Above Photo:  Threatening weather over a barn on Hartley Bay Road.

After Sunday brunch with two fellow teletubbies and Ann, Bob and Grace at the French River Inn we went for a little excursion along Hwy 407 to the Murdock River.   First, the pond between 407A and the Murdock:

Little drop “bouncing” up after a raindrop hit the pond.

Little drop is barely visible in this one…

Always, always some critters in for a visit …

 

Aha!  The exception to prove the rule …  (or?)

Swamp Candles are starting to bloom, from the bottom up, like most racemes.  It is worth while to click on the photo to see the interesting structure/colour of each floret:

It took me a while to realize that Birdsfoot Trefoil will also grow with very wet feet.

A Frosted Whiteface is munching on some food while resting on a lily pad…

and while resting on a stick.  I could see its mouth parts working as it masticated:

A very nice pair of Day Lilies each with 6 anthers below a long stigma…

This diagram illustrates the structure.

On the way home we detoured to the pond on Hwy 522 and were fortunate to see:

Water shield in its very short and fascinating bloom period….

“Brasenia exhibits wind pollination. The flowers have a two-day blooming period. On the first day, the functionally female, or pistillate flower, extends above the surface of the water and exposes the receptive stigmas. The flower then recedes below the water surface and on the following day emerges as a functionally male, or staminate flower. It is elevated higher than on the previous day and the anther-bearing filaments are extended beyond the female carpels. The anthers dehisce, releasing the pollen, and the flower is then withdrawn below the water where the fruit develops.”

The next time you are in Hangzhou, try some Water Shield Soup.

Click to enlarge the image to see the delicate blossoms:

And, finally, we saw this American Crow along the Old Still River Road:

Mary Holland has some nice photography accompanying a good story about Loon chicks.

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