New Addition

Today's post is at -
For the Joy of Flowers

I'll be there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

On other days, you will find me here.

Hope you can drop by.

Insect Habitat

These photos were taken on Thursday morning, after a heavy rainfall the night before. It has been a wet and cool month for us, with some "below average" temperatures.

On this particular bright sunny morning, I was digging over the compost when I spotted a butterfly fluttering nearby. I had seen it a couple of times before, and once in my garden. I guess it was my lucky day as the butterfly was still in the same area when I came back with my camera.

After I found out its name, I thought, "How appropriate." It really does have a commanding presence.

I've only seen one of the Admiral butterflies in the yard so far, but that may be because the males are very territorial. From my bug book, Garden Bugs of British Columbia, Elmhirst, Fry, Macaulay: "Each one surveys his territory from his high perch and will swoop down to fight and drive off any other male who wanders in."

It first landed here

White Admiral (L. arthemis)

and then moved to this sunlit spot.

White Admiral on Oregon Grape

A little later, while walking around, I saw the Damselfly.

Bluet Damselfly

Sky Watch

An Osprey's lofty nest.

(please click on photo for better viewing)

Full view with nest at the far end.
This structure was meant to be a hay barn
but was never finished. The nest has been
in that spot for several years.

A Big Thank You to Tom of Welcome to Wiggers World for hosting Sky Watch.

Hello Everyone,

As you can see from my sidebar at the top, I've created a new blog, in addition to this one. I hope to divide my time between the two. Essentially, the new one will be pictures only with very few words.
Please stop by sometime to see the flowers.

Kind regards,
April

A Garden Gem

Surprise, Surprise!
I found this medium size tuber when I was weeding,

a potato from last year - one we missed.
Amazingly it survived our cold winter,
six months in the frozen ground.

I cooked it to have with our supper last night.
We ate it plain - no butter or salt,
just the pure taste of a potato from the garden.
Delicious!

Cotton and Berries

Cottonwood Tree

The fruits have split to release the seeds into the air.
There is "cotton" floating everywhere lately.

I found this rather large airy bundle
not too far from the parent tree.
Soon, it too will be loosened and scattered
by nature's helper, the wind.

Closer view of the silky tufts attached to the seeds,

which are easily dispersed by the wind.

This Cedar Waxwing and a couple of friends

were investigating the Serviceberry shrubs the other day.
It's a little early, but perhaps they're staking a claim.

Ready to pick July/August.

Around Home

The rain woke me

as it pelted down
onto the metal roof.
I wondered at the noise
for a brief, dazed moment
before drifting back to sleep.
Now, in the brightness
of the morning sun,
the previous night's downpour
seems more like a dream.

After the rain

Sunny Columbine flower

My shadow

Chasing butterflies

I'm going for a walk, thank you ma'am

One of the small Blue Butterflies

Adult: Wingspan 20-32 mm (3/4-1 1/4 inch)

(still trying to identify which species this is)

Camera Critters Sunday Meme #11

To see what other participants are posting
or to join visit Camera Critters

This is my very first CC post! I think it's a fun idea, and I'm really looking forward to stopping by to see all the wonderful pictures.

I was at the beach a couple of weeks ago
and watched this gull taking sips from the lake.

Gardening and Nature

Mint (bottom right), poppies, chives, Wild columbine

I'm having a gardening weekend, that is, if the rain holds off.
So far, so good. You're all invited to attend.
The weeds await us (a wink and a laugh).

A row of potato plants, lily plants, rhubarb,
painted daisies in bud.

In the news this past week:
Rare Albino Crows Spotted in East Vancouver
If you would like to see the picture and read the story, travel here.

Sky Watch

I had woken up too early and then couldn't get back to sleep. It usually helps if I read a little, but when I passed by the window on my way downstairs and looked out, I saw splashed across the eastern sky the most marvelous colours, and I wanted badly to take a few pictures.

There were too many trees where I was, and it meant I would have to go down the road apiece if I wanted a clearer view. I felt a bit apprehensive. I don't normally go for a walk at five in the morning, and I was hoping that I wouldn't meet any four-legged beasts with big teeth. I wasn't really worried about anything else.

My dog was willing, and off we went.

(for better viewing, please click on picture)

This is one of the pictures I took

on Wednesday morning.
Sunrise: 4:43 a.m.
Photo taken: 4:57 a.m.

Many thanks to Tom Wigley at Welcome to Wiggers World for hosting Sky Watch Friday.

North, East, South, West

It's surprising how many country roads there are in the Nechako Valley. Exploring them is something that gives me enormous pleasure, and it's one of my little pastimes from spring to fall.

