Late summer in the North is a slower time between the explosion of spring growth and winter preparations. But nature still offers plenty to see, and you can do it without the nuisance of biting insects and when water temperatures are at their peak. If you keep an eye out for these plants and animals, you’ll be rewarded. Here’s where to look.
By Pond Edges
When you’re on a groomed trail, a boardwalk or exploring in the wild, move quietly or just sit, allowing time for occupants to appear. American wigeons, green-winged teal, lesser scaup and red-necked and horned grebes are some of the more common avian species, but there are many more, including shorebirds, loons and gulls.
Watch for pair-bonding activities such as birds chasing each other, flipping wings, using erratic “mirroring motions” or energetic aquatic dances. Later in summer, flotillas of ducklings follow their mothers.
Gull colonies are loud with raucous calls and bonding activities. The black-headed Bonaparte’s gulls nest in the tops of tall trees and herring and short-billed gulls nest on rocky outcrops at lake edges. On gravel shores, Arctic terns hover to deposit small fish into the gaping mouths of chicks.
Fierce aerial hunters, dragonflies and damselflies patrol most water areas. Their immatures live on the pond bottom and on aquatic vegetation, predators even as nymphs. When ready to metamorphose to adults, they climb onto emergent vegetation and shed their nymphal skin, then their wings expand, their abdomens lengthen and they become agile flyers.
When mating, the male uses claspers at the end of his abdomen to grip the female behind the head. She bends the end of her abdomen to take sperm from a specialized receptacle on the male’s underside. They fly in tandem and the male selects an area to deposit the eggs. Damselflies lay their eggs in the stems of aquatic plants. A few dragonflies do the same, but most just dip their ovipositors into the water to release the eggs.
Another pond insect you may see in great numbers is the mayfly. Delicate aquatic creatures that emerge from midsummer to late summer to breed, mayflies are the only insects capable of flight as immatures. After the underwater nymph emerges, it changes to a subimago form and flies up to overhanging vegetation where it sheds its skin (including the exoskeleton wing coverings) and becomes an adult. With no mouthparts, the adults cannot feed. Instead, they breed in flight, lay eggs and die. Some females live less than an hour as adults.
Along pond margins, you may notice willows with huge buds resembling greenish pinecones or small rosebuds. They’re actually galls, formed by irritation, like saddle galls on horses; many insects are responsible for these in plants. Gall midges, which look like tiny mosquitoes, cause galls in willows to create homes for their larvae. When a female midge lays an egg in the developing tip of the willow branch, she also deposits growth-regulating hormones. These hormones, which are supplemented by the feeding of the larva, cause the willow to produce deformed leaves creating a thick-walled capsule. The tiny larva feeds in the shelter of the gall structure, overwinters as a pupa there and emerges as an adult in spring.
On Rocky Outcrops
Look for the dense, leathery-leaved kinnikinnick and its exquisite white-and-pink urn-shaped flowers. You may notice holes in the sides of some flowers. This is the work of bumblebees or solitary bees trying to access the nectar at the base of the flower. Once these “nectar thieves” have created the holes, other insects visit. For the flowers, a surprising amount of pollination occurs, and seeds develop.
Outcrops are often covered by lichens. These are an association of algae, fungus and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), living together, producing distinct forms. Map lichen, a black crustose lichen with greenish-yellow dots, is one of the most common. Look closely and you’ll often see bare areas surrounding the colony. In a form of biological warfare, many lichens secrete chemicals that inhibit the growth of adjacent ones, such as rock tripe and black crustose lichen.
Until 10,000 years ago, most of the North was almost completely covered by ice sheets up to three kilometres thick. Rocks, gravel and sand carried in the ice sculpted the land, creating geological features that remain visible, including:
Glacial polish: fine materials scoured the rocks to a highly reflective shine.
Glacial striations: lines carved in the bedrock when the ice dragged rocks.
Glacial erratics: rocks (some large) carried from one location to another, sometimes coming to rest perched on other boulders.
On Rivers
Watch for moose feeding on submergent vegetation; some will dive completely underwater to browse. They adjust buoyancy by expelling air from their lungs and can seal their nostrils closed when they dive.
Long, sleek and boisterously playful river otters are most often seen near rapids. These intelligent predators hunt for smaller mammals, ducks, small birds, amphibians and fish. Otters create “slides” where they wear the vegetation down to the soil by repeatedly sliding down steep banks.
Look below the water surface in deep pools downstream of rapids for a peek at aquatic life. Fish seek these areas due to the high oxygen content of the water. In late summer, you may see large jackfish (northern pike), whitefish, grayling and smaller fish hanging in the pools or foraging along the bottom. Snorkelling will give you a better view into their world.
By following these hints, you’ll increase your knowledge of what’s going on in the wild and have more to share with your children to increase their enjoyment of the experience.
