The Colours of Winter

Posted on March 16, 2023 by suemckaymiller

Cape Breton boasts a coat of many colours. From the bright greens and colourful wild flowers of spring, deepening into the mature greens and late bloomers of summer, and climaxing with the spectacular flaming foliage of fall. This glorious palette is set against the brilliant blues of sea and sky.

Winter has its own special beauty, featuring wind-sculpted snow drifts, lace spun from ice, and abundant patterns and textures illuminated by light and shadow. I explored this aspect of winter in Winter’s Art Gallery. But for all its icy beauty, Winter seems to specialize in monochrome, like a photographer who works in black and white, or a blue-period Picasso.

This is a colour photo but you wouldn’t know it.

And yet there is colour in winter, all the more special because it stands out against winter’s white. So here is another wintry art gallery, this time focusing on the colours of winter, captured over the years here in the Holler. I hope these colours brighten your day as we make our way toward Spring Equinox. And remember, you can click on small pics to see them full size.

Digging the Winter Blues

Winter days are not always grey, and on sunny days those blues really pop when contrasted with bright snow white. What makes that sky so blue?

The short answer is Rayleigh scattering. We know that visible (white) light is composed of a spectrum of colours, displayed in rainbows and light refracted (bent) by a prism. Light has wave-like properties, and the red end of the spectrum has longer wavelengths while the blue and violet light have the shortest wavelengths. As yellow-white sunlight enters our atmosphere it interacts with air molecules and the waves are scattered. Short wavelengths are scattered the most and thus give the sky its blue colour. (Violet is the shortest wavelength, but there is more blue in sunlight and our eyes are more sensitive to blue.) At sunrise and and sunset, the light travels through more atmosphere. The blue light is scattered away, leaving the longer wavelength reds and oranges to delight our eyes.

Why is the Ocean Blue?

Of course water reflects light like a mirror, as in this photo from Dogs and Drift Ice. But water also filters sunlight. Water molecules absorb more long-wavelength reds and oranges and leave behind the shorter-wavelength blues and blue-greens. So while a glass of water appears colourless, water does have a blue hue that we can see when looking into deep bodies of water like the ocean. Divers observe this blue light because it penetrates deeper into the water than long-wavelength red light.

Winter’s Pond Art

I feel very lucky to live above a pond that offers something for every season. I’ve written about L’il pond and its various inhabitants a number of times, but winter is a surprisingly dynamic season for this little body of water. It goes something like this: Ice forms on the surface as temperatures drop. Snow blankets the ice. Under the ice, just as in summer, (see Ups and Downs in the Holler) water continues to drain out through the permeable soil. As water levels drop the ice eventually collapses under its own weight, sometimes cracking like a rifle shot, other times slumping with a whump.

But of course, this being Cape Breton, sooner or later everything changes. It rains buckets. Or we get a warm spell and a big snowmelt. Or both. Rain water and snowmelt from the highlands pour into the pond, raising the water level. Some ice may be frozen to the ground, but most of the ice surface will be lifted by the rising water. This is one of the miracles of water – most matter is denser in solid form, but ice is less dense than liquid water and thus floats, enabling aquatic life to survive winter’s deep freeze.

So the ice rises along with the rising water, but the ice surface is now smaller than the expanding pond perimeter. Water flows around the edge of the ice, over grounded ice, and collects in low-lying melt-water pools. And it is in these places where water and light do their magic dance.

Over the years I have enjoyed a gorgeous array of colours. The three photos below are all of the same place, just below the yurt where I lived for eight years.

A pool like an
ammonite,
a spiral
shining with the
nacre sheen of
mother-of-pearl.

Oh wait!
Now that same
pool is an aquamarine gemstone!

And now, transformed yet again, it’s like an amulet for a giant,
carved from jade.

So if water is true blue, why does it display such a kaleidoscope of colours?

This is a multi-coloured question with a multi-faceted answer. I’m no expert on optics – you could even say I’m walking on thin ice – but here is my best shot. (As always, I welcome your comments and corrections.) Water can take on a variety of colours due to light being reflected, filtered, or scattered; by suspended particles like silt or clay; by dissolved substances like iron or copper; or by microorganisms like bacteria or algae. Or, just to keep things interesting, by some combination of the above.

Take mountain lakes, like Moraine Lake in Alberta, featured on older $20 bills. These lakes are famously turquoise from ‘glacial flour’, finely-ground rock particles suspended in the water column. The rock particles scatter light in the blue-green part of the spectrum, and some is scattered back to the surface to our appreciative eyes. So, suspended particles + light scattering = turquoise lake photo op.

Rivers can be muddy brown or reddish from suspended silt or clay (like ‘The Big Muddy’ Missouri River). If the silt or clay settles out, the water will become clear. Conversely, substances that dissolve in water give it intrinsic colour. Think of rushing rivers in spring, tawny with the dissolved tannins released by decaying organic matter. Water with high iron content may look pale yellow or rust-coloured. Dissolved copper from corroding pipes will give water a blue/green tinge.

Reflections on a Pond

When light shines on still water, some rays penetrate the water and are refracted (bent) while others are reflected back off the surface. Depending on your viewing angle, the water may act like a mirror, echoing the world above its surface. In winter these watery pond mirrors are neatly framed by ice and snow.

You could say this pool of water is sky blue.

And you could say this water is ‘cloudy’.

And you could say … Wait. Spruce trees are green but not *that* green – and a green sky?

Why is the Water Green?

I posted the photos below on Facebook and they sparked a question: ‘Why is the water so green?’ I’d always attributed the pond’s wintry colours to light reflecting and refracting and scattering, but that question got me thinking more ‘deeply’ about that vivid green.

Emerald-green water meanders around the edge of the pond.

L’il Pond is a lively place all summer, teeming with aquatic plants, including its namesake lilies, that die off each fall. Eutrophic bodies of water like the pond are rich in nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorous, that allow phytoplankton to thrive. Apparently some of these single-celled algae can survive all winter, feeding from that rich nutrient bath and giving off oxygen that benefits the aquatic organisms beneath the ice. These suspended microscopic algae contain chlorophyll that can give water a green colour. Decaying organic matter consumes oxygen and releases dissolved tannins that dye the water a tawny gold or sepia brown.

Like an artist mixing paint on a palette, winter blends these watercolours to achieve a rich array of hues, from earthy ochres and warm olive greens, to gem-like emeralds, peridots, and the many shades of jade.

**Why is the Water Green and Blue?**

I’ve ‘reflected’ on this and here’s my best guess. The green water at the top is last year’s pond water that escaped to the surface as the ice contracted. It has that rich olive-green colour from suspended and dissolved organic matter as described above. The water on the bottom is fresh from the highlands and relatively pure. It has a crisp minty-blue colour from reflected and scattered light. As the fresh water mixes with the older pond water, winter will blend yet more watercolours to enrich its paintings on the snow-white canvas.

The Colours of Ice

When water retains its colour after freezing, the colour must be due to dissolved or suspended matter that remains captured in the ice lattice. This gorgeous green ice supports the idea that those watery greens were not just a trick of the light.

Delving Deeper into the Blues

I’ve been lucky enough to see glaciers out west and icebergs off the east coast. Both glaciers and icebergs can display striking blues within the white. As with liquid water, both ice and snow filter white sunlight. The surface reflects almost all the light and is a blinding white, but as the light penetrates deeper, the long-wavelength reds are absorbed and the blue and blue-green wavelengths are scattered, some finding their way back to our eyes.

There haven’t been any glaciers in Cape Breton for about 10,000 years, and although we do get smaller ice floes, you have to hop on the ferry to Newfoundland to see the really big bergs. But dig a hole in a snowbank, or look into a crack in the ice, and you might detect a hint of blue.

It was more obvious to the eye, but can you see a hint of blue in this mini-crevasse on the pond?
Leaf: ‘Help! I’ve fallen into a crevasse and I can’t get out!’

Like liquid water, ice can also reflect light for subtle displays of colour, as seen here.

The Colours of Snow – the Shadow Knows (but I don’t)

Next time you’re looking at snow, take a gander at the colour of the shadows. When the sun is low in the morning sky, shadows on snow are a beautiful blue. When the sun is high overhead, they tend to fade to grey, but as the sun drops to the western horizon, the shadows stretch out and shift back to blue.

