Something Missing

The laneway leading to our bush lot is sodden from frequent and heavy rains. My rubber boots squelched with each step and the air was heavy with moisture -- almost steamy. So I expected mosquitoes to take advantage of the break in the rain and seek me out. But they did not. In fact, I don't think I saw, heard or felt a mosquito on my entire walk. They need stagnant water to reproduce. Perhaps the rain has been too frequent to allow the required amount of calm water time for the larva to develop. I can't help but wonder if the swallows and other birds dependent on flying insects are missing this food resource.

I found a seat on a culvert stone and watched as muddy water in the drainage ditch swept past. In this same spot a few years ago I witnessed a snapping turtle excavate a depression in the bottom of the ditch. But the water was too fast moving and murky today for any aquatic sightings.

On a burdock leaf beside the bank crouched a damselfly, waiting for a meal to fly by. For the five or ten minutes I sat there, nothing did. When I left, it remained perched at it's stakeout, so elegant in it's metallic colours of emerald and bronze.

A drainage ditch with muddy, flowing water.

An elegant damselfly crouching on a burdock leaf.

A bobolink keeping watch over it's hayfield nesting site.

A female red wing blackbird gathering green caterpillars.

A Baltimore Oriole nest under construction.

This swallowtail butterfly appears to have escaped an attack.