20160526 New family of Canada Geese

On the way back from Parry Sound I detoured via Woods Road to check on a nesting pair of Canada Geese that I’ve been watching.  A new family!

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See the two goslings and spent egg?  CG eggs take about 3-4 weeks to incubate, depending mainly upon temperature, I think.  During this time the parents molt their wing feathers and are “grounded” for a week or so.  Although I remained in the car, in the rain, a couple hundred feet away, Ma and Pa watched me intently the whole time.  That swamp is quite thick so I suspect that I’ll not see those goslings again.

On Shebeshekong Road  the cottongrass was in full bloom …. in the very welcome rain.  Since the plant is a sedge the alternate names cottonsedge or bog cotton are better.  “Sedges have edges. Grass has joints.”

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The pin cherries are in full bloom now, about a week ahead of choke cherries and black cherries.

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I can’t resist including this Pale Corydalis:

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This morning (6:00 AM) the temperature is near the dewpoint ( 16ºC) so we have a nice frontal fog —- which will probably dissipate as the air warms up with midday heating.  I think that it will linger, though, as a stationery front    is stalled over the eastern part of Georgian Bay.

So I think that we’ll get out to enjoy the “soft” air/light.