The length of these tree shadows is an indication of how low the morning sun is.

The trees still cast a long shadow, but as the sun gets higher in the sky, they shift to grey.

Later in the afternoon, these beautiful draped shadows are almost as blue as the sky.

Shadows occur when light is blocked – a shadow is the absence of light. When the sun is high a shadow is the absence of white light. That should make shadows black, but often there is enough reflected light bouncing into the shadow zone that they tend to shades of grey. As I described earlier, there are more long-wavelength reds and oranges when the sun is lower in the sky. When this light is blocked, the absence of red and orange light results in a blue shadow, visible on the snow-white backdrop. I think. Maybe.

But it’s more complicated than that. I’ve seen both blue and grey shadows at different times of day. What’s going on? There are a handful of differing opinions on the cause of blue shadows on the web, but which, if any, is correct? I have my own ideas, but I’m not sure if they’re correct either. This is the kind of conundrum my science-geek buddies and I use to discuss over pints at the pub. So if any of you want to join me in puzzling over snow shadows, I’ll buy the beer.

Shadow selfies taken at the same time of day and only steps apart range from blue to grey to greenish.

Okay, ‘nuf of dem blues – it’s time to get in the pink. There is a lovely phenomenon known as ‘alpenglow’ when snowy mountain peaks glow rosy pink at sunrise or sunset. But pink snow can be more than just a transient reflection. Algae can lend their colour to snow as well as to water, as shown in the photo below from Dogs and Drift Ice.

Feeling in the pink with watermelon snow.

Our drift ice often displays this red-pink tinge. I’d always heard the colour came from the red soils of PEI hitching a ride, but then why is the red on top of the floe? While writing that blog I learned that pink snow is caused by Chlamydomonas nivalis, a unicellular green alga that contains a red carotenoid pigment called astaxanthin. That’s a mouthful, but it goes by the wonderful moniker ‘watermelon snow’ and can also be seen in the mountains.

And just a final word of caution about the colour of snow: If it’s yellow? Don’t eat it!

More Colourful Signs of Life

Winter snows cover grass, shrubs, mosses and such with a soft white blanket. Amphibians burrow into mud. Critters go underground or even hibernate. Many of our colourful birds fly south. All those formerly brilliant leafy trees are now bared to their buff. But life goes on in winter and sometimes brings a bit colour into our lives.

Leafy trees are winter bare but here in the mixed forest there is still greenery. Conifers may lack the pizzazz of deciduous trees most of the year, but they are indeed ‘evergreen’ and wear their subdued colours all year round. Many of our aging white spruce are draped with ‘old man’s beard’, a sage-green lichen (genus Usnea). Last year’s bird’s nest is suspended high above the snow and made mostly from this lichen. This year we’ve had barely any snow, so green things normally hidden are making a rare winter appearance.

A glacier advances on a miniature forest.

And, of course, there are still animals out and about. While many birds head south, blue jays stay and brighten our day. Most mammals wear coats of grey or brown, but there are a few more colourful characters in the neighbourhood.

These images were taken on a cloudy day, but Fox is still red against the snow.

Not a fox! Our red dog Tundra also stood out as she walked across the frozen pond back in 2006.

Sunrise, Sunset

It seems fitting to end this post with sunset and its spectacular colours. Back in Calgary I used to ride my bicycle to work along the Bow River bike path. I loved those mornings when the river glowed red and rose just before sunrise. Here in the Holler I marvel at the sunset colours captured by the pond and framed by white snow and ice. I’ll leave you with these final reflections on the Colours of Winter.

Sue McKay Miller
March 16, 2023

p.s. Phew! Just under the wire to get this winter blog posted before we swing into spring.

Have a Happy Spring Equinox!

Stones I have Known

Posted on December 9, 2022 by suemckaymiller

In my former life I was a geophysicist. We use a variety of remote-sensing techniques to image the deep subsurface and work closely with geologists. One Friday afternoon some 20 years ago I was in a Calgary pub and told one of these rockhounds that I was driving across the country to Cape Breton. ‘Ah,’ he said, and a dreamy look came into his eyes. ‘The pink granite…’ He had done a geological survey in the Cape Breton Highlands and kindly gave me a copy of his report. I looked forward to laying my own eyes on this remarkable pink granite – and I wasn’t disappointed.

Pink granite starts out like the rock on the left, but waves act like a giant rock tumbler and eventually round off those rough edges. Note the pink potassium feldspar, white and grey quartz and glittery black mica.

The best place to see pink granite is at Green Cove in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. You can walk out onto this granitic headland that juts into the brilliant blue Atlantic. Waves crash against rocks that are 373 million years old. It’s enough to make a geologist swoon, but pink granite is so abundant around here that some locals just don’t get how anyone can get so excited about ‘a bunch of rocks’. But if you do get excited about rocks, you will surely love Cape Breton, because we have lots of great rocks!

It is beyond the scope of this blog – or my expertise – to discuss the complex geology of Cape Breton. But thanks to its convoluted tectonic history, this island boasts all three major rock types – sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic – in abundance. There are glacial erratics throughout the Acadian forest and cobble beaches lining the shores. You can see outcrops of granite and basalt, a marble mountain, and gypsum deposits sculpted by the sea. But as usual with this blog, I’m staying close to home. So take a walk with me and I’ll introduce you to some stones I have known. Remember to click on a photo to see it full size.

Sitting on a rock in a river – tickled pink to be surrounded by pink granite!

Walking along any of the many local rivers and brooks is a great way to see stones. Running water dances with rock as it rushes from the Highlands to the sea in cascading waterfalls, riffles and pools. Powerful water shapes boulders and flows among stepping stones.

Humble Rock wallows in this meander like a stony hippopotamus. A special spot to reflect on life or, as The Beatles suggested, ‘Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream’.

There’s Hard Rock … and then there’s Soft Rock

Granite is igneous, forged in fiery magma. It is hard and durable and, like marble (metamorphosed limestone) is used for buildings, countertops, floors and such. At the other end of the spectrum is gypsum, a sedimentary rock so soft you can carve it with a pocketknife. But be careful, your artwork might dissolve if it gets damp! Gypsum is also called plaster rock, and, as these names suggest, is a component in gyprock (aka drywall) and plaster. Gypsum is moderately soluble and when it dissolves it leaves slumps and sinkholes behind. Our local ‘Plaster Park’ was closed due to safety concerns over the sinking land.

Gypsum sculpted by the sea and decorated with seaweed.

The gypsum boulders on the left were reduced to the scattered white flakes on the right in just a few years.
(The left pic was also featured in At the End of the Day as an example of ‘things left behind’ at the beach.)

Gaping sinkholes formed as (I presume) the underlying gypsum dissolved.

Things I like to do with Rocks

Sit on them

There are so many rocks around here that you can always find one that is just right to sit on and watch the river flow. Or watch the tide roll in and then watch it roll back out again. My daughter-in-law and I demonstrate.

By the river or the shore there are sitting rocks galore. Cheers!

Humans aren’t the only ones who like to perch on rocks. Seagull strikes a sunset pose and Squirrel sits on his favourite boulder to chow down on a snack from the compost cafe.

Hug them!

I’m definitely a tree hugger, but when I emerge soaking wet from the Atlantic, I just love hugging a hot rock that has been soaking up the sun’s rays. The breakwater stone pictured below is my favourite hugging rock – it is just the right size and at the perfect angle of repose. My beach buddies have seen me draped over it many a time.

My favourite hugging rock – not quite so toasty in November!

Pile them up or throw them down …

… Or balance them all around!

Beach rocks are often featured in spontaneous beach art. To see everything from balanced stones to mysterious rock patterns, check out my blog At the End of the Day from September 2021. And, for the record, I didn’t do this balancing act. A young fellow named Jordan did.

Gauge the sand thickness

Beach sand washes in and out, dependent on tides, winds, waves, and storms. But boulders abide. These lovely sea-sculpted stones appear and disappear depending on the thickness of the sand. When they vanish entirely? There’s a lot of sand onshore!

