Last time at Garry Fen was mid June 2025 and found some orchids. This time were hoping to be ahead of the mosquitos and black flies, maybe find a frog or two and look for spring flowers/growth. Yes on the last two, no on the first two....
The Garry Fen Trail is a 2.3km loop near Alexandria. An hour's drive from home. About a third of it is on boardwalk by a small lake
Very quickly I noticed the poison ivy was coming into leaf, and flower buds were forming
A profusion of marsh marigolds were blooming anywhere boggy along the trail.
Common reed was standing tall swaying in the breeze along the boardwalk
The first frog was a bull frog on the boardwalk. We walked very quietly towards it, but it sensed the movement and took several very large leaps (some of which I caught on video) and was gone
There were a few other frogs and tadpoples
The boardwalk itself is well "broken in". A few boards are well past their "best before" date, and a few are becoming part of the natural environment. But is a very productive boardwalk for flora and fauna.
The bull rushes are "trimmed", but they grow back next year
The boardwalk section along the lake is very boggy, with spongy moss and swamp cedars etc
The pitcher plants were growing new pitchers (if you looked closely)
And producing flower buds
Many areas of the woods were a mass of white trilliums (the eye sees it better than the camera)
If you click on the left photo and look closely at top left, you'll see a spider using the trillium flower as convenient place to spin a web
We only saw only 3-4 red trilliums
Red baneberry was in bud and blooming
Leatherleaf, wild rosemary (aka bog rosemary), budding false solomon seal
Blue and yellow violets. Yellow violets often stand tall and spindly
With the dandelions, marigolds et al blooming, coltsfoot was unexpected, but there was a small patch of it
Two-leafed toothwort, dwarf raspberry, twoleaf mitrewort (aka Bishop's cap), Jack-in-the-puplit
Wild ginger was growing in many areas of the woods. Often in large patches. Their purple flowers were blooming in the dirt under their leaves. (Flower photo taken elsewhere)
Cinnamon and royal ferns
Maple tree seeds, tamarac and ash growth
Wild sarsaparilla plants are about 18" tall and purply-brown colour
A differently coloured fungus, bird's nest from last year(?)
Toads are VERY hard to spot, unless they move a bit....
Garter snake
Giant millipede
Towards the end of the trail was a very large anthill
It looked big enough to be a goose egg, but that made no sense so we decided it was a wild turkey egg that a raccoon or coyote had enjoyed
Cedar trees have a habit of growing over their immediate environs
Wild strawberries and plum tree growing at roadside by the parking lot
Birds heard by the Merlin app. We didn't see a single bird (too busy looking down (?)), but could distinguish some calls/songs