Although this road already has a nice name, I would like to call it Lupine Road because of all the wild lupines growing here. They are the first lupines I've seen this year, and they are the most prominent flower, appearing at various stages of bloom everywhere along this road.

I thought this might make a good Sky Watch photo,
but it really belongs here with the other pictures.

Wild Lupine and Paintbrush
"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."
~Claude Monet

This scene caught my eye because of that island

of trees in the freshly tilled field.

Northern Flicker, female, seen flying back and forth

gathering food to feed her family.

Wordless Wednesday

Buttercups

"Be like the flower, turn your faces to the sun."
~ Kahlil Gibran

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Insects and Sunshine

When the rain stops and the skies clear, the insects come out to "play"! If we go outdoors in the very moment the blazing sun begins heating the earth again, we will step into a magical world.

Where were all the wonderful pollinators five minutes ago when the rain poured from the heavens? Were they taking shelter under a leaf or a blade of grass?

"POOF", as if by magic, they reappear buzzing and flying from plant to plant making us believe that nothing at all had occurred to interrupt them in the first place.

Bee Mimic Flower Fly (Hover Fly)

Helophilus fasciatus (Syrphidae)

"Me and my shadow"

A different kind of Fly
on Wild Strawberry flower

Another Fly

Swallowtail Butterfly on Lilac blossom

A Windy Day

It doesn't feel at all like June weather. Yesterday was cool and very blustery and the day before cool and rainy. There is one fabulous benefit to the windy conditions though. I can go for a walk in the forest and take pictures without having mosquitoes land on my hands and face. The wind keeps them nicely away.

I'd been avoiding the trail as much as possible lately due to the hordes of mosquitoes which are always bad at this time of year. So I had fun playing "catch up" to all the blossoming flowers and other changes in the woods. I took scads of photos - too many for one post.

Paintbrush in bud. I'm beginning to see
the Paintbrush everywhere.

One of our first wild flowers to bloom

in the spring, this Arnica is almost spent.

But there are still some Arnica flowers

that are doing all right.

I think this is Vetch, a relative of the Perennial Pea.

Dwarf Dogwood - I saw many of these
along the edges of the trail.

The Juniper is showing a lot of new growth.

We think a bear had been foraging for ants

at this old bleached stump two years ago.
He destroyed part of it, and afterwards
my husband placed a separated piece
across as a marker in case the bear
came back. Every time we walk through
on the trail and come to the end here
we check to see if it's still in the same spot.

Sky Watch

(please click on picture to enlarge)The sky over Stuart Lake,

Fort St. James, British Columbia
160 km (99 miles) northwest
of Prince George

Sky Watch Friday is hosted by Tom Wigley at Welcome to Wiggers World

A Slow Morning

Earlier I was having a lazy start to the day, lying in bed reading a new novel, Sticklebacks and Snow Globes by B.A. Goodjohn. It's not about fish really, but the writing is beautiful, and I can't put it down. As it grew lighter outside, I took my eyes off my book and looked out the open window to see what kind of a day it was shaping up to be. A slight wind tickled the leaves of a poplar tree, and it was one of those mystical, opaque mornings with no cloud formations and no blue in the sky. I sniffed - maybe it wasn't so mystical, after all. The cool air smelled a tad smoky. Perhaps someone was burning slash and that accounted partly for the dull sky. I heard a neighbour's dog yapping in the field across from our driveway, and when I checked saw the lame black Labrador cross bothering one of the cows belonging to the farm. Beats me what all the fuss was about. I watched for another minute until the dog limped off home. The sun, I noticed, was doing its best to shine through and glinted off the old blue truck in the open garage.

As I sit here at the computer, I can hear the crows cawing and other birds chirping outside. The crows are ever present now that their babies have fledged. Sometimes their "caws" sound more like talking, talking to their young as they stay close to them. Every once in awhile there will be a sudden intense burst of cawing indicating some sort of real or potential threat.

Our way through the forest

has become thick and lush
during the past month.

Out in Nature

A picnic lunch, a mountain view, a sun dappled river or lake, and a bit of greenery = contentment

On the way, a mountain view greets us

The current runs swift in this spring river

Green all around and on those amazing rocks

The water sparkles in the warm morning sun

By the Lake

On a recent visit to one of my favourite places in this region of British Columbia I came across several interesting plants that were growing along the lake shore. The first one was the Cottonwood tree with all the lovely fruits hanging from it. It looked tropical, growing as it did, all but in the water. The next one was the Artemisia or Wormwood, common to this particular area. I have seen this plant before at the historic site here and wondered then if Europeans had brought it over and planted it in their gardens. I almost walked by the third plant barely glancing at it because of its similarity to the dandelion. But there was something different about it that caught my inexpert eye, and I came back to have a closer look.