Use them as landmarks

Inuit make inukshuks to guide them across the vast expanse of the arctic, but naturally-occurring rocks can be useful waymarkers too. Erratics are boulders that were transported by glaciers and then unceremoniously dumped as the glaciers retreated. These stones are randomly strewn throughout the forest. As I described in The Humbled Hiker, I like to bushwhack around on the highland slopes. There are no trails up there so erratics serve as useful landmarks, or touchstones. And I do touch them. In fact, I was so happy to see this familiar boulder on a recent exploration that I gave it a big hug.

My 4′ walking stick shows the size of this lone stone. It’s a handy touchstone that locates me when I’m wandering around in the woods.

The glaciers left behind large boulders, but they also dumped glacial till – an unsorted mix of sand, silt, pebbles and cobbles – across the landscape. Till is easily eroded along shorelines, as shown below. As the cliff retreats the cobbles and pebbles pile up below. Lighter sands and silts may be picked up by the waves to form beaches or be carried offshore.

Tundra stands on an eroding cliff of glacial till – an unsorted mix of sand, silt, pebbles and cobbles.

Write a story about them

Glacial till is not very fertile. I doubt the Scots who settled this area had any love for the stones they had to pick from the ground to prepare the land for farming. The evidence of their backbreaking labour is all through the forest that has since swallowed up the old farms. Rock piles, rock walls, and even old rock-lined root cellars are scattered throughout. I was wandering in the woods one evening and stumbled across a huge rock pile I’d never seen before. It inspired my short story ‘The Stone Mound’, published in ‘Magine magazine, March 2022. https://suemckaymiller.com/short-stories/

This huge stone mound inspired a short story of the same name.

Left: A rock wall in the woods. Right: The stone mound sans snow.

Collect them

I liked rocks long before I became a geoscientist. I was traveling overseas when a taxi driver went to take my suitcase. I weighed all of 110 lbs and he expected to take it from me and easily toss it into the trunk. The weight of it so took him by surprise that he nearly dropped it. His look said, ‘What’ve you got in there? Rocks?’ Well, actually … yes.

And now I that I live a mile or so from a cobble beach I keep bringing stones home. They sit around in piles all over the place. I’m not alone. Many a beach goer leaves with rocks in their pockets. That special stone that spoke to them. It said, ‘Take me home with you.’

These are are just a few of the beach stones that spoke to me.

Make Rock Art

Stones are naturally beautiful, but they also make a great medium for artwork. I sometimes paint on rocks, make stone mosaics, or create sand-on-sandstone pieces. Collecting and selecting is part of the fun! Here are a few samples of my rock art.

Are Rocks Alive?

Not technically – at least not in the way western science defines life. But rocks beget dirt and dirt combines with organic matter to form soil and soil begets life. It always amazes me to see lichens, fungi and mosses transforming a lithified collection of minerals into a living organism.

This big boulder is a nursery for the moss and lichens shown below.

It’s Alive!

This glacial erratic sports a mossy cape and a fern headdress.

It’s hard to spot the boulder under all that luxuriant growth. And this stone is growing a birch tree!

Yes, dear reader, there is a boulder somewhere under there.

Judging by all the moss they’ve gathered, I’d say these are NOT Rolling Stones.

(They rock, but they don’t roll!)

Sacred Stones

Alive or not, rocks have their own special energy and power. People have always known this, and ancient standing stones and mounds are a testament to that connection. Rocks are ancient compared to we short-lived humans, but even they have their cycles, cycles that stretch over eons too vast to imagine. Mountains slowly erode, carried bit by bit to the ocean, only to be reborn. Perhaps at the bottom of oceans as heat and pressure turn sediments into stone; stones that rise again, thrust into mountains by massive tectonic forces. Or perhaps subducted into the fiery cauldron of Earth’s mantle and then shooting out of the depths in a volcanic eruption. Birthed in fire or water, rocks hold this elemental energy within, and we humans somehow sense that.

Like so many, I am drawn to the ancient standing stones and neolithic mounds I have visited in Scotland and Ireland. But stones can mark a sacred spot in a much more humble manner. We can pile stones over bones to create a burial cairn. We did this when our aged cats died within months of each other, a pair of cat-cairns way up a creek in the BC interior.

Side by side in life and, many years later, in death. (The ‘cat-scanned’ photos aren’t great quality.)

I built another cairn years later when our dog Tundra died, 15 years ago now. I can see her rock cairn from my window as I type this. I often visit this special spot and from time to time I add a new beach stone, carefully selected and placed. Rest in peace, Tundra.

Tundra on a rock in life, now lies under them. November floods raised the pond right up to her cairn.

Sue McKay Miller
December 9th, 2022

*‘Everybody must get stoned.’ – Bob Dylan*

Swimming with Frogs

Posted on August 14, 2022 by suemckaymiller

I wasn’t going to do it again. Really. Surely two frog blogs is enough. But you know what they say: ‘Write what you know.’ Do I know frogs? Well, not in the sense that a herpetologist does – I’m no expert – but I have learned a thing or two just by being around them for the past 18 years. It’s a kind of knowledge by osmosis, that passive process of absorption from the environment. Akin to the way frogs absorb water through their skin rather than drinking it down.

But I never much liked that ‘write what you know’ advice anyhow. After all, if every author complied, there would be no science fiction or historical fiction or fantasy. I prefer ‘Write what fascinates you.’ Of course, sometimes ‘what you know’ is also what fascinates you. And I do find frogs fascinating. So here I go again with yet another frog blog.

‘She finds me fascinating. How thrilling.’

Actually, I’m amazed by all amphibians. Of all the vertebrate classes, only amphibians undergo such radical transformation during their life cycle. Baby mammals look similar to adults only smaller and way cuter. Baby birds look like adults only smaller and, in some cases, way uglier – until they get all downy and adorable. Baby fish and baby reptiles emerge from their eggs looking like miniature versions of their parents.

But members of the class Amphibia have a more complex journey to maturity; more akin to some insects, like butterflies or dragonflies. They don’t just get bigger, they are utterly transformed in appearance, habitat and lifestyle.

Living with frogs has given me the opportunity to observe this fascinating journey at various ages and stages. The cycle begins soon after spring melt, as described in Funky Frogs, and carries on with matching and hatching, as I posted in Frogs, Globs, and Pollywogs. The female lays jellied egg masses attached to twigs underwater. That’s it for maternal care from mama. She just lays lots of eggs and lets nature – natural selection that is – take its course. As pond levels drop, these egg blobs can be stranded high and dry, like the one I’m holding. By this time I can see the embryos wiggling around in their egg sacs and feeding on the algae that colours the eggs green. I put stranded blobs back in the water to give the wee ones a shot at survival.

These are frog embryos, but there’s something distinctly fishy about those tadpoles.

The eggs hatch, releasing the little wigglers into the water. At this larval stage the pollywogs, or tadpoles, seem more like fish than frogs. They live and breathe underwater and suffocate without it. They swim like fish, look like fish, live like fish. But unlike the proverbial duck, they aren’t fish. Because they aren’t done yet.

Next comes the magic – metamorphosis! And this is why I am amazed by amphibians, fascinated by frogs. The tadpole sprouts tiny, skinny hind legs. They are useless, dangly things at first. The pollywog keeps on swimming like a fish, swishing its long tail and breathing through its gills. Then forelegs sprout, mere nubs. But the legs keep growing, becoming stronger and thicker.

‘What the heck *are* these things anyhow?’ (Yes, I had pet tadpoles at one point.)

And then one day the tadpole uses those legs to venture up into the world of air. I can’t help seeing this moment as a tiny reenactment of those very first animals who emerged from the ocean onto land. What a transformation! The pollywog is now a froglet. It is no longer a fishy thing but looks like a tiny frog with a tail. That tail will be absorbed as nutrient by the froglet and will be the only food it consumes during this transitional phase. The gills will also be absorbed and the frog will breathe through its skin while underwater, or its mouth or lungs on land. This aquatic animal has become a creature of two elements: water and air. It is truly amphibious. And that is the miracle of metamorphosis.

‘I got legs! Maybe I can just hop right up here – Hey! I can still breathe!’

Other Things that Change

And now I turn to a different transformation. I left the Highland Holler at the end of May to spend some time with my family on Vancouver Island. When I left, the pond was already low and gungy with detritus. The shallowest pools had separated from the main pond, as I described in Frogs, Globs, and Pollywogs in June 2021. There weren’t ‘gobs and gobs of jellied egg blobs’ yet, but a fresh crop of amphibians had begun their perilous journey in freshly-laid eggs.

