Daisy Fleabane

Nature's cycle has made 2010 another daisy fleabane year in this corner of Indiana. Fields are white with the tiny flowers of this member of the Aster family.

These photo's were taken during my Kankakee fishing expedition.

The last "Daisy Fleabane year" was 2006 which seemed to be a hot and drier year than we have had of late.

Blue Herons appear around every bend of the trail this year too. The drier conditions mean that backwaters are drying up and tadpoles and frogs are plentiful food.

On a hot and humid day in 2006 I walked up to a pool that was drying up; stranding hundreds of big bullfrog tadpoles in various stages of development. With nothing but my hands to use as a container I carried as many as I could to the nearest water; probably robbing the herons of some easy dinner.

Each time I returned to the pool to get more tadpoles there would be more tadpoles crawling onto my blue fishing rod case; I think they knew I was their only chance; or maybe they just liked the case's blue color.

Daisy Fleabane was once thought to repel fleas; thus the name.