Stuart Lake, Fort St. James
Green Grapes?

No, it's the fruit
of the Cottonwood tree.

Stuart Lake, Fort St. James

Wormwood, a non-native species

It has a camphor-like scent and has been used
to repel fleas and moths.

Stuart Lake, Fort St. James

Western Salsify
Tragopogon dubius
Aster Family

Other common names are
Western Goat's Beard and Wild Oysterplant.
It was introduced from Europe.

This roadside plant with its distinctive flower
(notice the bracts which are a feature of all Salsify species)

is found in every Canadian province
except Newfoundland and the territories.
Considered an invasive plant in some areas.

Baby Crows

Our little dog, Bonny, never passes up a chance to go for a walk on the trail with me, and that's what we headed out to do yesterday afternoon after my husband and I had returned home. We hadn't gone far when two crows began cawing and cawing. Both were perched in opposite trees near the path where we walked. I didn't see them, but I assumed their babies must be somewhere close by. (You might remember last Friday's post when there was such a commotion going on outside in the early morning hours, and I thought, at that time, that the babies had fledged.) I quickly took some pictures of the adult crows and was about to continue on my way when I stopped to see what Bonny was looking at down the hill. She didn't bark, and I wondered if she had seen a deer or a squirrel. What she was watching though were two baby crows sitting on a log. They didn't make a peep, but sat very quietly while the adults caused a distraction. In two minutes tops I had my pictures, and we were out of there. I wouldn't have known the baby crows were on the slope unless Bonny had seen them. "Good dog, Bonny." Once we arrived back at the house, she got one of her special treats.

No harm was done to the baby crows. Our dog didn't even get close to them, as they were on the steep hillside, and she doesn't chase wildlife anyway, unless she feels threatened. Bears are not her favourite animals, and she has met two in her lifetime so far (13 years).

Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project (Manitoba)

On Friday, June 6, 2008 all three Radisson Peregrine Falcon chicks died from exposure despite heroic efforts on the part of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service to move them to a dry area. This is a frequent occurrence in nature, and rarely do we humans witness these tragic events. So many of us watched and waited for the chicks to hatch. I couldn't help but love those helpless little birds when they finally emerged and began to move about. The parents were instinctively devoted to the well-being of their chicks and so brave in the inclement weather. This is very sad.

Countryside

A quiet road and a warm
morning in June.


On this side of the bridge,
we come upon a lovely scene:
a mini oasis flanked by
tall stands of evergreen trees.

Our senses are acutely attuned
to the immense peace
of this roadside glade with angled creek

and carpet of bright green vegetation.
We catch birdsong on the air,
get dizzy watching the butterflies chase
one another and search out
the buzzing bees as they go
from flower to flower at our feet.

On the way back to town and home
we see three deer grazing,

flicking away the mosquitoes.

Another sight grabs our attention,
and we stop once more to watch
Robin fly down to the weeds
in the ditch and come back with a meal.

Nostalgia

Barn amid the dandelions

Crows

6:00 a.m. - What a commotion there is in the yard so early in the morning! I looked out the window to see crows everywhere, cawing incessantly and flying from tree, to bush, to tree. (I can still hear them now as I write this more than an hour later, but the sound comes from further away. The "caws" are short: caw-caw-caw-caw and then repeated over and over.) I couldn't tell what the fuss was all about, but I think the baby crows have left the nest and are trying their wings. It's curious though. There were several crows around, not just the two parents. It was like a community of crows had gathered together, and all were watching out for the fledglings. I did a bit of reading up on them, and learned that older siblings will often help feed the crow babies and will also help feed as well as protect them after they've fledged.

Attentive

Caw, Caw, Caw, Caw

Wary

Watchful

Sky Watch

A viewing tower overlooking the river

I like the way the sky fills in all the spaces

Sky Watch is hosted by Tom Wigley

My Garden and a Spider

I worked in my garden yesterday morning, and I'm happy to say, I got a lot done. It was sunny and warm unlike Tuesday's mostly overcast sky. The rain that came down has filled up the rain barrels again, and this is what we're using to supplement the water for the garden.

The first thing I did though was hang my laundry to dry on the clothesline. That's when I noticed an itsy bitsy spider sitting on the line. Well, I had to go get my camera, didn't I? However, I had difficulty obtaining a sharp image of the tiny spider, plus the clothesline. I gave it up for the time being and finished hanging the laundry.

After lunch it clouded over, threatening to rain. I dashed out to bring in the sheets, and there was the spider still sitting on the line. She hadn't travelled very far in all those hours. I tried again to take her picture and managed to get two OK ones.