An early egg mass underwater, attached to a twig. The blob in my hand was already high and dry, so I put it back in the water.

I returned home three weeks later to a world transformed. The barren brown of spring had exploded into the verdant green of summer. Trees had leafed, shoots had shot up, and the shrubs and wildflowers (aka weeds) were threatening to engulf the cabin. I’d anticipated a change, but the extent of the growth in such a short time was startling.

But something unexpected and delightful also happened while I was away: L’il Pond was full again, totally rejuvenated by the June rains that fueled all that plant growth. All the pools had filled and joined to form one large pond. The egg blobs were gone, hatched into tiny tadpoles, hidden amidst the bright green aquatic plants. The water was crystal clear, fresh from the Highland lakes.

My view was completely transformed after only 3 weeks away.

All this meant it was time again – time to swim with the frogs! I don’t get this opportunity every year. Often the pond is too shallow and gungy by the time summer rolls around. I was lucky last summer, as described in Ups and Downs in the Holler, and now I was getting another chance.

I hauled my pond gear through the brush and out to the gravel point, which was mostly submerged. I set down my chair and beach bag and was gazing around, trying to decide where to get in, when – Eek! There he was! He was big. He was green. He was a Green Frog. And he was just. Right. There.

If I want to swim, I have to share the pond with this fellah. He’s as big as my hand.

Green frogs are the biggest frogs we have here in Cape Breton. (We don’t, so far as I can determine, have bull frogs on the island.) I wrote about them and other frog species last June, but here’s the recap. The tadpoles take two years to mature and by their second year are bigger than some frog species will ever be. The tads are bizarre looking creatures. To quote myself, they ‘look positively freaky, a kind of FrankenFrog with a full-sized frog-head attached to a tadpole-tail but no torso. Seeing dozens of these scatter in the shallows is a strange sight indeed.’

Photos don’t capture the weirdness and size of these 2nd-year green frog tadpoles.

Given the size of the tadpoles, it’s no surprise that these frogs are the jolly green giants of the pond. And their mating call is as loud as they are big – a percussive ‘Gurnk!’ that echoes around the Holler. Get a bunch of them going at it and they keep me awake at night. Noisy party-animal neighbours! They are also the last to leave the party, still gurnking away long after all the other male frogs have given up on getting lucky.

Green frogs just keep growing … and growing …

Absurdly, I felt a bit intimidated about going swimming alongside this guy. It’s not like frogs prey on people, like some Creature from the Black Lagoon. But … he’s just so … there. There are all kinds of critters in L’il Pond: Snakes and newts and a myriad of insects at various stages of their complex life cycles. Swimming in the Holler is not for the squeamish. And I’m kind of squeamish. But it just seems silly not to go swimming in my own pond. So, with some hesitation and dithering, I finally waded in, launched myself forward and dove under. It was refreshing and absolutely lovely – and not a single sneak attack by a rogue frog.

What creatures lurk beneath that calm surface?

Then I sat down to dry off, relax, and enjoy the view. The pond level was so high that I set my chair in the shallows. I glanced down and there, right beside me, the miracle of metamorphosis was underway. This froglet seemed unaware of me, perhaps too perplexed by the strange turn his life had taken to care about the giant looming nearby. We hung out together for quite a while, pondering the mysteries of transformation.

My ‘Frog Observation Station’ was perfectly positioned to keep an eye on this froglet.

Now it is August and the pond has once again drained to levels too shallow for homo sapiens swimmers. It’s only fit for frogs and bugs and snakes and newts and for the ducks, sandpipers, kingfishers and such that feed on them. The frogs are content, with a surface cover of lily pads to keep them shaded and hidden from predators, and lots of lovely silty detritus on the bottom.

So I will leave the pond to the local critters now – they need no longer fear a gigantic primate invading their watery habitat. Unless, of course, a post-tropical storm brings buckets of rain to the Holler and refills L’il Pond with clean Highland water. Then I will once again be swimming with the frogs. You can count on it.

Sue McKay Miller
August 10th, 2022

p.s. Uh oh! Look who just landed!

A great blue heron arrived today and is stalking the shallows – watch out Froggie!

Need more frog blogs? Check out:
Funky Frogs and Frogs, Globs, and Pollywogs from May and June of 2021. These cover more frogs species – including spring peepers, wood frogs, pickerels, and leopard frogs – that live in the Holler alongside the green frogs. As always, click on any photo to see it full-size, and please feel free to comment below with observations or corrections.

Dogs and Drift Ice

Posted on April 6, 2022 by suemckaymiller

Twenty years ago my dog Tundra and I spent the winter on the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, house and dog-sitting. The owner of the handbuilt house and of Max the dog warned me that the roaring and pounding of the nearby ocean would start to drive me crazy after a while. Then one morning I’d wake up to … silence. That silence meant the drift ice was in.

It happened exactly as he said. I started by loving the sound of the ocean but eventually I wondered ‘Will it ever stop?’ Then one February morning I woke up and … dead silence. The dogs and I walked onto the beach and gazed across a vast expanse of ice where wild waves had been just the day before.

Tundra contemplates drift ice for the first time in her life: ‘Where did all the water go?’
Max is a local and has seen it all before. That’s Cape North in the distance.

The pooches and I spent many hours on that shore. The ice, formed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, breaks apart and drifts, blown about by the wind. Some days it crowded up against the shore, other days the wind blew it offshore until it was just a brilliant white line on the horizon. At times it was so tightly packed you could walk on it, but often it was broken into pans, or clampers, that shifted and jostled with the ocean’s motion. Clamper jumping is a sport of sorts, but only for The Young and the Reckless ;-)

Left: Ice is packed in so tight that Max could hop clampers all the way to the horizon.
Right: Loose slob ice seen from the cliff above is a shifting black and white mosaic.

One thing these photos don’t capture is the sounds the shifting ice makes. More that once I was spooked by the ghostly moans and shrieks from grinding ice. It put me in mind of those explorers, like Franklin and Shackleton, whose ships became trapped in the ice. The sounds (which included their ships being crushed) must have been hair-raising.

I’ve never been to the Arctic (see ‘bucket list’) but that winter, when I turned my back to the forested highlands and stared across the ice extending all the way to the horizon, I imagined myself there, alone in the arctic. I had a profound sense of my smallness and insignificance in the face of that vast white expanse. Of course, unlike those unlucky explorers, I could turn my back on the ice and head up to the house to warm up by the wood stove.

Unlike the Arctic Ocean, the open Atlantic rarely freezes. Salt water has a (slightly) lower freezing point than fresh and the constant mixing motion of waves, tides and currents inhibits freezing. Harbours and bays are more protected and they do freeze over. Seasonal ice also forms in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Strait of Belle Isle (between Labrador and Newfoundland). When the ice breaks up it finds its way to Cape Breton’s shores, usually arriving in northern Cape Breton in February and staying until April or May. Ice passes into the Cabot Strait between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, arriving here on the North Shore around March. That is, if it comes at all. With milder winters and warming oceans, there are years when there is little to no sea ice in the Gulf.

(Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, the North Shore is on the east side of the western peninsula of Cape Breton, just south of the area called ‘Down North’. Got it?)

This beauty, pretty in pink, is stranded on a bed of seaweed. Its drifting days are done.

I’d heard that the pinkish-red tinge often seen on the snowy ice is a souvenir from Prince Edward Island’s red sandy beaches. But it turns out to be Chlamydomonas nivalis, a unicellular green alga that contains a red carotenoid pigment called astaxanthin. Or, if you prefer, you can skip all the jargon and just go with the delightful name ‘watermelon snow’.

‘The Ice is in!’

The arrival of the ice is something of an event here (we lead quiet lives). Word gets out. There are photos posted on social media and comments about the sudden silence. But drift ice is more than just cool to look at (ha ha). Sea ice forms a protective barrier against winter’s heavy storm surf and reduces beach and cliff erosion. Loss of seasonal ice due to climate change removes that barrier and accelerates coastal erosion.

Where does the beach end and ocean begin? The ice protects the cliffs from winter storm surges.

The ice is also a convenient means of travel for all kinds of animals, including the human kind. It has become more treacherous for people and their heavy vehicles to traverse as our winters warm, but many animals still travel on the ice. I saw coyotes out on the northern drift ice a few times. It’s a convenient shortcut and easier going than deep snow. When coyotes migrated from the mainland to Cape Breton they didn’t need the causeway – they just sauntered across the ice. Drift ice is also a hunting ground for coyotes on the lookout for a seal meal.

No, that’s not a coyote in the shadows on the lower left, just a Tundra, cruising easily on the drift ice. Max, with built-in crampons, had no trouble scrambling around the icy boulders.

Tundra demonstrating how coyotes travel on ice.

Ice is the nursery where seals pup and nurse their young. Years with low or no ice can force seals to give birth on the shore, with greater exposure to predators. Or, as in the picture below, thin ice platforms might fragment before the pups are old enough to survive in the water.

A whitecoat all alone on a small floe in March 2011. I sure hoped mum was nearby.

Female grey seal on the North Shore, March 2006.
Note how the ice is protecting the beach from the heavy winter surf.

Drift Ice Gallery

What I love most about the ice is the astonishing array of shapes and forms it takes. Last December I posted Winter’s Art Gallery, a photo essay of winter’s beautiful creations of ice and snow. I omitted drift ice from that gallery since it deserves a page all its own. Now, combing through dozens of photos taken over the years, I’m finding it hard to choose. But here are the finalists. Click to see full-size versions of these any of the photos on this page.

The Beauties …

Right side up pink mushroom on a bed of seaweed

View north to Cape Smokey with mini icebergs, called bergy bits or growlers.

One more for the ‘dogs and drift ice’ department: Neighbour dog Mya with more growlers in 2008.

… and the Beasts

In March 2012 an ice wall formed along this beach. Waves jumbled and tumbled ice chunks and also froze in place to form these strange shapes. Do you see sea monsters too? Or is it just me …

Winged sea monster rising from the deeps.

Meeting of the Monsters. Big Mouth on the left and Sea Sasquatch standing waist deep on the right.

And then we go from the sublime …

… to the ridiculous

The alien emerges on its floating watercraft and waves hello

The drift ice has already come and gone along the North Shore but I spoke with my faithful correspondent and there is still ice down north. So who knows? Perhaps the ice will drift over for one more visit before it goes into a final meltdown. But by July it will be us, not ice, floating about on the ocean.

Not quite lobster season yet but coming soon to a wharf near you!

One final note: I’m a transplanted Albertan and my knowledge of the sea, sea ice and sea-ice terminology is limited. If I’ve made any mistakes or if you have any observations to add, please feel free to let me know in the comments below. I’m always keen to learn.

Sue McKay Miller
April 6, 2022

In memory of Tundra, my faithful traveling companion on the road and in life (1991-2007)

Meet the Mystery Mammal

Posted on January 31, 2022 by suemckaymiller

Last October I introduced you to a few of My Wild Neighbours. This month I want to focus on a newcomer to the neighbourhood, first encountered in April 2020. The tale begins with a tail: a long, round tail attached to a long-bodied, short-legged critter diving over a roadside snowbank. I only saw the backside of the furry animal, but the size and shape and that long round tail suggested an otter from the nearby river.

A few days later I was snowshoeing through old spruce forest and saw some unusual tracks. In The Secret Lives of Animals I wrote about my favourite winter activity: following animal tracks on snowshoe. Tracks tell me who is out and about and where they go on this land we share. I’d been following tracks for some 15 years at that point, so I was familiar with the usual suspects. And these weren’t any of those.

I recalled the otter-like animal I’d diving over the snowbank. Otters are water weasels. When they visit, they slide along on their bellies, leaving distinctive grooves, and head straight for the pond, dipping under the ice into the frigid water. These strange tracks were in a dense stand of trees up beyond the pond. And not a belly-slide in sight. I began to wonder if there was a new kid on the block.

I soon found out. I was lingering over coffee on a sunny Easter morning and looked out the window. An animal was loping along on the far side of the frozen pond, very dark against the brilliant white snow. I grabbed my binoculars and got a good look. My suspicions were correct: It was a fisher! He – or she – did a circuit all the way around the pond before heading up into the woods.

Now this was exciting! I’d seen a wide variety of mammals in the Holler over the years, but this was the first time I’d seen a fisher. What a thrill, after so many years, to see a critter for the first time! Later that afternoon I was bundled up, sitting outside. I heard the strangest sounds coming from the woods on the far side of the pond. My go-to animals when I hear weird noises are crows – they have an astonishing repertoire of vocalizations – but this didn’t quite fit the usual cacophony of a crow mob.

Mystery solved a moment later. A fisher came barrelling out of the woods onto the ice with a second fisher hot on its heels and making those bizarre growly sounds. Growly chased the other fisher across the pond and up into the woods. A minute later he came back down, loped back across the pond and headed back up into the forest. A very exciting Easter Sunday here in the boonies!

(Above photos taken in 2021)

Fishers are members of the weasel family (Mustelidae) which includes otters, minks, martens, and ermines, plus off-island species such as skunks, badgers, wolverines and other weasels. The name fisher is misleading. Unlike their water-weasel cousins, otters and minks, fishers rarely fish. These carnivores feed mainly on hares, rodents, grouse, and, alas, the occasional small pet. We don’t have porcupines on Cape Breton Island, but mainland fishers hunt these prickly prey. Fishers prefer mature forest habitat and are remarkably adept tree climbers. Like all members of the weasel family, fishers are fierce and punch well above their weight.

Those first sightings were in April, 2020. Fast forward to winter 2021 and once again I strapped on the snowshoes and began checking out local animal tracks. In February I posted a photo of some mystery tracks in The Secret Lives of Animals. The snow was too soft to form a clear impression, but I found other mystery tracks soon after, possibly from the same creature. After that I started seeing these new tracks all over the place – near the house and through the woods and all over the pond. As you can imagine, I had my suspicions as to the likely culprit.

Left: Mystery tracks, with my glove for scale. Right: Are these made by the same animal?

And what about these? Tracks can look very different, depending on snow conditions and gait. When the hind foot steps onto the forefoot track, it can alter the shape. Very confusing.

Running track typical of weasel family; hind feet register in the front tracks. (Ruler is 46 cm/18″)

A track is evidence but a sighting is proof. One day I looked out and there he was, poking around in the snow beside the house. My compost pile is under there so he may have been rooting for root veggies. On the other hand, the local squirrels have a network of snow tunnels there too, so he may have been hunting something more appetizing than rotten banana peels.

Like coyotes and other carnivores, fishers patrol large territories. Based on all those tracks I’d been seeing, it looked like my home was smackdab in the middle of this fiesty fellah’s new territory. (After seeing Growly in action, I’m going with ‘he’.)

My new neighbour had no qualms about inviting himself right up onto my deck. I think these predators, like Ollie the barred owl (Hoots in the Holler) and the great horned owl (My Wild Neighbours) like my deck for the same reason humans like hunting blinds in trees – all the better for spotting prey. Plus fisher’s nose may have led him up onto the deck after squirrel’s scent, since squirrel seems to think I built the deck purely for his pleasure. One thing for sure, fisher is just as able to climb posts and trees as his wily prey. Watch out squirrel!

Fishers, known locally as fisher cats, are not unknown in this area. Some of my neighbours (the human ones I mean ;-) have seen them now and then, but they aren’t common. It does seem that there have been more frequent sightings of fishers around the island lately, so perhaps they are making a comeback. (Fishers virtually disappeared from Nova Scotia about 100 years ago due to trapping and habitat loss but were reintroduced to the eastern mainland in the 1960’s.) Or, as someone suggested, maybe we are seeing more fishers around because ongoing clearcutting is forcing them to find new territories. The current population and status of this animal seems to be yet one more mystery.

So now here we are in 2022 and it’s snowshoe time again. I haven’t seen a fisher-in-the-fur lately, but I have been seeing tracks in the woods and on the frozen pond as fisher prowls his territory. He’s not a mystery mammal anymore, or even the new kid on the block. He’s just another one of my wild neighbours, hanging out here in the Holler.

Sue McKay Miller
January 31st, 2022

p.s. Please share your own fisher sightings and observations in the comments. As always, I welcome any corrections or additional information – I’m still learning!

Winter’s Art Gallery

Posted on December 31, 2021 by suemckaymiller

Well, that a wrap, folks! The year has come full circle and so has this blog. Today marks one year since my first blog in December 2020. It’s time to say goodbye (and good riddance?) to 2021 as we move into the new year. It is also the start of a new season. Winter Solstice marked the beginning of winter here in the northern hemisphere.

Winter in Cape Breton can be challenging (this is what is known as an ‘understatement’) but is also a time of spectacular beauty. While this island is renowned for its brilliant fall foliage, I am even more amazed by winter’s wizardry. So in the spirit of looking forward to the season (because it’s coming – whether we like it or not) here are a few offerings from winter’s art gallery, taken over the years. Click on a pic to view it full size.

River and stream galleries display ice creations all winter.

I wrote about the rise and fall of L’il pond in Ups and Downs in the Holler. That was summertime, but pond goes up, pond goes down, all the year round. In winter, high water freezes around the trees, leaving them with fancy ice skirts as the water level drops.

All dressed up in floating lacy crinolines of ice and snow.

Snow snow snow! To borrow from Joni Mitchell, I’ve looked at snow from both sides now. That’s my driveway in 2019 on the top left. The drifts were beautifully carved, but tough to navigate – even on snowshoes! Once I got to the road I had to dig out my car and then dig through the plough bank, only to have the snowplough do another run and fill it back in. Argh! And yet, and yet. I still love snow. It blankets us in beauty and offers up an infinite variety of textures, shadows and light – a feast for the eyes and spirit.

Snow buds blossom, twigs grow crystal leaves, and bare branches dress up in white lace – fleeting beauty that vanishes in the flash of the sun.

Ice art is hard and edgy, all sharp angles and high contrast. Snow art is about softness and curves. Snow blankets the shrubby ground and drapes prickly spruce and twiggy bare branches to create a serene snowscape.

The pond art gallery is always changing the display. One day it was soft, concentric circles and another day it was this jagged black and white mosaic of polygons.

Winter
plays
with
colour
light
shadow
texture
shape
its
wonders
to
create

Don’t you love these creations? They look to me like fairy goblets, all ready to flip upside down and fill with a bit of bubbly! Cheers and Happy New Year, Fairy People of the forest!

Well, that’s it for this month. I’m keeping it short and simple today since I’m sure you’re all busy getting dressed up for the Big New Year’s Eve Party! (Hah! Just kidding ;-)

Thank you to all who have visited over the past year. My monthly blog has reflected happenings around the Holler as the seasons rolled by. I wrote about The Secret Lives of Animals as I followed tracks in the snow and mused on April and the Albedo Effect as that snow melted. There were Frogs, Globs, and Pollywogs in the pond and Seagull Dreams by the seaside. There have been plenty of Hoots in the Holler this past year, including surprise visits from My Wild Neighbours.

This blog has given me the opportunity to share my intense love for this place. I will continue to write about life at Highland Holler in 2022, but I’m giving myself a break on the ‘one-blog-per-month’ schedule. It felt way too much like being back in school – always procrastinating in the face of a looming deadline. However, I still have much to share – about fishers, fungi, and cute newts – not to mention more offerings from winter’s wonderful art gallery – so stay tuned in 2022!

Sue McKay Miller
December 31st, 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Snowshoe tracks captured in a silver thaw. Off we go, into the unknown!

The Humbled Hiker

Posted on November 30, 2021 by suemckaymiller

‘It was harder than I remembered.’ So reads my diary entry for May 14, 2021, describing a steep climb up to a ridge. I was reviewing my hiking notes in preparation for setting off, once again, to tramp up and down the hills behind my house: the highland part of Highland Holler. As I wrote in my very first blog, Bared Trees and Barred Owls, I enjoy exploring the highlands in November. The lack of foliage makes for more open views, so it’s easier to orient myself relative to ocean, hills and valleys as I bushwhack around the forest. Plus it’s just so tempting to see what’s atop that ridge, beyond that bend, or down that gully.

These forest forays are exciting, exhausting and sometimes a bit unnerving. I love the anticipation, the immersion in the forest, the delight of discovery, the serendipity of stumbling across one forest treasure while searching for another. I typically return home tired and relieved but exhilarated.

The forest is full of unexpected treasures.

But earlier this month I went on an exploratory hike that left me steeped in frustration. I’d set out in hopes of finding an alternate route into a neighbouring valley. I’d not only failed to do that, I’d had to backtrack three (three!) times. Worse, I’d had to backtrack twice where I thought I was on familiar ground. I felt both humbled and disappointed with myself. Argh! How had this happened?

That short note in my diary tells the tale: ‘It was harder than I remembered.’ It is always harder than I remember. Whenever I revisit the special places I’ve discovered or retrace routes I’ve found, the walks are invariably longer, steeper, bushier, boggier, more confusing than I expected. The footing is trickier and the route more difficult to navigate. And did I mention bushier? Oh yes, it’s always bushier than I remember.

Left: Trees I remember. Right: Trees I forget.

Memory is a funny thing. It is not a record, like a videotape or even my diary. It is a story we create. We edit, filter, revise. We forget. We embellish. We mould and shape until – voila! A memory. My diary entry reveals that my memories lean toward the sunny side of life. I tend to filter out the negative and retain the positive.

So I remember wandering in an old-growth stand of hemlock but forget pushing through straggles of spruce to get there. I remember the wide-open birch forest atop a ridge but forget how the hummocky ground makes for awkward footing. And when I set out on that hike last May, I remembered finding the babbling brook that led me all the way up to a ridge and an old survey post. But I’d forgotten about the steep slopes, the long boggy section, the bushy bits (of course) and how confusing it was near the top when the brook vanished underground. My rosy memories ran up against a wall when confronted with reality.

This beautiful hidden brook led up to an old survey post, but it wasn’t all roses along the way.

I have often wondered if optimism and pessimism have more to do with the past than the future. That is, those of us who tend to view the past through rose-coloured glasses also tend to imagine a rosier future. Realists manage to see both past and future through clear lenses. And those who tend to filter out the good bits from their past and hang onto the bad may be more likely to see the days ahead through gloomy grey-tinted spectacles.

Rose-tinted specs make for pleasant memories but there is a downside. I considered my hike a ‘failure’ that day in early November because I had, temporarily at least, set aside memories of all my previous hiking ‘failures’. What happened that day was not an anomaly – a rare instance of failing to get to my objective or having to retrace my steps. It was, in fact, the norm.

Sitting there in my funk that November day I was forgetting how many tries it took before I finally found a detour over the ridge I described in Bared Trees and Barred Owls. Or how long it took me to find an old grown-in shortcut, only to lose it again and have to find it anew. I was forgetting the number of times I searched for that old survey post before I found it at last, hidden behind new stands of spruce.

Sometimes you have to get through this … to get a hilltop ocean view like that.

Such experiences are humbling but in a good way. They are not failures but rather part of the process, of learning the lay of the land. No topographic map or aerial image can convey the rich density of the forest, the complexity of the geography, the myriad hidden waterways. That has to be discovered on the ground, step by step, walk by walk.

So a funny thing happened twelve days after my humbling hike. It was a rare dry day after a series of rainy days. I headed upslope into the same area, hoping to flag more of an old ridge-top survey line. My son and daughter-in-law had been here for a visit and we’d managed to find part of the old blaze trail that had become obscured by young upstart growth and ancient fallen giants. We’d gotten as far as the base of a short, steep slope and I was keen to see if I could find the next blaze mark and extend the line.

Left: Flagging the old blaze line. Right: The view from my log resting spot with the ocean far below.

Nature doesn’t do straight lines but surveyors do. I had to scramble up that slope using all fours, but was rewarded by finding two more blazes up top. I peered around, looking for the next blaze mark. The area looked oddly familiar. Could it be?

Then I spotted some orange flagging tape. Twelve days earlier I had climbed up to this very spot, unaware that I’d reached the old survey line. That afternoon I’d turned back, taking down my flagging tape as I retraced my steps. My attempt at route-finding had failed, so why would I ever be back? By luck, I’d missed a single bit of flagging tape.

