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Category Archives: wildflowers
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
Window thunk
The predawn thunk of a window collision reminds one that birds rise early. The collision was a consequence of birds flying to an adjacent rowan tree (European mountain ash). Most of the birds flying to the rowan berries were robins. However, … Continue reading
Posted in birds, wildflowers
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Not a topiary
I had no idea what I was looking at, but it reminded me of an enormous topiary sculpted in the forest. I was on an osprey survey with the Friends of Kootenay Lake. We were passing along the east shore … Continue reading
Posted in commentary, wildflowers
1 Comment
June goulash
This is an end-of-the-month collection of images, none of which has had a posting of its own. A cinnamon-coloured Black Bear eyes an intruder in its territory. For a female Osprey to be lifting her tail this late in … Continue reading
Posted in birds, bugs, herptiles, mammals, wildflowers
2 Comments
Forest oddities
A walk through the forest in Kokanee Creek Park revealed two oddities that do not quite fit normal ideas: pinedrops and slime mould. Pinedrops are a mycotroph, a plant that lacks chlorophyll and so cannot synthesize its own carbohydrates. … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
2 Comments
Striped Coralroot
Sometimes while searching for one thing, something better turns up. Such was the case two days ago, when the prize was a Striped Coralroot. I had last seen this wild orchid six years ago and on the other side … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
4 Comments
Fairy Slippers
The bee knows. Yesterday in my yard, I saw pollinia on the thorax of a bumble bee. As far as I know, the only flowers around here that produce these pollen packets are orchids, and the wild orchid that … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
3 Comments
From ice to flowers
In a lovely example of a seasonal transition, I saw ice extrusions and subalpine buttercups within three metres of each other at an altitude of about 800 metres on a mountainside above Kootenay Lake. Typically, ice extrusions are seen when the … Continue reading
Posted in weather, wildflowers
3 Comments
Waxing alliteratively
It was a most elegant symphony of visual alliteration: waxwings wolfing waxberries. A flock of many dozen Bohemian Waxwings landed on a staging tree above a bank covered with rose hips and waxberries (aka, snowberries). They flew in waves to the waxberries, but … Continue reading
Posted in birds, 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 →