I like to identify all the bugs I photograph, or at least, try to, and here is where I went to my NEWLY purchased bug book, Garden Bugs of British Columbia, by Janice Elmhirst, Ken Fry and Doug Macaulay, 2008. It's a very nice book, and there on page 194 is my spider, aptly named the Crab Spider. What a neat spider - not harmful to humans. It doesn't spin webs to capture its prey, but is an "ambush spider". This spider will sit for hours, like mine did, until something comes by that it wants to eat and then, but maybe you don't want to know what happens then.

Just skip this part if you want. With "lightening speed," the crab spider will "lunge forth, grab its victim and give it a deadly venomous bite". The "insect's innards" become a "soupy liquid that is sucked out by the spider".

I called my spider a "she" because the female Goldenrod is white to yellow with 2 reddish streaks on the abdomen. The male is darker in shades of grey, brown and red.

The Goldenrod Crab Spider is also known as the Flower Spider because it usually sits (well-camouflaged) on flowers, waiting patiently for a meal, and this is another good reason to AVOID using insecticides.

(please click on picture to enlarge)
Crab Spider on clothesline
(Goldenrod)

A corner of my garden - Iris in the background

alongside a Black Currant bush, and of course, the Poppies
which grow even on the outside of the raised beds (bottom right).

I began with a few poppies,

and every year I find a few more growing.

The wild Columbine have found a spot

in my garden as well. They are
all self seeded.

Rhubarb stalks

Garden Mint

No Words

Insect Habitat

This is our weedy path that we take to go

into the forest. All the insects love this one
particular sunny spot. The unidentified
butterfly and the damselfly were found here.
All I have to do is stand on this path and
hope that some delicate butterfly will land so
I can take a picture. Sometimes I've used up
most of my patience and also swatted away
many, many mosquitoes before this happens.
But, oh the glee and satisfaction when I come
away with one or two photos.

May 30/08

Forlorn looking butterfly.
I only noticed his damaged wings
when he stopped to rest.

June 2/08

This is another one of the same species,
but in rather better condition, photo
taken yesterday.

May 31/08

Crane Fly, also know as Daddy Longlegs

River Trail, June 1/08

I wonder if this is a Mourning Cloak Butterfly.

June 2/08
Pond Damselfly

I'm not absolutely positive, but I think
(after extensive research) this is a male Subarctic Bluet.
Flight period: B.C., late May to late August.

If you have any information on these butterflies or the damselfly, I'd be ever so grateful for your knowledge.

River Trail

The trail begins at the park, proceeds

along the river bank, under the bridge
and past the boat launch.

An abundance of willow grow in this area,

and it has become a dense thicket. I heard
bird song the entire time I was on the trail
although the birds were well hidden.

Everywhere willow fuzz drifted

with some of it caught on branches.

There were several Crows here flying

back and forth. They must like it for the
protection afforded by the trees
and thick bushes, as well as the closeness
to the water.

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On the return trip, I saw a nest high up in a tree

near the edge of the trail, and not too far away
perched a Crow. I took this photo, and I wanted to
take one of the Crow, too, but the Crow was obscured
by some branches.

Have you ever been harassed by Crows? I guess if they
will swoop down on the Bald Eagle, they will probably
do the same to a human. As I continued walking, I
noticed that two crows seemed to be following me. They
flew over my head and from tree to tree. I thought of
Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, momentarily
before hurrying out of there as fast as I could.
That will teach me to linger where they are nesting!

I'd been trying to locate the owner of

the beautiful song I kept hearing
the whole time I was on the trail.
I was finally rewarded back at the bridge
when I saw what I believe to be a
Western Tanager.

Spring Flowers and Willow Fuzz

I looked high and low and could not find any pink wildflowers to illustrate the poem I chose for today's entry. The wild rose blossoms are still tightly packed in their buds and won't make an appearance until sometime this month. The flower colour which stands out the most at this time is the sun colour - yellow. Everywhere I turn, some shape or shade of yellow draws my attention. The lilacs aren't woodland plants, but they happily grow beside them, and this past week the serviceberry shrubs burst into bloom, the flowers, from a distance, looking very much like snowy dollops attached to the branches. If I follow a narrow path where many willows grow near the water, willow fuzz lightly floats and is carried by the late spring breeze. Please enjoy the flowers and the poem by Han Yu.

Oregon Grape

Lilacs, opening

Serviceberry Shrub

Every plant and tree knows Spring will soon be gone

A hundred pinks and purples

Compete with their bouquets

Willow fuzz and elm pods lack such clever means

They only know how to fill the sky with snow.

~Han Yu (768-824)