Quiet Waters, Unexpected Pleasures

Ah, what a perfect summer day today:  blue sky, bright sun, a cool morning that warmed as the sun rose higher, the grass and trees and flowers freshly washed by yesterday's drenching rains.  It was, perhaps, a bit too windy for easy paddling on open waters, but my friend Sue and I did not intend to venture out onto open waters, since our destination was the quiet backwaters of the Hudson near the Betar Byway in South Glens Falls.

Sue had paddled this shallow, sheltered area a few days ago, and she had found colonies of strange "moss animals," gelatinous masses called Pectinatella magnifica that form on underwater branches.  So we were here to look for them, and thanks to Sue's sharp vision, we found them lurking down under the murky water.

I was able to grasp the end of a branch one colony had formed on, and lifting it out of the water, was able to get a closer look at its complicated structure.  To learn more about the fascinating life forms -- called "bryozoans" -- that make up these colonies, you can visit a University of Massachusetts site that tells all about them by clicking here.

A second goal of our paddle today was to see the pretty pink flowers of Water Shield, now in bloom by the hundreds in one of the quiet bays.

 
Most of the Water Shield flowers were tipped with the whitish anthers of the male flowers, but occasionally we could find one that had what we assumed were the rosy pink pistillate structures of female flowers.  Or at least the female phase of the flower.  I'm not well-versed in this flower's reproductive strategies.  This Hudson backwater is the only place I have ever seen Water Shield in bloom.

Update:  My friend and fellow plant enthusiast Ed Miller has written to explain the Water Shield's fertilization strategy.  Each flower contains both staminate (male) and pistillate (female) parts, with the male parts ripening first.  After the stamens have shed their pollen, the flower retracts underwater until the female parts ripen, at which time the flower re-emerges to accept pollen from other plants, a process that impedes self-pollination.  After the flower is fertilized, the stem retracts it under water, where its seeds will develop and be "planted" again in the mud.


We were very pleased that we'd found the two things we had come here to see, but then we came upon some plants that were highly unexpected.  There's a narrow island that runs through the middle of this quiet backwater, and there we found Wild Senna growing in abundant numbers.  This is only the second location of all my nature wanderings where I have found this native pea-family plant.  Sue saw it first, and the sighting rendered her nearly speechless, as she pointed excitedly to the bright yellow blooms.

Wild Senna has some of the oddest looking flowers I have ever seen.  They sure don't look like the flowers of most other pea-family plants.

So far, we were having a very lucky day, and we also counted ourselves quite lucky to get a nice long look at this large Painted Turtle sunning itself on a log.  Neither one of us could recall ever getting this close to a sunning turtle before it tumbled off into the water.  It just sat there and sat there and let us each take lots and lots of close-up photos.

To top off our day of lucky finds, this gorgeous Giant Swallowtail Butterfly landed right at our feet, where it stayed and stayed, fluttering about a little, but always remaining within camera range, with its beautiful wings outspread.

There was obviously something that butterfly craved in that mud, since it refused to leave the site, plunging its proboscis into the mud again and again.

Even I was able to take a nice clear photo of this beautiful creature, its perfection only slightly marred by a tear in one of its wings.

Paddling the Betar Backwater

Today was a triple treat:  a perfect day for a paddle, a perfect place to go paddling, and a fine friend to paddle with.  And that was just the beginning.  It got even better than that.

To begin with, the day dawned clear and still, a welcome turn of events, since I'd agreed to meet my friend Sue at the Betar Byway in South Glens Falls to paddle the Hudson River backwater there, then explore the open river upstream to a section of sheer shale cliffs.  Our route was probably no more than a mile, but we like to take our time, poking about in little bays,  creeping quietly up on turtles basking on fallen logs, and waiting patiently for clouds of coupling damselflies to resettle on overhanging snags so we just might get a photo.  (No such luck!)

I did have a goal for today, and that was to find again the jelly-like colony of "moss animals" called Pectinatella that accumulates on underwater branches in quiet backwaters like this.  This is a photo I took last year and looked up again today, wanting to get a search image fresh in my mind.  Unfortunately, it didn't help, for search though we did, we did not find another colony today.

In such a beautiful spot as this, it's impossible to stay disappointed for long.  Everywhere we looked was a treat for our eyes, including this Watershield with pads a stunning ruby red.

Then, Ho!  What's that, poking up from the surface, floating on little pontoons among the Watershield?  Sue spied it first, and she, like me, could hardly believe her eyes.

Well, I'll be darned!  It's Small Inflated Bladderwort (Utricularia radiata), blooming a whole month earlier that I've ever seen it before.  But then, I've never come looking for it this early before, since the first time I ever saw this little rare bladderwort was in September, two years ago. 

There were only a few of the bladderwort's chubby yellow flowers in full bloom today; most were still in bud or only partly open.  But come back in a month, and there will be hundreds bobbing about on their radiating air-filled pontoons, making it very hard to believe that this plant is listed as "Threatened" in New York State.


When we finally left the shelter of the backwater, we were pleased to see that the open river was still quite calm, making for an easy passage upstream.

Of course, it still took us quite a while to reach the area of steep shale cliffs,  since we had many fascinating distractions along the way.  But finally we felt the sheer black walls looming over us.  This particular sheer black wall was brightened by the brilliant orange of a green algae called Trentepohlia aurea.  I know it seems odd to call this orange fuzzy stuff a green algae, but that is indeed what it is, although it contains certain chemicals that mask its chlorophyll.

Other bright spots of color on these dark, dank walls were provided by Purple-flowering Raspberry.   The pretty ferns next to the raspberry vine are Bulblet Fern, a species that usually indicates the presence of lime.  Many little springs drip down these dampened cliffs, carrying minerals from the substrate above and dissolving the lime in the shale, which crumbles at a touch.

The beauty of Water Pennywort lies in its glossy green scalloped leaves, here clinging enmasse to the walls of the cliff.   It may very well have been in flower, but its tiny translucent green flowers would be almost invisible even if they weren't hidden under the leaves.

Looking almost as leafy as that Pennywort was this liverwort (species unknown) of the prettiest glossy green.  There were several kinds of liverworts clinging to these cliffs, and this year I'm going to make it my project to learn their names.

When we reach the cliffs with the row of rectangular blocks, we know we are nearing the Feeder Dam and it's time to turn around. 

As it was, it took us over an hour to return to our launching site, even with the current pushing behind us.   Not because we had gone so far, but because there was so much more to see.  What a beautiful stretch of river!

PS:  Just for the record, I want to add that we found a single plant of Golden Pert (Gratiola aurea) growing out of a floating log here in the Betar backwater. 

Also known as Golden Hedge Hyssop, this is a plant I find growing profusely upstream, in the catchment above the Sherman Island Dam, where it carpets the muddy shores and fills every crack in the riverside rocks, despite the fact that botanical atlases show no record of its existence in Saratoga County.  I have queried many of my botanical friends, who tell me they have never seen this plant anywhere else in their area explorations, other than the catchment I mentioned.  It certainly makes sense that Golden Pert would show up downstream from that area, as the Betar backwater is, lying below the Feeder Dam in South Glens Falls.  I wonder if it will find a home here and spread as profusely as it has done upstream.    It will be interesting to watch its progress.  Or lack of it.