Just Chillin' with The Bun / Pollen Rainbows

It's been a while since I've featured any of the bunnies, so here is a bunny post! We have at least two rabbits in our yard. The one hangs out near the forsythia bush. This is the one that likes to spend its time on the other side of the yard, not far from Barb's butterfly garden/Ellen's bulb garden (they sorta ended up combined).

My husband called for me to come look out the front window and see what the bunny was doing, so I showed up, with camera, to this scene. Here is one totally chill rabbit, relaxing in the heat of a summer - oops, I mean spring - day. It got quite toasty out and later we had thunderstorms. I told my husband this is an IKEA rabbit - it looks like all the parts are present, but some assembly is required!

In other news, I walked to the Barrens to check out my favorite ponds, and I got to see what might just have been the first pollen rainbows of the year. I call them that, but I don't really know WHAT they are made of.

You may see some pollen rainbows in the extras. I have only encountered them in the Scotia Barrens a handful of times, but now that I know about them, I am always on the lookout.

I call them pollen rainbows because they typically appear after there is a sort of light gray haze or scum on top of the vernal pond, which I presumed was pollen. But if I walk around the pond, and examine the pond surface, with the pond between me and the sunlight, I get to witness the visual effect of rainbows on the surface.

I did come across a posting or two on the Internet describing this phenomenon. The one posting called them swamp rainbows. Which does not sound awfully appetizing, I know! But pollen rainbows may not sound much better.

A dude named Jeff Ripple states, "The rainbow sheens found as a thin film on top of pooled water in swamps and marshes are the result of natural oils released by decaying vegetation or the biological processes of anaerobic bacteria reducing iron in soil."

They state that the rainbows form only when the water has been still enough for long enough for the oils to separate from the water, creating the sheen on top that provides the physics behind the visual effect.

However, I have noted that the pollen rainbows that I have personally seen in the Scotia Barrens, on ponds known very well to me, have often appeared and been especially glorious after a spring or summer thunderstorm.

The best ones I have ever seen were on a late March morning two years ago, after a very early morning thunderstorm; those rainbows were fantastic, and my jaw dropped at the colors I saw that day. That might have been my first time, actually. I was instantly hooked. I am now a pollen rainbow chaser! Look, I caught some!  :-)

It's my tradition to include songs to go with my images. For the chill bunny above, I've picked Frankie Goes to Hollywood, with Relax, a favorite aerobics tune from the 80s. For my pollen rainbows in the extras, here is Sarah McLachlan, with Building a Mystery.