The ferry ride to Big Tancook was free of charge. We’d tried to go the day before, but the operation was experiencing difficulties so we called off the six riders who’d signed on for the adventure and went elsewhere. Now things looked different. Driving to Chester in the early morning, we found the ferry up and running on schedule. Sunny and windless, perfect conditions to see the islands in Mahone Bay.
Once on the island, we unloaded our bikes and headed off. No paved roads here–everywhere you head feels like a bike trail. Cars, golf carts and buggies pass, but mostly other bikers.
I wondered what sort of wildlife I might see on such a short expedition. We took the first ferry over and the first ferry back, with a brief stop for a picnic lunch, but more than enough time to circle the island.
My nature observations are aided with a little help from my friends. How many times have I gone for walks and Kathleen will point out mayflowers underfoot before they come into flower. It doesn’t have to be tiny things. Kathleen will point to a distant group of silent deer or a far-off hawk hunting over the water. And Jay and others will take me to spots where I wouldn’t otherwise go. In a new setting, one sees with fresh eyes.
I also see with the aid of a camera. When I sort my photos, little surprises jump out at me. On Tancook, I took a picture of a mother and baby ducks swimming in convoy across a small pond. What I didn’t see was the round painted turtle sunning herself on a log halfway across. So that’s what the ducks were looking at! Their heads have clearly turned—the ducklings pulled in one direction by curiosity and in another direction by the need to stay connected to the family unit. It only takes a minute to cross the pond, but what care they take. Is life that precarious that they have no time for diversions, or are they simply more disciplined than people, more focused on their tasks?
I’d been studying lichens, trying to find and identify a wider group of species. I wondered if I might encounter an interesting sample on the island. I didn’t think so at the time, but after I got home, this image popped out at me.
Sure enough, inaturalist identified it as an armoured sea-fog lichen. What a beauty!