in rich hardwoods where it prefers to grow under hardwood trees.  Its flower is inconspicuous.

Toothwort

There are many uncommon species of ferns growing in Bell Forest.  Christmas Fern is not rare but one of our interesting evergreen ferns.  In the photo below you can see the over-wintered fronds with new growth 'fiddleheads'.

Christmas Fern Polystichum acrostichoides

 Silvery Glade Fern is listed as 'locally common' in some rich sites.  However, it is not a fern we see very often.  It is just newly growing in the photo below.  In the adult plant the sori (fruiting bodies) are silver coloured and herringbone shaped.  They give the plant its silvery colour.

Silvery Glade Fern Deparia acrostichoides

Rich hardwood sites are a wonderful, diverse study area.  Their rich limestone soils provide nutrients for unique flora.  They are special sites which need to be treasured and preserved.

Birds and Blooms

Field Trip Finds

Killdeer

A friend and I spent most of May 14 in the Fredericton area and in Maugerville and Sheffield looking for nature's spring abundance.  Pictured above is a welcome spring bird, the Killdeer.  It is a bird that says its own name and is a very welcome sound in spring.  It likes gravelly areas and is often seen close to roadsides.  It nests on gravelly areas and this bird was doing its broken-wing display to try to distract us from the area, probably indicating its nest was nearby.

Eastern Kingbird

This Eastern Kingbird was perched on a barren branch.  It was intent on catching an insect and paid us little attention.  Note the white band on the tip of its tail.

Greater Yellowlegs

There were about 20 yellowlegs in the roadside ponds, both Greater and Lesser.  This Greater Yellowlegs was sporting its dark breeding plumage.  It will soon move northwest to its breeding range.

Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis

In the rich hardwood areas around Fredericton we found some interesting plants.  The Bloodroot pictured above is reasonably common.  The specimen pictured above is shown in the morning before it had fully opened to the sun.  

Round-lobed Hepatica Anemone americana

Round-lobed Hepatica

Round-lobed Hepatica

The Round-lobed Hepatica (also called Round-leaved Hepatica) is very rare in the province and is found in dry hardwood stands often on slopes.  It has been found in the lower St. John River valley, in one site along the Bay of Chaleur and in one area alone the St. Croix River.  We were lucky to find both white and blue specimens in full bloom.  The leaf is 3-lobed like the anatomy of a liver, hence the name.  The leaf is a dark greenish purple colour.

Baltimore Oriole

When I got home, this beautiful male Baltiore Oriole was enjoying the oranges I had put out for it.

Spring is an exciting time!

Rare Bird in Grand Manan

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Spotted in Grand Manan

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

A Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was found in Grand Manan on April 26 in Woodward's Cove.   It was resighted twice, once on May 4 and once on May 6 in the same general area.  We were visiting the area and were lucky to see it on May 4.  

The bird is an adult and was feeding in a very wet ditch on the roadside, under the cover of heavy bushes.  Although in a difficult position for photos, it did allow us to walk within 30 metres of it without flushing.  

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is a rare bird in New Brunswick.  Birds of New Brunswick: An Annotated List lists it as a very rare summer visitor; casual in spring.  There was only one record prior to 1970 and there has been an average of one per year after that.  Of the approximate 30 records for the province, 20 have been from Grand Manan.

This species normally breeds in the southern US from Texas to Virginia.  It is sometimes found as far north as Massachusetts along the coast.  It is a permanent resident of coastal Florida, Georgia and South Carolina as well as Texas and Louisiana.  It is active during the day or night and feeds on aquatic invertebrates.  It is about 24 inches tall and could be confused only with the Black-crowned Night-Heron which is a common summer resident.  The Black-crowned has a black crown and the Yellow-crowned has a yellowish-white crown and a white cheek patch.  Juveniles are difficult to differentiate from those of the Black-crowned.  (Please refer to a field guide).  

It is hoped that this bird remains on Grand Manan for the summer and that it perhaps finds a mate, although this is unlikely.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron