July 19, 2009 More Photos from Grand Manan Island

Last week I showed you some of the birds we saw during our Elderhostel program on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick. Another focus of the program was on the wildflowers found on the island. The habitat in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is a lot like Northern Minnesota (except for the ocean). So, some of the flowers, like this Orange Hawkweed, are the same species that we see at home.

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In the boggy areas we found plants like Pitcher Plant, Sundew, and this beautiful little Dragon’s Tongue Orchid. The flower is only about 2” long and the entire plant is only 5-10” tall.

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Sea Milkwort is a small, succulent type plant that grows among the rocks right at the sea shore. It was blooming while we were there and I put a penny in the photo to show you just how tiny the plant and its flowers are.

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We stayed at the Marathon Inn on Grand Manan Island. One morning, when we came to breakfast, we were greeted by two Luna Moths clinging to the red front door. I was thrilled, because I had never seen a Luna Moth before. The innkeeper told us that for several years Luna Moths have appeared on that same door at about this time. They are very large, with a wingspan of 3-4.5“ and a total length of 5-6”. They only live for about a week, just long enough to mate and lay their eggs.

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Diana and I came across this house as we drove around town and I just had to take a photo of it. We later learned that one of our Elderhostel instructors lives here. She has been collecting these floats, used to mark the location of lobster traps, when she found them floating loose in the open ocean. They make for a very colorful house decoration.

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On our boat trip around the island we were fortunate to see several Minke whales. This species is the smallest of the baleen whales. Males can be up to 32 feet long and females can be up to 36 feet long. They can weigh up to 10 tons.

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