I use my camera to record things seen, and this blog to record things learned about things seem.
This normally effective formula failed with these two unknown shield bugs mating on a daisy: I have not even been able to discover their genus. They are probably a type of stink bug, but I did not put them to the test.
They were identified as conspicuous stink bugs (Cosmopepla conspicillaris) in February, 2015.
I have not seen a porcupine in decades; nor had Doug Thorburn who took these pictures earlier in the week. I suspect the reason is that a porcupine is usually active at night, while we are not.
The porcupine was ascending a gravel bank.
Porcupines are vegetarians that favour tree leaves, buds, and bark. Bank erosion has given it access to roots.
Porcuportrait
Doug Thorburn’s images are used with permission.
The crab spider (Misumena vatia) can change colour from white to yellow. This allows it to become almost invisible as it sits on similarly coloured flowers while it waits to ambush an unsuspecting pollinator. The favourite local perch of the crab spider is a daisy, a flower that offers the spider a choice: remain white and hunt from the petals; turn yellow and hunt from the central yellow disk. Every crab spider on a daisy I have photographed in past years, has chosen to be white on the petals: see 1, 2, 3 or 4 (read the comment about the colour shift in 4).
This year, for the first time, I saw a yellow crab spider on the central disk of a daisy. Who knows why? The only difference I can see is that these pictures were taken just after a rain. It may be that the drops on the petals were a nuisance for it.
A yellow crab spider hunts from the central yellow disk of a daisy.
A crab spider is skittish and upon spotting me, this one hid under a petal.
I see a Pileated Woodpecker only a few times a year, typically when I am running an unrelated errand. Encounters are just too happenstance to plan. Yet, my camera is handy just in case.
I heard an adult male Pileated Woodpecker call from a utility pole; it soon moved to a more promising birch snag.
It spent the first while exploring, broadening, and probing cavities.
Soon it found what were probably larvae of the Bronze Birch Beetle and collected them with its sticky tongue. Some are already stuck to its bill. 
When the woodpecker’s tongue retracts, larvae are tossed in the air and pile up on its bill.
Sated, the Pileated Woodpecker moves on.
Things seen higher in the mountains often differ from those seen at the valley bottoms: trees, mammals, birds and flowers, all change with elevation. Here are some examples gleaned from this week’s jaunts.
The Willow Flycatcher seems to prefer the riparian areas of valley bottoms. 
The Turkey Vulture prefers to hunt in the open spaces, deciduous forests and farmlands of valley bottoms. The flycatcher and the vulture were both seen in Harrop. 
In winter and early spring, the Varied Thrush can be found at low elevations, but with summertime, it goes higher. This one was singing at about 1400 metres. 
Locally, Yellow-bellied Marmots occupy valley bottoms, likely to avoid competition with Hoary Marmots higher up. 
As a child, I saw chipmunks around the lakeshore. Now, I only see them at higher elevations. This one was at about 1100 metres. Was it competition that drove them higher?
The Tiger Lily is found in forest clearings around the Lake.
However, you must climb into the montane and subalpine regions to see Bear Grass.
It’s that time of year: mid-day in June is the time to watch for the circumhorizontal arc. The arc forms low in the sky when the Sun is high.
I watched for it yesterday, but did not have a good view to the south. Fortunately, at about the same time Nicole Tremblay spotted it from the highway north of Schroeder Creek. I will watch for it again midday today.
Nicole Tremblay’s image is used with permission.
Pikas usually live on alpine scree slopes. I have heard their calls, pee-ka, previous years but before today, I had not seen this relative of the rabbit. Today at an altitude of over 1100 metres, I saw my first pika. Pikas are often considered the epitome of cute.
Pikas are vegetarians
that live among the rocks.
I watched distinctive tail feathers vanish into the grass at the top of a steep bank. Sigh, I have missed the shot….
But, the bank, below, was actually churning with activity. These four ascending Wild Turkey chicks blended in well.
“I just hope that mommy will not leave us behind.”
Doug Thorburn writes about his Tuesday pictures of Western Toads:
Hi Alistair, thought you might be interested and/or horrified by these scenes of toad romance. At first I was hard pressed to determine where one toad started and the other ended. There also seems to be a bit of jelly covered eggs to add an additional fecundity to the scene. Spring is indeed in the air, and apparently the water.
Doug Thorburn’s images used with permission
I confess to taking a particular delight in observing local wild orchids.
Spring started well with fairy slippers in Kokanee Creek Park. While it didn’t diminish the pleasure, I had seen them other years and so knew where to look. Today’s observations of mountain lady’s slippers were unexpected.
Previously, the only mountain lady’s slippers I had seen around the Lake were on the East Shore, and these ones obligingly hung out with other wild orchids: yellow lady’s slippers, striped coralroots, and giant helleborines. Those gems appear on my orchid page.
But, mountain lady’s slippers on the West Arm and in Kokanee Creek Park? Apparently even seasoned local naturalists have not spotted them here before. I did not see any other orchids in the immediate vicinity.
Towering over the surrounding wildflowers, mountain lady’s slippers often have more than one flower on a stem.
The name, lady’s slipper, seems appropriate when this delicate orchid is viewed in profile.
Lovely
