-
Recent Posts
- Then there were two
- Tundra and Trumpeter
- Turkey display
- Fencing, whitetails
- Combative female whitetails
- Birds and berries
- Squirrel provisioning
- Horned Lark
- Black bears
- Grizzly sow & cub
- Eagles
- Two uncommon birds
- Steam devil
- Otter visit
- Squirrel’s find
- Canada Jay
- Black bear
- Feeding on spawners
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Red Crossbill and Pine Siskin
- Osprey and fish
- Sabine’s still here and
- Harrier chasing
- Juvenile Bald Eagle
- Sabine’s Gull
- Bear and fish
- Heron and
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Bear fishing
- Odd antlers
- Osprey captures
- Heron and fish
- Osprey and Kokanee
- Kingbird chicks
- Four dragonflies
- Heron nest, more
- Heron nest
- Flying birds
- Grizzlies
- Loons & Osprey
- Ghost plant
- Robin hatchling
- Tree Swallow other feathers
- Tree Swallow feeding
- Tree Swallow flying
- Northern Flicker
- June goulash
- Like minds
- Kingbird nest
- Robin nesting and
Archives
Categories
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Category Archives: wildflowers
Spring lily & orchid
Flowers seem to time their blooming to optimize their interaction with pollinators. Two early spring bloomers were noticed today: a Glacier Lily and a Fairy Slipper (an orchid). This is one of a large crop of Glacier Lilies strewn … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
6 Comments
Fall to winter
Today, winter swept to the valley bottom. It seems that fall is not yet ready to concede defeat. Snow blankets the mountainside, but western larches proclaim its arrival is premature.
Posted in wildflowers
Comments Off on Fall to winter
Larch
In the fall, my favourite deciduous tree is actually a conifer: the larch. Although a conifer, the needles of the larch become orange in the fall and are then shed. Larch trees border a mountain lake.
Posted in scenes, wildflowers
1 Comment
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
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.