-
Recent Posts
- Two shorebirds
- Sage Thrasher
- Spring arrives
- Wild Turkey mating
- Nesting on wooden pilings
- Perching on wooden pilings
- Trumpeter courting
- Injured swan
- Confused teal
- Mallard mating
- Hairy not Downy
- Two interesting visitors
- Otters frolic
- Devil’s cormorant
- Harrier
- Wing-flap preening
- In the bill
- Barred Owl
- Cygnet
- Swan migration
- Apostrophe’s abrasion
- Buntings and finches
- Weasel
- Golden-Plover
- Cloudbow & glory
- White-tail suckling
- Exotropia in bears
- Grizzly & Kokanee
- Bears in Park
- A week late
- Uncommon harasses rare
- Eagle juvenile
- Chipmunk
- Juvenile ospreys
- Juveniles
- Juvenile herons
- Osprey & chick
- Faeces disposal
- Ghost plant
- Snowshoe hare
- Skunk kit feeds
- Feeding swallow chicks
- Heron & fish
- Turkey Vultures
- Starling chick
- Eye to eye
- Nesting material
- Columbia spotted frog
- Striped coralroot
- Bald Eagle nest
Archives
Categories
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Category Archives: wildflowers
Incidental images
Outdoors, I often am looking for something specific, maybe a wild orchid, maybe a grizzly bear. While this approach is often successful, this fall, it has not been. I head out but don’t see many things previous years would … Continue reading
Posted in birds, fish, scenes, wildflowers
5 Comments
Pipe pollination
The Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is an interesting plant — it lacks chlorophyll. Yet, it thrives in rare locations on the forest floor where it has carved out a niche which does not require it to have access to … Continue reading
Posted in bugs, wildflowers
2 Comments
Galls
I had no idea what I was looking at. The plant was the wild rose (Rosa woodsii), but what were those spiky red balls on its leaves? Adjacent clues — spider’s threads, spittlebug’s froth — turned out to be … Continue reading
Posted in bugs, wildflowers
2 Comments
Wildflower walk
A forest walk revealed wildflowers. The Tiger Lily likes sunshine and so favours clearings in the forest. Also a member of the lily family, the Queen’s Cup favours the dappled sunlight of moist woodlands and was strewn across the forest … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
3 Comments
Bombus vagans
The Half-black Bumble Bee (Bombus vagans) is a common bumble bee of North America. Its local scarcity this spring has prompted me to wonder about it. However, I am finding it now — not in great numbers, but it … Continue reading
Posted in bugs, wildflowers
1 Comment
Fairy slippers
It was an unexpected experience. I was crouched low (and I thought, inconspicuously) on a forest hillside taking pictures of wildflowers when a family hiked by, paused, saw what I was doing, and asked, “Are you Alistair?” So it was that among my … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
3 Comments
Pollen covered
This spring has been a strange. Insects, usually plentiful, have been sparse — but not absent. In a field of dandelions, both hover flies and solitary bees (but, not social bees) flew from flower to flower seeking nectar. It was fairly … Continue reading
Posted in bugs, wildflowers
1 Comment
Purple trillium
The Trillium is an early-spring flower of the deep forest, which is based on the number three: It has three leaves, three sepals, and three petals. Our local trillium is known variously as the Western Trillium, the White Trillium, and … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
4 Comments
Fairy ring
He wha (who) tills the fairies’ green Nae (no) luck again shall hae (have) And he wha (who) spills the fairies’ ring Betide him want and wae (woe). Traditional Scottish verse It is now difficult to … Continue reading
Posted in commentary, wildflowers
2 Comments
Ducks of that ilk
Sometimes a picture is taken merely so as to delight in a whimsical, but obscure, title. It may be that only a canny Scots botanist will get this one.