May 11, 2025: Happy Mother's Day!

Flowers for mom.

It's very kind of Mother Nature to provide a bright sunny day to help celebrate Mother's Day after a rather dreary week.  That's a Service Berry tree blooming on Sheep Island.  

Serviceberry (aka Shadbush) on Sheep Island.

I'd hoped we would have enough sun to get some of these trees blooming for Mother's Day.  The Black Cherry didn't make it, but the Hobblebush Viburnum did.

Hobblebush Viburnmum

This shrub has two distinct types of flowers.  The outer blossoms are sterile, and likely developed just to attract pollinators to the small fertile flowers in the center which produce the seeds.  It seems every plant evolved with some special trait that gives it enough of an edge to survive in a competitive world. 

There was enough sun to get a few more wildflowers to brighten up the world for mom, including these violets.

Common Blue Violets in a sunny moment.

Sunny moments were the exception for the week as it rained more days than not, giving us almost five inches of rain in the past week.  The lake rose to more to 12 inches above normal, even with the dam lowered.  We'll keep the dam open to get the lake down as quickly as possible so the loons will be able to access their nesting sites which are currently submerged.  This was the scene more often than not around the lakes this week:

A calm, misty evening.

I did fit in a couple of paddles between the showers, taking advantage of high water to explore areas of the lake that are typically inaccessible.  

Exploring a marsh near the Wicwas dam.

There were blackbirds singing loudly from tall stems in the marshes.

A Red-winged Blackbird sings its distinctive song.

I should also mention the new arrivals this week:  Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Blackburnian Warbler.  That's a lot of warblers!

I found leatherleaf that had bloomed in spite of the rain and high water.

Leatherleaf

These plants are wetland-specific species, not bothered by the high water levels.

I'll close with one more almost-flower:

A Pink Lady's Slipper preparing to bloom.

One more sunny day ought to do it - something to look forward to next week!

Happy Mother's Day!

A mid-day update:  I was way off on the lake level.  It's more like two feet above full level, lapping over the top of the dam!