next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Aug. 14, 2006 - Pat and I departed from LUNENBURG (after two days of the Folk Harbour Festival) at about noon, after a leisurely breakfast at our B & B and then a relaxing bout of reading in the bandshell park, where the music is free during the Folk Harbour Festival. We crossed the LaHave River and drove to RISSERıS BEACH Provincial Park, where we toured the boardwalk through the salt-marsh. I was a bit surprised to see a fair amount of the parasitic vine, DODDER, clambering through stems of various kinds of plants in the salt-marsh in one spot -- before also walking the beach. I had close looks at a fairly large FRITILLARY butterfly at the edge of the parking lot on knapweed flower-heads; this may have been an Aphrodite Fritillary, but I couldnıt get a look at the underwings. We then drove north to Chester, where I watched busy BUMBLEBEES foraging at the flowers of a stand of tall PINK TOUCH-ME-NOTS (the alien species). The bees would often reject particular flowers, as if they could tell that perhaps another bee had visited there and emptied the nectary?? When a bee found a flower it liked, it crawled right inside the pouch for a while, then backed out, and then often lingered at that flower and was busy at the flowerıs outside entrance for a while (doing what?), before going to find another unvisited flower. Then we had a late lunch of mussel stew at the idyllic Innlet Cafe at MAHONE BAY. Usually we manage to see quite a bit of bird activity from the cafe, especially foraging ospreys, but not today -- just a single common loon and a couple of cormorants. Finally we drove to AVONPORT BEACH for supper with a bunch of friends. High tide was at 5:43 p.m. At about 7 p.m. we all noticed long flocks of ³PEEPS², probably mostly SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, flying northward past us along the beach as the tide started to ebb. We guessed 1000 + 2000, and about 250 more came by in the same direction at 8 p.m. They all came from the direction of Blue Beach for further upstream of Horton Bluff up the Avon River, and were flying past us toward Boot Island and probably then toward the Guzzle area and Evangeline Beach. Cheers from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204 --------------------- Jim (James W.) Wolford 91 Wickwire Avenue Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 1W3 phone (902)542-9204 (home) fax (902)585-1059 (Acadia Univ. Biology Dept.) e-mail <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> ---------------------- ³In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.² -- John Muir ---------------------- ³In wildness is the preservation of the world.² -- Henry David Thoreau ----------------------
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects