Being in nature

Being in nature, written by Annie.

From about July 9^th through July 30^th, we were in very remote areas, only occasionally a stop at a small town.  We got as much exposure to nature as we would if we were camping.  It has been interesting to observe changes in local flora and fauna.  When we started in Green Bay, the American pelicans were everywhere.  But then they petered out as we continued our trek, and were replaced by mergansers, which were common throughout the North Channel (they have large broods! – 10+ usually).  As we made our way through Georgian Bay, the loons started increasing, and on the lakes of the Trent-Severn they are almost as common as cormorants (which have been everywhere).  We hear their song many a morning and night.  Now that we are several days into the Trent-Severn, we have started to see lots of ospreys – they are just as likely to fish outside of a dam as they are on a pristine lake – they aren’t picky.  On a few nights, as we were doing our nightly reading, we heard a whippoorwill singing loud and clear, however, we have not actually seen one.   Herons have been observed throughout our entire trek too.  We have also seen terns during the Trent-Severn, which we have never observed in the US portion of the great lakes.

In terms of mammals, we have seen lots of beaver lodges, and one beaver.  Also lots of muskrats.  We have heard of many bears, but haven’t seen any, which makes us thankful since some bears board boats in search of food. 

For reptiles, we saw LOTS of snakes on Beaver Island (perhaps bull snakes?).  Jack and I saw one five-striped skink which has a remarkable blue stripe along its tail.  Of course, frogs are everywhere.  We also found a snake eating something called a “mud puppy” on South Benjamin.  I have never heard of this animal before and am not sure that the name is at all accurate – it is sort of like a salamander. 

Large frog on Topaz Lake. 

The foliage of the north channel was uniform and very similar to that around Lake Superior – pines and birch, with patches of scrubby bushes and blueberries on the forest floor and moss growing everywhere else.  The moss created such a soft forest floor that you really didn’t even need shoes.  Most of the islands there were so rocky it was amazing that the trees could hang on due to such sparse soil.  The water had beautiful stands of natural irises everywhere.  As we came back to more populated areas, we are seeing lots of native Joe Pye weed and milkweed and other natives in the ditches.  I have never seen so much Joe Pye weed in the states.  Another interesting observation – it seems that Canadians use MUCH less herbicide Americans do.  Most lawns are quite imperfect, and it is rare that you get a bright green monoculture lawn.  Could this be why we see more native wildflowers in the ditches?

Stand of irises on Fox Island.  Photo is a little off-kilter since I would have fallen into the water to get a better shot. 

One amazing discovery was finding small stands of carnivorous plants living on dead trees around Topaz Lake.  Topaz was a lake we had to hike to in the Kilarney nature preserve.  It was a beautiful green aqua color, but the water was not as clear as one would expect, and I think that it because there were so many trees decomposing in the water.  On some trees near the edge, Fox and I stumbled across the little plants pictured below.  They were very small, and some had dragonflies or flies stuck to their tendrils.  I am also including a picture of the pitcher plants we found in the tombolo of the Apostle Islands last year – another carnivorous plant find in the wild.  On the same trip to Topaz lake, we stumbled across a VERY large spider, commonly referred to as a dock spider by Canadians, eating a dragonfly.  Another fun find. 

Carniverous plants on Topaz lake.

Dock spider eating a dragonfly on Topaz lake.

View of the rocky cliffs surrounding Topaz Lake in the Kilarney nature preserve.

Native pitcher plants on Stockton Island in the Apostles, 2018.

And finally, as with every excursion into nature, we have also found insects, and lots of them.  We felt charmed for the first few weeks, because we had virtually no fight with mosquitoes then.  But of course they made an appearance, and we are fighting with them still.  We also followed the mayfly hatch north for the first few weeks, and one morning woke with our boat truly covered in hundreds of mayflies.  We have also been seeing TONS of dragonflies, bigger than I have seen ever in the past.  Just yesterday, perhaps 20 dragonflies decided to draft us in the cockpit as we motored.  Possibly the most exciting insect discovery was made on a stop to an unnamed island in the North channel.  We found hundreds of exoskeletons of an unidentified but quite large type of insect. 

Giant moth, large insect, and corresponding exoskeleton found on “Island of the large insects.”