The following day we fought the wind and paddled up the two lakes above Nuk Tessli.  We hiked to Boundary Lake.

The flowers are all trying to bloom.  Here is a Butterwort, sometimes known as a Bog Violet although it is not related to violets at all.

Butterworts are insect-eaters.  The bogs around Nuk Tessli are extremely acid.  Acidity ties up the nitrogen in the soil and the plants need to find nourishment elsewhere.  Small insects land on the sticky leaves and are unable to get away.  Enzymes in the glandular hairs that form a slimy surface to the leaves then digest them.

Another insect-eating plant en route to Boundary Lake is the long-leaved sundew.  In one bog it is extremely common.  Note the small bug stuck on one of the leaves.  Often I see dragonflies stuck there but this year no dragonflies have hatched yet.

The current clients at Nuk Tessli are birders.  The birds have rarely sung this year, but they seem to be making babies all the same.  Here is a parent clark’s nutcracker with a full-grown young begging for food.

Sandpipers were at last being territorial.  First the solitary

And here is the spotted sandpiper.

A bedraggled yellow-rumped warbler was collecting food for his offspring.

He is looking as fed up as we are with the rain.