18 July finds me sitting at the foot of a Sugar Maple near the southwest end of Otty Lake, south of Perth, Ontario. This is the second day of the Otty Lake Bio-blitz. My painting site is right beside the road into a Scout camp, and within sight of the awnings and tables of the Bio-blitz headquarters. A steady straggle of people pass by me, singly and in groups. Participating in a 24 hour, all-taxon survey of the area, they are dressed in hiking gear and carrying binoculars, insect nets, field guides, and checklists. My attention is caught by three drought-stricken fronds of of the evergreen fern Dryopteris marginalis, sprawling from the base of the tree, their leaflets crisply curled in on themselves. Fred points out the Polypodium virginianum ferns perched a little higher on the tree roots. Two fronds of the Polypody are curved downwards at their tips , with pinnae curled upwards. A
