Seven Wonders of the Barrens / Lucky Star

On Wednesday afternoon, I experienced one of the many wonders of the Scotia Barrens. I'm not sure if there are seven of them, but let's just say that there are, for the sake of argument. So wonder number one was frogfest, and the next day, Thursday, I got to experience wonder number two: an ephemeral and magical phenomenon I have always called the pollen rainbows.

It started quite simply enough. I was sitting on the banks of my favorite little vernal pond on Wednesday, watching and listening to the frogs. I noticed the silver-gray sheen on the water surface that I knew might result, in the right conditions, in a very special display of rainbows.

Pollen rainbows, I called them at first, because I thought there was something atop the water making it all happen. I don't think, anymore, that they are actually made of pollen, but that was the best I could come up with. After several years of experience chasing these, I believe they are rainbows created by a particular angle of light shining through the gases dispersed by decaying vegetative matter.*

I suspect that one of the agents helping to create this display is springtails (or snow fleas), as they assist in the breakdown of organic biomass. I know my description doesn't sound too poetic, but it is gorgeous to see in person. 

The rainbows are only visible from certain angles and in certain light; in flat light, or with the sun behind you, it just looks like a silver-gray mist on top of the water. You'd walk right on by and never know they were there!

It was morning, and I took my bike over to the Barrens to my favorite pond. Rain was expected, but it seemed like it was taking its good old sweet time getting here. So I thought I might have an hour to spare. Off I zipped on my little orange bike.

I arrived at the Barrens to discover that the good light was still with us. Alternating between clouds and sunshine, it seemed like I'd have a good chance of spying the rainbows, if they were there. 

I visited the first three ponds: my favorite one (closest to the parking lot, to the right of the trail), then the third pond further up the trail on the left, and then I came back to the second pond, which is huge, and tucked back into the trees to the left of the trail going in, not far from the first pond.

Pond 2 was covered in silver-gray mist. The frogs were singing. Shapes were moving. Circles were swirling. The water was disturbed as the amphibians had their big party. 

As Ansel Adams himself has said, a good photograph is knowing where to stand. So I knew what I had to do. I walked to the far end of the pond such that the pond was BETWEEN me and the light. I looked back. Aha, THERE THEY WERE!!! My pollen rainbows!

I took about a hundred pictures in the Barrens on this morning: many of them shots of the vernal pools, wearing their own very special brand of springtime magic. It felt like home to me, as the Barrens always does. I was in my element, exploring nature, enjoying the phenomena, delighting in what I found.

I'm including two shots: a big panorama one up above, to give you an idea of what I saw, and in the extras, a close-up shot of the surface, with a star splurk in the middle, where something fell; perhaps it was one of the stars from the springtime night sky.

I hope you enjoy these two glimpses of the special magic and good luck I have brought us back from the Barrens. Long live the pollen rainbows!

I've got two photos so here are two songs. First is Fleetwood Mac, with Seven Wonders. Second is Madonna, with Lucky Star.

*An alternative theory might be that swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light from Venus. ;-)