Moccasin Flower

Nearby the Wild Calla was one of several Moccasin Flowers or Lady's Slipper. I suspect one of the most recognized Ontario orchids. Pink lady's slipper takes 10 years from germination to reach the flowering stage and should not be picked.

Wild Calla

Out to Single Lake this PM to see if there was something new sprouting. Down by the water's edge a Wild Calla or Water Arum (Calla palustris).

Hot, hot, hot and then thunderstorms

Extremely hot the last few days, have been living in the basement where it is nice and cool. Record breaking tempertures for a couple of days, about 3:oo pm today the thunderstorms and rain moved in. The first big strike of lightning did the high speed in and just came back on a few minutes ago. Thunder and rain ended about a couple of hours ago. Lots of rain but it is so dry it will sink into the ground very quickly. More of the same tomorrow. This amount of lightning will probably ignite some bush fires about 3 days from now.

A couple of pics today of the pine pollen on the water, anyone with serious allergies beware.

New beak to feed

Here is my first hummingbird that arrived a couple of days ago and was shy to have his pic taken. After a couple of days he has become a real ham.

More from yesterday

A couple more pics from yesterday, all leaves and no flowers. Mountain Ash, and Goldthread, no flowers yet. I pulled a little piece of the (golden) root up, it's to the right of the plant that's how it got it's name.

Finally a post

Back last Sunday after a great trip down south to North Bay, Huntsville, Lindsay, and Newmarket. Always good to get home. Lots of odds and end to catch up with, grass, grass and more grass and some repair jobs that were waiting for parts. Very dry here, the lake has gone down quite a bit, no sign of a lot of rain in sight. It will be very hot the next few days, forest fire danger is extreme.

Out for pics today to Single Lake, the trail in is crunchy dry, the mosses under the trees are even dryed up. There should be lots of blooms but everything is coming along very slow. Pics of Blueberries starting to bloom, Canada Mayflower and a small violet.

More of Lady Evelyn River

In North Bay tonight catching up on some pics left over from the other day. Here are some of the fiddleheads coming up, these were on rocks that would have been underwater if the water had been a bit higher. With the dry spring I noticed on my way thru Temagami that the water levels are the lowest I have seen, I would think they are at least 18" or more than what it should be. Will be moving towards Huntsville tomorrow afternoon to see Kate, will have camera ready.

Fishing on the North Lady Evelyn River

Fishing with Gord(cousin) and his friend Norm on the North Lady Evelyn River for Speckeled Trout yesterday. It was cool to start with but soon was perfect, the black flies were just tasting, not biting. YET. The day before Gord and Norm had caught 10 trout, they sure smelled good when I went over to see if they had caught any.

This day wasn't as productive with only a couple landed and released. The North Lady Evelyn River system made up for it with lots of photo opportunities. This area north of the park boundary is very scenic and will be revisited during the summer with the canoe.

Fishing this AM

Again no luck for whitefish, can't figure out what's happening. Ice off to early, weather too nice, lousy fisherman, who knows. Good time to take some pictures, here is a couple from this AM. Horsetail starting to sprout and some kind of gear wheel.

Odds and ends and remote shooting

Have added something new to the collection of toys, remote shooting. This device attaches to the camera and can be triggered with a remote transmitter from several 100 meters. I haven't tested it out to see how far it will function but you can count on me giving you a report. A simple test was done as I climbed up this hill and took several snaps on the way up to the top, if you put them all together you have a stop motion effect. This can be done by using the QuickTime player to produce a clip showing progress up the hill. Unfortunately right now the file is too big and will have to resize all the pics to make it uploadable.

Another view of beaverland and some of last year's wintergreen berries.

Spring flowers

Finally some wild blooms besides dandelions. Just peeking out from under their leaves the flowers of Trailing Arbutus mostly found under shade. The scent from these small flowers is great. You will find them among the Wintergreen and mosses.

This time last year

Last year at this time we still had ice, but it soon disappeared. We have had 3+ weeks of ice free lake this year, excellent spring weather. Nothing to complain about at all. The driftwood in ice, memories of last year.

Hedlund marsh

Out the highway this afternoon and past Hedlund Marsh, the beavers must have it damned up south of the road as I have never seen that much water there. I suspect that's what it must have looked like when there was a lake there. Some rock was blasted out years ago to drain the lake into Gowganda Lake to help the flow of water.

It had to come to an end-snow today

Cooler today with about and inch of snow, stuck around all day. Tomorrow promises to be better.Down to the mail today and saw some new birds floating around the rocks. Went down and took some pics of widgeon, scaup, bufflehead, and gulls for about 20 minutes, walked back to put the camera in the truck and out of the corner of my eye a Bald Eagle swooped down upon them and scared them all away, missed a good picture there.

Then a trip out to Single Lake, to see if I could see the otter's and get a pic, no such luck, maybe nest time. Heard my first loon of the season here too.

Another couple of great days

The weather has speeded up all the growth, the grass is greening, dandelions are out, growth is going on everywhere. This is May weather but its only 3 weeks into April. Swallows are back so there must be enough bugs flying around to feed them. Haven't seen any blackflies yet but I'm sure they aren't too far away. Mosquitoes have been out for 2 weeks, not in any great numbers and the Lilacs are now showing leaves.

First ATV ride of the season

Out this afternoon for an ATV ride down to Sunshine Lake at the Beauty Lake Rd. Took the new snowmobile trail down to the Beauty Lake Rd but stayed on the ATV trail at the north end and connected to the old trail further down. The new snowmobile trail follows all the swampy areas while the old trail is rough its a lot drier. The water at the Calcite Ck. crossing wasn't very deep, much like all the water levels this year.
Great trip, nice weather saw a few grouse some wolf tracks, moose sign, stayed warm and dry what more could you ask for. All together return trip from the house and back 70km.

Bit more snow

Flurries and wet snow on and off all day. The forecast shows much better weather on the way. What the heck it's only April usually the ice is still in.

Out to town (ptui) on Thursday not my favourite past time and came back by way of Englehart down through to Elk Lk. Just outside of Elk Lake a field full of Sandhill Cranes, they have used this field every year now for some time. This field must have lots of feed, worms, bugs, and seeds to have them there every year on their migration.

Today another visitor to the feeder a Morning Dove.

River volumes increasing

Montreal River flow has increased quite a bit, probably due to the frost coming out and the last of the snow melt. These are pics from today near the bridge in town. Some juniper moss from the Edith Lake Rd.

Calm on Gowganda Lake

Down fishing early this AM, no luck but a great warm morning to be out. No bites today again, I think the water is too cold and there aren't any hatches of bugs going on to bring the whitefish around yet. I use worms just lying on the bottom supposedly like something just hatched.

Anyway good time for taking some pics of the calm waters. Even thought I saw an inukshuk.

Snow just about gone again, please

Snow has taken a beating over the weekend and by tomorrow's forecast should be gone. A warming trend is on it's way for most of the next week. Water levels are starting to rise in the lake but I think it's going to be awhile yet.

Out to Diabase Lake this afternoon, as I was fishing out there under the cliff on the ice I thought that it would be a good idea to check out the view from the top of the cliff later on. Today was the day and I wasn't disappointed it's a great view but slippery along the edge with the wet snow.