Ah, sweet serendipity! On that earlier hike I was looking for a route into the next valley and instead stumbled upon the blaze line. Twelve days later I was looking for a blaze mark and instead spotted an overlooked piece of flagging tape. Twice I’d arrived at this same spot, high up on a forest ridge at 2 pm on a short November day. Once again I resisted the temptation to keep exploring and turned back for the long walk home. But this time I was more cheered than disappointed. Instead of slip-sliding my way back down that steep slope I could retrace my earlier, easier descent. It had only been twelve days and for once my memory served me well. Even without the flagging tape I was able to find my way down the slope, then over and across into a familiar creek valley.

Left: The road leading home. Right: Unusual trees make excellent trail markers.

I arrived home, exhausted and relieved as usual. I hadn’t gotten any further than my earlier hike, but far from being frustrated I was totally chuffed. Thanks to my ‘failure’ I now have an alternate route up to the old blaze line. I’m eager to get back up there and continue my explorations, but even this rosy-spectacled gal suspects that I may have to wait until next spring.

Sue McKay Miller
November 30th, 2021

p.s. That last hike was on Sunday, November 21st. Starting the next night Cape Breton was inundated with a deluge of rain. I measured 191 mm at the Holler but some areas north of here received almost 300 mm. Bridges and roads were washed away, stranding some people on the far side. The Cabot Trail, the only road in these parts, is ruptured in several places, separating nearby communities. The damage is terrible.

L’il Pond rose so high it flooded into a nearby low-lying area, and many trees are still standing in water. All the local brooks, rivers and waterfalls filled to overflowing. But I was lucky and stayed high and dry. My thoughts are with all of those dealing with the consequences of catastrophic rains here in Cape Breton and out west in BC.

L’il Pond – not so little after the rain.

My Wild Neighbours

Posted on October 31, 2021 by suemckaymiller

One of the things I love best about my life in the forest is spotting wild animals. In The Secret Lives of Animals I wrote about following animal tracks in the snow, but on occasion I have the great good luck of spotting them in the fur, feather, snakeskin and such. I live next to a pond that serves as habitat, watering hole, hunting ground, playground and swimming hole for various critters. After freeze-up, it becomes an animal highway, a convenient shortcut through the woods. I get to watch the comings and goings of all sorts of animals from the comfort of my cabin, taking care to interfere with their lives as little as possible. They were, after all, here first. I’m the newcomer.

I saw a wide variety of critters during my eight years in the yurt. But camping out in a tent – even a large, luxurious tent like the yurt – was challenging, especially during the wild Cape Breton winters. About six years in I began to make serious plans to build a house (not literally build it – I can’t build a bookshelf, let alone a house). Or perhaps I made serious plans to build a deck, and I had to design a house to attach the deck to.

There were delays (there are always delays) but some seven years ago I finally moved into my little log house, not far from the yurt. And since then I have made ample use of my deck, high above the sloping ground that leads down to the pond. Sometimes friends or, more recently, family, have joined me on the deck. But we humans are not the only ones who have enjoyed this addition to the land. It seems that many of my wild neighbours think the deck is here for them.

The influx of visitors accelerated after I finally got around to putting a railing around the deck, a safety feature for me, but apparently a pleasant perch for them. Critters seem to appreciate the high vantage point of the railing. It is a convenient place to relax in the sun, to be on the lookout for lunch, to avoid becoming lunch. Or to run around like a crazed thing and taunt the human in the house (I’m looking at you, Squirrel).

Here are a few of the deck visitors I’ve managed to capture with my clunky old camera. Apologies for the blurry pics – animals that are perfectly posed have a knack of moving just as I click. Not to mention these are often shot through window screens and less-than-crystal-clear windows. Hats off to wildlife photographers for their great skill and patience in getting amazingly crisp, clear shots of animals. It is a challenging art form.

I wrote about the adventures of this barred owl, nicknamed Ollie, in Hoots in the Holler. Ollie spent much of the day hanging around the house, looking for a squirrel snack. Find out how that went in my blog from January 2021.

Ollie relaxing on the railing one wintry day.

All was well until he spotted a rival owl staring back at him.
Just before (left) and just after (right) he attacked his reflection, talons first.Yikes!

In February I wrote about finding mysterious tracks in the snow in The Secret Lives of Animals. Well, it turns out there’s a new kid in town, a real tough customer. I suspect that, just like Ollie, this fisher is looking for a squirrel to snack on.

Hummingbirds like to take a breather on the railing before returning to the feeder. This male ruby-throated hummingbird was vigilant even while resting, making sure no other hummer honed in on his territory.

Other birds, blue jays and dark-eyed juncos, drop by onto the deck, but never long enough for a photo-op. Insects make for better models. They are ectotherms (cold-blooded) and like to soak up the warmth of the sun, especially in autumn when the temperatures drop.

Last July I spotted a large owl on the railing and thought: ‘Ollie’s back!’ Until he turned his head around. ‘Whoa – that ain’t Ollie!’ It was a great horned owl. What a treat!

This great horned owl dropped onto the deck railing one summer day.

Okay, this blog is about wild visitors to my deck, and, strictly speaking, this young bull moose is not actually on the deck. But given that it is really hard for a moose to get up on my deck (phew!) and that he is practically on what will someday be the lower deck (these things take time) my moose neighbour made the cut.

I took these photos from my basement window. He was just right there.

That’s it for my wild deck visitors – at least for now. But not every animal who hangs out on the deck is all that wild. My son and daughter-in-law and their dog came out to the Holler for a visit and we enjoyed lots of deck time. My grandpuppy thought it was a grand place to have a snooze. Perhaps he was dreaming of running with the wolves.

Sue McKay Miller
October 31st, 2021

Happy Halloween!

At the End of the Day

Posted on September 30, 2021 by suemckaymiller

Ah, summer in Cape Breton. Sun and sand and the salty sea. Seaweed and Seagull Dreams. It is a precious season and all the more treasured because it is so vanishingly short. People soak up the sun, bob about in waves, and mess about with sand and stone. At the beach we can all be children again, building sand castles, scooping out moats, building teetering towers of stone.

At the end of each summer’s day, as the sun dips down towards the Highlands, people round up their children and pack up their beach gear and head off for supper, leaving the beach to the gulls and crows and the odd hanger on. (Yes, that would be me.) I like to stroll the beach at the end of the day as the setting sun turns the sea into rippling mother of pearl. On these strolls I see the things left behind by beachgoers.

Some leave nothing but footprints in the sand. Others leave their names or declarations of love in large loopy letters in the wet sand at the water’s edge. A few unenlightened souls leave their garbage behind for someone else to clean up. Some items are left behind by accident, the stray flip flop that fell off a toddler’s foot, the bright blue beach bucket, the misplaced sunglasses.

Other things left behind at the end of the day.

But some people leave behind beach creations, as delightful and ephemeral as summer itself. Beach art is not meant to last for generations or even days. It is, by its very nature, transient. And that is why it is so special. People at the beach, be they six or sixty, create for the pure joy of creating. It’s fun to shape damp sand with human hands, to pick out the perfect beach stone to add to a tower, to adorn a sandcastle with twigs and scraps of seaweed. The pleasure is in the making, not the keeping. And at the end of the day the makers walk away, leaving their creations to be swept away by wind and tide. Beach art appears and then vanishes. The sand, the rocks, the twigs and seaweed remain, returning to their own random beauty.

Dulse and kelp transformed into beet and kale by human imagination.

These beach creations, from the elaborate to the humble, always make me smile. I’ve given some of them a longer life by capturing them with my camera and putting them in this photo blog. To the anonymous makers, my beach hat is off to you. If you see your own creation featured here, let me know in the comments below.

Sue Browne’s ‘Bird about Town’ and beautifully balanced stones by Jordan.

Things to do with beach stones: balance them, stack them, make mysterious patterns with them.

Some beach creations are quite elaborate …

… Others are more humble but just as delightful.

Just as sand castles are washed away by the cyclic tide, so summer is swept away by the cyclic journey of Earth around the sun. We recently swung from summer to autumn on the Fall Equinox. Now the days are getting shorter, the air and the ocean are cooling, the leaves are beginning to turn. Like sand castles and balanced stone towers, summer is a fleeting thing.

And so castles made of sand
     fall in the sea
           eventually 

            - Jimi Hendrix

Life too is a fleeting thing. Every living thing, from mayfly to towering white pine, human to seagull, moose to mollusc to moss, has its moment in the sun and then passes, returning to the elements. And just as with sand castles and summer, it is that very transience of life that makes it so very precious.

Sue McKay Miller
September 30, 2021

At the end of the day, the tide washes everything away – but we celebrate our moment in the sun.

Seagull Dreams

Posted on August 31, 2021 by suemckaymiller

During our brief Cape Breton summer I emerge from the forest to spend my days by the sea, a seasonal migration of sorts. The wide open blue horizon replaces leafy green foliage. I trade the still waters of L’il Pond for the dynamic waves and tides of the Atlantic. I love to float, suspended between the endless blue sky and the briny sea. And as I float I watch the seagulls, creatures of sky and sea.

Our local CBC morning show features ‘popcorn’ interviews with local folk of note. One fun question is: ‘If you were an animal, which animal would you be?’ Ignoring the nitpicky quibble that humans are animals, it is intriguing to hear the answers. Cats and dogs rate highly, and eagles are quite popular. Once upon a time I might have said coyote, but I have switched my fantasy animal to the seagull.

Seagull? Who would choose to be a seagull? Like coyotes, rats, and Rodney Dangerfield, these critters don’t get a whole lot of respect. Even the fictional seagull from Richard Bach’s 1970 bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull wasn’t overly impressed by his own kind. (I wonder if Jonathon, whose reckless high altitude dives often resulted in catastrophic crashes, wasn’t really a gannet in a gull’s body.) I find it interesting that many of the most despised animals have a lot in common with Homo sapiens: They are clever, opportunistic, and highly adaptable. They thrive in a variety of habitats and will eat just about anything. Sound familiar?

*Ta-da!* Even this gull in all its glory doesn’t get a whole lot of respect.

But I don’t want to be a parking lot, french-fry scavenging urban gull. My human-self fled the concrete jungle, so it makes sense that my seagull-self prefers wharves to Walmarts.

Herring gulls hang out around the fishing wharf, keeping a beady eye on things.

The question remains: Why a seagull? Well, since this is an exercise of the imagination, why not fulfill that age-old human fantasy and fly? But none of that flap, flap, flapping of wings to stay aloft, thank you very much. I want to soar, to ride the wind, to swoop and swerve. Many birds, from raptors to ravens, can soar, but seagulls embrace both my elements, air and water. So, with apologies to the Steve Miller Band, I want to fly like a seagull.

Seagulls are adept fliers who seem to relish gusty, windy days when they can hover, zoom, maneuver, circle and soar. They are often out and about on stormy days when air and ocean are turbulent and wild. Gulls are at ease on the roughest seas, phlegmatic floaters on chaotic surf. When a whitecap threatens to engulf a gull, she flaps her wings and flits to the backside of the breaker. Rough seas churn up all kinds of critters, a buffet for gulls and seals alike.

Speaking of buffets, these birds of sea and sky are also pretty nimble on land. After beach-going humans head home for supper the gulls and crows swoop in, scouring the sand for tasty morsels: some spilled chips or cheezies, a bit of a bun, a sandy section of hot dog.

A juvenile black-backed gull goes for an afternoon stroll.
This particular bird is quite a character, acting almost tame.

The same juvenile (delinquent) gull admired this sunflower towel and then tried to snatch it away.

Gulls’ webbed feet are ideal for swimming and work well enough on land, but they are not suited for perching in lofty treetops. No worries! We humans have provided plenty of perching options for gulls. Light standards, telephone poles, and gabled rooftops offer gulls high, safe and comfy perches where they can chill out and look down on us.

Gulls take advantage of the many perches we’ve provided. (Click to see full-size pics.)

Unlike so many animals, gulls (like the aforementioned rats and coyotes) thrive alongside humans. Seagulls flock behind fishing boats, swoop in to swipe food, scavenge our leftovers, and sit atop our structures. They may not be as brainy as corvids or parrots, or have as complex vocalizations, but gulls are no birdbrains. Seagulls are smart and they’re survivors.

Tourists buy fish to feed the adorable harbour seals at Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria. Wily gull stays close by and swoops in for the interception. This gull made a couple of successful steals from the seals.

I’ve been using the generic word ‘seagull’ here, but bird-nerds may wonder what type of gull. I initially favoured the great black-backed gull, our largest gull with the same wingspan as an osprey. But I’ve switched over to the less sartorial herring gull. They aren’t the prettiest bird, but then gulls don’t need to impress us, just other gulls. He may look as attractive to her in his conservative grey and white plumage as a peacock does to a peahen. And unlike black-backed gulls, herring gulls also live on the west coast, which is where my seagull-self will live.

My human-self loves living in Cape Breton, but my seagull-self prefers the west coast, with its milder winters and protected islands. A Gulf Island Gull. This is fitting, since it was on Vancouver Island where I had my seagull epiphany, some 9 years ago.

I was visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Victoria, BC, in their tiny 4th floor apartment overlooking the Juan de Fuca Strait. There was much to marvel at from that vantage, but I was entranced by the seagulls. It was the first time I’d watched them at flight level rather than looking up from below. I watched these fancy fliers hover in headwinds, adjusting their wings to hold steady in buffets and gusts. I watched as they turned tail and zoomed downwind – Whoosh! – at high speed. I saw them swoop down from the top of the building right in front of the window. Like all wild animals, gulls are always on the lookout for lunch, but we humans aren’t the only animals who play. I couldn’t help but feel that these birds were having fun racing with the wind.

Along with the usual telephone and light poles, west-coast gulls can perch on a far more impressive pole. Thunderbird Park features an array of totem poles. My daughter-in-law and I were looking up, way up, admiring the magnificent carvings, when we burst into laughter. A seagull was perched on the very top of the totem pole, higher than Eagle or Raven or even the mighty Thunderbird, surveying the world below like the lord of all creation.

Eagle tops the totem pole on the left, but a seagull opted for top spot on the totem pole on the right.
(Too bad I didn’t get a photo – you just have to imagine him up there.)

I also envied the gulls squatting on offshore rocks that only emerged during low tide. Oh to be able to set myself down on some rocky crag, heedless of rising tides or rogue waves. One afternoon we were sitting on a secluded beach, looking across the water at four herring gulls on an offshore rock. After a while three of the birds flew off, but the fourth chose to linger. It struck me that, while these birds of a feather sometimes flock together, they also feel free to do their own thing. My fascination with gulls grew.

Back home in Cape Breton I began paying more attention to our local gulls. One summer I felt a special kinship with a particular herring gull. At the end of the day, after the beach emptied, I would spot this same gull (I presume) perched out on the rocky breakwater, catching the last rays of the sun. I would be sitting onshore, already in the shade, mesmerized by the kaleidoscopic play of the light on the water. Each of us was alone, content in our sunset solitude.

Solitary gulls, hanging around the breakwater.

I watched that herring gull swim alongside the breakwater, in search of a seafood supper. Boom, he’d plunge his head underwater and come up with a small crab or lobster in his bill. He’d fly his prize over to the beach and drop the unlucky crustacean onto the wet sand. Then (ugh!) he’d rip its legs off one by one, swallowing them whole, shell and all. This is horrid to watch, as the doomed creature tries to escape on fewer and fewer appendages.

Now I also like to eat shellfish, although I prefer it cooked and served with melted butter and a glass of chilled white wine. And there is currently a fierce debate about whether or not crustaceans, or other invertebrates without a centralized brain, can feel pain. But in a Darwinian world the gull’s technique makes sense – a smart gull doesn’t let his supper run away. I’ve now seen this practice many times and always feel both fascinated and repulsed. Our animal fantasies tend to break down when we blend in too much animal reality.

I want to soar like a seagull, but I’m not so sure about fighting over a pile of rotting bait.

But hey, in the end this is all just a seagull dream. I suspect we are the only animals who imagine ourselves into other beings and bodies. We become seagulls and superheroes, ancient Egyptians and futuristic space explorers. Humans may not have wings, but in our imaginations? We soar.

Sue McKay Miller
August 31st, 2021